CHAPTER 7 – WORD ON THE STREET

"Good morning mother.", Ivy said in a formal manner. She decided this morning to see her mother, not only to give the usual morning cup of coffee but also to deliver some news which she thought she would be interested in.

"Good morning Ivy dear. Thank you for the coffee, it's really appreciated.", her mother responded. Ivy always felt as if she had to be more polite around her mother, considering how strict she could be with her. She almost secretly felt slightly bad for Jacinda considering the way she treated her, but despite it she still continued to convince herself that she didn't and kept acting horrible towards her, just as her mother did.

"So mother, have you heard about this dreaded party that Jacinda is trying to throw for Lucy?"

"Undoubtedly.", her secretive mother responded. "I think it's almost hilarious how she thinks she can pull it off without my help. She'll barely be able to afford the food there."

"I would agree, but honestly I'm not so sure about that."

Her mother looked up. "Well, what are you talking about?"

"Somehow, Mr. Mills has managed to go around getting people to donate money and stuff for it. Apparently Roni's even helping with the catering."

Victoria sighed at the news. Despite not being bothered too much about Lucy's happiness with her mother, and despite not being too bothered that she seemed to know the truth about her family, the fact that that group were getting together again made her more and more worried about the curse's duration.

"There's also something else mother. There's a new person in town, going under the name of Amelie, who also seems to be helping out. It's ironic how soon she's getting involved despite the fact that she didn't seem to previously have any relation with them at all."

This, was what made her mother more and more suspicious. Why on earth would this woman start getting involved with that group of people so soon, especially considering the fact that she's never spoken to them before.

"Thank you for telling me this, Ivy. It may sound odd, but this information is very very useful to me."

Ivy still had no idea why her mother was so interested in who Lucy was involved with. I mean, of course she cared for her like any grandparent would – but it almost seemed as if she wanted to keep her from her happiness.

But once again, she shrugged it off. Ivy wasn't the type of person to get involved in things she wasn't too bothered about, and today this was no different.

"So, any progress on Roni?", Lucy asked Robin. They had made it a routine to see each other every day right after Lucy's school had finished to discuss the progress they had made on the curse.

Robin felt nervous about her question. Even though she'd managed to almost trigger something in Roni before, she felt so embarrassed to ask those types of questions all of the time. After all, she didn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable.

"Look, Lucy as much as I want to get rid of this curse too I don't think trying to remind my aunt about my father is exactly going to help with this. I mean, from what you've said I know that they had some sort of relationship together but now that he's .. well, dead.. I just don't think it would be the best approach."

Lucy suddenly became upset with Robin's response. "But, this is the only way! If my father can't break the curse, then Regina's the only one who can! Please, you have to at least try."

It was at this moment when, unexpectedly, Lucy found her mother in front of her.

"Hi, Lucy. How was your day at school? And who's this?"

Robin awkwardly made up a response. "Oh, I'm just Lucy's friend's… sister. I saw her walking home and thought I'd say hi."

Jacinda looked suspiciously at her, a look which Robin was now familiar with in this city, but she decided to go along with it.

"It's fine mother, we were just having a friendly conversation.", Lucy said, whilst eye-ing Robin as if trying to signal her something.

"You know what, Lucy, I'm going to go home but I'll catch up with you later..", Robin quickly trailed off.

"Okay, well have a good evening!" Jacinda said in a kind tone, "Come on Lucy let's go."

"DON'T FORGET TO READ THE BOOK!", Lucy shouted to Robin.

Whilst Robin hadn't read much of the book yet, she wasn't too sure why this was necessary. I mean, did she really have to know every single detail about her father and Regina's romance?

Either way, she promptly headed to the motel she was staying at to get on with it.

She sighed at the page in front of her.

"Is this.. us?"

"Yes!", he said, "Inside the pub!"

"I don't understand, this isn't what happened.. is this from the book?" She walked around the tables as she questioned what was in front of her.

"23.. Page 23.. is it missing from the book?"

"No, no it's already there and it's you leaving me. This goes in the same place. This is the meeting that we never had!"

She looked at the two different pages: one of which showing what she dreamt had happened and one showing what seemed to be reality.

"What does it mean?"

"It means that your fate could've gone many different ways. It means you're not doomed to suffer. There's a bright future for you around every turn, even if you miss one."

It was at that moment where Roni woke up. She was initially concerned – had she really fallen asleep on her couch in the middle of the day?

But that's when she remembered her dream.

She remembered the two pages showing what seemed to be pictures with her. She remembered that man, telling her things about fate and about a book.. About page 23…

Although, despite it being a dream, something about it felt so real. It was almost as if she'd been in that exact place before, and thought about that person countless times before. And yet she still couldn't see his face, or remember his name…

Despite this, Roni still convinced herself that it meant nothing. That it was all just some stupid dream like the other ones she'd had.

But deep down, she knew something was wrong

[A/N: and thus the outlawqueen hype train begins!

That's probably all I'm going to write for today, but I think I might try and write some more of this whilst I'm on the plane tomorrow because I'm really excited to write the next few parts!

Anyway, to be continued?]