Newsies present day high school fanfic

Eight

Katherine
Katherine had been ignoring Jack for three days now. She missed having him as a friend, but she had to be strong. She had to cut things off before he did. Whenever she saw him at school he'd avoid eye contact. There was something off about the way he was acting. He didn't have his usually high energy level, even when around his friends. Darcy's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"So will you do it?" He asked. Crap. Probably should've listened.

"Uh...sure I guess," she said, not wanting to tell him she hadn't been paying attention.

"Great. I'll tell Jack." Katherine groaned internally as he walked away.

Jack
"Since you've been part of the newspaper staff for awhile now, I want you to start doing written assignments," Darcy explained.

"I can't write," he replied simply.

"I'd start you off with something simple like a restaurant review. And Katherine would work with you since she has more experience in writing." Jack tensed up at the mention of Katherine.

"I's don't think she'd wanna work with me," he mumbled, looking down at the ground.

"Well she already agreed to the assignment," Darcy said. Jack looked up.

"Really?" Maybe she decided to give me a second chance. I can't screw it up this time.

Katherine

Katherine sighed as she put up her hair. She knew it was going to be awkward spending time around Jack after what happened, but Katherine missed his friendship. She decided the best way to deal with it was to have an open conversation with Jack about how both of them feel.

Nope. Not gonna work. She was going to pretend that the kiss never happened and Jack was just her annoying friend who occasionally hit on her because he was the biggest flirt in the world. That's more like it. Katherine knew ignoring feelings wasn't healthy, but sometimes it was the best way. Well not that there weren't feelings there. Well, to be honest, Katherine didn't know how she felt about Jack. But she knew that he didn't have any romantic feelings for her, so it was a moot point anyway.

• • •

Katherine picked at her cupcake. They were reviewing a new dessert restaurant together. There had been little conversation between the two despite Katherine's plan to just go back to being friends.

"Kath, again I'm so sorry, I don't know what I was thinking," Jack said, keeping his eyes down at his plate.

"What? Oh yeah no it's fine," Katherine said, plastering on a painfully fake smile.

"It's just that—wait did you say it's fine?"

"Yeah, we can just forget it ever happened. I mean it was one meaningless kiss." When Katherine said that she saw a hurt look on Jack's face.

"Oh. Y-yeah."

"Can we just forget it ever happened and go back to the way things were?" Jack smiled.

"That mean you forgive me?"

"Yup!" She said with a smile.

"For sure?"

"For sure."

Jack

Jack didn't want to forget the kiss ever happened, but still he was happy. Katherine had forgiven him and he still would get to spend time with her. That was enough. He could be happy being her friend if that's what she wanted. Still, Jack couldn't help feeling hurt by what she said. Meaningless kiss. It certainly wasn't meaningless to Jack.

• • •

"It's good to have you back, Jack." Race said. Since they didn't have newspaper that day Jack was eating lunch with his friends.

"Guys I eat lunch with ya every other day!" Jack stated. "Clingy much?" He joked.

"Ya know what I mean. Yer back ta yer old self again." Jack only smiled in response. He felt guilty about it, but he didn't tell the boys about Katherine. Only Davey figured that's why he was so upset.

"Yeah I dunno." Jack looked at Katherine from across the cafeteria. He did like her. He knew that now. How couldn't he. She was smart, beautiful, independent, she was perfect.

Katherine

"Katherine!!!" Katherine heard her father's voice as she walked in her front door.

"Yeah?" Katherine asked nervously. She followed her father's voice to the family room.

"Mind telling me what this is?" He asked, holding up a piece of paper. Katherine gulped as she looked at the paper in his hands. It was a beautifully detailed drawing of her, with one of her father's least favorite student's name signed at the bottom.

Internal screaming. Anyway let me know what you guys think (if anyone is reading this crap). Sorry the plot is taking so long to develop I didn't want it to feel rushed.