Chapter 10

Huge News!

Thanks for reviewing some more guys, I really appriciate it. It makes me think people are reading my story muaha. Anyways, hope you like, I loved writing this one, so I think you'll have fun reading it. Now ONNN TO THE STORRYY: (preview) Jack has just shown Kandice her surprise b day presie and she is just seeing it now...ohhhh!

"Jack! This is absolutely amazing!" She looked around at her new, fully furnished, astonishingly decorated new room. It had her princess sheets on her new queen sized bed, all of her clothes in a newly made dresser, a vanity, and a beautiful jewelry station to put all of her necklaces and bracelets. Her dresses and skirts were all hung up, and right underneath were her hundreds of shoes lined up neatly. On her dresser was the most beautiful gift anyone could give her. It was a picture of her mom and dad on their wedding day. They looked so happy and in love. As Kandice looked at them, her eyes started to tear up and she smiled at Jack.

"Jack..." She ran over to him and jumped on him giving him a big hug. "How did you find that picture?" She asked him.

"I got it from a soace." He smiled.

Jack hugged her tightly, It made him happy knowing he had made her even happier. "And how did you find the money to pay for all this? We both know you don't have it." She giggled.

Jack glared at her with a "watch it" face and pointed his finger at her. "Don't worry bout it. Les jus say I pulled a few strings." He smiled at her and kissed her once before walking over to the bed. He sat down and bounced up and down. "Dis is pretty comftable. I tink I'll be in hea a few nights, huh?" He, then, lie down on it and spread out his arms, taking a deep sigh and closing his eyes. Kandice looked at herself in the vanity, fixing her hair. She opened the drawer to find all of her blush and makeup products. She took them out and placed them on the vanity neatly in their perfect places. She took a deep sigh and looked at the reflection staring back at her one last time, when suddenly she saw Jack's reflection creep up behind hers.

"Hey." She said smiling at him.

"Hey." He put his arms around the top of her so that his arms were over her shoulders, hugging her neck. They looked at themselves together in the mirror. "Ya know, we makes a pretty good couple. Dontcha tink?" He smiled and kissed her on the top of her head. As she looked in the mirror, she realized that when she used to look in her mirror at home, she would see a lonely, confused, mislead young girl that would never be on her own, but now, she saw a beautiful, well kept, girl with a wonderful relationship. Jack seemed to make the other side of her. Almost like half of her was there, until Jack showed up. The two of them together made up one person, and that's how it was supposed to be the whole time. Jack was the one for her, and she knew it right from that point.

"We sure do." She replied. She turned her head so the couple were face to face. She gave him a sweet kiss and put her arms in back of her to hold his hands. Looking back into the mirror she said, "Thank you so much for this Jack. I couldn't have thought of a better present." She kissed him again and looked at his reflection. He was so cute and she was positive she had fallen in love with him. They were perfect together and she wouldn't want anything to happen to them, it was the perfect relationship. Suddenly they heard 3 loud knocks at the door and Jack went over to the door to open it.

"And lookit dis, already people ah comin in to look at my butiful work." She smiled at the suspense of who was at the door. Mush, Skittery, and Race came in right as he opened it and looked around.

"Wow, Jacky-boy can I be yoah goil too?" Race sarcastically asked. They walked around looking at everything. "You really went all out on dis one. Tha postahs, the dressah. When did you have time foah alla dis?"

"When you'se was all sleepin, dats when." He said feeling a new proud feeling wash over him.

"You did all this when we were sleeping, Jack?" She asked with a surprised look. "That's so sneaky! I would have never suspected a thing." She kissed him again and Skittery tried to turn away subtly, but Kandice seemed to notice how uncomfortable Skittery was, so she let go of Jack's waist and pretended to look around. She went over to her dresser and looked at all of her clothes. Skittery walked over to try and explain himself.

"Hey." He said sadly.

"Hi Skittery, how ya feeling?" She asked, concerned. She was trying to kill him with kindness. She just wanted him to forgive her and move on.

"Eh, okay I guess. Nice room." he said. Kandice swore she saw a smirk when he said that.

"Thank you. I'm really happy about it too. He did sucha good job, my man." She was smiling at Jack while he talked to the boys. Skittery looked back at Jack then back at Kandice.

"Yeah...well, nice talkin to ya." he said turning around.

"Skits...don't go." She grabbed his arm as he was leaving. He looked down at the ground like a dog who had just been scolded. "Listen, I know why your mad at me and I can't do anything about it. I thought we had something too, but then Jack started talking to me more and more and..." She paused looking at the sad expression on his face. "Listen, he started to grow on me. Im sorry if I hurt you, you know that's not what I intended to do at all, but if you do, I would love to still be friends." She smiled at him and hoped for the best.

Skittery stared at her for a long minute before smiling slightly. "Yeah, I guess that's ok." he said sarcastically. He pulled her arm in for a big hug. He loved the feeling of her arms around him, keeping him safe from harm. He knew that she couldn't be his, but he would try his hardest to keep her close. "Tanight, meet me on the roof, I havta tell ya somethin." He whispered.

She looked at him with a questioning look and then nodded as he walked back to the boys. "Alright, everyone out! I wanna get changed for bed." Everyone groaned and started to leave, laughing about a joke they played on Jack a while back. When Jack started to leave she pulled his sleeve and waited till everyone left. "Except for you, Jacky-boy." She smirked seductively making Jack laugh nervously. She turned him around and pushed him to the bed, making him fall on the soft princess sheets. She straddled him, putting each of her legs on either side of him and leaned down to kiss him. They got into making out and Jack rolled her over so that he was on top now, with his legs on one side of her. They pulled away for a second so that Kandice could back up onto her pillows and then went at it again. Jack started to kiss her neck and she could feel her heart going a thousand beats per minute. She started to breathe heavily, smiling. While kissing her neck, he took off her shirt, and threw it to the floor. He then started kissing her stomach and unbuttoning her pants as she dug her fingers lightly into his bare back. She could feel that it was getting pretty heavy. She wanted to go further, but she didn't want to end up regretting anything. Her and Jack had only been seeing each other for a day now. She lifted his head up to look at her.

"We should stop."

"Why?" Jack was panting and looking at her with his light eyes. His gorgeous face was so hard to say no to, but she knew she had to.

"Because I don't want this to get too far, and I honestly don't trust myself with you right now." He slumped down with his forehead on her stomach and took a deep breath. Then not looking at her, he slowly lifted himself up. He had such a nice stomach and his body was to die for, but she just had to contain herself. She was too young and she couldn't bring herself to do it now.

"I'm gonna go ta bed, night." He started to leave, without a kiss or anything.

"Well I didn't mean you had to leave." she giggled.

"Yeah, but 'I honestly don't trust myself with you right now' He said mocking her to get his point across. With a stern, serious face he stared at her for a little, looked down, and then slowly left as he put his shirt back on.

When Jack left the room Kandice looked around. "What the hell just happened?" Deciding she would go meet Skits, she got up out of her bed and looked at herself once in her mirror before leaving her room. She looked around once before walking to the window at the end of the hall and climbing up the emergency stairs to the roof.

Standing up there brought her back to last night, when Jack had asked her out as they danced romantically to the soft music. That memory made her think about what had just happened and she suddenly felt angry with Jack. Was he mad at her because she wouldn't go further with him? She looked around until she finally saw Skittery, looking at the view of the city with his hands in his pockets. When he heard her come up onto the gravel, he turned around to see her beautiful, almost shining face.

He smiled at her and ran over with great urgency in his step "Can we please talk about tha mistake yoah makin?" he said, with his intense green eyes radiating at her.

She slightly laughed thinking he was joking, then seeing that he wasn't, toughened up and replied, "What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what im talkin bout"

"Skits, I'm so confused, I thought we went over this. I thought we were just friends." She gave him a confused look, like she was worried about him.

"It's not gonna end like dat. I know ya love me Kandice, I know ya do, yoah jus too scahed to admit it. You wanna be wit me too!" Kandice looked around making sure no one could hear him.

"Skits, Im with Jack, and you know that's not gonna change right now."

"Listen ta me." Kandice looked around one more time with her hand over her mouth, scared that someone would overhear them. "Just, listen!" he said with what seamed like he wanted to get everything out in a matter of seconds. It wasn't forceful, but gentle in a way He pulled her back to face him. "When I foist saw you dat foist day, an you looked at me, I didn' know what ta do I was so dumbstruck. Listen!" He said getting her focus back on him. She would look around, wanting to avoid his eye contact, she couldn't be strong with someone so close to her in this kind of state. "An we had da best ting befoah. Do you rememba dat? Do you rememba how great dat was?" Kandice started to cry thinking about how much she had hurt Skittery. "No, please don't cry." he said drying off her tears. He pulled her in again for a strong hug that showed Kandice that he needed her. He separated himself from her quickly, looked deep into her eyes and kissed her. Right on the lips, on top of the roof, he kissed her. He backed away with a shocked look on his face. Kandice didn't know what to say, but stood there very still with her mouth slightly open.

"Skits..." Her eyes looked sad and confused.

"Yeah, I know." He looked down, almost ashamed for giving in so quickly.

"Skits..." She said again

"Yeah I know" he replied again. He didn't know what to do at this point. Should he kiss her again? What would she do? He slowly walked back over to her and tilted his head slightly to the right and leaned in again, this time gently, just as Kandice liked to be kissed with love and care.

Kandice didn't know what came over her, but before she knew it, she was kissing him right back. She forgot about everything and just kissed him. She put her hand on the back of his neck and he shivered with the amazing feeling of her caring for him too. He knew he shouldn't be doing this to Jack, but right now, he was willing to take the risk of getting soaked for a girl he loved so much

He had fallen for Kandice. He had fallen bad. After kissing for about 5 minutes they separated themselves from each other with their eyes slowly opening to face what could get them into the biggest trouble in the future and they knew it. Skittery slightly smiled at her and played with her hair gently, making Kandice take his hand from her hair and putting it on her face, rubbing her soft, rosy cheek against it.

"We shouldn't have done that." Kandice said softly.

"Yea...but we did. And you did, and thats exactly how I know that you do love me. Dontcha?" He asked.

"Skits, Kandice, you guys up dea?" They heard Blink calling them from the window.

"Yeah weah right hea." Skittery answered back wondering what all the commotion was about.

"Get down hea, quick!" he yelled for them. Skittery grabbed Kandice's hand and they both ran down from the roof, into the lodging house. They heard the radio blasting from the lobby downstairs where all of the newsies were gathered around Kloppman.

" We are offically declaring war against Russia on this most memorable day. We have just received notification that the Russian embacy might possibly be having plans to attack the United States. Nothing is too serious as of now, but we will take precautions to make sure we are not part of their attacking plans. Unfortunately we do not have enough troops to go over without any worry, so furthermore, we will be drafting within the next couple of da-" Kloppman turned off the radio. He didn't want the broadcast to scare the boys. He knew that some of them would probably need to go to this war, and he didn't want to make them start panicking.

"Heya, Kloppman, why'd you do dat huh?" Mush asked demandingly.

"Alright boys," he looked at Kandice and winked, "and girls" off to bed. The boys got up in the big heap they were sitting in and dragged their tired selves up the stairs and into the bunk room. Kandice saw Jack looking at her and she had an eerie feeling he knew about the kiss, but he would have soaked Skittery by then, so she didn't think anything of it. He must be still mad about me turning him down, she thought.

"Jack?" She said catching up to him. "Can we please talk about what happened." Skittery was just about to go talk to Kandice after he heard the news, but saw she was running towards Jack, and turned around walking back with the boys.

What if she's tellin him what happened. I'll be screwed foah shoah, Skittery thought to himself. Jack'll have every newsie in da city afta me. He followed the boys upstairs and started talking to Race about the drafting.

"Whats thea ta talk bout? Im obviously not good enough foah ya." he said turning around like he was about to leave.

"Jack, you know thats not true." She looked at him with disbelief. How could he be so selfish? "You know you're the only one that's right for me. I didn't mean to hurt you..." Wait, why do I feel bad about this, there's no reason for him to be mad at me. This is bull shit. " but you should also learn to respect the people who you love. Or atleast I thought you loved." Kandice didn't want him to see her start to cry, but he did and he didn't go after her as she went up the stairs in a fit. He just watched her go like the coward he was.

Kandice slammed the door to her room and ran onto her bed, crying into her pillow. She picked up the picture of her parents and looked at it, making her cry even more at the memory of them. "How could you leave me like this? How could you BOTH leave me here to rot! I hate you! I hate you so much!" She cried even harder and threw the picture on the ground, making the glass shatter everywhere. Jack was outside the door about to go in and apologize before he heard Kandice screaming. She had never let him in on how much she missed her parents. When he heard the glass shatter, he ran in and first saw the picture on the floor, then Kandice punching her pillow with all of the anger she had bottled up inside of her. He ran over to her and held her arms trying to get her to stop punching, but she kept trying although Jack was much stronger than she was. He turned her around and she started to punch him in the chest, not caring where, but just punching. He pulled her into a hug so that her arms couldn't move anymore and he closed his eyes comforting her with his voice.

"Kandice...Kandice it's ok. Shhh, it's alright, yoah ok, I'm hea." He comforted. He had never seen her like this and he, himself, started to tear up, but he knew he had to stay strong for this girl. The girl he kissed, and the girl he now loved.

Hoped you liked it. I loved writing this chapter, with the decieving and the hippicrocy, so intruiging. Woohoo. So tell me what you think about it. Good, bad, awful, superb! annnddd like always, I have to give you the hint to the next chapter, and let me tell you, it's a very eventful one at that.

Hint: Will Jack find out about what happened? The Drafting's are starting who will go? And What happens with Skittery and Kandice...its all next, so keep reading and reviewing ;-)

-Nini