"Why the hell are you in here, anyways? I thought you said you didn't have English with me." Emma was lounging in the desk of her first period class having the honor of sitting next to Killian's droning about his first day, as if she cared. Finally fed up, she interrupted him with the realization.

He looked at her, a bushy brow quirked. "Haven't you figured it out? I transferred."

"Big surprise," Emma muttered under her breath, one of her mechanical pencils being abused between her idle fingers.

Currently, they were listening to Mr. Booth continue with the classroom rules. Of course, most of the class had taken to doing their own thing as his voice seemed to lagger on about not having your cell phones out during class and blah blah blah…

Emma was nearly falling asleep by then, finding her eyes drooping every so often and she cursed herself for staying up too late last night with images of scarlet lips and undergarments. This day was going to be a long one.

"Em," Killian said, pulling her out of the deep end.

"What?" she snapped, trying hard to ignore the chuckle coming from that arrogant ass and to keep herself from kicking said ass in the nuts.

Killian smirked. "How did it go with… her?"

"Her?" Emma repeated with confusion until it hit her; he was talking about her fourth period class and the woman who taught it.

"Oh. Uh, I bet she hates me." She shrugged nonchalantly and made chicken scratches with her pencil on the classroom rules paper, praying that he wouldn't pry too much and leave well enough alone.

"What'd you do?" He quirked a brow at her. "Day number one: Piss off the Evil Queen. Not a good idea."

"Pretty much. I was, uh, caught staring, or 'spacing off.'"

Killian smirked. "You too, huh?"

Emma looked at him, nearly having forgotten that he had taken a class with Ms. Mills before. It wasn't a surprise to her that he had been staring at the brunette teacher as well. And for some reason, something just bristled inside of her.

"What do you mean?" She gritted the words between her teeth.

"I couldn't believe it, either," he explained, "when everyone said she was a bitch, I assumed she was ugly and old or something. Usually those teachers are, but … She's not and she's hot."

"Yeah, thanks for warning me. Both you and Belle seemed to have left that little detail out."

"At least you don't have to worry about her hating you for no reason?" He shrugged and smirked. "She gave me detention before and there was a reason."

"... why?" Emma was almost afraid to ask.

"I touched the butt."

Emma nearly launched herself from her desk to strangle that boy sitting next to her. It took every fiber of her being to keep her muscles still. "You...touched her ass?" she growled softly, trying to keep herself as calm as possible.

"Have you seen her ass?"

"You're a pervert." Emma rolled her eyes and leaned back against her chair. "A fucking horny perv."

He smirked and waggled his eyebrows. "Isn't someone jealous?"

Emma's heart skipped a beat. Only her friends knew about her sexual orientation and if Killian also knew… She shuddered at the thought.

"Don't worry, there's enough Killian Jones to go around."

She sighed in relief. He was talking about himself. But what he had said made her glare at him, wishing his skin would burn underneath the heated stare. "You wish."

He opened his mouth to speak, but the bell interrupted him, and Emma stood up to follow the rest of the class out the door. Thank the divines he didn't sit next to her in Mr. Spencer's class, or she'd be tempted to replace his eyeballs with his testicles and vice versa.

"I have read through your assignments, and I must admit that I am pleased with what I saw." Ms. Mills smiled toward the class as she paced the room with a stack of papers. "I've taken the liberty to make a note on each. You may take a few minutes to look them over before I continue with today's agenda."

She began to pass the papers back out to their owners; the pencil skirt that she wore today tightening with each movement. Emma only knew this because she had been staring the entire time. It seemed as if her eyes were permanently glued to such forbidden territory, and she certainly did hope that Ms. Mills wouldn't soon find out where her eyes usually were when her back was turned.

Quickly averting her gaze before the teacher could catch her staring, she took the time to drink up the classroom again. There were more open seats today. Perhaps they took Ms. Mills' warning to heart and decided to visit with the counselor.

Such a shame, Emma thought, they were missing out.

"Emma." She heard her name in the melody of Ms. Mills' voice and looked up to see a notebook being handed to her. She forgot about not ripping the pages out before she left.

In her embarrassment, she grinned sheepishly and took it, opening the cover so she could find the note written in red ink.

"Despite your affinity to space off and be disruptive, I found your skill to be surprisingly impressive. I cannot wait to see what you have to come up with in future assignments. Please, do keep up the good work and try your best. I see that you have a creative imagination. Use it wisely."

Emma read through the small brick of words again, her eyes catching a small bit of writing at the bottom in pencil. It was still the same calligraphy.

"P.S. I especially enjoyed the part where you nearly lit your mother's pants on fire with a bottle rocket. At least no one was harmed. I had a similar incident, though it was to myself. They leave a nasty burn."

Emma felt the corners of her mouth quirk in a helpless smile, letting the butterflies in her stomach soar.

When Emma finally pulled her attention away to see if anyone else was done, she noticed Ms. Mills standing at the front of the room with her eyes locked on her. A shiver eased its way down her spine as their eyes met briefly. The blonde could only offer a sheepish smile, unsure of how else to get out of that without squirming to the floor and that offered a small tug of Ms. Mills' lips before she stepped forward.

"Alright, if we are finished, I would like to leap into today's lesson."

Emma sat through the rest of the class period, her mind on that note in her paper. She knew it was just an informality that all teachers wrote and that she shouldn't take it personally, as if she were the only one special enough for such praise, but she couldn't help but to feel on a pillar, higher than the rest.

"She wrote a love note to you on your assignment?" Ruby laughed over the phone as Emma kicked her boots off.

It was the end of the day and Emma had decided to head straight home instead of worrying Mary Margaret again. That, and to avoid any further confrontation with her friends.

Again, though, she had made the mistake of talking to Belle about the note left on her paper from Ms. Mills. She should have known better that Belle would go and blab to Ruby, because it wasn't ten minutes after she got home and texted the latter that she called instead of replied.

"I take it you spoke to Belle?"

"Yeah. So, is it true? What did she say?"

"Calm down, Rubes. It wasn't a love note. She wrote a note regarding our writing skills at the end of the assignment. She just said that I was pretty good, and she was impressed." Emma shrugged and collapsed onto her bed with a sigh, her blood simmering. "I only told Belle because I was worried about the class before."

She could feel Ruby's smirk over the phone. "I'm sure that's not the only thing she'll be impressed by."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emma huffed.

"Nothing. That means nothing."

Emma scowled into her phone and crossed her arms, letting the cellphone lay against her cheek. "You're insane if you think I'll ever be able to get to know her like that. Fuck, Rubes, she's probably not even gay."

"You never know!" Ruby chirped.

"I'll hang up on you."

"No, you won't."

"No, I won't. But shut up about her," Emma demanded and rolled onto her side, staring blankly at the wall.

"Why?"

"Because. It's stupid and pointless. It'd be different if she was a student, you know? At least I'd have a shot."

"Jeez, Em, lighten up! Just spend some time with her or something. Didn't you say that you spent, like, half your lunch with her?"

Emma frowned and mentally kicked herself. She made the mistake of talking with Ruby later last night as the waitress had texted her sorry with a crying, frowny face. They had talked a bit more and she eventually squeezed more information out of her.

"That was to finish a paper and it was just yesterday. I can't just randomly stay in there. She'd think I'm a weirdo or something."

Ruby chuckled. "Wait until you get another paper, you doofus. Maybe then you can. I mean, like, how did it work last time?"

"It was supposed to have been done in class," she murmured. "I doubt the next ones would be like that, considering they'll probably be longer. I can't just stay in during lunch."

"Oh, come on, Em. Take it from the expert, here." Ruby smirked, and Emma could feel it through the way she spoke. "Make up an excuse, like, you can't do it at home or something. I'm sure she'd let you stay."

"Probably not. I doubt she wants me to disrupt her lunch."

"Holy fuck, Emma. Get your head in the fucking game!" Ruby snapped, then muttered a quick apology after a reprimanding voice shouted in the background.

"Having Granny troubles, I see." Emma chuckled.

"Shut up." There was some shuffling noise and a click before Ruby spoke again, "Alright, now. Listen to me, girl. I know it'd be weird, like, if you weren't working on it in class, right? And you just stay there and whip it out?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well, how if you 'accidentally' lose track of time or something or try to finish up your thoughts after the bell rings?" she continued.

"Okay?"

There was a long, irritated sigh. "And voila!"

"Look, Ruby, I appreciate your matchmaking help, but it's only been like, what, two days? I just have a crush on her, okay?"

"Okay." The word was drawn out as if Ruby didn't believe her.

"And, anyways, what's just sitting in there working on my papers going to do? Make it awkward and make me hungry."

"Take food with you. Make it habitual. Like, ask if you can just eat lunch in there or something. Make it less awkward, and maybe have yourself a break as you eat. Talk." Ruby suggested and Emma swore that she wasn't talking to her friend anymore.

"Huh… Well…" She clucked. "I don't know."

"It's just a suggestion. You could try it, or something. Hell, I'll even make you a lunch and you can pick it up in the morning. I've got some stuff that'll last until then."

"Shit. I'll try it. Once. Okay? I'll let you know the next time I have a paper." Emma sighed and shook her head. She couldn't believe she was getting herself into this.

"Good! I gotta go, 'cause Granny's gonna bust down the bathroom door if I don't get my ass out and work. So, talk to you later. Love you!"

"Yeah... Bye!" Emma chuckled and ended the call, leaving herself to her thoughts.