"Well, was it as bad as you had expected?" asked Mary Margaret the moment Emma was in the door. She had offered to pick the blonde up, but her offer had been quickly refused, followed by an apology for sounding so ungrateful. It was moments like that that reminded her why she took the chance on Emma. The girl could, and wanted to be, good. And Mary Margaret saw that.

Emma flopped down on the couch. "Actually, no."

"See, I told you it wouldn't be!" smiled the pixie haired brunette.

"I think I even managed to make friends…" said Emma, her tone unsure, the concept foreign.

Mary Margaret's face lit up at hearing those words. "Emma, that's fantastic! So the other kids didn't all stare and call you names like you thought they would?"

Blushing, Emma shook her head. As much as she knew Mary Margaret was referring to the childish displays of the younger kids in her class, it had been a fear Emma had held.

"So what are their names?" she asked, knowing she would know the kids.

"I only know their first names, and they might grow to hate me yet!" said Emma, quick to make the argument.

"Emma, they won't grow to hate you," said Mary Margaret, coming to sit on the arm of the sofa nearest the teen. "So who were they?"

"Regina, Ruby and Katheryn," said the blonde, comfortable sharing with the older woman. Over the past few weeks she had really made an effort, learning that the more she opened up, the more they seemed to get along, and the more secure she felt. "They seem genuinely nice. Regina is the one showing me around classes."

"Regina?" repeated the brunette, somewhat shocked. Not that Regina wasn't a nice girl. Her mother on the other hand…

Emma frowned at the expression on her foster mother's face. "You know her?"

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, the older woman nodded. "I know all of them, yes. Regina is Mayor's daughter."

"Wow," breathed Emma. It was no wonder the girl looked so professional. She had probably been surrounded by it for years. "They asked me to go camping with them next weekend."

"Oh?" said Mary Margaret. "What did you say?"

"I said I'd ask," said Emma carefully. "I mean, I'd like to, but I know it's awful soon. And they probably just asked to be nice…"

The older woman watched the smile dwindle from the teen's face. "Where are they camping?"

"Err, up beside the waterfall, wherever that is," shrugged Emma.

Mary Margaret winced. She knew that was where local teens went to hang out and drink.

"It's cool if you don't want me to go, it's probably best anyway. I mean I hardly know them, they don't know me. They probably just asked me out of pity."

"Hey!" said Mary Margaret. "They didn't ask you out of pity, okay? I've known those kids all their lives. Taught them for a while, and none of them, do anything out of pity, Regina especially. If she didn't want to ask, she'd have said so in no uncertain terms."

"So can I go?" asked Emma, a hopeful smile tugging at her lips.

The brunette hesitated. She wanted the blonde to have fun and make friends, but she also wanted to have boundaries in place. "If you do, I want you to promise me a few things."

Emma nodded. "I can do that."

"That spot, is where a lot of local teenager's go to drink and things…" She paused. "And it's not that I don't trust you, but I know peer pressure can be a big thing."

"You don't want me going because you think I'll get drunk?" asked Emma. Part of her wanted to be offended at not being trusted, but Mary Margaret had read her file. With everything in there, she wasn't to be trusted.

"No, what I was going to say, is that if you want to go. I will buy you a few beers for you to take, as long as you promise me that that is all you drink." She took in the look of amazement on Emma's face. "Emma, I trust you, okay? You know I've read your file. You know what the social workers have told me. But I do trust you. Show me I'm doing the right thing." The fierce hug that followed came as somewhat as a shock, apparently to both of them if Emma's sheepish expression when she pulled back was any indication.

The next few days were quiet, as days tended to be in Storybrooke. Emma was slowly coming to realise that Mary Margaret was right. The girls hadn't started talking to her out of pity. They genuinely liked her. They would talk in classes and at lunch, and always smiled and said hi if she passed them in the halls. It was nice not to feel totally alone.

That was why it pained her to have to tell them she couldn't go camping. She and Mary Margaret had hunted out the tent the night before, and it had been rotten. And right now, there just wasn't the money to replace it.

Sitting next to Regina in their English class, she watched the girl work for a few moments before finally calling her name softly, not wanting to alert their teacher. Brown eyes flew up to meet her own. "About camping next weekend?"

"You are still coming?" asked Regina, hopeful.

Emma shook her head. "I can't. The tent I had…it's no good, and I, well, I don't really have the money to replace it right now."

"Oh," said Regina. She had thought it would be something more. "Well that's not a problem. You can share my tent."

"Are you sure?" asked the blonde, not quite believing the offer that was being extended. The thought of being so close to the brunette, to sleep next to her, made her nervous. Guilty even. Her friendship with Regina, she was quickly realizing, was becoming an opportunity to quickly fall head over heels for the girl. Not that she wore heels. Her sexuality had been a source of ridicule before, and had often made people uncomfortable around her. She didn't want that with Regina.

Regina nodded. "I bought a huge tent a couple of years ago, so there's plenty of room. If it's just me, Ruby and Katheryn we usually all use my tent, so it's not an issue."

How could she say no to that?