Chapter 2
Henry was the first student to enter the classroom.
"Morning, Ms Mills." The teacher jumped, disturbed out of her deep thoughts by the unexpected greeting so early before class started.
Smiling warmly at the teen, Ms Mills welcomes Henry back to school after his week-long suspension.
"How are you, Henry?"
The boy shrugs his shoulders as he adjusts the bag over his shoulder. "Better now I'm back at school and not using a spare toothbrush to clean the oven with."
Ms Mills raises her eyebrow in surprise at the discipline. "Mm. Yes, well, it's lovely to have you back, Henry. I expect no more acts of violence. Even if you were my knight in shining armour last week," she winks playfully.
Henry blushes and nods his head as he sits down in his desk, grabbing out his completed homework and essay, waiting for the other students to arrive before class started.
English went by pretty smoothly, all things considered. Chad spent most of his time glaring at Henry, and aside from the bit of tension in the room, nothing was out of the ordinary. Much to the teacher's relief.
Despite the sweet gesture of Henry standing up for her, she really didn't want him getting in trouble again.
Before all the students left the room at the end of class, she called for Henry to stay behind for a moment. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and made his way to her desk, trying not to stare at her lips as she muttered to herself whilst tidying her desk as the rest of the students trickled out and into the hall.
"Henry?" Ms Mills brought the teen back to the present moment as he was unintentionally daydreaming about her lips and what it might feel like to kiss them.
"S-sorry, Ms Mills," he stuttered, blushing profusely.
"Is everything okay, Henry?" The concern was evident in her voice as she focused solely on this boy. She noticed him staring at her lips and the rosiness in his cheeks. For a split second, she grew worried that he might have a teenage crush on her but thought better of it as he may have just been distracted by the scar above her lips and being embarrassed for getting caught.
Henry nodded a little too enthusiastically for Ms Mills to believe him but decided to let it go.
"Well," she sighed. "I just wanted you to remind your mother about the parent-teacher interviews happening this Thursday after school. Considering recent events, I believe it would be a good idea to discuss any concerns about certain students in this class and your grades."
"My grades?" The shock was evident in the boy's expression. Ms Mills immediately caught on to what had him so concerned.
She smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, "Your grades are as good as ever, Henry. You're a very smart young boy. It's in case I find that your grades are slipping. I want your mother and I to be on the same page in how to help you manage your emotions to both keep your grades up and prevent another physical outburst."
Henry shuffled on his feet for a moment, thinking over what had just been said.
"Okay," he sighed. "I'll remind her about Thursday."
"Thank you." Ms Mills picked up her folders and was about to walk with Henry to the door when he softly grabbed her hand, bringing her to an immediate halt. She quickly withdrew her hand, looking at him curiously, her heartbeat quickening in anxiety. In university they're taught how teenagers can develop crushes on their teachers and to simply make sure there are never any inappropriate touches from either the teacher or student as it can be misconstrued and also lead to legal action.
Henry scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Sorry, I just wanted to say thank you for looking out for me."
Ms Mills cleared her throat. "Yes, well. It's my duty as a teacher to ensure all my students are safe and learning in my class." After that, she walked with purpose out of the classroom, not wanting to spend more time alone with Henry. Which is quite unusual as she enjoys the time they would spend together every now and then.
But something has changed and she knows she will have to put up more student-teacher boundaries when it comes to him. Sighing, she makes her way to the teacher's lounge to make herself a much needed cup of coffee.
The next few days went by slowly. Emma had been thinking about the meeting with Henry's teacher ever since he reminded her about it on Monday. Work has been dragging on, she keeps getting distracted at work, all because she will be seeing the brunette again so soon.
She groans as she remembers what an idiot she made herself out to be when they first met the week before in the office. She didn't even say one word to the gorgeous woman! She just looked at her like she was a doughnut after going without sugar for three months.
Speaking of, Emma shoves an original glazed doughnut into her mouth and getting sticky fingers all over her paperwork.
"Shit!" she mumbles, bits of food falling from her mouth as she rushes to try and clean up the paper. After a minute, she smiles and holds up the important document to examine it. Her smile quickly drops when she realises she's made the paper much, much worse. Not only is it sticky, but it's now smudged and bits of dust, cotton, doughnut, and dirty finger marks are stuck to the page and covering important information.
Emma scrunches the paper into a ball and successfully throws it into the bin across from her desk. Sighing, she drops her head into her hands and grumbles to herself to get her shit together.
"Swan!"
Emma jumps up, startled, and smashes her knee into the edge of her desk. "Fuck!" she yells out in pain. Not caring how loud she must have been until her boss comes storming out of his office and towards her and the man responsible for her knee pain and headache she's sure she's about to get from having her ass handed to her for the fourth time already this week.
"Detective, what is the meaning of this?" he growls out, eying her down. The man who called out her name mere seconds ago childishly walks back slowly to stay out of the heat between their boss and his co-worker.
Rolling her eyes at his immaturity, she responds. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again."
"This is the fourth time this week, detective. What has gotten into you? You normally only make my life hell once a goddamn week!" he glares down at her.
She shifts uncomfortably, her anger rising inside of her with the need to defend herself but instead she takes a deep breath and responds coolly, "I suppose I just need to get a bit more sleep during the night. I'll start on that this evening."
"You better or else you can pack your shit up and never step foot in here again." And with that, he storms back to his office making sure to slam the glass door behind him.
Groaning, Emma prints out another copy of the paperwork she messed up.
"Well, that was uncomfortable to watch, Swan." The man from before reappears at her desk after she's sat back down with her clean paper. She closes her eyes and counts to three before responding to the insufferable man.
"Jones, do me a favour and never speak to me again."
"Oh, c'mon now, love," he picks up the paper Emma has been extra cautious with to not mess up again. Her anxiety spikes as she goes to grab it back from him but he just turns his back to her and holds the paper out of reach as he skims over it. "This is what has you so buzzed out?"
"No," she growls. "Seriously, hand it back. I don't need the big guy firing me because you don't know how to leave things alone."
He turns back around to look at her curiously. "Hmm." Jones hands her back the paper before grumbling as he turns and walks away, "Someone's on shark week..."
Emma slammed her hand on the desk in anger, attracting a few sets of eyes to look her way and stop their work in cautious curiosity.
Panicking, she quickly looks over to her boss's office and sees him glowering at her.
Groaning quietly, she tries to focus on her work and get this stupid paperwork sorted out so she doesn't have to stress about that during the meeting with Henry's teacher later this afternoon.
Thinking about the brunette woman again only proves to distract her for the rest of her work day, and it's suffice to say that she never completed the paperwork.
Ms Mills faced a similar situation as she was teaching her students. She could have sworn the batteries in the wall clock were dying as each tick sounded like it got slower and slower.
Apparently that wasn't the case and she was sure that she simply needed more coffee. She was on her fourth cup by the end of the school day and it hadn't helped one bit. In fact, it only made her more nervous about meeting with Henry's mother that afternoon.
She thought it ridiculous, of course, and couldn't understand the reason behind it. Maybe it's because she has clocked onto the fact that Henry feels something more for her than he should and she feels a bit uncertain as to whether or not she should address it to the blonde?
Whatever the reason, and despite the high quantity of coffee she already drank, she was feeling tired and looked forward to this meeting being over and done with so she could move on with her life. She didn't need this extra stress.
The clock hit 3:30pm and Henry's teacher looked up to see him and his blonde mother walking into her classroom in a rush. She noted the blonde appeared out of breath with rosy red cheeks that may have been from her running to get here or from the cold outside.
She couldn't help but smirk, hoping it was the former as it stroked her ego to feel at least a little important that someone was going out of their way to make sure they didn't waste any of her time.
Henry beamed at her and she smiled warmly back at him. Despite how he may feel towards her, she has grown to care very much for this boy and would never allow herself to make him feel uncomfortable or as though he couldn't speak with her about anything going on in his life. It was important for her not to lose the innocent connection they've shared for the last two years. She will have to speak with him though about the not-so-innocent feelings he's experiencing towards her. She sighed inwardly. So much for never making him uncomfortable.
Looking back at the blonde who was taking off her scarf, she reached out her hand in greeting.
"Good afternoon, Miss Swan. It's a pleasure to meet you properly," she said kindly.
Emma quickly looked up upon hearing the silky, deep voice and noticing the person addressing her. She got herself tangled in the scarf after fumbling to try and reach a hand out to reciprocate the offered handshake.
Henry rolled his eyes at his weird mother whilst Ms Mills simply raised her brow at the woman. She passed the first strange encounter off as Ms Swan simply being overwhelmed by the incident with Henry and the very real punishment of him almost getting expelled. However, now she isn't quite certain that was the case after all. Perhaps the blonde was rather clumsy?
Once sorting herself out, the blonde blushes and shakes the brunette's hand firmly, hardly surprised by how soft the teacher's hand is considering she is clearly someone who takes care of herself.
"Hi, I'm Emma Swan," she smiles. After a brief moment, she stumbles, "I-I mean, of course you know that, but, uh..."
The brunette looks down at their hands still firmly grasped together, noticing the callouses on the blonde's hand and slightly uncomfortable with the prolonged contact.
She's about to say something, when the woman speaks up again, "Anyway! Let's do this thing!" and quickly turns around to sit at one of the desks.
The brunette raises a brow at the woman's odd behaviour and tries to hide her amusement when she sees Henry hiding his face behind his hands in embarrassment. Emma silently berates herself for coming across like an idiot...again.
Plastering on an over-the-top smile to try and show confidence, she waits for the teacher to take over the conversation before she makes herself look even more ridiculous.
Strangely enough, the brunette found the blonde rather endearing. Odd, definitely, but endearing nevertheless.
"Okay," she says as she brings over a chair to the table Emma sat down at. "Firstly, please call me Regina."
And just like that, Emma lost focus all over again.