This hiatus is going to be the death of me, so I decided to ease the pain a little and preoccupy myself with writing this fanfiction. Hope you all enjoy!

This chapter is dedicated to the wonderful Matsaroon on Tumblr – go check out her blog and wish her a happy birthday!

Chapter 1 - Does Anybody Hear Her?

She is yearning

For shelter and affection

That she never found at home.

She is searching

For a hero to ride in

To ride in and save the day.

While most of the class were gazing wistfully out of the classroom window, hoping that time would speed up, Emma Swan was staring intently at the clock, begging, praying even, that it would slow down.

It was a Friday afternoon, and for any other 14 year old that would mean that they would feel excitement at the prospect of getting away from school for a few days, but not Emma. Getting out of school meant going back home - or to what everyone thought was her home. To her, it wasn't home. Home wasn't a place filled with torment and anguish; it was supposed to be a happy place - with actual parents. Not abusive foster parents. At least, that's what her books told her. In fact, she secretly imagined this place that she was stuck living in to be like a place in one of her books - a castle even. Yes, a castle. A castle where her foster parents were keeping her trapped. Where there was no way out - no escape route. It didn't even have turrets.

The bell then decided to ring at that point, pulling Emma from her musing and filling her with dismay. The students around her started to pack up as quickly as they could and began to tear out of the classroom as she gulped and shuffled her papers together, trying to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. She sighed and stood up from her chair slowly, grabbing her backpack and slinging it over her shoulder as she started to follow the rest of her classmates out of the room.

"Have a good weekend, Emma!" Her teacher called as she trudged past his desk at the front of the classroom.

"Don't count on that," She mumbled quietly. Slipping out the classroom door and into the hallway, she was nearly carried away by the usual multitude of students that were cramming books into their bags and yelling goodbyes to friends. Emma pressed herself against the wall for a few seconds, waiting for the crowd to die down a little, before heading toward her locker at the end of the hallway. Pointedly ignoring the fact that someone had stuck chewing gum onto her locker, she pulled the door open and dumped her textbooks inside. She didn't need to take anything with her for the weekend - save one item. Slowly opening the little red notebook, she gently ran her fingers over the small note that she had pasted on the inside cover:

Never stop believing.
- Love, Mom and Dad

Emma smiled and allowed herself that moment of peace, before closing the notebook and placing it back inside the locker. Better that it stay here – where it was safe - than back in her castle.

Suddenly, her locker door slammed shut with an almighty bang, and she clutched her hand to her chest in shock, having barely pulled it out of the way in time. She swiftly turned around and came face to face with a handful of senior students.

Crap. Not today.

She quickly scanned the group, hoping that her wonderful boyfriend would be with them and that they were all passing by and simply wanted to offer her a friendly hello. Unfortunately for her, the odds were not in her favour today though, as she couldn't see his bright eyes in the crowd.

"Hey, Swan," One of the seniors at the front of the group sneered, unpleasantly yanking her back to the present. He was standing tall, looking as proud and arrogant as ever. The lead bully - though he appeared to everyone else as the cool stud of the seniors.

Rolling her eyes, Emma snapped, "What do you want?"

The senior spat out the question, "Why the hell do you even carry around that stupid notebook?"

"I don't have to answer to you!" She retorted.

A chorus of 'ooh's' rose up from the group and they all started to nudge one another and chuckle. The senior who had first spoken, ignored Emma and replied with a cocky grin, "It's not like your parents even wanted you in the first place, so why bother having a keepsake of them?"

Emma clenched her fists. "Bug off."

"Aw, is little Emmy getting angry?" Another female senior in the back piped up. "Well, she is rather mentally unstable considering the fact that she's an orphan!"

The group laughed and Emma looked down, gritting her teeth.

"You know what?" The first senior spoke up again. "Let's help her."

The group all gave each other confused looks and Emma felt as equally bewildered. Narrowing her eyes at him, she shook her head and replied, "Whatever help you have to offer, I don't want -"

"Oh trust me, I am only trying to help." With that, he reached out and shoved her out of the way of her locker and started to yank at the door, trying to break into it. Emma's eyes widened upon realisation.

Her notebook.

"No! Don't!" Her voice pierced the air shrilly as she ran forward and grabbed his arm, trying to stop him. He pushed her away again, harshly this time, and she fell to the ground. Clenching her fists, she stood up, ignoring the pain from her old and now new bruises, and grabbed his arm again. The other seniors started to gather around her, some at the front of the group pulling her until she was forced to let go of the senior and fell to the ground again. She felt her shirt sleeve tear at the hands of the seniors, and she gasped. How was she going to hide this from her foster parents? The seniors all started to tease her cruelly, as the senior at her locker continued to tug at the handle, trying to break in.

"Get the hell away from me!" Emma started to yell, in hopes that they would listen. Instead, they just laughed and mocked her. Nearing sobs, she slid further down the wall, and covered her face with her hands. White, hot flashes were tearing through her, the noise building up, and she couldn't contain the many terrible, torturous flashbacks running through her head as tears streamed down her face. Unable to take the bullying any longer, she raised her head and screamed out, "Go away!"

"What's going on over here?"

A voice.

A single voice, filled with sternness and concern cut through all of the noise and silenced everyone, halting them in whatever action they were doing.

Emma raised her tear-stained face as all of the seniors swivelled around slowly and moved out of the way of Emma, who now had a clear view of her rescuer. A petite looking woman with short cropped hair was standing there, a frown on her face, one hand on her hip and the other clutching a thick book. She looked like someone in authority, though Emma had never seen her in the school before. The woman seemed to have all of the seniors entranced and frozen under her glare. Raising her eyebrows, she spoke again with an impatient tone, "I said, what's going on?"

"Uh, nothing, ma'am," One of the seniors decided to finally say and the rest of them nodded in agreement. Quickly and without a second glance at the girl who they were bullying, they all dispersed and took off down the hall, leaving Emma, who was still sitting pitifully on the floor. The woman frowned at their retreating backs and turned towards Emma's direction and softly gasped upon seeing her. She quickly came forward and knelt in front of Emma, placing the book down on the floor.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" The woman asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Uh," Emma said dumbly. "Yeah." She sniffed and quickly rubbed her face to clear it of tears. Another gasp from the woman caused her to lower her hand from her face to look at her. The woman was staring intently at Emma's arm, and Emma brought her gaze down to look at her arm and immediately noticed the large tear in her sleeve.

"Crap," She whispered. That really was going to be hard to hide.

"What happened here?" The young woman's voice brought her back to reality and she looked at her worried face.

Emma shrugged, rubbing her eyes again, the emotions of it wearing down on her. Her throat felt like it was closing up, and she knew that if she spoke she would probably burst into tears. There was something about this stranger that made Emma just want to crawl into her arms and let her wipe away her tears. She shook away that thought quickly.

"I'm fine," She whispered, brushing off her emotions. The woman gave a small smile and stood up, offering Emma her hand. Emma hesitated before lightly clutching it, letting the woman pull her to her feet.

"Thank you," She quickly let go of her hand and lowered her gaze. "I should probably get going now -"

"Hold on, shouldn't you get those bruises looked at?"

Emma's heart stopped. Snapping her head up, she asked sharply, "What?"

The woman faltered at Emma's fierce expression, but steeled herself and indicated with a nod of her head towards Emma's arm. She leaned forward and gently grasped it, lightly pulling the torn sleeve away. The sleeve had been torn in a way that showed off Emma's forearm - or rather, showcased all of the bruises on it.

Snatching her arm back, Emma took a few steps back and the woman quickly raised her arms in a surrender motion, indicating no harm.

"It's okay," the woman soothed. "I just want to help. Why don't you come with me to the nurse's office? I can sew up your shirt for you, and I would like to take a closer look at those bruises, but if you don't want me to, that's okay."

Emma sized up the woman. She seemed harmless and she did need her shirt fixed...

"Okay," She agreed hesitantly. The woman smiled and reached down to pick up the book she was carrying. Emma cocked her head to the side to try to see the cover of book, but her curiosity of it was drawn away when the woman asked her for her name.

"Emma. Emma Swan."

The woman's eyes and smile grew wide. "Emma. That's a lovely name."

"Thanks," Emma blushed slightly at the compliment.

"I'm Mary Margaret," The woman introduced. "I teach fourth grade at the primary school next door."

Emma finally gave a small smile, and the two started to walk down the hall.