Time Truly Divides || Newsies Time Travel AU

Chapter 4

TW: Abuse

Things were not as pleasant as they had been in the hospital. Jack learned that quickly.

Mr. Snyder wasn't Jack's immediate thought of caring. Maybe it was normal for parents to be physical with their parenting methods. Jack couldn't really remember a time when his father had ever hit him but maybe his father was just different to most other parents.

"Francis." Jack was fed up of being called that. "Did you take the trash out?"

"No, I'm sorry. I don't get the homework and I was trying and I forgot."

"Why can't you get it?" Snyder criticised. "You're a grade behind your age group and you're already falling behind after a week. How stupid are you?"

Jack felt his eyes start to well up and if anyone asked him if he wanted to curl in a ball and cry, he'd say no. He was used to being insulted and could take it, being called stupid just hit differently.

"It ain't like I've ever gone to school. The older boys taught he how to read and do basic math. That's it."

"You aren't a poor orphan boy from the 1890's," Snyder shouted, standing up from the couch and moving quickly across the room. He opened the off-white fridge door with a loud bang and grabbed out a bottle.

Jack knew that nothing good happened when he drank from those bottles.

"Get over yourself." Snyder's sentence was punctuated by a loud slap to Jack's right cheek. "You're lucky I took you in. You should be thanking me."

"Why? It ain't like you care about me."

"Talk properly." Snyder slapped Jack on the other cheek.

He was quite considerate like that, giving Jack a slap on either cheek so they matched.

"Go do your homework and if I hear any complaining there'll be trouble."

Jack stalked back to his bedroom. It was tiny, his bed was as long as the room. A tall wardrobe and a small chest of drawers took up the opposite wall.

There wasn't enough room for a desk. Snyder said he didn't need one. He wasn't smart enough to be doing any real work.

The floor was comfortable enough for doing homework. It was carpeted and Jack could imagine what life was like for an ant while he was down that low.

After a few hours of trying to do homework on topics he'd never heard of before a few days prior, he fell asleep on his books.

~~~

The next morning, Jack was woken by Snyder banging on his door. During the night, he'd rolled over so his pages of homework were crumpled.

"I'm up," he called out, scrambling to his feet.

"School starts in thirty minutes. You better get moving or else."

Jack stood up with a groan and assessed his clothes from yesterday. His black jeans had some fluff in them that could be brushed off. All he needed to do was put on a different sweatshirt to make it look like he changed clothes. Granted, it wasn't like he had many other clothes to change info.

Snyder had bought him two pairs of jeans, three t-shirts and two sweatshirts. Apparently that was all he needed. It was far more than he'd had back in the Lodging House.

"Get moving, boy. I don't wanna see or hear about you 'til you're done with school."

"Yes, sir," Jack mumbled. He picked up his bag from beside the bed and swung it onto his back.