Out of the system
OnceUponAStudent asked for a oneshot of there being no curse. Emma runs away from the system and ends up in Storybrooke digging in the garbage for food.
Her feet hurt. Her clothes were soaked from the rain, chilling her to the bone. Her fingers were numb and had a blueish tinge. She hadn't eaten for nearly two days and her water bottle was running dangerously low, but Emma still thought this was much better than where she came from. She'd had it- she'd been to her last abusive home. Mrs Watson- her social worker- had deceived her and dumped her onto a pair of assholes for the last time. Janae and Larry Bennett didn't give a toss about Emma, she was just another meal ticket to them. Occasionally over her three week stay in their box room she was tossed a packet of stale Wotsits or Quavers, but aside from that she wasn't even fed. Well Emma wasn't going to take it. She was twelve now, she could make it on her own.
After a few hours of walking in the pouring rain, Emma found herself entering some town called Storybrooke. She snorted at the name, was this a town filled with fairies or something? Probably had a lot of weirdos. It didn't matter though, wasn't like she'd be sticking around. She'd scout around for something edible and some water and then she'd find somewhere to hide away until she was sixteen and the system couldn't touch her.
Emma found what looked like a nice family diner in the centre of the town, not than she went inside. As soon as places like that caught a whiff of a child on their own they called the cops. But diners meant waste food. Emma snuck round into the alleyway between the diner and the next building and found their dustbins.
"Jackpot." She murmured to herself, the way the lid wasn't on fully meant it was full. Sure, she wasn't going to get anything great, but this wasn't the first time she'd had to go dumpster diving for food. Some of the food still looked kinda fresh, which was a big bonus for Emma. This must be a pretty nice town if even their garbage was good. Emma couldn't put her finger on it, and she was deliberately shoving the feeling to the side, but there was just something about this place. Something that felt like…home.