Breaking His Walls- [Spot Conlon love story]

Chapter 3- Brooklyn

POV Ciara - Brooklyn

We gather outside of Pulitzer's office to hear Jack pitch us the plan.

"We gotta get the woird out to all the newsies in New York. I need some of those... Uh whatta ya calls em?"

"Ambassadors?" the boy asks Jack with a puzzled look.

"Yeah. Right, you guys, you gotta be am-bastards and go tell da oddas, we're on strike!" Jack announces.

Race and I exchange glances and laugh at Jackie's mess up.

"Say, Jack, I'll take Harlem." Blink exclaims running off.

"Yeah, I got Midtown." Race says following Blink.

"I got da Bowery Jack" Mush tells Jack before jogging away.

I'm unfamiliar with all of these boroughs. I really only know parts of Manhattan. 

I hang back waiting for Jack to give me an instruction and hopefully a partner.

"Hey, I'll take da Bronx. Come on." the boy with a crutch says pulling another boy with him.

"All right, Bumlets, and Specs, and Skittery, you take Queens."

"Pie Eata, Snoddy- Eastside! Snipeshooter, you go with em!"

More boys run off excitedly to spread and share the news.

"So, whatta bout Brooklyn? Who wants Brooklyn?" Jack asks.

The remaining boys immediately turn away scratching their necks. They avoid meeting Jack's eyes. 

I stare at the ground unsure of what to do with myself.

"C'mon Spot Conlon's territory." Jack reminds everyone.

Although, by the looks of everyone's faces, I can tell they don't need to be reminded.

"What's da matta, yous scared of Brooklyn?" Jack huffs.

"'Ey, we ain't scared of Brooklyn! Spot Conlon makes us a little noivous!" a younger boy pipes up.

Jack rolls his eyes.

"Well, he don't make me noivous. So you and me, Boots, we'll go to Brooklyn. And Dave and Ciara can keep us company." Jack orders.

I look at Dave, the boy who had been consulting Jack all morning. Jack drags me and Dave towards him and put his arms around us. 

I'm excited though! I'm going to go talk to a leader a lot of the boys feared. 

"Sure, just as soon as you take our demands to Pulitzer." Dave says smugly at Jack.

Jack looks a little surprised at Dave's comment.

"Well, maybe da kid will soften him up a little." Jack says grabbing Dave's little brother and the two march inside.

I walk closer to Dave to properly introduce myself.

"I'm Ciara, nice to meet you Dave." I say, holding out my hand.

Dave smiles at me. He is definitely taller then me like Jack.

He has bright blue eyes and curly black hair. And a cute smile might I add.

"Call me Davey. What do you think about all of this?" he asks.

"The strike or Brooklyn? I'm not scared of any city or any person. I'm excited about striking though. This guy Pulitzer- he doesn't know who he's messing with." I tell Davey proudly.

Davey opens his mouth to say something, but is interrupted by a tall man who puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, what is this strike? What's going on?" the man asks.

"Uh, we're bringing our demands to Pulitzer." Davey hesitantly tells him.

"What demands?"

"The newsies demands. We're on strike." Davey goes on.

"I'm with The New York Sun. I'm Bryan Denton." he shakes Davey's hand.

The New York Sun? It sounds pretty familiar. 

I'm pretty sure it's a big time paper. My Papa bought it a few times since we got here.

We continue to chat with Denton for a little bit, until the doors of Pulitzer's office swing open. Out falls Jack and Davey's little brother who he calls Les.

Denton takes us out to a small restaurant called Tibby's to continue to discuss our strike. He even offers to pay for our meal and everything. 

This guy is really nice. Unlike most adults, he actually listens to what we all have to say.

"Does it scare you? You're going up against the most powerful man in New York City." he asks Jack.

"Oh yeah, look at me, I'm tremblin." Jack laughs sarcastically.

Les and I giggle.

"All right keep me informed. I wanna know everything that's going on. " Denton passes a business card to Davey.

"Are we really an important story?" I ask Denton curiously.

Denton tells us about a previous war he covered and Cuba. He worked with Teddy Roosevelt through it. I watch Jack's face light up immediately almost like he was a fan of this guy Roosevelt or something.

Denton leaves us with a few wise words and starts to head out. Jack requests no pictures of him in the paper before Denton leaves. 

Davey, Jack, and I walk Les to the lodge house and meet up with Boots before we start on our way to Brooklyn.

"I've never been to Brooklyn. What about you?" Davey asks me as we start our walk across a giant bridge.

I shake my head no. 

Heck I'm from Ireland! I haven't heard of half of the places that were mentioned today.

"I spent a month there one night." Boots tells us with a shiver.

David laughs at his contradicting remark. Jack pulls us to the side of the bridge and shouts down towards the river. 

We copy him listening to our voices echo as we laugh at the weird sounds.

"So is this Spot Conlon really dangerous?" Davey asks as we continue along the bridge.

Jack and Boots snicker while Davey and I exchange confused glances.

"Well. I'm not scared of anyone." I say firmly.

Jack laughs, "Well, see about dat, Ciara."

We walk off the bridge and down a path that leads us to a docking area. The view is actually quite beautiful. 

It's a long winding dock crowded with an army of boys. Some are swimming, diving, wrestling, talking, or sitting on unfinished wooden construction.

I take a deep breathe and decide I am going to be as fearless as possible. I am going to make sure to prove to everyone here I can handle myself and not to mess around with me. 

Whoever this Spot Conlon kid is will definitely not be pushing me around.

I follow Jack confidently along the docks. Soon, we start to be followed by some Brooklyn "bodyguards" until we reach a tall throne type of thing.

It is fairly high above the docks giving whoever was at the top a birds eye view. 

The voice at the top of the throne yells, "Well if it ain't Jack be nimble, Jack be quick."