There's something about him Regina thought as she only half listened to the teacher talk about a research project we were supposed to start today. The teacher was going to set them up into pairs and they could decide what person they wanted to research. Regina was barely paying any attention when she heard she would be pairing with Robin. She was too busy debating whether or not she wanted to be friends with him. Regina couldn't decide between hate or fear at the feelings that he's unknowingly making her feel. She felt like Robin was staring into her soul. The last time she felt like this was when she met the man she believed was her true love…Daniel.
"Regina!" her mother, Cora, yelled from her husband's study.
As soon as she heard her mother's impatient voice, Regina ran at full speed so as not to make her angrier than she already was.
"Yes, ma'am?" she asked, meeting her mother's gaze. Regina learned early on to make eye contact, even when she's terrified of her. 'It shows you're not stupid' her mother would always tell her.
"We are going to be having soldiers come stay with us, so I would want you to make up all of the guest rooms for their stay and notify the cook that we'll be having more mouths to feed tonight. I suggest you do what I say quickly, they'll be here any minute from their long journey from New York."
Regina bowed her head. "Yes, ma'am."
She walked out the door and did as she was told. Making her mother angry has never been a good thing to do. It was her mother's temper that her "father", Leo, was afraid of that made him allow Regina to stay in the household. Leo despised Regina because she reminded him of his wife's infidelity. Apparently, her mother met someone intriguing one night and according to her mother, was a mistake along with what came of it. Cora just loved to remind Regina that she was a mistake.
Cora made a point to not feel anything for her bastard of a daughter. The only reason why she even kept her daughter was so she could be free labor. Regina was even treated like a slave, including receiving the same punishments. She couldn't even count the number of lash marks she currently had on her back.
Regina remembered the first lashing she had ever gotten when she was seven. She had snuck out the night before to learn how to read and write from some children in town. She was so tired that she didn't even wake up when her mother called. That was the one and only time that Regina had cried during her punishments. Cora made a point to tell her daughter that showing emotions was weakness and to never do it again or she'd receive an even worse punishment. After that day, she never went into town again. She made it a mission to teach herself instead.
Late at night, Regina would rack her brain to see if Cora even had a kind bone in her body, but she wouldn't remember any no matter how hard she tried. The words 'I love you' or 'I'm proud of you' has never left that woman's mouth. Regina would then close her eyes and dream of what her life would be like if she had a kind and loving mother that would hold her close when she was scared and would even kiss her goodnight. Having those dreams were the only thing that prevented her from breaking into Leo's gun safe and putting herself out of her misery. She hated her life that much. On the days that Cora would beat her were the only days she even considered breaking into the safe. Either she didn't have the courage to do it, or she was still holding on to hope for a better future.
Once she was done setting up all twenty rooms, she headed down to the kitchen to inform the cook, Granny as she likes to be called, that there was a change in the number of mouths to feed for the foreseeable future.
"Ugh. Why can't the war end already? It's making people miserable both on the battlefield and at home." Granny complained as she started peeling the potatoes for tonight's stew. It was nearing Christmas and the soldiers would be thankful for the warm meal. At least they should be Granny thought.
"Did you need any help, Granny?" Regina asked, eager to help out but mostly to avoid her monster of a mother.
Granny looked at her with sadness in her eyes. "I'm sorry, child. Your mother didn't give you a job in the kitchen, otherwise I would let you. I don't think it would be in your best interest to make her mad. Don't you think?"
Regina shook her head sadly and walked out of the kitchen, presumably to find her mother.
Granny felt absolutely horrible about what the fifteen year old girl had to go through. It was no secret that Cora hated her daughter. Granny didn't think it was right to treat the child the way she was treated. Even though it was Cora's mistake, she still blamed it on her bastard of a daughter. Granny knew she would never treat her own flesh in blood like that, and she hadn't. The only thing that Granny did wrong in raising her daughter was allow her ex-husband to be around her. Luckily, her granddaughter, Ruby, didn't follow in her mother's footsteps. In fact, Ruby wanted to live with her grandmother instead.
The terms of living with her Granny was that she had to work for Cora. That was the only negative side. Her granddaughter claimed that as a whole, it was better than living with her mother. Ruby could tolerate that foul woman much better than she could. One day, she had accidentally walked in on Cora punishing Regina for getting mud on her dress when she went out to fetch the clothing that Cora's personal seamstress had sewn for her. Granny was ready to give the heartless woman a piece of her mind, but Ruby stopped her saying that she wouldn't be surprised if their mistress went so far as to kill them for interfering in disciplining her own child.
XXXXXX
All of the soldiers came at about less than an hour after Regina left the kitchen. Once all of them were seated and started eating, she left to go to her "room" by the kitchen. All it had was a small mattress and a tiny dresser with a candle on it. Inside the dresser were some clothes, pieces of paper and a couple of pencils.
When it was time for everyone to go to bed, Regina would stay awake either teaching herself how to read and write, or drawing. Every slave and indentured servant in the household has told her that she was spectacular at drawing. She never really knew how she came to do it. She just picked up a pencil and paper one day when her parents were in town and started to draw. She would draw to get her mind off of things like her mother or her father. Regina knew that if either of her parents knew what she was doing, they would severely punish her for it.
When it came to punishments, she didn't know who was worse. Both gave out physical and emotional abuse. Her mother would give out insults and on top of that, she gave her enough lashes to have her bleeding for hours. Her father would yell at her and smack her around. Regina was sick and tired of being treated that way, but she knew that if she did something about it she would be severely punished for it. She stayed out of fear more than anything else.
Once it neared the time for the end of dinner, she got up and headed to the dining room. When she turned a corner she ended up running into someone.
Regina got up immediately and bowed saying, "My apologies sir. I wasn't watching where I was going."
"Why would you assume it was your fault? It's just as much as my fault as it is yours."
She looked up to see that it was one of the soldiers that would take up residence in their home. He looked to be around her age and that was frightening. Whoever created the conscription laws were barbaric to allow a boy who wasn't even a man yet fight a man's battle. He still had remnants of a baby face with light brown hair and hazel eyes. Regina knew she had to respond but she couldn't stop staring into his eyes. She also knew that he was having the same problem.
"I…" they said at the same time.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Cora demanded as she walked into the hall.
"We accidentally ran into each other at the corner, ma'am," Regina blurted out, afraid she would be punished if she lied.
Cora looked at her with a cold stare, as if she were debating on whether or not she should punish her daughter.
Cora looked at the boy and said, "My maids are clumsy at times. Follow me, Regina."
Regina inwardly cringed. She knew that tone. She just hoped that the punishment won't be as bad as it normally is. Her back still hadn't fully healed yet from the last time. She took one more look at the boy soldier and followed her mother. What she didn't know was that when she turned around, he had a pained look on his face, like he somehow knew where they were going.
Regina snaps back into the present when Robin comes back with a slip of paper.
"Are you okay?" he asks her with huge concern etched in his deep blue eyes. She just nods because she doesn't really trust her voice at that moment considering where she was before. Getting lost in her own memories.
He searches her brown eyes for even a hint of a lie. When he found none, he handed her the slip of paper.
"Sigmund Freud? Really?"
"Sorry," Robin said. "Although I don't think we can switch."
"No, it's not that. It's just, I didn't think that you would choose him for our project."
"No offense, milady," he said as he sat back down. "But I don't think you know me. We just formally introduced each other not ten minutes ago."
Nodding her head, she responded. "You're right. I don't know you. But in all consideration, Robin, you don't know me either."
Robin smirked at that. "I think I know more about you than you do me." At Regina's raised eyebrow, he continued. "You don't like attention, which was made obvious in history class earlier today. That, and you are smart but don't want people to know it. That could either mean you don't like attention, or your intelligence wasn't appreciated enough growing up. All of that points to the fact that you sit in the back of the classroom, to avoid people. Also, I would like to point out that you only sat up here with me is because I asked you to. Which means you're polite enough to be nice to me even though I can tell you're uncomfortable right now up front. Am I right?"
Damn. Was I really that obvious? She thought. Apparently this guy can knock down her walls without her even realizing it. What is he doing to me? She turned her shocked expression to unemotional and cold. She was going to try like hell to make sure her guard wasn't down again.
"I'm gonna take your silence as a yes. And don't worry. I'm not going to press further, not if you don't want me to. We should probably follow the rest of the students to the library so we can get started."
Not pressing boundaries. Another good quality about him.
Once they were situated by a couple of computers, Robin turns to her. "Did you want to do the research and I'll put it together in a presentation? Or something different? As long as it doesn't involve research, I suck at it."
Regina started laughing at him. Robin frowned. "What? Did I say something?"
"Like I said earlier, you're interesting," she said, still laughing. "Cuz now I know your ulterior motive. Typically in my experience, men just want to somehow use my intelligence to get into my pants. But you? You're different. You'd rather risk doing something you're comfortable with, leading to the possibility of me not being impressed than you sucking it up and doing most of the work just so I would stick around, intrigued for more of your smart qualities. I can tell you're confident that I would stay because you're admitting you have weaknesses. Since I assume you wear your heart on your sleeve and you're not afraid to say 'I'm sorry', I'm gonna have to say you were either raised right, or you lost a loved one but someone told you it was okay to care. And as we all know, girls are more sympathetic to guys who have a sensitive side. Am I right?"
Robin looked a little shocked to say the least. Poor guy Regina thought. But that's what he gets for psychoanalyzing me first. "I'm gonna take your silence as a yes. And before you say anything, I won't press further. I'm not the type to be nosey. I'll do the research and as an added bonus, I'll even stick around."
Both of them smiled at each other.
"Did I say something upsetting? If I did, I apologize—"
"No! It's just that the sensitive side was how I got my ex-girlfriend. My father died just before we moved here and she was sympathetic since she lost her mother a few years previous." He admitted sheepishly.
She gave him a sad smile. "I'm sorry. I've lost people too. More than I care to admit." He gave her a nod of thanks. "Anyway, we should probably get started or we'll have to finish this on our own time."
Why did I say that? Regina thought as she logged onto the computer. I guess I should stop fighting to keep my wall down. At least for now.
Marian was in a bad mood. She woke up late, didn't have enough time to eat breakfast or put on makeup. That's a crisis in any woman's book. The only bright side to her morning was that she had the good sense the night before to place all of her school work in her backpack so she wouldn't have to in the morning.
As she placed her car in park, she noticed two new kids stepping out of a really nice Mercedes. This town was small enough to the point where everybody knows everybody, so Marian was pretty sure she had never seen them before. Intrigued, she followed them to the main office. Both of them looked a lot alike. She thought the guy was pretty cute, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't envious of the girl's beautiful complexion. Looking at them more thoroughly, she deduced that they were of Latin descent or similar. She was about to go in and snoop on them, but then she saw Robin. Apparently he was also intrigued by the new students as well.
She hasn't seen him since he stupidly broke up with her a month ago. The day after she had half expected him to call and meet up to tell her he was stupid about what he said the day before, but it never came. He had erased her from his life completely. Marian assumed that since he never answered his phone when he called, not even to tell her to stop calling.
Marian desperately wanted to walk up to Robin and talk to him, but she couldn't make her feet move. Either she didn't know what to say or she was still too hurt to talk to him. Before she could make up her mind, the bell rang signaling that it was time to head to class. Trying to reign in her tears, she grudgingly made her way to class. As she was coming up to the classroom door, she saw Robin again opening that very same door.
When she got to school she thought she could get through the day knowing Robin would be around, but as she was confronted with reality, she realized she couldn't do it. She high-tailed it into the nearest girls' bathroom and ran into the first stall.
Normally she deemed school as important as breathing, but today she wasn't all too concerned about missing the first day of class. She stayed in the bathroom for almost three periods crying before she decided to come out. Marian knew deep down that her being emotional was ridiculous; she couldn't help it. Her and Robin were together for years with no problems, very few arguments and neither of them were distant. She was finally ready to find Robin and demand some answers.
As she walked passed the library, two people had caught her eye. Robin and the new girl were sitting next to computers laughing and smiling at each other. Looking closely at Robin's face, Marian could see that he had a look of awe and wonder bordering on love. Thinking back, she noticed that he never looked at her like that when they were dating. Who is this girl? I have to know she thought. On the outside the new girl seemed innocent and uncomfortable, but Marian could see that there was something different about her. Whether or not that something was bad, she was going to find out. If this girl isn't who she says she is, Marian vows. I'll make sure she stays as far away from Robin.
The next time Marian sees the new girl and Robin is physical education, which is the last class of the day. She decides that she's going to confront the new girl in the locker rooms when they go to change into their uniforms. That way Marian can gain the upper hand and also have some time alone to fully assess the new girl out. It'll seem like an innocent encounter, but in reality, she's planning on making sure that she stays away from Robin. As she stood in line to pick up their gym clothes, Marian kept telling herself that the reason she's doing this is to protect Robin and not so that she can get him back.
Once she gets her clothes, she sees that the new girl barely walked into the girls' locker room. Perfect she thought as she followed her.
In order to catch her off guard, Marian moved fast and stepped in front of her, preventing her from moving forward.
"Hello, my name is Marian. What's yours?" Marian said, trying to be polite.
The only response she got from the new girl was a raised eyebrow and a clipped "Regina" as a greeting, so she tried a new approach.
"How are you liking the school? Make any friends yet?" she asked in what she hoped was in a sincere tone.
The look on Regina's face showed utter annoyance, which seemed like she saw right through Marian's façade. She folded her arms across her chest and replied, "Why do you care? You don't seem to be the kind of person that would genuinely care about me. Which was made obvious by your failed attempt at sounding sincere. What do you want?"
Marian huffed in exasperation. "Fine. You saw right through me. In all honesty, I don't care how you do at this school, just as long as you stay away from Robin. I don't want you to be a bad influence on him. I will try to be polite if you do as I say. I don't want to have to threaten you now do I?"
Regina's expression turned from an annoyed frown to an amused smirk. "You're the ex-girlfriend aren't you? Robin told me about you, which is why I'm going to have to say no to staying away from him. I don't take kindly to being told what to do or to being threatened. Which is why I'm going to make my own promise to you." She leaned in forward and continued with barely contained anger. "If you do threaten me, I'll do way worse to you. Leave me alone." With a plastered fake smile, Regina said her goodbye and went to go change.
Believing Regina's threat to be as fake as her smile, Marian was going to go through with her threat. She will make sure that Robin falls in love with her again if it's the last thing she does.
