troubled teachers

Chapter 29

Are you ok?" Emma asked Henry on Sunday evening a week later. The boy had been silent all weekend, shut up in his room unless Emma had called him down for meals. They were currently eating beans on toast (Emma had neglected to go shopping for a while) and watching a re-run of Friends on television.

"I'm fine," Henry replied.

"You sure about that?"

"Peter comes back to school tomorrow," Henry said after a pause.

"Oh."

Somehow, what with everything else going on in their lives, Emma had completely forgotten that Peter Panner's suspension was coming to an end. Although there had been no backlash against Henry for his involvement with the drug crackdown, both Swans knew that might all change once Peter returned. With no hard evidence linking him to the drugs and nor his involvement with Felix beating up Henry, Mr Gold had been unable to expel Peter. A suspension was the best he could do.

"Are you worried?" Emma asked.

"Kinda," Henry admitted. "I know I won't see him much because of our timetables but at lunch and break time it's going to be inevitable that we run into each other. Storybrooke isn't that big."

"Peter is going to be watched very closely by every member of staff. One foot out of line and that kid is gone. He won't risk that, not with his GCSEs coming up in a few months," Emma assured him.

"I guess," Henry said, pushing his half finished plate away. "Nothing I can do really though, is there."

"Stick with Michael, Nick and Ava," Emma suggested. "They'll look out for you."

"I don't want to drag them into it," Henry said.

"They're your friends," Emma said gently. "They'll want to be there for you if you need them. Plus I'm Peter's tutor so he knows if anything happens to you I'm going to be coming down on him like a tonne of bricks."

"I don't need you fighting my battles," Henry scowled.

"Good," Emma replied. "Because there won't be a battle. Everything will be fine, you'll see."

And it was. Peter approached Emma on Monday morning with a note of apology for both her and Henry. He behaved impeccably all week, and teachers commented to Emma about how good he had been: focused in class, excellent homework, polite, punctual. It was like he was a different student. Henry and his friends hadn't been bothered once and everything settled quickly back to how it always was.

~

March flew by in the blink of an eye and before Emma and Henry knew it, the final bell had rung and the Easter break began.

Two weeks holiday. Two blissful, school-free weeks. Aside from a few chocolate eggs, Easter itself passed the Swans by - church had never played a big part in their lives. Plus they were both too excited about what was to come the following day.

It had been a surprise, presented to the two of them the week before school ended. Regina had beamed at the looks of pure joy on the two faces as they opened their respective envelopes, each containing a plane ticket.

"Sicily?" Emma said, her mouth open in shock as she read and reread the information before her.

"I go every year," Regina explained. "My mother's family is from there and I always visit my cousin for the Easter holidays. She lives in this ridiculous villa paid for by one of her many ex husbands and she loves entertaining, the more the merrier. So this year I thought the two of you might like to join me."