The Past is in the Past (AU)

4

“Emma! Come on! We’re gonna be late,” Regina said pulling the younger girl by her wrist so they could make it to Kathryn’s birthday party on time.

Emma rolled her eyes, “Regina chill, she knows we’ll be there.”

“It’s her 13th birthday Em! She’s the first among us to become a teenager! This is super exciting! Are you not excited?”

She shrugged, “It’s just another day Regina, age doesn’t really change a person you know. The only thing that changes is innocence and Kathryn doesn’t have much of that left.”

Regina stopped and paused for a moment and laughed. Emma wasn’t wrong, Kathryn had somehow gotten around to do a lot of things before she turned 13. To the public she was daddy’s little princess, she was almost as perfect as Regina on paper, but in private Kathryn was almost just as bad what the state thought Emma was. Kathryn Aurum was the daughter of superintendent Richard Midas Aurum and she made sure everyone knew it. If she didn’t get her way than she found a way to get it, no matter what. With that motto Kathryn had gotten herself into quite a bunch of scenarios at her age to the point that the only thing she really had going for her was her virginity.

“She’s our friend Em. Don’t say such mean things.”

“It wasn’t mean, just fact. Kathryn knows I love her,” she scoffed as they approached the door to the Aurum household.

The door flew open before they even got the chance to knock, “Love you too Swanson. Now come in! Daddy got me the biggest cake this side of the Mississippi, and check out the new pager he got me!”

Regina snatched the device from the birthday girl, “No way! This is the latest from Motorola, its TWO way pager instead of one way. Mother told me it isn’t even on the market yet! How?!”

Kathryn smirked, “Daddy has connections. Apparently the president of the New York Motorola division has a daughter in one of his schools and she was barely gonna make it to graduation this year. For a few of these, Daddy may have overlooked some of her unexcused absences.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” Emma questioned.

“Emma you and I both know the answer to that question,” Kathryn laughed, “But we don’t have to address it.”

“Who cares? Kathryn is gonna look tres chic carrying this around with her,” Regina said as she made her way further into the house.

Emma rolled her eyes as she and Kathryn followed Regina to Kathryn’s kitchen. They sat down at the kitchen island and looked over the pager once more as Aurum family members walked an talked. Kathryn knew only a hand full of the people at her party and her father only allowed her very best friends to come from school. He didn’t like children, even if he was superintendent. So it wasn’t hard for her to get her father to agree to what she had in store next. Kathryn grabbed a box from underneath her chair and a huge smile broke onto her face.

“Remember when I said Daddy got a few of these?” She asked as she shook the box slightly.

Regina’s jaw dropped, “No way Kat! Shut up, you did not!”

Emma furrowed her eyebrows, “What’s going on?”

Kathryn beemed, “Swanson. Reggie. Daddy was able to get 6 of these things and one flash of my puppy dog eyes and I was able to get 3 more for you guys and Vicky.”

Emma’s eyes narrowed as Kathryn opened the box and pulled out a pager for her and Regina, “Now we can keep in touch all the time with the frequency it’s set too.”

“What does that mean? The frequency,” Emma asked as she observed her new electronic suspiciously.

“Have you never used a pager Em? I mess with fathers all the time. Basically only the four of us will get the messages on here.”

Emma shrugged as she clipped the thing to her jeans, “Speaking of. Where is Vic anyway? She said she’d be here.”

Kathryn sighed in disappointment, “Mrs. Belfrey told my mom that Vicky couldn’t come after all because she didn’t do her chores yesterday, but I’ll give her her pager at school on Monday and we can page each other all we want.”

Emma watched as her friends went goo goo over their new pagers. Although she didn’t see the big deal about the pagers she was happy to see her friends smile. They went out to the backyard where the karaoke machine Mr. Aurum had bought to entertain the girls during the party as well as the outdoor theatre he set up to premiere the movie they had all been dying to see for the sleepover.

“Now that I’m a teenager I think it’s only right that I become more responsible.”

Emma nearly choked on her soda, “You? Responsible?! Kathryn… You and I both know the only way that’s gonna happen is if we replace your personality entirely.”

“Alright Emma. You say that now but when we’re in the high school wing next semester and you’re left with the middle schoolers. You’ll see how much you miss me and how responsible I can be.”

Emma was taken aback, she never really thought of what would happen next year when they all moved up a grade but her friends moved onto high school, and she only moved up to the 8th grade. The high school was on the other side of campus, so Emma would be all alone. It wasn’t something she wasn’t used to but it was a feeling she didn’t miss. The blondes face dropped and Regina took note.

“You know she was just kidding Emma. We’ll always be there for each other,” Regina said as she slung her arm over Emma’s shoulders and nuzzled her nose against the younger girls cheek.

“Of course I was joking Emma. Man I love you Swanson but I forget we have different definitions of humor. Now, who wants to break into my dads liquor cabinet and get drunk off his foreign vodka?”

“Kathryn!”

“sWaNsOn.”

“What happened to I’m going to be more responsible,” Emma asked.

Kathryn shrugged, “Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.”

“Kathryn. We’re pre-teens,” Emma dead panned.

“Correction. You guys are pre-teens. I am a full fledged teenager, and if you guys don’t want to have any fun than-”

Regina crossed her arms and smirked, “Well I’m in. I’ve tried some of mothers whiskey and I’m eager to see if vodka taste the same. Em you in?”

Her hazel eyes shifted back and forth in hesitation. She didn’t like doing illegal things if she didn’t have to. If she did it would only perpetuate the the things that people automatically suspected of her. She rubbed her neck nervously, “I don’t know guys.”

“Come on Em,” Regina exasperated as she leaned her head against Emmas shoulder and looked up into her eyes, “Let’s go on an adventure.”

Emma looked down to see a glisten in her eyes, the same one she had in her eyes the day she decided to befriend Emma. She could never say no to that specific look in her eyes.

She crossed her arms and blew a piece of hair out of her face, “Fine.”

Her friends squealed in excitement earning stares from the family members outside.

“Sorry. Sorry. Carry on,” Kathryn said waving away the stares of her family.

She turned back to her friends and giggled. She brought her voice down low only they could hear her, “I’ll go get Daddy’s vodka and pour it in the cooler specifically reserved for us for when the movie shows. Everyone will be gone by then and daddy will have gone upstairs to bed. It’ll just be us watching the film in our sleep in bags and the tent. Vicky told me she might even be able to sneak out tonight and join us. We can get drunk and laugh and we’ll have a great time.”

“I still think we’re way too young for this,” Emma huffed.

“Hey atleast all of us can go into high school saying we tasted hard liquor,” Kathryn shrugged with a smile as she ran off to do what she planned.

Regina held Emma’s hand and squeezed if reassuringly, “Do you remember what you told me the first day we met?”

She shook her head, “That was 3 years ago Regina. I don’t even know what I had for breakfast this morning.”

The brunettes smirked, “Well I remember quite vividly, because you were and still are the only person to have stood up to me like that.”

That earned a chuckle from Emma, “Well someone needed to.”

“You’re right, and I’m glad you did because from that day on I took your advice to ’Stop acting like a grown up.’ I've been more carefree and fun loving because of you. And I think it’s about time you took your own advice. I know you’re scared if you screw up than you’ll end up being moved but we’ve worked around that before. You’ve been in a couple different group homes and even a few foster families and we’ve always found a way to get you to keep coming to school with us. You’re fine to just be a kid Em. I got you.”

I got you rang through her ears like church bells on a Sunday morning. She was so grateful to have Kathryn, Victoria, and Regina in her life (especially Regina). They were the first consistent friendship she’d had EVER! Maybe Regina was right, maybe she could finally let her guard down and stop worrying about herself like she was alone.

She squeezed her hand back and smiled, “Thanks Gina. I trust that you do.”