The Experiment || Newsies AU

Chapter 81

"Could Mr. Jack Kelly please come to my office?"

They all heard the announcement clear as day over the intercom.

All eyes turned to Jack and he cringed at the eyes on him.

He also cringed at the message, knowing that it could only be bad news.

Jack looked at Davey begging him to come with him for moral support. Davey shook his head initially and after a lot puppy eyes from Jack, he finally gave in.

The Newsies just sat through their entire interaction not knowing if they should interrupt or just stay sitting there silently, they opted for the second option.

They stood up and started to leave before Davey turned back around and walked over to Spot.

"You're coming with us," he stated. "You're scary, it might intimidate him."

Some of the Newsies laughed and others nodded in agreement.

Race laughed and nodded at the same time before kissing Spot on the cheek and whispering 'good luck' to him.

Spot shrugged his shoulders and got up to join Jack and Davey.

They headed to his office, Jack in front leading them while Davey and Spot followed, chatting about random things and trying to distract from the nerves they were all feeling.

They arrived to Pulitzer sitting behind his desk with his usual smirk and some of his advisors and school board members all standing around the desk.

"Mr. Kelly how nice of you to join us. I suspected that you are behind this," he sneered, holding up the newspaper once Jack walked into the room.

A look of surprise crossed his eyes when Davey and Spot walked in but quickly disappeared.

"And I see you brought these boys too."

Jack smirked seeing a way to embarrass Pulitzer in front of his fancy friends.

"I doubt you even know their names," he said looking Pulitzer dead in the eyes. Pulitzer tried to name them but it ended as well as could be expected. "You'd think if you wanted to conduct a decent experiment you'd know your subjects. Basic decency would even suggest so."

Pulitzer glared at Jack and gave a pitiful attempt at naming the pair. Jack laughed and his advisors shared looks that the trio couldn't quite place but hoped were against Pulitzer.

"Kelly, we had a deal," he told Jack with his voice in one of those I'm-angry-but-trying-not-to-show-it tones.

"And it came with a money back guarantee," Jack grinned as he threw the stack of money onto the desk. "Oh, and thank you for the lesson on the powers of the press."

The trio laughed thinking about how Pulitzer was constantly talking about how the papers were 'the only true source of news' or 'if something wasn't in the papers it didn't happen at all'.

"Have you read this?" one of Pulitzer's advisors as he read through it. "These kids put out a pretty good paper. Very convincing."

The three boys smiled at each other, knowing how hard all the Newsies had worked on it.

"No doubt written by my daughter," Pulitzer commented.

"Well we all wrote it collectively but she put it together. Oh, I would sign her though before anyone else can," Jack smirked at Pulitzer.

"We had a deal, anyone who doesn't act in their own self interest is a fool," he sneered at Jack.

"What does that make you?"

~~~
566 words