Chapter 12-
Sera was pacing in her room trying to figure out what to do. She knew she was the one to offer meeting at the park, but now she couldn't stop second guessing herself. It was 9:30 and she had about twenty minutes before she had to leave. Thankfully the park was just down the road from her house, but she still had to leave early so she could go through the streets instead of having to cut through the woods by the baseball field. Sera thought about just going to sleep, and explaining to Regina tomorrow that she didn't want to talk to her.
Sera paused in the middle of her room. Regina. She could not believe she had actually called Ms. Mills Regina in her mind. It came so easily too, like she was just another person, and not her vice principal. Sera smiled slightly to herself, realizing that Regina giving her the power to be an equal to her was one of the greatest feelings in the world. Regina was completely okay with seeing Sera as another person and not a child. This realization made Sera know exactly what she was going to do. She quickly locked her room door and jumped out the window, thanking her stars that she was on the first floor. She quickly walked down the street and headed towards the park, being careful to avoid the groups of people passing by. The last thing she needed to do was run into a group of people from her school, they would ask far too many questions that Sera wasn't willing to answer.
Sera arrived at the swings with about fifteen minutes to spare, and used her extra time to collect herself. She had absolutely no clue what she was going to say when Regina got there, and she became frustrated because of it. She knew she wanted to question her about the conversation with Mrs. Zeppelin, but after that Sera had no idea. She looked at the road adjacent to the park and saw a sleek black car drive up that Sera noticed immediately.
The car quickly parked and out stepped Regina. Sera quickly stood up to try and make herself easier to see, but quickly sat back down when she realized it was pitch black and she was wearing dark colors.
Regina locked her car and turned towards the park. She had a mini pep talk with herself on the ride here, but now she didn't know what to do. Regina could faintly see Sera's outline a little further in the woods. She took a deep breath and walked towards her, hoping something good came out of this meeting and that Sera would forgive her for her chat with Lauren.
When Regina finally reached Sera, the two women took a moment to look at each other. Sera was pleased to see that Regina was wearing a plain white tank top and black jeans; it was weird seeing her out of her normal classy outfits but it also made Regina look like a college student, which definitely helped Sera feel like they really were equals.
"I'm really glad you agreed to meet me," Regina started, but Sera cut her off.
"I figured I should at least give you the opportunity to explain everything, I want to know the full story so I don't jump to any conclusions. Please, sit." Once again Regina was stunned at how mature Sera was. She took a seat next to her on the swings and prepared to explain herself. She looked at Sera who silently nodded, giving her the cue to start talking.
"Okay so, I just wanted to start off by saying I'm not an informant for Lauren, and that is not why I first brought you into my office." Regina proceeded to tell her everything, about looking through her file after their first meeting, all the way through until the conversation she had with Lauren; except for her personal feelings towards Sera, of course. Throughout Regina's entire speech, Sera patiently listened and let her get everything out, unable to speak even if she wanted to. Knowing that Mrs. Zeppelin had given Regina the file about her history was unnerving; that was private information that should have been kept private, and it scared Sera tremendously to know that the paper was still out there. She did, however, take some solace in knowing it was in Regina's possession at the moment, because Sera trusted her.
When Regina was finally finished, she looked at Sera expectantly, and with a hint of fear. She knew that telling her everything was a hit or miss. Sera could either believe her and the tension between them could ease up, or only focus on the negative and never want to speak to Regina again. The thought of the second option made Regina internally cringe, she had no clue what she would do if Sera became enraged, and silently prayed she would be understanding.
Sera thought over everything thoroughly, and then went over everything again just to make sure. She was still pretty upset that Mrs. Zeppelin was trying to get information out of her, but was happy that Regina was not just trying to weasel her way into Sera's personal life. She turned to Regina and smiled, which in turn made Regina form a slight apprehensive smile in return.
"So, now that it's all in the open," Regina started, "What do you think?"
"I think that," Sera paused for a second to gather her thoughts (and partly for dramatics) then smiled and said, "that I have no reason to be mad at you. I am however pissed at Mrs. Zeppelin." Regina laughed, both at Sera's comment and in complete relief. The sound of Regina's laugh put a bright smile on Sera's face and soon enough she was laughing as well.
When the two finally calmed down, they started catching up with each other. Not a lot had happened to either of them in the past day, but they still relished each other's company enough to find the little moments to expand upon. When Sera brought up the dance gig her eyes lit up, and Regina was instantly distracted. Even in the darkness of the trees surrounding them, the moon somehow illuminated Sera's eyes, making her excitement look simply magical. And Regina could not concentrate on anything else. After a few moments Sera looked at Regina and noticed a dazed smile on her, which immediately made Sera confused.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Sera wasn't upset, just incredibly curious, and slightly amused.
"Just seeing how much your eyes light up when you talk about dancing." Sera's smile grew wider. She wasn't even aware of how her expression had changed. She knew in her heart how much she loved it but was unaware how obvious it was.
"Can you blame me? Everyone has their passion, and this is mine."
"I don't think it's a bad thing at all. I don't think I've ever seen a person so passionate about anything."
"Olivia's passionate about dancing." The second the words left her mouth, Sera wanted to take them back. She could tell by the change in the overall mood surrounding both of them that Olivia was the last thing she should have brought up.
"She was once, now it's just a job. Don't get me wrong she loves it, but it's not the same as before," as though she were talking to herself, Regina added, "nothing's really the same as before."
Sera became instantly confused, but figured she shouldn't be bringing anything up. An awkward silence filled the both of them, and Regina looked at her phone to try and avoid the tension, but immediately jumped up.
"It's past one o'clock! You need to get home for school in the morning!" Sera looked at her phone and realized it was true. How three hours had passed so quickly was a complete mystery to her, but she also realized in about twenty minutes her mother would check up on her, and will break down the door if it was locked. Sera quickly jumped up and mumbled a goodbye before heading towards the woods.
"Wait Sera where are you going?" Regina yelled whilst rushing towards her
"There's a path along the reservoir that will lead me back to the main road." Sera barely turned again before Regina was grabbing onto her arm. Sera turned to her in confusion.
"Let me give you a ride home. As safe as this town is, I don't want you walking through those woods this late at night." Sera was about to reject her offer when she realized arguing would just waste more time. So, she hesitantly agreed and the two got into Regina's car. Sera gave her directions to the house and they arrived in under three minutes.
"Thank you for the ride, and agreeing to meet me tonight."
"The ride was no trouble at all, and as for meeting you, I should be the one saying thank you for letting me explain myself. Not many people have the maturity you do, and I'm very glad I got this chance to get to know you." Sera smiled at Regina's words and before she could help herself leaned in and hugged Regina in her seat. She pulled away slightly a few seconds later to see a red faced Regina smiling back at her.
"What was that for?" Regina asked, genuinely curious as to what made Sera initiate that kind of contact. Sera was unsure how to answer, but wanted to make an impression.
"Everything." She answered vaguely before climbing out of the car and walking up the path. She turned once to wave and saw Regina watching her with a big smile on her face. Sera turned and kept walking, quickly diving into her window and closing it back up. She watched Regina drive away before quickly undressing and hopping in bed.
Just as her head hit the pillow, her bedroom door opened and her mother looked inside. Sera quickly slowed her breathing and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep. When her mother closed the door again she opened her eyes and the smile she had been holding in stretched straight across her face. She was so excited to be able to spend the night with Regina, and couldn't wait to see her tomorrow. With the memories of her night in the park, Sera slowly drifted off to sleep.