Chapter 5

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"Extra, extra. Assassination attempt of president. Read all about it here," Romeo shouted.

A few people walked up to him to buy the paper.

He never understood how they believed such lies but he wasn't going to complain, it kept him alive.

He went through his normal routine of figuring out who would be the best to flirt with and who wouldn't.

There was an elderly lady, who he immediately decided was a no go.

A boy around his age, Romeo's hold usually go with this but based on the Bible he was carrying in his hands he decided it might not have been the best idea.

The final person was a girl who looked to be around his age, maybe a little under a year younger, without any sign of a wedding ring.

"Well, hello beautiful. How are you this fine morning," Romeo hated flirting with girls. It never felt right to him but needs must. "May I interest you in a paper?"

The girl giggled and after more flirting with her, Romeo finally got her to buy the paper and leave.

He counted his remaining papers and sighed, he still had around fifteen papers left.

It was nearing midday and he was due to meet up with the rest of the Newsies at Jacobi's for lunch.

He tried to stay at his selling spot for as long as he could but eventually he knew that if he was any later there might be a search party sent out for him.

On his walk to Jacobi's he managed to sell seven of his papers so he decided that he'd just sell back the last few.

"Where have you been?" Jack shouted once he walked back into the restaurant.

"I wanted to sell all my papes," Romeo explained as he walked over to a table with Finch, Buttons, Tommy Boy and Elmer.

"El, do you know where Specs is?" he asked once he took his place in the seat beside Elmer.

Elmer shrugged and quickly scanned his eyes over the room. "He hasn't shown up yet but I'm sure he's just late."

Romeo nodded but still couldn't help the growing feeling of worry in the pit of his stomach.

They sat and chatted while they waited for Specs to return from selling.

As the minutes dragged on, the nerves Romeo felt only started to grow.

After half an hour of waiting for him Romeo decided that enough was enough and was going to go out and find him himself.

"Jack," he shouted over the many talking Newsies.

Jack looked up at him from the conversation he was having with Davey and Crutchie. "Is everything okay?" he asked, noting the worried expression on his face.

"Specs hasn't come back yet so I'm going to go see where he is," he explained. "He probably just forgot or lost track of time or something."

He was trying to lighten the situation a bit and mostly ease his own worries.

He followed Specs' usual route to his selling spot but as he was nearing it he didn't see any any sign of him.

"Specs, you forgot about lunch again," Romeo shouted once he reached it, thinking he might have just strayed away a little bit.

"Romeo." Specs shouted trying to get his attention.

Romeo ran to where Specs was lying on the ground with a bloody nose and pulled him onto his lap to see how he was.

"What happened? Are you okay? Do I need to soak someone?" Romeo didn't care if he was being over dramatic, he liked Specs too much to see him hurt.

"I'm fine and, um, it's kind of a funny story."

~~~
615 words

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