Chapter 5 – Carryin' the Banner
Kate woke up to the sun shining through the windows. Did she dream it all or did it really happen? A silly grin came to her face, when David entered.
"Good morning. Did you sleep okay?" he asked.
"More than okay," she answered.
"Les and I have to go sell papers. I'm meeting my friend Race at the distribution," David said.
Kate's smile faded. She had to get out of the city. How long would the Jacobs' let her stay? She needed money, she needed to leave; this was no time to be falling in love, and yet she thought she might be!
"Can I come with you?" Kate asked. "I've seen newsgirls before, maybe I could try it. It would be better than staying here all day," she said.
"I'd like that. I'd like that a lot," David said.
"Hey, check it out! Who's the broad that's with Dave?" Kid Blink asked pointing.
"Is that the girl you were telling us about yesterday?" Mush asked Racetrack.
"It looks like her," Race said.
"She don't look so crazy to me," said Bumlets.
"Shh, they're coming this way," Race said.
"Hey, Walkin' Mouth, is that your new girlfriend?" Skittery called out as they approached.
"Don't worry about them, that's just their way of saying hello," David said. "This is Kate," he introduced her. The newsies greeted her, but now they suddenly became shy with a female in their presence.
"So you're gonna try to sell papers, huh?" asked Specs. He was the first to speak to her.
Kate nodded, "Try being the main word."
"Well, you know, if you decide you want a different selling partner…" Specs began to say, but was stopped by a look from David as the other newsies nudged each other and laughed.
David trained Kate just as Jack had helped him. As the weeks passed, Kate was becoming a natural, and used her femininity as an advantage. Sometimes she outsold even David. Though at first it was difficult being the only female, the newsies were a gregarious bunch, so friendships began forming fast. The Jacobs felt like her family, she helped with dinner, had long talks with Mrs. Jacobs- it was wonderful being a part of a real family. She and David were growing closer and closer, she was sure that she loved him. Her new life was more than she could hope for, and she forgot why she was even selling newspapers.
"Hey, Kate, can I ask you something?" David asked as they were eating lunch at Tibby's.
"Shoot," Kate smiled.
"Um, I notice that you run- well, whenever the cops are near, you hide or run or-" David searched for the right words.
"Yeah… you do. Like that one time we were selling on 44th and you ran into the store saying that you wanted to look at a dress… but the store you went into was the bakery" Les said.
"Look, there ain't nothing you can hide, so you might as well tell us. We've all been chased by the bulls before, it's no big news to us," Race said.
"Yeah, Jack was in the refuge before he became a newsie, and he was always bein' chased by them," Blink reminded.
"I miss Jack," Les sighed.
"Me too," Boots agreed.
"Warden Snyder… I wonder what he's doin' in his prison cell right now," Crutchy said shaking his head with a laugh.
"So what'd you do? Out wit it. There are no secrets here," Pie Eater prodded.
"Hey, I don't know about you, but I got some secrets that I wouldn't tell," Mush said laughing.
"You're not helping, Mush," David said. Then gave Kate a pleading look.
She let out a deep sigh. "Remember… remember when you first saw me? Race, you thought I'd escaped from a mental institution-"
"I DIDN'T!" Race objected. The other newsies looked at him doubtfully. "Okay, well, maybe I thought you were a little crazy."
"You thought I was completely crazy, Race. Anyway, you remember how I had bruises and cuts and burns… I was beat up pretty badly," Kate said.
"Yeah, you told us it was from your family, right?" Blink asked.
"Yeah, my father. He was a police officer," Kate said. "He's probably out there, somewhere, and if he ever found me…" she trailed off.
"He won't find you. If he does, and if he tries to lay a finger on you, I'll- I'll kill him!" David said passionately.
"I wouldn't say that so loud, Dave," Mush said.
"I don't care who hears. I love you, Kate, and I'd do anything for you," David said in front of all of the newsies. Some of them were smiling, others started giggling, the younger newsies were saying "ew!" or "blech!" or "yuck!"
But Kate leaned across the table and gave him a kiss to let him know that she felt the same. And one more just in case he still didn't get it. The newsies went wild, but David and Kate didn't care. They were in love and that's all that mattered to them.
