A/N: BETA: Wazgood529.

Enjoy it.

Chapter 1

In the morning, Emma was searching for her English books in her locker. She checked in her backpack and closed her locker then walked away to her class. The hallway was crowded and the noises of chattering gained in the place where Emma wandered through on her way. No one knew why Emma was a bright student in school except Neal who knew her since the blonde girl enrolled her senior year in Storybrooke High School after moving in the quaint and small town.

Almost everyone in the school knew Emma because she's a mute. They looked at her like she is a weirdo but were aware that Emma was on Honors. They couldn't complain because Emma was fostered under The Nolans. Well, to be specific, David Nolan was a well-known person in the town as a Sheriff. They feared him since he was on the patrol in the evenings to watch the high school students partying.

When the bell rang, the classes started and the students scattered to get in their classrooms. Emma was early to arrive in her English class and determined to read Shakespeare: Hamlet while she was waiting for her class to start. The students scattered to find their seats except Ruby, Belle, Kathryn and Regina who were the last to arrive before their teacher showed up.

Belle French, the daughter of Moe French, a floral shop owner was the brunette girl with a bow tie headband in a yellow dress. She was a fashion craze since her mother's model career. The brunette girl was madly in love with her girlfriend, Ruby Lucas, the granddaughter of Granny Lucas, an owner of the diner. Ruby had her red hair with a gothic look.

Kathryn Midas was a wealthy girl with her well-known parents who were in the businesses. She wore the Chanel dress with black heels. She was the blonde girl with an up-do hairstyle. Lastly, Regina Mills was a wealthy girl but had her casual lifestyle since her parents in the law firm. She didn't care about money and just wanted to have her normal lifestyle like Ruby and Belle. She was the brunette girl and came out to her parents as gay when she was 14. Her parents didn't care about Regina's gay lifestyle but came to support her no matter what. They loved her for who she was. Regina was the lucky person who was much gay and didn't have her girlfriend yet. It was very long time for her to get back in the dating scene.

They arrived in their first period class, found their seats in the second row. Emma was in the first row but in the corner near the door. The teacher was Jefferson Hatter, he was madly in love with Shakespeare plays and went crazy with directing it every year in October to celebrate Shakespeare's works. He appeared to be a good looking man with colorful clothes and a long eaton hat. Jefferson smiled at his students while he was striding toward his desk. The students looked away at him and groaned. Neal showed up a minute later and breathing hardly. Others looked away at him except Emma who was still reading a book.

"Sorry, I have a hall pass from my coach." The football jock said. Jefferson extended his hand and Neal gave him the pass then walked to his desk in the back row and sat down. The brunette man nodded and put the hall pass on the desk then looked up at them with a reply.

"Have anyone read the play, Hamlet yet?" Some of the students raised their hands and others were not. Emma looked up at him and closed her book then picked her pen to be prepared for writing the notes. Jefferson smiled to himself and went to lecture about Hamlet and the playwright. Some of the students answered some questions about Hamlet. The blonde girl stared at the board and wrote some notes from Jefferson's lecture.

Finally, the lecture ended and Jefferson picked the assignments from his bag then walked to the front row from the right near the windows to the left near the door. He looked away at his students with a reply.

"You all have 15 minutes left to do two things. The first assignment is the questions from the books and I want you to answer as many as possible that you can find in the book. The second assignment is the essay. I want you to write a paragraph about Hamlet. No cheating. No internet to copy and paste it. If you use plagiarism, your essay will be a zero. Is it clear?"

The students nodded. Jefferson smiled and stopped by Emma's desk. The blonde girl looked up from her notes and the brunette man handed the papers to her then spoke lightly.

"Emma, will you hand these assignments behind you?"

Emma gathered the handouts from him and got herself two papers then gave the papers behind her. It was Regina. The brunette girl stared at her and grabbed the handouts then replied.

"Thank you."

The blonde girl stared at her and turned around to focus on her assignments. Regina was perplexed at Emma's actions and continued getting her handouts out then gave them to Neal behind her. Kathryn looked away at her best friend and mouthed 'are you ok?'. The brunette girl nodded and looked away at Emma's head. She wondered about her then went to focus on her assignments.

When the fifteen minutes passed and it was the bell ringing. Jefferson informed Emma to dismiss her early. The blonde girl got up and packed her books then walked out of the classroom toward her locker to get different books then went on her way to Chemistry Class with Mr. Gold.

The students packed their things in the backpack and went out while the bell stopped ringing. Kathryn, Belle and Ruby and Regina were the last to get out of English class and walked away separately toward their classroom. Kathryn and Belle went to Art class. Ruby went to History class. Regina went to Chemistry class and found Emma sitting there on the front row. She looked around to find her seat but the seats were full except Emma's table. The brunette girl sighed and walked toward the table where the blonde girl was sitting.

"Excuse me, may I sit here? The seats are full." Regina said. Emma looked away at her and back to the seat where the brunette girl pointed out. The blonde girl looked up at her again and went to focus on her book. Regina was confused and put her books on the table then sat down beside her. She was staring at the blonde girl and barely heard Mr. Gold's lecture. Emma looked away at the teacher and wrote the notes about the periodic table.

Regina wondered how she sat beside Emma but tried to talk with her and failed at the attempts. She decided to make a mental note in her head to ask Neal about her. The brunette girl decided to focus on the assignments that Mr. Gold handed them for the periodic table. Emma finished her assignment within ten minutes and handed it back to Mr. Gold then went to read her book.

The brunette girl hid her shock and when she saw Emma finishing her assignment after their teacher handed them like three minutes before they started to answer it on the paper. Regina didn't realize that Emma was intelligent and tried to look at her books which it was in front of the blonde girl on the table. She found the advanced books and figured it out that Emma was an AP student. The brunette girl decided to ask Neal soon when the lunch break was up for another hour.

Mr. Gold lectured about the homework assignments and handed three assignments then dismissed them early. Emma packed everything in her bag and left the room. Regina was not paying attention and went startled by her teacher's voice.

"Miss Mills, are you ok?" Mr. Gold asked.

"Um… Yes, I'm good. Thank you for asking."

"No problem, the class just dismissed few minutes ago. I think maybe you better hurry to catch your lunch or class." The teacher said.

"Thank you, Mr. Gold." Regina mentioned and gathered her books then hurried out of the room. The brunette girl knew her friends tended to be in café and huddled together. She walked toward her locker and something caught in her eye. It was Emma who was putting the books in her locker in three feet away. Regina paused and studied on the blonde girl. Until, she saw Emma closing her locker and walking away to the café for her lunch break. The brunette girl hurried to get different books for her next two classes, Creative Writing and History. She realized that she had the same classes with Emma this semester and smiled at herself when she would have some time to study Emma.

The brunette girl shook her head and felt like a stalker but she was curious about the mysterious Emma Swan. She closed her locker and ran toward the café to find her friends in the middle. Regina saw Neal who was chattering with Belle about Economics Homework. She finally gathered her tray to get some food from the buffet table and grabbed her chilled coffee drink then paid the lunch meal and went after her seat between Ruby and Kathryn.

Regina sighed and looked over the students' head to find Emma until she found her in the solace outside. The blonde girl was eating a sandwich while she was reading a book and leaning back against the tree. She looked peaceful. The brunette girl forked some vegetables in her salad bowl and ate it right away until she looked away at Neal who was nodding when he found the problem in the Economic homework. Belle was helping him to figure out the answer.

Kathryn and Ruby chatted about the hottest guys in soccer. The brunette girl looked away at her friends and didn't join in the conversation until she spoke directly to Neal with her questions. The football jock looked away at her and raised his eyebrows.

"Neal, I know that Emma is your foster sister. So, I'm curious about her. Is she speaking at all?"

"Well, she didn't speak at all since the age of three." Neal explained. Belle, Ruby and Kathryn looked away at him with their curiosity. The blonde girl with the Chanel dress looked away at Emma who was still reading outside and spoke lightly.

"Can you explain it? I don't understand why she is still mute. If it's offensive, I apologize."

"It's fine. It's a long story. I don't know if Emma will let me explain everything about her. But I heard some stories from my dad. Well, you know that my dad is a sheriff and it's a part of his job."

"We have a plenty of time. We have a class for another hour. Tell us." The redhead girl said.

"When she was three and lived in Boston, Massachusetts with her parents. It was Joseph and Elizabeth Swan. That's how Emma got her last name and she kept it since she was fostered in different group homes and foster families' home. Back to the point, I apologize. One day, Emma was playing with her toys and her dad was sleeping on the couch after an exhausted night shift at his work. He was a firefighter. Her mother was in the home office. I think that Elizabeth was an editor chief of Boston Newspaper. It was peaceful until the disaster came up in few minutes later. Joseph heard the pipes leaking in the air and saw the fire from the stove. So he decided to take Emma out of the apartment and he came back to save his wife but it was too late. The fire shattered every windows and the pipes exploded. Joseph and Elizabeth died in the fire incident. Emma was alive and took away under the foster families until becoming sixteen. Now, she doesn't speak at all since her parents' death." The football jock mentioned.

"Did she go to speech therapy?" Belle asked. Ruby and Kathryn were speechless. Regina looked over her shoulder, staring at the blonde girl while hearing the story from Neal with her sympathetic look.

"No, some of the foster families tried to get her to speak but failed and decided to give her away to others." Neal said.

"She is still not speaking since she was three?" Kathryn stuttered. The football jock nodded and looked away at his foster sister who was packing her books in the bag then came inside the building to throw her meal in the trash. Regina kept looking at her and studied on the blonde girl's figure until Emma was out of her sight then spoke lightly.

"I'm not pitying her but I feel sorry for her because she lost her parents."

"I know." Ruby nodded with a reply. Kathryn sighed and gathered her lunch meal. The blonde girl with Chanel dress got up and walked to the trash then threw it out. Belle looked up at the clock above the entrance doors into the hallway and replied.

"It's time for our class. Thank you for sharing it with us. Don't worry, we promise to keep it secret."

"Don't worry about it. I will let Emma know." Neal said.

"Thank you." Ruby mentioned and gestured her girlfriend, Belle to link arms and left the café. Kathryn followed behind them. Regina got up and gathered her books then nodded at him then strode away to the Creative Writing. Neal went ahead to the gym for his weightlifting with the football jocks.

It left Regina to think about Emma's childhood and found herself staring at the blonde girl who was in front of her. She was half paying attention to Nora's lecture but focused on Emma's figure. The brunette girl immediately thought about helping Emma to heal and get to know her well. She had her plans and knew that she would fail in Chemistry since it was her least favorite subject in the world. Regina smiled at herself and she wanted Emma to tutor her in Chemistry.

But one problem is the communication between them. How was Regina communicating with Emma? She remembered that the blonde girl was mute since the age of three. She groaned at her thoughts until Nora cleared her throat to get her attention. The brunette girl blushed when Emma looked away at her behind her then looked back to her notes. Regina dropped her head on the notebook and closed her eyes until she heard the bell ringing.

A/N: I only can post this story with 5 or 6 pages on Microsoft word. It's easier if I update quickly than to let you wait for this story - The Soundless Voice.

Thank you for the beautiful reviews. I thank to my grammars buddy, Wazgood529.

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