A Trip To Another Land

Chapter 7: It's A New Day

In the dear town of Storybrooke, everybody woke up as if it were any other day, it wasn't. By now, it was, it had been weeks since the curse. All are unknowing of the truth, except for Qadira, of course. Their names were all different here, her's remained the same. Everybody remembered their fallen friend's name. Alana had her own headstone set by a tree that was planted ironically where her body lay in the deserted remains of the Enchanted Forest. In this quiet little quaint town, Anjanette, formally known as Anjel, has just been awakened by Stevie, formally known as Joey.

(FPPOV) "Mommy's coming, Stevie, hold on." I tell an impatient and hungry Stevie. I climb out of bed and slip on my slippers, heading to Stevie's room. Today was the day I get him into daycare and boy was he ever excited.

"Let go. Let go now." Stevie hollers from his crib, jumping up and down.

"Hold on there kiddo, you're not even dressed."

I walk to his dresser, pulling out an outfit for him to wear for the day. I pull out a pair of jean shorts and a white shirt with green lettering that says "MR. Too Much" on the front and a beanie that'll end up just taking off. I change him and then I set him in the playpen so I can get dressed. I change into blue skinny jeans, a white and dark blue short sleeve shirt, a brown belt, and a black sleeveless vest. I walk back out to Stevie and pick him up, putting his socks on for him, then my own. Next, our shoes, I give him his jean patterned sneakers to put on while I grab my white and rainbow Nike's. He has trouble putting them on the right feet so I give him a hand and put mine on.

"Ready to go, Munchkin?"

"Yes!" He hollers running to the front door, "Bye. Bye."

"Wait for me."

I grabbed his diaper bag, slinging it over my shoulder and grabbing my keys. I make him hold my hand down the porch. He waits by our car so I can put him into his carseat. I unlock our car, it's a sky blue four door supercar, and pick him up, setting him into his seat and buckling him in.

We drive to the daycare center and I park on the side of the street. I climb out and get Stevie from the back. I didn't see her walking up to me so I was expecting her to be behind me when I turned around. We collided into each other in the most embarassing of ways.

"Excuse me, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to startle you like that." She spoke softly with an apologetic tone.

I just stood there, what kind of person am I? I must look so very rude just standing here staring at her like this. She looks so familiar, but we've never met before, I don't understand. She is wearing a white layered lace dress with a short jean jacket and white slip on shoes, her hair was perfectly layered with a nice light brown highlight to contrast her dark brown hair.

"No, I sorry, I just get so focused that I forget about the rest of the world, especially when it comes to my son." I look down for a minute at my shoes, then look back up to meet her eyes, they were quite beautiful, like her.

"I understand that, most moms are. Will I be meeting a father?"

"No father, just me, I don't partake in looking for men really." My face flashes a deep shade of red when I say this.

"Oh, that's quite fine. Between you and me, I don't either." She says softly, looking at me. "Who is this little guy here?" She looks down at Stevie who has gone quiet, holding his blanket and teddy bear.

I have no clue how it got into his possession but it's just been with his as long as I can remember, maybe his birth mother gave it to him before I adopted him. He holds it close to him, watching her scarcely.

"This is Stevie. I'm sorry, I don't think I gave you my name, I'm Anjanette." I hold out my hand to her.

"I'm Maeko. It's a pleasure to meet you both."

She takes my hand and shakes it. I can't speak, something weird happened when her hand touched mine. I pull my hand my slowly, then run it through my hair, as if it had gotten into my face. I have to say something, I can't just stand here like this, it's going to get very awkward. Why am I shy all of a sudden, I'm never shy.

"Shall we go in, I heard you say there were papers that I had to fill out?" If I could just get through this, I can leave and change for work. I'm an EMT.

"Right this way."

We followed her inside her house, I let Stevie go play with the other kids. We went into her little home office and she pulled out two packets of papers and went through them with me as I filled them out. I may have forgotten what I was doing, getting distracted by her on occasion. When all was said and done, I hugged my son and told him I'd see him later.

(FPPOV, Valora's pov)

I get Paige up to get ready for school while I get ready for work. I'm a surgeon, and a single mom. I look outside and see our neighbor, Jefferson, has left both our trash cans askew in the ally we share. I step outside to fix them, alerting Jefferson, his annoying dog barking up a storm. I could never remember that dog's name.

"What could you possibly be doing with my trash can?" He comes outside in a huff.

"Straightening them, which you managed not to do." I snapped back. I'm usually so nice, but with him and his damn cluttered business, I just cannot be nicer to him. He drives me completely mad, I swear. I stared him down as I straightened the trash cans. I glance up, seeing him roll his eyes, straightening my outfit, I stand and walk back into my house.

"You ready to go babe?" I holler up the stairs to Paige.

"Yeah, on my way down Mom." She hollered back.

Within the next few minutes, she rushed down the steps, jumping from the last two. I grabbed my keys as she headed to our car. I dropped her off on my way to the hospital where I work, I'm a surgeon.

"See you later, Mom."

(Maeko's POV)

I could've sworn we'd met before, like it was on the tip of my tongue but I just couldn't place it. Only thing I knew for sure is I wanted to get to know her, even though I felt I already had.

Stevie ran in, interupting my thoughts.

"Yes little one?" I said softly.

I looked at him, and him, me, he didn't say anything else, just hugged me then ran back into the playroom. Weird child but alas, aren't they all weird children? I smiled to myself, he seemed familiar too, that bear of his as well. Oh well, no sense in getting over worked over nothing.

When lunchtime comes around, I call all the children to the dining room. They all bustle in, talking loud and with their mouths open while they eat. Makes me feel like I'm missing something important, must just be a weird day. After lunch time is nap time, I read while they nap, the story I'm reading you ask, Mulan.

(Jefferson's POV)

That woman and her incessant need to have things just right, who does she think she is? All I know is it's kind of hot when she yells at me. Her and her child feel like they should mean more then just as my neighbors, but I can't seem to place how. Oh well, I think to myself grabbing Chuck's lease to take him out for his morning walk.

As we walk around the town, we stop by a tree with a memorium on it, that's new, I thought to myself. I move closer and see just the name Alana, that's it, no last name or in memorium. I walk on with Chuck, having to pull him from the tree, he seems very sad to see it, but I've no idea why. I bring him back home and head to my hat shop: Hat Insanity.

(TPPOV) Between the bickering of two unknown lovers and a couple who don't understand how they feel like they knew each other before. All was going well for Qadira, or so she thought, unbeknownst to her, her curse was slowly beginning to unravel.