Newsies' Daughter

Chapter One: From Bad to Better

Elisabeth's POV:

I ran through the front door of the house, tears streaming down my face. Sure, I'd had arguments with my foster family, the Greenes, multiple times, but never like this. I ran as far as I could before I sat down on a bench in the park, legs sore, head throbbing. As I sat there, sobbing, the whole argument came back to me.

I had gotten home late, for the supermarket was quite crowded and it was difficult to maneuver. My foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. Greene, were extremely upset that I wasn't home early enough to have dinner at the usual time, so they yelled at me, and even hit me. Unfortunately, this was a normal occurrence, so I didn't think much of it, until they screamed at me to leave.

So I did, I grabbed the few clothes I had and threw them in a backpack before running out here, to the park.

Pretty soon, a man came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked. "Wait- of course you're not alright, you're crying. What's wrong?"

"Um, I just got kicked out... again," I choked out.

"Kicked out of where?" The man asked tentatively.

"My foster home," I sniffled. "They told me if I was ever late again, they'd kick me out. And I was late."

"That's awful!" The man exclaimed. "If you need somewhere to stay, you can come to my place tonight."

"Are-are you sure?" I asked. "I-I-I couldn't be a burden."

"It's not a problem," He replied. "Here, I have to get to work, but you can come to the theater with me, and then I'll take you home."

I nodded. The man stood up and I followed suit. I followed him all the way to a large theater, one I recognized as the Nederlander Theater. He showed a security man a badge in his wallet, and we walked in.

After signing in, he took me upstairs to a dressing room that had a sign that read:

                                                       Jeremy Jordan-

                                                           Jack Kelly

"Well, this is my dressing room," He told me. "Come on in."

He opened the door and brought me in. It was a fairly small room, but he had decorated it to be nice and cozy. There was a small couch on one side opposite a desk and shelves on the other. The shelves were covered in small trinkets, assumably from fans and the desk had papers and other items, including a vocal steamer and a bag of cough drops.

He sat down on a chair by the desk and motioned for me to sit on the couch, across from him. I did so tentatively, avoiding eye contact.

"So, you're probably wondering who I am," He started. I nodded. "Well, my name is Jeremy Jordan, and I play the lead role, Jack, in Newsies. And, what about you? What's your name?"

"Um, my name is Elisabeth, with an s, not a z. I'm 16 years old, and yeah," I said.

Just then, another man walked in. He was tall. Really tall. Much taller than Jeremy. He had brown hair and eyes and a crooked nose.

"Hey Jeremy, the guys were gonna play a game of charades. Wanna come?" He asked. Jeremy nodded towards me and the other man smiled. "Who's this?"

"I'm Elisabeth," I told him quietly.

"Nice to meet you Elisabeth, I'm Ben, and I play Davey here in Newsies," He told me.