Newsies One-Shots

Wood Service

Description: Instead of selling newspapers, the newsies (except not newsies) chop logs into firewood and sell said firewood. Given that Washington State had somewhere near the most logging, this is taking place in the rough Seattle area (except I know nothing about Washington State history). I got this idea while chaperoning my niece's service projects last summer when she was chopping firewood. This has a very funny plot (I think) that mostly has to do with Katherine.

Alright, let's see how this thing goes.

Jack woke up early that morning to the sound of his brother, Crutchie, getting ready for work. 

"What are you doing up so early?" Jack questioned.

"Getting an early start, the early bird catches the worm," Crutchie shrugged.

"You can't catch no worms unless the rest of us is up, too," Jack pointed out, "no need for a wheelbarrower without wood to wheelbarrow," 

"Oh... right," Crutchie sighed.

"It's alright," Jack chuckled, "you should try your hand at a maul sometime,"

"I don't have the balance for that," Crutchie shook his head, "you know that," 

"You used to say the same about the wheelbarrow, you never know," Jack pointed out.

"Is it time to wake up already?" Race, one of the boys' friends, asked.

"We probably oughta," Jack looked outside at the rising sun, "ALRIGHT EVERYONE, GET A MOVE ON! We got wood to split!"

They got to work and all went to their stations. 

"Hey, Jack, who's that?" Crutchie pointed out two people they had never seen before; a taller boy and a kid who appeared to be his younger brother.

"No clue," Jack shrugged, "they must be new," 

"Well, I guess we oughta welcome him to the team," Race chuckled, "it'd be my honor to personally mentor him," 

"Okay," Jack agreed, "but be nice, don't scare him away," 

"I won't," Race walked over to where the new kids were, "hello,"

"Hi," The tall boy replied, "do we need to sign up to work or..." 

"Nah, just grab a maul or a wheelbarrow and get working," Race shook his head, "I'm Race, by the way," 

"I'm Les, and this is my older brother, Davey," the younger kid smiled.

"Les, why don't you go get a wheelbarrow?" Davey suggested.

"But I want to chop the wood," Les complained. 

"Sorry, it's too dangerous," Davey shook his head, "wheelbarrow,"

"Fine," Les groaned.

Davey went and got a maul for himself, and it was almost to heavy for him to use. The people around him were using the mauls so seamlessly, especially a boy who people called Jack. Davey a few times found himself fixated on the way Jack could basically split a log with one swing of the maul. 

"Davey, keep working," Les told him. Davey looked back at the piece of wood he was supposed to be chopping, but then his eye was caught by someone else. 

Crutchie was pushing a wheelbarrow back over to collect more wood, and Race noticed that Davey was watching. 

"How's it going, Dave?" Race asked. 

"Uh... what happened to that kid?" Davey briefly pointed to Crutchie.

"Oh... that," Race looked at the ground and shook his head, "well, you see Jack over there?"