Arthur Webster was born on a farm in Ohio just a week after his sister, Alice, in 1882. When he and his sister were 5 years old, their parents decided that it would be best to move to New York City (for some reason idk). They settled down in a borough called "The Bronx." Not even a year after they moved there, their father died in a trolley accident and their mother died in a fire at a sweatshop. Not long after, Arthur and Alice were taken in by the newsies in the Bronx. The Bronx newsies gave the siblings the nicknames "Moose" for Arthur, and "Mouse" for Alice. Over time, these names became ironic. As they grew older, Moose and Mouse became quite popular amongst the Bronx newsies for being the "strongest" and "smartest" and became the Bronx's unofficial official leaders. Moose and Mouse were both able to get along (well enough) with the other borough leaders, Moose actually became quite good friends with the Manhattan leader. One day, when Moose and Mouse were both 16, Moose sold a newspaper to a young lady named Josephine Miller. Moose was immediately head over heels for this girl, this pissed off Mouse (for reasons Moose isn't aware of). The Bronx newsies liked her though and started calling her "Joy" for her optimistic personality.
In the summer of 1899, the leader of the Manhattan newsies, Jack Kelly, declared that they would be going on strike due to the up in price of newspapers. He urged the other boroughs to do the same. It didn't really take long for Moose and Mouse to go on strike too, since Moose and Jack were close friends. Joy, who was still Moose's crush, helped fund the newsies' strike. Jack had made a new 'friend' named David "Davey" Jacobs, who Mouse became good friends with. Mouse also made a new 'friend' during the strike. It was a Manhattan newsie named "Bumlets", they had met at the newsies rally. Moose was not fond of this new 'friend' at all. Speaking of the newsies rally, Moose and Mouse were crushed when Jack betrayed the strike. He was their friend. But wait, more happened at the rally. After Jack betrayed the strike, the rally was ambushed by the bulls (police), Mouse ended up being captured and brought to the Refuge (jail for kids). The rally was on Moose's birthday. That day was absolutely devastating for Moose, he lost one of his closest friends and his last remaining family, his sister. He couldn't help but feel like it was his fault that she was in the Refuge. She was trying to save one of the littles. He should've helped her, maybe if he did, she wouldn't have been caught and taken away. She was stronger than him, it should've been him. Since Mouse was in the Refuge, he had to take full leadership over the Bronx, which proved to be extremely difficult since he always had his sister to help him. Joy tried her best to help Moose, but there wasn't all that much she could do since she wasn't a newsie. He cried a lot and lost a ton of sleep, it wasn't like he was getting that much anyway. Sometime after the rally, Jack found Moose and told him about their plan to make a newsie newspaper. Moose was extremely reluctant to join, he hated Jack. He hated Jack for bailing on them, for getting Mouse put in the Refuge. But he was desperate to get Mouse back. The newspaper was successful and the newsies beat Pulitzer. The kids in the Refuge were released and Moose cried when he hugged his sister. She looked like she'd been through hell and back. He still couldn't help but feel guilty that she went through this. It should've been him.
After the strike, Moose did his best to help Mouse through the traumatic events she experienced while in the Refuge. It was difficult for both of them but they were eventually able to live a relevantly normal life. Moose and Joy began dating, much to Mouse's dismay. Mouse never told Moose why she didn't like Joy. It made him a little upset, but he didn't want to be a hypocrite because he didn't like Bumlets. Mouse and Bumlets also started dating, much to Moose's dismay. He was always protective towards his sister, and that protectiveness heightened drastically after the rally, but he didn't want to take away something that so obviously made her happy. That's not what she needed right now. That's not what he needs right now. What they both need right now is to be happy. It took Moose awhile to forgive Jack, but it did happen eventually. Now, somedays, Moose will go to Manhattan to complain about Bumlets to Jack. Jack just nods his head and listens. Moose tries to tell himself that Mouse going to tell Refuge wasn't his fault, but he was never truly able to forgive himself for what happened that day. Mouse would still try to throw some kind of birthday party, but after the rally, he couldn't ever celebrate it like he used to. Moose was usually so resilient, but this time, he faltered. Moose met one of Mouse's friends named, uh, he can't remember. Apparently, she and Mouse met while he was on one of his routes. Oh yeah, her name was Viv or something. Sometimes Moose has nightmares about the rally. He would have nightmares of watching Mouse get captured and not being able to do anything about it. He would always wake up in a cold sweat whenever he had those nightmares. He wouldn't ever tell Mouse about this, though. He didn't want to worry her anymore.
