The Experiment || Newsies AU

Chapter 44

TW: Implied abuse.

The Newsies all came back to school after their Winter Holidays with a sense of excitement to see everyone again and also dread to have to do school.

Race had stayed with Spot over the two weeks in his apartment in Brooklyn, his father had begrudgingly let him take his stuff from the house.

Race, Albert and JoJo tried to meet up at least twice a week and Spot got dragged along by Race.

Jack and Crutchie had Davey over for a couple sleepovers. It may have been an attempt by Crutchie to get them together. It only partially worked, their feeling for each other just grew.

Specs and Romeo met up and Romeo tried to get Specs into going to see a performance of Romeo and Juliet. He accepted willingly, wanting to do anything to get closer to his crush.

Elmer, Buttons and Finch would meet up for walks in Central Park and would get hot chocolate in a nearby café and then go for walks for hours on end chatting about every topic under the sun.

Blink and Mush would go for dates at one of their favourite Italian restaurants and then go for walks along Broadway.

Katherine and Sarah would meet up for some time from boys and just to chit chat about girly stuff.

They all met up together once, it was very chaotic. Davey and Sarah brought Les along to meet everyone else. They all loved him and he now has 16 more older siblings who would soak if needs be.

When they all first arrived, they dropped off their things on their dorms and headed straight for the common room.

They all sat in a circle and chatted for what felt like hours before they were interrupted by Ms. Medda.

"Sorry to interrupt but could I just borrow Race for a little bit?" she whispered with a smile on her face.

All of the boys looked at Race with confusion on their faces but he was looking at Spot, trying to figure out what was going on.

He got up anyway and walked over to Ms. Medda who just told him to follow her.

Race was terrified, he had no clue what was going on and if he had to be called away from his friends it had to be bad, or the greatest thing to ever happen to him, but his money was on the former.

She eventually lead him to the guidance counsellor's office which did anything but calm his nerves.

When they walked in he saw Mr. Pulitzer, the guidance counsellor - Ms. Ripley - and two police officers.

"What's going on?" he asked panicked. His eyes kept flicking to the police officers warily.

"Race, is it okay if I call you that?" Ms. Ripley asked. He nodded apprehensively. "We need you to just talk to us. Is that okay?"

Race just looked around confused and repeated his previous question.

"We understand there was a slight altercation with your father the day we were all leaving and we just wanted to talk to you about it," she explained slowly.

"I didn't go home with him though, I went home with Spot. So why do you need to talk with me?" he tried to reason with them, but they wouldn't listen to it.

"We just need to make sure that your home life is okay," she said slowly. "And even if you didn't stay with him over the holidays, you're only 15 so he is still your legal guardian."

"My home life is fine, I've moved out of my dad's permanently and I'm nearly 16. I took all of my stuff from there and I moved in with Spot," he defended.

One of the two police officers who had been silent up until then finally spoke up, "How old is this Spot?"

"He's 17. He goes to school here and he's my roommate. Why is there a problem?" Race was desperate for this to be over but if anything, he was just making it last longer.

"I think it would be best if we talk to this Spot as well," the other officer spoke up.

Ms. Medda left to go get him and Race dreaded what was going to happen.

~~~
711 words