A/N- This started as a Snowing story, but I felt like studying all weekend and learning another language was a total Belle thing to do!

Belle French bounced out of the school building, excited to tell her dad all about her first day of school and the two new friends she made, Regina and Mary Margret. The kindergartener bounded over to her father and jumped up into his arms.

"Hi Daddy!" she exclaimed, snuggling into his neck. Her father laughed into her ear, tickling her. She giggled as he placed her down on her feet and heard a noise above her. She looked up and saw that a bird was flying above her. She watched the bird fly into a tree, where a small nest was and sit in it comfortably. She always loved birds, she liked the way they flew around and the songs they sung, she thought they were pretty. She turned her head to her father, ready to leave, but quickly noticed an older woman and young girl, who looked about her age, talking. What caught her eye was that they weren't talking with their mouths, instead they were making motions with their hands. Belle pulled on her father's pant leg, continuing to watch the foreign exchange between the two.

"Daddy," she said, glancing up for a brief moment with a look of confusion. "What are they doing?" Maurice French followed his daughters gaze to the pair and turned back to her.

"That's called sign language." He said. "It looks like either that grandmother or the little girl are Deaf." He watched as cars drove by on the street behind the girl and the child never turned, obviously not hearing the horns and sounds behind her. "It looks like she is."

"Oh." Belle said, still confused. She watched a bit longer and turned once again to her father. "Daddy, what does deaf mean?" Maurice French crouched down, making his eyes level with the 5 year old, before smiling softly.

"Deaf means you can't hear." He said. "If that little girl is deaf, she can't hear. And people who are deaf talk with sign language, with their hands." Belle looked confused still but nodded, slowly understanding.

"Hey Daddy." She said, looking up at her father after a moment of thinking. "Can we go to the library?" It was her father's turn to looked confused, even though his daughter loved the library, since they only went there on Mondays afternoons. "I want to learn sign language to talk to her. I want to be her friend" Belles father laughed and nodded, taking her hand and walking to the library.

Belle had checked out about three books and a movie on learning sign language. She decided to dedicate her entire weekend to learning the very basics to make sure she could talk to the girl. Her parents, extremely proud at how far she was willing to go to befriend this girl, had asked her what she would do if she wasn't the one who was deaf. She had simply shrugged and told them that she wanted to learn just in case. All throughout the weekend she worked her little fingers off making sure it every sign she learned was right. She made sure she could finger sign her name and proceeded to memorized the entire alphabet. She then set to learning a few phrases and practicing them with her parents so she would be able to recognize them as well as sign them.

When Monday came, she found her cutest dress and her favorite shoes to wear. Her mother and father always told her first impressions were key and she wanted to make a great one, so she made sure that she had no stains or rips and it fit perfectly. She had her mother tie her brown hair in two french braids with blue bows at the ends to match her blue and white dress and even put on some blush she had taken from her mothers purse. She ate her breakfast as fast as she could and practically sprang into the car with her mother, excited to go to school and see the girl again. The moment her mothers car stopped in front of the school Belle was unbuckled and out the door, running into the school shouting a goodbye to her mom.

The day went slow for her, knowing the one time she would get a chance to talk to the girl would be after lunch at recess. When the bell rang for lunch it took all of Belles self control to not run to the lunch room, leaving her class behind. Instead she slowly made her way there with the class, her whole body itching with excitement to talk to the girl. She sat down at the lunch table with her class and tried to join in on the conversation Mary Margret and Regina were having beside her, but all her mind could focus on was the girl that sat a table away from her, eating alone. Lunch had seemed to go on longer than the day had. She swung her feet under the table, impatience working on her last nerve, when the bell rang, signalling recess. Belle threw out her trash and was the first in her class to line up to go outside to the playground. As soon as they were outside Belle started to scan the playground, a sign language book clutched to her chest as she looked for the girl she saw on Friday. Her eyes quickly landed on her, sitting on the grass near the blacktop, drawing with chalk. She skipped over and tapped her on the shoulder. The dark haired girl, who was wearing a red dress with her dark brown locks held back with a red headband, looked up curiously and soon smiled when she saw Belle smiling brightly at her.

"Hi." She signed slowly. "My name is B-E-L-L-E" She had squinted, making sure she had signed correctly. "I don't know many signs." Her father had suggested she learn that, over the long weekend he informed the small child that she wouldn't be able to learn the entire language in one weekend. And he was right, now that she was here in front of the girl she had been thinking about all weekend, Belle could barely remembered what she had wanted it say.

"I'm R-U-B-Y." The girl signed back with a smile. Belle smiled back, finding Rubys infectious. "Its ok."

"Can. I. Play. With. You?" She had signed super slowly, making sure it was right. Ruby nodded, patting the grass next to him. She sat down with her legs crossed like a pretzel and grabbed a piece of chalk. They were working on drawing a castle when Ruby tapped her shoulder. Belle looked up and and looked down to the blacktop, where Ruby was pointing. It was a drawing of a girl with brown hair a blue dress and a matching blue crown on her head that she had drawn on top of the castle.

"Princess" Ruby signed, writing the word above the girls head, Belle signed the word back to her. "You look like a princess" She signed slowly, hoping Belle understood. When Belle blushed and smiled wildly, Ruby could tell that the other girl understood what she said. "Princess Blue" She signed, writing the words above the girl on the blacktop. The name suited Belle, since she was dressed in almost all blue and it was her favorite color.

"Princess Red" Belle wrote the words next to Rubys and drew another girl, this one though had a red dress with with a large red crown next to the blue girl, Ruby nodded and signed the words to her, Belle repeated them and smiled. "You and me" She signed to the deaf girl. "Princess Red and Princess Blue". Ruby nodded and Belle could help but be excited that they now had nicknames for each other.

"I can teach you more signs" Ruby wrote the words underneath the drawing of the castle and Belle smiled up at the brunette and nodded. During that recess, Ruby and Belle, or Blue and Red as they now liked to call each other, sat on the grass as Ruby pointed to things, showing Belle the signs, making sure to repeat them until she got it. All too soon bell rang, signaling the end of recess. Belle looked up and tapped Ruby's shoulder, who looked up and saw all the kids leaving the playground, causing his shoulders to slump.

"Time to go it." Ruby signed and mouthed. Belle nodded, signing the words back to her, and started helping her clean up the chalk. As Belle closed the lid to the chalk she saw Ruby heading towards the door.

"Wait!" She yelled, grabbing her shoulder. She started to open her mouth to say something but quickly remembered Ruby can't hear and took a breath. "Can. We. Do. This. Again. Tomorrow?" She attempted to sign the words slowly in hopes of not messing up. She also said it, hoping the other girl could read her lips. Ruby smiled and nodded at her words.

"Yes, I would like that Blue" She signed back, causing her to smile. Ruby then reached down and grabbed Belles hand and the two kindergartners headed back into the school, hand in hand.

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~ Forever&Always,

Kimmie