King of New York

Chapter 1

August 16, 1900

The crowds silence was broken with an uproar of cheers as the horses passed the finish line, Race groaned as he handed a man he made a bet with a dime.

 "It's not worth it Race," Jojo stated.

 "Sure it is," Albert spoke up before Race could, Race made a clicking sound and pointed finger guns at the two boys. " You see he may lose a lot, but every once in a blue moon, when he does, he's rich for about..." Albert pretended to think for a second as Race's previous smile faded to a death glare, "two seconds," after that Race took a deep breath a stuck his cigar into his mouth. 

" I still don't think it's worth it," Jojo said matter-of-factly. 

Race turned on his heels and walked away, the two boys followed, "Don't worry, it's getting late and we sold all our papes, might as well head back," The boys friend's nodded despite knowing the blonde couldn't actually see them. The walk went by very quick, partly because Albert made them run half the way, claiming that he just wanted to go to bed as fast as he could.  Contrary to what Albert said, as soon as they entered the lodging house, Albert and Race ran to enter the game of poker before it officially started well Jojo just talked to Specs, Romeo and Crutchie. 

  As Race picked up his hand of cards he decided to spark up a conversation, "So, how was selling today?" Romeo who now sat behind Mike and Elmer groaned.

 "terrible, the headline stinks," putting emphasis on the word 'stinks'. No one really responded to that, just a few nods and hums in agreement. The lodging house wasn't exactly know for being quiet, which is why the other newsies lack of talk caught Jack's eye. Jack sat up from his seat on the floor and moved closer to the game.

 "Don't be so talkative you guys," He chimed sarcastically, Mike yawned a slapped his hand on the table.

 "Fold," is all he said before standing up and walking towards the bunk room. It is late. Albert followed after along with a bunch of the other guys, even Race was so tired he left without collecting the money left behind. Soon all the boys had gotten into their bunks and drifted of to a restful sleep.

***

Race blinked multiple times to adjust to the morning sun seeping through the thin 'curtains' covering the windows, he slipped out of his bunk and looked around and the other boys who were struggling to get out of bed. 

 "How I hate morning's," Race groaned causing some of the boy to laugh.

 "You said that real proper," Albert said. Jack walked into the room catching the last bit of the conversation.

 "guess Katherine has visited us all too much," Race chuckled at Jack's true comment. 

 "Come on, I got a feeling the headlines gonna be real good," Race said with more joy as he squeezed through the crowded room of boys. Race walked down in front of all the boys listening to Jack be his usual father like self occasionally chipping in trying to prove a point on the newsies needing more freedom from Jack now.

 "Yeah, maybe our next strike will be against Jack,"Albert joked. The boys filed out the lodging house and gathered up at the circulation gate, waiting to see the headline, praying it would be a good one. As the headline started getting written down the boys leaned forward in anticipation, 

"YES!" most boys yelled all at once. Jack lead the boys as the Delancey's opened the gate.

 "Hey Race, Jojo get a load of the headline," the two boys who had previously been deep in conversation about betting looked up.

 "Sweet!"Jojo yelled using weird slang. Race looked up at the board taking a few seconds to process it, but once he did his eyes went wide. The board read.

Royal Italian Guards spotted entering New York

Traitor or Thief?

"Race, you doing okay?" Specs asked, shaking the boys shoulder.

 "mhm, what?"He shook his head a quickly gave a real response, "oh,a- yeah,". 

They all lined up to get their papers, giving some rude comments to Mr. Wiesel. Race quickly grabbed his paper and set his quarter down on the stand, as he walked away he heard Wiesel whisper.

 "what no sarcastic comments today?". He ignored it all and walked up to Albert and Jojo.

 "uh- you good Race? You look a little pale," worry was evident in Jojo's voice, Race put on a smile that was definitely a bit off.

"No, I'm fine,". The three boys spread out along a street, and began selling their papers. Jojo, who was the closest to the work places and houses sold his in only a few hours, Albert and Race on the other hand ended up needing to walk around a bit before they had sold all of the papes. By the time they were done selling, they had agreed to go to the races but this time Albert was gonna tag along in the betting. As they got closer to the races, the cheers became louder.

 "I hate this," Jojo grumbled as Race wrapped his arm around his shoulder.

 "You're lying to yourself," Albert chuckled out. They entered the stands and found some seats. 

"That one is a winner," Race stated betting with Albert and an older man, the man bet on one of the smaller horses well Albert just chose at random. They all quickly decided sitting made it impossible to see over today's crowd of people,so the stood up and leaned against the railing. Albert nudged Jojo in the arm causing the brunette to look over.

 "Hey! What was that fo-" He was cut off when his gaze landed on what Albert was pointing at. 

"What are they doing here?" Jojo asked causing Race's gaze to follow theirs. As Race processed what they were looking at he back away from the railing as if ready to run, his eyes widened even more than they already had as the 3 guards gaze landed on him. 

"We ain't doing nothing illegal I promise, betting isn't illegal here I promise you!" Albert said with panic Jojo was frozen in fear as the huge guards stood in front of then. After of few minutes of silence The Red head realized the guards weren't looking at him and Jojo, the two boys' gaze followed the guards until it fell on their Blonde friend, Race. Race was in a stance as if ready to run at any moment, and that came in handy as seconds later the guard in front of the other two pounced at him. The boy fled from the stands praying his friends decided to follow, as he turned into an alley and changed his mind almost right away as he saw the dead end.

 "Shoot," He whispered under his breath.

 "It's good to see you again your Highness," Race back up until he hit the wall.  

"You got the wrong guy," Race spat out.

 "We know it's you Anthony," The guards neared closer. "You know the rules, you return as required," 

Race knew it was true, he could be put in jail, no matter how much he mattered for not listening. 

"I refuse to go..." He thought for a moment as he spotted Albert and Jojo panting at the entrance of the Alley, he shut he's eyes tight 'I'm so sorry for bringing you guys into this' he thought to himself, "Alone," He finally finished his sentence. 

The biggest guard looked back at Albert and Jojo, "Maybe your friends would like to join us," Albert walked further into the alley sticking his pointer finger up as if to say 'one second'.  

"Where are we joining you?" The guard's turned around and looked down at him.

 "Where else," realization sunk into Albert's head faster than anything, "No," He said in disbelief. 

" Oh yes," Two of the guards grabbed Albert and Jojo well the other tried to gently grab Race, but because of Race's lack of cooperation the guard gripped his arm a bit hard, till it was obvious Race's smalls arms wouldn't be able to slip away.

 "You three are joining us," He emphasized the word 'us', "In Italy," He finished with a grin.