"Ciao, Della!" Francie called softly to the dog, who was sleeping with Finn. She flapped her tail twice and lifted her head. Next, she waved to the cat, who was sleeping on the dryer, silent at this early hour, but possibly still warm from its near constant use in the busy Santangelo household.

Morning swim practice began at six o'clock sharp, and doors to the locker rooms were closed at 6:05. Lateness was not tolerated, and anyone who missed more than two practices was off the team. Luckily, Francie lived a scant ten minutes' walk from the school, so she could wake up at 5:45 and still make it. And until last year, Clio was with her, so it wasn't even lonely. Plus, she had Pete's breakfast paninis to look forward to as well, which made waking up at the ass crack of dawn and swimming like a fiend almost worth it.

Unlike some of the other swimmers, Francie loved morning practice. She loved walking in the silence of the New York City mornings, the streets just waking up, dodging around the delivery people and the crates of fruits and vegetables sitting on the sidewalks. The feeling of diving in the water and loosening her limbs as she stretched out and warmed up was nice too, of waking up her body and mind and getting ready to face the day just felt right somehow. Even facing Coach, seeing his gruff countenance and hearing his grouchy voice as he gave them their sets and yelled out orders felt like the right way to start off her mornings.

"Hurry up, Santangelo! You almost late today! What happen, you forget to set you alarm?"

Francie smiled at his accented English, and he smiled back as we waved at her to hustle and get in.

Later, as Coach was explaining a set to them, she noticed someone new in the lane next to her. He was wearing a cap that said "Brasilia" on it, and was very tan, which made him noticeable in the pool full of winter pale New York swimmers. He had quite a bit of hair on his chest, and long, dense eyelashes surrounding his very dark, almost black eyes. He noticed Francie looking at him and smiled at her, and his teeth were very white, in stark contrast to the dark stubble all around his jaw and the deep cleft in his chin.

Wow, the girls were going to go crazy for him.

Francie could already see that she wasn't the only one noticing him.

Coach's voice cut into Francie's musings.

"And I see you crazy girls staring at our new swimmer, don't think I don't," he barked with a laugh. "I introduce him now so you can all start flirting, okay?" He pointed to the lane next to Francie. "His name is Antonio Ribeiro, and he comes all the way from Brazil. He will be here for the rest of the school year, and he has no girlfriend yet, right, Antonio?"

Antonio shook his head, grinning.

"There! All you crazy girls happy now? But no flirting until after practice. And Antonio will be in early practice after school, he doesn't have stamina yet for advanced practice." Next, he spoke directly to Antonio. "Antonio, I see you making eyes at Francie over here. She's in advanced practice, the late practice. You going to have to swim hard to be in her practice, so work hard, young man." Coach chuckled as Francie facepalmed in embarrassment.

Antonio nodded in agreement and smiled once again at Francie.

"Okay, enough goofing around!" Coach's voice rang out, all business once more. "Back to work, leaving on the up!"

Francie put her embarrassment out of her mind and focused on the workout, making sure to make all the intervals. She really pushed herself, making her mind go blank, concentrating on her breathing, on her strokes, making sure to drink plenty of water.

After the workout, she approached Antonio, who was walking toward the boys' locker rooms with a group of swimmers, laughing, pulling their caps off, shaking their hair out. Francie could see that he was the tallest one.

"I'm sorry about coach," she offered with a smile. "He's always like that, he just likes to tease."

"No, it's okay," Antonio replied. "He was right, I was looking at you." He smiled at her again, showing those amazing teeth, so white against his dark skin and stubbly jaw.

"Oh, okay."

God, Santangelo, what a truly idiotic thing to say.

"Is that okay? Really?"

Now he was just teasing her.

Francie shook her head and turned away. "Anyway, welcome to Sycamore Prep."

"Hey, wait a minute. Your name is Francie?"

Francie nodded.

"That's cute. Is it short for something?"

Francie nodded again. "Francesca."

Antonio looked her up and down speculatively. "You're very beautiful, Francesca. Do you have a last name?"

The group of boys had long departed for the locker rooms, leaving them alone, but surely he could've asked them?

"Santangelo."

"Santangelo? You mean you're Pete Santangelo's daughter? I heard his children went to school here, but you don't look like him at all--"

Francie shook her head. "I take after my mother," she explained.

"I see." Antonio smiled at her again, a smile that was definitely designed to make girls' insides gooey. "Would you like to meet after we shower and get dressed? For a quick cup of coffee in the cafeteria before class?"

How very cosmopolitan, Francie thought.

"I'm sorry, I can't," she said regretfully. "My parents bring my younger sisters and brother to school, and they bring me breakfast. I don't want to just blow them off, you know?"

"Of course, I understand," Antonio answered. "Perhaps another time, then?"

"Sounds great," Francie answered with a smile. "Well, I'd better jump in the shower, then. See you around." She gave a little wave as she headed for the girls' locker room.

"Yes, see you around, Francie."

Some of her friends were waiting for her in the showers, agog for information.

"Ohmygod, Francie, you were out there forever!"

"Did he ask you out?"

"What happened?"

Francie gave them a truncated version of what they'd talked about, playing everything down. "It was no big deal, you guys, honestly. I just apologized for Coach embarrassing us, he accepted my apology, that's all."

"But you were out there so long!"

"He also asked my name," Francie admitted.

"He did?"

Girlish squeals of excitement echoed throughout the locker room.

"Jesus, calm down, it's not like he asked me to marry him!"

"But still, Francie, did you see him?"

"He's so hot!"

"And he's got that teeny weeny bit of an accent!"

Francie just shook her head as she got dressed. "I've got to go meet my parents, you crazy people, see you later."

She shook her hair out as she walked to the front of the school, trying to hurry the drying process. Most of the girls spent all of the time before morning bell in the locker room, fixing their hair and putting their makeup on, but luckily, all Francie had to do was shake her hair out and she was ready to go.

She waited at the front steps, enjoying the loud noises of the primary children saying their goodbyes and running to the playground to join their friends. It didn't seem like that long ago that she and Clio were that age, running around on pretend horses, climbing trees to rescue birds and having the fire department called to rescue them.

She saw her parents coming, walking with Mouse Cameron, their downstairs neighbor. They were walking their dog, Della, and Mouse's son Leo's dog, Happy. The two dogs were bouncing along, happy to be part of the family caravan. Next came Lottie, Brina, and Leo, heads together as they laughed about something. Then, finally came Finn and Leo's little sister Beanie, holding hands and running to catch up.

Wow, what a circus.

Francie felt her heart well up with love for her people, her family. She waved and smiled.

Finn and Beanie reached her first, running into her and hugging her.

"Good morning, Francie, good morning, good morning!"

"Good morning, you two!"

They kissed her good bye, then their parents, before racing off to the playground, jackets and lunchboxes flapping.

Then it was Leo, Lottie and Brina, smiling and waving.

"Good morning, Ms. Cameron, how are you feeling?" Francie asked.

She patted her stomach, which was full and round with her pregnancy. "All's well," she answered with a smile. "Just a few more months."

"Well, you look great," Francie told her with a smile.

"Thanks." Ms. Cameron grinned. "I feel pretty good, actually."

"Here you go, mimma." Pete handed Francie her breakfast. 

"Oh god, thanks dad, I'm starving." Francie took the proffered food and tore into it post-haste, almost forgetting to chew the first few bites. "Sorry to be so rude," she said, mostly to Mouse, "but this is so good."

"It's okay, I was a swimmer, I remember how hungry I got after morning practice," she assured Francie.

The bell rang, cutting their conversation short.

"Oops, gotta run." Francie leaned forward and kissed her parents, broke off tiny pieces of her panini for each of the dogs, and dashed away with a wave to Mouse. "Bye, and thanks again!"

She slid into her seat in French with time to spare, trying to finish her panini before the tardy bell. Her teacher was forgiving about letting her finish her food, knowing about her schedule, but Francie felt bad to eat in class, knowing it was disruptive.

She just managed, and tossed the foil in the trash just as the bell rang.

Jill, the girl who sat next to her, gave her a dark look as Francie slid back into her seat. Jill was someone Francie had gone to school with since kindergarten at Sycamore Prep, but had never really gotten to know well, for some reason. Francie also had the feeling that Jill didn't like her very much, though she could never figure out why. As far as she could remember, she'd never done anything to Jill to upset her in any way. Francie liked everyone, and it kind of bugged her that Jill was constantly giving her dark looks and the cold shoulder.

Francie had decided, when Jill showed up next to her in French, that they were at least going to be cordial by the time the school year ended, but so far she hadn't managed to crack Jill's facade.

Jill was a tall girl, kind of all legs, with long brown hair, who was really into video games, as far as Francie could tell. And she was really nice to everyone else, so why not Francie?

"Morning," Francie tried.

Jill merely gave Francie a raised eyebrow and looked away.

"Is something wrong? Jill?"

"The smell of your food is kind of off putting, and you're not supposed to be eating in class, anyway," Jill said in a kind of haughty voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Francie began. "I just have early swim practice, and this is the only chance I get to eat so I have to--"

"I know," Jill interrupted. "That hardly changes the smell of your food, though, does it?"

Lola, who sat in front of Francie, turned around.

"Oh my god, Jill, why don't you shut the fuck up? This is her only chance to eat, you freak. If you participated in any extracurriculars, if you had any kind of social life at all, you'd understand." Lola made a face at Jill before smiling at Francie and turning back around in her seat.

"Shut up, Lola, I have friends, they just aren't all in this stupid class," Jill fired back.

"Right, like that crip Chester? Whatever." Lola didn't even turn around.

"Hey!" Francie sat up. "No, Lola, you can't talk about people that way. Or to people, either."

Lola turned around, surprised.

"You talking about her? She doesn't count, Francie, she's a nobody at this school, you know that."

Francie opened her mouth to protest, when Madame said, "Please keep it down while I'm taking attendance, ladies," and they had to stop talking.

Jill gave her another dark look as she took out her textbook and a pen.

Francie sighed.