We Gotta Be Either Dead or Dreaming...

The hell just happened?

Yes, I'm starting a whole new story. But this is all just a big fun Pringle thing. It's all made for the Pringles. If you're not a Pringle, you might as well leave, because you will understand nothing.

"AIN'T IT A FINE LIFE!"

Vil had shouted it out of nowhere. The street they were walking on had been way too quiet. These darn introverts... At least that was what Vil blamed the silence on. She didn't know anything better to blame it on. Well, this was sure to get her friends screaming.

"CARRYING THE BANNER THROUGH IT ALL!" at least five Pringles shouted it. That was considered an accomplishment in Vil's book. Her victorious feelings were only boosted by the looks on some of their faces when they realized how loudly they had screamed. For too long, the introverted Pringles had been planning the takedown of the extroverts. Too bad for them, Vil had the upper hand in public, where she absolutely thrived.

And out in public they were. Right on the streets of New York City. The Lower Manhattan to be more specific. They were on their way to Duane Street. The signature street of their common favorite musical: Newsies. Exactly why they were going there, no one was sure. They'd met up in New York for their big Pringle meeting, and things just kinda happened. Now they were well on the way to the place where some lovely boys had lived in 1899.

"A MIGHTY FINE LIFE! CARRYING THE BANNER TOUGH AND TALL!" they kept singing the chorus, all of them joining the party. Now being a group of ten teenagers wasn't the only thing making passer-bys look their way.

"Isn't it cool that too many years ago, the newsies walked on these streets?" Ezra interrupted the singing for the fun fact.

"Wow, what a revelation," Dylan said. "People walked here."

"I can picture Smallsper walking down these streets and holding hands," Vil said, nodding in pride of her own revolutionary fantasy.

"Of course you can," Ronnie, who had gotten tired of Vil's random Smallsper statements all the way back in Brooklyn, said.

"That's an adorable picture though," Molly pointed out.

"Mhm," Vil pointed approvingly at her British friend.

"Fellas, this is is, innit?" Mattie suddenly spoke. They were looking at a sign on the street corner. Everyone followed their eyes to the same sign.

"It is!"

"We're here!"

"We're the new Duane Street boys," Mattie proudly announced.

"With a grand total of zero boys in the group," Makayla said.

"We can be the Duane Street girls," Vil suggested.

"Yeah!" there was agreement from all the lady Pringles. They were all so lady-like.

"If we're the Duane Street gang now, there's only one thing we can do..." there was a mischievous glint in Ronnie's eye.

Next thing everyone knew, Ronnie had taken a still wrapped lollipop from Vil's hand. Vil gasped at the realization of Ronnie's genius idea.

"Hey, that's my lollipop!" she shouted, rather than sang.

"You'll steal anudda'!" Ronnie continued, actually singing.

"Hey look! It's bath time at the zoo!" Jonna happily exclaimed. Her taking the role of Specs was an obvious fact for everyone. She began looking around for any thing they could pronounce "bath time at the zoo". Shockingly, there was no one shaving their face on the streets of Manhattan at 3 PM.

"I thought that I'd surprise my mother!" chanted both Molly and Mattie.

"If you can find her!" Ronnie continued singing the role of Albert.

"Who asked you?!" the sound of every other Pringle shouting the lyric hurt Ronnie's ears, but oh boy, was it worth it!

"From Bottle Alley to the Harbor!" Jonna led them into the first verse.

They continued singing Carrying the Banner in a mess of happiness and chaos (the most chaotic bit being the "curled coffee" part and the chorus with the two groups). Then finally, they reached the end of the song.

Vil flung herself onto the steps of the nearest building, only to do the signature Newsies leap down again as the others loudly sang "We'll be out there! Carrying the banner"

"See us out there! Carrying the banner!" Vil joined them that time. "Always out there! Carrying the banner!"

Ronnie and Ezra raised their newsie caps high into the air. They had been the only ones swag enough to wear them that day.

"Aaaah! Aaaah! Aaaah!" as if choreographed, all of the Pringles huddled up and turned to stare at something unspecified in the sky. Then, perfectly on cue, they all spread out and struck only the mightiest of poses. "Go!"

It had been a truly magnificent performance. Featuring choreography done by Makayla, Jonna and Vil, a perfectly sung nun part by Ronnie, and so much more. It could only have been made better by all of them wearing newsie caps. And Vil would have liked it if her lollipop hadn't gone missing in the party. It was seriously nowhere now. Ronnie didn't still have it. No one had it. It wasn't even lying tossed away on the ground.

"Guys, am I the only one seeing this?" Jonna asked the others. First then did they actually step out of their dramatic poses and look around. Jonna was poiting at a spot on the street a few meters away from them. There stood a carriage. One of those that had horses dragging it around back in the day.

"Was that there before?" Molly asked, sounding quite puzzled.

"Not that I can remember..." said Ronnie.

"Uhm, guys..." Makayla said, attracting everyone's attention. "Look around..."

So they did. First then they noticed what they had been too wrapped up in their performance to see at first.

This certainly wasn't 2021 anymore. There were no cars, modern street lights, people in masks, and the buildings looked so utterly different.

"You don't think we're in 1899, do you?" Ezra said, still suspiciously eyeing the horse carriage.

"There's no way," Dylan said, disregarding the proof surrounding the group.

"Shh!" Ronnie hushed him, for a reason that was quickly revealed to the others. Footsteps. Uneven ones, as if someone was walking, but also shoving a stick into the ground. Then, just as the Pringles located which street corner the sound was coming from, a person came out from behind it.

A short boy, with a head of blonde hair, mostly hidden under a brown cap that was tilted back on his head further than the ordinary hat. He was dressed in shabby, dirty clothes. In fact, he himself looked quite shabby and dirty. In under his arm stuck what spoke most to the Pringles. A very scruffy, probably homemade crutch made of two sticks and some fabric.

"Actually yes," Dylan told the others. "I do believe we're in 1899."

This is a bit different from all my other stories (minus Some Newsies Situations), because I'm not taking it too seriously. This is all just a Pringles crack fic. Ezra's story of us summoning Jesse and Davey was so magnificent, so I was inspired to write one too. This is the result you've just read.