Frankie

"You what?" Francesca exclaimed with an appalled look on her face. "I'm sorry, but could you repeat that?"

Francesca couldn't grasp what Jordan was asking her to do. He wanted her to act as his girlfriend in front of his older brother so that his whole family would stop bothering him about being a womanizer.

"Gee Francesca, I didn't think I was that bad," Jordan said sarcastically and started to pack up his things. He got another text message from Marc telling him to hurry up and that he was hungry.

Blushing at Jordan's comment, Francesca moved so she was look at the side of his face. "It's not that! I mean, it's just, you're asking me to meet your brother. If you haven't noticed, I'm socially awkward," she tried to explain while flailing her arms around.

Jordan looked at Francesca as he stuffed the last of his things in his duffle bag. "You're not that bad."

"Couldn't you ask someone else? Someone more fitting," she whispered unsurely.

"Relax, my brother will love you. I mean, you're all wholesome and not at all a puck bunny. Plus you're smart! My family will eat this lie up," he begged her.

Francesca took a deep breath and exhaled. "Fine! Only because I owe you for helping me with Ryan," she agreed. "When are we supposed to meet him?"

Shifting his eyes, Jordan sighed. "Now," he said unsurely and took a step back in case Francesca decided to hit him.

Francesca's eyes widened and annoyance flashed through them. "I hate you," she mumbled and decided against saying anything else. "I'm not even dressed properly!" Francesca exclaimed and looked at her clothes.

She was still wearing the jersey that Jordan gave her, jeans and sneakers. It was definitely not the type of clothes that you'd wear to meet your 'supposed' boyfriend's family or family member. Even if they weren't really dating, Francesca felt the need to make a good impression.

"Where is my baby brother?"

Francesca turned around and saw a tall red haired man at the front doors of the locker. He smiled and walked towards where she and Jordan stood. In an instant, Jordan's arm found its way around Francesca's shoulders and he greeted his brother.

"Marc!" he said happily hugged his brother.

Francesca studied Marc Staal closely and compared Jordan to him. It was obvious that they were brothers, not only were they both freakishly tall, they shared the same nose and jaw line. Their features were close to being similar, it was unnerving.

"Marc, this is my girlfriend Francesca," Jordan introduced the mousy brunette girl to his older brother.

Marc looked down and was surprised to actually see a girl that didn't dress as little as possible with legs to die for, instead a shy and awkward looking girl dressed in jeans and his brother's jersey. At first he didn't believe it when their mother had called him and asked if he knew anything about Jordan dating or the girl he was dating.

He quickly brushed it off, thinking that their mother just misinterpreted what Jordan said and thought that the girl he was banging for more than a day was his girlfriend or something. He then got curious and called Eric, asking him if he knew anything about Jordan having a girlfriend. Eric confirmed it saying, that Jordan had been talking about his 'girlfriend' when he went to Raleigh to play a game.

The girl in front of him was not the typical Jordan Staal girl which composed of blonde, leggy, big boob, a California tan and a small brain. No, the girl in front of him was the exact opposite. She had a mousy brunette hair, a short stature, and thick glasses and, for once, wasn't rail thin. The girl in front of him looked like the type of girl that would spend hours in the library than hanging out.

"I'm Marc, the better Staal," he introduced himself and flashed her a welcoming smile and stuck out his hand.

Francesca smiled and accepted his hand. "Francesca. It's nice to meet you," she said nervously and bit the bottom of her lip.

Wrapping his arms around Francesca's shoulders, Jordan pulled her closer to him. "Why don't we head out now?" he asked them and pecked Francesca in the cheek.

Embarrassed by Jordan's gesture of affection, Francesca started to blush a deep shade of red and looked down on the floor. She nodded in agreement and mumbled a short yes when she felt both pairs of eyes on her.

*

Watching the two brothers converse happily, Francesca saw another side of Jordan. He was looser around his brother rather when he was with the team. With the team, Francesca noticed that he was more guarded, like one false move and it would make it to the Sunday papers. With Marc, he was constantly joking and less arrogant; she believed that the Jordan she was seeing was the real Jordan.

"So Frankie, Jordan tells me that you go to Carnegie Mellon. What are you studying?" Marc asked as they waited for the waitress to come back with their dinner.

Francesca stopped sipping her coke through the straw and set it down on the table. "I'm currently studying computer science, specifically Robotics."

Marc whistled much like Max did when she told him what she was studying. "That sounds difficult. How old are you?"

"Twenty-one."

"Are you sure you're my brother's girlfriend? You can tell me if he paid you," Marc joked and laughed at his brother.

Francesca dropped the spoon she was holding and her eyes widened. They had been caught! How had they been caught so easily? Did she let something out slip that made it obvious that they really weren't dating?

Jordan let out a dry laugh and threw his straw wrapper at his older brother. "You're so funny Marc. You really should have been a comedian," he joked and leaned over to whisper in Francesca's ear. "Relax, he's joking."

"Here you guys are," the waitress said and set down Marc's plate and then Francesca's.

"Here, let me help you with that," Jordan offered his help and took his plate from the pretty waitress making sure his hand would brush over her hand. He flashed her a flirtatious smirk.

The woman giggled and thanked Jordan and they both began to exchange a few 'friendly' words. Marc's eyes widened, he was half-expecting Francesca to get mad at Jordan and make a scene, and instead she was twiddling her thumbs and looking at the table.

Jordan completely forgot that he was playing the part of loving boyfriend and shamelessly flirted with the gorgeous blonde waitress in front of him. Marc let out an angry chuckle and kicked his brother in the leg under the table. Francesca was a nice girl and he knew that she didn't deserve to be treated the way she was.

Francesca felt extremely embarrassed. She knew that they weren't dating and that they were just pretending, but she felt embarrassed that Jordan would brazenly flirt with the much prettier woman in front of his brother.

"Jordan, I really think that you should let the woman do her job," he suggested and glared at his younger brother.

Looking at his brother and then at his supposed girlfriend, Jordan dismissed them and continued his conversation with the waitress. He took his arms back from Francesca's shoulder and laughed at what the waitress said.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom," Francesca muttered and felt slightly hurt that Jordan didn't even acknowledge her. Marc nodded at her and she quickly made her way to the bathroom to call Gwen.

"What's up, Fran? How's your date with Jordan?" Gwen answered; Francesca could hear excitement in her voice.

Groaning, Francesca banged her head against the bathroom wall. "Horrible. And it's not a date. Jordan Staal would be the last man I'd ever date," she said spitefully.

Gwen laughed. "Am I hearing some regret?" she teased her best friend. "Are we regretting posing as his fake girlfriend when you want to be his real girlfriend?"

"God, I've never felt so humiliated in my life! And Bobby pantsing in high school was embarrassing!"

"What happened?" Gwen asked starting to get protective of her friend. "What the hell did Jordan do now?"

"He's flirting with our waitress in front of his brother even though we're supposed to be together. So now, Marc keeps giving me these sympathetic looks and I had to go and hide out in the bathroom."

"Sweetie, you need to go back out there and throw a glass of water at him or something! Don't take Jordan's shit!" Gwen yelled making Francesca remove her cell phone from her ear. "Now, I'm going to hang up so that you have no more excuses to go back out there and beat the shit out of him," she said angrily and hung up.

Grudgingly, Francesca walked out of the bathroom and made her way back to the table where Marc and Jordan sat. Thankfully, the waitress was no longer flirting up a storm with Jordan and it was just the brothers.

"Sorry, it took so long. Drew called," she lied and scooted her chair a little further from Jordan.

Not noticing the sudden change in Francesca, Jordan just shrugged it off and began texting one of his friends. "What did he want?" he asked, not once taking his eyes off of his phone.

"He just wanted to know when we'd be making our way back to Annapolis for the weekend," she lied to him. It was true that she and Drew made plans to head to Annapolis to visit their parents, but she didn't feel up for telling Jordan the truth about calling Gwen.

There was a silence in the room and it was killing Francesca. She went of her drink and accidentally knocked it over right into Jordan's lap. Eyes widening, Francesca covered her mouth in shock. "I am so sorry!" she exclaimed and took a bunch of tissue and tried to dry the spilt water on Jordan's lap.

Marc started to laugh when Jordan groaned and watched as Francesca struggled to wipe the water. She was so innocent; she didn't even know how close her hand was from Jordan's crotch and how much it was killing him.

"Fran, Fran you should probably stop that," Jordan suggested and grabbed her tiny wrist just as she was about to start wiping the water again. "You're going to kill me.

Francesca knitted her eye brows together and tilted her head to the side. She followed Jordan's gaze and soon realized how close her hand was to his crotch. She felt her neck and cheeks heat up when she finally understood Jordan's implication. Quickly drawing her hand away from his lap, she caressed her hand.

She started to shrink into her seat and mumbled an apology to Jordan. Impressing Jordan's brother had become a complete disaster. She scolded herself internally for being so stupid and awkward. The blush on her cheeks never once disappeared throughout the rest of the awkward dinner.