My Girl ~Racetrack~

four

Jack and I start to walk back to the lodging house. "What was the song about?" Jack suddenly asks. "Nothing. Just a song Medda asked me to sing" I lie through my teeth. I don't know how he'll react if I tell him I have a crush on one of his (and my) bestfriends.

I play with my ring my mother gave me before she died. "You're lying. You play with Ma's ring when you're lying or nervous." He confronts. "How do you know I'm not nervous?" I ask, looking into his eyes, so I don't seem like I'm avoiding eye contact.

"Cause ya have nothing to be nervous about." He says, as he keeps walking. I see the lodging house coming up. "I'm really tired. Night, Jackie!" I sat quickly as I run into the lodging house. That definitely looked like I was hiding something. I never lie to Jack. I don't like that I am now. Ever since mom died we had to stick together, we would tell each other everything to keep our relationship good because we need each other. We keep each other sane.

I lie in my bunk looking up, thinking. I do this a lot. Does Race like me back? Do I have a chance with him? Or is it a silly little crush that I can't get over. As I think about the boy I adore, I remember his birthday is coming up. Oh! What do I get him? I forgot about it last year, I don't want to get him nothing after that incident. What about more cigars? "Kitty?" A voice says

My head lifts up and I see the boy I was just thinking about. "Mhm" I say, acting tired, like I just woke up to his voice. His voice. I love his voice. No. Stop. "Jack asked for me to make sure you were ok. He said you ran off after getting here." He explains

I sit up on the cot. "I'm fine." I smile at him. He sits next to me. "Why were you two out so late?" He asks, looking into my hazel eyes. "We were at Medda's theater. Got chased by Snyder." I answered

"Is that why you are nervous? Jack said he thought you were lying but I thought you were nervous about something." He asks, I simply nod. "Why are you up so late?" I quizzed, He sighed and then a fire siren went off.

"Those fire sirens are killing me" He whined, like a 5 year old. I laugh a little. "What are you laughing at?" He smirked. "You are acting like a little child." I clutch my stomach, laughing so hard. I don't know why find this so funny.

His hand slaps on my mouth, "You're gonna wake up the boys" He said in between chuckles. I get myself together and Race's hand slips off my mouth. I smiled at him and he wraps his arm around my neck. "Goodnight, Kitty." He squeezes me as a hug and goes back to his bunk. I see JoJo's head lower from the bunk above me. He wiggles his eyebrows and I shake my head, indicating not to say anything about it.

-

I wake up and sit in Newsies Square, looking at the sunrise. All the boys come out. "Them fire sirens kept me awake all night." Race complained as I stood up. Mush sat down. "Sirens is like lullabies to me. The louder they wail the better the headline. And the better the headline, the better I eat. And the better I eat..."

"The further away from you I sleep!" Race cuts him off. "Enough. We get it, Mush." I say, as I yawn.

Davey arrives with Les in his grip. "Morning everybody. Sorry we're late. We had to help our mom with something" Davey informed. "They got a mother? I was gonna get me one." Race jokes. I slap his arm playfully and he looks at me with a confused look.

"What'd you do with the one you had?" Romeo asks. "He traded her for a box of cigars." Buttons joked. Race got up in his face. "Aye! They was Coronas!" He corrected.

I pull the back of his shirt to leave Buttons alone. "You're no fun!" He whispered to me. "We have a father too!" Les smiles.

"A mother and a father!" Buttons exclaims. Race elbows me playfully. "Well, ain't we the hoi polloi!" He smirks. "So, how's it going today?" Les asked. "Ask me after they put up the headline." I say

Les looks up to read it. "Here it comes now" He said.

NEW NEWSIES PRICE: SIXTY CENTS PER HUNDRED

"You're kidding!" I exclaim. "Is that news?" Davey asked. "It is to me!" Elmer replied. "They jacked up the price of papes. Ten cents more a hundred." Albert complains.

"I can eat two day on a dime." Finch says. "I'll be sleeping on the street." Crutchie groans. "You already sleep on the street." Jojo said

"In a worse neighborhood." Crutchie cringed. Then I see Jack come out of the lodging house. "What're you all standin' around for?" He asks.

"Get a load of this, Jack" Crutchie says. "Like Pulitzer don't make enough already." I say.

I see Weasel and groan. "Papes for the newsies!" Weasel says in his annoying voice. "Relax, it's gotta be a gag" Jack rests his hand on my shoulder before he goes over to Weasel.

"Good joke, Weasel. Really got the fella's going. I'll take a hundred and be on my way" Jack says. Weasel looked very smug, too smug. "A hundred will cost ya sixty"

"We ain't payin' no sixty!" Jack says. I slowly walk over to Weasel. "Are you sure you won't lower the price. Not for me." I grab his tie and pull him closer. "Nope." He said. I push him away. "It was worth a shot." I say as I walk back to the boys. I leave Jack to deal with it.

"Me and the fella's will take a hike over to The Journal." Jack says grabbing my hand. Specs stopped us, who just arrived. "I'll save you the walk. They upped their prices too!"

"Then we'll take our business to The Sun!" Jack remarked. "It's the same all around town. New day. New price." Weasel smiled.

I wanted to throw a punch at him, so I walked up to him and swung my arm, but something, or someone held me back. I look back and see Race, who grabbed my arm and clutched my waist so I wouldn't get away.

I huffed and walked away from him. I wasn't going to let him away that easily. As I started to walk away, Race let go of me but I immediately ran back, but Race acted fast and wrapped both arms around my stomach. He swung me around. "Kitty. Stop! We'll figure it out." He said as he tried to calm me down.

He let go of me and watched me to make sure I don't go back to Weasel. "C'mere fella's" Jack said and motions for us to huddle around him. "They can't just do that, can they?" Finch asked

"Why not? It's there paper" Race whined. "It's their world" Crutchie said. "Ain't we got no rights?" Asked Henry. "We got the right to starve. C'mon, let's get our papes and hit the streets while we still can." Crutchie says

The boy start to talk over each other and I can't tell what is going on. Then, Les went around the huddle and pushed everyone out of the way. I stumbled back and tried to not fall, I almost fell but I clung onto Race's shoulder.

We both look at each other for a split second and I take my hand off his shoulder. "Hey Jack, You still thinking?" Les asked

"Sure he is. Can't you smell the smoke." Race waved his hand in front of his nose. Jack brought us back over around him. "All right, here's the deal: if we don't sell papes, then no one sells papes." Jack explained

"Nobody gets to that window till they put the price back where it belongs!" I add. "You mean like a strike?" Davey asked

"You heard Davey. We're on strike." Jack exclaimed