Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time does not belong to me! All characters and references to the show belong to ABC and Channel 5
Once Upon a Time: School's Out! The Third One-Chapter 9
"You said yes?!" Ella spat out her mouthful of Hawaiian pizza, staring at Belle incredulously.
Belle groaned, not looking up from her own half eaten plate of pepperoni pizza "Come on, Ell, what choice did I have?"
"You could've chosen to kick his ass!" Ruby said vehemently, biting into her burger savagely "Or at least called me so that I could!" she spat through a mouthful of meat.
Wiping Stable Eating's finest cheeseburger meat off her shirt, Belle groaned, leaning her head on her hand "It's just one Saturday, guys. It's not going to kill me!"
"But...you'll miss Cheer practice!" Ella tried, but all she accomplished was getting two very questioning looks from her friends.
"Yeah, because that's the only thing that's wrong here!" Ruby scoffed, and Ella shrugged helplessly. Rolling her eyes, the red-head took a moment to wish that Snow White was with them rather than at another doctor's appointment, and then turned back to the helpless brunette "Look, how about this? While he's in class today I'll sneak into his room, find the lap-top and bring it back to you!"
Belle shook her head "Thanks, but no thanks. Jefferson told me he hid it really well, so I doubt it'll be in his room anyway" she sighed, poking at her food "I'll just...go on the date. He said he'll leave me alone afterwards if I do"
"Yeah, as long as you don't like him!" said Ruby, and Belle gave her a strange look "Listen, one thing I know about that guy is that he is tricky, he can trick you into thinking that he actually cares for you but he doesn't"
"I know, Ruby!" Belle exclaimed, throwing her hands out to the sides "I won't fall for him! I promise"
Ruby still looked at her worriedly, after a moment she glanced at Ella, the look on the blonde's face telling her that they were thinking the exact same thing. She nodded, and lacing her fingers together on the table, she leaned towards Belle. When she spoke, her voice was soft and careful:
"Sweetie...have you considered...your other option?" Belle frowned, looking confused.
"'Other option?'" she repeated. Ruby cast another glance at Ella, and this time it was the blonde who spoke:
"You know..." she said nervously "Someone else that you could go to? Not the Dean or one of us...but someone else?" the penny dropped, and Belle's eyes hardened, her arms lifting from her sides and crossing across her chest.
"No way" she said firmly.
"Belle-"
"No. Ella, I am not going to him!"
"But he would help you!" Ruby cried desperately "He still cares for you-"
"And I thought you hated him?" Belle shot at her, and Ruby snorted.
"Hey, if he gets you out of a date with the Mad Hatter then quite frankly that bastard is my new best friend!" Ella giggled, and Belle rolled her eyes, refusing to be swayed.
"I don't need to go to him. I can sort this out myself!" she told them, not missing yet another glance between the other two. She narrowed her eyes at them "And that means you two can't go to him, either!"
"Huh?!"
"What are you talking about?!"
Belle didn't bother to respond to the obviously fake cries of bewilderment, checking her watch she found that they should've started heading back to College already, and so getting up from their table, they left the deli, the Jefferson matter hopefully put to rest.
OUAT
"Do it!"
"Don't do it"
"DO IT!"
"Pinocchio, don't do it!"
"Dude, do it!"
"Pinocch, don't!"
Pinocchio Booth looked from Jiminy Hopper to Piper Hamelin-a Senior who wore skin tight yellow and red clothes and played the flute in the College Band-and held the tablespoon of cinnamon in his hand. He bit his lip, looking at Jiminy again. He shrugged.
"What's the worst that could happen?" he said, and Jiminy slapped his palm against his forehead. Grinning triumphantly, Piper lifted his video camera to Pinocchio's face.
"Cinnamon Swallow, take one!"
Taking a deep breath, Pinocchio lifted the spoon to his lips, some of the fine powder falling to the concrete ground. Jiminy, Piper, and several bystanders eagerly watched (except for Jiminy, who was cringing in premature humiliation) as the curly-haired boy opened his mouth and shoved the spoon down his throat.
Almost instantly, a cloud of cinnamon exploded from Pinocchio's mouth and he doubled over, retching violently as Piper and the bystanders exploded into hysterical laughter.
"Perfect!" Piper cried happily "Just perfect!"
"Oh my God! It's killing me!" Pinocchio wheezed, leaning on Jiminy-who was shaking his head pityingly-as he coughed and gasped
"That was priceless!" Piper crowed, a huge grin on his face as he snapped his camera shut "Thanks kid!" he patted the bent-over eighteen year old on the back and then walked away with the sizeable crowd.
Still shaking his head, Jiminy rubbed Pinocchio's back "Pinocch, what've I told you about doing stupid things just to seem popular?"
"T-to not t-to!" the boy coughed, wiping spit off his chin.
"Well, looks like I missed something fun!" came a dulcet voice, and both Jiminy and Pinocchio looked up to see Regina Mills stood before them, staring down at the explosion of cinnamon on the concrete with an amused smirk on her smooth face. Her hands were stuffed inside the pockets of her formal jacket, and her eyes were on the bespectacled red-head.
"H-hello, Regina" said Jiminy while Pinocchio just stared at the Student Body President, his blue eyes wide. Unlike Ruby and the rest of her friends, the two boys were more...wary, when it came to Regina Mills. She looked at them, smiling politely.
"Good afternoon, Jiminy" she said, stepping over the cinnamon and closer to the boys "I was wondering if we could have a little chat?" she looked down at Pinocchio, who still had orange powder on his chin. She arched an eyebrow "Privately?"
"Good luck, man!" Pinocchio shot out as he ran for the hills. Jiminy sighed warily, his eyes closing behind his glasses. Facing Regina, he opened them and tried to look as un-intimidated as possible.
"What can I do for you?" he asked, his thumbs dipping into the pockets of his trousers.
Regina took another step closer to him, so that they were almost toe to toe "I would actually prefer to have this conversation in private. Would you mind if we went to your dorm room?"
"M-my room?!" he repeated, flabbergasted "Why-?"
With a groan, Regina impatiently lifted her empty hands "Unarmed!"she said irritably, unable to believe that she as doing this again! "I promise, I'm not going to hurt you, or threaten you. I just want to talk. Please"
Evidentially, Regina's rare use of the word 'Please' had more of an effect than she thought, because after he was done staring at her in shock, Jiminy nodded, and led her towards the dorm known as "Knight House"
OUAT
As could only be expected, Jiminy and Regina got a lot of weird looks when they walked into the dorm together. The group of boys known as the Dwarfs pausing in the Foosball game just to stare disbelievingly at the two while another boy-a heavy-set sophomore with long, fuzzy black hair and a beard who was chatting to Philip Night on a black couch-actually yelped at the sight of her.
"Um, Jiminy..." said the cautious voice of Gaston Rose, who had just walked down the dorm stairs in his purple football jacket. He pointed at Regina "What...?"
"Relax, Rose. I'm only going to be here for a minuet!" she snapped to the football jock "Can we please hurry along?" she said to Jiminy, who nodded and led her past Gaston to his bedroom, where every surface appeared to be covered in non-fiction books. Most of them on psychology.
Good, Regina thought. This was just what she'd been hoping for.
"So, what do you want?" Jiminy asked, and unlike with her confrontation of Snow White, she got right to the point
"I hear your some kind of psychology ner-guy. Right?" Jiminy nodded (albeit, a little begrudgingly)
"I'm majoring in Psych here, yes"
"Right" said Regina, walking around the room and randomly picking up a wooden cricket ornament from his desk "So...you could tell someone if...they thought they might be having trouble...mentally?"
Jiminy frowned "Um...what do you mean?"
Regina sighed heavily, starting to gently toss the cricket from one hand to the other "I mean...if someone asked you to evaluate their mental state...could you do it?"
"Oh! Well, an experienced psychologist could definitely-"
"No" Regina interrupted him "That's not what I asked. I'm asking if you, Jiminy Hopper, could do that for m-for someone?"
"M-me?" pointing to himself, Jiminy blinked in surprise at the girl in front of him, staring at him with eyes made of ice. He shook his head "I'm sorry, Regina, but...I've barely been a psych student for two years and the subject is a very complicated dissection of human behaviour, in fact even the professional therapists have been known to make the wrong assumptions-"
"Look, can you help me or not?" Regina snapped, not in the mood for his pointless drivel. Once again, Jiminy had to shake his head.
"No" Regina's fingers clenched, and he swallowed nervously "I'm sorry"
Regina didn't respond, bringing a hand to her face and pinching the bridge of her nose, her neck bending.
|Jiminy watched her in her obvious distress and, hesitating a little, he took a step towards her, a hand outstretched as though to comfort. It didn't take a genius to figure out why she had come to him. A few days ago, Pinocchio had told him about overhearing some idiot call Snow White "Fairest" and could only imagine the effect this was having on Regina..."Look, I know about-"
"Oh, whatever Cricket!" she snapped, her eyes flashing as she knocked away Jiminy's hand and strode out of his room, leaving him to watch after her, the pity evident in his bespectacled green eyes.
OUAT
She shouldn't be doing this.
If she was found out, she was a dead woman.
She was betraying a friends trust!
But she had to try an help her, and so in far too quick a time, Ruby found herself standing in front of Rumplestiltskin's dorm room, where she could hear something...laughter?...from within. Regardless of this anomoly, she knocked on the door, and the laughter stopped.
"Come in, dearie!" came the deal makers voice, and Ruby opened the door to see Rumplestiltskin, dressed in his usual dark jeans and dark shirt, laid back on his bed, his bandaged right hand pressing his black cell phone to his ear and a massive grin of amusement on his face.
Raising a finger to her in a "One minuet" motion, he continued to listen on the phone. After a few seconds, he burst out laughing again, a demonically high pitched sound that sent shivers down Ruby's spine.
"Oh God...and how are you gonna do that?" he said, his voice shaking. He listened for a minuet and laughter exploded from him again an arm wrapping around his middle as though his mirth physically pained him, in fact, if Ruby didn't know any better, she'd say that there were tears in the corners of his eyes.
Well, nice to see someone's been having a good time! She thought darkly, glaring at him a little.
"Oh, that's great, dearie, really. Tell you what, though, I've uh" he glanced over at Ruby, who dropped the glare "I've actually got a client waiting, so...yeah, I probably won't call you back" he snapped the phone shut, and Ruby raised a curious brow as he lifted himself off his chocolate-brown bedspread, his hands folding behind his back as he stood.
"Friend of yours?" she guessed, and Rumplestiltskin laughed again.
"No, no. Actually it was a very amusing lawyer who seems to think that I might have something to do with a large sum of money going missing from the bank account of Miss Milah Jones" he shrugged innocently.
Ruby, who knew from Belle that he definitely did have something to do with it, chose not to comment. Rumplestiltskin smiled impishly at her.
"I must say, dearie, I'm surprised your even here. I never took you to be someone who was interested in my services"
"I'm not here for a programme" said Ruby, brushing back a streaked strand of her hair "I...I need your help"
"Oh?" Rumplestiltskin raised a brow of his own "And what, prey tell, is it that you need help with?"
Taking her hand away from her hair, she moved it to her hip and fixed what she hoped was a confident look on her face. Yes, this was the bastard who had broken Belle's heart, and yes, she had on several occasions offered to kick his ass (all rejected) but a weird thing happened to people when they entered Rumplestiltskin's domain. Suddenly, they were no longer in the safety of the open outdoors, suddenly, they were in the lions den, small and inescapable, and he was the sleeping lion, perfectly fine while in his dormant state, but never to be provoked lest you wish for death.
"Well? Out with it, love, I haven't got all day!" said the lion, and Ruby reacquired the use of her tongue.
"I need your help to do something that I can't" she told him, and he scoffed.
"And why-?"
"It involves Belle" instantly, the mocking look of amusement froze on the boy's face, melting away into something cold.
"Get out" he ordered, but Ruby refused to leave.
"Gold, please-"
"I said leave" he snarled, and started to reach for her.
"T-The Hatter's blackmailing her!" she told him, backing up into the wall, and to her relief his movements halted "Well...not blackmailing her, per-say" she corrected lamely "But he's stolen her lap-top, and now he's forcing her to go on a date with him to get it back"
Rumplestiltskin looked at her, his face carefully expressionless as his hand fell back to his side "Well...if that's all she has to do, then what's the problem?"
Ruby blinked...was...was he serious? "The problem is that he's forcing her into something she doesn't want to do! Besides, that asshat's a trickster, what if he tricks her into actually liking him?!"
"Ruby, we both know that Belle's a smart girl" was Rumplestiltskin's lazy reply. He then fixed her with a look that was more than a little patronizing "Are you sure you're not just projecting your own bad experiences onto your friend?" he said, and the young woman glared at him like she wanted to burn holes into his face.
"You still love her" she said, not in the least bit unsure of herself "Surely, you want to help her?"
Rumplestiltskin's dark eyes burned into her own, and he went dangerously quiet. Ruby started to think that maybe she had said the wrong thing when he took a step forwards-how had she never realised that he was actually taller than her?-and when he eventually spoke, his voice was dangerously soft.
"I think it's best if you leave now, Miss Lucas"
"Fine" said Ruby, stepping around his lean frame and towards the merciful exit, but before she left, she looked back at Belle's ex. He hadn't turned around "Just...think about it"
"There's nothing to think about" Rumplestiltskin responded "What Belle does now, what happens in her life..it's nothing to do with me"
God, boys are idiots! Ruby thought, shaking her head. She then opened the door and left the dealer in his den.
OUAT
Saturday night came about far too quickly for Belle. She stood in her bedroom, throwing on the first 'Date Worthy' clothes she could find (which turned out to be a blue sleeveless blouse and black jeans) and started brushing out her long hair.
"...So" said Snow White, who was sat on her bed while she got ready (Ella and Ruby were at cheer practice, preparing for the first Royal's game next week) "Where do you think he's gonna take you?"
"I don't care" said Belle, putting down her brush and picking up a pair of sapphire stud earrings "I just want my computer back" she added, slipping them in her ears.
"Right" Snow White nodded, her fingers tap-tap-tapping on the duvet cover "So is he picking you up, or-?"
"It's not a real date, Snow!" Belle hotly reminded her. Snow White lifted her hands apologetically "And no, he's meeting me at the College gates"
Snow White scoffed "Ooh, what a gentleman!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Belle shrugged.
"Well, I only have to put up with it for one night" she said, and then she picked up her dark blue purse and slung the thin strap over her shoulder "What's the time?"
Snow White checked her watch "7:50"
Belle sighed unhappily. She had ten minuets before she was to meet Jefferson "Right, then I've gotta go. Wish me luck!"
Rather than doing just that, Snow White pushed herself off the bed and followed her to the door, a very serious expression on her face and a manicured finger pointed in Belle's.
"Now, listen, if the Hatter tries anything funny with you, you give me a call and Charming and I will be there before you can blink, alright?" she said sternly, frowning when Belle smiled at her "What?"
"Nothing, just...you're going to make a great mum, Snow" she told her, and Snow White smiled brightly and pulled her into a hug.
"Thanks!"
"You're welcome!" she giggled lightly, starting to struggle a little "But I've really gotta get going, so could you...?"
"Oh. Yeah!" Snow White let go of Belle, and with a brave look on her face, the young beauty started down the corridor "Good Luck!"
Ugggggggggghhhhhh! This chapter nearly KILLED me! So, as always, what do we think? Please review, and I'll update when I can. Speaking of which the prologue of my new fanfic, Amaryllis: The Story of The Blue Fairy, is up if you wanna check it out.