"Hey Frenchy, can I hide out here?" Stephanie asked stepping into the chemistry lab. "The girls are driving me crazy."

Frenchy looked up, holding aloft a test tube that contained a suspicious looking blue liquid. "Be my guest, but you might not want to get too close, my last experiment was explosive."

"Literally?" Steph asked not sitting too close to Frenchy.

"Yep," Frenchy said sounding almost proud. "So what's happening with you and the girls?"

Stephanie sighed. "It's mostly Paulette. She's trying my patience and if I don't talk to somebody soon I'm gonna be the one exploding!"

"Now we wouldn't want that," Frenchy said putting the test tube down and giving Stephanie her full attention. "So spill."

"It's all so childish but I'm going insane listening to her going on about Johnny all the time. He's such a cool guy, such a fantastic boyfriend, and look how he walks on water," she said imitating Paulette's voice and Frenchy laughed.

"She does have it bad."

"I know, and I know she's always liked Johnny but it still feels sorta disrespectful to me," Steph admitted. "I don't want to come off as jealous but I was his girlfriend, we were together for two years, and then she goes and jumps in my grave...she could at least have waited till my body was cold."

Frenchy laughed. "She has been disrespectful and it's okay to call her out on it."

"Yeah, part of me wants to but I don't want the drama."

"There doesn't have to be drama, but tell her to shut her trap when she goes on about Johnny. You've been way more tolerant than most girls would be so I'd be telling her to show a bit of consideration back."

"I guess I could point that out," Steph said inching closer to Frenchy now she'd abandoned her experiments. "But it would probably get back to Johnny and he'd take it as a sign I still like him. He calls me all the time which I doubt she knows about."

"Oh dear," Frenchy said her mouth puckering up. "That does complicate matters."

"Doesn't it?" she said with a weary smile. "I bet you didn't have to put up with this shit when you were a pink lady."

"We had our fights, and our breakups and makeups, but we didn't have all these dumb codes and rules you've got," Frenchy admitted with a small frown. "For all Rizzo dated the two hottest T birds no way in hell would she have stood for being told she could only date T birds."

"Didn't she go out with the leader of the Scorpians?"

Frenchy nodded. "She sure did. She wasn't gonna let the T birds stop her."

"Maybe I should try that," Steph said winking. "Then Johnny would know we were through."

"Balmudo's butt ugly," Frenchy said, wrinkling her nose. "But if you did meet someone, I wouldn't let the code hold you back. If anything, I'd use it as an excuse to get rid of the code."

"Yeah, I should have when I became pink lady leader but I didn't think it would get taken so seriously." Steph frowned thinking that the girls were worse than the guys for reciting it. "I don't know why it was ever created; I mean everyone knows the pink ladies and T birds hang out, that we're kinda one big gang. Why make the girls T bird property?"

"In a way, we were kinda responsible for that," Frenchy admitted. "When we were choosing the new pink ladies our leader Rizzo had loads of stuff going on. She wasn't interested so once Danny had picked a new leader for the T birds, Rizzo just made his girlfriend pink lady leader."

Steph nodded. "Yeah, that's kinda how it happened with me. I was Johnny's girl so no one questioned me becoming the leader."

"Right, well these new T birds pretty much picked their girlfriends to be pink ladies cos Rizz didn't care, and then they came up with the code. I guess it suited them since they were coupled up anyway."

Stephanie shook her head. What a typical guy thing to do. Make the rules to keep the girls in check. "It's making my life difficult now cos no way am I getting back with Johnny, I can't stand him! In the meantime, I'm not supposed to date anyone else, even if I wanted to. I might as well become a nun."

"You don't like Davey?" Frenchy teased and Steph scoffed.

"I don't know how he even got to be a T bird, but seriously this is driving a wedge between me and the girls. They think it's a badge of honour to go with a T bird and I don't. I mean they're just ordinary guys." She looked up as Michael came in. "I guess I should get going."

"Don't leave on my account," he said quickly. "I just came to give Frenchy a message from my cousin. It's not private or anything."

"No, it's fine. I've got things to do," she said ignoring the disappointed look on his face. "I'll catch you later Frenchy."

~~~

"So what does Sandy want?" Frenchy asked as soon as Stephanie left the room.

"She wants you to come around for dinner on Sunday," Michael said his eyes lingering on Steph's retreating form. He could never get her attention for more than a moment or two. "She said she wants to discuss something important with you."

"Oh?" Frenchy said, her interest piqued. "I'd better not let her down then."

"She was being a bit mysterious about it." He turned his full attention to Frenchy. "I didn't realise you and Steph were such good friends?"

"I guess us pink ladies - old and new - stick together."

"Yeah, I've noticed how cliquey things are around here," he said grimacing. "I thought I might have a hard time fitting in cos I'm English but I didn't think people would be so exclusive. It's funny, back home Americans have a reputation for being friendly but some of the guys are downright hostile."

"Don't let a few assholes get you down."

"They don't but when you hear someone won't give you the time of day because you don't wear the right jacket or drive a motorcycle..." Someone like Stephanie.

"Some of these guys are all ego and image," Frenchy said with a sympathetic smile. "If I was you I'd play on your connection to Danny Zuko."

Michael frowned. "And what good would that do? I know he was a T bird but that was years ago."

"He was iconic!" Frenchy's voice rose. "Every T bird since wants to emulate him, and probably every pink lady wants to be with him." She gave him a knowing look. "And that's what this is all about right? You want to impress Stephanie."

"I want her to like me," he admitted. "She's got me pigeon-holed as some kind nerd, and I'd like to think there's more to me than that." He let out a self-deprecating laugh. "At least, I hope there is."

"You're smart, funny, good-looking, she'd be lucky to have you."

He smiled wryly. "Well, she'd have to be the judge of that but just say she started to like me because I have some tenuous link to an old T bird? If she did, then she's not the right girl for me."

"It might get the other T birds off your back though," Frenchy suggested.

"I can handle them. Only Johnny tries to give me grief, the others are background noise."

Frenchy looked concerned. "But there's four of them and Johnny does have an aggressive streak."

Michael laughed. "He has little man syndrome, I can take him on if I have to. I'd rather not humiliate him though."

"Yeah, best avoid the little man," Frenchy said stifling a giggle. "But don't let them get you down."

"They won't."

"You sound tired," she said reverting to mother hen mode. "You look tired as well."

"I've got a lot on with homework and the talent show," he said rubbing his eyes. "I've over-committed myself."

She gave him a dubious look. "I don't believe you're struggling with that, you're too smart. What's going on?"

"I've been giving some of the guys private tuition." He showed her an essay he'd done for Goose that was tucked away under his own papers. "Let's say they need a lot of direction from me."

"Oh Michael." She shook her head. "You shouldn't let people take advantage of you."

"I'm not, they pay me. You see I'm saving up for a motorcycle." He felt a bit foolish admitting it out loud.

"Why on earth would you want a bike?"

"All the guys have bikes."

"Not all the guys, mostly just the T birds and their ilk." Her voice faded and she gave him an incredulous look. "Is this for Stephanie?"

"Let's just say she's inspired me."

~~~

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