The School Play

Chapter 5

Emma was starting to get tired and she was looking for Ivy to tell her she was going home and thank her for the party. She'd genuinely enjoyed the party, though she felt like now was a good time to head home.

She caught Ivy near the bar and she wanted to walk towards her, but suddenly she felt a hand gripping her wrist. She hoped it wasn't the same guy she'd been talking to earlier. She'd told him to go away, but he'd seemed really insulted.

Emma was totally fine flirting with people, she just didn't know why they had the desire to touch her. Even if it was just a playful hand touching her shoulder, she didn't need it.

But when she turned around she saw a beautiful girl staring at her. She recognized the girl, because she'd seen her talking to Regina earlier.

"Hi, I'm Jacinda," the girl introduced herself. Emma really wasn't in the mood to meet new people anymore. She just wanted to find Ivy and go home, but she didn't really seem to have a choice. Jacinda wanted a conversation.

"Emma," Emma curtly introduced herself, hoping that the girl would take her tone as a hint and stop talking to her. She seemed like a nice girl though, but she just wanted to go home and sleep.

"I'm a friend of Regina's," Jacinda said and gestured at the brunette girl who was talking to two boys, who seemed to really enjoy Regina's attention.

"I figured," Emma said. "It's really nice meeting you, but I'm really tired and I'd like to go home, if you'd let me."

Jacinda nodded. "Sure. All I wanted to say is that Regina is really kind, once you get to know her. She didn't force me to tell you this, though. I just.. I felt like I needed to say something, because Regina doesn't."

Emma laughed. "Oh, don't worry. She makes her feelings perfectly clear."

"I just want to tell you that there's much more to her than meets the eye."

"I know," Emma replied, wondering how yet again a conversation had managed to lead to Regina. Everything seemed to be about the girl and that frustrated Emma beyond anything. "It's not about her. It's never been."

"What do you mean?" Jacinda sounded confused.

Emma shrugged. "She probably told you that I don't seem to like her. That's not because of her, but because of personal issues that I still have to work through."

Jacinda frowned in confusion and Emma smiled. "You can tell her that, don't worry," Emma said and Jacinda laughed curtly and waved her hand dismissively as Emma briefly glanced around.

"Oh, Regina doesn't need to know we talked," Jacinda said and waved nervously. Emma looked the girl up and down and smiled. She knew after having observed her and Regina that they were close friends and that they shared a lot together. Regina seemed to really like the girl.

Emma looked aside, to where she'd just seen Regina and the girl suddenly met her gaze. Emma smirked and waved curtly before she turned back to Jacinda. "She's seen us talk, she's going to have questions. So, you can tell her what I said and you can say that I will never like her as much as the rest of the school does."

Emma left Jacinda with those words and found Ivy quickly after. She thanked the girl for her party, said goodbye to a few others she'd met and headed home.

It had been a good night. Emma had enjoyed getting to know some people and she was surprised that everyone had been so open and willing to get to know her as well. The only thing that she had noticed, yet again, is how obsessed everyone was over Regina.

She hated how it was infectious. Once someone started gossiping about Regina, it was hard not to get caught up in it. Though most of the time it wasn't even interesting, just people praising her for whatever she did.