Chapter four
At school
Later that same day everything ready and Mia was registered in the school. Everyone had been up early so that they could sort Mia out before Snow had to teach and Regina had to get to the office so they had had plenty of time to get things sorted out.
Mia had some new school supplies including:
A new school bag
A pack of unsharpened pencils
A sharpener
Three pens
A 30cm ruler
A 15cm ruler
A pencil case
A notebook
School books
She also had uniform like:
A blazer
A cardigan
A skirt
A blouse
Some tights
School shoes
New hair ties
It was finally time to go to school. The school was located on the other side of Storybrooke so she was to take the school bus. She could not have gone with Miss Blanchard because she had to leave early to get everything sorted before school started. There she met Henry.
"Hi." He said cheerily.
"Hi." She said, staring down at her new shoes. When she had looked in the mirror in Snow's apartment this morning she looked like a completely different person. Her brown, dirty hair was pulled back and clean, almost shiny. Her face did not have a speck of dirt on it and you could see her pale skin and her freckles dotted around her face. Her scruffy clothes traded for a clean uniform that did not have any tears in it. She was not sure how she felt about her new appearance.
"So... We are going to be in Miss Blanchard's class together then."
"Yep."
"You don't talk much do you?"
"Nope."
"I guess that makes you a good listener then." Henry guessed, grinning brightly. Mia just laughed.
"I don't know. I've haven't really had anyone to listen to in a long time."
"Well now you do. Not that that means you are not allowed to talk, I mean that you could be if you didn't talk and now you have someone to speak for you. Not that you need anyone to speak for you or anything because you obviously can because it's obvious." Henry was babbling and Mia was watching him as a blush rose up into his cheeks.
"You don't need to babble. I'm not going to eat you if you say something wrong if that is what you are thinking." She then turned as the bus pulled in. Mia felt slightly hurt that Henry thought that she was going to eat him if he said something wrong. They had not known each other long but Mia wanted a friend even if she said that she was not going to let anyone else in ever again. The loneliness had finally got to her now that she was talking to people again. Talking to people showed her what she had missed out on for a long time.
They boarded the bus and Mia sat next to a window. Henry sat beside her. "Are you not going to sit with your friends."
"I would rather sit with you." He said. Mia burst out laughing but stopped when she realized that Henry hadn't been joking after all.
"Why?"
"Because... I think someone should sit next to you so you don't get lonely and you don't know anyone else so..." Henry trailed off, seeming genuinely confused as to why she would ask why he wanted to sit with her.
Mia just shrugged at his answer and stared out of the window. They were approaching the school. After arriving they got off and Mia followed Henry to Ms. Blanchard's classroom. After a lesson on how to treat birds and about their houses it was time for break.
Mia went outside and watched as Henry went off to talk and play with some friends but she did not join him and instead climbed to the top of the climbing frame and people watched. Too used to being alone to mingle with another child apparently.
After a while Mia got bored and climbed down. She was going to go into the classroom and was halfway across the playground when she heard; "Hey, wolf girl!"
She turned around and saw a boy a few years older than her and his friends behind him laughing at his comment. It wasn't that funny. How does he know that I am a werewolf? She wondered, staring at him with wide eyes.
"Word gets around fast." He said and his friends snickered. He walked up to her and said; "You must be unstable. I've been told that you haven't been around people in a long time. What are you doing in school? You've never been before so you must be really dumb."
Mia was getting angry. "Did you just call me dumb?" She asked him.
"Yes and you are. You just proved it by having to get confirmation on what I said because you are too dumb to understand words." He made crying actions with his hands in front of his face, mocking her.
"You shouldn't have done that." She told him, anger making her words have a sound bitter.
"Well what are you going to do about it?" He got in her face and pushed her shoulder. That was it! Nobody pushes her!
She punched him right across the face and then kicked him in the gut. He grunted and moaned from the pain. "Not so tough now, are you?" She asked maliciously.
Henry's POV
Henry was stuck thinking about what Mia had said to him earlier in the day when they were at the bus stop. He did not think that she would have eaten him and he was not blabbering out of fear. It was the opposite really...
"Hey, let's go check out what is happening over there." One of his friends said, breaking his line of thought. Henry turned around to face whatever he was pointing at and saw a crowed of students standing around something.
"Okay." Henry said.
When they got over there though they realized that the other students were crowded around two other students fighting. He looked closer and saw that it was Mia fighting an older boy who Henry had remembered seeing better days.
He moved through the crowed and got the front. "Stop it!" He got between the two children and broke up the fight but they were still glaring daggers at each other and Henry thought that he heard a faint growl coming from Mia.
Just then Miss Blanchard came running out of the building. She only worked for half the day and David worked in the afternoon so they took turns watching Neal. "What is going on here?" She saw the three students in the middle of the crowed and took them into her office.
Henry had no guilt but he knew that the other two had to of had some. At least the boy would have. He wasn't quite sure what Mia's feelings were at that moment. She was a puzzle to Henry and Henry wanted to solve that puzzle.
Normal POV
"What do you think that who three where doing out there?" Ms. Blanchard demanded of the children.
"Henry broke the fight up so he should not be in any trouble. In fact he should leave." Mia surprisingly spoke up on Henry's behalf.
Ms. Blanchard blinked at Mia before turning to Henry. "Very well. Henry you may go back outside and play." Henry left but not before turning to look back at Mia but Mia was staring at the wall beside Ms. Blanchard's head.
"Now will tell me what that fight was about?"
"He said I was dumb and pushed me." Mia said.
"She threw the first hit. There is no proof that her being pushed was not an accident and that is all it was." The boy said defensively. "And about me calling her dumb, I was only asking if she would need help with her school work considering she has not ever gone to school before." The boy was lying but unsurprisingly Ms. Blanchard believed his side of the story instead of Mia's.
Mary Margaret allowed the boy to go back to lessons after sitting out at break time but Mia was not allowed to. She had to stay in the reception area instead until the end of the school day. Before Ms. Blanchard left Mia though, she gave her an earful on why picking fights was wrong and so was lying to get out of trouble. Oh, the irony!
After school she was driven back to Snow's apartment by Snow herself. When they got there Henry was already there because he had taken the school bus and Snow had stayed at school for a bit tidying up.
Henry had apparently called Regina and told her what happened because she was there and so were Emma and David. They all gave Mia an earful as well but what hurt the most was what Regina said.
"I told you she was unstable. She could have turned into her wolf form and eaten that boy. She could hurt anyone and I bet you she would not care a bit." Then she had turned and went to sit and fume in the corner.
Emma's POV
Emma felt sad and frustrated at what Regina had said. She knew it would have hurt Mia and she held sympathy for the girl. Who knows how long she had been in seclusion? She probably did not know what she was doing when she hit that boy. Thinking she started to wonder why she went into seclusion in the first place.
Normal POV
Mia was sitting on the steps in Snow's apartment when Emma walked up to her. She sat down next to Mia and opened and closed her mouth a few time until she finally said something. "You probably feel alone right now." Mia snorted. "I always felt alone for a long time. I grew up without my parents and that really hurt me. I was always angry at them without even knowing them. I stayed to myself lots of the time. What made you stay by yourself?"
Mia did not want to answer Emma and luckily she did not have to as it seemed that Snow and David had heard what Emma had said. "Emma-" She began but Emma cut her off saying.
"Can we not do this?"
"Why not? There is not a big crisis that we need to solve. We have time to talk about this." David said. Emma walked over to them and they all had watery eyes.
Mia was puzzled by what the adults had said. Why wouldn't Emma want to talk to her parents if she did not always have them?
Looking around, it seemed like everyone was preoccupied so she sneaked out the door and down towards the woods. She went back to her hideout to think about what had happened that day. Little did she realize that Henry had seen her go and followed her.
He found her curled up on her pile of blankets and went to sit down beside her. Mia looked up at him questioningly as he draped the black cloak around her shoulders. "It is still wolf time. You would change into your wolf form."
"And that is a bad thing?" She asked him.
"No. But I thought that we could talk." And they did. They talked about pointless things and never once did they mention what happened at school that day or her being a werewolf or her past. They talked like that until morning.
