Ignorance is Bliss

Dark Castle

Aveena was shy, no matter how much her father tried to break her of it. It seemed to be her curse—at fifteen she still had no man asking to court her. She never once blamed her papa for it, but she was beginning to realize that he had a lot to do with it. Every now and again a young man would show up and her papa seemed to have no problems with either scaring them away or turning them into some type of animal; one man he actually turned into a rat! What was so wrong about the fact she wanted to start her own family?

She rarely brings the subject up to him for fear of his temper, having already been struck once before, though he regretted it and apologized profusely. That was why she was walking through the woods and looking for the clearing by a stream; waiting for her there would be Thomas, the son of a well-liked knight. If Rumpel found out about these secret meetings she would surely be punished and Thomas would more than likely be killed. He smiles as Aveena approaches him, hazel eyes shining brightly with love—or what she assumed was love. "Hey," he says, giving her a quick kiss on her cheek.

Storybrooke

Have you ever had one of those afternoons where the planets have aligned and you just know the rest of the day is gonna be hell? Yeah, that's today for me. I lost my voice, didn't do last night's Algebra II homework, and, to top it all off, a car nearly ran my ass over! God, I'm tempted to just skip the rest of school today, but the school would call papa and then I'd get a lecture from him—no thanks, I'll pass on that. Sighing, I pull my bag closer to me before running across the street to the high school building. Eli walks over to me with a grin, wrapping his arms around my waist and giving me a quick kiss on my lips. He's the only one that's not afraid to be around me because of who my papa is, he's also my boyfriend. "How are you feeling," he asks, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as we head to our lunch hour.

"I've been better," I say as loud as I can, voice letting out a small squeak. He chuckles at me, hazel eyes lighting up with amusement. Scowling, I smack his shoulder, though I knew it wouldn't hurt him in the slightest. Not only was Eli captain of the fencing club, he was also a football player, though nowhere near first string material—not as big as some of the others, but still bigger than I am. "I think I might go home at lunch if I don't feel any better."

"Maybe I'll go with you, after all, that squeaky voice of yours is pretty funny," he quips and I smack his shoulder again with a laugh. "Seriously though, I'll drive us to your house right now and we can eat some Sonic and watch TV until time for your dad to come home; that's when I haul ass outta there." He gives me a smile, leading me towards the student parking lot, and gently pushing me into the front seat of the beat-up, white Mustang his parents gave him last year. "You'll want your usual, I presume?"

"You presume right," I nod.

Gold

When I came home for the night I didn't expect to see my daughter and some young man tangled together on the couch while a Queen song was playing in the background. I make a point of dropping the takeout I'd brought home loudly onto a side table by the couch that I would have to burn later. The two teens jump, the boy tumbling into the floor as Morgan shoots upright, cheeks flushed and going darker once she realizes just who it was that caught her. The boy stands up; growing pale when he catches the glare I'm giving him. "Uh, um, I'll see you later, Mor—Miss Gold," he stutters, grabbing his tee shirt and running out of my house quicker than I've seen any teen move in quite a while.

Morgan brings her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them with a glare sent in my direction. "Way to go," she growls, taking her dinner and marching up the stairs in a huff. I'll never understand teenagers, let alone teenage girls.