Buzzkill

Chapter 3

Emma wasn't sure what to expect from her tutoring session. She was sure it would be boring and uninteresting. With flashcards and sentence diagramming.

Her tutor was Regina Mills. Emma had seen her around school, heard her name, et cetera, but she had never really met Regina. Regina was the kind of student who studied, got only A+s, and got her teachers gifts at the end of the year. The only teacher Emma had ever shown any appreciation towards was Coach Lucas, and she saw studying as a waste of time.

They were to meet in the school library after school. Emma hadn't told anyone she was staying after school, but it would be fine. Her father, David, worked at the sheriff's office until late, and her mother had died when Emma was 3.

Emma walked into the library to see Regina already setting up at a table. The blonde carefully approached, not sure what to say or do yet. Regina looked up at her and gave a small smile. "Emma Nolan?" she asked. Emma nodded. "Sit?" offered Regina.
Nodding, Emma took a seat across the table from Regina. She did little talking in their first session, leaving much up to Regina, who did her best to teach. 

The soccer player– or ex soccer player at this point– did her best to pay attention. She found herself paying attention to the littlest things. Such as the rhythm of Regina's voice, the way Regina would tuck her hair behind her ear while turning a page, the small scar on her upper lip. 

Emma went away from the lesson having retained every scrap of information she was told. 

A week and a half later, after 3 sessions, she found herself looking forward to her session later that day. Regina had some sort of super power that allowed her to hold Emma's attention entirely. Sometimes Emma found it hard to pull her gaze away from the brunette.

"Emma?" Mulan was waving at Emma, snapping her out of her thoughts. Emma blinked and turned to her. "Emma, please," Mulan begged. "We're in the middle of a dissection! Now can you please help me take out this frog's eye?"

The blonde nodded and helped her lab partner stabilize the dead amphibian. "Sorry Mulan," she apologized, "I was just thinking."

"About what?" her best friend inquired. The Asian completed the eye removal and put down her tools. "Soccer again?" asked Mulan, sympathy showing in her eyes. Mulan had become team captain since Emma had been kicked off the team.

Emma shook her head. "No. Well, not really. I'm thinking about my tutoring." Her tutor was more like it, but it was close enough to the truth. 

Mulan nodded. "Hey, don't you have Regina Mills as a tutor?" Emma responded with a 'yes'. "Is she hard on you? Aurora says she seems a little cold."

Emma felt the need to defend her tutor.
"Regina's not hard on me, and she's definitely not cold. She's actually a really good tutor. She makes things obvious and easy. Personally, I wouldn't mind if she took over English from Ms. French!" laughed Emma.

"Hey, Ms. French is a good teacher!" Mulan protested. Emma rolled her eyes. Mulan could be a bit of a teacher's pet at times, and it was annoying when she defended teachers.

"No, she isn't! She's meaaaannnn." Emma wrinkled her nose. Before Mulan could say anything else, she spoke again. "She gave me an F," her reasoning was.

Mulan raised an eyebrow. "And you deserved it, Emma. You wrote that last paper in less than an hour." Emma shrugged. Mulan was right about that.

The bell rang, announcing the dismissal of the students. The class cleaned up their mess and headed out the door. Emma bade Mulan a goodbye and went off to the library to meet with Regina. 

Emma opened the door and waved hello to Mrs. Foster-Lewis, the librarian– who looked the stereotypical millennial she was, with her beanie and small bottle of scotch in her purse. The blonde knew little of the school librarian, other than her friendship with Ms. French (which was most likely bounded by a mutual love of books) and the fact that she was one of the only openly queer adults Emma had met.