Hello, hello, hello! It's chapter time!

But first, review responses.

AndrewKeenanBolgerFan: YES, THE TUCK REFERENCES! I had to make some somewhere. Thank you very much. I honestly don't know how I do it. Yeah, Crutchie can be a good boy when needed, but at the same time... he's a mischievous little shit like the rest of them, we all know it. And yes, he did learn how to behave from Race.

Meet the new longest chapter of this story, everyone. (Crutchie, you've been beat.)

Chapter 31- Katherine

Friday, September 17, 1999, 4:10 p.m.

Katherine met Jack at the subway station about an hour after school ended. She had known that he wanted to make certain all the friends he didn't live with got home before he did anything else. Apparently, two nights before, everyone had left Crutchie stranded at the school and that had somehow turned into a big mess; Katherine didn't know the details, but she knew something had happened. So, when scheduling the interview with Mr. Denton, she had accounted for Jack's wish for time to play father to his friends.

They were riding the subway to The Sun's offices now. Well, that was where Jack was going; Katherine was only supervising his journey before making her way home. Neither she nor Jack had been able to find a seat on the crowded train, so they both rode standing up. Katherine had opted to hold onto one of the handles lining the ceiling, while Jack had chosen to hog the metal pole in the middle of the car. How like him.

Ready to give purpose to her accompanying him on his ride to the office building, Katherine pulled a small notebook and pencil out of her skirt pocket. "Hey," she started.

"Hey," Jack repeated, but in a lower octave as well as a more flirty manner. "How you doin'?" He tipped his chin up slightly, eyes fixed on Katherine.

Having already reached her eyeroll quota for the day, Katherine did not feel like doing so again, for fear it would tire her eyes out. "I know Mr. Denton's going to ask you a bunch of questions in a few minutes, but he and I made a deal that we would both write the article about you. And by the time your interview ends, it'll be too late for me to be doing any work. So-" she flipped her notebook open- "why don't you tell me what you're hoping for tomorrow?"

Jack, with one arm still wrapped around the metal pole, leaned closer to Katherine so that their faces were almost touching. "Why don' I tell ya what I'm hopin' for tonight?"

This time, Katherine did roll her eyes. Quota be damned. "Jack, what did we talk about?"

"I dunno."

"What did I tell you not to do?"

He sighed. "Flirt with ya."

"And what are you doing?"

"Flirtin' with ya," As he leaned away from her, Jack made a tired, whiny noise. Said noise dragged on for a while. "C'mon Kath, I can't help it."

Help it, Katherine wanted to say. Instead, she ignored his comment. "Answer my question."

Jack made the whining noise again, but it only lasted a couple seconds this time. "What am I hopin' for? Well, today we got Principal Hannah's attention. Tomorrow... we wanna get Pulitzer's." Katherine scribbled this information down in her notebook, then looked up at her friend, eager for him to go on. "An' if possible, I'd like fer otha' kids around da city ta come ta their senses an' stand wit us. 'Cause if this keeps goin' an' we don't get their support..." he trailed off, clearly avoiding Katherine's eyes and focusing instead on the people around him.

Katherine took a few more notes. "Are you scared?"

Jack's head snapped back in her direction. "What? No, I'm..." he looked away again. "Ask me again tomorrow."

"That's a good answer."

"Says you."

"Oh, so my opinion of you doesn't matter?"

"Naw, yer opinion matters plenty." The subway car slowed, squealing as it came to a stop in the underground station. "Guess this's it," sighed Jack as the doors slid open.

People began to trickle out onto the platform, and Katherine joined the crowd with her companion. "You don't need to be nervous."

"I ain't noivous."

"Really?" Katherine softly punched his shoulder. "'Cause I swear your accent gets thicker when you're nervous."

"It don't do that."

"Yes it do," replied Katherine, mimicking Jack's deep voice.

"Aw, shuddup," he whined.

The pair walked in silence until after they had climbed the stairs leading back to street level. Katherine was to go one way, and Jack the other, but he stopped her before she could run off. "Sure ya don't wanna come wit me to da interview?"

Tapping her notebook, Katherine replied, "I have to get this article started before sundown. But I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright." She began walking again, and Jack let her go. Katherine had almost made it to the point where she couldn't see him if she looked over her shoulder when he jogged up in front of her. "'Ey, Kath?"

"Yes?"

"We all got a lot ridin' on this. Y-you know that." While responding, he rubbed the back of his neck with his palm. "What I'm tryin' ta say is, uh, I guess... write it good, wouldja?"

Seeing Katherine smile at him seemed to relax Jack. "Sure. I'll-" she deepened her voice again- "'write it good'."

The corner of Jack's mouth quirked up in a half-smile. "Heh. 'Night, Kath."

"Good night, Jack." They were both blatantly ignoring the fact that at present it was still technically afternoon. Katherine's friend walked away, and she stood there, mulling over his words. "You heard the man," she found herself muttering aloud, "'we all got a lot riding on this.'"

And she thought about her students, about how tough she knew the world was on them, for most of them had been in foster homes for a good chunk of their lives. In contrast, being raised in the home of Joseph Pulitzer had made Katherine's life easy. It could, as a matter of fact, continue to make her life easy if she allowed her father's influence to open up doors for her. But Katherine wasn't going to do that. She needed to make a name for herself, one that included Plumber rather than Pulitzer, and there was only one way to accomplish that dream. Writing.

This thought carried Katherine all the way to her apartment. She let it stew in her mind until she burst through the door, startling Darcy and Bill, who had both been preoccupied; Bill with staring blankly into space, and Darcy with work.

"Hey, Katherine." Darcy sounded casual until the minute he actually faced her. Then his expression indicated that Katherine resembled a crazed mess of a person. "Are you okay?"

Crossing the threshold, Katherine kicked the door shut before collapsing onto the couch, laying on it as if she had just entered a therapy session. "You know that article I have to write?"

"No," said Bill sarcastically, leaning against the kitchen counter. For the past day, Katherine had talked about nothing but her opportunity with The Sun around her roommates.

Darcy answered, "Yes, of course we do."

Katherine spoke to the ceiling. "Well, I've just realized something."

"What's that?"

Pulling herself up and tucking her knees in so that her wrists rested on top of her ankles, Katherine turned her head to face her bespectacled roommate. "I don't know how to write."

Noisily, Bill rummaged through the cupboards, in search of some kind of food. "Sure you do. You're Katherine Plumber."

"Katherine Plumber has decided to take the night off."

"That's a shame. Popcorn?"

Declining Bill's offer, Darcy came around the couch to pull Katherine to her feet. She stood, staring, as he plopped his backpack on the couch and pulled a thick laptop out of it, which he proceeded to place in her hands. "Here, borrow this. It's easier than writing with paper and pen."

Katherine opened the computer, only to set it down immediately as she sunk back onto the couch. "It doesn't matter which medium I use. I still don't know how to write."

Darcy took a seat next to her. They both paid no attention to the sound of Bill running the microwave in the kitchen area behind them. "Start small. Write what you know, and go from there."

He placed the computer on top of Katherine's lap, and she pulled up a blank document. It remained blank, glaring at her until she averted her eyes toward Darcy. "You can say 'write what you know', but that doesn't help when all I know is I don't know what to write, or the write way to write it, or-"

"Calm down."

"I can't calm down! This is a big story, and if I screw it up-" she sighed. "Maybe The Sun's rules are right, and women aren't cut out for-"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Bill interrupted, "Don't even go there." He opened the microwave, tossed his bag of popcorn onto the counter to let it cool off. "Look, just channel whatever energy you had when you kept me up 'til two in the morning with your article on 'The Bowery Beauties'."

Forgetting about the laptop, Katherine sprung to her feet. Luckily, the computer tipped directly onto the surface of the coffee table as she went to confront Bill. "This is not some little vaudeville show I'm reviewing!"

In an extremely loud fashion, the bag of popcorn was opened by Bill. "Then what is it?"

"It's... a gang of poor little kids versus a rich, greedy..." Katherine stopped as an idea struck her. As if cued, Darcy leaned over the back of the couch to hand her the laptop, which she placed on the counter, clearing Darcy's notebooks away from the space to make room for the computer. Hunched over the screen, she read her rapidly typed words aloud as they filled the page. "'Newsies Stop the World'."

Approving this headline, Darcy nodded, "A little hyperbole never hurt anyone."

Katherine went on typing. While the striking bus drivers, spurred on by recent budget cuts, hold the attention of all, there is another battle brewing within New York City schools.

"Ha!" Bill cried. He was now standing behind Katherine, reading over her shoulder as she wrote. "This story's a cinch. It could practically write itself."

Unfortunately, Katherine had become stuck again; she mashed her head into the keyboard. "Let's pray it does. Did I mention I have no clue what I'm doing?"

"If I may be frank-" Bill shoved a handful of popcorn into his mouth- "I think you're being insane."

Leaning an elbow on the counter- as he had come to stand behind Katherine as well- Darcy put in, "He's right. You've been waiting for-"

"A chance like this for a long time," mumbled Katherine, "I know."

"Well, that, plus the screaming of ten angry editors."

"The what now?"

Grinning at Darcy, Bill began to act this out. "A girl?" he asked, imitating a deep, "manly" voice.

For effect, Darcy pushed his glasses to the edge of his nose. "It's a girl!" He and Bill both feigned surprised expressions.

"How the hell?"

"Is that even legal?"

"Look, just go and get her."

Darcy returned his glasses to their proper position. "That's the reaction you want from your article, Katherine. So dig deep. Find the story behind the story."

Raising her head, Katherine repeated, "The story behind the story..." then she held down the backspace bar until all the letters typed by her face had been deleted, before returning to her furious typing. All over NYC, there are kids who feel invisible, or are not safe in the care of their own parents. Many of these same kids have found an alternative home, created by the presence of the art, theatre, and music programs offered by their schools. These programs allow students a chance to express themselves without judgement, but unfortunately, our district's superintendent does not see this. He does not understand that these kids are more than test scores at the bottom of the list, that they are living, breathing beings, each one longing for their chance in the spotlight. Katherine paused for a moment, looking to her friends for feedback.

"It's brilliant," Darcy breathed.

"Okay." At center stage stands a modern-day David, poised to take on the rich and powerful Goliath. Theodore Roosevelt High's student news team, known as "newsies", are preparing to strike against the school board's new measures, which they deem unfair. Leading them all, with the swagger of one twice his age, armed only with a few nuggets of truth, Jack Kelly stands ready to face the behemoth Pulitzer.

Bill whistled. "Now, that is how you turn a boy into a legend."

A handsome, heroically charismatic, Katherine stopped. That wasn't the way to describe Jack at all. A few other words came to mind, but she didn't write them. "I don't know how to describe him," she confessed. "He's cocky, but he also really cares about his friends, and I know he would do anything for them, but there isn't a word for that."

Darcy suggested, "Selfless."

"But that's not it, because he can be selfish, too."

"From what I've heard, he's a flirt," said Bill.

"Yes, he can be a complete ego-maniac, but that's not something I can put in the article."

"Sure you can. Just do something like this: 'Jack said, after flirting with me extensively...'"

"She can't give the face of the strike a bad rep," pointed out Darcy.

"Then don't describe him at all, just put in a picture of his face. People will get it."

"Sure, whatever." Taking Bill's advice, Katherine returned to her work, deleting her attempted description of Jack. Like someone once said, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power- She cut herself off in the middle of a sentence, to sputter "wait, wait-" corrupts absolutely. "That is genius!" Katherine raised her arms in triumph. "But give me some time, boys. I'll be twice as good as that, six months from-"

"Never, if you don't stay on track," Bill told her.

"Right." Members of my generation, I encourage you to take a look around at the world we are going to inherit, to see what is wrong with it, and to think of the one we'll create if we take a stand together. You may think there is nothing you can do to amend the mistakes of your parents, but there is one mistake they made that you are nowhere near encountering. Putting it simply, they got old and became unaware of their own defects. If you speak up now, as a young person, you could go down in history, meaning you will stay young. Forever. After all, we have a brand new century ahead of us. We can enter it one of two ways: sitting back and watching what happens to the world or facing it head on, many Davids to one enormous Goliath. The fight is on. And I, for one, cannot be an innocent bystander who watches this happen. Because I know that if we just give in, nothing is going to happen. Nothing is going to change. Not to say that things will get worse- because it has been much, much worse- but things are not going to get better if we don't make a change right now. So, whatever happens, let's begin.

*passes out from singing so loud and so high* This song is freaking hard to sing.

Bill and Darcy return! They kinda got all the funny lines in this song. (That wasn't intentional, Kath. Sorry 'bout that.) But they're Katherine's ridiculous roommates and I love them, so who cares.

Drop a review and tell me: Is that even legal?

Also, what you liked, what you didn't like, that sort of thing. The next chapter will also be a long one, so I hope you're excited for it.

Until next time, fellow musical nerds!