A/N: Hello all! Thanks for stopping by and reading! This is my first Hairspray fanfiction so just bare with me please ). This might matter for the story so just so you know, in my mind I don't picture the Hairspray characters the characters from the movie, I picture the Broadway show characters. For example: Penny has red curly hair and Link has blonde hair. Just little things like that ). This is a PennyxSeaweed fic with TracyxLink making several appearances, but the main focus will be PennyxSeaweed.

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Hairspray, if I did… I probably wouldn't be writing on this website hehe.

Never Set Me Free

It was 11:00 am on a beautiful Saturday summer afternoon. Seaweed had just picked Penny up from her house, away from her psychotic mother, and they were now walking toward Motormouth Maybelle's record shop. The Corny Collins Show had been officially integrated for about a month, but that didn't stop some people from still hating blacks. If anything it made them hate blacks even more.

Hand in hand Seaweed and Penny made their way down the streets of Baltimore, they were going to be meeting Tracy and Link as well as others down at the record store to celebrate the one month anniversary of the integrated Corny Collins Show.

"So, you excited to get down and boogie tonight baby?" Seaweed asked Penny. Penny giggled and gave an honest answer, "Well, I don't know how good I can boogie but I'll sure try!"

Seaweed laughed and thought to himself. How did he get so lucky? Penny may not have the typical standard of what most people would call beauty, but she certainly was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid his dark eyes on. Penny brought him out of his thoughts when she poked him in his stomach and said "Race you to Motormouth's!"

"Oh you're on little girl!" he added playfully. They were both running fast, not a care in the world. Penny was in the middle of crossing the street and didn't see the car coming silently speeding down the road. "Seaweed, come on!" she urged. Still, she didn't see the car and it was getting closer.

"Penny!" Seaweed screamed. This time it wasn't playful. He was panicked and ran out into the road to push her away from the car. The thankfully didn't hit Penny, but got Seaweed instead.

"Seaweed! No, no! Oh my gosh, help!" Penny screamed between sobs. "Seaweed! Please, no Seaweed!" She was frantic. The car had long since drove past them and there didn't seem to be any other cars coming. She though about carrying him but there was no way. She was small and he was much bigger than her, she wouldn't be able to get him two feet away. Just then a lime green car came trotting down the road.

"Help! Please! Stop! He's hurt please!" Penny screamed to the car.

The car stopped near the site and rolled down its window only to reveal Amber Von Tussle and Brenda, and Shelley.

"Oh look girls, it's Tracy Tugboat's loser best friend and her dead Negro boyfriend, what should we do?" said Amber.

"HE'S NOT DEAD! Please, Amber just help me". Penny pleaded with her. Her crying didn't die down.

"Let me think, no! Why should I help some smelly negro who helped sabotage the Corny Collins Show?" she growled. With that, she, Brenda, and Shelley drove off giggling, leaving a distraught Penny behind.

"Seaweed, please wake up!" she yelled at him. Just then a blue car came down the road. A blue car she became familiar with the past month. It was Link's car.

"LINK!" she screamed. The car pulled over and Link and Tracy rushed over to Penny's side.

"Oh my God, Penny what happened?" Link said, very concerned as he examined Seaweed.

"A car! And then Amber and he's going to die! And.. and…" she couldn't form proper sentences. The hit and run replayed in her head. It would be Penny laying here not Seaweed, why did he have to save her?

"No, Penny he's not going to die, it's okay," said Tracy as she put her arms around her extremely shaken up best friend. "Link, the hospital isn't too far from here, do you think you'd be able to carry Seaweed into your car and take him there? Me and Penny will walk over and meet you, okay?" In the midst of saying this Link already began to take Seaweed and bring his limp form into the car. Before Tracy or Penny knew it, he was already driving toward the hospital.

"See Penny, he'll be fine," Tracy was really concerned. Sure she had seen Penny shaken up sometimes, but never like this. This was bad. It was worse than when her father left her mother all those years ago, and that was bad.

Penny couldn't say a thing. She wouldn't say a thing. Though her sobs did prevent her from speaking, she wouldn't have been able to speak anyway, she was too overwhelmed by what just happened to her boyfriend.

"Penny are you okay?" Tracy asked. She realized she wasn't going to get anywhere, not now; Penny was just choking on her sobs. "Let's go Penny, we'll go the hospital and you could see him okay?" Tracy tried to sound as optimistic as possible. It was hard for her too. Here her best friend was in hysterics, her other friend hit by a car and in the hospital with no news about how he's doing, and your boyfriend, the only with him who doesn't even know as much about him as she or Penny.

Tracy managed to get Penny off the ground and walk her to the hospital.

"Trace, Penny, are you guys okay?" Link asked, concern in his voice as they sat in the waiting room with Motormouth. Link had called her once at the hospital and she was over in a flash.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Tracy answered with a small smile. Link looked from Tracy to Penny and back to Tracy. He was clearly asking "What about her?" though his question was silent. Tracy shrugged. The whole area was quiet except for Penny's crying which had only calmed down very, very little since the accident. People might wonder if it was her that was hurt. Thankfully Motormouth chimed in.

"Penny, honey come on, let's go get some water and calm you down baby," she said. She grabbed Penny's hand and together they walked down the halls toward the cafeteria leaving Tracy and Link in their wake.

"Tracy, I've never seen Penny like this! Is…is she gonna be okay?" Link asked as Tracy took a seat on one of the chairs.

"Oh Link, I don't know!" sadness took over her voice. She got teary eyed and tears began to drip down her face. She cried for Seaweed, she cried for Motormouth, she cried for Penny. Why did these things have to happen to such good people? "I've only ever seen her like this once before, and it still wasn't as bad as this! Link after you left I gave her a hug and she was shaking. She was shaking uncontrollably! I just want her to be alright" Tracy finished.

"Oh, little darling cheer up," Link began, "I'm sure she'll be fine. Right now though, I think the focus should be on Seaweed, he's gonna need us babe".

He was right, but he didn't realize just how Penny was going to need them too.

A/N: So? What did you think? It's a little on the short side and I promise that will change with future chapters… but make sure you review! Thanks!