11Hi everyone! And thank you for coming back to read another chapter of my story. I really hope you like this. I tried to make Jack and Katherine's body language and Katherine's nervousness kind of foreshadow their relationship. Anyway, thanks for all the support and reviews. It truly does mean a lot. I don't own Newsies. (Sorry if I've forgotten a disclaimer in the past. I'll try to do better with that.) If I did, then the world would know how great this muscial is. ;)
Katherine could barely believe what was happening. She didn't get a lot of support from her family in her career, so she was going to take this chance to boost her career. Katherine frantically scribbled down notes for her story. The newsies wanted the world to know that they mattered, and Katherine just wanted a chance to matter and make the newsboys have fair rights just like everyone else. Part of the reason Katherine didn't walk out of Jacobi's was that she felt painful sympathy to these boys. They were scraping by, and she felt like she was scraping by in her career. Katherine tapped Jack on the shoulder. She remembered Jack's drawing from the other night. There was no way he had that kind of talent and was just selling newspapers.
"So, what's your story? Are you selling papers to make your way through art school?"
"Art school?" Jack scoffed. "Are you kidding me?" The nerve of this boy. It was ridiculous what she put up with sometimes, but she put up with all of it for a reason. Not for them. For her.
"But you're an artist." Katherine stated, pulling the drawing out from her notebook. "You've got some real talent! You should be inside the paper illustrating, not outside hawking it." She stared down at the paper with her face smiling back at her. Although he did have a talent for lying and being aggressively persuasive, Jack was a great artist no matter which way you slice it.
"Maybe that ain't what I want." Why wouldn't he want success as an artist?
"Well, tell me what you want,"
Jack walked up close to Katherine and blinked his brown eyes. She backed up nervously.
"Can't you see it in my eyes?" Her eyes widened like a scared little girl.
"Yeah, ok…" Katherine took a few steps back from him. "Have you always been their leader?" She asked, opening her notebook.
"Hey, I'm a blowhard. Davey is the brains," Jack answered, pointing the place where Davey ran off to.
"Modesty is not a quality I would have pinned on you." Katherine didn't expect overconfident, big-mouthed Jack to give credit to another person.
"You got a name?" Jack asked. Katherine panicked. If Jack knew her real identity, he might not give her the exclusive. Katherine's father had caused her to fall under many stereotypes when she just wanted to be her own person.
"Katherine," she decided. "P-Plumber," Katherine's publishing name slipped out of her lips.
"What's the matter, ain't you sure?" Jack asked. He had seen the hesitation. Katherine scolded herself. Hesitation never did much for anyone.
"It's my byline," Katherine said truthfully. She technically wasn't lying to him. "The name I publish under." Jack nodded. Katherine's thoughts turned back to the story. "So, tell me about tomorrow. What are you hoping for?" Katherine asked with her eyes on her notebook. She felt Jack's finger push her head up gently so she was looking in his eyes.
"I'd rather tell you what I'm hoping for tonight." Katherine glanced at Jack.
"Mister Kelly… we should-" She pointed down at her notebook. Stay focused, Katherine. Jack groaned.
"Today, we stop the newsies from carryin' out the papes, but the wagons still deliver to the rest of the city," Jack explained. "Tomorrow, we stop the wagons."
"Are you scared?" Katherine asked. It was certainly a daunting task to try and stop all of the newspaper wagons throughout the city. The newsies could get themselves seriously hurt.
"Do I look scared?" Jack scoffed. "Eh, but ask me again in the morning."
"Good answer!" Katherine scribbled down his response in her notebook. If she hurried, she could still write part of the article before supper.
"Goodnight, Mister Kelly."
"Hey, hey! Where are you running? It ain't even suppertime," Jack said.
"I'll see you in the morning," Katherine said with a smile, her pen still dancing across the paper in her hand. She let her arms fall to her sides. "And, off the record, good luck." Katherine truly did want these boys to go far in this fight for freedom. Jack groaned as he swung around the pole in the empty streets of New York.
"Hey. Hey, Plumber!" He called. Katherine turned around to see Jack's face illuminated in the light of the sunset. "Write it good. We've both got a lot riding on you," Jack stated. He ran off into an alley. Katherine nodded. Only three words echoing over and over in her head. Write it good.
Thanks again (and again and again)! Please review if you have an extra minute. Thanks. I might do a Jack chapter just for giggles, so let me know your thoughts on that. The story will still be based mostly on Katherine, but it would be fun to write another perspective, and it might just make the story better. Byeeeeeee!