Updated
It was official, Regina Mills has vanished from the face of the earth, or at least Emma thought she did. Three weeks following the fire no one, not even the student council, had seen or spoken to Regina, and no one dared voiced their opinion about the student president's recent change in attendance. Not even Kathryn knew where Regina was, but Emma got a funny reading from the darker blonde. For some reason or another the lack of Regina's presence put Emma more on edge, and made her more irritable.
Though her prompted session with Dr. Hopper let her regain a good night sleeps, she slept to almost noon on Sunday until Mary Margaret woke her up via 'the Tink method', which meant a cold cup of water splashed on her face, she unfortunately gained a low tolerance for anything and everyone. She snapped at one student for accidentally stepping on her foot, yelled at Ms. D when the frizzy blonde drama teacher broke out into one of her signature sonnets, which earned her detention. She even snapped at one of her roommates for taking too long in the bathroom. With every passing day Emma got more and more irritable forcing Mary Margaret to do the unthinkable; she kept Emma home.
After surviving almost three weeks with a cranky Emma made everyone, even Mulan, want to pull their hair out. Attempts to try to cheer up the blonde teen ended in utter disaster and made the teen's crappy mode even worse, options on what to do were limited to almost nothing. The only thing that one could do was report Emma to Cora, but that option almost made Mary Margaret physically sick for even thinking about it. There was no other option, but she was giving the blonde until after Thanksgiving to make an official decision.
The last two weeks of November brings not only Thanksgiving but also the Miner's Festival, an old Storybrooke tradition. The Saturday before Thanksgiving break the town would hold a large festival in the main streets of town with food and games, all of the money went to support local charities, the ones run by school organizations and sports teams went to them. Teachers and students were expected to volunteer, either as a sport group, dorm, or individually, either way the whole school was expected to help out in one way or another.
Not trusting Emma, and protecting the public from the blonde's wrath, Mary Margaret signed the two of them together to create some form of a buffer. Tink, who was involved in orchestra, was automatically placed down to help with what has been dubbed 'the failure booth', selling candles. It was perfect, the booth was out of the way, the last one all the way in the back, so foot traffic was light and not much maintenance went into managing the small stand. Mary Margret eagerly signed up herself and Emma for the booth.
Preparation for the Miner's Festival began the Monday the week of the festival in Mary Margaret's classroom after school, it was better than using the music room which was littered with too many instruments and not enough chairs. Besides the two Neverland teens and supervisor, there were at least three other people involved in the candle booth itself, the other orchestra member's saved face by working the other booths and decorations in the section of the festival that the music department was in charge of.
Nova Astrix, third chair violin, was a sweet girl but terribly clumsy. It was always a matter of when, not if, the curly hair brunette screwed up. Last year she accidentally knocked over a whole jar of glitter, the small dots where caught in the wind covering the neighboring booth members in silver sparkles. God would only tell what the next Nova disaster would be.
Leroy Zwerg was the school's grouch. He acted like he hatted everything and called everyone "sister". He was surly and did little to help others. Normally he would be helping run the booth that was set up by his eldest brother, whom everyone called Doc, alongside his five other brothers, but this year he signed up to work on the candle booth. He had black buzz cut hair that was hidden underneath a grey knit cap; the teachers have long stopped trying to make him take it off.
Mary Margaret pushed her desks into several different size tables, effectively setting up different work stations. The tables were pushed near the walls creating a wide open space from the back built in cabinets to her desk. On the blackboard was everything that needed to be done to set up the candle booth, and whom was assigned to each task. Nova and Tink were in charge of banners, and Emma and Leroy were in charge in taking inventory, but they were busy sulking in their respective chairs.
"Ms. Blanchard?" The teacher turned to see a young woman, possibly in her twenties, just outside her door way, a clip board was tucked into the crook of one elbow. She was dressed in an almost replica of the school uniform but the skirt was dark gray with large buttons in the front instead of dark blue and black plaid, and the dark blue sweater lacked the school's crest.
"You must be Ms. Superior." The two women met in the middle and shook hands.
"Please call me Neráida."
"Sure, as long as you call me Mary Margaret."
"Very well Mary Margaret. I apologize for being late, I had to check up on the other students' process, but I'm here now for as long as you need me."
"Well, that's perfect because," she turned around to look at the four teens behind her. Nova was panicking about the jar of glue she just tipped over. Tink was throwing away a banner she tore accidentally with her pencil; a large tear was in the center of light blue paper. And Emma and Leroy were sulking away in the corner. "We need all the help we can get." The reddish brunette nodded and the two adults divided and conquered, Mary Margaret with Emma and Leroy and Neráida with Nova and Tink.
It hit Tink like a ton of bricks and made her heart do this strangely pleasant flip inside her chest. That voice, the same one that rang in her head over and over again after she heard it. It was Neráida's voice, and it made Tink shudder whenever she heard it. The dirty blonde watched the reddish brunette as she swept into the room; a warm friendly smile graced her lips. So enrapture she was, she did not realize how much pressure she placing on her pencil until it snapped, and there was this nasty ripping sound. When she looked down, she saw the damage on the banner she was working on, an ugly jagged gash was in place of the 'D' she was trying to pencil in. She balled up the blue paper and tossed it, the wad poking half way out of the rim. When she turned back to her work station her brown eyes met another pair of brown eyes dead on.
"Tink." Neráida nodded her head once in friendly reconnection.
"Neráida." Tink pulled out another pencil, but remembered she tossed out the banner she was working on. "Excuse me, I have to get more paper." She all but ran out the classroom, slowing down when she was a few feet away. When the blood finally stopped rushing to her ears so hard that she could almost not hear, she caught the faint sound of someone calling her name.
"Tink wait up!" The voice was high, but had a tender degree of softness to it. Nova was running towards her, hands covered in thick white goo.
"What is it Nova?" The curly brunette stopped a few feet away from her classmate, her breathing coming in short shallow pants.
"Well, I spilled the glue and it's starting to stick to my skin and I want to wash it off, but I get lost so easily." She giggled lightly, it was high but not valley girl high. Tink rolled her eyes but shrugged it off, what else could she do?
"Follow me." The curly brunette gave off an almost ear piercing squeal along with a high pitched 'thank you'. Mary Margaret was lucky enough to gain a classroom near the end of the hallway, so a bathroom wasn't that far off. Unlike most high school bathrooms, Storybrooke Academy girl's bathroom was sparkling white and stall doors were left unmarked, no one would dare face the consequences to mark up the dark wood doors in teenage foolishness. Giving the girl a helping hand, Tink turned on the water so that Nova could rid herself of the offending substance.
"Are you excited?" Nova looked up at Tink as she scrubbed a difficult patch of glue.
"About what?"
"The Miner's Festival, of course," with the glue gone Nova turned off the water and started to dry off her hands.
"I guess. Come help me with getting paper for the banner."
"Okay!" The large paper spools that held large sheets of construction paper in different colors was usually in the art classroom, but was moved to the first floor of the main building for Miner's Festival preparations. "I'm so excited for this year's festival!"
"Why?" The two girls measured out the appropriate amount of light blue banner before cutting the section off.
"Because last year it was just you and me, but this year we have you, and me, and Emma, and Ms. Blanchard, and Leroy, oh and my sister-" Nova squeaked in surprise and covered her mouth with her hands. Tink stopped mid step, eyebrows scrunching together, her mind running through the list of names that other girl said, crossing off the faces in her mind. Nova, herself, Emma, Mary Margaret, Leroy, only one remained unmarked.
"Are you talking about Neráida? The two of you are sisters?" The curly hair brunette looked down, shuffling her feet while twirling a curl in between her fingers.
"No... I mean yes we are. Were half-sisters, our dad married my mom when she was five and I was born a year later. She took her mom's maiden name when she entered collage, which is why her last name is Superior and mine is Astrix. Please don't tell her I told you this, she doesn't want anyone to know and have her objectivity in question since she's in training to be the music teacher and is running the orchestra this year. Please Tink, Neráida really wants this job, please?"
"I'm not going to tell anyone Nova, I swear." Nova visible relaxed and the same old smile graced her lips as she all but skipped down the hall, holding her half of the banner with a still in shock Tink behind her. She had a feeling that this Miner's Festival was going to be anything but traditional.
If anything Wednesday was worse than Monday, they did not meet Tuesday since Mary Margaret and Neráida came to a unanimous decision to use Tuesday and Thursday as study days for any pre finals that their teacher might assign. Neráida had other duties that were not related to the candle booth, so Mary Margaret being the oh so helpful person she was, offered her small group and herself as ready hands when the teacher in training needed them. The tasks that needed to be done were small, confirm or deny volunteer's and venders, officially mark down which each booth was going in the light blue music section of the Festival, and order any equipment that Neráida was in charge of. It was the last task that became the root of their problems.
The day was going well; Emma and Leroy were actually doing something, counting and packing the candles. Mary Margaret didn't care that it was the same thing that she yelled at them to do the other day until she was blue in the face, baby steps she reminded herself baby steps. Tink was off to find the other orchestra and other musical groups to mark down where they want to go and report back to them when she was done. Nova was assigned the simple task of confirming orders. That is where it all went wrong.
Around five they decided to call it a day, it left an hour or so for homework before dinner. They were almost done, the candles were packed and ready for transport, and by tomorrow Neráida would have the official placement of all the booths and give all the groups a copy of the layout. They were ready to leave when a guy came in with two large blue tanks in front of him.
"Can I help you, sir?" The man set the tanks down and pulled a folded sheet of paper from his inner jacket pocket.
"Yeah, my boss told me to deliver this order of helium tanks." Neráida read and reread the paper, feeling a little faint as she did.
"H-how many tanks of helium?" He laughed, then walked off, leaving the tanks behind. "Nova." The curly brunette teen was still packing her bag, seemingly oblivious to what just happened. She looked up at the older girl and smiled. "What did you do?" At first Nova tilted her head, much like curious dog or cat would, but then her eyes turned teary at the hard look in the student teacher's eyes.
"I swear, I just did what you ask me to do and confirm the orders, that's all."
"You ordered how many tanks of helium?"
"I-I meant to order twelve." Neráida placed the paper in front of the teen, her finger on a certain line.
"You ordered twelve dozen." The same man brought in another set of tanks, making a total of six blue tanks. "Return them." The teen started to shake, and her eyes became more blurry with even more unshed tears.
"There are no refunds."
"We needed that money, you knew that. You know how he feels about us. Fix it Nova." Neráida walked out her posture hard and tense. Nova completely broke down when the older reddish brunette left, tears streaming down her cheeks. Leroy hesitated for a moment before approaching the crying girl, standing next to her with his hands in his jacket pocket.
"Hey, what's the problem?" Nova ran a finger under her eyes, a salt water tear rolled down the slender appendage.
"The problem is I'm an idiot. We get a yearly stipend, and it's all carefully budged except for the part where I spent it all. On helium. And now we cannot pay the competition fees."
"You'll make it up when you get your next stipend."
"Which isn't until next month. The fees are due next week. And the only incomes that we have are these candles."
"How many do you need to sell?"
"Like, a thousand."
"How many did you sell last year?"
"Forty-two."
"Can't you ask for a break?"
"No. The music department has been having a rough couple of years and if we miss even one competition we will be disband, and several of us are here on music scholarships and we would have to leave Storybrooke Academy."
"No you won't. You know why you only sold forty-two last year? Because you didn't have me. This year we are going to sell all of them." Tink and Emma, who were less than interested in the conversation, snapped their heads up in shock and disbelief.
"Wow, Leroy. You are my hero!" Nova walked out of the room in true Nova fashion, all but skipping out of the room. That left Leroy looking to the side with a bashful smile that faded when he saw the murdering look that the two remaining teen girls were sending his way. Mary Margaret came back, drying her hands off with a white paper towel. She stopped dead in her tracks when the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up at attention. What she saw confused her to no end.
"What did I miss?" She was answered with silence and Leroy rushed passed her and he fled the classroom with shoulder hunched. It was official, this Miner's Day was going to be anything but traditional.
Saturday was the day of the Miner's Festival, and the small candle booth crew set up shop near the volunteer center. Besides the booth, they were also in charge of hanging the banners and lights, something that Leroy showed his worth in by getting the lights to work. Mary Margaret and Neráida broke the six members in teams of two, rotating them every few hours.
Leroy and Emma were on the first shift, they basically were in charge of setting everything up before they were relieved by Tink and Nova but the only male team member all but kicked out the dirty blonde teen. The two blonde's shrugged it off and decided to explore the rest of the Festival. The Festival almost reminded Emma of a farmers market in a town she stayed at once, there was homemade food like caramel corn and hand dipped candy apples. The smell of drool worthy smoked barbeque wafted in the air. Tink looked at the booth that was selling the hand dipped candy apples and scoffed.
"What?"
"I never thought I see the day that Regina Mills would let someone else run her apple booth." Emma quirked an eyebrow.
"Why? What's so special about the apple booth?" Tink rolled her eyes and crossed her arms under her breast.
"You don't know Regina. Besides politics she all but breaths apples. She makes them out of these apples that she grows herself apparently." She got closer to the other blonde and whispered. "I think they are filled with poison or something like that, because they are way too sweet for home grown apples."
"Okay." Emma shrugged off the whole 'poison apple' thing and went her separate way as Tink headed back to the candle booth. Emma took the free time to wonder aimlessly, not having anywhere to go. She found herself a few feet away from the festival and at the stables, at least that's what it said on the wooden sign. A mix of hay and wood chips crunched under her feet and the nay of horses was the only sound. What she saw when she rounded the corner shocked her.
Dressed in brown riding pants tucked into brown leather boots and a light blue ridding jacket with a white scarf, was Regina Mills leading a large light brown stallion. The student president tied the large beast to a nearby fence and turned to one of the open stalls, the few ones that had a saddle resting on top of the door. After she reached into one of the pouches Regina turned her amber eyes to where Emma at the entrance.
"What do you want Ms. Swan?" She walked back to the horse and started to run a brown soft wooden brush through its short hair.
"Nothing. I was just worried, you know I risked life and limb and you all but vanished into thin air." The dark hair brunette turned back to face the blonde, with a deadly look in her eyes.
"What, you think that saving my life once gives you this right to know my every movement? I don't report to you, or anyone for that matter Ms. Swan." Emma held up her hands in surrender.
"Look, I'm sorry if I came off that way, I was just concerned that's all." She scratched the back of her head and kicked a random patch of dirt. The clock chimed the hour, signaling the upcoming shift change. "I have to go. See you later Regina."
"Ms. Swan." Regina nodded her head once and turned back to her previous task. For some reason or another both teens felt better than they had in weeks.
When Emma arrived back to the candle booth, the once peaceful stand was in utter chaos. Everyone was yelling at each other, Tink at Leroy, Leroy at Tink, and Mary Margaret at the both of them.
"Hey!" They all turned at look at her; it was the first time she saw Mary Margaret look this frazzled. "What gives?"
"This is all Leroy's fault!" Tink yelled, her tan skin was starting to go pink. "He told Nova that we sold all of these blasted candles when we barely sold a whole box. And now he is panicking because he lied to her!"
"You did what?" Nova's cheerful expression changed to the same pain filled one that she had when Neráida yelled at her about miss ordering the amount of helium tanks, but it was worse, more hurtful then the last one. "Leroy?" The boy adverted his eyes.
"I am sorry Nova." The curly hair brunette turned on her heel and walked away, tears sliding down her cheeks. Tink turned back to Leroy, hands placed firmly on her hips.
"See what you did Leroy? You made her cry." The two teens started to fight again, this time louder than before. Well, this day just started to go downhill.
The sun started to set and the lights that Leroy painstakingly strung and fixed started to flicker on in soft white light. The candle booth had made little progress in selling candles, having only broken last year's record by two. Though the Festival would go on till around eight, the stands that were ran by Storybrooke Academy students closed around seven to give students some time to enjoy the Festival.
It was around six fifty, giving Leroy no time to fulfill his promise to the sweet nature Nova. There was only one thing to do, and that was to change people's opinion from want to need. So with a pick ax that he took from the shed, he struck the fuse box that supplied electricity to not just the lights but electricity to the main square of town.
To say his plan worked was an understatement, those candles flew faster than they ever had before, selling out in five minutes flat. The music department was saved, at least for this year.
With a candle in one hand and a caramel apple in the other, Emma went back to the stables to see if Regina would enjoy the sickly sweet treat, or at least company of the human variety. Apparently she wasn't the only one with the same idea for when she rounded the corner the dark hair brunette hand her arms around a boy around their age with short brown hair. He whispered something to her then lifted her head up by her chin to kiss her.
A pang of anger and jealousy shot threw Emma's heart, making it feel as though it was twisting inside her chest with every beat. Fingernails dug into warm wax and when the class president moved her arms from the boy's waist to his neck, effectively pressing him more into her, she dropped both the candle and the apple, and ran as though her life depended on it. Her lungs tightened in her chest with every shaky breath she took, she felt like she was being suffocated. The trees were dark due to the lack of bright light, it was a perfect cover for someone who wanted to disappear for a moment or two, and it looked like she was not alone in that department.
"Tink?"
With the last empty cardboard box cleared out, it officially freed the four teens to use the remaining hour or so to do as they pleased. Nova skipped away dragging a love struck Leroy behind her. Emma all but vanished without a trace, mumbling something about apples. Mary Margaret went off with Mrs. Lucas, happily chattering away. That left Neráida and Tink by themselves, alone; the only light was a single lit candle that sat on the wooden surface of the booth. For Tink it was about ten times worse than being alone in one of the private preforming art rooms. But at the same time she wouldn't want it any other way.
"How is it coming along Tink?" The dirty blonde teen tilted her head slightly.
"How's what coming along?" The older woman laughed lightly, the sound soft and sweet like a note on the piano.
"Your playing silly. I know we stopped seeing each other every Thursday but I still like hearing about your progress."
"Oh it's um... great. Really great actually."
"That's wonderful. Have you founded it yet?" The reddish brunette tucked a loose strain of hair behind her ear and met the teen's dark brown eyes dead on. "Your muse?" Tink gulped just as a lump formed at the base of her throat and her hands started to shake.
"Yes, I have, thank you." She ran away then in a burst of energy that she had no idea where it came from, leave the baffled teacher in training behind her. She ran as far as her legs would carry her, swerving now and again to avoid bumping into other people. She stopped behind a darken tree, her heart finally able to catch up with her. It was surprisingly quite being behind the large plant and it allowed Tink to stop and get her thoughts in order, god did she just acted like an idiot?
"Tink?" The dirty blonde lifted her head from where it was resting against the rough bark.
"Emma? What are you doing here?" The curly blonde approached her, hands shoved in red leather pockets.
"I can ask you the same thing." Emma watched the other girls face drop and turned slightly away. "But I guess you don't want to talk about it huh?"
"Not really."
"Yeah, me either." She joined the other girl, her back against the rough bark. There was a silence that fell between the two girls, the noise of the Festival behind them, as though it was farther away than it was. "Life sucks sometimes Tink."
"Yeah it does." She took a deep breath; it was the first time it actually felt cleansing. "But if it didn't, then there wouldn't be something to fight against." This caused the leather clad blonde to laugh for some reason.
"God who are you Mulan?" Tink joined the other girl in her laughter this time. It felt good, more so then they realized. The clock sounded eight times and a new sound started as the end of Miner's day Festival signaled its end. "Come on let's get out of here." The two girls walked home side by side in a kinship that was deeper than either of them realized.
A/N: food for thought Zwerg means dwarf in German. Also dialogue and some of the plot are not mine and belong to Once Upon A Time and it's writers.