My Girl ~Racetrack~

five

"You heard Davey. We're on strike!" Jack exclaims. "Hold on. I didn't say--" Davey started but Jack cut him off. "We shut down this place like them workers shut down the trolleys." Jack got every Newsie to cheer, but Finch steps up

"And the cops will bust our heads! Half them strikers is laid up with broke bones." He says. "Cops ain't gonna care about a bunch of kids. Right, Davey" I scoff

"Leave me out of this. I'm just trying to feed my family." Davey leaves the crowd. I scoff again. "And the rest of us don't need feeding?" I ask rhetorically. "Just because we only make pennies don't give nobody the right to rub our noses in it." Jack comes up behind me.

"It doesn't matter. You can't strike. You're not a union." Davey says bluntly. I look at Jack and he looks at me. "What if we says we is" We said in unison.

"There's a lot of stuff you gotta have to order to be a union. Like membership" Davey explains. "What do you call these guys." Jack says as I turn my body so Davey gets a good look at the boys. The wave and smile

"And officers" Davey adds. "I nominate Jack president and Kat Vice!" Crutchie says quickly. The newsies cheer their approvals. "Gee, we're touched" Jack and I say

"How about a statement of purpose." Davey says. "Must'a left it in my other pants" Jack remarks. Race steps up and raises his hand. "What's a statement of purpose?" He asks. God he's cute.

"A reason for forming the union." Davey answered. "What reason did the trolley workers have?" I ask

"I don't know. Wages? Work hours? Safety on the job?" He said. "Who don't need that? Bet if your father had a union you wouldn't be out here sellin' papes right now. Yeah?" Jack says

Davey nods. "So, our union is hereby formed to watch each other's backs. 'Union's we stand' Hey that's not bad. Someone write that down." Jack says making his way back to the group. I look at Davey and point my head towards the boys to join back.

"If you want to strike, the membership's gotta vote." Davey says. "So let's vote. What do you say fellas? The choice is yours. Do we roll over and let Pulitzer pick our pockets, or do we strike?" Jack gave a mini speech

"Strike!" We yell. Jack smiles "You heard the voice of the membership. The Newsies of Lower Manhattan are now officially on strike. What next?" Jack asks

"Wouldn't a strike be more effective if someone in charge knew about it?" Crutchie asks

Race stands up and puts his arms on his hips. "It would be a pleasure to tell Weasel myself!" He announces. "Yeah? And who tells Pulitzer? Davey?" Jack quizzed again

"I don't know....I guess...You do Mr. President. " Davey says as he walks over to Jack. "That's right, we do!" Jack puts an arm around me and motioned in a triangle between him, Davey and I. "What do we tell 'em?" Jack asked

"The newspaper owners need to respect your rights as employees" Davey says, getting more confident. "Pulitzer and Hearst gotta respect the rights of workin' kids of this city." Jack annouces

"They can't just change the rules when they feel like it" Davey said, more confident then he has ever been. "That's right. We do work so we get a say" Jack announces.

"We've got a union!" Davey exclaims.

-

As I sit in Jacobi's Deli, I find myself thinking about Race even more. I keep glancing at him. I need to make a move. No. That's dumb. It'll ruin our friendship. Ugh. I don't know what to do.

Davey holds up his glass and smirked. "I'd say we launched our strike in a most auspicious manner." I look around at the boys, trying to figure out what he meant.

Mush looked around and spoke. "I don't know about that, but we sure scared the bejeebers outta Weasel!" He smiled. "Did you see the Delanceys? They didn't know which way was up!" Crutchie exclaimed.

"So what next?" I ask Davey as I take a sip of my water. "Now you have to spread the word. Let the rest city's newises know about the strike." Davey inform

"You heard the man. Spread the word!" Jack said.

I'll take Harlem." Mush said as he stood up

"I got midtown" Race followed Mush's actions

"I got the Bronx" Jojo said

"And I got the Bowery." Buttons said

"Specs, you take Queens. Tommy Boy, you take the Eastside. And who wants Brooklyn?" Jack asked

"Me!" I rise up from my seat. I have always wanted to go to Brooklyn but Jack said it would be too dangerous for me. "No. C'mon, anyone else. Brooklyn. Spot Conlon's turf. Finch. you tellin' me you're scared of Brooklyn" Jack said. I sighed and sat back down when Finch arose.

"I ain't scared of no turf. But that Spot Conlon gets me a little jittery." He said as the Newsies agree.

"Me and Davey will take Brooklyn" Jack said. Davey disagreed. "Aye! I want to go!" I complain as I walk to Jack. "Fine! Kat, you can go. But Davey and I are coming with you." Jack gives in. I smile.

Then a girl appears. "Why is everyone so scared of Brooklyn." She laughs. It was the girl Jack had flirted with yesterday.

"What're you doin' here?" Jack smiled. "Asking a question. Have you got an answer?" She asked.

"Brooklyn in the sixth largest city in the entire world. You got Brooklyn, you hit the motherlode" Jack explained, Then we walked closer to the girl. "For someone who works for The New York Sun, you spend an awful lot of time hanging around The World. So, what's that about? You followin' me" Jack smirked so big.

"The only thing I'm following is a story. A rag-tag gang of ragamuffins wants to take on the kingmakers of New York. Think you have a chance?" The girl says.

"Shouldn't you be at the ballet?" Jack asks, I slap his arm to make him shut up.

"Question to difficult? I'll rephrase: will the richest and most powerful men in New York give the time of day to a gang of kids who haven't got a nickel to their name?" Wow. She's good.

"You don't gotta be insultin'. I got a nickel" Crutchie smirked. I glanced over to Race and see he took off his hat and was checking the girl out. I'm not gonna lie, I did feel jealous. Albert saw me looking at Race and looked at him and back at me. He gave me a reassuring look and the next thing I know Mr. Jacobi is kicking us out for his paying customers.

I see Race leave his seat. "You won't be shooing us off when we get our mugs in the papes!" He said cockily. God. He's amazing. But, I don't have a chance