This Ain't Just Newsies No More ~ Sprace & Javid

Beginnings | Race

Yay! Race's perspective!! Set pre-strike and pre-nickname. There will be some spaces in between long time. Enjoy! :)

Antonio has been a full-time newsie for all of a month and a half before he decides he's going to sell in Brooklyn. He's less than six months away from being eleven. Surely he can handle Brooklyn.

He sneaks away after he gets his papes. The over protective older newsies would probably want to stop him. Some of them won't care what he does. 

He's still a little jealous of how well Jack Kelly sells papes. Not only does he always buy a hundred papes, but he normally sells all of them too. Antonio has never been too good on counting on certain odds. But today, he feels brave, because he has a plan to go to Sheepshead Races in Brooklyn and sell a hundred papes today.

Antonio never realized how big the Brooklyn Bridge was. For most of his ten years he just stayed in Manhattan. He's pretty sure he's crossed the bridge sometime, but going by himself it seems super big. He swallows. I ain't afraid today. He begins his first steps across.

Sheepshead wasn't too hard to find.

Antonio briefly scans the newspapers for headlines and good stuff and whatnot. He would have done this earlier, but he was too busy trying to get away first.

I think I got a good idea.

He looks around. There are a lot of people walking around him. And so, he opens up his mouth, yells, "TRAIN HEADIN' WEST CRASHES AND BURNS OUTTA PENSYLVANIA!" It doesn't matter how real the headline is. And this is how he begins his day of selling.

He's nearly half way done selling papers by close to noon. And this is just on the outside of Sheepshead.

So now he heads inside. It takes his breath away to see the track, and the horses.

"Excuse me, mister," he says to the closest one in the most kid voice he could. The man looks down at him. "Would ya like to buy a pape, sir?"

The man raises an eyebrow.

"A train crashed in Pennsylvania," Antonio continues. "But it might be good to know the specifics of it. Or else who knows what other trains will crash?"

The man gives Antonio a penny and takes a paper.

"Gee thanks, mister!" Antonio thanks him cheerfully and hurries on to find his next victim. This time it's a lady, and now he tries a different tactic: orphan with a stutter.

"E-e-excu-u-use m-m-me, m-m-m-iss?" He stutters. "Wou-wou-would ya l-like t-t-to b-buy a-a p-pape?"

The look of pity that she gives him is enough to tell him that he's sold.

"Th-th-thanks m-m-ma'am!"

Then he hears something that changes his life.

"AND THERE IT IS! NUMBER FOUR TAKES THE LEAD AND FINISHES FIRST! FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1890! TEN DOLLARS FOR THOSE WHO BET ON NUMBER FOUR!"

Ten dollars. He gets 2 papes for a penny, and sells a paper for a penny. 

First time in 4 years. That horse had a lucky break!