AN: Happy 2016! I know, I know.

Chapter 13: Together.

It was the morning after the seventh night Emma stayed over at the mansion, which meant it was monday again.

On the weekend the young couple had gotten together with their friends at the mansion to study as much as possible for the upcoming college standarized tests they were taking, all the studying was very productive and the time together was a ton of fun, but they all barely made it to sunday, very, very tired.

If you asked Regina she could easily say that the mansion had never felt any more alive than those three days since friday afternoon that it had been home for the nine (Rose, Graham, Mary Margaret, David, Emilie, Ruby, Ruby's boyfriend, Emma and Regina) teenagers. For the first time in for ever all the rooms were used, all the spots at the table were set on every meal, both inside and outside were connected by open doors and windows... for the first time in for ever Regina felt truly at home when inside those white walls. They say family isn't necessarily about blood, that your family is the people with whom you feel safe and who you want to keep safe, Regina had finally found her family.

"Emma" Regina whispered at her girlfriend, lightly moving her arm to wake her up, Emma groaned and rolled over. "Emma we have our test at eight sharp and it's already seven thirty" she insisted.

The blonde teen rubbed her eyes, took a deep breath and finally sat up. "Why do we have school, Regina?" she asked pouting.

Regina shrugged and leaned forward to give Emma a light peck on the lips. "Get dressed and let's have breakfast" she gave as an answer.

Regina didn't feel like showering or actually like anything, and she knew that neither did Emma. They both ended up wearing sweatpants, sneakers, sweatshirts and tying their hair up. They didn't need any school supplies but pens that day so Regina put one in her sweatshirt's pocket together with her phone, her keys and her wallet. They got out of the house and walked together to Granny's to pick up some breakfast as they had done every day for the past week and finally headed to school, where they went to the auditorium and sat next to their friends to take the standarized test together with their whole grade. Regina saw every student in the big room looked like hell and that no one seemed to have any motivation whatsoever, apparently everyone was as brain-dead as her from all the week of burocracy and the weekend of studying.

"Good morning" a state worker in a suit said at 8:00 through the auditorium speakers, making all the zombie-looking students use all their left energy in focusing on the man's words. "As you all know today is your standarized test and I have been appointed to deliver and supervise said test here at Storybrooke High, you will need a black or blue inked pen to write down your student number ID where it is asked for and then to fill in the small circles that will mark all of your answers, please, please, I beg you make sure to color the circles completely so your answers are taken in as valid for the machine. You can't change any of your answers so please think very well before answering, you have a total of five hours to finish the test and you can't get out of here or hand in any exams until the five hours are completed, time is counting from eight to one. Good luck"

"Good luck" Regina heard Emma imitate in a whisper. "Hipocrit, he wouldn't be so cocky if he was taking this test" Regina smiled and squeezed her girlfriend's hand in reassurance, she understood the girl's anger.

About ten other state workers gave away the thick sets of papers and then silence filled the room as all the students of senior year at Storybrooke High started the exam that would almost completely define where they would be studying next.

After almost five hours of filling circle after circle Regina finally closed her exam and looked up from her small desk, she found out that almost everyone had finished and only a couple people had their eyes on their exams now, she was the last of her friends to finish.

As promised by the suited man at 1:00 the students were asked to pass their test to the state workers, had they finished or not, and then were let out of the auditorium. Regina and all of her friends had agreed to go to the mansion after the test as they were free for the rest of the day and so they did.

"I hate the idea of the damn standarized test" Rose admitted angrily as they walked down the street. "And I hate that it counts so much for our college AP! What do they care if I learnt my chemistry in highschool if I'm applying for a photography major?"

"Oh shut up Rose!" Ruby complained. "I get that you're angry and you don't like it, I think none of us do. But at least you learnt your chemistry and you have an aced highschool, some of us here don't have your grades and actually have a reason to be worried about"

"Well if you had spent highschool actually studying and not partying maybe you'd have better grades..." Rose answered calmly.

"Hey!" Ruby shouted at her offended.

"Calm down, both of you, we're all tired" Mary Margaret said. "You're both doing just fine, that's what we all studied together for"

"That's true, and Rubes, Rose is right that if you had wanted better grades you would have concentrated a little bit more in getting them" Emilie told her friend. "But you decided to do other things, and that's ok if you enjoyed it, just keep in mind that you have no right to complain about them"

"Can we stop talking about school? We've had enough for today" Emma said from her spot on the back of the group of friends, where she was walking holding Regina's hand.

"Thank you" Graham and Regina said at the same time, clearly having wanted the same as her since before.

The rest of their walk was silent, when they got to the mansion Regina opened the door and then they all proceeded to sit on the living room's couches.

"Let's play truth or dare" Ruby proposed. "To "unwind"

Everyone agreed and so Graham was chosen to be the first victim, when Ruby asked him what he wanted for this first round he said truth.

"If you could go on a date with anyone in the room who would it be?" Ruby said with a wicked smile.

Graham made a pained expression but played fair. "Some months ago I would have said Emma, but don't go for my neck yet Regina because my answer today is... Rose"

Everyone in the room cheered, while Rose's cheeks went pink. Regina who was the next sitting chose truth again.

"What happened on the worst day of your life?" Graham asked initally, but upon seeing Regina's reaction he decided to change immediately. "No, no, sorry. Who was your first crush?"

Regina scrunched her nose and laughed lightly. "You" All her friends laughed too and then Graham admitted that Regina had been his too.

They had a very pleasant afternoon, they finally got to relax after doing their exam and they were glad they were able to spend it together. Almost everyone left at 7:00pm and only Rose, Graham, Emma and Regina stayed in the mansion. They watched a movie and then decided to sleep the night in the living room on the couches, to have space and stay together in the same room.

Friday

"Emma! Regina!" the couple heard Rose shout at them from outside the school, they looked through the metal-framed glass door and saw their two best friends waving at them and signing them to go out, they did. Rose and Graham had apparently gotten out of their last college application information talk and they were waiting for them with takeway bags from Granny's that probably had food for everyone.

"Guess what?" Graham asked them excited.

"What?" Emma asked back smiling.

"We survived college early application!" he exclaimed, the four friends laughed.

"Let's be honest" Rose said then. "We survived college applications, we're all getting into our early options"

"We might" Emma said.

"We will" Graham insisted.

The four friends walked triunphantly away from the school's building happy that the torture week was over, no more studying, no more form-filling, no more late nights that led to cadaveric students, no more research for colleges, no more of that horrific life. Now stress was coming, about a month of waiting for their possible acceptance or rejection letters and e-mails for their first opption, then a week more for their second and third, but they'd rather have that than the hell they'd just gotten out of.

Regina took Emma's hand for the very first time in public, fearless, what if anyone saw them?, need she be ashamed of her true self?, ashamed of her girlfriend of God's sake?, no!, and never more, the blonde recieved her hand happily and leaned to her shoulder, Regina realized Emma was ready for this but she was waiting for her to be ready.

On monday they had decided to go to the park together to celebrate the end of early applications, so that was where they were headed to. Once they were in the park they sat on the soft grass and were given their respective food by Graham.

"So what now?" Graham asked.

"What do you mean what now?" Regina answered.

"I mean what now in school, if we already handed in college applications and did the exams that are needed to evaluate our knowldge of all of our pre-college studying then that means we've learnt it all for highschool, doesn't it?" he said, convinced of his own words.

"Oh Graham, you need a reality check" Regina said after laughing lightly at him.

"Damn" he sighed. "So is it going to be hard what is left?"

"The easiest 4 months of school you've had since kindergarten, but we're still having finals and essays to deliver" Emma told him.

Rose made a joyful sound on her throat and let her back fall to the grass to lay down looking at the sky. "I'm so happy we're going to be normal alive humans again" she said.

Her friends laughed again, Graham layed next to her, while Emma and Regina decided to stay sitting. They stayed like that for some minutes, eating in silence and enjoying their newly acquired freedom, then Regina felt Emma's eyes staring at her, she turned to face her.

"What?" she asked her with a smile.

"You're just so beautiful... and I like looking at beautiful things" the blonde answered.

Regina heard Rose and Graham make sounds mocking them, but she couldn't care any less. "You are" she told her girlfriend, and she leaned forward to kiss her for the very first time outside, in the day time, not caring who saw them because truth was she liked Emma so much and she wanted everyone to know it.

"Hey, mind that PDA" Graham said mockingly, him and Rose were sitting again.

"Yes! Look we love you both, but it's getting sticky with honey around here" Rose agreed.

Emma laughed at them and took Regina's hand. "Why don't you just kiss already and let us be?" she said.

Rose's face turned a heated pink all the way to the very tips of her ears, while Graham found it necessary to hide his face by turning around, Regina looked at Emma and smiled at her, because they both knew something their friends didn't.

"Let's go to my house" Regina finally said.

The rest of the afternoon was a ton of fun, with Cora out of town things were truly brighter and better, it was a pity that the woman was such a pain, because Regina had seen how amazing Graham's relationship with his father was, and Rose's with her parents, and it seemed to be quite nice, but Cora was apparently not interested in that.

The four friends played some board games, watched some movies and talked. As much as Regina now liked Emma's friends she still liked it the most when it was only them four, she trusted them the most and loved them the most. Cora was back on monday, so they were spending the weekend together, it was then the last three days she had left with Emma and she wasn't ready to not wake up next to her just yet.