Carrying The Banner//A Modern Day Newsies Story//COMPLETED

Who Could It Be?

TW: 'Crip' Used as Slurr, Cussing

Davey POV
I slipped away from the dwindling group with Katherine, Albert, and Romeo at my side. We all had history together. Once we walked in, we sat our normal table. You could tell nobody felt like talking, all of their minds someplace else. That was until two people stood in front of them.

"Well look at these four, whatcha sad about, huh? All your boyfriends leave you?" I heard in a mocking tone. I didn't even need to look up to tell it was Morris who spoke.

"Oh shove off." Albert growled. The brothers looked a little surprised.

"Ya know Morris, I think I know why they are sad." Oscar said with a grin and a malicious glint in his eyes. "Could it be because of that crip?" My head shot up, as did the rest of the groups.

"One, never call him that. Two, how did you know?" Katherine asked, squinting her eyes with suspicion. Oscar shrugged.

"We may or may not have seen something related to him being taken to the hospital." He said. I could tell they were lying though, but couldn't tell what about.

"Send the crip our best regards." Morris mocked and walked off. Katherine looked seething mad, but the rest of us were just confused. How did they know?

I thought back to what I knew about them. I knew they were assholes. I knew they picked on our group. I knew they had the brain the size of a pea, but the fists the size of an elephant. I knew they both owned brass knuckles. I knew they were assholes, wait did I say that already. Alright they are assholes squared then.

It suddenly hit me. A possibility. A sad possibility. Also one that would just be an ungrounded accusation against them if I were to bring it up. I only had my logical thinking skills as evidence.

"What if they did it?" I said, just loud enough for our group to hear. Their jaws dropped a little.

"It makes sense! They'se hate our group, and almost always pushed or shoved us around." Albert added.

"I know they use... that word a lot against Crutchie." Katherine agreed, not saying the word herself.

"And they love to hurt us, well hurt anybody really." Romeo put in angrily. We theorized for a while, until the teacher made us do our assignments. After class we kept talking, until we went our separate ways.

~~~Time of the Skips~~~

Finally, fourth period was over. Only one more thing and we could check on Crutchie. I felt like it was partly my fault he got hurt. I was one of the three he was mad at. I shook those thoughts away and headed to room 103. When I got in, everyone else was already there. Sarah had also recently joined our club.

"Davey, finally, we were just talking about the rally!" Katherine said when she saw me. Jack waved me over and I sat next to him. Mr. Denton was also sitting in our little circle, giving ideas in.

"We were thinking next Thursday," Jack said.

"It's after school," Specs added.

"No sports games are going on," Spot put in.

"And no auditions or tryouts for anything are going on, only practices and club meetings." Finch finished. I nodded, it sounded like a perfect plan. Although you could feel the nervous energy in the room, we seemed to push past it. I think pushing past it also helped the time go faster.

"Well, to put a damper on the niceness." Romeo started. "Kath, Al, Davey, and I have an idea of who could have done it."

"Who?" Jack asked immediately.

"Delancy's." I explained why we thought this. We theorized for a while, but soon it was time to leave. When Mr. Denton announced this, everyone was ready in a flash. We all sped outside and into our respective vehicles.

"How were your days?" My mom asked as I got in. Les was already there and Sarah got in after.

"Pretty bad." I answered. My mom looked shocked.

"Can you take us to the hospital?" Sarah asked. Our mom looked even more worried.

"Are you two okay?!" She asked.

"We ate fine, but our friend is not. He got... really hurt today and they took him to this hospital. We wanted to go visit him." I showed her a location on my phone. My mom nodded, seeming determined and drove off.

"Was it that 'Jack' person you're always talking about?" Les asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "Or is it Katherine?"

"Les!"