Chapter 4

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Their first task is to tear Davey off of Jack.

"You little lowlife idiot! If we wait a day, we'll lose practically everything!" He yells, shoving Jack back against a wall, rattling one of the picture frames. Jack, with a shocked look on his face, shoves Davey back.

"It was the best I could do! It either we do that or nothing!"
"You won't be able to do anything once I'm done with you!"

With that, Davey tackles Jack, pinning him to the ground. Fists fly and grunts and yelps come out of the tangled mass of body parts.

Pins and Wag give each other a brief look of exasperation before rushing forward and pulling the two apart. Pins gets ahold of Jack's shoulders, who is currently on top of the struggling and bruised Davey, and tugs him backwards. His knees still straddled the boy, but he fell backwards, somewhat breaking the eye contact between the two boys. She continues to pull back on the older boy until he was completely off her boyfriend.

"Hey!" Yells Wag, picking Davey up by his arm.
"You two need to knock it off and quit da fighting. As much as I love a good fight, it's not the time."

The boys dust themselves off and shoot a glare in each others direction.

"Now shake hands and apologize." Pins commands.

Jack flips his collar back and sticks his hand out, as does Davey.

"I'm sorry for tackling you and trying to beat you up, Jack. I was just angry that we couldn't get the answer now." Davey admits.

"And I'm sorry for shoving ya back and beating ya up. I was angry too." Jack mutters, scratching the back of his head with his free hand.

"Forgive me?" Davey asks after a pause in the conversation. Everyone knows that Jack doesn't apologize first, and plus, he wasn't the one who started the fight.

"Yeah."

Their next task is to tear Race off of Hannah.

Jack is leading the group through the lobby when they found Race and the secretary giggling. They stand near one painting of a field of flowers, yellow, pink and blue splashing the canvas.

"And we would go here with a picnic basket filled with some sandwiches and wine, and we would lay back an' look at the clouds." Race describes to the secretary who has her eyes closed, imagining.

"I haven't had wine in ages." She sighs as she opens her eyes.
"Oh, Race, that would be so amazing! Just you and me, away from this stinkin' city."
Race smiles and wraps his arm around her waist and she rests her head on his shoulder. After a moment of looking at the painting, she turns her head and they share a kiss.

"Dang, Race, it's like you've already proposed!" Wag gawks. The two separate and their faces redden as they stare with wide eyes at the gang of four.

"Oh, um, hi guys." Race stammers awkwardly.
"This is, um, Hannah." He introduces. Hannah gives a small wave.

"Hannah, this is Jack, Davey, Pins and Wag." The group nods their hello.

"We'd bettah be goin'. C'mon, Race." Jack states, walking towards the exit. Race gives one look to his sweetheart and holds her hand.

"Let's go, Hannah."

Jack stops and turns, his eyes rolling.
"Race, you can see ya girlfriend later. Besides, she has a job ta do."

Race looks sadly at Hannah before giving a sigh, turning and leaving. Hannah sighs and a blissful grin comes across her face.

"Bye, Hannah." Pins and Wag wave and exit along after Jack, Davey and Race.

"Bye, girls!"

Outside, a mob of newsies swarm the five, talking loudly and asking unrecognizable questions. Crutchie sits on the high shoulders of Specs.

"Hey, they're back!"
"What happened?"
"The price goin' down?"
"Why does Race look so happy?"
"What happened to Davey?"
"Jack has a cut on his face. He beat up Pulitzer!"

Jack raises his arms to quiet the crowd, and the talking dies down. He clears his throat and scratches the back of his neck in nervousness.

"Alright, so, um, we didn't exactly get the price lowered."

A few angry yells come from the crowd and accusations flock towards Jack.

"Hey! Quiet! Anyways, we didn't get the price lowered today. But I have a promise with Pulitzer that I can talk to him tomorrow, so for today... We can go down to Brooklyn and talk to Spot and the boys and see if we can get backup. Some of you can stay here and try to scrap together some money."

"That's a crappy plan." Pins mutters under her breath to Wag, and Wag giggles and gives Pins a light punch in the shoulder.

Jack finishes his speech and the morning is silent for a moment before the crowd disperses and goes their separate ways. Specs carries Crutchie over to the two girls and sets him down gently. The crippled boy gives a thanks to Specs and then hugs his girlfriend.

"How it go?" He asks, slight concern in his voice.
"Somethin' happened to da boys, that's for sure. Race has lipstick marks on 'is cheek and Jack an' Davey is all bruised."

"Race has a girlfriend now." Pins says plainly and stuffs her hands in her pockets.

"Yeah! An' Jack 'n Davey got in dis huge fight! We had ta tear dem apart!" Wag giggles, waving her hands about.

"Oh yeah?" Asks Crutchie, "What for?"

"Davey was angry dat Jack was gonna wait a day ta talk ta Pulitzer, so he pushed 'im and they fought for a bit." Wag explains excitedly.

"We tore dem apart, 'cause we couldn't have them fighting them, right? So after that we went back to da lobby and we see Race bein' all lovey-dovey wit dis secretary lady named Hannah and dey kissed and stuff. He was all over her. It was hilarious!" She and the cripples boy laugh.
"Who'da thunk dat Race would like a girl that much?" Crutchie says through his squeaky laughter.

Throughout the two's conversation, Pins stands there with her arms crossed, waiting for Wag to finish.

"But Pins was amazing! She wasn't even scared of Pulitzer! She stared 'im right in the eyes and told 'im exactly what she wanted!" Wag exclaims to Crutchie, who stares in awe at the blonde. Pins blushes and smiles.

"Awe, it was nuttin'." She says with a small amount of modesty.

"No, it wasn't! Pulitzer is one of da scariest guys ever!" Crutchie grins.

Wag continues her explanation of what happened and the three discuss it. Soon, it's an hour til noon and they're the only ones in the courtyard. The other newsies went to the boarding house and left them there.

Crutchie looks around for a moment, gazing at the high buildings and towers.

"Let's go." He says, and they begin to walk to the boarding house.
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Hi sorry I'm working on homework that's due in an hour and a half and I'm 2/3's of the way done woot woot
Also I love this chapter
FAVORITE TYPE OF DOG?
Idk man cuz, like, pugs are super cute but so are yorkipoos man

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