flown just a little too far {open}

[Babydoll]

Babydoll had come to the party alone. She'd almost asked Silence to come with her…almost. She'd been so close! Baby had planned it all out, in fact the note she was going to slip him was tucked into the front of her dress. But she'd chickened out at the last minute and come alone.

Her costume had been hard to get things together for, especially the bouquet she held in her right hand. She'd hesitated until she was on her way to the ferry to buy the flowers, discounted because she offered a paper in return. Now she stood in the corner of the balcony, watching the rest of the party in silence, her free hand resting on the railing. Her curled hair fell into her eyes and rested on her shoulders. How she'd talked herself into this she couldn't remember. A gentle smile tugged at the corners of her lips, however, while she remembered times she'd had in this hall as a newsie of this borough. Before she'd transferred to Staten.

Maybe she'd run into old friends here. If she ever, you know, left the balcony. Which was unlikely.

[mush]

Mush Meyers had, unfortuantely, asked two girls to the same dance, thinking they were seperate occasions. But no. Both of his dates were there. The rich girl was on one side, the poor girl on the other. Mush was currently crawling up the stairs to the balcony to be avoid being seen. He was not usually a coward, but having two very fierce girls team up and hit him was not one of his adjectives.

He was on his hands and knees crawling up the stairs, watching the worn carpet as it slipped away under his hands. He made it to the top step and continued crawling along the row. His head bumped into something, and thinking it a misplaced chair, he leaned back on his heels. He looked up to see Babydoll. He'd always liked her. She was a nice girl. Too bad about her transferring. Mush stood, sweeping his hat off his curly hair as he did so. He was dressed as he usually was, no one had told him it was costume party.

"Babydoll!" He said cheerfully, offering his hand. Then he remembered why he was up there in the beginning. He tugged her down to the floor by him, his face not far from her's. "I'm hiding." He explained. "Invited two girls to the same party, can you believe that? One girl's a hoity toity from Queens, the others a girl from Brooklyn. Don't want them to tag team on me, right?" He chuckled.

"Anyway, how've you been? We're all missin' you, Babydoll." He said, grinning in the dim light.

[Babydoll]

Babydoll gasped upon the slight buckling of her knees that came with someone running into her from behind. She steadied herself quickly and didn't turn around until she heard Mush's voice say her name. "Mush?" she questioned while she turned around, leaving her bouquet on the banister of the balcony. Mush pulled her down out of sight before she had time to register the appearance of her former boroughmate.

The girl placed one hand on the ground to keep herself balanced while she crouched on the floor next to him. Her face was lit with a smile, glad to see a familiar face, though she hadn't expected to see it so close to her own. She spoke softly, "Mush! God, it's glad to see ya! But what're we–" she didn't have time to finish her question, because he said he was hiding from his dates. For some reason, Baby wasn't too shocked…well, a little shocked.

"Of course not! They'd ruin your face fer sure!" she teased, brushing some of the almost-impossible-to-manage curls she'd put in her hair behind her ear. She continued smiling and listened to Mush ask how she'd been and said that they'd missed her. Her smile faltered at the thought of the borough-members missing her of all people.

"Oh…I've, I've been good. Almost asked a guy ta come wit' me here but I changed my mind at the last minute. Staten's alright, not Manhattan…" Baby trailed off, blushing and feeling a little bit guilty about leaving again. "What about you, Mush? How've you been?"

[mush]

Mush grinned. "What would I do without my face?" He joked, rolling his eyes playfully. He sat on the floor, his head in his hands. "Do you know how much it sucks to invite two really great girls to the same party?" He shook his head. "I could've sworn I asked them to different dances. One was a costume party, the other was just a party." He sighed and kneaded his forehead, trying to get rid of his headache.

He stopped kneading and looked at her. "You were gonna ask a fella? Good for you, Babydoll!" Mush crowed. He had always figured her for a shy girl, not one much for guys, but then again, he had always been skirt chasing and Babydoll never wore skirts. Except for now. But Mush was focused now. On the conversation. No need to look and see how her skirt folded to shape around her legs, her hips, or her waist. He swallowed and forced himself to look away.

Mush cleared his throat and paused to make sure he was in control of himself before answering. "Me? Oh, I'm fine." He said, nodding. He flashed his charasmatic grin. "Who got you flowers? Your fella?" He asked. Then his grin grew wider. "Here, I was going to give this to my date, but you know, they both showed up." He dug in his pocket and pulled out a slightly crumpled rose, but it was still lovely. "Here." He presented it to her with both hands and lowered his head in a bowing gesture.

[Babydoll]

Babydoll chuckled and gave him an almost-apologetic smile. She was starting to feel a little sorry for him, she would probably want to die if she accepted two dates thinking they were for different things and ending up at one party with both of them. But that wouldn't happen to her, she hadn't even been able to get up the guts to even ask Silence to come with her. Probably would've died of nervousness if someone asked her.

She blushed when Mush congratulated her almost-asking-out of a guy. It wasn't much of an accomplishment, it would've been if she had actually gone through with it. But there was always another party sometime to try again…if she was lucky. She had been able to socialize well enough with the boys in Manhattan. Yes, she was a little soft-spoken around basically everyone but Jack, Rita, and BlackJack, but she still talked. But stick her in front of a boy she had a crush on and she froze up and couldn't even formulate a proper sentence. Mush's grin made her grin, the expression sort of contagious.

"Oh? Those?" she smiled, "I bought 'em myself. Thought it would go with my costume," Baby shrugged, never having gotten flowers from anyone before and thinking it an odd time to start. But then he dug in his pocket and pulled out the rose meant for his date. "Aw, Mush!" she allowed herself a giggle as she accepted the rose with the hand not pressed to the ground. "You're too kind! Really!"

Babydoll then carefully hugged him, still grinning at the fact that someone had given her a flower. "Thanks."

[sweetheart]

Peaches slipped into Irving Hall, a big smile plastered on her face. She hadn't technically worn a costume to the party, but she thought she looked different from her usual self. She had flipped her dark hair back the way Deliverence had showed her and had even borrowed a sparkly clip, which was now glittering in the back of her head. She had even left her newsboy cap, a safety cushion of hers, back at the lodging house. She was wearing the nicest dress she could find. It was from an old box of hand-me-downs Kloppman had found in the attic, but she'd managed to spruce it up a little bit. It was a deep ruby red and it went down to her mid-calf. She was wearing a new pair of black stockings, free of holes, that she'd secretly saved up for and her black boots. As much as she'd tried, there wasn't much she could do for the scuff marks.

Grinning widely, she looked around the place, which was crowded with newsies. She was trying to find David without making it completely obvious that she was looking for him. She hummed along a little bit to the music that was playing. She felt her heart sink a bit when she didn't see him anywhere, but then she held her head a little higher and tried to cheer herself up. He would come later, she was sure. For now she would just look for some other friends. She stood on her tiptoes, straining to see if she could find somebody. After a moment, she sighed and gave up. She was too short to see over this crowd. "Oh, the balcony!" she exclaimed to herself. She would be able to see everyone from up there.

She ran up the stairs two at a time and swung around, running right into Mush and Babydoll. Wow, two friends already! "Gee, hiya, guys!" she greeted them with a smile. "Whatcha doin' up here? I was comin' up ta see if I could find anyone. An' I did!" she said with a laugh.

[mush]

Mush grinned and accepted Babydoll's hug graciously, trying not to think about the fact that she was actually touching him. He had always like her. She was pretty and sweet. Mush let her pull away and he smiled once again. "Don't worry about it. The least I can do. Hey, maybe we can even enjoy the party together!" He nodded. Then he was literally run over by Peaches. He grabbed his hat and dragged it away from his face as he lay in a heap on the floor.

He lifted his head an inch and looked at Peaches, his face breaking into a grin. "Hullo, Peaches!" Mush said cheerfully, rolling over onto his back and stretching his arms above his head. He nodded. "Friends, yep." He said, glancing at Babydoll nonchalantly. He then sat up again and leaned against the railing. "Pull up some floor, Peaches. We're hiding." He winked at her and then laughed. "Sorry I don't have a flower for you to. You look nice." Then he looked at Babydoll and said, "You both look wonderful!"

[sweetheart]

Peaches laughed, blushing at the compliment. She certainly appreciated it. Part of her desperately wanted to ask Mush if he thought David would think she looked wonderful, too, but the saner part of her told her to keep her mouth shut. She sat down beside him carefully, taking pains to make sure her dress stayed perfect. A first. She usually never cared what her dresses and skirts looked like. Which is the reason why most of them had more wears and tears than any normal girl's clothes should.

"That's a real pretty flower, Babydoll," she said sincerely, without the usual malice most girls would've shown. She had always found it sort of funny the way girls made such fools of themselves over Mush. "An' that's okay, Mush," she added, patting his hand. "It's the thought that counts in the end," she said with a giggle. "So what are we hidin' from?" she whispered conspiratorially. "Da bulls?" she joked.

[Babydoll]

Babydoll was blushing a bit when she pulled away from Mush and ended the hug. "That'd be fun. Enjoyin' ourselves together." A bright smile adorned her lips and she looked over his face without trying to be obvious. She had probably walked past him a million times or walked alongside him thousands and yet she'd never noticed the color of his eyes. Maybe it was because they were so close at the moment or because she hadn't seen him in a few weeks…maybe it was the atmosphere of the party. Yeah, it was probably that.

That's when Peaches ran into them. At first, Baby was shocked, unaware of who had done it, but then was angered when she caught the voice of her former boroughmate. She looked like she'd come to hook a match, probably one of the Manhattan boys that she personally had seen as only friend material. And a tiny part of her was worried that the boy she was trying to get was Mush. There wasn't anything between the Statener and him, but she couldn't help it.

Her greeting was less enthusiastic than Mush's, "Hey, Peaches."

Then he said it, the two words that brought Babydoll screeching back to reality, 'friends, yup'. At least Mush thought she looked good...Peach too, but Baby didn't really care. And her dress hand probably been wrinkled. Great.

"We're hiding from Mush's lady-friends," Babydoll said cheerfully, not letting on how upset she was that she'd interrupted them and basically barged in. "Protectin' his face from certain destruction," she smiled at the small comment exchanged between her and him.

She was tempted to ask who she had gotten dolled up for but held her tongue, not wanting to risk the answer she dreaded.

[sweetheart]

Peaches laughed innocently when Babydoll informed her who she and Mush were hiding from. In fact, she didn't seem to catch on to any of the tension penetrating the air between her and her former roommate. Part of it may have been because she could be very slow on the update when it came to stuff like that. Another part of it could've been because she hadn't noticed anything between Babydoll and Mush and, even if she had, that wasn't the reason she'd stormed up here.

"Oh, boy, Mush! Ya always have girls fightin' over ya!" she said with a smile, playing with the hem of her dress. "But maybe it's a good thing, 'cause that means everyone likes ya, right?" she went on naively. "Gee, yeah, yer real popular," she said, as if answering her own question. "Ain't he, Babydoll? Gosh, how ya been, Babydoll? It's been a while, huh?" There she went again, saying whatever stray thought happened to pop into her head and, on top of that, saying it all at once.

Quickly leaning over Mush's shoulder, she took a quick peek out from between the balcony and the wall, checking to see if she could see...anybody. Not like she was particularly looking for anyone or anything like that. When she didn't see....anybody...she plopped backwards into the position she'd previously been occupying. She smiled at Babydoll.

[mush]

Mush looked at Babydoll, his eyebrows furrowing together with slight worry. He touched her knee and leaned closer, looking at her. "You okay?" He asked. "This about that boy?" He asked, "Because, baby, we're here to party." He told her, winking and leaning back against the railing, his hands behind his head, his hat falling to the floor. He let it lay there, unconcerned.

He laughed. "Yeah, my 'lady friends' can get kind of mad at me sometimes." He looked at Peaches. "I dunno about that, Peach, I don't know if girls fight over me. I don't want them too..." He frowned, concerned by this information. He looked at her, "It could also mean a lot of boys don't like me, right? Cause their girls fight over me and all. Ain't my fault. I'm just bein' Mush Meyers. Nothin' more or less." He nodded.

He reached up to pull Peach down, but she sat before he did anything. He sighed and ran a hand through his short curly hair. "Don't let anyone see ya, huh, Peach? Don't need no girls coming up here now." And then he heard them. The giggling. His eyes widened as he listened hard, his pointer finger extended to the girls in a shushing manner. Then two girls, one dressed in white, another dressed as Dutch girl on like one of those postcards, appeared, giggling and scowling together. One called out for Mush.

He grabbed Peach's arm and grabbed Babydoll's hand and then crawled along the floor, trying to escape. Once at the stairs that led to the lobby, he jumped up and ran for it, laughing while he did so. "Hurry, girls, we gotta move." He said, throwing only slightly worried glances over his shoulder.

[sweetheart]

Peaches thought about what Mush said for a moment, twisting a finger in her dark hair. "Oh, but everybody likes ya, Mush!" she insisted sincerely. "Girls, boys, everyone! I didn' mean ta make ya think otherwise or nothin'. An', well, girls do fight over ya. But, um, in a good way!" she explained unsurely. "Right?" she added, confusing even herself.

She suddenly felt herself being jolted forward, however, when Mush grabbed her by the arm and started pulling her towards the stairs. She was surprised only for a moment before she adjusted to the situation. She crawled behind her boroughmate and Babydoll, taking pains to avoid ruining her dress. She'd worked so hard on it after all and barely anybody had gotten to see her in it yet.

Following Mush's lead once they reached the stairs that led to the lobby, she jumped up and brushed any possible dust off her outfit. Panting only the tiniest bit, she wondered, "Oh, but, Mush, where are we goin'?" She straightened her glittery clip and put a hand to her hair self-consciously, very uncharacteristic of herself.