Updated
Unlike the problem Emma faced when she was going up going down was easier; she just took the almost never ending corkscrew staircase down to the bottom floor. When she exited the stairwell the elevators brass doors screeched opened and Ruby bounced out, ponytail swishing happily.
"Emma hey!" The smile that the brunette gave her was genuine, something that Emma was not use to.
"Hey." Emma replied awkwardly, giving the other girl a small wave.
"How did it go?" Emma watched the other girl rock back and forth on her heels in front of her; apparently Ruby was one of those people that needed to be constantly moving.
"Fine, met the headmistress." Ruby stopped mid rock, her feet falling heavily against the granite emulating a soft thud. The brunette's jaw went slack, mouth hanging open and if it could it would have hit the floor like it does in old bugs bunny cartoons.
"No. Way. You have to do something major to be sent to her. What did you do?" Emma's back went ridged and her fingers tighten, the paper crinkling under her fingertips. Ruby saw the sudden change in the blonde's posture and the forming wrinkles on the folder that was in the blonde's grasp. This taught Ruby something very important about the new girl, never ask personal questions. "You know what forget I mentioned it. Are you hungry? Lunch ends in an hour," glad that the question was dropped and the fact that the last thing she ate was a bag of airline peanuts, Emma agreed on the lunch invitation.
The mess hall could not be described as a cafeteria, it lacked the plastic chairs and rectangle tables, but giving something a fancy wrapping doesn't change what it was. The tables were small squares that could hold four and can be easily shuffled around to make larger tables. The chairs were wooden as well but had built in velvet cushions on the back and seat.
Like in any high school cliques sat together and stayed away from the group that was polar opposite to them. There was the large mesh of what Emma assumed was the jocks and cheerleaders since she didn't know if Storybrooke had any sport teams, that took up the space in the front next to the large windows. On the other side was a circle of kids with cards, no doubt the geeks and nerds group. In front of the jocks closes to the food service entrance was another group of kids all sitting in a straight line more than a circle with one girl at the head.
Regina sat there legs elegantly crossed back straight even as her focus was on the leather bound pad she was writing in. A light skinned African American boy sat as close as he could to Regina's left side. A single large red apple sat just ever so slightly at the corner of her pad.
"Who's the kid that wants to be a part of Regina's side?" Ruby looked up from where she was loading her plate with spinach; apparently the school makes sure you get the necessary food groups.
"Sidney Glass, pathetic. He has been following Regina around like some lost puppy dog since grade school. He runs the school paper The Daily Mirror, that's the only way he could ever get a spot at the council table." Emma waited behind Ruby to make a decision between what flavored water to get.
"Let me guess, Regina's the president?" Deciding on cherry Ruby placed it horizontally on her tray.
"Yeah ever since she was a freshman, the last president practically handpicked her. The fact that she's the top honcho's daughter doesn't hurt." Emma nodded and they waited behind a male student who was buying a granola bar. Ruby gave the elder lady dressed in a white smock and plastic hair cap two slips of yellow paper and indicated to Emma when she got a spectacle look from her. "She's new." Emma gave her a small smile and the lunch lady just shrugged and placed the slips of paper in the register.
"You didn't have to do that I have a few bucks." Charity on any level did not sit well with Emma; it was usually an act of pity and gave her an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"It wouldn't do you any good, paper money is practically useless here. Keep it hidden until January, we usually have a winter field trip around then. And think about it this way, on Monday you can buy me lunch." Ruby smiled at her and led her away from the crowds in the front that thinned out the further back you went. Ruby led Emma to a table where a Chinese girl and a girl with dirty blonde hair that was styled in a messy bun sat. The three girls talked and Ruby not noticing Emma taking the free seat next to her waved her over. Approaching with caution Emma set her tray in the free area in front of the only unoccupied space. "You guys this is Emma. She's new."
"Nice to meet you, Emma." The Chinese girl bowed her head slightly. "I am Mulan Fa and this is Tink," she indicated to the dirty blond.
"Nice to meet you Emma."
"Tink?" The blonde just shrug her shoulders.
"Eh it's a nick name." Emma let the issue go and took her seat. Not wanting to intrude on the girls' conversation Emma kept most of her focus on her grilled chicken wrap. Though it was not her first choice, she rather be eating a grilled cheese, the grilled chicken wrap was pretty tasty. The whole grain wrap didn't taste like cardboard, the chicken was cook perfectly, the raisins were not tasteless and the lettuce and tomato were crisp. Her attention was brought back to the other girls when the light conversations that she half-tuned out stopped. When she looked up her green eyes met three different pairs of eyes.
"What?" She knew it wasn't very lady like or classy to talk with your mouth full but she couldn't help the fact that a chicken wrap was hanging half out of mouth when they decided to focus on her.
"We were just wondering what you did to get sent to the dragon layer?" Ruby rose a sculpted eyebrow and all three girls lean in a little pushing Emma back further into her seat.
"Okay what is the big deal with being sent to the headmistress' office?" The three girls looked at each other for a moment then back to Emma.
"Emma." Tink started placing a hand on Emma's red leather clad shoulder. "No one that enters that office comes out unscathed."
"She's right." Mulan added. "Anyone who goes there is either suspended or expelled."
"Even Regina avoids it as much as she can and it's her own mother." Ruby threw her hands up in the air for dramatic effect. "I have to pass by that door at least once whenever I run files for Granny and I get a chill every time I do." She shivered for good measure.
"Okay I will give you one thing she's scary but nothing happened, she just gave me a form that will allow me to pick up a uniform and my books. Oh, she also said 'I hope I do not have to see you in this office again Ms. Swan' but all principles say that."
"Well, watch you back, you may never know whose watching. Do you need any help with picking classes?" Emma gave them the packet that Cora had given her. As a group the girls analyze the recommendations that their esteemed head mistress so highly recommended. Ruby looked at her watch and mumbled a curse under her breath. Quickly searching through her backpack she took out three highlighters and a pen, it was red, of course. "Okay I'm going to make this quick. Pink means it's a good class to take, good teacher and easy work. The blue means an okay teacher with moderate work. Yellow means the class is really good but the teacher is a prick and they will load you down with a crap load of work." The bell rang and the shuffling of people packing up to leave almost drowned Ruby out. "I add a few notes that may be use full. Good luck Emma!" Taking her things and her half consumed lunch, Ruby waved goodbye to Emma and ran to catch up with the others.
That left Emma alone with the packet, now sporting colorful new stripes. She looked over the pink suggestions; most were for elective classes like art and theater. The blue and yellow ones were for classes related to subjects like math and English. Every one of the classes on Emma's sheet had a stripe or mark from Ruby's highlighters but one.
It was a standard English class and it had a room number but the teachers name was blank. When she looked up the course number in the book from her original envelope, again the teacher space was blank. It stopped Emma in her tracks but a bigger part of her threw caution to the wind and it was the first thing she placed on her course sheet.
All of the yellow marks on Emma's sheet were social studies classes all taught by the same teacher: Mr. Gold. She remembered the name from the conversation she overheard between Regina and Cora. If Mr. Gold was the teacher that was harsh on everyone than he earned her respect in a way. Since there were no other teachers teaching social studies she decided to take standard history thinking it would be the easiest.
Math, foreign language, science, and physical education were easy because she was only given one option. Picking an elective however was not going to be as easy. An elective went beyond the basic skills, this was where the kids that didn't shine in math or science or English, sparkle. Art was out since Emma could not draw beyond stick figures. Music required her to play an instrument, again not a strong skill she possessed. Choir required singing, and she sounded like a dying cat, that left theater as the lucky winner. Form filled, she decided to hold onto the recommendation packet just in case she needed it for her books.
The book store across the hall was her next goal. The book store had one side that looked like a school store; backpacks hung on one wall along with stacks of binders and journals. Rows of book shelves going six back two wide double sided, not counting the five against the walls that created a curved 'L' shape. The other side of the store was set up like a connivance store with large refrigerators on one wall and wooden shelves organized by the type of snacks and circle racks filled with magazines organized by genre. Not knowing where to start Emma approached the desk where an elderly man with white hair and glasses sat reading an edition of The Daily Mirror. He looked up at Emma and neatly folded the paper and readjusted the glasses on his nose.
"Hi how can I help you?" Emma gave him the paper that will allow her to collect a uniform and the course sheet that she filled out. The man looked over both forms before looking down at the left side of his desk. He rounded the corner to step in front of Emma; a tape measure was in between his fingers. "Could you be so kind as to remove your jacket?" Emma slipped out of her jacket placing it almost on top of the gentleman's newspaper. He motioned for her to raise her arms out by her sides and he measured her arm span. Taking the pencil that was behind one ear he wrote the numbers on the edge of his newspaper. He did the same for her bust, waist, and height before returning behind the counter. "You're a size nine shoe correct?"
"Y-yeah why?" he just wrote the number down before walking away. Tapping her fingers she waited for a good five minutes before curiosity got the best of her. Next to the desk was a wire bin, the ones that newspapers came in. A stack of The Daily Mirror were fired up and ready to be read. Emma peeked at the front page.
'Second Year and Already Unchallenged: Regina Mills wins presidential election by default. Article by Sidney Glass. Photo taken by Kathryn Nolan'
The title was accompanied by a picture of Regina dressed professionally in a grey wrap dress; a thin black belt with a gold rectangle buckle was around her waist showing off her curves. Regina's lips were painted in a shade of red that reminded Emma of the apple that she saw earlier next to the brunettes pad at lunch. The smile that was on Regina's face was so tight it was almost nonexistent. What she was upset about Emma couldn't tell but it wasn't her problem. She also wasn't surprise that Sidney was the one that wrote the article about Regina, looks like what Ruby said about him being a tag along was becoming truer.
A cough brought Emma's attention back to the man who had placed several items on the counter next to Emma's jacket.
"Okay Ms. Swan here are two weeks of school uniforms; two blazers, two vest, two sweaters, two gym uniforms, a pair of white tennis shoes, a pair of dark brown loafers, two packages of socks one white one blue, books for all of your classes except English. New teacher I don't know how they run their class. A student handbook, and last but not least this semesters coupons. These coupons will allow you to buy your meals and snacks; also the permission slips for leaving campus are in there as well. It mentioned that you needed a car tag?"
"Yeah, um, I drove here from the airport." Emma started to go through all that he brought her, it was lot.
"Well, consider yourself lucky, most students can't have a car on campus until their third year."
"No kidin'."
"So, pick yourself out a backpack and anything else you might need and I will ring it right up."
"Okay, thank you sir." Emma went over to where the backpacks were lined up against the wall. The backpacks were one of three colors, black, navy blue, or grey, and each color gave you the option of either a messenger, tote bag, or the traditional backpack style. But no matter what color or style they all sported the Storybrooke Academy crest front and center. Emma settled on a black messenger bag. She pulled out the recommendation packet with Ruby's handiwork across the page from her jacket pocket. She followed every single one of Ruby's suggestions like 'make sure you stalk up on loose leave paper teacher's will not accept assignments torn from note books' and 'if you're taking Mr. Spencer's geometry class have a compass, protractor, ruler, and plenty of graph paper on hand'. Ruby's little pointers and pieces of advice made the whole process of buying school supplies easier.
By the time the bell rang again at 1:15 on the dot Emma was loading her small yellow bug with everything that she needed to survive her new school. With a sticker on her windshield and map spread out on the passenger's seat she pulled out of her spot and fallowed the map to one of the dormitories with the name 'Neverland'.