Disclaimer - I don't own any part of the Step Up franchise. I do own, however, all the OC's that have been incorporated into this story that came from me.

Welcome to Baltimore!

"Passengers, welcome to Baltimore!"

Brynn looked up at the speaker as the automated voice chimed cheerily.

This is it, she thought.

Once she was off the plane with all of her bags in hand she waited. She had called her cousin, he said he were on his way. A few more minutes and everything would good. Brynn closed her eyes at the thought. Soon, she'd be at her aunt's house. A place where, oddly enough, she felt the most comfortable. She never had that feeling when at home home. The place she'd lived for most fifteen years of her life never felt like home. All because of how she was raised.

Brynn leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. She remembered when they would drive to Baltimore for Christmas. Those were the days - the only days - when she would completely forget about her sisters and hang out with Moose and Camille and, every now and then, Camille's older brother Tyler. They would play in the street, mainly dancing. That's when she started getting the hang of it. The twisting, turning, gliding, spinning-all of it. Those were the days when she found the rhythm that had been buried deep due to ballet classes. She smiled to herself, remembering it. The days when she could smile without having to worry if her parents could tell if it was fake or not.

"Ya know," a voice said in her ear, "if you keep doing that, your posture is going to be ruined and I know Aunt Angelina and Uncle Jerry wouldn't appreciate that too much."

Her head snapped up. There standing before her was her curly-haired, lanky cousin. A smile graced his face and he held out his arms. Instantly, Brynn launched herself into them. It felt good to see him. It reminded her that not everyone in her family were jackasses

They pulled up to a house that sat on the curb. It wasn't anything big; a one story with a few windows. The walls were an off-white color while the roof and door were a red. Brynn smiled.

She walked over to where Moose was by the trunk, hauling her bags up and out of the space, setting them gently on the concrete. They picked up the various bags and walked up the driveway. The click of the door unlocking seemed quite loud in the still, cold Maryland air. Walking across the threshold, Brynn noticed some familiar things: the large painting that seemed to catch your eye immediately after you walk in, the picture she had made for them when she was about seven years old (red, blue, green, and yellow were splattered everywhere), the portrait of Moose and Camille dancing in the yard. But what mostly caught her eyes were -

They still have it.

"Hey," Moose called from the kitchen. "If you want, go get changed."

"Okay," she replied as she walked away, down the long hall and into the bathroom. She shrugged off her book bag and tugged it open. Brynn pulled out her toothbrush and toothpaste. She began brushing, letting the cool minty feeling spread through her entire mouth. Once she was done with that she pulled out a pair of black. She stripped out of the jeans and pulled on the sweats. She turned her head and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

Brynn leaned forward, placing her hands flat against the icy counter top and looked at her reflection. Really looked at her reflection. Her hair wasn't anything like her sisters' was. Annalice and Genevieve had that long, straight, thin hair that curled a bit at the ends. Annalice's hair color was more of a coppery brown courtesy of both her parents while Genevieve had dirty blond hair courtesy of her father. Neither had bangs. Brynn, however, had dark, thick brown hair that stopped just before her breasts and it had that wispy style to it with side bangs that were long enough to cover her entire right eye. Natural black highlights mixed with it. Her eyes were darker than night itself while her mother and Genevieve had the lightest brown eyes they almost seemed slightly golden and her father and Annalice had the clearest blue eyes that, at times, they could seem transparent in a way. She had full lips while her siblings and parents had thin ones. She had always had a skinny body; all three of them had. But Annalice and Genevieve were straight as cardboard, not much of a body shape and not that much cleavage. They could pass for tall second graders. Brynn had a nice body shape and average sized boobs for a fifteen-year-old girl.

She had always been different, never really fitting in with the rest of them. She struggled in ballet while her sisters thought it was the easiest thing you could do in the world. They made it seem effortless: hardly ever messing up, moving fluidly. To Brynn, nothing flowed that easily in ballet. Ever.

Brynn was the odd-ball.

It was as if she wasn't even related to them.

The young girl shook her head. She walked out of the bathroom and back into the kitchen, looking for her cousin. He was nowhere to be found, so she wandered. Looking at the few knickknacks they had scattered around their house, pictures of people who she didn't recognize. Then her eyes landed on the picture of them. All of them.

Her mother and father with her aunt and uncle right next to them. They were smiling. Annalice, Genevieve and herself were in front of her parents while Moose stood next to Brynn in front of his parents. Light flurries of snow fell as it blanketed the ground and roof of her house back in New Jersey. Her and Moose had the funniest expressions on their face while her two siblings just smiled. That was the last year they spent Christmas together. Her mom and aunt got into an ugly argument. The two families hadn't seen each other in three years.

"You remember that day?" a voice asked from behind her. She turned to find Moose standing in a pair of black shorts and a T-shirt and a smile gracing his lips. His eyes were trained on the picture. "I think your mom yelled at us for making those faces."

"Yeah," she said, recalling that day. "She made us take it over before realizing we wouldn't stop doing it."

Moose laughed. "Yeah."

It was silent for a moment before Moose cleared his throat. "Did you eat dinner yet?"

"Yeah, before I got on the plane," Brynn answered. "Why?"

Moose smiled at his younger cousin. "Are you in the mood for ice cream?"

The two ended up at Finnegan's Ice Cream Parlor. Moose and Brynn were currently sitting at a table with a red top. He dug into Rockie Road while she carefully ate her strawberry ice cream.

"So why'd your parents ship you to Baltimore," Moose said conversationally.

"I was dancing," Brynn said, not meeting his eyes. Instead she stared down at her cup half-filled with sweet pink ice cream. "My father caught me and got tired of it."

"You were dancing again?"

This time she just looked up at him. He had always known about her dancing. In the three years their families hadn't spoken, they had. They kept in touch. She told him about the dancing, how she was sick of her father treating her like she wasn't worthy of him. Moose would always tell her to keep her head held high and that it would get better. He told her to keep doing what she loved and what she loved was dancing.

"I never stopped."

A few beats of silence before Moose said, "So…what? He just got mad and sent you here?"

"He walked in on me dancing," Brynn answered as she poked her ice cream, remembering what happened only a few days ago. "He slapped me and told me to pack my bags, that he "wouldn't have someone dancing in such a foul manner live under his roof."

"He slapped you?"

Brynn only nodded.

"Slapping your kid just because she…" he trailed off with a sigh. He pushed his cup away having suddenly lost his appetite. Moose looked at his cousin, who was now staring at her food again. "What else did he say to you? 'Cause I know that's not all he said."

"We argued a bit and…"

"And…?" Moose said softly, not wanting to sound too pushy.

"The last words he said to me were, 'You are a disgrace to our family.'"

Moose just stared at her in shock. Uncle Jerry said that? But…what the hell is going on? His eyes were wide and his mouth was opened slightly. His eyes raked over his cousin, his quiet little cousin, who had just told him her father slapped her for dancing.

When they got back home, he told her to get changed and to get a good night's sleep. Their plane left early tomorrow. His parents had managed to take a trip to on a cruise for six weeks. Since they weren't going to be here, they came up with the idea of enrolling Brynn at the high school that was close to NYU. Moose found it, realized it was a few minutes away from the Vault, decided she would live there, and go to school at North Lincoln High School. They told Moose to tell her that they were sorry they couldn't see her and that they love and miss her. They also left behind something for her…what was it…?

Oh yeah! Realization dawned on Moose as he hopped up from his bed and ran to table. He grabbed the wrapped package and sprinted down the hall to the guest room. He quickly knocked on the door before practically kicking it down. Brynn sat on her bed with a bewildered expression etched into her features. "Hey…what's up?"

"This is from us," Moose handed her the package. She hesitantly took it and looked up at him questioningly. Moose smiled and nodded encouragingly.

She punctured the thin wrapping paper with her finger and began tearing it off, catching the pieces and crumpling it up in a ball and tossing it in the small trash can in the corner. She looked down at the gift in her hands.

"We weren't sure if you still wrote like that but…"

The diary was pretty thick; three hundred pages at most. The diary cover was plain white with a stick on the top right-hand corner that said, "Customize your own diary cover they way YOU want to!" She flipped over to the back and found the same thing: a smooth white surface. She fingered through the book and found black lined paper. Brynn looked up at her cousin. She set the book down and hugged him.

"I do," she answered. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Once she was back on her bed she asked, what time do we leave tomorrow?"

"Five in the morning," he answered. Brynn caught sight of the alarm clock next to her bed. The bright red numbers read 8:32 P.M. "You got all your stuff ready?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, goodnight Brynn."

"Night, Moose."

The plane ride was atrocious.

Throughout the whole time, she felt the back of her seat being pushed by a little heathen who thought it would be funny to kick the chairs more than a hundred times per minute while she tried to sleep. The mother had no idea what was going on due to the fact that she was past out for most of it. Once Moose had fallen asleep and the mother went somewhere, she turned to the little boy.

"Listen kid," she began menacingly, "do it one more time and I swear I'll -"

"Who are you?" a lady with jeans, a pink jacket, and boots asked.

"Oh," Brynn said innocently, pretending the child in her back seat wasn't annoying the crap outta her. "He dropped his toy and needed my help to get it."

"Why thank you," a kind smile spread across the woman's face as she looked down at her boy who had his toy clutched in his hand.

"Mom that's not -"

"Be nice Nicholas!" she snapped.

"But -"

"No buts," she stopped him again. "Say thank you to the young girl."

"Thank you," he grumbled unwillingly.

Brynn flashed what she hoped was a gentle smile in his direction. "Your welcome." she stated before turning around. That's when she heard the low grunt before something sold slammed in the back of her chair causing her to jump in pain.

"Nicholas!" the mother screeched. "Apologize! Now!"

"No!" he screeched. Apparently something the mother did or said made him say, "Sorry."

"It's fine," Brynn grimaced. Butthead, she thought.

The little boy cried for the rest of the plane ride.

Hey guys! Chapter two is complete and chapter three is on its way. I'm really glad you guys like this story so much. I was so happy when I got all the reviews and story/favorite alerts. There wasn't dancing in this one and I know what you're probably thinking.

What the crap? thinks the reader as they read the Author's Note at the end of chapter two. There wasn't any dancing. Is she INSANE?

Don't worry, I'll definitely have dancing in the next chapter. So, until then, my loyal and lovely readers! Don't forget to review and, if you haven't already, add this story to your story alert/favorite story list(s). Thanks again guys and I'm glad you all like the story! :D