|| Side-By-Side || A Sprace Love Story

Chapter 1 - Prologue

Prologue

Racetrack Higgins, a Manhattan Newsie.
Spot Conlon's best friend and crush, not that they would admit that they have crushes on each other.
No one knows about Racetrack's past, and not many people bothered to ask, until he started babying scars.
He refused to tell them, but when Spot, then Race himself, gets kidnapped one day, how will they find and save Race and Spot?
He will be forced to tell them.

Third Person POV

Race was alone, walking back to Manhattan from Brooklyn.

He had just said goodbye to Spot after hanging with him for the night.

It's been a few months since the strike ended, it was November now.

It was getting colder out, but that's not the only problem that the Manhattan and Brooklyn Newsies have to worry about.

Queens.

The Queens Newsies kept starting fights, attacking other boroughs.

Tomorrow, Jack is bringing Davey, Race, Specs, and Blink to Queens.

They have a meeting with the other Burroughs, including Queens, so that they can keep peace between all of the boroughs.

To say that Race was nervous was an understatement.

Race had a secret that nobody knew.

His past.

It was a secret that not even Jack or Spot knew.

Of course Jack knew that Race had come from an abusive home.

Race ran away at the age of 7, leaving behind his two brothers, Carson and Caleb.

They were twins and were older than him.

He didn't know what happened to them, and he thought they hated him. That they didn't bother to look for him since they were mad at him.

He knew that he did the right thing.

Sure, he felt bad for leaving them, but he couldn't stay with his family anymore.

He was the youngest, the least favored. The hated child, unlike his siblings.

His mom died when he was 4, and she had been the only one in the family who loved him.

Race ran all the way from Queens to Manhattan.

He ended up hiding in an alley in Manhattan, where Oscar and Morris found him.

They soaked him, bad.

Jack saved him from the Delancey Brothers.

They almost brought him to Snyder to take him to the refuge, but Jack smacked them with the nearest stick and knocked them off of their feet.

Then, he grabbed Race's hand, getting him out of there while Oscar and Morris were down.

Jack then took Race in with the Manhattan Newsies, and Race has been with them ever since.

Race can speak Italian, as his mother taught him, and he learned it when he went to school for a few years.

It annoys everyone, especially Spot and Jack, when he speaks in Italian on purpose.

On accident, still annoying, but not his fault so they don't blame him.

Race and Spot have been friends for years.

Race is 15 and Spot is 17 now, so they've been friends for over 6 years, since Spot was 11 and Race was 9 when they met.

Race has had a crush on Spot since he was 14 and Spot was 16.

As for Spot, he's been crushing on Race since he was 12 and Race was 10.

Jack and Mush are the only two Manhattan Newsies who know Race's crush and sexuality.

They don't know why Race doesn't tell the others about his sexuality as most of them are gay or BI, but they don't bother him, other than teasing him about having a crush on the King of Brooklyn.

With Spot, his second, Ace, and third, Smokes, are the only ones who know about his sexuality and crush.

They, too, tease the boy about it, also wondering why he doesn't tell the Brooklyn Newsies, as most of them are gay or BI too.

No one would be rude about that, they would be happy that the king of Brooklyn is like them.

As for real names, Spot hasn't told anyone, other than Race, Ace, Smokes, and Jack about his real name, Sean Patrick Conlon.

Race however, only told Jack, Mush, and Spot about his, Antonio (his preference and actual name)/Anthony Ed. Higgins.

690 Words