Better Options (Open-ish!)

[Tara]

"I would be honored," she said, taking his hand with a smile. "You can come and see my school. It looks like a castle!" She glanced over her shoulder at Moonshine, who now appeared to be sitting all by himself at the bar. "Poor Moonshine." She waved goodbye to him.

[Script]

She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her pounding heart. "I dunno. We may or may not be totally screwed at this point." She looked up at him a minute, eyes big, then broke into a smile. "Wouldn't trade it for the world, though." Between adrenaline and her current devil-may-care attitude, she was brave enough to lean up andx press a light kiss to his cheek, near the corner of his mouth. As she did, she spoke in a low voice, "And you still owe me."

[jackkelly]

"Now I feel bad," Jack said and glanced at him, "but not bad enough to hang around, the place is closing soon anyways." He headed outside into the cool early morning air. Jack took in a deep breath and knew they'd be breaking out their tattered scarves and torn gloves soon enough. He clasped his hand in hers.

[Moonshine]

Moonshine waved them off, leaning back against the bar, unconcerned. He was sure he'd meet others eventually.

[Goblin]

He flinched at the unexpected kiss, and then told himself for the hundredth time to relax, for God's sake. Though it was kind of difficult in their current position. "So much," he agreed. "Weeks' worth of profits. Possibly a cake. But first we better see if we're even gonna make it out of here alive."

[Tara]

Tara walked happily down the street. She was in a slightly dodgy neighborhood in the wee hours of the morning, holding hands with a newsie dressed like a cowboy! What could be better?

She led him in the direction of Miss Porter's, chattering about school--her various teachers, the other girls, who was nice and who was mean, who was smart and who was dumb, who was really, really pretty.

[jackkelly]

Jack listened intently to everything she was telling him, for once he was actually relieved to just listen to someone tell him about their life. He hated being asked questions about his own.

When they stopped in front of the school he just stared wide eyed at it. "Whoa..."

[Tara]

"I know," Tara said. "When I was little and my sisters went off to school, they told me they were princesses going to live in a castle. They said I'd never get to go because I wasn't a real princess. I was profoundly relieved. I wanted to be a knight." She frowned as they approached the gate. There was a very scary-looking man standing just inside. "Mr. Breckenridge? I realize it's past curfew, and I'm terribly sorry, but is it really necessary that you guard the gate?"

The old groundskeeper looked at her and grunted. "I been told to keep an eye out for some girl who sneaked a street urchin in here. The headmistress wants to question 'em." He glanced suspiciously at Jack.

"A street urchin?" Tara raised her eyebrows. "How exciting. Sounds like something I would do."

And then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Goblin signaling frantically from the bushes. A moment later, he was gone. She blinked and gave Jack a wide-eyed look, wondering if he'd seen it too.

[Script]

Script let out an a breath of relief. "Oh, thank God!" She peeked around the corner of the bush. "If they just keep him distracted long enough, we can run and hop the fence." She pushed hair out of her face and looked at him. "So what do we do?"

[jackkelly]

Course Jack had seen him and he did as best he could not to burst out laughing. Evidently Script and Goblin had been up to no good.

"Officer I can definitely tell you it wasn't me, why would I be standing here if I had already snuck into the building?" Jack raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "I was just doing me duty and making sure that Tara got home safe and sound."

[jackkelly]

((Are they gonna drag Jack in to be questioned? LOL))

[Goblin]

"We put our trust in Tara," Goblin said with a little more confidence than he felt. She couldn't be that mad about being yelled at and having her hair pulled, right? "And if she manages to distract the guy, we do just like you said." He prepared to head for the fence when the time was right.

[Tara]

((Haha, I think he's safe.))

"Yeah, yeah," Mr. Breckenridge muttered. He didn't really give a damn. They paid him to cut the grass and water the flowers, not run after the kids. "They told me to stop anyone from goin' out, that's all I know."

He unlocked the gate and opened it up for Tara. She beamed at him and took the old man's arm. "Mr. Breckenridge, I think it's perfectly noble that you're going above and beyond the call of duty. Have I ever told you how much I admire your gardening skills? And the landscaping! Oh, the hedges always look divine. Did you know that big flower bush over there has been attracting butterflies? I saw a tiger swallowtail just the other day! Here, let me show you..." By now, ugly old Mr. Breckenridge was actually looking rather charmed. Tara led him across the yard to take a look at the flowers, glancing over her shoulder just once to mouth a quick 'thank you' to Jack--and cursing Sebastian all the while, because she really would have preferred a better good night than that.

[Script]

Script nodded, chewing on her bottom lip nervously, getting ready to run. She saw Tara lead the guard away, and glanced over at Goblin, eyes wide. "Now?"

[Goblin]

"Now would be good." Thinking that he now owed two girls some very big favors, Goblin grabbed Script's hand and made a quiet dash for the gate.