A/N: Apologies for my days absence. It's been a rough couple of days for me on a personal and emotional level, and I've been spending my time getting lost in books and away from reality. But, I'm back and writing. As you can see, I have changed (once again) a couple of things in this story (chapter) to go with it better. No, Regina will not be singing like Mandy Moore, but her and Emma will be acting in a play of my own creativity. I doubt school districts allow plays that touch the subject on LGBT, but I am doing one anyway lol because after all- this is fiction. So, just read on and enjoy.

Oh, and a day late but to any Star Wars fans (like myself) Happy Star Wars day! And May the 4th Be With You, all!

Happy reading! :)

"Emma, come on, we're going to be late!" Mom yelled up, standing by the stairs.

Emma came down the steps, her hair picked up in a ponytail, jeans blue and casual, with a white v-neck t-shirt and a red and light gray flannel. Her red converse to match. Mom rolled her eyes as Emma made her way out the front door, but followed her out of the house, deciding that arguing about her daughter's choice of wardrobe for Sunday mass would be a no win battle.

Mary Margaret had to admit, her wardrobe was at least bright and colorful this time.

"Do you think you can get a ride to school with Lily or any of your friends tomorrow? I need to take my car in for an oil change."

"Oil change? You know, I can do that for you. Easy." Emma smiled with hope of missing out in having to stay after school for the stupid school play.

Mom's lip tilted, "Nice try. But I have an appointment in the morning."

"What about your job?" Asked Emma, frowning.

"One of the other teachers will cover for me just until I make it back."

Emma's frown deepened as she turned her attention to the car window.

"So can someone drive you?" Mom asked.

"Yeah. No problem." Said Emma. Graham would drive her, no problem.

As soon as they walked into church, Emma's eyes looked around until they landed on Regina, who was sitting along the front row. Of course, she would be sitting in the front row. Being the reverend's daughter and all.

But Regina's eyes weren't the only ones staring her way. There was half the town. Those who came to church, anyway. Murmurs were circulating and Lily's eyes were on her as well. Hers being the only smiling face she caught in the crowd.

Whispers could be heard of brave of her to come here, after what she did. Poor Mary Margaret, having to race a child like that all on her own. As if her divorce wasn't enough.

"Come on, Emma." Emma's attention moved to following her mother into the church, finding a spot along one of the middle benches. Eyes still on them. But mom was good at masquerading them all away, while Emma, hadn't it been because they were in church and she didn't want to embarrass her mother further, she would have told everyone in this room to mind their own da- well, business.

"Good morning." Regina's father spoke loud and clear. It wasn't a big church, so the use of a microphone wasn't needed. And the man had a voice that could carry, when it wanted to.

Heads turned, eyes facing forward, all but Regina's, whom to Emma's surprise, her eyes were finding hers once again a few rows up from where Emma and her mother were sitting. Lily's eyes glared Regina's way, taking notice, but wasn't acknowledged by either Emma or Regina.

"First and foremost," Regina's father continued, standing tall and proud behind that oak booth, bible placed open along it. "Let us give thanks in honor of Jefferson's speedy recovery." His smile is directed right at Jefferson's father, who smiles back. "I know his family is eager to have him home. Also…" Henry's eyes turned to the crowded room. "Let us pray for those present at the time of the incident." His eyes are on Emma, including some from people sitting around her. Mom is fearless and facing forward, always putting on a brave face. While Emma chooses to ignore all the glares directed her way, and focus on the only pair of eyes that didn't look her way with judgment in them. Regina's.

Lily rolled her eyes and faced forward. Killian was a few rows, all the way in the back trying to hold in his laughter.

To everyone's knowledge, Emma was the only one there. She was the only one who caused that horrible accident to happen. No need for the reverend to sugar coat the word from her to those. Everyone knew the finger and blame was pointed at Emma. But whatever annoyance Emma felt in that moment, vanished just by looking into Regina's eyes. The feeling stirring inside of her, unknown.

"Let us pray that today's mass will help those responsible to find their path. Who clearly isn't on the way to righteousness."

"Amen." Voices echo.

The corner to Regina's lip quirks up in a small smile toward Emma before facing back up front for the rest of the mass.

Emma stood in front of her bathroom mirror. She chose to wear a pair of tight jeans today, a plain black shirt, and her hair loose. Plus her converse. There was no need to be excited about today. At least she would be off janitorial duty, but would have to endure the torture of being part of Ms. Fisher's theatrical class. She preferred to scrub floors.

With a deep and aggravated sigh, Emma moved to her door, where she ran into her mother, who was on her way up to wake her, no doubt.

"Oh, good, you're up- Emma-" Mom scoffed, her eyes scanning the pigsty of her daughter's bedroom. Emma rolled her eyes as mom stormed past her, picking up one clothing item after another. "How many times have I told you to clean up this room? I- look at this!" She snatched another item of clothes from the floor and tossed them all on the unmade bed.

"I'll get to it, mom." Was all Emma said about it.

"Yeah, well, can it be before you graduate High School? Preferably tomorrow. Thank you, now let's go. Graham is waiting downstairs for you. You're going to be late."

Emma held the door handle, allowing her mother to step out of her room first so that she could close the door. Thank God, she didn't need to use her crunches anymore, although her leg still made her limp from time to time. But she rather limp a little, than have to carry those things around.

"What's up, Em?" Graham extended his arm toward Emma, embracing her in a hug. Out of all of Emma's friends, mom liked Graham the most. He was a good egg. "You ready to discover your talent up on stage?" He laughed, mockingly.

"Yeah, I'd like to see you up there." Emma shoved him, the corner of her lip tilting into a smirk.

"Hey, sign me up! Maybe you could put in a good word for me with our hot drama teacher." Graham's brows wiggled up and down.

Mom shook her head and smiled, reaching for her coat and keys on her way out the door. "You two get to school. Have a good day." She waved.

"Bye, Mrs. B!" Graham waved.

"Bye, mom." Said Emma, turning her attention back to Graham. "Thanks for driving me, Graham."

"Don't worry about it. Shall we?" Graham motioned toward the door.

"Yeah, let's… Go." Emma breathed heavily on her way out the door.

"If you give me a big tip for driving you, I'll whisk you away and no one will see us until morning." Said Graham, shutting the door behind him, smirking at Emma's laugh.

Music blasted along the radio to Graham's jeep. He was always having Emma listen to new tracks he discovered.

"So," he turns the volume knob on his radio, lowering the music. "Awkward day yesterday, huh?" He chuckles, "You're definitely not at the top on Reverend Mills' Most Liked list."

"Pfft," Emma shakes her head. "He's never liked me. Besides, he's not so bad."

"I can see why, you know." Graham's brow lifts as he glances at Emma. "Why, he doesn't like you."

"Let me guess, because of my sparkling personality?" Emma grins.

Graham laughs, "No. Because his little closeted, quiet-as-a-mouse daughter has her eye on you."

"What?" Emma's brow lifts this time.

"Come on, Em. Don't tell me you're the only one who's been blind to that little secret of hers. Although," Graham chuckles once more. "How much of a secret could it be anymore living in a town like Greenfield?"

"Yeah, right." Emma shakes her head, facing forward. "She's probably dreaming about her prince charming to come along and sweep her off her feet, like in those novels her and my mom read all the time. I'm no prince charming."

"True," Graham's eyes scan Emma's body quickly. "But, maybe she's into princesses. Although, you aren't much of that either, huh?" He laughed, flinching once Emma smacked him right on the arm. "Anyway, what are the odds of you ever finding someone like Regina Mills remotely interesting, right?"

"Exactly." Said Emma, grinning from ear to ear. Regina Mills, the reserved, keep-to-herself daughter of Reverend Mills gay? That would be the news of the town if it were true.

"Thanks for the ride." Emma pushes the passenger door open and hops out of the car.

"No problem."

"Don't forget, be back here at four, okay? Sharp." Said Emma, looking at Graham through the rolled down window of his jeep.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it, I'll be here." Said Graham. "Hey, before you go-"

"What?" Emma pauses.

Graham hands her a piece of paper, "Do me a solid and give that to Ms. Fisher, have her call me. Maybe I'll get lucky." He smirks.

Emma chuckles, tucking the piece of paper with his written phone number inside of her pocket. "Yeah, keep dreaming, buddy." She tapped her hand along the car door. "Remember, meet me out here at four."

"You got it." Said Graham, driving away.

"Welcome, everyone." Ms. Fisher smiles at her class, finding only one empty seat, already knowing who it belonged to. "I am so pleased to be doing this for the first time this year. I believe this play of ours will bring a new spark to the school and the parents. Especially of the LGBT community. Now, let's start with-" Ms. Fisher's eyes move along the door, her brow raised in Emma's direction. "Ms. Swan, better late than never. Please, have a seat." She motions to the only empty seat in the room.

"Sure," Emma finds all eyes on her as she walks along the classroom, taking the only empty seat, which happens to be beside Regina.

"Now, as I was saying- this will be something unlike that has never been done. I am thrilled to be sharing this with you all willing to participate in this play." Ms. Fisher grins proudly. Emma simply leans back in her seat and closes her eyes for a moment, already bored. "In this play, we will be needing three leading characters to take the ropes of our characters Danielle, the fiancee, Camilla the free-spirited girl who will change Allison's life forever. And of course, Allison. But before I go ahead and pick out our three leading students that will play these wonderful characters, let us give thanks to our very own Katie Summers for writing such an amazing script to this play."

Everyone applauds, except for Emma, earning an eye roll from Katie. Not that Emma cared.

"Now, let us see who our top three choices will be, starting with…" Ms. Fisher glanced down at her clipboard, scanning the names that she had highlighted for herself. "Danielle, who will be played by Ivy." She smiles at Ivy, hearing an applause erupt from everyone. "Alright, settle down. Let's see, Camilla will be played by Regina." Once more, applause erupts until it dies down. "And last but not least…" Her eyes scan the names again. "Emma will play Allison."

Emma's eyes part open, staring widely and with confusion around the room. "What?" She chuckles, shaking her head. "No. No, you see, I didn't come here to act or anything. I'll probably suck anyway. I mean, I'm no actor."

Ms. Fisher smiles, her head tilting. "I beg to differ, Emma. I ran it over with Principal Gold, and he seemed fond of the idea. He thinks you will have raw talent." She rose from her seat and handed their three leading students their scripts. "Now, here are your scrips. Let us go over your lines, shall we?"

Emma reluctantly looked down at her script, but flipped the page with a flick of her wrist anyway. This was a joke. As if Gold hadn't humiliated her enough, now she had to be up on stage, in front of the whole school and humiliate herself by reading this… What the hell is this? Emma's brows furrowed as she read along the lines. Was this a sappy romance play? God help her.

"Alright, I'll explain what this play will be about, for those of you just joining us." The teacher's eyes dart to Emma as she says this. "In the first few minutes of the play you will find Allison," Once again, her eyes are on Emma. "Who just lost her mother, and her hope for living. She goes away on a trip to find herself and ends up finding a best friend, played by Ivy, and an unexpected love, played by…" She motions to Regina. "Regina. Who helps Allison after suffering a bad accident."

Regina smiles, earning a whispered congratulations by another student before Emma's eyes meet hers. Once again, surprise written all over them. Regina was going to willingly play her love interest? Where was this coming from? Regina's father must be fuming, if she's taking a part in a play that would be quite controversial to him. This was almost humorous. She wouldn't even guess Regina was gay.

"Now, let's get started, shall we?" Ms. Fisher smiles, flipping to the first page with everyone else along her script. "Emma and Ivy can start, and then we'll move onto Emma and Regina's lines."

Thank God this class was first before any other for the rest of the week. What sucked is she had to come back after finishing her day for more rehearsal time. Something Emma wasn't looking forward to. She was still pissed she had her art class cut out of her schedule to be able to place her into drama.

Running lines with Ivy, up until the very moment where the story reaches its end was worse than Emma had thought. Emma had never once picked up one of her mom's romance novels, nor did she care to, but she was sure this was too sappy to be used in a play and badly written. Okay, so it was a little good, but that didn't mean Emma was looking forward to forming a part of this.

"Allison, where are you going?" Ivy read along her lines, her eyes landing on Emma, who's turn was to read.

Emma's eyes lazily read along her lines. "I'm going to find her." She said dully. "I have to explain to her that it wasn't just a fling for me."

"Why? Why do you need to tell her this? Where are you even going to find her?" Ivy read.

Emma chuckles as she reads along. "Look, it doesn't matter where I go… I'll find her. I'll make it right. I'll tell her how I feel, give her my heart and hope she accepts it."

"You've fallen for her. Haven't you?"

"Uh…" Emma ducks her head, reading along her lines. "I have. I can't explain how or when, or even in what universe I did something right to have earned this… magical feeling?" She snickers, unable to help her laugh. This was worse than she thought.

Katie Summers rolled her eyes again, while Ms. Fisher glared directly at Emma. "Ms. Swan, are you trying to be bad at this?"

"Oh, no. It just comes naturally." Emma grins, hearing laughter erupt around her.

Regina smiles a little, unable to help herself as she shakes her head.

"Alright, everyone let's settle down. And let's continue, please- Emma…" Ms. Fisher motioned to her script. "Continuing from where we've left off, please."

"Um…" Emma looks for her place along the script before continuing for the rest of the class hour.

Emma stood outside of school, exactly at four, looking down at her watch to check the time again. Correction. Five minutes past four to be exact. And Graham was a no show. He was supposed to wait for her after school, but knowing him, he had to work and bailed on her. All Emma knew is, he had better be dead because if she found out he bailed on her to goof around with Killian and the others, she would definitely kill him.

"Don't even pretend like you're not going to be good, Regina. You're going to be great. I know it." Katie smiled at Regina.

"Thanks." Regina smiles, her eyes moving along to Emma, which Katie notices. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"See ya." Katie waves, walking her way while Regina begins to make her way up to Emma.

Emma sighs and looks over her shoulder upon hearing footsteps behind her. She quickly turned back around.

"So, would it kill you to try?" Asked Regina, standing behind Emma.

"Yep, and I'm too young to die." Emma gives a sarcastic smile over her shoulder. Come on Graham, where the hell are you? She glances down at her watch again. Ten minutes past four.

Regina gives a nod, the side of her lip wanting to curl into a smile. "So, you don't care about classes or graduating. But, you like school because you're popular and you'll never be on top again."

Emma's brow furrows. "That's thoroughly predictable." She uses Regina's own words against her from their shared bus right on Saturday. Emma is even surprised that Regina pinpointed everything about her in one go.

"Your act only works on an audience." Said Regina, walking past Emma and heading toward her car. An old, 1984 black Mercedes that once belonged to her mother. Her father never had the heart to sell it. But he happily restored it back to its natural glory during his grieving period after losing his wife to a drunk driver, so that once Regina turned fifteen, she could learn to drive in it and keep it.

Emma glances down at her watch one last time. Twenty-five past four, and Graham was still a no-show. Great. She sighed deeply, her eyes never leaving Regina as she reached for her keys inside of her backpack. Get real, Em. Regina wouldn't give you a ride if you were the last person standing on earth. She shook her head. But then again, who else was there to give her a ride home? All of her friends were gone. Graham was certainly not coming to pick her up anytime soon. Her mother had to stay after school today as well, and wouldn't be home until a little later in the afternoon. She was stranded.

Fuck it. Emma walked as quickly as she could along the parking lot of the school, reaching up to Regina as she had just closed the driver's side door. She signaled for Regina to roll down her window, which the brunette did, surprised to see her standing before her now.

"You feel like helping a stranded Samaritan by giving her a ride home?" Emma gave a shy and pleading grin.

Regina's eyes raked along Emma's appearance, meeting back with her green eyes. "Sorry. I don't give rides to strangers." She said, an amused smirk playing at the corner of her mouth as she turned on the ignition.

Emma looked away, biting the inside of her cheek to prevent herself from even smiling. Keeping her pleading look in her eyes. "Come on, Regina. I'm dying here. If it wasn't for this leg, I'd get down on my knees and beg you for a ride." She's happy to meet with Regina's own eyes again. And can't help but notice the speck of honey color along her left eye as the sun struck her face. "Please?"

Regina had made her suffer enough. Plus, that pleading, puppy-eyed look was endearing if not pathetic. "Climb aboard." Seeing Emma smile right then and there, whether it was from gratitude, it made Regina flash a smile of her own as she shook her head.

Carefully, Regina backed out of the parking space and headed down the street.

"That was bold of you. Asking for a ride from me." Said Regina.

"What do you mean?" Asks Emma.

"Well… I think the last thing you'd want is for your friends to see you with me."

Point well taken. But Emma would never admit that out loud. Then again, she didn't think she had to, when it was pretty obvious. But again, what other choice did she have? She definitely couldn't wait to get back her car.

"Seat belt, please." Said Regina, noticing Emma hadn't strapped on her seat belt when she entered her car.

Despite her glare, Emma reached over for the seat belt and strapped it. Just to make her happy. Regina sighed contently, stretching out her hand and turning on her radio which began to play some classical music. Emma's brow furrowed at the choice of music. Of course, she didn't expect for Regina to have the best of choices. Helping herself, she reached for the radio and changed it to a rock station, hearing a song play in low volume. Regina glared at Emma and reached for her radio and changed it back to classical. Emma glared, and changed it back to her choice of music. She could go all day.

"I forfeit." Said Regina, keeping both hands on the steering wheel.

"Thank you."

"Forty-two." Regina says in a calm voice.

Emma's brow furrows as she looks over to Regina. "Forty-two- what do you mean forty-two?"

"Forty-two is: befriend somebody I don't like." Said Regina, flashing Emma a small smile.

Emma stares forward for a second, scoffing under her breath as she rests her elbow along the side of the door and uses her hand to hide another smile from wanting to erupt. So, Regina Mills didn't like her? No surprise there. No one liked her. At least she could tell Graham- right after she killed him- that Regina Mills having a so-called crush on her was total bull.

"It's a to-do list I have. Except for my life." Regina was more than happy to explain.

"What, like getting a new personality?" Emma smirked mockingly, going ignored by Regina.

Regina simply shook her head, "Mmh-mm. Like, spending a year in the peace corp. Make a medical discovery-"

"That's ambitious." Said Emma, going ignored by Regina this time.

"Be in two places at once. Get a tattoo."

Get a- did she say tattoo? Emma turned to Regina, seeing her brow slightly lift. Her eyes gleaming a little daring. Emma chuckled at this, because she couldn't ever imagine Regina with a tattoo. Hell or a piercing of any kind. If Regina taking part in this spring play didn't kill her father, Regina having a tattoo sure would.

Who would have thought that Regina Mills would ever consider getting a tattoo? Emma sure as hell didn't.

Alright. Color her intrigued. "What's number one?" Emma asks, her eyes never leaving Regina's profile. It was beautiful with the sunlight lightly caressing her skin the way it was.

Regina smirked, a smirk Emma's eyes directly moved down to. "I'd tell you, but…" The brunette's brow quirked upward as she said, "Then I'd have to kill you."

Emma's smirk is soon vanished by the sight of Graham's jeep outside of the town's diner. And standing beside it in a small group of four, was no other than Killian, Mia, and Lily, laughing and chatting it up with Graham. Emma quickly realized she needed to toss her anger aside and slouch/duck as much as she could in her seat. Never mind the rest of her friends, but if Killian saw her riding in the same car as Regina Mills, that's all he would hassle her about until next century.

There was plenty of time to kill Graham later.

Regina, quickly catching Emma's action and attempting to hide to the best of her abilities, smiled a little and shook her head as she drove on without a care in the world.