Mary Margaret Blanchard was many things, but her favourite was being a teacher. Setting down the remains of her morning coffee, she started to wander about her classroom. The kids were still in gym class, and would be for another fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes until they were brought back. She took a look around, smiling when she started to meander through the desks. It was almost hallow's eve, or, at least, it was three weeks away. Each of the kids had an orange cardboard cutout of a pumpkin on their desks, with glitter glue, googly eyes, and markers. They would be bringing them home to their families in a few days. She paused, her eyes lingered on one made by a little girl called Amelia. She was quiet, sweet, and a little bit shy. Her parents were very similar. It was good to know she was supported at home. Mary Margaret looked back at the clock. Ten more minutes. What was she going to do when the kids got back? They had three more hours of school, but only two hours of lessons planned through. There were far too few things to do. The kids had such low attention spans, of course, but they also were capable of intense focus at the right moments. A full hour of nothing to do, however, would be a disaster. It would be nothing short of pure chaos.

Ten more minutes. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise, and her lips curved up into a smile. She all but ran back over to her desk, where a book she had found buried in the back of the library was laid. It had been awhile since they had an hour of story time. And it was almost hallow's eve. That could be justified, and easily so. Her fingers brushed over the top of the book. It was an aged book, but sturdy and well maintained. She hesitated to open it, transfixed by the beauty of the cover. It was in an ornate script, one that seemed to have been inspired by that of tapestries. It was perfect. More than that, it would engage them, and their imaginations. Once Upon A Time. Finally, she gingerly opened the book. There was no table of contents, and so she flipped to one of the pages, finding her favourite stories. Snow White. It had been her favourite story as a child, the one her parents had read to her at night. She closed her eyes for just a few seconds. How long ago had childhood been? It felt like a blissful but terribly distant memory of another life.

She paused. Mary Margaret opened her eyes again. She only hoped they saw her now. She only hoped they were proud of her now, even though she had no family left to hold. She shook her head to herself. The kids were her family, and they were well worth whatever difficulties that came along with her job. She looked back to the book. Her eyes watered when she began to read Snow's early story, and the queen's admission that she had killed the princess' father. Snow. The princess filled with nothing but remorse and mocked by the memory of her father, whom she had only wished she had been capable to save. Her fingers shook when she flipped the pages further and further. The queen. How could the queen have her own child? She was the most irresponsible woman, the most hate filled woman. It was tragic. It was upsetting. Mary Margaret paused. How low would the queen go? She didn't let herself find out. She flipped further and further to find a different story, one that she would feel far less emotional about. It was just the story her parents had always told her. She was being irrational.

Eventually, she found a story. A story that she knew she wouldn't be emotional about. Sleeping Beauty. She did pause, however, when she saw the illustration of the witch. She looked almost exactly like the evil queen. Mary Margaret swallowed hard, her stomach sinking. No. It was just an illustration. The illustrator must have been under a lot of pressure, after all, and a massive time crunch. That was perfectly reasonable. Drawing styles, colouring styles. They could look so similar, nevermind if they weren't supposed to depict the same thing. She squared her shoulders, and then stretched her arms out. Two more minutes. The kids would be back within a few blinks if she waited much longer. Slipping a holographic bookmark into the pages, she closed the book, held it tightly in her hands, and sat down on the beanbag against the wall at the top of the circle carpet. She set the book down on her lap, and let out a light sigh. This was going to be one of those things the kids were enraptured by. The stories had always made her happy, at the very least. She hoped the stories would make the kids happy too.

A knock at the door. Then, it opened, and the kids started running in. She raised a hand briefly to silence them. The kids all looked at her, wide eyed. Their gym teacher waited until all of the kids were back in the room, and then waved at Mary Margaret. Her eyes lingered on him. His face reminded her of John Doe's. Were the eyes similar too? The door shut quietly, and the kids all stared at their teacher. They were getting antsy, and whispering among each other. They all perked up when she held up the book with one hand, though she struggled at first with its weight, and waved them over with her free hand. They all but jumped into spots in the circle carpet, staring at her in anticipation. When she finally opened the book, she was given pause again. They were all so excited, so happy. Despite herself, she felt briefly alone. No family left. At least each of them had someone to call family. She blinked back tears, and pulled out the bookmark. A smile returned to her face, and one that surprised her. Then, she started to read:

"In the kingdom of Galcinia, a princess was born to the king and queen after they had long wanted a child for over two years into their marriage," Mary Margaret shifted the book to show the illustrations, the first of which showed the king and queen with their newborn daughter. "They named her Aurora, and could not wait to present her to their kingdom and the world."

She flipped the page. Her eyes lingered on the illustration of the witch entering the palace. She tried not to think about the resemblance that witch showed to the illustration of the evil queen.

"Their people, and the people of so many lands were thrilled to see the little family so happy. To their shock, someone who had not been invited appeared. A witch, who said to the king and queen: 'lovely ceremony. I never would have thought you…so eager for something of this much grandeur.' The queen stood up in surprise, and stepped to approach the witch. The king…"

Her mind became something of an ocean while she read. Even when the kids spoke, and she answered their questions, she found, later, she was distracted. While she read, she might as well have been in a bit of a trance.

"Oh, look! It's the Maine girl!"

Nine year old Lynnetta Mills jumped off the swings at the peak, stumbling a bit when she landed. She brushed herself off, and waved at the kids who had yelled at her. One of the girls stepped over to her, and grabbed Lynnetta by the wrist, dragging her to join the group. Lynn couldn't help but laugh. There were a few more hours before Chloe would pick her up, and then an hour and a half after that until she was home. She grinned, high fiving the other girls when she got into the group. They started to walk around the playground, watching the fourth and fifth years climbing up and down on the structures. Two more years of elementary school. She shrugged that off. It didn't matter. She did all the special assignments they handed her, and she got to enjoy days like today where the weather was so nice that all of the teachers agreed to let them have extra recess. They would get over an hour outside, to do just about whatever they wanted. Any time to not have to do classwork, too, was more than welcome.

"So, what are you guys doing for the book report?" One of the girls cheerfully said. "I'm going to do mine on a fairy tale!"

"That's not a book!" Another girl protested.

"It is too!" The first girl set her hands on her hips. "If you get them from the short books!"

"That's why I'm doing mine on The Snow Queen," A different girl sassed. "You're boring, what are you going to do yours on? Sleeping Beauty or something like that?"

"I'm doing mine on Snow White!" The first girl replied, elbowing the sassy girl. "It's one of my favourites! I've always loved it!"

"What about you, Lynnetta?" The sassy girl's eyes bore into her. "You doing yours on a fairy tale, too?"

Lynn awkwardly nodded. "I was going to do mine on Snow White too."

The first girl suddenly hugged Lynn, who hugged her back.

"Yes!" The girl declared. "You want to work together on it? I'd love to come to your house!"

"Seriously?" A third girl said, sounding surprised. "She lives two hours away! My parents would never drive me that far!"

"Well, my dad will!" The first girl declared, all but shaking Lynn, who was giggling. "My mother works a lot too," She told Lynn. "But maybe my dad and your mom will be able to help us!"

Lynn shrugged. "Momma has to make sure my little brother is okay first though. He's really tiny because he's two. Super super super cute!"

The first girl squealed. "That's going to be so fun!"

"What are you guys going to say about the story?" The sassy girl said. "You can't say the same thing!"

"Yeah," The third girl said. "And there's only really one thing to say about it!"

Lynn stared at her, confused.

"How come?"

The third girl and the sassy girl shared a look and then laughed with some of the other girls with them.

"I mean, come on," The sassy girl rolled her eyes. "Everyone loves Snow!"

Snow.

Lynn suddenly felt sick.

"You're old enough to know the truth, Lynn, and what a secret is," Her mother had sat down on the side of her bed, shifting Henry - who was soundly asleep - in her arms. "You can keep this a secret, right?"

Lynn had nodded. "I'm a princess."

"You are," Her mother had sighed. "I'm having you go to school outside of Storybrooke because I never want you to have Mary Margaret as teacher. Because…because she's the same woman who killed your father. Do you remember…being a princess?"

"We lived in a palace with grandfather!" Lynn had bubbly replied. "Chloe, Sherry, and Ruby spent time with us! I think…I had a mean sister."

"She wasn't your sister, and I will never let her harm you again," Regina had patted her daughter's small hands. "That's why I used magic to bring us here. But…Lynn, darling, this is important: do you remember her name?"

Lynn had stared at her, confused, and then her eyes went wide.

"Snow."

Regina had squeezed her daughter's hands reassuringly.

"I haven't done everything right. I've done a lot of things wrong. But…she has been just as awful, albeit in different ways."

"This is the secret?"

"Yes. It's why you and Henry are the only people ageing and growing up in this town. It's why I'll do anything to protect you two. You're my babies. I'll tell you more later, but you need to sleep now. Alright?"

"I won't tell anyone," Lynn had hugged her mother. "Not even Henry."

Regina had smiled. "Good. You ready to sleep?"

Lynn had started to nod but instead yawned, starting to mumble and, eventually -

"Snow's a bitch."

All of the girls gasped. One of them started laughing. The sassy girl scowled at her.

"My mom says only bad people talk like that."

"It's a part of life," Lynn replied, crossing her arms. "Don't be a baby!"

"Well!" The sassy girl stepped up to Lynn, who was several inches shorter than her. "Who's the good person in the story? The evil queen?"

"She's not evil!" Lynn's arms dropped, and her hands curled into fists with one foot stomping into the ground. "She's just the queen!"

The sassy girl laughed. "She's called the evil queen for a reason, Lynnetta! You're supposedly smart! How can you not get that?"

"Because it's not true!" Lynn yelled, shaking. "Snow got the father of the queen's daughter killed!"

"The queen was just jealous!" The sassy girl yelled back. "Who cares about her having a kid? She was just jealous that Snow was prettier than her!"

"Snow never was prettier than her!" Lynn's hands balled tighter in fists. "Snow was just mean and took the queen's kid! And she deserved to get cursed!"

"And the queen lost!" The sassy girl took a step back, tossing her hair over her shoulders. "You're just being stubborn, Lynnetta. You just want to try and be smarter than us here!"

Lynn stuck out her tongue at her. "Am not!"

"Really?" The sassy girl started laughing again. "You know something, Lynn? I love Snow, and if the story were real, I would love to kill the queen!"

Lynn's fist hit the sassy girl's face at her nose.

"Lynnetta Mills!"

The nine year old turned around, realising her hand hurt when she saw a teacher running over. Before she knew it, she and the sassy girl were both sat in the principal's office, an ice pack on Lynn's bruised hand, and an ice pack held against the sassy girl's equally bruised nose.

Replies To Reviews:

Sammii16: it's going to be a little while more until Emma appears, but it's going to be exciting when she does! and, yep, time has started ticking for two residents of Storybrooke…and it'll only be a few years before time starts ticking for everyone else too.

jasouatfan: Regina is definitely in a tricky position, and that will only get more difficult with the more she tells Lynn. but, yeah, even though Regina has no idea of Henry being Emma's son, he is enough of the saviour to start a little bit of change. how Lynn will react to that and what got them all there will be another part of the struggles Regina is facing. it's good she has a bit of support, though, and Lynn will have that too, even if she doesn't fully realise it yet.

barrattajennifer: happiness has been such a hard thing for Regina to find, so, yes, her being happy feels good to write/see. she and her family (and eventually her second true love) deserve that, even if it takes a lot of time.