1899 Post-Strike Quaratinesies. Title is a loose reference to Dancing Queen by Abba just because I could. I don't own that song in case you didn't know. For those of you who are wondering, this is more the premise of the boys being stuck in the lodge and less of them out in the world fighting their pandemic problems head on...actually it's mostly the boys stuck in the Lodge. This is part 1 of the Quarantinesies. Part 2 will be a Modern AU. If you would like to see them out in the world dealing with a pandemic, drop a comment here about how you think that would work. :) Enjoy!!
By the way, there's really only one word I can use to describe this one....chaos.
Elley Kelly takes one look at the newspaper sitting in front of her and nearly cries. The headline reads:
New York City Citizens To Be Quarantined For the Next Four Weeks Due to Global Health Emergency.
Someone is going to die within that span of a month and that certainly won't be her fault. And yes, it is going to be because of the global health emergency but anyone who knows her situation knows what she's really talking about....
She's talking about her biological brother and all of her "brothers". With all of the crazy stunts that they tend to pull, it's a miracle that someone hasn't died sooner.
Her brother on the other hand had taken one look at the headline and shrugged.
"It's just a month," he had told her, "Everything will be fine."
That's just the problem. It's a whole month of possibilities where things could go entirely wrong.
Being a Kelly, Elley isn't afraid of much and she really likes being around all the boys. But a whole month is going to push some boundaries and her patience....to the extreme. The thought of having to be stuck inside for a whole month scares her the tiniest bit.
She can't imagine what Davey is experiencing. Being the quiet kid that he is, he probably is cheering and then crying at the prospect of how much of his time will be spent with the Newsies out of sheer boredom.
It is going to take everyone some time to get used to this...as long as somebody doesn't die first. She feels someone sit down to next to her and nudge her shoulder lightly. She knows very well who it is and ignores the person.
"Hey," a soft familiar voice asks, "What's the matter with you?" Elley silently hands him the newspaper. She watches his brow furrow as he reads the newspaper. "So?" he replies, "We'll survive."
"MUSH!!!" Elley snaps, "I can't go outside.....for a month. You know how much I like being out on the streets and selling papes."
On the other side of the room, Davey and Flavi are each reading their own newspaper but still equally as panicked.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Davey asks the younger girl.
"We're gonna die here," Flavi mutters softly.
"Excuse me while I go write my will," Davey says as he gets up off the couch that they are sitting on. Flavi bites her lip in thought just as Race comes down and flops onto the couch next to her.
"Hello there," Flavi says gently as she moodily folds the newspaper in half.
"Are you ready to spend everyday for a month with me, beautiful?" Race asks, openly flirting with her. Flavi's face turns a deep shade of scarlet.
"Don't I do that already?" she replies shyly but Race sends a playful smirk her way.
"Yeah...but now we can..."Race starts only to be cut off by Romeo getting chased by Albert and Kid Blink. Flavi takes advantage of the major distraction to run to a different part of the Lodge.
"Well ya know it's true and some girl will find it attractive some day!" Romeo yells at both of the boys who go after him again.
"What girl thinks what's attractive?" Race says sitting up quickly, "Is it something Flavi would think is....?"
"Race, shouldn't you know the answer to that question?" Elley asks him teasingly, "You're the one who seems to know her best."
"Yeah but...." Race starts and Elley starts to shove him up the stairs.
"Go talk to her like a normal person....no....flirting," she says.
"I don't know how else to talk!" he complains in return and Elley groans before turning to Mush.
"Can you help me out here?" she asks and Mush shrugs.
"Don't look at me. I don't know how to help you," he replies and Elley frowns at him.
"It hasn't even been five minutes since I looked at this headline and I feel like I'm already going to lose my marbles!" she exclaims before turning to Mush, "You really don't know how to help this situation."
"Well...I umm am going to help stop Kid Blink," he replies before running off after his friend. Elley sighs loudly just as Davey wanders back into the room only to get hit with a marble.
"Ow!" he yelps and whirls around to see Finch giving a Les a slingshot lesson.
"Guess I'm a crack shot!" Les exclaims while Finch and Snipeshooter are giggling at their little maneuver.
"Oh no. We're not starting this out with you having a slingshot," Davey starts, "Someone is really going to get hurt with that." He plucks the slingshot right out of Les's hands.
"Awwww, don't be such a killjoy, Davey. You're not my mom either so why can you stop me from having all the fun?" Les whines, reaching irritably for the slingshot in his brother's hands.
"I'm not being a killjoy. I'm saving your life and everyone else's," Davey replies before handing the slingshot to Snipeshooter and Finch. "Please use this responsibly and don't let him have it at any cost," he begs of the other two Newsies who shoot him mischievous looks.
"Don't count on it, Davey," Snipeshooter says with a slight giggle. Davey sighs before wandering off to go talk to Jack. Jack is sitting out on the fire escape and drawing something with a ferocity that Davey has seen often and recognizes it as Jack experiencing some passionate emotion. He recalls it happening quite often during the strike. Jack's tongue pokes out of the side of his mouth as he draws, his eyes completely focused on his work. Davey reaches out to poke him and Jack whirls around and shouts,
"Please don't!! This is gonna be hard enough already!" Davey stares at him for a minute, blinking at the Newsie leader extremely confused by his actions. Jack merely blinks back before saying casually, "Oh hi there, Davey."
"Are you okay? You look kind of upset," Davey starts, really not wanting to upset Jack further. He tries to peek at Jack's drawing but Jack yanks it to his chest.
"Nu uh. Youse ain't looking at this," he demands with the tiniest of whine in his voice to make him sound more like a child than the Newsie leader that he is.
"Oh come on, Jack. You're not going to be able to hide that for the next month. Someone's going to find it," Davey attempts to persuade him, "You might as well just show me now while that's in your control."
"You're just gonna think it's crazy," Jack mumbles back, pulling his Newsie cap further onto his head to avoid Davey.
"No. I'm not. I believe that there is a perfectly logical explanation for this....even if I go through some trials before arriving at my explanation," Davey explains optimistically.
"But you'll think it's crazy first," Jack whines and Davey thinks for a second.
"Let me guess....you're worried about how long you'll be apart from Katherine," he replies, "And you happen to be drawing her."
"What?!" Jack shrieks, "Don't be ridiculous. I could never be drawing Katherine....not that I was in the first place...." Davey raises an eyebrow in disbelief.
"You're really going to lie to me about that?" he asks and Jack frowns.
"You can't tell the rest of the boys or I'll never hear the end of it," he says darkly, "I'm going to miss her so much and we were just starting to think about becoming a couple. I'll be lucky if I ever get to see her at all during this business."
"Oh, Jack," Davey tries to console the lovestruck Newsie, "I'm sure you'll see her at some point. Just because everyone has to quarantine doesn't mean that you still can't see her."
"But that's just the point. Her father wants us to follow the rules...."Jack groans, "He's gonna send me away for just bein on the fire escape."
"Like that's ever stopped you before?" Davey asks, surprised at his own words. Why is he encouraging Jack to take part in some reckless behavior? This is SOOOO unlike him. Oh well, there's a first for everything.
"You're right," Jack says standing up and staring out over the city, "I should just go over there and talk to her anyways."
"No! Well...maybe but not now...you of all people can't get this....thing,"Davey says with a shudder of disgust at the odd disease.
"Really? Why do ya think the governor asked us all to stay home, smarty pants?" Jack asks and hearing the bickering, Elley rolls her eyes and pokes her head out the window to say,
"Ladies, ladies, you're both beautiful." She ducks back inside immediately after and Jack merely groans.
"And now I'm stuck with that piece of work instead," he grumbles. Elley leans her head back out.
"What did you just call me?" she asks and Mush starts to follow her to the window.
"Ells, come on. It's the first night. We're not starting this," he starts to advise her, gently tugging on her shoulder.
"Jack....Kelly....what.....did....you....just....call.....me?" she asks very slowly and deliberately.
"Ya really wanna know?" Jack asks her and Mush gently latches onto her arm.
"Ells...." he whispers in her ear, causing a smile to slip onto Elley's face for the briefest instant. Jack catches it and rolls his eyes.
"Mush, stop sweet talkin in my sister's ear," he mumbles before stalking out towards the edge of the fire escape.
"Hey. Leave him alone. He's fine," Elley responds, reaching for Mush's hand on her arm.
"Ain't gonna be any funny business happening in my Lodging House," Jack replies and Elley groans.
"Jack Kelly, if anyone would...."she starts but Davey interrupts,
"Okay! Enough of that, children. I think we all just need to take a deep breath and....." Romeo interrupts by stepping out onto the fire escape with a deck of cards in his hand. Everyone goes silent at his arrival. He smiles cheekily and hands Jack the top card. Jack flips it over and confusion scrawls itself across his face.
"The ace of spades?" he asks and Romeo gasps.
"No no no! That was the wrong card!" he cries out and as he tries to sort through his card to find the one that he is looking for. He proceeds to drop all of them on the fire escape. They spill all over the fire escape and Elley and Mush step out to help the younger boy clean them up. Romeo eventually finds the card he is looking for and hands it to Jack with a smug smile on his face.
"What? The ace of hearts?" Jack asks and Romeo wiggles his eyebrows up and down.
"You're always saying she's the ace up your sleeve and now you can keep that card there and...."the younger Newsie explains, trying to make his romantic idea a reality.
"Hey! Where'd my poker cards go??" Racetrack's voice calls out from the inside.
"Uh oh," Romeo replies before hastily stuffing the cards back into the box and taking Jack's card away from him. He hides them in his vest pocket and hurries back into the Lodging House. He runs right into Flavi, who is looking for some kind of a quiet place in all of the craziness. She takes one look at the crowded fire escape and tries to find a different spot to hide. Romeo keeps running and Race spots him.
"Hey! Where are my cards, Romeo?" he asks and a chase begins. Flavi quickly scoots away to the side as the two boys crash into each other. Race soon trips over a trash can and Skittery, who is sitting on the couch with his cap pulled over his eyes grumbles,
"Guess Race is becoming Oscar Delancey since he's falling head over heels for a trash can." Flavi starts to chuckle at what Skittery said and he pulls his cap up to see who is standing there. He smirks at her when he sees her laughing. Race brushes himself off and Flavi carefully walks down the stairs to help him clean up the trash while Race mutters things about Skittery under his breath.
"Are you okay?"Flavi asks him gently and offering her hand to help him to his feet.
"Yeah," Race says, "I'm fine." He spots Albert sitting next to the staircase holding some kind of a book. Albert's eyes flick up and notice Race for the briefest of instances before abruptly moving back down to his book. Race opens his mouth but Albert says,
"Leave me alone, would ya?"
"Ain't that Specs'?" Race asks. Albert nods quickly scooching further into his corner.
"Don't let him catch me. You know he's real possessive of his books. Expect it to get even worse now that we'se quarantined," he says nervously. Flavi looks at the cover and recognizes it from the window of a bookstore that she had walked past with Race one time.
"You're seriously reading a romance novel?" she asks and Albert lowers the book to glower at her.
"Don't tell anybody. Please. It's enough that I read already but...between you and me...I ain't the only one," he replies, "Specs would kill me though if he knew that I had gotten into his book stash without asking. I knew he would never say yes though...he thinks I'm too reckless."
"If Specs kills you, I'll speak at your funeral," Skittery pipes up from his spot on the couch.
"Oh thanks, Skits," Albert calls back, "That's really reassuring."
The next two days pass in a similar manner. None to little chaos occurs and everyone is happy getting to spend more time with each other and just being able to hang loose for a few days.
Until....there was an incident....a big one.
Or a more appropriate wording....a really really bad idea.
Everyone is bored out of their minds at this point and Race smirks at Flavi.
"I have an idea," he announces quietly. Albert, who is still reading the romance novel that he had swiped from Specs a couple days earlier calls out,
"Well, guess my life is going to be over." Flavi shoots him a nervous look just as Elley pokes her head from the top bunk where she is hanging out with Mush.
"Ooooo, Race has an idea. This oughta be good. 'Cept Mush ain't gonna let me do anything dangrous," she says. Mush pokes his head over the side too.
"I never said that," he protests.
"Nope but you won't. I know that much," Elley replies, glancing over at her friend.
"Can I share my idea now or do we still need to have a discussion here?" Race asks sassily.
"Wow, Racer. Would've expected sass of that nature to come from Crutchie, not from you," Elley quips and Race rolls his eyes.
"I think we should do mattress rides down the staircase," he suggests and Flavi shakes her head.
"You're going to break your neck. Davey and Jack and Crutchie aren't going to let you do it," she replies.
"What about you, Flavs?" Race asks, "Would you let me do it?"
"I don't want you to do it," Flavi answers him and Race raises an eyebrow suggestively.
"Did you hear that, boys? She doesn't want me to do it," he says enthusiastically as Flavi starts to sigh.
"I'm willing to do it," Elley calls out and Mush grabs her hand.
"Ells, what would Jack...?" he starts but Elley cuts him off,
"Awww, Jacky would do the same thing. He'll pretend like it's a bad idea and then he'll do it and then Mama Davey will have to yell at him later." Mush hesitates for a second before Elley continues. "Besides...aren't you going to do it, Mush?" she asks him. Mush pauses for a second thinking through it.
"Well....I mean...."he starts but Elley interrupts him again,
"HA!! I knew you would do it!! You never shy away form doing something dangerous!"
"Could ya keep it down? I'm trying to read this!" Albert whines as he pulls the book closer to his face. Romeo soon wanders over bored out of his mind and tilts his head to read the title on the front of the book.
"A Romance of Two Worlds?" Romeo reads clumsily, "That sounds like a fabulous book."
"Go away and let me read in peace," Albert snaps and Skittery wanders over. He lazily drapes himself over one end of the bunk that Mush and Elley are relaxing on.
"Did I hear something about riding mattresses down the staircase?" he asks almost with a hint of innocence in his voice.
"Oh no, Dumb and Glum. Why would anybody do something so stupid?" he asks and Flavi gently nudges his arm. Race thinks for a moment. "Actually, yes yes you did," Race replies.
"You're gonna lose," Skittery says casually.
"What did you just say? Mattress racing?" Blink asks, leaping onto the lower bunk, "Well count me in. Skits and I will take you out."
"What about us, Blink?" Mush asks, "We usually...."
"You're busy," Blink says nodding his head to Elley, who smirks at Mush and then taunts Blink,
"Oh don't worry. We'll be thrilled to beat you." Blink and Skittery straighten up and glare at the younger of the two Kellys.
"Oh yeah? Well not if we beat you first!" Blink says. Suddenly from across the room, Specs calls out,
"Hey...one of my books is missing. Anybody know where it is?" Albert quickly slides the book to a corner of the bunk room to hide it and moves toward the mattress.
"Move!" he says loudly to Blink and pushes him off the bunk. Blink yelps as he falls to the floor while Albert snatches up the mattress off the bed and runs to the staircase with a loud battle cry. He gets a running leap and throws himself onto the mattress and starts to ride it down the staircase. He lets out a loud battle cry as he does so and it echoes throughout the lodging house, attracting the attention of all of the boys in the Lodging House. All of them rush to the staircase to see what's happening. Blink and Skittery snatch up another mattress off of one of the bunks.
"Comin through! Not stopping!" Blink shouts as he breaks through the crowd of Newsies, Skittery hanging onto the other end of the mattress. Blink slams the mattress down and jumps onto it. Skittery clambers onto the back of it and just barely gets situated before Blink throws it in motion.
Unfortunately, Albert, who successfully made it to the bottom of the stairs, does not see the other boys coming.
"Watch out!!!" Skittery yells about a second before they slam into Albert knocking him flat. Albert groans as he lays on the ground under the mattress.
"Owwwwwww," he grumbles. Specs, the only boy who didn't run out immediately to see what was happening, frowns at the sight of Albert on the ground.
"Hey, Albert! You know where my book is?" he asks from the top of the stairs.
"Uggggghhhhhhh," Albert groans as Kid Blink and Skittery flop down on the mattress in front of him. Romeo emerges from the bunkroom with Les and Elmer helping him push the mattress toward the staircase. Davey walks onto the staircase from hanging out on the rooftop with Jack and Crutchie and his eyes widen at what he sees about to take place.
"No no no," he says trying to stop the boys, "Les! No!"
"Wahoooooooo," Les yells as the boys push off the stair case and Davey starts to run down the stairs after it only to trip and fall on top of the mattress as well as on top of Les and Romeo. Davey screams the whole way down.
"DAVEY!!!" Romeo shouts and then he tries a softer approach, "Dave."
Davey doesn't hear him over his screaming which could rival the cry of a hawk.
"DAVEY!!! YOU'RE THE REASON HE'S GONNA BE DEAF!!!" Racetrack shouts from the top balcony causing Flavi to jump.
"WHAT???" Les yells back at Racetrack's yelling.
At that point, Elley is pulling Mush by the hand into the bunkroom.
"Come on, Mush! We gotta try it. Just once," she begs and Mush looks between her and the staircase skeptically.
"Okay but if Jack comes...." he starts but Elley squeezes his hand before moving to grab the mattress. At that moment, Jack and Crutchie open the window back up to go back into the Lodging House. Elley does not see him and tries to pull the mattress up by herself. Part of it gets away from her and takes out Jack. He falls backwards onto the fire escape with a grunt.
"Oh hi Jack!" Elley says casually, starting to throw the mattress back onto the bed.
"What was that for and why were you pulling a mattress off the bed?" he asks, taking off his cap revealing his dark hair and rubbing his now aching head.
"How are you even surprised?" Crutchie asks, "They can't sit still for two days and be expected to have common sense." Mush shrugs his shoulders in agreement. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices the book Albert was reading from earlier and picks it up himself. He reads the back cover. Elley hears books pages flipping as Mush flips through the book and she steals it from him.
"Hey," Mush starts to whine.
"Hush," Elley says, "Are you in the mood for a prank?"
"Not really," Mush replies, "Isn't there already enough chaos going on?" Right as he says this, a loud shriek comes from the direction of the staircase.
"Oh not nearly enough," Elley answers and Jack shoots her a worried glance.
"If Davey was here...." he starts to say but Crutchie, who has since wandered over to the door interrupts with,
"Well if that ain't a surprise I don't know what is. I'm surprised nobody's cracked their heads open. Not that it would make much of a difference whether they did or didn't. The common sense or lack of it always is a bit concerning."
"I feel you like just insulted each and everyone of them but really really nicely," Elley comments. Crutchie shrugs his shoulders,
"It's what I'm here for. Just keepin things real."
The screams continue from the staircase echoing off the walls of the Lodging House Lobby.
"If I didn't know better, I would say someone was getting killed," Jack says, slapping his cap back down on his head. He walks out to the landing with the other boys and hears Davey screaming as their mattress flies down the staircase. Once their mattress reaches the bottom, Davey rolls off and lands on top of Albert.
"UGGHHHHHHH!!!" he yelps before moaning, "What? Do I look like a brick that you people can just run into?" Race starts to laugh loudly at the top of the stairs.
"Red hair??? Brick????" he says in between fits of laughter. All of the other Newsies shoot him concerned glances. He just keeps on laughing and the rest of the Newsies shrug like it happens everyday.
Davey stands up and helps Albert to his feet.
"Sorry about that. I didn't really have much control over the situation," Davey explains to Albert. Albert shrugs nonchalantly.
"It's not your fault," he says before moodily glaring at Skittery and Blink who are standing off to the side with their mattress.
Elley and Mush go back to deliberating over their prank, which Mush is still hesitant in pulling. Crutchie decides to get in on their quiet conversation in the corner.
"So," he starts attracting the attention of both of his fellow Newsies, "What if we stick it under Race's pillow?"
"Race gets blamed for everything," Elley says, "Shouldn't we do it to someone else?"
"Skits would be the last person to read romance," Mush suggests. Elley and Crutchie's eyes light up at that suggestion.
"We'll stick it under his pillow!" Crutchie says. Elley snatches it from Mush, stands on the bunk under Skittery's and places the book under his pillow. She smirks as she jumps down to the floor.
"Couldn't have done it without ya," she exclaims, gently pressing a quick kiss to Mush's cheek. She hurries out towards the landing leaving Mush and Crutchie alone. Mush's face flushes a bright red and Crutchie smirks at him.
"Didn't expect that to happen, did ya?" he asks nudging the other boy with his crutch.
"Nope. Never a dull moment with her," Mush replies, still in a bit of a daze from the spontaneous instance of affection. Crutchie smirks yet again before walking out when he hears loud shrieks coming from the landing.
Apparently, the boys on the mattresses had decided to try to see how many boys, who were standing up at the bottom of the staircase, they could knock over with a mattress. Currently, Henry, Mike and Ike, and Finch are all on one mattress completing a run. Race is talking a storm up to Jack while Davey stands next to him, fretting over all of the injuries that could take place while this is happening.
The four boys on the mattress nearly manage to break Blink's arm when they knock him over, Skittery lands right on top of them with Romeo on top of him. The boys all start to fight to untangle themselves but not before Dutchy, Itey, Pie Eater, and Bumlets join the chaos. They ride down and crash into the mattress and Albert and Les join the giant pile of boys. Jack sighs as he sees the giant pile of boys. Race runs away from Jack and grabs Swifty, Buttons, Elmer and Jojo before jumping onto the mattress.
"Jack, somebody's really gonna die," Davey warns him as the chaos continues. The boys are all over each other and eventually somebody's knee goes into somebody's chin and somebody throws a fist into someone else's eye.
"Oww!" Blink howls before starting to pummel Romeo. The rest of the boys jump into the fight without hesitation. Jack sighs quietly before running down and breaking up the fight
"Hey hey hey!" he says but the boys have way too much energy and are enjoying the fight way too much to notice. Eventually Les rolls out of the pile and yells out loudly,
"JACK!!!" That stops all of the rest of the boys dead in their tracks with their fighting.
"Jack..you gotta try this!" Bumlets says. Jack considers it for a moment before he runs back up the stairs and grabs a mattress. Elley sees him and runs towards him.
"What are you doing?" she asks.
"Tryin this. You want on?" he asks.
"Well yeah!" Elley exclaims. She latches onto Mush's hand and pulls him over towards the mattress. The trio move their mattress to the stairwell. They jump on and ride down it. Elley screams the whole way down while Mush and Jack hang onto her tightly.
They get to the bottom and Elley grins. Maybe staying inside for a month won't be so bad after all. If shenanigans like this can happen any day, then who knows what they could come up with?
Eventually, the boys all just fell asleep on the floor after riding mattresses well into the night. Elley and Flavi were the only ones who actually made it to their bedroom for bed.
A week past, filled with wild mattress races down the staircase. Nobody really got that injured until some of the boys tried to take two mattresses down the staircases side by side at the same time. Then, the mattress rides down the staircase had to stop for a short while.
It was an entire week before the boys slept in their beds again.
One morning, Specs wakes up really wanting to read the book that he has been missing for quite some time. He still cannot find it.
"Anybody seen my book that's been missing?" he calls out as he looks under his pillow for the umpteenth time. Race is standing next to Albert at the sink and elbows him.
"Where's his book?" he asks quietly.
"What book?" Albert asks.
"Specs' book! Where is it?" Race asks a little more urgently. Albert takes off from the sink and hurries back to the corner of the room to find it. It isn't there.
"Race!" Albert whispers as he runs back to his friend, "I can't find it. It's gone. It's not in the corner anymore!!"
"What? What do ya mean it ain't there? It's been there for a week!" Race shrieks quietly. The two boys exchange nervous glances.
Skittery slowly stretches and sits up. He feels something....different under his pillow. He pulls the object out and sees the book. Albert sprints over and grabs it from him.
"What was that doin under my pillow?" he accuses, "Did you put it there?"
"No! I didn't put it there! I left in the corner a week ago. You stole it and started reading it? Didn't know you was into romance, Skits," Albert comments. Specs walks over and sees the book in Albert's hands.
"That's my book," Specs replies. Albert is about to hand it back when Race steals it out of Albert's hands and runs. Specs takes off after him. Albert and Skittery exchange glances.
"What were you doing with a romance novel, Albert?" Skittery asks him and Albert shrugs.
"Depends on what you were doing with the romance novel, Skits," Albert replies. The two boys stare each other down to see who will break first.
"Didn't think you was the...." Skittery starts.
"I ain't the sappy lovey dovey type!" Albert shouts back and every single one of the guys stops what they are doing. Elley comes up when she hears all of the yelling, her hair in a long single braid since she doesn't have to worry about hiding it at the moment. She sees the scene unfolding and smirks before feeling someone tug on her braid. Mush smiles at her as he walks past to go find something for breakfast. She follows him down the stairs.
"Hey," she says casually but Mush doesn't hear the rest of what she says because Specs chases Race down the stairs with Albert right behind them. Race tosses the book to Albert and Albert sees Specs coming after him and runs as fast as his legs will carry him back up the stairs. He runs right into Skittery who barrels into Kid Blink, who falls into Jack, who trips up Davey, who tries not to fall on Les but makes him fall over anyways, who pokes Jojo a little too hard with his sword, which causes Mike to fall into the cold bathtub water that Crutchie had been drawing up.
Water splashes all over Crutchie and he wipes it away from his face and says optimistically,
"Ain't the way I was expecting to take a bath but okay."
With all of the chaos happening, the book flies out of Albert's hand and slides under his bed.
Specs sprints up the stairs to catch it but falls on top of Albert when he goes to get it. Every single boy is moaning and groaning for the others to get up. Crutchie casually walks by them, a smirk sliding onto his own face at the chaos that the little prank he had started with Elley and Mush had caused as he makes his way to the stairs for breakfast. He meets Race who is standing at the bottom of the stairs, admiring the chaos that he hadn't actually caused for once.
"I didn't do it!" he shouts loudly for all of the boys to hear. All he gets in response is the sound of scuffling boys as the boys argue who crashed into who. Elley, Mush and Crutchie grin at each other, plotting how they were going to frame their next victim.
A week later, Jack is accused of stealing the book as it is in his art supplies.
Pie Eater found it on a window sill and had picked it up to investigate.
The rest of the quarantine time, the trio of pranksters kept causing chaos and Specs didn't really get a hold of his book until the mayor let everyone back outside in the city.
And that is only part of what happened in Quarantine with the Newsies of the Duane Street Lodging House in 1899.
The rest? No one can really remember exactly what happened because of the chaos and injuries that occurred and every time the story is told, it turns into an entirely different story than the last time.
Someday...it may be revealed. Or will it?
A/N: Am I teasing a part 2? Ehhh, I don't know. At least I don't know about one for the 1899 quarantinesies. Am I borderline breaking the fourth wall? Oh yeah. :)
Hooray!! This is finally coming out!! I'm supposed to be working on something for one of my classes but I've been on almost 4 hours of online lecture stuff so my brain needed a break. I was trying to work on one of my assignments and kept messing up.
That and I have songs from Psych: The Musical in my head and they won't leave. Which I'm not complaining because I absolutely love it. I watched it twice last week. Being a musical enthusiast and just a music girl in general means that there's always some song stuck in my head.
So, I told ya it was gonna be chaos and look what it was???? :) It's so fun though. I love literally just throwing different situations at the Newsies and just seeing how they would react. They are such fun characters to mess with like that. I also feel kinda bad because I feel like I never take them seriously but...you really can't. They're the Newsies, need I say any more?
For those of you who are curious, I will be doing a Modern AU at some point. I think I'm going to do a Mobster Jack/20s AU/Gangster style Newsies shot in between the two just so it's not two chapters in a row of absolute chaos. Not that you guys don't like that because I know you do but just for my sake. It gives me more time to figure out exactly what I want to happen I guess. That and for some reason, I feel less motivated to write for Newsies. It's not that I'm into the fandom anymore because I totally still am...it just...yeah. I don't know. I'm not going to take an official break and I love reading and writing for the Newsies. I've been struggling to write for anything in general and it's not writer's block because there's still plenty of inspiration for stuff. It's just laziness right now.
Anyways, I'll save some of this for the tag I'm going to do here shortly. :)
Keep your eyes peeled for new oneshots hopefully coming out soon!!!! :) I have a draft for a Tron Legacy and Newsies crossover so I'll maybe do that in between the Quarantinesies one too...I don't know. I'm going to do something in between the Quarantinesies just so I can write something different.
I'll see you around, friends!!!
-Aisling