This comes from a prompt sent to me. Regina is a teacher, Emma's a single mother trying to get by, and Henry's wonderful, funny, smart ass Henry. The two women come from very different backgrounds with vastly different lives. What happens when those lives collide? Will they see past their differences to realize that they've got more in common under the surface? You're just going to have to read to find out. ;)

From outside the hall, Regina Mills can hear a low chatter of voices drawing from classroom 204, and she smooths out her blouse as she comes closer to the door. The moment she enters the classroom, the voices all drop to nearly inaudible, and she smiles slightly at this. She is a loved teacher, but she is also a respected one. Her students know she likes to make their learning experience positive and fun, but they also know that she doesn't like to waste her time, and she rarely repeats herself. She has never raised her voice with any of her students before, but she's never had to, either. When her dark brown eyes sharpen and her lips purse tightly, it accomplishes more than shouting ever could. She controls the classroom, and if her students behave and cooperate, it is a lighthearted, enjoyable ninety minutes. If not, well, they'll still learn, but it won't be nearly as fun.

"Good afternoon, class," she says to them and receives an off-kilter response "good afternoon, Ms. Mills." It's her final class before the day ends and usually her best one. While her students are usually tired and ready to be done with the day by then, they are some of her best, most respectful students, barring a few exceptions. Typically, she can loosen up more with this class and joke around with them more. They listen and do what is asked of them, and so she trust them with certain freedoms, like, for instance, an open seating chart, and even limited use of cell phones. She even allows them to listen to music while they are working independently. It's a good class, and she hopes it remains that way today. Because today, three weeks into the fall semester, she has a new student.

It's the first transfer student Storybrooke Middle School has had in eons, and she had spent most of her lunch going over the new student's transcript. Henry Swan, a twelve-year-old boy from an inner-city school in Boston. His grades are all stellar. Straight A's since first grade. A sparkling attendance record. His previous teachers all left notes on his report cards of what a brilliant, good-natured student he was, never causing trouble in class. However, as she dove further into his file, she'd found that there is a blemish on his record. A rather large, imposing blemish that concerns her. Fighting. It had been a problem for the past three years according to his previous principal. He'd been sent to detention and suspended on numerous occasions for it and nearly expelled once. Regina can't understand that. How can this boy who seemed to be such an exquisite, gifted student as well as good kid also have such a tendency for violence? It doesn't make any sense to her, and she knows there must be more to the story than what the transcript provides.

She moves to her desk and goes down the roll as she does at the start of every class, marking those absent without raising her eyes from the paper.

"Henry Swan?" she calls out the new name.

"Here." The voice draws her eyes upward, and she looks at the boy seated near the middle of the class. His brown hair is cut short and combed neatly, and hazel eyes glimmer as he offers her a small, nervous smile. She notices how his leg is bouncing under the desk, and she knows he wants to make a good impression. So, she smiles back at him warmly. "Welcome to our class, Mr. Swan. It's a pleasure to have you with us."

He brightens under the attention, his smile beaming, and her heart softens at the sight. She can immediately understand why his teachers described him as being such a joy in class-those dimples are irresistible. How can this adorable boy be the same so prone to fights? "Thanks. It's good to be here. And you can just call me Henry, not Mr. Swan."

She smirks. "Alright then, Henry." She moves on down the roll until those present, almost all her students but a few, are accounted for. Then, she begins their lesson for the day.

"I trust you all did your reading?" she questions as she strides to the front of the room. She holds up her copy of Oliver Twist, and those who didn't already have the book out retrieve it from their bags. She notices Violet Summers, seated beside Henry, hold her book open for the both of them to reference, and smiles at his red ears as he leans closer to her and murmurs a quiet "thanks." "You should have finished the final two chapters last night. So, since I'm sure you all did as I asked and read it carefully, can anyone inform me of the main theme of the book?"

The classroom remains silent as every student intentionally avoids eye contact, and the corners of her lips pull down as her patience thins. She knows that at least some of her students must have read the book, but not one hand raises to answer.

"Come on. Someone must have at least a guess." Again, no response, and she sighs in annoyance. Just as she is about to issue a pop quiz to test if they'd actually read or not, a hand raises, and she is shocked to find that it belongs to the one student who had an excuse not to have an answer.

"Yes, Henry?" she says, and he straightens up in his desk a bit.

"The main theme of the book is good vs. evil," he answers with a confidence that makes her eyebrows raise. "Most of the characters are written kind of flat because they're meant to be a black-and-white representation of morality. No gray. Just good and bad. Like, Oliver is totally good, but Fagin is totally bad. The book is supposed to show that the good guy, even though he's just a poor kid without a family, always beats the bad guy."

Regina blinks in surprise. "Well, that is very insightful." A perfect answer, actually. "And do you agree with Charles Dickens' decision to write the characters that way?"

He smirks at her. "Are you asking a seventh grader to critique Charles Dickens on writing?"

She chuckles. "Perhaps, but you do seem to have an opinion on it."

He shrugs. "I mean, I like a good underdog story as much as anyone else, and I like the happy ending. But I do think that making the characters either strictly good or bad makes them a little... boring." He frowns at himself. "No, that's not what I mean. They're not boring. They're just not realistic. Nobody's all good or all bad. People are both, and they're not born heroes or villains. I guess I think it could've been nice to see some conflict within the characters. And I would've liked to have had some backstory on Fagin to know why he is such a bad person. He couldn't have just been born that way." Oh, he's got to be her new favorite student. Not that she displays favoritism, of course.

Regina nods her head. "Yes. Evil is made, not born, and so is good." She grins at him. "Very well-thought out response, Henry. Did you read this at your old school already?"

He shakes his head. "No, my mom and I read it. She collects books all the time, and we read them. Like a book club, kind of. She likes this one a lot."

"Well, since Henry has so eloquently pointed out the main theme, we can move onto the essay for the day." She turns to the white board and writes on it as she speaks. "Supporting your argument with direct quotes and examples from the book, give me at least three instances of symbolism and what you think they mean. And, yes, before you ask, this will be turned in for a grade." She looks back over her shoulder at Henry with a smile. "And since you've read it already, I'll expect an essay from you too, Henry."

He grins, opening his notebook up and brandishing his pen like a sword. "Yes ma'am."

After all the essays are turned into her, Regina uses the last quarter of class to introduce and pass out copies of their next assigned novel. She notices how Henry smirks down at the cover of the book when he receives his and wonders if he hasn't read this one as well. The final bell rings, and her students are scrambling for the door.

"Read the first two chapters tonight and be ready to discuss tomorrow," she calls out. "Henry?" He looks up from where he is zipping his bag up. "Could I have a word?"

"Sure." He slings his back pack over his shoulder and bids Violet a shy goodbye before walking up to her desk. She gestures to the chair across from her, and he drops into it.

"I just wanted to take a minute to formally welcome you to the class," she says. "I can already tell I'll enjoy having you as a student." He smiles. "Your transcript from your old school shows that you are a good student. Your grades are impressives, and your former teachers all speak very highly of you." She frowns slightly. "However, I would like to address some remarks about your behavior outside of the classroom."

His face falls, and he sighs with sagging shoulders. "Yeah, I figured. All my teachers have already. Look, I know it sounds bad, and I won't lie. I got into fights a lot at my old school back in Boston. I'm not trying to excuse that away-I'm as guilty for not walking away when I could've. But it usually happened because of bullies. The other guys were all bigger than me, and I was one of the, um, poorer kids in my class. At first, it was just about that, but over the past year, they targeted me for... other reasons."

Regina furrows her brow in concern. "What other reasons, Henry?" He looks at her uncertainly, and she places a hand on his shoulder. "Nothing you say will leave this room, Henry. You can trust me, I promise."

He rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Well, see, it's just me and my mom. I never met my dad before-he walked out before I was born." Regina's jaw tightens. She knows kids can be cruel, and it doesn't surprise her that bullies would target him from being from a lower-class, single-parent home. It still pisses her off, though. "But then my mom-well, she doesn't look like most moms, you know what I mean?" She shakes her head in confusion. "She had me young. Really young. She's not even thirty yet, and she's-" he screws his face up- "she's pretty. We had a dance at my last school, and she had the night off, so she volunteered to chaperone. Not because she wanted to, but because she usually works too much to be really active in my school. I think she was guilty. Anyway, she wore a dress and heels there, and when the other guys saw her..." He sighs. "Well, then I became the smaller, poor kid without a dad and hot mom." He clenches his hands into fists. "They said stuff about her around me just to get me mad and picked fights with me every day. I knew I should've have taken their bait, but it was really hard to walk away when they were talking about my own mom like that. We're close, she and I, and it just... it's the one thing they figured out they could pick on me about that would always make me mad enough to respond."

She frowns. "Henry, I am so sorry you had to go through all that." Clearly, it still upset him, and she couldn't imagine how hard going through it must've been.

"I know what my record makes me look like," he says, looking back at her with wide eyes begging to be understood, "but I'm not a bad kid, Ms. Mills. I really like school, and I swear that I'll be the best student you've got. I know you've probably already made your mind up about me like all the other teachers, but I hope you can give me a chance to change your opinion."

She smiles at him. "Henry, I'd never let something so one-dimensional as a transcript influence my opinion of you. I'm not so prejudiced, I assure you. I know that you're a good boy-I could tell as soon as I saw you. You don't have to work for my approval-I already like you." His eyes brighten. "How about we make a deal? I promise to do all that I can to ensure you won't be bothered by any bullies if you promise to avoid any fights they might try to start. Deal?" She holds a hand out to him in offer, and he grins as he shakes it.

"Deal," he nods. "Thanks, Ms. Mills. I'm really glad you're my teacher."

"As am I. Now, go on home before your mother gets worried. And make sure you do your homework."

Standing to his feet, he salutes her as he walks backwards out of the classroom. "Yes ma'am, Ms. Mills." Throwing her a cheeky wink, he leaves the classroom. Regina smiles to herself, shaking her head. Her favorite class just got a lot better.