I know it's the end, but happy Pride Month! To celebrate, here's the next chapter.
The encouragement she had gotten from Alice, Margot and Robin the morning they had all had breakfast together at the diner stuck in Regina's mind for a long time afterward. She loved what she did now, and didn't regret the steps she had taken away from politics. However, she did see her city, the citizens she still couldn't help viewing as her responsibility, suffering under the leadership of Robert Gold. She tried to do what she could, of course, but it never seemed like enough. Maybe Alice and the others were right. Maybe she did need to take back the mantle of mayor that she had previously cast aside.
However, assuming the position of mayor of Storybrooke would bring with it a whole host of things she didn't know if she wanted to deal with again. Chief among them, of course, was all of the complaining she had heard on a daily basis. To be fair, most of those complaints came from Leroy, who had always seemed to think he knew how to run the town better than she did, but a decent number of them were also entirely valid. The reasonable concerns she hadn't minded, but whining like the type she had put up with from Leroy and a few others? It wasn't worth her taking back her position as mayor. Was it?
She didn't know. All she did know was that the elections for mayor were in a month. In election terms, that wasn't much time at all. If she wanted to resume her post as the leader of Storybrooke, she would have to act fast, that she knew without a doubt. She was sure that if she chose to do it, Margot (and probably Alice, given how enthusiastic the girl had been about meeting her a handful of days before) would help her with whatever she needed. She just needed to decide if that was the path she wanted to follow or not.
One morning, she dropped Margot off at school, and instead of going straight to work, she decided to make a pit stop at Robin's. She knew Margot would be furious with her for not waiting to go when she was off from school, but she would find a way to make it up to her niece, perhaps by bringing home her favorite sandwich so she could have it for lunch tomorrow. Thankfully, it was a cold sandwich, otherwise Margot would have had trouble heating it. For some unknown reason (lack of funding, Gold had always claimed), the principal had furnished the teachers' lounge with a microwave and toaster oven, but hadn't gotten even a simple solitary microwave for the students to use. Regina had always cared deeply about her town's students of all ages and prioritized education in the budget, of course, but before she had signed the adoption papers making her Margot's legal guardian, she hadn't realized how much of a necessity these appliances were for students. Not having one severely limited what she could pack Margot for lunch.
That wouldn't be her first priority if she became mayor, though. No, her first priority in the education sector would be ensuring that every child had access to not only a free lunch and breakfast, a program which Gold had kept in place when he became mayor, but to reinstate the snacks that each student had been alloted as well when she was mayor of Storybrooke. Yes, they were a small, safe town, but they still had their fair share of people who were unable to provide those necessities for their children, and for some students, meals they received at school were the only food they received each day. Yes, Gold had done some good for the town, but not in the schools, which was ironic, considering he was the principal at one of them.
Her inner monologue was giving her more reasons to run for mayor, but she pushed all of that out of her mind as she entered the diner. No one deserved her wrath unintentionally directed at them.
To her horror, when she walked in, she found little Roland in tears, his sobs audible even in the din of the customers' chatter. Robin had an arm around his son's shoulders and was ushering him to the back so he could deal with the situation in private.
Regina knew she should leave them alone, that whatever was happening was none of her business, but she followed them anyway. She couldn't stand seeing that adorable little boy in tears, no matter what caused them. She had to make sure he was okay.
"Sh, Roland, it's all right," Robin soothed. "I'm sure there will be a brand new set of monkey bars for you to play on very soon."
Despite Robin's words that she knew had been meant to soothe, the child couldn't be consoled, his crying only getting louder. "But Papa, it won't be the same!"
Regina knew exactly what she had to do. Stepping forward, she began. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but is there anything I can do?"
Robin sighed, his shoulders slumping. She knew he was annoyed by the intrusion, but she couldn't bear the thought of seeing a child in need (no matter how trivial that need might be) and not stepping forward to help as much as she could. Some (Gold, she thought bitterly) might have called her the Evil Queen in Maine's political scene, but she was more than that, and she always strived to make others see that too, whether it was election season or not. "Not unless you can promise my son that the new jungle gym the school gets will be exactly the same as the old one."
"Hmm,..." she mused, her eyes glinting with the beginnings of a plan. "I think I just might be able to arrange that."
Robin's eyes widened and Roland's mouth dropped open. She would have laughed, the image perfect for one of the cartoons she was sure Roland watched, but her mind was too busy forming the first stages of a plan that she wasn't a hundred percent positive she would follow through with yet. "You would really do that?" Roland asked, his eyes wide.
If nothing else though, she would make sure that Roland got his monkey bars. Now that she had made that promise, she wouldn't dare not follow through on making his new jungle gym a reality. Even if she had to shake some sense into Gold to make it happen…
She chuckled. Now that was an entertaining image. Ever since he had taken office and dismantled the progress she had made during her time as mayor one by one, she had done her best to counteract all of the destruction he was causing. Making Roland's dreams of having his monkey bars back come true was just another example of that. It had nothing to do with the fact that she would do anything for those adorable curls and dimples, even though she had only known Roland for such a short time. "Of course."
The one problem with her plan to resuscitate Roland's monkey bars though: yes, she could accomplish some things as the former mayor of the town, but she could do far less than if she was the current mayor. It was just one more thing pushing her to resume her role in the life of the town, and her mind was still going back and forth about whether or not she even wanted to follow that path. After all, to resume the position of mayor, she would have to go up against Robert Gold, and he was perhaps Storybrooke's most formidable foe… besides herself, of course, or so people said. She liked to think that she was a benevolent mayor, but she supposed that anyone who got into a disagreement with her would have a valid reason to state that she was a bit of an Evil Queen at mayoral debates. After all, she never went down without a fight.
Robin cleared his throat. "I'm sure you didn't come to my diner just to comfort a young boy. What can I do for you, milady?"
"Oh!" she exclaimed. Her original mission had completely escaped her once she had seen Roland so obviously in distress. "I was going to order something to take to work for lunch- and coffee, of course. I'll need something for Margot too."
"Coming right up," Robin replied promptly.
He set Roland down, and while he started making their meals, Roland insisted on showing her the toys that Robin allowed him to keep in the diner to occupy him while he was working. Regina couldn't help noticing, though, that one very important item- or at least, one that would seem like the perfect toy for Roland- was missing. She was suddenly determined to fix that very egregious error on Robin's part, no matter how strange it might seem that she was getting something for a child who wasn't her own.
What did seem strange to her, though, was Robin's intimate knowledge of not only her coffee order but her food order as well. He liked to make changes to his menu on a weekly basis, a pattern that she had quickly noticed and adjusted to. The great thing about the menu at Robin's, though, was that there were always at least a few things she was dying to try. In her opinion, that was the mark of a truly fantastic eatery.
She was simultaneously touched and heartbroken when Roland rushed over to her and gave her a hug. "Thanks for getting my jungle gym back, Majesty."
"Majesty?" she asked. "I'm not a queen, Roland."
He shook his head. "Papa says that you were queen of the town once, and that you could be again."
If those words weren't a sign to run again, she didn't know what would be. She left the diner still uncertain, but hopeful.
Part of the uncertainty was caused by Robin. Did she and Margot really come to his diner enough that he didn't need her to tell him what she wanted? It was a testament to how much they went there, and she really didn't want to think about how terrible of a mother figure that made her to Margot. Yes, she encouraged her to eat healthy options when they were here and they walked around town instead of driving for the most part, but there was no substitute for a healthy diet. The problem was, she was a terrible cook, and she had no idea how to fix it. With Margot living with her now, she had no extra cash to spend on things like fancy classes. She could just get a cookbook from the library, but that could only take her so far… She could read the instructions, of course, that was no problem. There was something about meats, fruits, and vegetables, though, that she had just never understood. She had even always managed to burn even something as simple as a batch of cookies or brownies. It was a good thing Margot wasn't little anymore, or she would probably be asking Regina to do things like that, and she would hate disappointing her. Her lack of culinary skills was probably obvious to Robin, and her cheeks burned at the thought of what he must think of her. At the same time though, her lack of prowess in the kitchen was also the reason he was getting more business, so she doubted he had much of a problem with it. His knowledge of her order though… it was uncanny. So unusual, in fact, that she wondered if he had ulterior motives. He couldn't though, right?
She had a lot to figure out. First, though, she needed to decide if she was running for mayor or not. She had a feeling that a lot of her future would depend on the answer to that one simple question.
Margot loved school. She really did. She loved reading, the thrill of discovering something new, even the smell of a new pack of crayons had thrilled her when she was younger. She even loved her new school, the way the teachers had welcomed her, the bright colors of the lockers in different hallways.
What she quickly discovered she didn't like, though, was the majority of her classmates. She kept to herself other than her interactions with Alice, of course, but she still heard the snide remarks the other students made as they passed through the hallways, especially the girls. Apparently, these girls weren't mature enough to celebrate the differences of others, and it drove Margot crazy.
That day, she was just walking in the hallway minding her own business when she overheard something that made her sick to her stomach. She ducked into the doorway of the nearest classroom, listening carefully to the group that was clustered by a set of lockers. They were all huddled together, a mixed gender collection of both guys and girls. While Margot knew, of course, that bullies could be both genders, she thought it was unusual that they were banding together. Who could they be talking about that they shared the same strongly negative opinion of them?
"She's just so weird," a blonde girl complained. "She's always in the library, for one thing."
"True, she's such a nerd," a girl with the prettiest auburn hair Margot had ever seen chimed in. Her next words, though, immediately proved to Margot that this girl's beauty was only superficial, making her opinion of her plummet. "And I always hear her talking to herself like she's talking to someone, but there's never anyone there. And don't even get me started about the fact that she can never keep anything straight. You can never tell her anything without her asking you a million questions. Being forced to do the book report for Ms. Blanchard with her was a nightmare, I'm telling you."
The others groaned, sympathy in their eyes. By now, Margot was seething. These people had no right to say these things about anyone, least of all Alice. She didn't know anyone else who was always in the library, and she had quickly learned that her new friend had an endearing habit of talking to herself when she was in the middle of a difficult math problem, or even when she just had a lot on her mental to-do list. She could only speak for herself, of course, but she completely understood needing some kind of way to keep things straight in her head.
The next voice she heard filled her with dread. Alice was her favorite person that she had met in Storybrooke (her own age, anyway, Robin from the diner was pretty cool too), but right this minute, she wanted her nowhere near here. She didn't deserve to hear any of this.
"Hey guys!" Alice greeted the group cheerfully. "How are you?"
Most of the group murmured. Good, Margot sighed in relief. At least they're too cowardly to bully her to her face. Not that them whispering behind her back was much better. Then one of them piped up, and what he said made Margot's blood boil. "Go away. Go back to your library and do more of your weird whispering and leave us alone."
"Ladies, gentlemen, what's going on here?" Mr. Gold interrupted. Good, Margot thought. If he stands up to them for her, I'll never think another unkind thing about him.
"Oh hi, Mr. Gold!" the blonde gushed. "Nothing to see here, we're just getting our stuff and going to class."
"Is that so?" he asked, his eyebrows raised. "Then why are you with Ms. Jones? I wasn't aware she had become friends with you all."
Margot couldn't take it anymore. How could Mr. Gold think that Alice had suddenly become friends with these jerks who did nothing but make fun of her? She burst out of the classroom and informed him, "They're not, not at all. They were making fun of her, both before and after she actually showed up in the hallway."
"Made fun of her?" Mr. Gold laughed. "I'm very sorry, Ms. Mills, but I believe you must be very much mistaken, likely due to the fact that you just moved here recently, and that's perfectly fine. However, allow me to inform you, Miss Mills, that Miss Swan and her friends are nothing but the cream of the crop here at Storybrooke High. There is no one more charitable, no student in the past who has led the student government with such elegance and a desire to help others. No, no, Miss Mills, Miss Swan would never bully another student."
"That's right," the girl in question piped up, an infuriatingly smug look of satisfaction on her face. "I wouldn't ever do something like that. In fact, I was just thinking about suggesting measures we should put in place so that no one at our school gets bullied online, Mr. Gold. After all, that's where we all spend a lot of our free time. I see online bullying more than I'd like to admit, and I'm never sure how to stop it. I do what I can, of course, but people seem to think that if they're hiding behind an anonymous account online, they don't even have a chance of getting caught."
Margot stared at her, her mouth hanging open. How was it possible for someone who had said such cruel things (things she should know she shouldn't say, given how old they all were, she thought bitterly) act so sickly sweet to the man who acted as both principal and mayor in their small town? It was nothing but deceptive and sneaky. She liked being secretive as much as the next person, but there was a big difference between holding back details about a birthday present or some other type of surprise and being a two-faced liar. How this Swan girl was so easily able to assume the mask of the popular student government leader, she had no idea, but she would do everything in her power to make sure that no one, least of all Alice, was a victim of her nefarious schemes. "Mr. Gold, that isn't true! She-"
But before she could tell him the exact words the blonde had spoken just minutes ago, the principal interrupted. "Now, now, Miss Mills, that's enough of this. Quite frankly, this doesn't give me a very good impression of you, and I place a very high value on first impressions. I would suggest you be a bit more careful, Ms. Mills, or you may just find yourself in a place you don't want to be. Now, Miss Swan, what were you saying about new anti-cyber bullying efforts?"
He gestured for her to walk with him, and as the two of them walked away, Margot stared after them, her teeth and fists clenched in disbelief and anger. How could this man, an educator who should know better than to not know his students well, think so erroneously about the people who were being nothing but cruel to Alice? It made her furious.
"You didn't have to do that," Alice said from behind her.
Margot turned from the people who made this school a worse place instead of a better one to smile at her friend. "Of course I did. They were making fun of you- I couldn't just stand by and let that happen."
"Yes, you could've," her friend replied, adding so softly that Margot wouldn't have heard it if she hadn't been standing so close to her, "Most people do."
"Well, I refuse to be like most people then," Margot declared. "In fact, I don't even want to have anything to do with them- unless I have to," she added quickly, remembering that she very well might have to work with the blonde at some point during some group project or other.
"You would do that?" Alice asked, her eyes wide.
"Of course," Margot responded simply. "Any decent person would. Plus…" she trailed off, blushing. "Robin Hood has always been one of my favorite movies. To have a chance to be like him… It was no trouble at all, trust me." How would her new friend react to her confession? Most people their age had grown out of Disney movies (of the animated variety, anyway), to the point that they made fun of people who still enjoyed them. She had known girls back at her own school who would have relentlessly made fun of her if they had found out. Even her best friend back home had teased her for it occasionally, but Margot had always been able to convince her to watch Beauty and the Beast with her, since it was her all-time favorite Disney movie.
"That's it, I'm calling you Robyn from now on," Alice declared. "If that's all right with you, of course," she added quickly.
Margot nodded. Given that Alice would be doing it for good reasons, she had no problem with the nickname. "Am I really that much like him?"
"No one has ever done that for me before." the other girl breathed, her eyes still wide as saucers. "So yes, you're Robyn to me now. How can I ever pay you back for this?"
Margot grinned. The idea was laughable. "There's no need. Would I really be like Robin Hood if I asked for something in return? Your friendship is all I need."
"Well then," Alice suggested as the bell rang for classes to begin. "Would you like to walk to class, Robyn?"
She held out her hand, and, her heart fluttering, Margot took it, blushing after she felt a shock once their hands joined together. If this was what it felt like to have a friend in Storybrooke, her other friendships must have been missing something before.
Margot hadn't been able to stop thinking about what had happened to Alice, especially Mr. Gold's treatment of her, for the rest of the day. It made her blood boil, because it wasn't right. She found herself wishing that her aunt had once been in her principal's position instead of previously having his role as the mayor. If they could just have better anti-bullying policies, everything would hopefully be much better than what she had witnessed that day.
It was immediately obvious that her aunt noticed her bad mood when she got home. Once she had changed out of her work clothes, she asked, "What's wrong?"
Margot told her the whole story, complete with her perceptions of the Swan girl and the rest of the bullies. She only omitted that Alice had started calling her Robyn- that was their thing. Her aunt wouldn't get it, and she wasn't sure she wanted her to. The fact that she and Alice had that type of inside thing… it meant something, and she wasn't sure she wanted to look too closely into what exactly that was just yet.
When the full tale had been told, she sighed and admitted, "I just don't know why they can't just leave her alone. From what Alice told me, she did nothing against them to provoke them. They just like picking on her. She doesn't deserve it though, Aunt Regina. You've met her. She's the nicest person I've met since I came here- other than Robin, of course," she added with a sly grin. It hadn't escaped her notice that her aunt had her eye set on the diner owner- even if Aunt Regina herself hadn't realized it yet.
Instead of immediately replying with some kind of reprimand, her aunt cleared her throat. "Speaking of Robin, I got something for you for lunch tomorrow."
Margot's eyes widened. "You went without me?" She would be jealous, but if her aunt had gotten what she thought she had…
"Yeah, but don't worry, I got your favorite, so there's no need to be jealous," Aunt Regina said, going to the fridge, getting out a bag, and handing it to her.
Margot opened it eagerly, and sure enough, there it was: the chicken salad wrap from Robin's, complete with the grape halves that gave it just enough sweetness to make it the best chicken salad she had ever had.
She helped her aunt make their dinner (spaghetti, complete with meatballs, of course). Once they had sat down, Margot had barely sprinkled some parmesan on her spaghetti when her aunt said tentatively, "Margot, I have a very important question for you."
"Okay…" Margot said slowly, setting the cheese back on the table and folding her hands in front of her. She had a feeling that neither of them should be eating during this conversation, all of their attention focused on the thoughts and opinions being shared. "Shoot."
Aunt Regina sighed, her constantly moving fingers, which were playing with the fork in her hand, a sign to Margot that told her exactly how nervous her aunt was to have this conversation. What could possibly make her this anxious? "How would you feel about me running for mayor again in the coming election?"
Regina hadn't been able to stop thinking about the possibility of reclaiming the role of mayor of Storybrooke all day. Yes, Roland's plight was something that was trivial in the long run, but at the same time, Gold should be handling his budget better, and he wasn't.
While what had happened with Roland was such a small thing, Margot's experience, on the other hand, was far more serious. Yes, Gold didn't know her niece the way she did, but still. It absolutely wasn't acceptable for him to completely disregard Margot's accusations as false (which she was sure they weren't) without investigating the situation further. His behavior had been the ammunition that Regina needed to make her final decision about whether or not she should run for mayor. Someone needed to fix how that school was run, and if she had to do it through making new laws and specific grants, so be it.
It was important to her, though, that she checked to make sure that Margot was on board with that plan as well. Running for mayor, and taking back the role, if she was reelected, would mean a lot of changes for how they led their lives. The biggest difference she was worried about was the amount of time that her job would take her away from time she could be spending with Margot. It wasn't fair to her. Yes, she had Alice as a friend now, but Regina wanted more for her than that. She wanted weekend trips to the beach, vacations spent by a mountain lake, lazy winter weekend afternoons just staying home and playing games or watching TV. It was likely that none of those things would happen- or at least, not with the regularity she wanted or that Margot deserved- if she became the mayor again. Sure, Margot might say it was fine now, but Regina didn't want her to feel alone or neglected. Her niece was a girl who liked being social, and she wanted her to expand her circle before Regina tried to change their lives on her.
Just as she suspected, Margot's face lit up at the thought. "I love that idea, you should go for it! Alice and I can put up posters around town, hand out flyers, anything you need. We don't have much time, we have to start making your campaign a success right now!"
"Are you sure you won't feel lonely once I'm stuck in the office at every hour of the day and night?" Regina asked, her eyebrow raised. Margot didn't know what she was thinking, and she didn't realize the full implications of what she was saying. Regina had to make sure she understood before they jumped into this headfirst.
Margot started shaking her head before she had even finished talking. "No way! Look, if you're that worried about it, I'll invite Alice over to do homework together after school until she needs to go home for dinner. I promise, I'll be fine, Aunt Regina." She reached out and put her hand on top of the one Regina had resting on the table. "You deserve this more than anyone I know. Besides, if Mr. Gold's actions today say anything about how he runs the town as well as the school, Storybrooke needs you as mayor more than I first thought."
Regina sighed. "All right. Then we have some work to do."
As she and Margot started planning her campaign, Regina tried not to think of the weeks and months ahead. They would be difficult, but hopefully, they would be worth it.
This chapter didn't quite go as planned, but I'm still happy with it. What about you? Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!
