Seraphina had spent the evening at Jamie's house, laughing at stupid things and using chocolate fondue to cover everything they ate, from bananas to kiwis. When the clock struck nine, she realized she should probably head home and, despite her efforts, Ms. Oliver insisted on driving Sera home.
As they pulled up in the driveway of her small home, Sera noticed her mother's car parked to the left of where Mrs. Oliver had pulled up. Trying not to grimace, Sera hugged the woman who she loved to call her mother and hurriedly ran up the steps. She knew Mrs. Oliver would not leave until she was safely inside, even though she was exhausted from work so she hurried to get inside and let her leave. When the door closed and she heard the car pull away, Sera turned around and met the angry face of her mother.
"Where the hell have you been? Its well past nine o'clock and you have school tomorrow!" Sera let her mother scream about the time, how she never did anything in the house, and everything else she could possibly think of.
Sera loved her mother to death, and would do anything for her; but she knew her mother was not someone she would ever get along with. When Ginnifer Carnelley was upset at one person, she was upset at everyone; and the only person she let her anger out on was Seraphina. There were a few instances where her mother got physical, but that hurt less than the constant bruises to Sera's self esteem. After a "talk" with her mother, Sera's thoughts would often go to suicide, but she had managed to avoid going that far. But it was only a matter how long Sera could squash her emotions down before they overflowed.
Sera wasn't a fighter, she would walk away from any fight possible and would often act like nothing was wrong to avoid any sort of confrontation. This made her an easy target for her mother's rage, since she could go on and on without so much as a peep from Seraphina.
When her mother finally finished her screaming and walked away, Sera took off her shoes and headed to her room, where her plans were simply to drop onto her bed and drift off to sleep. She locked her door to ensure there were no more interactions with her mother and laid down, hoping to get a few hours of peace before returning to her life. She thought about the enchanted forest again, and this caused a smile to slip onto her face before she finally drifted off.
On the other side of town, Regina was in her room pacing back and forth in her nightgown. She had been doing so for well over an hour, with no progress in her thoughts. She had read through the, rather lengthy, document containing Seraphina's background, and what she found had severely troubled her. Thinking back to the rest of Sera's record, she was no longer surprised at the comments about Sera wanting to work alone, she would be the same way if she was in Sera's shoes. She was more than surprised that Sera was still alive; she was constantly amazed at this young girl's strength.
But what plagued Regina was how she was to deal with this. Obviously she can't tell Sera she read her file, she felt as though she was betraying her trust. Regina was too close to Sera already and the need to protect her was clearly evident with her current mood. Here she was at 10:00 at night pacing around her room because a student in the school she works at is dealing with problems no child, or adult for that matter, should ever have to deal with.
However Regina realized she would be of no help this late at night, so she stopped pacing and lay on her bed. She would deal with this issue in the morning, when her head was clear and she wasn't completely exhausted. All she knew was that she had to do something, and fast. Sera wasn't a danger to anyone else, but she was clearly going to become a danger to herself if nobody helped her. And that was the one thing Regina could not let happen. She liked the girl, more than anyone she's known in a very long time. And she would not let anything happen to Sera as long as she was around. With that resolve clearly known, Regina succumbed to her exhaustion and fell asleep.
