Chapter Three: How the Mouth Got Her Job

"Your friends seem really nice… a little bitter towards me, however," Ellie observed wisely, following Jack through the twisting streets of Manhattan to Irving Hall.

"Eh, it's jus' 'cause they think ya talk too much… I gots tha same problem. They get mad at mes whenevah I get goin'…" Jack explained.

"Or maybe because I'm a girl?" Ellie pointed out nonchalantly. Maybe they're jealous that I'm getting more attention than them… wait, did I just think that? Stupid! He just being nice to you! He'll forget all about you in three days!

"Maybe." Jack shrugged. "Who knows, wit those guys! They nevah seem ta give anyone a break, though. Don' think about it too much. It'll hoit ya head."

"Ah, I see. A complex group of characters, are they not?" Ellie shook her head. "Sorry, I'm starting to speak like a moron. Or at least someone's who's not very smart. So, Kelly… why are you taking me here, again?" She stopped in front of the back door and stared at it.

"So ya can make money," Jack explained, holding her elbow and pulling her through the door. "I can't pay foi ya lunches foievah, ya know."

"Oh, yeah, thanks for that, Jack. That was really nice of you. Especially since you only make, what? Fifty cents a day in profit?" She shook her head. "It must be hard, being you. But then, it's hard being me, it's hard being the President… it all evens out in the end, doesn't it?"

"Shut up, Mouth. Yer talkin' too much."

"Sorry."

Jack left Ellie at the base of a flight of wooden stairs. He knocked on the door at the top, and a pretty woman with red hair and a yellow silk dress on appeared.

"Jackie! How're you doin'?" the woman – Ellie assumed she was Medda – wrapped Jack in a tight hug, and Ellie found herself feeling just a little jealous.

"Medda, I want ya ta meet a new friend of mine, Miss Ellie Marshall. She's new to Manhattan." Jack grinned as the two women shook hands. "Ellie, this is tha brilliant Medda Larkson."

"It's nice to meet you," Ellie greeted her kindly.

"Oh, she's so sweet! Where'd you pick her up, Kelly? She's too good for you!" Medda looked Ellie in the eye. "You have a very nice smile."

"Thank you." Ellie smiled, and Jack was suddenly very aware of the fact that Ellie did, in fact, have a rather charming smile.

"How'd you end up with this kid?" Medda asked jokingly, tilting her head over in Jack's direction.

"Call it divine intervention, or just a random twist of fate that Satan has bestowed upon me."

"You really have a way with words, don't you?" Medda asked. "Very well educated, too…"

"Medda, Mouth heah needs a job, and she says she really like ta sing, so I thought it would be good foi [AN1] her to meet ya," Jack explained.

"Well, with a nickname like Mouth, I hope she can sing…" Medda retorted, giving Ellie a wink as she teased Jack. "Let's hear you."

Ellie squeaked. "Right… right now?" She sighed. "Okay." Shaking her head, she ran her hand over her hair and loosened up a little bit. When she opened her mouth, it was quite what anyone had expected from this short, talkative, witty girl…

"My heart sings a melody,

An everlasting melody.

A tune of love,

A song of peace,

An anthem that sets me free…

Just when I think there's no song to sing,

I hear a melody that is everlasting.

Everlasting… melody…"
When she sang, her whole face lit up. Every part of her body was part of the beat. Her foot tapped to the beat, she sung her hips to the beat. It even seemed like, if you had checked, her heart would be pulse to the beat.
"That was wonderful!" Medda exclaimed, throwing her arms around Ellie. "You're hired!"
"Really?" Ellie asked, grinning widely. "Yes." Medda nodded. "Really! Right here, right now. We'll start practicing immediately."

"Did you hear that, Jack? I get to start right away! It's so wonderful!" Ellie exclaimed, lost in a world of her own.

"I gotta go woik. You'll make her inta tha best singah evah, right, Medda?"

"Yes, Now get going, kid! You need the money!" She shooed Jack out the door.

"Hey, wait up, Cowboy!" Ellie sprinted out the right behind him as he was pulling his hat on. "I owe you this…" She stretched up and gave him another kiss on the cheek, for the second time that day.

"A'right, don' get all sentimental wit me…" He grinned. "Congratulations, Mouth." He reached for her hand and kissed her tenderly on the hand. She had to catch herself from swooning.

"I don't really remember the way back to the lodging house. Will you come get me right before Medda's performance? I'm going to need a 'guide'. Don't want to be kidnapped, or asked to donate money or something..."

"Sure. Wait foi me inside, Mouth. Manhattan's not exactly tha kinda place ya wanna be wanderin' aroun' on a cold night…" With one last grin, he sprinted down the street.

Ellie floated back though the door. "I think I'm in love," the teenage girl sighed happily, only half-aware of the fact that Medda was watching her carefully. She glanced down at the hand he had kissed. "I'm never washing this hand again…"

"You'll have to wash it sometime…" Medda grinned, grabbing the girl's shoulders and leading her onstage.

-x-x-

"Hey, Jack, why's we gotta walk dis way at dis time'a night?" Racetrack asked, sucking nervously on his cigar. "It's not da bes' place ta be, right now, y'know, Jack?"

"'Cause wes gotta pick up Ellie!" Jack replied, starting to feel the energy return to him after the long day. He hadn't been very happy since he and Sarah broke up (in fact he'd been downright broody), so all the newsies were very curious as to why he was so happy suddenly. Nobody wanted to ask him, but Racetrack had a bet going that he would get together with Ellie in under a month. Even Spot Colon had put in a few cents.

When Jack, Race, and Boots got to the back door of the stage, the door was opened before jack could even knock on the door.

"I was worried you forgot!" she breathed, her breath congealing in front of her in the cold October air. She was wearing a dress, a far cry from the boys clothing she had worn earlier. She looked much more graceful and like… well, like a girl.

"How'd ya know we was comin'?" Jack asked.

"Come on. You guys are loud enough to make a heard of elephants look like ballerinas!" Ellie pointed out. "Come on in and warm up, first. You guys look like you're freezing!"

"Yeah, thanks…" Racetrack replied sarcastically. "We's would've been home by now if we didn' have ta stop by heah."

"No one made you come," Ellie pointed out, sitting down next to Jack. "You could've gone straight home."

To this comment there was no comeback. Race just opened and closed his mouth a few times, like a fish trying to get air, and hurried over to the stove.

"So, how'd it go?" Jack asked, grinning at the exuberant expression on Ellie's face. "That good, huh?"

"Oh, it was great! She taught me a new song and dance, and she says, if I practice really, really, really hard, I can perform tomorrow! You guys can come and watch me! For free!" She sighed. "I'm so happy!" She jumped up. "Let's get going! I'm so tired; I really need to sleep." She gave a wide yawn as proof.

"Let's go, then." Everyone herded out the door, unaware of the fact that someone on the street was watching them. When they had walked down the road a short distance, Jack lit a cigarette.

"Those're wicked bad for you, you know," Ellie pointed out. "You can get addicted." Jack took it out of his mouth, stared at it for a second, and then smashed it beneath his foot.

"Someone's followin' us…" Jack muttered. "Don' look ovah your shoulder." They froze at the sudden sound of horse's hooves on the pavement, and the same police officer they had ran into that morning appeared.

"What are you kids doing out at this time of night?" he asked gruffly, looking from one innocent face to the other. He obviously didn't recognize Ellie; she was much better dressed, and had her hair combed and down.

"We was jus' runnin' some choires, sir. Nothin' wrong wit that," Jack replied, giving the officer his best innocent look – which he could pull off very well.

"We gots ta get home so's our family can eat, soi [AN1]!" Racetrack pleaded.

"What about him?" the officer asked, pointing to Boots. There was a brief silence as every tried to come up with an excuse. Ellie was the first.

"Family friend."

-x-x-

The group of adolescents burst into fits of laughter as soon as the policeman was far enough away.

"What a moron…" Ellie sighed, her laughter dying down. "Um… okay…" She lowered her voice as she mocked the officer. "Move along, then."

"How stoopit do ya get?" Race exclaimed, clutching his side. "If I knew you could become a bull being dat stoopit, I woulda done it a long time ago…"

-x-x-

The group of teenagers stumbled into the lodging house a while later, cheeks flushed with cold and hair windblown, but still giggling slightly at the joke they shared.

"You kids are getting back very late," Kloppman observed, trying to keep the reprimanding and worried tone out of his voice.

"We's ran inta a little trouble wit da bulls," Race explained, nudging Jack in the side. The group of teenagers burst into another bout of laughter.

"I'd hardly call it trouble," Ellie pointed out. "He just wondered why we were out at nine at night. Male chauvinist pig. He thought they were… doing things to me, or something."

"Shut up, Mouth."

"Sor-ry. Right back at ya, Cowboy." Ellie gave him one last grin, and then sprinted up the stairs to her room.

"Hey, she's got it foi ya," Racetrack stated, nudging his friend in the side again. "An' it seems like ya like 'er, too."

"Nah…" Jack shook his head.

"Well, she's cute…" Race winked at him. "S'okay if I try?"

"Hey, it's a free country…" Jack shrugged. "Whatevah. She a nice goil, a little too chatty foi me."

"Yeah, well, youse two has a lot in common… ya both makes funna peoples an' talks too much." Race shook his head. "I dunno, Jack, you two's a lot alike. Dere's somethin' between ya two…"

"Look, Race, it ain't nuthin'! Just drop it, a'right?" Jack protested, starting climb the stairs. Race followed close behind.

"Fair enough…"

AN1: Foi and soi are pronounced foy and soy, kind of the way you pronounce foi in French.

Author's Note of the Chapter: Nothing like a cold walk down a Manhattan street during the night to bring everyone together…