Really love? Racetrack Higgins

Two

Katherine and I were sitting in Jacobi's when we overheard a conversation. We should eavesdrop but it was one of the only things we knew how to do as reporters "you telling me you scared of Brooklyn?"

"I ain't scared of no turf!"

"Okay"

"But that Spot Conlon gets me a little jittery"

"Me and Davey will take Brooklyn"

"Me? No."

Katherine got up and pulled me with her "Why is everyone so scared of Brooklyn?"

I looked around the room and saw them all staring at us, some mouths open. I saw Racetrack with his hat off, staring at me

I winked at him and I could of sworn I saw him turn red. I turned back around and looked at that one newsie that flirted with me and Katherine yesterday

"What are you doing here?"

"Asking a question. You got an answer?" I snapped at the boy

He scoffed and slowly made his way over to us "Brooklyn is the sixth largest city in the entire world. You got Brooklyn, you hit the mother lode. Say, for two girls that work for The New York Sun, you are spending an awful lot of time hanging around at The World. So what's that about huh?" He looked directly at Katherine "You following me?"

"No. The only thing we're following is a story" Katherine said and I added on "A ragtag gang of ragamuffins wants to take on the king makers of New York?"

"Well, do you think you have a chance?" Katherine asked as we walked around the tables

"Shouldn't you be at the ballet or something?" That one annoying newsie asked

"Is the question too difficult?" I asked him and Katherine spoke "We'll rephrase"

We spoke together "will the richest and most powerful men in New York give the time of day to a gang of kids who haven't got a nickel to their name?"

Katherine was by a guy with a crutch and I was face to face with Race. The guy with a crutch spoke up and I turned my head to him and stood up straight "Hey! You don't gotta be insulting. I got a nickel"

"So, I guess you'd say you're a couple of Davids looking to take on Goliath." Katherine said

A very tall newsie spoke up and walked to Katherine "We never said that"

"Well you didn't have to" I laughed and everyone looked at me "She did" I pointed to Katherine

"You know, I've seen a lot of papes in my day and I ain't never noted no girl reporters writing the hard news" the newsie with the loud mouth spoke again

I slapped his arm "Well wake up to the new century. The game's changing"

"Now, how about an exclusive interview?" Katherine asked the boys and I spoke "Anyone?"

"Ain't your beat entertainment?" The newsie asked Katherine before turning to me "And you..."

"Races" Racetrack spoke up

"This is entertaining. So far" Katherine said

"Yeah. Also I don't just do races. I do whatever" I said

The loud mouth newsie got in Katherine's face "Hey, what's the last news story you wrote?"

"What's the last strike you organized?" Katherine fired back

Everyone laughed at him and Romeo spoke up, I know his name because loud mouth said it the other day, "You're out of your league, Kelly, Me thinks the lady needs to be handled by a... real man"

"You thinks wrong Romeo" Katherine said, a little weirded out by the newsie

"I'd say we save any exclusive for real reporters" The tall one walked over to us

I scoffed and that's when I broke "Well, do you see somebody else giving you the time of day?! Just because we're not the preferable gender does not mean we're not fit out to do the job! You lousy little son of a-!" I was about to say it when Katherine put her hand over my mouth and pulled me away from him. She flicked my head and looked around awkwardly before speaking again

"Alright. So we're just busting out of the social pages, but... but you give us the exclusive. Let us run with the story, and I promise we'll get you the space"

"Hey, you really think we could be in the papes?" The one with the crutch asked

"Well" I calmed down "Shut down a paper like The World? You're gonna make the front page"

The boys started looking around and whispering to each other before loud mouth started talking "You want a story? Be at the circulation gate tomorrow mornin' and you'll get one. Oh and bring your camera. You're gonna want to snap a picture of this!"

Everyone started cheering and they all stood up. Racetrack stood up quickly right next to me and almost knocked me over before he quickly put his arm around my shoulders. I shrugged it off then heard Jacobi talk "Boys, ply outside. I gotta set up for dinner and I got payin' customers that need the tables"

"Now come on! We got newsies to visit!" A newsie on the table yelled

Katherine and I were writing stuff down as we were walking out of the building. We stood outside and kept writing while smiling. We high fives each other and continued writing different things

The boys all ran out of Jacobi's and Katherine stayed to talk to loud mouth while I followed Racetrack and stopped him. He turned around and smiled at me "Hello beautiful"

"Hello Racetrack" I smiled at the boy and placed it on my head "So, what's going on with the strike?"

"Stupid Pulitzer raising prices, us newsies pissed at him, we all strike" Racetrack explained in the most simplistic way

I smiled and nodded, writing it down in better words "What's your role in all of this?"

"Comedic" He said and took his hat back "relief"

I laughed and started walking away "Hey! Where are you going?"

"I gotta work on this with Katherine at home! I'll see you later!"