A/N: Same warnings for Dorian Gray apply. My apologies for a shorter chapter—the next one will be much longer. Also, dear Guest, whoever you are, you helped me write 800 words. Apparently I respond very well to polite demands. Not to mention all of you other wonderful reviewers and followers. So, thank you.

Emma had commented every day in English that week, even more than once a day. She'd moved to often agreeing with Regina but adding expansion, allowing the brunette to respond in return. Emma had noticed that Regina was at her finest during discussion. Animated, eloquent, often wittily sassy if you were paying attention. There was still the mask, a little of the intimidation—but engaged, focused only on Ms. Sanders, you could see it start to peek through. Her passion.

Emma was starting to like catching those moments. But as she settled down in class on Friday, she found she felt more like concentrating on drawing than talking.

She had been enacting her plan all week, and Regina didn't seem the slightest bit more responsive to her. Dismissing her post-class, ignoring her in the cafeteria, scowling in the hall.

Emma struggled to hold in a sigh. Why was she even doing this? She didn't even like this girl, or discussing in class, at least all the time, and if it was taking this long just to have a conversation with Regina, Emma couldn't possibly get everyone to vote for her in time.

That was beginning to worry her outside of the fatigue. This was essentially the end of the first week. If she didn't get Regina to hang out this weekend, she'd be left with only ten school days and a weekend to convince a majority of the student body to vote for Regina. Or else Emma was practically guaranteed the crown. Maybe she could actively campaign for whomever else was in the final two. Maybe she could make a dent against Tink and Ruby's efforts. Maybe she could just plan on committing some sort of social suicide.

Well—it wasn't worth being that drastic. Still.

She had entirely zoned out in her slump, not perking up again until she heard Regina's voice.

She was beginning to recognize and respond to Regina's voice. This was bad.

"…as Dorian had with Sibyl."

Emma chastised herself for missing out on what Regina had said. That could've been her best possibility to respond today. She straightened out a bit. She would not half-ass this just because it was challenging. She would win this bet. And she would get Regina Mills to hang out with her.

"Very compelling, Regina," Ms. Sanders complimented. "Since you've mentioned her, let's dig a little deeper." She moved to lean against the front of her desk, opening the conversation to the room. "We didn't really get the chance to discuss Sibyl Vane the character the other day and only briefly touched upon the influence she had on Dorian.

"Granted, she is best defined by her relationship to him, but as the most prominent female character in the novel, I think we ought to give her a little more attention, don't you think?" Ms. Sanders offered a sly smile with her final question, relying on the broadness of the subject to lead to someone wanting to respond.

Emma imagined it was as good of a time as any to recommit to her plan, particularly when no one seemed interested in helping their teacher out. Her hand was barely up when Ms. Sanders pointed to her.

"I don't think she's very believable," Emma started, absentmindedly playing with the corner of her book as she talked. "I mean, she falls for this guy just because he's handsome and wealthy but we're supposed to think it's some deep love for her? Enough to kill herself the same night he breaks it off?" Emma scoffed, ending her fidgeting with her growing command. "Are we really supposed to believe you can be that naively dramatic, or is Wilde just showing his preference for dudes through a one-dimensional woman?"

Surveying the room as she finished speaking, Emma took pride in the giggles that bubbled up from some of her classmates, but she was thrown by the intensity on Regina's face.

"Valid point, Miss Swan," Ms. Sanders replied, clearly enjoying her pupil's newfound dedication to discussion. "Regina?" She called, responding to the hand that had shot up halfway through Emma's response.

"The reader isn't supposed to believe it's some deep love, we're supposed to believe that Sibyl believes it is," Regina retorted. "For her, Dorian's love and her love for him are the realest things she has ever experienced. And, when he is pursuing her, he is still relatively naïve and untouched himself, and she is what leads him to consider dismissing Lord Wotton's theories. She has more effect on him than all of his dear friend Basil's protests.

"I hardly think she's any less believable than the classic heroines she plays, and at this point in his arc, neither is Dorian. It's Romeo and Juliet, but Romeo kills his soul instead of himself."

Emma's jaw set as she listened to Regina's response, laced with a disdain for the words that had spurred it. It was hardly the harshest thing she had ever said in class, but it still struck her. What was worse was Emma still thought she was right. Normally, she agreed with Regina's strong points and spoke to them as such, but right now, she didn't much feel like letting her get away unchallenged. So what if it ruined her grand experiment. That was pretty much over anyway. Her hand shot back up.

"Emma?" Ms. Sanders called cautiously, intrigued by her Emma's extra enthusiasm.

"The idea with Romeo and Juliet was that even if they were both actually just horny teenagers, they both swore by their love, but Dorian can't even do that! Every time he talks about her it's about his admiration for her art. Not for her. Sibyl the person is as empty as Basil's canvas. She's just another way for Wilde to discuss his ideas on art, and he proves that by making her stupid enough to not see through it. And that would be fine, maybe, but then he kills her off as a plot point. She has no actual motivation to do it, she's just the catalyst for Dorian's transformation."

This time, Regina didn't bother raising her hand, cutting back in in her rising irritation.

"She's not tricked on her own, her mother plays along just for the chance of money—"

Emma was not about to back down, feeling her pulse race. Had she stopped to think, she would've recognized how odd it was—she had never felt so strongly about literature.

"Like that matters. James tried to warn her, didn't he? She bought in all the same. It's all on her."

"Oh, so Dorian's descent from innocence can be attributed to Lord Wotton, but Sibyl's inability to see his threat is entirely her fault?"

Their responses volleyed across the room, unimpeded by the people around them.

"Well it's obviously not her mom's fault."

Emma's words set off something in Regina. She was fully invested, her response articulate even in its speed.

"Her mother is the one who put her in that life! Who sold her to the company without her volition so she could fall into this world where she only played ingénues, where the only thing expected of her was to be pretty and naïve and hopefully be loved by a dashing young man, and then, when she finally is all of those things in her reality, when she is offered what appears to be a way out and she has fallen whole-heartedly in love, with a man she calls "Prince Charming", it's her fault for not seeing through the façade? Her whole life was façades—"

"—Her life is exactly that! Her own! And while she made a mistake with it, it happens. But that mistake was her own. You can't blame her mom for not stopping her, I mean, has a mom ever been successful in stopping their child from loving someone? Even when they wanted to? So she was also a terrible person, but hey, that kind of seems to be the theme here."

"So Sibyl's actions had absolutely nothing to do with the way she was raised?"

"I'm not saying that, just her innocence was manipulated by Dorian the same way that Dorian's was by Lord Henry—she fell towards the flame, what she wanted, you know? But she found out hers was a fraud and stupidly killed herself, and none of that has to do with James' or her mom's failings. It's because Wilde needed stuff to happen."

The silence that settled over the room as Emma and Regina both begrudgingly acknowledged the other's response was definite, more so than any of the awkward pauses that sometimes lingered in response to Ms. Sanders' questions. The woman herself was shocked, but was no match for the rest of the class who sat practically slack-jawed, utterly bewildered.

Emma settled back into her seat after a moment, but she couldn't get her heart to stop racing. She chanced a glimpse at the clock, amazed to see the time. Class had never gone by so fast. She had never felt more energized—smarter, sharper.

Regina was equally dismayed. She had let a little more slip than she had been intending, but debating with Emma was…invigorating. People rarely challenged her, but Emma did. And she did it well. Despite this whole oddly being nice to her. Regina didn't know what to think. She didn't think Emma was advanced enough in game theory to consider how disagreeing with Regina might open her further to her advances and whatever purpose they served. No, Emma was just reacting. Like a normal human being without ulterior motives.

And Regina found she liked it.

"Well," Ms. Sanders cleared her throat, regaining the group's attention. "I certainly hope that the rest of you will want to join in this discussion on Monday. You've got your chapters and a short reflection piece—no groaning, maybe you'll strike some inspiration like Emma and Regina have. Have a great weekend, everybody."

As her classmates gathered their things at the dismissal, Emma sat for a few moments, noticing how Regina was moving even slower than usual.

It was then, watching her lean over her text, that Emma decided.

She was going to go for it. She was going to ask Regina to hang out.

Oddly enough, it was the first time all week that she thought she might get a response in the affirmative.

She approached Regina's desk as everyone cleared out, the brunette seemingly waiting for the post-class visit that had become routine over the course of the week. Her eyes met Emma's as she stood, clasping the strap of the backpack on her shoulder.

Ms. Sanders breezed by them, either not aware of the strange sort of tension that was building or determined to help break it. "Nice work today, ladies." She sent an extra look at Emma on her way out the door. "I hope I'll be seeing more of it from you, Emma."

She left them with a smile, and the girls smiled in return, more out of convention than of their paying attention to the compliments they were given. They turned back to each other, Emma starting to feel the sweat build on her palms in a way it hadn't in a long time.

"I get what you were saying, you know," she offered, "About her life? The parallels of it?"

Regina considered her for a moment before responding in turn.

"It is possible that I gave Wilde too much credit. Maybe she was just another work of art to be ruined by Dorian."

Emma had the feeling Regina wasn't much for giving in, so even in her roundabout way, the admission Emma might have been right was enough to light her up from the inside. She never imagined Regina's words could hold so much sway with her. She felt even more confident now, neither one of them moving when they would've any of the days before.

"I was wondering," Emma started, hesitating as Regina's eyes narrowed. "The Farnsworth in Rockland is showing Much Ado About Nothing as part of its Shakespeare series tomorrow night, if you wanted to—"

"You want to go to an art museum to watch Shakespeare."

Regina's deadpan would've been outright funny if Emma hadn't known that deep suspicion lay just underneath the surface.

"Who doesn't love watching Keanu try to be a real actor?" She joked, shrugging, trying to convince Regina of the plausibility of her wanting to go. "Besides, Emma's in it." She waggled her eyebrows, fully aware of how silly she seemed, but not missing the slight upturn in Regina's lips at her terrible sense of humor. "I thought it might be fun."

Emma smiled, trying desperately to rein her nerves and read Regina. Her brain lurched on all the reasons Regina might refuse. "Plus it's out of town, and I'd drive, so no worries there," she added quickly and all too awkwardly.

Regina just stood there, staring her down as if her sheer intimidation could get Emma to crack and spill the truth about what was going on.

Emma didn't fold, waiting breathlessly through the endless pause for her response.

"Fine."

Emma's heart leapt at the single word. "Really?"

Emma's excitement was palpable, and Regina couldn't help but feel her own excitement bloom in response, entirely unaware of the blonde's true reasons behind her joy.

"Really."

"Great!" Emma exclaimed, more self-assured but not wanting to jinx anything. "I'll pick you up—5:30?"

Regina could only nod in response, not trusting her words, not wanting to buoy her hopes any further with the thought that Emma might actually follow through.

"Okay. Great. See you tomorrow then!" Emma confirmed with a brimming smile, exiting the room with a bounce. She moved down the hall as fast as she could and turned the corner. Checking to see that no one was around, she slammed back into the lockers, throwing her fists through the air in celebration.

After a moment, her cheeks already hurting from her smile, she composed herself as best she could and ran off in the direction of her waiting friends.

Phase one of Operation Emma Save The Queen was a success.

As soon as Emma had left, Regina sank back down into her desk.

What on Earth was she getting herself into?