Status: Ongoing

Frankie

So smothered

Sitting in silence, Francesca was thankful that there wasn't anyone to disturb her from peacefully studying. It was just her and the study of robotics tonight. She took out a thick textbook from her backpack, a pen and a notebook and carefully aligned them at the head of the table.

Checking the clock, 6:13 it read. 'Great, it gives me enough time to get through at least two chapters, finish my left over homework and proof read my essay all before bed,' she thought excitedly. Uncapping the black pen she went to reading the textbook, taking notes along the way.

"Frankie! Frankie!" Francesca cringed when she heard her best friend, Gwen, call and bang on the door incessantly. She remained quiet, hoping that Gwen might think that she wasn't in the dorm and leave. "Frankie, I know you're in there. You're light is open."

Francesca swore under her breath after realizing that she did leave the light open. Sighing, she got up from her very comfy chair and opened the door. "What?" she asked annoyed. "What do you want from my life?"

Gwen pouted and stomped her feet. "You totally forgot didn't you?" she accused Francesca and pointed her manicured finger at her. Francesca gave her a blank stare, only to annoy Gwen even more. "You promised me that you'd go to dinner with me. We were suppose to check out that new restaurant today," she said.

The brunette opened her mouth to protest, but she was quickly cut off by Gwen. "Don't you dare cancel on me! You've been locked in your room for the past four Fridays! And yes I have been counting."

"But I have to study for my test!" Francesca protested and looked back at her unoccupied desk. It was starting to look rather lonely without her.

"Well I don't care. You promised me and that's final," Gwen concluded and pushed her friend aside to enter the small room. "Now let me dress you," she ordered, making her way to Frankie's closet.

Francesca stood her ground by the door glared at the blonde. After awhile of uselessly giving her sour looks, she figured it was going nowhere and just complied with Gwen. She stomped into the very small bathroom in her room and shut it loudly.

"And get rid of those dorky ass glasses of yours, you're meeting a few of my friends," Gwen yelled making Francesca groan with disdain.

*

Gwen parked her new BMW into a free parking space in front of an expensive looking restaurant with a French name Francesca couldn't even pronounce. She rolled her eyes and followed Gwen out of the car.

"I can't believe you made me do this. I could have finished chapter eight by now," she whined and pulled down her dress to cover her legs.

Rolling her eyes, Gwen opened the door and waited in line to be seated. "Whatever, I'm sure your robots can wait, they aren't really going anywhere. Stop pulling at your dress!" she scolded and slapped Francesca's hand away. "Reservation for Shero," Gwen told the hostess.

"Right this way," the hostess smiled politely and led them across the room silently.

Francesca looked at the restaurant in amazement. The people were finely dressed and the interior looked like it came from a movie and someone was about to propose to their significant other. That or the mafia would come in, guns blazing.

Not paying attention to where she was going, Francesca bumped into Gwen clumsily making Gwen look back at her.

"Gwenie!" someone yelled and attacked the leggy blonde into a big hug.

Gwen laughed joyously. "Hey TK, I missed you too."

Standing awkwardly behind Gwen, she moved to the side as more guys went up to hug her. Twiddling with the hem of her black and white knew length dress; Francesca failed to notice pairs of eyes starting to land on her.

Gwen coughed at her friend's awkwardness and poked her in the side, gaining her attention. "Guys this is my best friend Francesca. Frankie these guys are the Penguins," she introduced them.

Hearing her name, she saw six new pairs of eyes staring at her, belonging to them here six amazingly gorgeous guys. She studied them, she concluded that they were athletes, but couldn't figure from what sport. They couldn't be in football considering she knew almost everything about football and doesn't recognize any of them.

"Hi, I'm Francesca Ryan," she said politely and meekly.

"Why don't we sit and we can get to know each other a little more over diner. I'm starving," Gwen said pulling Francesca to the table and the boys followed.

Francesca ended up sitting beside Gwen on her right and some guy with pretty big lips and a contagious smile on her left.

"Fran these are Sidney," she pointed to the guy beside me. "Kris, Geno, Jordan, Max and Tyler," she ended with the guy on her right. "They play for the Penguins, which is probably useless to you, unless its football, but they play hockey," she explained.

The guys said their hellos and studied Gwen's friend intensely. She seemed like a shy and meek person, a complete opposite of what you'd expect someone like Gwen to be friends with.

"So you go to Carnegie Mellon with our Gwenie. What do you study?" Max asked, who sat beside Jordan (directly in front of her), the really cute guy, Francesca thought.

Francesca took note of his French accent, but was too rough to be true French and guessed that he either lived in Pittsburgh for a long time or was French–Canadian. "Um, I'm studying Computer Science, specifically Robotics."

Max whistled impressed while the others stared at her intently and genuinely interested in getting to know her. She was defiantly not the type of person they expected Gwen to be friends with. They expected her to be friends with someone along the lines of a puck bunny.

"You must be extremely smart. How did you end up being friends with Gwen?" he joked and the whole table laughed, save for Francesca, who just cracked a small smile.

"Hey, I resent that! Frankie also got into MIT as well. Can you imagine getting into MIT!" Gwen bragged about her friend. She knew that Francesca was humble and never really like talking about her accomplishments, so she took it upon herself to do it for her.

"Why didn't you go? Isn't MIT supposed to be a really good school?" Sidney asked from beside her.

The brunette turned from Max to Sidney. "CMU had a better robotics program and my brother lives here," she explained and blushed. She hated attention, especially from guys.

It wasn't until the waiter took their orders that the guys stopped asking questions about the newest addition to their group. The learned that she had a brother that lived in the outskirts of Pittsburgh and that she came from a very football oriented family, which explained her zero knowledge of hockey.

They boys had left a definite impression on Francesca. They were all extremely charming and polite group. They seemed to care about Gwen a lot with the way they continually asked about her and how she was like. It was as if they were sizing her up and seeing if she was a good influence for Gwen.

Francesca found herself sitting awkwardly and giving short answers whenever the guys asked her a question, while Gwen was chatting animatedly with Tyler. Finally the food they ordered arrived and Francesca noticed Jordan wink at the waitress when she placed his food down.

"Let me guess, you plan on getting her number, huh?" Gwen asked, also noticing that wink and flirtatious look.

Jordan shrugged. "What can I say? It's hard to let a pretty girl pass," he answered simply.

Gwen rolled her eyes. "One day Jordan Staal, you're going to like a girl and she won't return your feelings because of your womanizing way," she forewarned him.

Kris choked on his food and started laughing. "Jordan liking a girl for more than one night? Come one Gwenie, be realistic," he joked and Jordan threw a piece of his food at him. "You know it's true."

The table was silenced when Fantaisie Op. 49 by Chopin rang through the table. Gwen looked at Francesca as she struggled to take it out her black bag as quickly as she could.

"Who is it?" Gwen asked.

Francesca looked at the caller ID from her cell phone. "It's Drew," she mumbled unsurely. It wasn't common for Drew to be calling her on Friday's; he was usually out at a bar with his friends or at club. "Hello?"

"Fran?"

"Ryan? Why do you have Drew's phone? Is he okay?" Francesca started to panic. It wasn't like Ryan to be calling her since they hardly knew each other. To Ryan, she was just his best friend's little sister. Gwen shot Francesca a worried look, while the others watched the scene unfold.

"Drew got drunk and got into a fight with some people. He's in the hospital getting stitches and he won't see anyone but you," Ryan explained and in the background Francesca could hear Drew making a ruckus.

Francesca sighed and closed her eyes. "Yeah, I'll be there in a few. Just tell him I'm on my way," she said and closed her phone. "Gwen, I'm so sorry, but Drew's in the hospital for his stupidity and I need to get him," she explained to her worried friend and got up.

"Ok, do you need me to take you there?" Gwen asked about to get up as well.

"No, stay. Have fun with your friends. I'm going to my dorm to pick up my car and then probably take Drew to Baltimore so Grandma can make another intervention."

"Baltimore is a four hour drive, are you sure?" Gwen asked. Gwen knew that Drew had a drinking problem and the only person that could talk Drew out of drinking for awhile was their Grandmother.

Francesca nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine, Drew's just a dumbass," she said lightly hoping it would make Gwen worry less. Francesca kissed Gwen on the cheek and said goodbye to her friends before bolting out the door.

Gwen stared at her best friend's pathway. "Gwen, is she going to be alright?" Sidney asked.

Gwen looked at Sidney and smiled as best as she could. "I don't know. Drew isn't the best drinker in the world. Fran told me it had something to do him busting his knee or something," she explained to them.
♠ ♠ ♠
Love hockey. Love the Staal's. Period.
Hope you liked it, comment and tell me what you think!