Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies.

Katherine was late to the next meeting, surprising everyone. She was usually the first person in the room. When she finally entered, everyone grew silent. She was pale as a ghost, and visibly upset.

She took a deep breath before speaking: "Guys…this is…our last meeting."

Whispered cries of "What?" and "No!" rang throughout the room, until Jack stood up, looking greatly offended.

"Why?" he asked, demanding an answer.

"Um, Principal Pulitzer didn't exactly like what I had to say in my article," she said quietly.

"But that article was amazing, Kath!" Race insisted, and the others muttered whispers of agreement.

She smiled sadly. "Thanks, Race, but we did sort of criticize the school. Something you're not really supposed to do in the school paper."

"That's bull!" Jack said.

"I know!" Katherine responded. She was starting to get fired up. "I tried to talk to him, I really did! He told me that it wasn't any of our business writing articles to insult the system. And then he tried to say that the school doesn't need a paper anyway! That people can get any news they want on the school website! But I told him—I told him that this club is so much more than that, it's about expressing yourself and what we write could change things and we have a right to—"

"Whoa," Jack interjected, "You spoke like that to the principal?"

Katherine was taken aback by the question. "Um, yes?"

Jack nodded in approval, then spoke. "So, how are we gonna get the paper back?"

She looked surprised. "Get it back?"

He looked at her as if his was an obvious response to the situation. "Well, duh. I mean, we can't just give up."

Whispers of agreement began to fill the room. Katherine looked around at her friends, then started to nod. "Yeah...yeah, I suppose you're right." She smiled.

"Hey, this is sweet and all," Race interjected, "but, uh…how exactly do you think we're gonna face the principal?"

Everyone looked at Jack expectantly.

"Uh…"

"Uh…we can figure that out at the next meeting!" Davey exclaimed. "I mean, it looks like we're out of time!"

Everyone looked at the time, nodding.

"But wait, how are we gonna have a next meeting?" asked Specs.

"We have it at somebody's house," Jack shrugged. "So, who volunteers?"

"Hey, why don't you do it, Jack?" asked Albert.

"You kidding me?" Jack laughed. "My ma would die before she let me have fifteen people over at once. What about you, Katherine?"

"Me have it?! Definitely not!" she said quickly.

Jack gave her a questioning glance before turning to Davey. "How about you?"

"Me?" Davey asked, and Jack nodded. His first thought was, My parents would kill me! But that's when he saw how determined Jack was, and the pleading look on Katherine's face, and he blurted it out: "Sure!"

Well, they told me to make new friends.

Jack rang the doorbell to the modest house, and Davey answered almost immediately. "Jack!" he smiled. Then, more quietly, "Jack…are you sure you know what you're doing? I mean, no offense or anything…but you seemed a little…scared?"

Jack shook his head. "No, we've got to do this." He smiled. "So where is everybody?"

"Up in my room," Davey said, leading him upstairs where everyone was waiting for them.

"Hey David, your friends are pretty cool!" shouted a high voice as they entered the room.

"Oh no," Davey groaned.

"Who's this?" Jack grinned as a little boy of about ten waved from his seat next to Race.

"This is my little brother Les," Davey said unenthusiastically as Les walked over to greet them.

"I'm Jack Kelly," Jack said, shaking the boy's hand. "Nice to meet you, kid."

Les followed Jack closely as he walked over to Katherine.

"Well, now that everybody's here, we might as well get right to the point," Davey said.

"So, any ideas?" Katherine piped up after a moment of silence.

Again the kids turned to Jack.

Race sighed. "Oh, come on Jack, you've got to have thought of something!"

"Yeah!" others agreed, moving in.

"Would you keep your shirt on and let me think this through?" Jack exclaimed, to no avail.

"Stop crowding him!" Les yelled, surprising everyone. "Let the man work it out!" he moved back, waiting for others to do the same. But he had a tendency to get impatient."You still thinking, Jack?" he asked.

"Sure he is. Can't you smell the smoke?" Race joked.

Jack shot him a glare, then spoke. "Well, I figure we just do what we've been doing," he shrugged. "We write about it. And if we can't have a school paper—"

Katherine's eyes widened. "We make our own."

"Exactly," Jack smiled smugly.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get to work-writing our own story!"

"Hey Katherine, wait up!" Jack called out to her as they left Davey's house that afternoon. "Are you gonna walk your whole way home?" he asked, sounding concerned.

"Oh, yeah, I really don't live to far from here," she assured him.

"Come on, why don't you let me give you a ride?"

"Really, Jack, I'm fine," she said.

"Alright, then at least let me walk with you?" he pleaded.

"Okay, fine," she gave in, smiling.

"So...how are things?" Jack attempted to make conversation.

"They're...alright?" Katherine responded.

He frowned. "You're a lousy liar."

She sighed. "Alright, so I'm not really on the best terms with my dad right now," she said quickly. "In fact, he's pretty pissed at me." She let out a small laugh.

Jack laughed with her. "What could you possibly do to piss of your dad?"

She looked nervous for a second, but covered it up smoothly, so Jack questioned his own sight. "Oh, you know…just average teenage girl stuff?"

"Uh, okay," Jack responded.

"So," Katherine tried to shift the focus of the conversation over to him, "tell me about your family."

"My family?" he asked, surprised. "Well, my birth mom's been gone for as long as I can remember," he began, and Katherine's eyes grew wide. He went on. "My dad passed of some disease when I was five—something work-related, I think. That job sucked the life right outta him."

"Jack I'm so sorry—" Katherine started, but he just nodded and went on.

"I bounced around the foster system for a while after that. But then when I was nine, I got adopted by my mom. She's one of those free-spirit artsy types. I don't think I've ever known her to stay in a relationship for more than three months. But she always wanted a kid, so she adopted me. She taught me everything I know about art. You know, she came out here for her art carreer, but I can tell sometimes she wishes she never left Santa Fe. That's where she's from. But I'm gonna go there, and one of these days I'll take her with me." He stopped to take a breath. He looked over at Katherine, who just stared at him. "Now, uh," he cleared his throat, "uh, don't cry, or anything."

Katherine laughed in spite of herself. "You know what, Jack?" she said after a moment. "You're adorable."

"Adorable?" he asked, not sure how he felt about the description.

"Adorable," she confirmed.

"Adorable," he laughed.

A/N: Hey everybody! It's been like two months, but I'm back! Sorry about that. I've been busy. And with finals approaching I probably won't be on a regular updating schedule again until school's out. But I really wanted to update, since it's been so long. Thanks for sticking around!

-Bella