Disclaimer: Sadly, the only things that come from me own mind is Eppie, Anna and the Richards. Should I take credit for a bitch like Louisa? The newsies, ya this early bird missed her worm...


Chapter 4

I don't see her!

Keep on lookin, she's in dere somewhere.

But Jack, my legs are fallin asleep.

You don't need your legs Les, not on me shoulders, now look! Eppie spotted Les long before he picked her out of the purple sea of uniforms. He stood out, certainly a sight on the shoulders of Jack who was already taller than most of the girls at St. Mary's. Despite her horrible day she smiled at the sight of him, straining beneath the coverage of one free hand. With the other he gripped onto Jack's hand, which was raised in the air to help support Les. The two wobbled and Les returned both hands to Jack's.

Intent on leaving St. Mary's as quickly as possible, and as discreetly as possible with the monster Les/Jack creation, Eppie took the steps two at a time. There she is! Stopping in front of Jack just as he was slipping Les off his shoulders, she wiped at her eyes quickly and presented her best smile.

What a surprise! She beamed, bending to give Les a hug. Come on, let's go. She took his hand and started down the stairs, not trusting herself to look directly at Jack. They made their way through the crowd and were soon safely hidden in one of the many side streets that ran off of the St. Mary's Central Square.

Although Les was unaware of his friend's distress, Jack noticed simply by the way she carried her shoulders. She was hunched and not with the purpose of shrinking to Les' size. Eppie, is something wrong? He touched her elbow gently, pulling her body open so that he could actually look at her face, expecting, but still surprised, by the faint trail of tears on her cheeks.

She smiled, sniffling despite herself, and warned him with her eyes not to mention anything. Oh, I'm fine. She lied, turning back to Les. Here Les, she rummaged through her shoulder bag and Jack couldn't help but notice how messy it was. Normally she kept everything in it's proper place—she couldn't stand disarray. Her hand returned clutching a small book, blank black cover and roughed edges. She handed it to Les who eagerly turned its pages. I was going through some of my old shelves and saw this. It's an adventure.

Closing the book he smiled up at her, Gee, thanks Eppie.

She sniffled again, wiping hastily at her nose as Jack placed a hand on her shoulder. Les, why don't you go start on the first chapter. Eppie and I need to talk.

Les agreed, starting towards the bench just up the street, at the intersection of the next street, just as Eppie turned into Jack's embrace. I'm fine, really, I am. Her words were muffled behind the tissue she'd pulled from her sleeve, trying to clean the moisture from her eyes, lest it give her away.

Jack sighed, grabbing her gently by her shoulders and hunkering to her eye level. Liah, tell me what happened. She looked at him, nose still hidden by the tissue, but with bloodshot eyes and tears dangling on her lashes.

Instead of breaking down like Jack expected, bawling her eyes out, sniveling into his already dirty shirt, she stamped her foot and growled angrily. I shouldn't let her get to me like this! She cried, gripping her tissue with one hand, both clenched in fists, and pacing quickly back in forth.

he pulled her back to him, glancing around momentarily to notice two passing women staring, Who? Who shouldn't get to you?



Oh yes, He released her to her pacing, leaning back against the brick building and lighting a cigarette.

She's been uncommonly nice to me this past week. Pleasant even and I should have known something was up. Then today in class, all the girls had these invitations on their desks and I'm mortified, because I know that there won't be one on mine. She turned, only three steps away from him, and her face looked so worn. But then there was one. She stood right there, watching as I opened it and saw the blank inside. I should've said something clever, taken her down a notch

You should have punched her, that's what you should have done. Jack inserted, motioning with his own fist, cigarette still within his fingers. He'd hoped it would make her smile, but the result was a forced painful grin.

Stepping closer he snubbed the cigarette and gripped the sides of her arms. She saw, she saw that she'd gotten to me and before I could stop myself I just started crying. Right there, right in front of everyone. She hung her chin, shaking her head in disgust.

In her eyes he could see his reflection, how concerned he looked, how genuine the wrinkles on his forehead seemed to be. And he could tell, just by the way she continued to expose her face to his that she believed his concern also.

So it seemed like the perfect opportunity, the moment he'd been desperately trying to create. And just as he began to lean in, lips about face, she growled again and resumed pacing. I get so frustrated cause it's just not what I need right now. Not with all the stress of school and home and you Her back was to him and she'd carelessly thrown out an arm, motioning in his direction. A second later she turned, brows creased in worry. I didn't mean that. I'm sorry

He shrugged—worse things had been said to him.

she returned to his embrace, resting her hands on his chest and fumbling with buttons of his coat, It's came out wrong. It's just She sighed deeply and dropped her forehead to his chest. I hate her.

He laughed in agreement, resting his own chin on her forhead and radiating the same frustration, although because of a slightly different reason. His arms wrapped around her back and he rubbed for a few good seconds, counting to ten in his head before pulling her away gently and nudging her chin with his forefinger.

She smiled at the funny face he made, thanking him for listening by placing a quick kiss on his right palm. He smiled cheekily, watching as she hurried ahead to fetch Les and mentally cursed her back.

As he began to catch up he caught the date in a store by window, cursing again and startling a mother and daughter who were passing. Almost three weeks, those three precious weeks, had passed. The city celebration was on Friday and although he'd already reserved Eppie for the night, he was beginning to worry.

They'd seen each other almost every day for the past three weeks and he'd been confident that everything would work out. But for those three weeks he hadn't kissed her. He hadn't kissed anyone in fact, and Jack was running low. The kiss clinched it, that would win the bet. Any amount of obvious devotion from Eppie was nothing compared to her kiss.

Jack knew Spot wouldn't settle for less.

So just like Eppie, unbeknownst to the world, he was a little frustrated. Instead of dealing with it, delving a little deeper and facing the problem head on, he continued the course he'd been tied to for quite some time. He remained confident that he'd win that kiss.

Ironically, the only time he didn't worry about the impending date, was when he was with her. She'd opened up quite a bit more and he enjoyed her quirky company. He'd settled into a strange routine of selling in the morning, finishing after lunch and swinging by St. Mary's before wandering with Eppie to where ever her errands took her and if she didn't have a particular place to be he led her on adventures.

Unnervingly he'd been anxious for the first couple days, wanting his friends to accept her but constantly reminding himself that nothing long distance was going to result from the relationship. But it was funny, how watching her chat with Les or argue with Skittery, made every future image clearer. Already Les had invited Eppie to his end of the school year art show, an event more than five months away. Thinking that far ahead and considering the particular circumstance when dealing with Eppie, made Jack bumbling and tongue tied—she always looked to him for confirmation, asking if he was as committed to her as Les apparently was.

He cursed one last time, falling into the burst of warm air that welcomed every customer upon entrance at Tibby's. Les and Eppie had already fallen into a back corner booth, peering secretively over the unnamed book. He stopped to talk with some of the other guys, catching up on how their days had been, making sure everything was okay with his newsies.

Eppie passed the book over to Les, glad to see the interest in his eyes as he began to scan the pages. She watched Jack milling from table to table, a politician in every way. But while Papa complained on how distant and corrupt the government had become, Eppie saw a genuine concern in Jack's presentation.

That made him sexy. That made him appealing. That made her sigh dreamily and simple watch him move. Stopping at the counter to grab them all drinks he turned in her direction and caught her staring, an obvious blush spreading across her cheeks as she whipped her head back to the book in Les' hands. She forced herself to study the pages, to ignore the urge to return her eyes to Jack's form, but all the while her mind was wandering.

Somehow, over the whirlwind that was the past three weeks, the underdog had won. The little voice of hope had drowned out her initial reaction of running as fast as she could. And more importantly, she'd realized that the little voice spoke with the support of her gut. She wanted to give Jack the benefit of the doubt because if he proved everyone wrong and continued his sweetheart routine then her heart would have been right.

But just like at the beginning, she held in the back of her mind the suspicion that something was amiss. More and more it had shrunk to only a brief nightmare. Because as scary as it was becoming, Jack had pushed himself into a very important place in Eppie's life.

He slid the tray of drinks onto the table, five glasses filled with liquid. Anna just came in. Jack explained, passing around the drinks.

Eppie waved to her friend, who seemed to be stopping at the restroom prior to settling at the table. And where there's Anna, there's Spot. She giggled, focusing on the two extra glasses. Jack took a sip of his drink, nodding in agreement while he swallowed.

If her own happiness wasn't enough to brighten Eppie's day, then Anna's new found love certainly was. Her friend practically glowed within St. Mary's halls, drawing envy from not only the other students but also the nuns themselves. So while Eppie connected to the newsies because of her own lower class roots, Anna carried a fantasy type aura with her. And they accepted it, partly because Anna was with Spot, mostly because of Anna's incredible ability to socialize with anyone. As long as things continued they way they were, Eppie felt no need to complain. She had her best friend by her side, helping her explore new friendships and new loves.

Which only made her anxiety concering Louisa grow tenfold. Now she had more to loose. And Louisa had always been known to steal.


AN: This here is what we call a shorite...eh, I hate shorties (no, not you Race!) Really, I was planning, hoping, wracking my brain to produce a longer chapter. I have more written but it just wouldn't fit with the flow of the story...do I make any sense?

Trust me, please, have I ever led you astray? I wanted to get this out because the next part may take awhile. I have it all planned in here *taps temple slightly too hard* which in some instances, yes this instance, doesn't help much because now it has to be as perfect as I see if in my head.

Exhausting work really...I need another vacation...even though I just had one...blah....

What usually helps is if I let my mind wander so this is my way of clearing some thoughts that normally just file under clutter':

I was reading a story posted on ff.net, A Rush of Blood to the Head', heard of it? Well it features Jack *yeahs* and it's a modern day fic. After deciding that I like modern day fic...and that I very much so like Jack...I started to read.

Which got me thinking about how I would write my own modern day fic. This particular story is set in NYC, which makes sense because Newsies was originally...catch my drift? But as for Jack and the rugged boy I picture him as, he doesn't seem to fit the glamor puss NYC that now exists.

I picture him out West, or at least further west than the Mississippi, driving a pick-up truck, with little o me waiting by the side of the road, praying for a ride. (Hitch hiking is very safe in my stories...I don't advise it nowadays)

So I was thinking this while reading, skimming and noticing, CRIPKES, I'm late for school. After I'd managed to drag my butt away from the computer and stumbled down to the car, still thinking about my modern day Jack but a little less enthusiastically. Because I'm really now sure how it would work?

Modern day fics are fun to explore but they have to somehow keep the initial character intact--otherwise it gets all funky and the only thing about Jack is his New York accent, nasty cigarette habit and yummy goodness.
So I was doubting my whole scheme when all of a sudden, I turn on the radio and hear:

Little diddy, bout Jack and Diane, two kids growin' up in the Heartland...

Or something to that affect (I've never been very tight on song lyrics). And that was it, a sign, Jack CAN work in the Hearland', driving that rusty pick up, discontented with the crappy life he's been dealt, I'm thinking small town style, but intriguied by a cute little fille named Teepot.

Am I right, or am I right?