Chapter Four

The group of newsies let themselves in the balcony. They looked through the group of kids trying to locate Jack and Sarah. Finally they spotted them in the middle of the balcony on the first row.

"Jack! Hey, Jack!" Race called out over the crowd. Several people turned around to glare at him. "Jack! Over here!"

Finally Jack seemed to hear and turned around. They all waved him over frantically. He glared at them but rose to his feet and walked to the back of the balcony.

"This had better be important," Jack told them harshly. The three Manhattan looked at each other, realizing that they had no idea why they had come all this way.

"It is," Cat assured Jack. "Let's step out the door for a minute, okay."

"Oh, hi, Cat, Mouse. I didn't see you there," Jack told them.

"Hi," Cat said while Mouse nodded. "Listen, this is important. Last night while we were in your lodging house Spot went out for the night and Sean O'Reilly forced his way into the Brooklyn lodging house. He's taken over and all the Brooklyn boys who didn't turn have headed out for different boroughs. Spot's with some of the boys in Queens. He wants to see you and try to come up with a plan."

"Well, damn. I'd better head for Queens now then. It sounds pretty important. I'll need you three to come with me incase there's trouble. Cat, do you think that you and Mouse can make it back to the lodging house by yourselves?"

"No problem. It's just a short walk. Nothing to worry about, but there is one problem," she told him.

"What's that?" he asked.

"What are you going to do with your girl?" Cat asked pointing into the balcony towards Sarah.

"Oh, yeah, forgot about her. Can you guys take her by the Jacob's apartment on your way to the lodging house?"

"Yeah, we came by there on the way here and I'm sure she knows how to get back anyway."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Blink muttered. The other guys snickered.

"Anyway," Jack said, glaring at them, "if Dave's at the apartment when you get back tell him I want him to be in charge until I get back. I don't know when that'll be but it shouldn't be but a day or so. Dave is Sarah's brother, he's a newsie you have met yet."

"Sure, we'll let him know."

"Well, guys, let's head for Queens." He turned and headed for the stairs down to the bottom level of the hall.

"Wait, Jack, you want to tell your girl the change in plans?" Cat asked.

"Oh, yeah, forgot again." Jack turned and went in the balcony and talked briefly to Sarah. After a moment the two of them strolled back towards the other newsies. Sarah did not look happy. "Cat, Mouse this is Sarah Jacobs. Sarah this is Cat and Mouse, two Brooklyn Newsies."

"Nice to meet, you." Cat said offering her hand.

Sarah looked at the newsprint covering Cat's hand before hesitantly shaking hands with her. "Nice to meet both of you as well."

She turned and shook the hand that Mouse offered. Mouse smiled and nodded.

"Mouse doesn't talk. That's how she got her name, she's as quiet as a mouse." Cat explained.

"Oh," Sarah said shortly. Cat could almost see her mind attaching the word odd to Mouse.

"Well, we have to get out of here," Jack told them. "You just stick with Cat and Mouse until you get to your building and then they have a message for Dave."

"Jack, why can't you take me home?" she whined.

"I told you I have some important stuff to take care of. I have to go see if I can help Spot out."

"I don't see why you have to run off to help him in the middle of the night. I mean what can you do at this hour?"

"Listen, I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow or maybe the next day. Bye." With that Jack and the boys hurried down the stairs of the theatre. (A/N: is it theatre or theater?)

Sarah turned towards Cat and Mouse and looked them over. She sniffed slightly and looked at the pants both girls were wearing. Her nose turned up slightly at the sight of the small layer of dust and dirt that covered them. Finally she gave a tight little smile and said, "Well, shall we be on our way?"

"Oh, let's," Cat said, mockingly cheerful.

They headed out the door and down the street in the direction of the Jacobs' apartment. Cat was fairly sure of the direction but paused a few times to check with Sarah. She proved to be little help, mostly shrugging her shoulders and saying, "I guess."

They finally reached the apartment with little difficulty. Cat started up the fire escape before realizing that Sarah would prefer the stairs inside the building. They went in the building and up the stairs. Sarah let them in with her key.

"Oh, Sarah, are you back so soon?" Mrs. Jacobs asked. "Where's Jack?"

"He had some kind of business to take care of and he asked these two girls to walk me home. They're newsies, too."

"Oh, yes we met earlier when Race and the boys stopped by looking for Jack. Thank you girls for walking back with Sarah. If you wait a few minutes David will be back and he can walk you back to the lodging house or you can stay the night here if you want," Mrs. Jacobs offered kindly.

"Oh, that's all right ma'am. We can make by ourselves, but we do have a message for Dave from Jack. Is it okay if we wait here?" Cat asked.

"Oh, that's fine. In fact have a seat at the table and I'll get you a plate of food."

That sounded good to both the girls since they had missed getting dinner in all the walking they had done that night. On the other hand they recognized the face of poverty in the Jacob's home lying beneath the homely façade Mrs. Jacobs had given the apartment.

"Oh, we don't want to be a bother; we'll just wait by the door." Just then Cat's stomach rumbled in protest.

"Nonsense, you're obviously hungry. I insist you eat something. You'll hurt my feelings if you don't. Now sit down." Unable to resist the motherly tone that Mrs. Jacobs employed or the lure of food; both girls sat down at the kitchen table and ate the food that she set before them.



A/N: This was a much longer chapter…much longer but I decided to break it down a bit so that it was two slightly shorter chapters. I still have some fine-tuning to do to the other chapter but it should be up sometime next week. If it's not I apologize ahead of time. I'm spending the weekend at the local Girls Scout Camp, helping out with a program and I'm supposed to start my new job next week. Moving on to the next order of business…I know I did a lot of Sarah bashing in this chapter and I'm sorry to all ya'll who like her but I find her annoying and so I bashed her. Next, thanks to my reviewers but for this chapter I don't have any responses…I'll make it up to next chapter…I'm having to use one computer to type (my computer) and another to connect to the internet (my mom's). It's just too much effort to run back and forth between the two.