---Chapter Five---

Maddy stifled a yawn as she bade the Jacobs' good-bye. After what seemed like a never-ending three hours, David had finally agreed to take her back to the Lodging House. They walked side by side, enjoying the cool breeze in the humid night.

Thinking back to the night's events, Maddy realized it could've gone a lot better. While Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs were incredibly nice and Les being the sweetie that he always is, Maddy had pinpointed the problem down to Sarah and Robert. Well, more specifically, Robert.

Sarah was overly kind, just like her mother, which Maddy had appreciated. They were able to do some girl talk with Mrs. Jacobs which she had missed, living in a boarding house with a bunch of guys. The only time Sarah had acted a little strange was when she and David were talking about Jack, but she had remembered that Jack had told her she was an ex-girlfriend and Maddy had quickly changed the subject. After that, Sarah had seemed perfectly nice. Which is why Maddy could not understand why she was going out with a guy like Robert.

"Maddy?" David asked, breaking her train of thought.

"Wha- yeah?"

"Did you have a good time tonight?"

"Yeah Dave. Your family's real nice," Maddy told him, smiling. "And you know I adore Les, and Sarah was real friendly towards me..."

"But..." David prodded, knowing that she had more to say. Maddy always had more to say.

"How the hell did she end up with a guy like Robert?" she asked bluntly. David stopped and stared at her before bursting out in a laugh.

"I honestly don't know," David told her as they began to continue walking again. "He was a little...boisterous."

"Boisterous? The man was a kiss-ass, first class brown-noser," Maddy added. "I can see why your parents like him. But Sarah seems like she deserves a lot better than him."

"I know," David sighed. "I've told her that, many times. She claims that no one's ever made her feel that way and that I'm just sticking my nose where it doesn't belong. But I know she's not happy. She hasn't been happy since Jack left for Santa Fe." David stopped, not knowing if he should go on. He didn't know how much Jack had told her about his past relationship with his sister. Before Maddy could say anything, he interrupted. "I'm not going to tell you why. He came back about four months ago and it took him that long before he could tell me. If you want to know, you should ask him."

Maddy pondered on that while they continued to walk. When they were about a block away from the lodging house, she remembered Jack's invitation and stopped to turn and face David.

"So, you ready for a little fun?" She asked, a wicked grin expanding across her features. In the moonlight, David thought she looked absolutely radiant and he wondered about what kind of fun she was talking about. When he asked, she laughed and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Jack invited us to go to Medda's with him, Skittery, and Racetrack after we were done with dinner at your house. Medda's performing and that girl Skittery has been talking about for a couple of weeks. You wanna go?"

"As much as I want to," David started, sighing. "I have to get back. I told Mama I was only going to drop you off. Besides, I'm working with Papa at the factory tomorrow to help him out with some things and I need to get up early."

"C'mon Dave, live a little!" Maddy exclaimed, spinning in a circle. "The night is young, the birds are free, yadda, yadda, yadda, just come on out with me and the guys! It's so rare that you do."

David smiled and ran a hand through his thick, curly hair. "Next time Mads. I promise."

"Okay," she sighed. "I'll come visit you tomorrow. Maybe we can go to the park or something." She stepped on her tip-toes, gave him a quick, friendly peck on the cheek and began to walk down towards 4th street to pay a visit to her good friends. David grinned and kept on grinning until he reached his home, where he yelled out a whoop of joy.

"Well, look who decided to show up!" Racetrack yelled over the noise as Maddy made her way through the smoky haze and crowded tables.

"I showed up, didn't I?" Maddy replied, giving him a hug. "What'd I miss?"

"Not much," Racetrack said, leaning back in his seat. "Skittery's been whimpering all night, waiting for his "lady" to show up."

"Put a lid on it! She will show!" Skittery yelled indignantly, taking another swig out of his, what Maddy assumed to be, alcoholic drink. "Oh, hey Maddy."

Maddy smiled hello and sat down between him and Jack, who was watching a ventriloquist act up on stage.

"Hey Jack."

"Hey kid. Look, it's like his mouth never moves!" Jack said with raw admiration. "Now that takes talent." He looked behind and noticed something. "Where's Dave?"

"He had his excuses."

"How was dinner?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." Jack laughed at the grimace on her face.

"What was wrong?" He asked as he turned to face her, making eye contact. "Weren't the Jacobs nice?"

"Oh the Jacobs were perfectly swell," Maddy replied. "It was Sarah's fiancée that was the problem. He is such a brown-noser. It was incredibly sad to watch."

Jack smiled, but didn't say anything. Maddy had told him all he needed to know about Robert. Besides, he wasn't going to spend the night re-hashing on old memories. This was supposed to be fun and he intended to have a good time.

The ventriloquist act was over a couple minutes later and a slender, wildly red-haired woman stepped out on staged and smiled as all the males wooed and cat-called to her. The guys at Maddy's table started yelling for their appreciation too and Maddy figured out that this must be the famous Medda.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen!" Medda called out in a Swedish accent. "Before I come out to do some numbers of my own, we're going to finish up this Amateur's Night with a lady who's full of soul. Give it up for Beth Jones!"

When Skittery began clapping, whistling, and waving loudly, Maddy figured this was the moment he'd been waiting for. Beth walked out onto stage and she immediately held the audience's attention. With a curvy figure and dark, chestnut curls, she earned just as many cat-calls as Medda had. Her dress was a light, periwinkle blue that fit in all the right places and sparkled if she turned in the light a certain way. Grabbing the mike, Beth began to speak and a hush fell over the crowd.

"Hello, lovely audience!" Beth said happily into the microphone, smiling broadly. "We're gonna slow things down a bit with one of my personal favorites. Hope you enjoy this one as much as I do. Hit it Fred." Fred, the piano player, took his cue and gorgeous music began to flow out of the large instrument.

"At last," Beth crooned into the microphone, working the crowd. "My love has come along. My lonely days are over..."

Maddy watched Beth do her thing up on stage when she got an idea as couples began to walk towards the clearing in the middle of the room. She poked Jack's arm, who turned around, slightly annoyed that he was interrupted from watching Beth.

"C'mon Cowboy, let's dance," Maddy suggested, a soft smile playing across her face.

"What? No! I can't dance," Jack admitted, whispering it in her ear so that the other guys couldn't hear her.

"Jack, anyone can dance. Come on, I'll show you how," Maddy replied. With that said she took his hand and dragged him out to the dance floor where five other couples were slightly swaying to the beat, positively glowing from the candles lit up all over the place.

The song continued to play and Beth's smooth lyrics overtook the noise in the place as more couples began to join the dance floor. When they had reached it, Maddy turned to face Jack and took a deep breath.

"Okay, put both of your hands here," Maddy instructed, placing his hands gently on her hips. "I put my hands here." She wrapped her arms tenderly around his neck. "And you just sway to the beat. Follow my lead."

Within minutes, Jack found himself relaxing enough to be comfortable dancing in front of other people. It felt decidedly natural to rest his head softly on hers and it felt nice when she rested her head against his chest. Dancing to them felt like an affectionate moment between two best friends, both of them just living in the moment.

Maddy truly allowed herself to relax. She forgot about David, forgot about newsies, and just forgot about everything. All she wanted to remember was this moment right now, when Jack was holding her like she had thought of for a long time. She felt his hands play with the bottom of her hair and sighed at the simplicity of it all. This was nice and it had been a long time since she had had a nice moment.

The dance was interrupted by the clapping of the audience as Beth sang out her final note. Beth smiled graciously, said her thanks, and disappeared off-stage. Maddy and Jack clapped for her politely and as they talked while they walked back to their table, they both agreed that she had been an excellent singer.

"My God wasn't she just beautiful!" Skittery was exclaiming as Maddy sat down. "I love that woman. Just you watch; I'm gonna marry her."

"Skittery, you said that about Marge the florist three months ago," Racetrack groaned. "And about Annie a year ago, and come to think of it, Wanda got the same declaration made to her around two weeks ago..."

"Shut up Race," Skittery said hastily. "This time it feels right. I can feel it in my bones man."

"Well I hope you're right," Jack commented. "She's coming this way."

"Oh my God, how's my hair?!" Skittery yelled. Before anybody had a chance to answer him, Beth appeared next to him.

"Your hair looks fine," Beth answered mockingly while a shy smile spread across her face, causing Skittery to blush horribly. "Can I talk to you alone for a minute?" Skittery nodded and she led him away with Skittery having the widest grin on his face that any of them had ever seen.

"So, uh, Jacky-boy," Racetrack started. "I didn't know you were such a good dancer."

"Yeah, well it helps when you have a good teacher," Jack replied, smiling at Maddy. She grinned back and took a swig of Skittery's unattended drink.

"Well, Maddy...if you don't mind me asking, can you help me with some dancing moves?" Racetrack asked shyly. "See, there's this girl over at the bar and I really want to impress her, but if I got no moves..."

"No problem Race," Maddy replied, finishing off Skittery's drink. "C'mon, I'll show ya some moves that'll turn her into a puddle."

"I don't want her to melt; I just want her to like me." Jack heard Racetrack quip as Maddy dragged him to the floor. He also heard her rich laughter as he sat back to enjoy the show Medda was about to put on for the audience. As much as he would've liked to pay attention to Medda, his attention kept getting drawn back to Racetrack and Maddy. Racetrack would keep whispering things into her ear that would make her laugh and Jack couldn't help feel a twinge of jealousy. He knew it was ridiculous, but after a dance like that, he felt he should've been the one to be making Maddy laugh.

Skittery bounded up to the table, breaking Jack's concentration. By the, what looked like permanent, smile on his face, Jack assumed things had gone well.

"Well?"

"She asked me out Jack," Skittery said, like he couldn't believe it. "It was incredible; she started talking about how much she noticed me selling my papers and how she noticed how much I'd been noticing her. Beth said she'd been hoping I'd show up tonight. Can you believe that? She was hoping I would be here! And then she just asked me. Like it was no big deal! I can die a happy man."

"Don't die before your date," Jack advised. "I'm sure Beth wouldn't enjoy being by herself."

"Ha ha ha," Skittery said sarcastically. They sat in silence for a moment. "Dave stopped by earlier."

"Oh yeah? Why didn't he stay?"

"I don't know. He took one look at you and Maddy and took off. Said something about getting up early...I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention," Skittery replied, not being much help. "I swear it though, he took a look at you two and just went pale. Kind of weird for him, I'll admit. Hey, there ain't anything going on between the two of you, is there?"

"What? Nah," Jack dismissed the comment a little too quickly. "Why would you think that?"

"Just an observation," Skittery answered. "You two are awfully close."

"Just forget about it Skit," Jack said. "Nothing ain't going on." Jack turned away from his friend and went back to watching Racetrack and Maddy. God, did he have to keep touching her back like that? Jack took a swig of his drink and let it swish around in his mouth. He didn't want to get drunk, per se, but a nice buzz would at least dull whatever activity was going on inside him. He felt like he was going to need it.