A/N: Cold day, so no work today! Here is a new chapter! Hope you enjoy! Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! I love hearing from you!

Emma and Ella

Chapter 8: Secrets and Lies

Monday Morning at School

"Hey." Ella said solemnly as she saw Emma in the hall by her locker.

"Hey, I'm guessing you got caught too?" Emma said with a grimace.

Ella nodded. "Yeah. My mom freaked out on me. You got caught too?"

"Yep. Just as I was about to climb up the trestle to my room, David drove up and stopped me. It wasn't a pleasant evening to say the least."

"Neither was mine." Ella said with an embarrassed look.

Emma frowned. "Did you get grounded for longer?"

"Yeah, another week and she grounded me to my room for the night besides dinner." Ella replied, but didn't tell her about the spanking she got from her mom. She had pushed her too far this time, but she didn't want Emma to know about that.

"I got grounded more too and had to go to bed early, not that I fell asleep early." Emma said as she rolled her eyes.

"I know what you mean. I was too worried that my mom would find about us going to the movie and then ask me about how I got the money for the ticket." Ella said with a tired sigh.

Emma's eyes widened, "Oh, I accidentally told my dad that we went to a movie. I thought you had already told them."

"Oh, well he must not have told my mom because she didn't question me. Did you get in trouble for the money you stole?" Ella replied.

Emma shook her head no. "Not yet, I'm hoping that he doesn't find out about that!"

Ella nodded her head too. "I know what you mean. I am in enough trouble as it is. Not to mention that I have my detention today."

"Oh yeah. That really does suck." Emma said with a grimace.

"Thankfully, I didn't have to redo Friday's detention even though I was late to detention." Ella said as they made their way to Ms. Blanchard's room.

*****OUAT*****

Emma and Ella both tried to be on their best behavior all day on Monday and even on Tuesday, but Ella had to find proof of the curse for Emma so on Wednesday she had a plan to start looking for some kind of evidence.

On Wednesdays, Mary Margaret had her staff meetings and professional development. Ella was instructed to stay in her mom's classroom and work on her homework until she was back. Ella, however, had other plans. She snuck out and started off trying to find something.

4:45 pm

Mary Margaret walked into her classroom ready to tell her daughter to start packing up to find the room empty. She frowned and then realized her daughter was probably just in the bathroom.

She started to gather her things and make sure she was ready for the next day, but five minutes later she realized that Ella still hadn't come back. She finished putting her things together before heading to the girl's bathroom to find it empty. "Ella?"

She started back to her room quickly to see if she was back in the room and she just went to a different bathroom. She then made a quick walk around the school to see if she was in the building walking around, but she didn't see any sign of her. She was about to call David when Ella walked in from outside and froze when she saw her mother.

"Uh…hi mom, I was just getting some fresh air." Ella lied.

"To the room, young lady." Mary Margaret said in a disappointed voice as she pointed to her classroom.

Ella bit her lip and started towards the classroom. She really wished she had got back before her mom's meeting ended.

"Ella. What were you doing while I was in my meeting?" Mary Margaret asked as she crossed her arms over her chest once they got inside the classroom.

"Nothing, Mom. I was just getting some fresh air." Ella tried again.

"We both know that's not true. You were outside for a good while and it wasn't just to get air." Mary Margaret scolded her. "Now, where were you?"

Ella looked down. "I just needed to do something. It was very important." Ella told her, being very vague.

"So important that you decided to break your grounding once again? You know this is the third time that you have broken the rules of your grounding since I grounded you last Friday? What is going on with you lately? Were you with Emma again?"

"No. I wasn't with anyone!" Ella said, this time telling the truth.

Mary Margaret didn't believe her though and decided to call David and ask him if Emma was with him.

Ella waited as her mom called and talked to David.

"Well thank you anyway." Mary Margaret said with a frown. Emma hadn't been with her.

"Maybe she went to another movie?" David suggested.

"What do you mean another movie?" Mary Margaret asked with a frown.

"Emma and Ella went to a movie when we were on our date on Sunday. She didn't tell you, did she?"

"No, how did they pay for the movie?" Mary Margaret asked as she looked down at Ella looking really nervous and avoiding her eyes.

"Oh you know. I hadn't thought of that." David said, knowing that Emma hadn't had any money.

"Ella, where'd you get the money for the movie?" Mary Margaret asked Ella while she was still on the phone with David.

Ella was biting her lip and looking at the floor.

"Is that why you asked if you could order a pizza? You wanted money for the movie?" Mary Margaret asked.

Ella nodded without looking at her mom.

"Where did you get the money, Ella?" Mary Margaret asked as she lifted her chin so she would look at her.

It then dawned on her that she had thought she lost ten dollars from her purse, but she hadn't lost it at all. "You stole it from my purse didn't you?"

Ella tried to look back down, but her mom held her chin tightly.

"Answer me, Ella." Mary Margaret asked sternly.

"I…I…stole it from your purse before you left…" Ella whispered to her mom.

"Ella Louise." Mary Margaret said in disappointment before realizing she was still on the phone with David. "I'm sorry, David. I better let you go."

"That's alright, I need to have my own talk with Emma." David said before hanging up.

"Go get your things, we will be talking about all this at home." Mary Margaret said once she was off the phone.

Ella did, but was feeling extremely nervous about getting in trouble again. Not to mention that her mom had been scolding her while on the phone with David. She even middle named her! She hated her middle name! She hoped he didn't hear it. It was so embarrassing having such a terrible middle name. She had no clue why her mom named her that.

They got home about 20 minutes later and Mary Margaret had Ella sit on the couch as she got dinner started.

"Ella, I really don't know what to do with you. You have been extremely disobedient lately. You got two detentions, snuck out three times, and stolen money from my purse! What has gotten into you lately?"

Ella shrugged her shoulders, unable to say anything that would help her situation.

"Well do you have anything you would like to say?"

Ella shook her head no.

Mary Margaret sighed. "Maybe you should start by telling me where you were this afternoon during my meeting?"

Ella bit her lip. She didn't want to tell her mom what she was doing or else she'd just be in bigger trouble.

"Ella, I'm losing my patience with you. What were you doing?"

"I was….looking for evidence of the curse so that I could get Emma to believe in it." Ella said, hoping that her mom wouldn't press her for more information.

Mary Margaret frowned. "You still think that the curse is real?"

"Of course I do." Ella replied with a hurt look at her mom not believing her either.

"You told Emma about the curse and she didn't believe you?" Mary Margaret asked with a sympathetic, yet concerned look. She would hate to see Ella lose a good friend like Emma because of her theories. Ella didn't have that many real friends. In fact, Emma was the first friend that Ella actually liked doing things with outside of school. The rest of her friends were only school friends and they never lasted very long at all.

"She didn't, but she will and then she will break the curse. Then you will remember everything." Ella said confidently.

Mary Margaret looked at her sadly. "Ella…"

"No, mom. I don't want to hear that it isn't real because it is. I am not going to stop believing!" Ella said firmly.

Mary Margaret frowned. She was thinking that she may need to start scheduling sessions with Archie if she kept believing in this theory. "Alright, Alright. I just worry about you, honey."

"I know, but I'm fine, really." Ella said, hoping that her mom forgot about what she had done and just felt sorry for her. "Now can we eat?"

Mary Margaret narrowed her eyes at her daughter. "No, we aren't done talking about your behavior."

"But Mom, I won't sneak out again. I promise." Ella complained.

"See, I don't believe you after you have done this for now the third time. I don't trust you so from now on, if I am not with you and you aren't in class, you will have a babysitter."

"But mom!"

"Uh uh. I am not done. For you stealing money from my purse, I expect you to pay me back once I start your allowance up again, which won't be for a good long while since you are grounded already. And you will write me an essay on why it is not okay to steal."

"An essay?! That's not…"

"Don't you finish that sentence…. I haven't added any chores to your punishment, but I will if you start complaining!" Mary Margaret warned her firmly.

Ella crossed her arms and started to pout, but didn't complain. She knew her mom was serious and would put her to work on doing chores.

"Now, I am guessing you didn't do your homework so you have some that you need to do?"

Ella nodded solemnly.

"Then you better get to it."

*****OUAT*****

"Emma, how did you get money to go to the movie theatre on Sunday?" David asked as he walked into the kitchen where Emma was finishing up her homework.

"Uh…I just had it." Emma said wondering where this was coming from. She figured she was out of the woods for this one.

David narrowed his eyes. "No you didn't."

Emma grimaced. "Oh alright, Ella let me borrow some of her money."

David knew that the tickets were about 7 dollars and Mary Margaret had been missing a ten-dollar bill. That would only be three dollars left over. Plus Emma was looking very nervous and he knew now that he had been short ten dollars. "Did you take the money from my wallet?" David asked slowly.

Emma bit her lip and winced. What if he gave her back for this? She couldn't admit to stealing the money…. She didn't want to leave him. "I didn't I promise."

"Emma don't lie to me. You stole that money, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't." Emma said as she shook her head quickly, but David could tell she was lying. He also could see that her eyes were watery as she tried to keep herself from crying.

"Emma, please just tell me the truth." David said as he turned her chin to him.

Emma started to cry immediately once she was looking up into his face. "I did steal it… I am so sorry, please don't send me back! I won't do it again, I promise!"

"Oh Emma. I am not going to send you back. I promise." David said as he framed her face with his hands and started to wipe away her tears.

"But I stole from you…" Emma said with a stunned look.

"Yes, but you will learn from this and know for next time that it is not okay to steal, right?"

"Yeah, but normally my foster parents won't tolerate stealing." Emma said, still worried that he would send her away.

"I am not tolerating it, but that doesn't mean I am going to send you away. I am going to punish you for it so that you will learn from this and not do it again." David told her.

Emma grimaced. "I'm in more trouble?"

"Yes. Since you can't pay be back since you aren't getting allowance, you will pay me back by doing chores around the house. I'll make you a list and when you get them done, I'll call it even." David said.

Emma scrunched up her face. "You got that from Ms. Blanchard didn't you? Ella always has to do chores for punishments."

David chuckled. "Maybe I did."

Emma rolled her eyes. This wasn't good. He might start giving her chores when she complained like Ella's mom did! That would be terrible!

*****OUAT*****

About a week later, on Tuesday….

"Hey so I was wondering if you could do me a favor." Mary Margaret asked as David picked up Emma from tutoring.

"Of course. What is it?" David asked.

"Well tomorrow I have a meeting after school. Normally I'd let Ella just stay in my classroom and do homework, but after last week when Ella snuck out, I don't trust her to be on her own. Would it be too much trouble for her to come and stay with you and Emma until my meeting is over?"

"That would be fine and no trouble at all. But I normally bring Emma to the station with me for the rest of my shift. Would you be okay with that?"

"Is it safe?"

"Yes. I won't let anything happen to either of them." David responded seriously.

"Then it's fine with me." Mary Margaret said with a smile.

"Good. Do you want her to just do her homework?"

"Yes and I'll pick her up around 5, is that alright?"

"Yeah, we will be back to the house by then." David responded.

"Ok. Thanks so much for doing this. I don't want her wandering around outside. She wouldn't even tell me what she did." Mary Margaret said in frustration.

"That doesn't sound like her." David said with a frown.

"I know. There were times before that she had run off without my permission, but I thought we were done with that."

"What had she been doing?" David asked thoughtfully.

"Well, she has this fairy tale book that I gave to her a long time ago and for good while she was convinced that those stories were real. She thought that Storybrooke was full of fairy tale characters that were cursed and didn't know who they were anymore. I thought over the past a year or so that she grew out of them, but I guess I was wrong." Mary Margaret responded quietly.

"She believes they are true?" David asked quiet voice so that neither Ella or Emma could hear them.

"Yes. I was hoping she grow out of it, but now I am starting to get worried. If this keeps going, I'm considering taking her to Archie. Is that terrible?"

"No, she is a bit old to believe something like." David answered kindly.

"I know." Mary Margaret responded. "Well I will see you tomorrow then."

"See you then." David said before giving her quick kiss.

Ella and Emma both said, "Eww" at the same time.

David chuckled and Mary Margaret blushed. They hadn't kissed in front of their girls until now.

"Come on, Emma." David said as he started towards the door and put an arm around her as they left the room.

"What were you talking to Mr. Nolan about?" Ella asked.

"I was asking him if he would watch you tomorrow while I'm at my meeting." Mary Margaret told her.

Ella's eyes widened. "Why?"

"Because last week you snuck off during my meeting." Mary Margaret said with her mom look.

"Oh." Ella said with a frown. "But I won't do it again."

"See I wish I could trust you, but I can't, not after you snuck out so many times. So David will be watching you tomorrow and I'll pick you up after my meeting." Mary Margaret said with an air of finality. She wasn't changing her mind and nothing Ella could say would change it.

Hope you like! I have a good two chapters written after this so the next update should be sometime this weekend! I'm working my way to when the curse will be broken!