Ever since she was a baby, Frankie Hollingsworth loved dancing. When she was little, she made her older brother, Miles, dance with her and twirl her around until they were both dizzy, but Miles never complained or protested; he loved spending time with his baby sister. That was until Winston showed up. Winston was small and scrawny with puppy dog eyes that were framed by thick, black glasses. He was the same age as Miles and Frankie hated him. She hated that he just walked over and took Miles away from her.

When she was 7, Frankie's mother enrolled her in a ballet class where she made her best friends, Zoe Rivas, a slightly snobby 8-year-old who always wore a thick, black bow in her hair to match her leotard; Lola Pacini, a bubbly blonde who always had colorful, glittery bracelets on her wrist; and Shay Powers, a driven black girl who spent extensive amounts of time dancing because she wanted to be the best. In ballet, Frankie finally felt like a princess again. She no longer had Miles to dance with but the pretty costumes and loads of makeup made up for it...at least for a little while.

"Mom, can I dance in The Nutcracker," 12-year-old Frankie pleaded, looking up at her mother with wide eyes, "Please?"

Her mother smiled down at her warily, "Of course you can, dear. But your brothers have to go with you."

No, no, no, Frankie thought as her mother took the audition form from her hands. Ballet was supposed to be her thing; Miles had sports, Hunter had comics, and Frankie had ballet. But now she was going to have to share that with her brothers too! She huffed and ran up to her room to text her friends. She sighed and put on her black leotard, tying her brown curls up in a tight bun on top of her head, before throwing on her sweats and heading downstairs. When she saw who was sitting on the couch with her brother, she groaned.

"No," she glared at the raven haired boy, "he can't go."

"Behave, Francesca," her mother warned, "or you won't be allowed to go either." From her spot on the stairs, Frankie could see the stupid boy smiling to himself, his shoulders shaking. He was laughing. At her! Frankie huffed, heading to the car and getting in to wait for her brothers and that monster. When they got in the car, Miles rode shotgun, leaving Frankie squished beside Winston.

He smiled softly at her, "You look nice." She gave him a dirty look and resisted the urge to blush as he continued to stare at her. When they got to the dance studio, Frankie bolted from the car to meet her friends. Lola and Shay were busy stretching when she got into the studio but Zoe was too busy flirting with one of the male dancers to notice her.

Lola gave her friend a hug and giggled excitedly, "I'm hoping to be a party guest this year, what about you, Frankie?"

"I'm hoping to be a party guest or a flower," Frankie grinned as some of the older dancers appeared in the doorway. Among them was Becky Baker; her older brother Luke, who Frankie thought was extremely cute; Adam Torres; his stepbrother Drew; Anya MacPherson; Mia Jones; and Mark Fitzgerald.

"Ooh, does somebody have a crush," Jack Jones, one of the older girls, wiggled her eyebrows at Frankie suggestively as Frankie admired Luke from the doorway. Jack was a modern and jazz dancer and was helping out with auditions today since there were a lot of students auditioning.

"Shut up," Frankie blushed and looked away, only to find Winston staring at her. As usual when he saw her, he was frowning, clearly annoyed to have been dragged there. Whatever, Frankie rolled her eyes and stood up, heading over to the group of dancers, like I care what he thinks.

"Children, settle down," their ballet instructor hit her cane on the floor to get their attention, "Line up; boys on the left side of the room and girls on the right." They all did as they were told and Frankie looked over at the boys' side of the room and counted the number of boys standing there.

"Oh dear," Mrs. Kelly frowned, "it appears we have three more girls than boys," that's when she saw Miles, Hunter, and Winston, "Gentlemen, can you come here for a moment?" No, no, no, Frankie groaned as the three boys entered the room.

"Would you three please help us run auditions," Mrs. Kelly smiled at them, "Jack can go get you some extra clothes to change into. Miles, you still have your hip hop clothes," Miles nodded at the petite woman, "Good. Then it's settled, go with Jack." The boys followed Jack out of the room and Frankie groaned again, hitting her head on the bar.

After the boys came back, Mrs. Kelly and Mr. Robertson started pairing everyone up to learn the party scene; Darcy Edwards played Clara and Adam played Fritz while everyone else was playing a party guest. Miles was paired with Zoe, which she looked rather pleased about; Mike Dallas, a tall sophomore boy, was paired with a smaller sophomore girl, Alli Bhandari; Drew was paired with Becky; Mark, though everyone but Mrs. Kelly called him Fitz, was paired with Anya; a rich boy named Declan was paired with Shay; Luke was paired with Mia, much to Frankie's disappointment; and Lola was paired with Hunter, leaving Frankie with...

"Hey," Winston smiled at her and she put her face in her hands. Great, just great, she thought as they practiced the choreography, I'm stuck with him...AGAIN!

Frankie stared at Winston as Jack began to teach all the girls the choreography. He just gave her a goofy grin and stepped over to the boys' side of the room so the girls could practice. The entire time he watched them, his eyes stayed glued to Frankie. Though she was shy, and much younger than the other girls, Frankie was just as strong and graceful as the other girls and kept up perfectly.

"Okay, gentlemen, it is your turn to impress the ladies," Mrs. Kelly grinned widely, motioning for the boys to join her on the floor, "This is my son, Justin, he will be teaching you the choreography. Jack and Justin will then teach you the combination together and then you'll do the dance altogether and the cast list will be up after class tomorrow," she leaned against her cane and watched as the boys danced. From her corner of the room, Frankie watched her brothers tentatively, making sure they didn't make total fools of themselves. Miles was a natural, graceful and strong, but Hunter was timid and didn't look to be enjoying himself in the least. Frankie laughed as she watched Winston do several pirouettes in the black ballet shoes Jack had given him. He was actually quite good at it and he looked really cute-Stop it, Frankie, she mentally slapped herself, Winston is an annoying, nerdy brother stealing troll.

Who just happens to be cute, a voice in the back of her mind whispered. And, unfortunately, the voice was right. Winston was cute, not Luke cute but cute.

"Frankie! Frankie, I made it! I'm going to be a party guest," Lola giggled excitedly, bouncing up and down. Frankie, who was less than amused that her mom had signed Miles up for ballet, along with his hip hop lessons, just rolled her eyes at her friend. Lola grinned and pulled Frankie to the bulletin board by the front desk so she could check it. Frankie scanned the list before finding her name in big, bold letters.

Francesca Hollingsworth-Party Guest, Snowflake

"I'm a snowflake? This has to be a mistake, only the older and more talented girls get picked to be a flower or a snowflake." She looked over the list one more time and nearly screamed.

Winston Chu-Party Guest, Chinese Dancer

What is he doing? Frankie was furious; dance was her thing and now he was stealing it the way he stole Miles! That evil, conniving troll! She huffed and went to grab her bag and find Miles. As she was looking for him, she bumped into Zoe, who looked beyond mad.

"What's up with her," Frankie asked Jack as Zoe stormed away.

Jack shrugged, "She didn't get the role she wanted. Hey, I gotta go. Modern starts in a few minutes, bye Frankie!" Jack waved at her as she headed into one of the rooms. Frankie sighed and went back to looking for Miles so she could leave. She found him talking to Luke, Drew, Dallas, and Owen, Tristan Milligan's older brother. They all looked up as she walked over.

"Hey Frankie," Luke smiled at her and she couldn't help but smile back, "your brother was just telling us he's playing a soldier. What about you?"

"Oh," she blushed as all five boys stared down at her intently, "I'm a party guest and a snowflake."

"Wow," a voice came from behind them, "Congrats," she turned around to be met by a pair of large brown eyes framed by thick black glasses. Winston.

"Oh hey Chewy," Miles smiled at his friend, "Ready to go," he looked down at his sister and she nodded, waving goodbye to Luke and Lola as they headed out to their mom's black Mercedes. Frankie got in and leaned against the window, clearly exhausted after two hours of dancing. She was so tired she didn't even protest when Winston got in next to her and told her to rest on his shoulder because it would be comfier than a window.

Rehearsals were brutal; eight hours of pirouettes and coupes could take a lot out of a person. Frankie was still partnered with Winston but this time she really didn't seem to mind. He was a good dancer and whenever they were doing a move together she felt like she was 5-years-old again. It was like they were made to dance together. Frankie and Winston were on break, watching Darcy and Luke practicing their pas de deux. Frankie's head lay on Winston's shoulder and Winston's head lay on top of hers. She was so mesmerized by the dance and the grace that the two dancers had together that she didn't even notice that she was playing with Winston's fingers delicately. Winston, however, noticed and smiled softly to himself. He was exhausted from the rehearsal and they still hadn't made it through all of the first or second act, much less the entire show. Luke and Darcy were doing a fabulous job and Mrs. Kelly hadn't yelled at them once. Luke made a rather charming Cavalier and Darcy was so stunningly beautiful as the Sugar Plum Fairy.

"Frankie," Winston nudged the sleeping girl but she didn't budge, "Frankie, wake up. Rehearsal's over," he sighed when she didn't move and picked her up, carrying her out to Mrs. Hollingsworth's car quietly. From behind him he could hear Miles and Hunter, who had been forced to sit through the Saturday rehearsal because Mr. and Mrs. Hollingsworth were working, snickering at him as they walked. He just rolled his eyes and put her in the car, climbing in next to her and sighing contently as her head fell back on his shoulder. He liked Frankie but he knew she'd never like him back so he took whatever attention he could get from her, even if it was only for a short period of time. When they got to the Hollingsworth manor, Winston didn't even bother to wake her up, he just picked her up and carried her to her room.

As he was getting ready to leave, he heard a soft whimper, "Stay. Please." Winston didn't need anymore convincing, he walked back over and laid down beside the small girl. He didn't dare move, even once he heard the soft snores coming from her mouth.

When Frankie awoke, it was still dark out. She tried to sit up but something stopped her. Looking down, she raised her eyebrows in surprise and smiled slightly; lying on her bed, nearly falling off, was Winston. His hair was messy and his glasses sat crooked on his face; he looked so at peace with the world she didn't have the heart to wake him up so she just laid there, staring at him happily, until he woke up.

"Hi," he said groggily, smiling softly at her.

"Hi," she whispered back, fixing his glasses on his face. Before she could process what was happening Winston pulled her into him, kissing her gently. He expected her to pull away or slap him, or anything but what she did next; she pulled him closer to her and kissed him again, not stopping until they could no longer breath.

"Wow."

"Oh Frankie," her mother wrapped her up in a hug as she came out from the dressing rooms backstage. Hunter and Miles, who had stopped doing ballet and was now on Degrassi's basketball team, gave their sister a hug and handed her a bouquet of red roses.

"Awe, Hunter," Frankie ruffled her twin's hair, "are those for Lola?" He blushed and looked down, scratching his neck awkwardly, as she admired the pink and purple roses that he picked out for the small blonde. She grinned and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards a dressing room marked Flowers/Snowflakes and knocking. Lola opened the door and smiled at Frankie. Frankie smiled back at the bleach blonde and shoved her brother in front of her so he could talk to Lola.

"Uh hi," Hunter waved and Lola smiled, "These are for you," he blushed and she giggled, taking the roses and setting them on the dressing room counter before walking outside and shutting the door.

"Thank you, Hunter," she smiled and stretched up so she could properly kiss him. He turned bright red but kissed her back passionately. As Frankie snuck away from the love birds she bumped into a familiar Asian boy. He looked up and smiled that goofy smile of his.

"Hey," he wrapped her up in a tight hug, giving her a soft peck on the lips, "how's eighth grade going?" Ever since he started Degrassi, Frankie hadn't seen Winston because he was too busy with classwork to hang out with her. It had been a year since their first kiss and she really missed dancing with her dorky boyfriend. But he was here now and that was all that mattered.

Don't ask, it's shitty but oh well. Reviews are welcome!

Madame Degrassi