The car pulled up in front of the apartment where Chester lived, and Francie took a deep, calming breath and put her hand on the door handle.

"You'll be fine, Ms. Francie, go get him," Adam, the driver said, tipping her a wink in the rear view mirror. He'd known her since she was a toddler, and Francie loved him dearly.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Adam," Francie answered giving him a smile. She opened the door and stepped out into the brisk spring evening, pausing a moment to collect herself.

The doorman tipped his hat as he opened the door for her and she murmured her thanks as she went to the front desk to announce herself. Then, before she knew it, she was in the silent elevator, on her way up to his apartment, her heart in her mouth.

A smiling woman opened the door. "Hello, I'm Chester's mother," she said. "Please, come in, Francie dear, it's a pleasure to meet you at last."

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Wozniak," Francie responded, holding out her hand.

"Please, call me Sharon," the kind woman said, waving her hand. "Chester? Francie's here," she called as she led Francie into the living room. It had panoramic views of Riverside drive, and was filled with large, dark furniture and huge bookcases.

"My husband's just helping Chester finish getting ready," Sharon explained as she gestured for Francie to have a seat. "I hope you don't mind if we take some pictures of the two of you? You don't think that's silly or intrusive?"

Francie shook her head. "Not at all. In fact, My parents wanted some photographs of the two of us before the dance, so that will work out perfectly."

Chester and his father entered the room together then, and Francie saw to her delight that Chester strongly resembled his father, except for his smile, which came straight from his mother.

"Dad, this is Francie Santangelo," Chester said, smiling in Francie's direction. "Francie, this is my dad, Ben Wozniak."

"It's a real pleasure to meet you, Mr. Wozniak, my entire family and I are such great admirers of your work," Francie said as she extended a hand. "My parents have seen you perform, and they raved about it when Chester came for dinner."

"Well, please thank them for me," Ben responded in a surprisingly deep voice. "I'm happy Chester found someone musical to spend time with."

He picked up a camera from the table as his wife lifted her phone. "Now, let's get these pictures out of the way so you two can get going, what do you say?"

Francie took off her coat, and Chester's eyes widened with admiration. "You look amazing," he whispered as he put his crutches aside and slid an arm around her waist.

"Thanks," she said happily as she smiled at his parents, who were snapping away.

"Now, how about over by the fireplace?" Ben suggested.

They obligingly moved and posed for a few more. Francie noticed that Chester was wearing dark trousers and a sweater, with a shirt under it, which matched two of the colors of her dress.

"How did you know what colors to get?" she asked. "I only got this dress yesterday, and I didn't tell you anything about it."

"A little bird named Clio sent me the colors and told me what to get," Chester confessed. "I went shopping last night with my mom."

Francie blinked and looked back and forth between him and his mother.

How kind.

"Wow. You didn't have to," she finally said.

"I knew it was your first dance, and I wanted it to be perfect for you," Chester said.

Aww.

"And it was my first dance, too, you know?" he continued. "I didn't want to screw it up for me, either."

"Okay, I think we have enough pictures, Sharon," Ben said, setting his camera down. "Let's let the young people start their evening."

"Of course, of course," Sharon agreed. "Chester, do you have enough money? Credit card? You'll call if you need anything?"

"Yes, mom, I'm fine," Chester answered, rolling his eyes a little.

"And you'll be home around one?"

Chester looked at Francie, who nodded.

Then they were in the car and headed for the dance, and Francie could barely contain her excitement. She was sitting next to the window, and Chester sat right next to her in the middle seat, since his crutches took up the other window seat. She bounced a little where she sat, and she felt Chester's warm hand clasp her fingers where they lay between them.

She looked over at him.

"Me too," he said to her with a smile.

She looked into his pale eyes and felt like she was falling into them. And the butterflies began fluttering in her tummy.

"Okay, kids, here we are," Adam called from the front seat. "Just text me when you're ready for pick up, and I'll take you to the restaurant."

Chester squeezed Francie's hand as they exited the car and walked into the auditorium. It had been decorated for the theme of New York chic, which meant that everything was black, white, and silver, and had elements of Art Deco in it.

"Everything looks really nice, doesn't it?" Francie asked, looking around.

"One of the perks of going to a private school," Chester quipped. "Decent budget for dances and the theater program," he added.

They found Tyler and Veronica holding a table for them and sat down, with Francie still exclaiming over how nice the auditorium looked. The ceiling had been hung with glow in the dark stars, and the walls had been covered with trompe l'oeil style pictures of the New York skyline, with actual lights shining through the windows, so it looked like they were dancing on a Manhattan building rooftop.

"Wow, if they go this all out for a regular dance, what does Prom look like?" Francie wondered out loud.

"You didn't go to Prom?" Chester asked, surprised.

Francie shook her head. "I'm only a junior," she told him. "This would be my first year."

"But I would've thought you'd get asked as an underclassman anyway," Chester said.

"She did," Veronica cut in. "She didn't like the guys, so she turned them all down."

"All?" Chester repeated. "How many were there?"

"About thirty," Tyler interjected as Francie tried in vain to cover his mouth with her hands.

"Shut up, you guys," Francie begged, embarrassed. "I'm a junior now, so maybe I'll go this year, if someone I like asks me, okay?"

"Oh, I'm sure someone will ask you," Chester said in a serious voice. "Hopefully you'll like him enough to say yes." And he picked up her hand and kissed it, right in front of Tyler and Veronica.

Butterflies.

"Hey, listen, a slow song just started, Francie, shall we dance?" Chester suggested.

"Please," Francie responded, nodding and rising. "So how does this work?" she asked, motioning toward his crutches.

"Well, I can walk a very short distance if I'm leaning on someone," he answered. "And the same with the dancing. So as long as we don't head out to the middle of the dance floor or move around too much, I'm good, okay?"

"You can lean on me as much as you want, Chester," Francie assured him. "And we'll just sway."

"Sounds like a plan."

A few people gave them second looks as they made their way on to the dance floor, but most just said hello, or grinned at them. Chester wasn't light, but Francie was a strong girl, and bore what weight he put on her easily, and they just looked like they were walking with their arms around each other.

And, once they started dancing, Francie found that it was sort of hard to tell that anything about Chester was different. He was able to take small steps from side to side every once in a while, and it was pretty easy for the two of them to balance when they were holding each other, anyway.

Being this close to Chester was really nice, wow. Francie felt enveloped in that wonderful, clean smell that was all around him, and, legs aside, the top half of him was really strong. His chest was lean and hard, and his arms were very toned and fit and held her with confidence.

Francie leaned a little closer and let out a little sigh, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Oh god, oh Francie," she heard Chester whisper. "This is so amazing." She felt his arms tighten around her and pull her closer, and she could tell he was smelling her hair.

Francie felt like she was floating on a cloud. She smiled and closed her eyes, wondering if her feet were even touching the floor at this point.

They remained that way for the rest of the song. Then, when it ended, Francie finally opened her eyes and lifted her head as she felt Chester releasing her. She focused on someone tall a few feet away who seemed to be staring at her.

Jill Wyler.

Francie was shocked at the naked hurt she saw in the other girl's eyes. And the tears.

Tears?

But then someone passed between them, and Jill was gone, and Chester was turning so Francie could help him back to the table.

Tyler and Veronica were grinning like fools when they sat down, looking like proud parents.

"You guys look really good together," Tyler said.

"You make a really cute couple," Veronica said at nearly the same moment.

Chester looked down and Francie could see that he was embarrassed.

"I'm going to go get us something to drink," she announced, rising.

"I'll go with you," Veronica said.

So the two of them headed to the refreshments table, where the first person they ran into was Jill.

Jill saw Francie and immediately turned away, but Francie put a hand on her shoulder.

"Jill, are you okay?" she asked. "I saw you when I was dancing, and you looked upset."

"I'm fine." Jill tried to shrug Francie's arm off her shoulder, and wouldn't turn around.

"Would you like to talk to Chester?" Francie offered. "I can show you where we're sitting--"

"No, I don't want to talk to Chester, and would you please leave me alone! My date is waiting!" Jill's voice rose as she finally succeeded in shaking Francie's hand off her shoulder and stalked away.

"Wow, what's got her wound so tight?" Veronica asked.

"She likes my date," Francie explained as they collected their drinks and headed back to their table.

"Oh, that's not good," Veronica commiserated as they sat.

"What's not good?" Chester asked, thanking Francie for the drink.

She explained about running into Jill.

"Should I go look for her?"

Francie shook her head. "I don't think so. She knows where you are, she'll find you if she wants to talk, I think."

The band began playing one of Pete's songs, a fast, upbeat number, one of Francie's favorites. "Hey, Francie!" many people around her called, clapping in her direction. Francie smiled and bopped along in her seat.

"You should dance to this," Chester said, smiling.

"No, it's okay," Francie demurred, shaking her head.

"Please, it's silly for you not to dance to any of the fast ones, just because you're here with me," Chester insisted. "Dance with Tyler, I don't mind, honest."

"You sure?"

Chester nodded, so Francie and Tyler hit the floor, and Francie enjoyed the hell out of dancing to her father's song. And Chester enjoyed the hell out of watching Francie dance. Francie was a really good dancer, and was obviously very comfortable dancing with Tyler. They created a space for themselves and filled it completely, in perfect sync with each other.

They came back sweaty and winded, reaching for their drinks and laughing.

"Whew, that was so much fun!" Francie gasped after she'd gulped down most of her drink.

"Fun to watch, too," Chester told her. "You're amazing!"

A shadow fell across their table.

"I just came over to say hello," a deep voice said. "I hope this is okay--"

"Tony, hello!" Francie said. "Of course it's okay. Are you enjoying the dance?"

"Yes, it's really fun, not so different from Brazil," he said. Then Antonio saw Chester sitting at the table, and his eyes flicked back and forth a couple of times between Francie and him, taking in the crutches leaning against the table between them. His eyes lingered on their clasped hands. "Chester, right? Statistician from the swim team?" His brow furrowed.

"Right, that's me," Chester answered, releasing Francie's hand to shake Antonio's.

"Francie, may I speak to you privately for a moment?" Antonio asked.

"Um, okay," Francie said, looking around the table as she rose. She followed Antonio outside the auditorium and turned to him curiously.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were inviting Chester to the dance?" Antonio began. "I would've understood completely."

Francie drew her brows together. "What do you mean? What would you have understood?"

"You're such a kind girl, such a nice person," he continued, taking her hand in his. "You could've told me, it would've been fine."

What would've been fine?

The door to the auditorium opened and Clary Carmichael, dressed in a very slinky black dress that made Francie's mini dress look long, came out, a suspicious look on her sulky face. "What in the hell is going on out here?" she demanded, planting a manicured fist on her hip. "Why are you holding her hand, Antonio?"

Francie pulled her hand out of Tony's grasp. "Nothing's going on, Clary, get your mind out of the gutter, Jesus."

Clary shook her shiny black hair over her shoulder. "What am I supposed to think? The dance has barely started and Siobhan tells me you've dragged my date outside."

OMG.

"I just needed to talk to her about something," Antonio assured her.

"Yes, we're finished," Francie added. "We were just going in when you came out." She had no idea what he was talking about, but she had nothing else to say to him.

"Let's talk again tomorrow, Francie, okay?" Antonio said as she re-entered the auditorium.

"About what?" Clary wanted to know.

Francie wanted to know as well, but she just kept her mouth shut and made her way back to her table.

"All sorted out?" Chester asked, reaching for her hand as she sat.

Francie nodded, hoping she was telling the truth.

Another slow song was starting.

"Let's dance some more," she suggested to Chester, who nodded agreement.

So the two of them headed out to the dance floor, for another small slice of the heaven they created when they were together, swaying to the music, in each other's arms.