The School Play

Chapter 14

The rehearsal had gone surprisingly well. For some reason, Regina didn't look at her as though she wanted to murder her. However, Emma didn't bother talking to Regina or looking at Regina, unless it was necessary for the play.

"Thank you all so much for being so helpful today. We'll see you next week," Ms. Fox said and then looked at Emma and Regina. "Emma and Regina, I'd like you two to stay for a moment."

Emma had trouble not showing her displeasure and she stepped towards the teacher. "I have a lot of homework to do at home, though. Is it really necessary?"

"Yes, I want to talk to you both," Ms. Fox responded. Emma didn't look at Regina, but she could hear the girl sit down. Emma herself didn't bother sitting down. She had her arms folded across her chest and looked at the teacher.

Ms. Fox inhaled deeply and briefly glanced at her colleague. "It's regarding a certain scene. We haven't really talked about it, because we figured you two wouldn't mind, since it's just a play, but then I heard things were rather complicated between the two of you, so maybe the situation has changed."

Emma looked as confused as she possibly could. "What scene? What are you talking about?"

"There are several kisses planned in the play. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal, but Mrs. French pointed out that it could be and that we maybe had to find a solution."

Before Emma could object, Regina opened her mouth. "Oh, that's really not necessary. This is totally okay." Emma looked dumbfounded at the girl and swallowed thickly. If there was anything Emma really, truly didn't want, it was to kiss Regina. She had no urge whatsoever to do so and she hadn't considered it at all when she accepted the part. But Emma knew one thing for sure and that was that she was never going to kiss Regina Mills.

"Oh, that's great! Emma, are you okay with.. that?" Ms. Fox asked and Emma felt everyone staring at her. She'd promised Belle she'd do the best she could to make this play something good, but she didn't know that included kissing Regina.

"Swan, it's not that big a deal. I mean, you've kissed before right?" Regina said. She looked almost annoyed at Emma, but Emma didn't know what to respond. She still felt the piercing eyes of everyone in the room on her and suddenly it was as though the heat had turned up a thousand degrees.

Emma slowly stepped backwards. "Sorry, I really have to get home and start on my homework," Emma said and she turned around and left the classroom in a hurry, ignoring the two teachers calling her name.

She left the school as fastly as she could and made her way to the park. She ran until she'd arrived by her usual bench and she sat down, panting heavily from her short run.

The last time Emma had kissed someone was quite a while ago. Her ex girlfriend hadn't made it very enjoyable for Emma and she still felt very insecure about her kisses. Perhaps if she had to kiss another person for the play, it'd have been alright. But Emma knew Regina and she knew this would go horribly if it were to happen.

She looked out over the water at the ducks that were happily quacking. They always cheered her up, though she didn't really know why. Perhaps the fact that they weren't obligated to do anything but eat and reproduce. That was their entire goal in life and Emma often found herself envying them.

Yes, she knew it was weird to want to exchange lives with ducks, but they were the only animals that could fly, swim and walk and it just seemed very practical to Emma. Oh, how much easier her life would be if she sometimes could just fly away and be alone for just a moment.

Because even here, in the park, with nothing and no one but her own thoughts, she didn't feel like she was truly at peace. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd felt truly at peace with anything in her life. Although the move to Storybrooke had been rather smooth and Emma already felt at home, she wasn't truly content, but she didn't know why that was.