Frankie

"Your hair is frizzy as hell!" Gwen exclaimed as she tried to brush Francesca's hair with a brush. "You need a freaking metal brush for this," she exaggerated and threw the wooden hair brush on Frankie's vanity table.

Francesca sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "I don't understand why I need to fix my hair and do all this stuff."

Gwen rolled her eyes at her friend's inexperience. "Because this isn't some fake date or a get together, this is a legit date with Jordan Staal. Do you know how many girls would kill to have a date with Jordan Staal?"

"Many?" she said unsurely as she watched Gwen go through her small closet.

Gwen shook her head, her blonde hair swishing along. "I worry about you. I really do, Fran," said Gwen. "Now tell me, why have I never seen this?" Gwen asked, holding up an off white dress that Edith Ryan had sent her daughter last September.

Francesca shrugged her shoulder. "I just didn't know how to wear it and plus its pretty revealing," she explained.

"Are you kidding me? This has to be the most innocent dress I've ever seen. It's practically holy, plus you have the cutest collection of flats I have ever seen," Gwen squealed. She then snapped her fingers. "I've got the perfect outfit!" she said excitedly and went to work on Francesca's outfit.

It had been a whole week since Frankie and Jordan took care of Lucas. A whole week since Jordan kissed Frankie. It seemed that him kissing her was all she could think about the whole week. She thought that Jordan would be all awkward around her, but he was the opposite. He took her home when Kris and Adrienne took Lucas and even asked her on a date when he came back from his away games.

She had been caught off guard by his request, but said yes none the less. This time it wasn't a fake date to make Ryan jealous or impress Marc, it was real and it was their feelings on the line. There was no hiding anything; everything was out in the open.

Francesca fixed her 'frizzy' hair and got up to get dressed. She smiled at Gwen and thanked her best friend for helping her. Without Gwen, Frankie would have never met Jordan or any of the boys from the Penguins. Nor would she ever be able to figure out what to wear on her first real date, ever.

"Thank you, so much, Gwen."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can thank me by coming back as Jordan Staal's official girlfriend," she teased and shoved Frankie to the bathroom to get dressed.

Sitting on Francesca's bed, Gwen took out her textbook and began reading it as she waited for Frankie to leave the bathroom. She didn't wait long, because four minutes later, Frankie opened the bathroom door.

"How do I look?" she asked and spun slowly around.

Gwen grinned and closed her textbook. "You look adorable. Jordan's going to have a heart attack!"

Heat rushed to Francesca's pale cheeks at the mention of Jordan. "I hope so, I really like him Gwen," she gushed.

Getting up from the bed, Gwen gripped her best friend's shoulders firmly and looked at Francesca dead in the eyes. "And the feeling is mutual. Relax, be yourself, that's the whole reason Jordan likes you in the first place," she reassured her friend.

The strong knock on the door made Frankie jump and she started to get nervous. "He's here!" she exclaimed with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Her palms started to get sweaty as she approached the door.

On the other side of the door was a nervous looking Jordan, who gave Frankie a lopsided smile when she opened the door. "I got these for you," he said and handed her a bouquet of orchids. "Gwen told me that they were your favourite," he said sheepishly.

Frankie smiled and took the flowers gratefully. "They're beautiful, thank you," she thanked him and then soon fell to an awkward silence.

Rolling her eyes, Gwen stepped in and took the flowers from Frankie. "I'll take these and put them in some water. Why don't you guys get going, wouldn't want you to be late for your reservation," she said and pushed Frankie out the door and closed the door.

"She's right. We should get going," Jordan said.

Frankie nodded and smiled to herself when Jordan took her hand. His hand was warm as it covered her tiny hands. She examined him; he was wearing black slacks and a nice blue button up shirt. He looked good.

"You look beautiful, by the way," he complimented her when he opened the door for her.

"Thank you," she smiled at him and got into the car, hoping that Jordan didn't see the dark blush on her face.

*

They sat in silence, both looking at the menu. Jordan had brought Francesca to the same French restaurant that Gwen had taken her when she and Jordan had first met, which Francesca found sweet. He said that he wanted to start over, since there were so many miscommunications between them and he thought it appropriate to bring her back to the same place they met to start over.

Frankie got nervous when the same waitress that served them the first time they were here approached them. The waitress clearly remembered Jordan as she added an extra sway to her walk when she was in Jordan's view. Frankie was nervous that a repeat of their dinner with Marc would occur again.

"Can I get your order?" the waitress asked and flashed Jordan a flirtatious smile, but Jordan kept his eyes on either Frankie or the menu.

Jordan nodded and gave his order to her. The waitress looked disappointed when Jordan didn't even once look at her and instead kept his eyes on Francesca. "Frankie, you ready to order?" he asked after no response from his date.

Francesca had her mouth open, surprised that Jordan kept his attention only on her. She was not expecting it, after all, she was nothing special and the waitress was ten times more beautiful than her. Snapping herself out of her surprise, she smiled at the waitress and gave her order.

"I'm not going to sugar coat any of this, so I'm going straight to the point," Jordan said once the waitress left and exhaled.

Panicking, Francesca's eyes started to dart all around the room, her lips pursed. He sounded serious, was he going to shoot her down before she even got the chance to confess her feelings for him?

"I really like you," he suddenly said, making Frankie's eyes snap to him, widening at in the meanwhile. "I think that you're an amazing girl and any guy would be lucky to have you. I don't know why Ryan never saw this and I'm glad that he didn't. If he did, then I would have never gotten my chance with you," he confessed. "I really want to give us a chance. To be able to call you my girlfriend, but if you're still in love with Ryan, I'm willing to wait. For you, I'm willing to wait," he fumbled over his words.

Jordan scolded himself for feeling like a teenager again. He was supposed to be pro at these kinds of things! But for some reason, Frankie had this power over him that made him act like an awkward teenager again.

Francesca could feel the heat rise to her cheeks. She could hear her heart beating abnormally loud in her ears. Her mind was racing a mile an minute with thoughts on how to respond to Jordan's confession. How was she going to top that?

Jordan started to worry when the silence loomed over them. He was scared that he was too forward with the inexperienced Francesca and worried that he scared her away. He was also worried that she was going to reject him.

"I'm not in love with Ryan," she finally said. "I thought I was, but then I realized that it had always been just admiration for him. For the longest time, he was this hero to me, the person that never looked at me as Drew's nerdy little sister, but as a person of my own," she explained and chuckled. "I always had this system growing up. Get up, survive, study and go back to bed," she explained. "But then you came along and screwed it all up, and I have never been more thankful.

"My feelings for you is more different than the feelings I had for Ryan. With you, all I can think about is you. The smallest things would remind you of me, I can't study properly, I would constantly think about you and it kills me when you think, talk and look at another girl," she said and looked at him, his blue eyes filled with his said feelings for her. "It honestly scares me, these feelings I have for you, but I can't find it in me to say no, because I know I'd regret it."

Smiling wildly, Jordan took her hands from across the table excitedly. "Does that mean you'll be my girlfriend?" he asked, looking like a little boy who just saw a pile of presents for him to open.

Francesca returned his smile with just as much enthusiasm. "I'd like nothing more."