Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies.
A/N: Hi! As a request from theater104, this chapter is in Jack's POV, and it takes place during the afternoon of the second day, like, just after they parted. Let's begin, then!
Jack closed the door behind him, a ridiculous grin already forming on his face. He swore, that girl would be the end of him someday.
His mother stood in the kitchen, stirring a pot of something, when she finally noticed him standing there.
"Oh, hi Jack, how was school?" she asked kindly. Well, she was always kind. She was awesome like that.
"Fine, I guess," he answered, shrugging, "School's never too great, you know."
"Well, okay then," his mom laughed as he made his way to his room, "Remember to do your homework!" He saluted her, and shut himself in his room.
Instead of doing said homework, Jack instead decided to call his friend, Davey. Math homework could wait. He dialed the number, each digit making a different beeping noise as he pressed the buttons. The phone rang once, twice, three times, until he picked up.
"What's up, Jack?" Davey answered, "Don't you have homework or something?"
Knowing that Davey would never talk to him unless he knew that Jack had completed every last assignment, Jack lied, "Uh, I finished it during school."
"Okay. What do you want?"
"I met this girl," Jack started, but was quickly interrupted by a groan.
"Oh, not this again," the voice on the other end complained tiredly.
"What?" Jack questioned, puzzled.
"You know what," Davey snapped, "You call me, and it's like 'I met this girl,' and you waste an hour of my time talking about how she's 'so beautiful' and 'absolutely genius' and that you're 'gonna marry her someday.' Then you call me a week later, and you start talking about a totally different girl."
"I do not!" Jack countered indignantly, "Like, not every week."
"Really?"
"Only once a month." Jack protested.
"How about twice a month?" Davey quipped.
Jack pouted, "Well, it's not my fault that all the girls at our school are very pretty! Plus, I've been doing well this year! I haven't called you to discuss girls for a month and a half!"
"Oh, good job, Jack," Davey responded dryly, "Big improvement. I'm proud."
"Can I just get back to what I was saying then?" Jack asked impatiently.
"As you wish," Davey sighed, "Shoot."
"Okay, so her name is Katherine Plumber," Jack began.
"Katherine? She's in my AP Calculus class," Davey interrupted. Jack tried to glare at him through the phone for butting in, but apparently that didn't quite work.
As Jack continued to glare at him, silence continued on, and Davey called, "Hello?"
"I'm still here."
"What happened? You went all silent for a moment."
"Uh, nothing. Anyway, I met her a while back because she dropped some papers after dismissal, so I helped her pick them up and we walked home together. She talked about this one journalism assignment which she didn't know how to write, so I tried to help her with it. And then we decided to just walk home together from now on, so yeah."
"A while back?" Davey asked.
"Two days ago."
Davey whistled, "Wow. Would never have guessed. As you probably noticed with your time with her, Katherine's not exactly the type to fall for cheap flirting and love at first sight. I'm surprised she didn't punch you and tell you to leave."
"She actually did tell me to leave."
"Still," Davey said, "It's amazing."
"Maybe she was charmed by my dashing good looks," Jack suggested with a smirk.
"What looks?" Davey retorted with a snort.
Jack acted offended, "Well, Davey, that's mean. I thought you were my friend."
"When did I say that? Oh. Wait. Sorry, Jack, I have to go. Les is telling me he has a date with...Les, stop it! Uh, I have to go. See you later." And with that, Davey hung up.
Jack sighed, "Well, I guess I have to do my homework now."
About an hour before Jack's artist convention, it was dinnertime and Jack was delighted to see that his dad was home early. It wasn't often that his father came back before 7:00 because of heavy traffic around their area.
As they ate, his parents decided to do the daily round of interrogation.
"So Jack," his mom said, wiggling her eyebrows, "Who's that girl you were talking to?"
"A friend," he answered slowly.
"Just a friend?" his dad asked.
"She is really pretty, isn't she?" his mom grinned.
"Uh, yeah." Jack shifted in his seat uncomfortably. He didn't like it when his parents tried to play matchmaker, even if they paired him up with a girl he liked.
"So, what's her name?" his father probed.
"Katherine…"
"When did you meet her?"
"About two days ago."
"Does she like you?"
"What?"
"Are you two dating?"
"No!"
"Does she have a boyfriend yet?"
"Uh…"
It went back and forth like this for a while, until Jack glanced at the clock and figured he could make an excuse now.
"Well look at the time!" he stated loudly, "I should really start preparing for the convention now." With that, he steered out of the room to avoid any more parent-child awkwardness. After all, he was a teenager, and everything his parents did now seemed embarrassing.
He shut the door to his room, fixed his hair and his tie in the mirror. He stared at his reflection. He inhaled and exhaled deeply.
"Okay. Let's do this."
Author's Note: Reviews are treated like unicorns, so please review! I would appreciate them very much. BTW, I WILL for sure update on 2/14 ('cause it's Valentine's Day) and on 2/16 because it's _'s birthday. This person has things to do with Newsies. If anyone can guess who, you can get an honorable mention in all caps, in bold, italics, AND underlined on the next chapter. If not, I'll tell you. BYE!