Newsies: The Movie

Chapter 5

Crowd chattered and cheered, the people gathered around a fighting rink.

A man punched another one in the face, the latter letting out a grunt before going down.

The crowd cheered and shouted.

"Extra, extra!" Davey called over the chaos. "Trolley strike drags on!"

"Extra, extra!" Jack called behind the boy, holding up his own paper. "Ellis Island in flames! Big conflagration!"

"Hey, what? Wait. Where's that story?"

A man called to Jack, the boys turning around and exchanging a penny for the paper. "Thank ya, sir."

The boy turned to David. "Page nine. Thousands flee in panic!"

"Hey, here ya go."

"Thank ya, much obliged to ya. Ladies."

"'Trash fire next to immigration building terrifies seagulls'?" David read in confusion.

"Terrified flight from inferno! Thousand of lives at stake! Thank you, sirs."

"Up here, up here!"

"At the top." Jack through the paper after the man tossed a coin his way. "Extra, extra! Thank ya, sir. Extra, extra!" Les walked up to him and Jack pulled him towards him. "Hey, ya start in da back like I told ya?" the boy nodded. "'Kay, show 'e again."

Les couched into his hand pitifully, and said in a British accent, "Buy me last pape, mista?" he couched into hid fist.

Jack let out a laugh. "It's heartbreakin'." he oushed a paper into the boys' chest. "Go get 'em."

David stared at him as Les walked away. "My father taught us not to lie."

"Yeah, well, mine told 'e not ta starve, so we both got an education."

David scoffed. "You're just makin' up things, all these headlines."

Jack looked at him. "I's don't do nothin' da guys that right it don't do. Anyway, it ain't lyin'. It's just improving da truth a little."

A man started dinging the bell with a small mallet, signaling the next round as a old man held up a sign that said Round fifty-eight, making the crowd boo.

Les came back up to them through the crowd. "The guy gave me a quarter!" he turned to Jack, who took the quarter from the boys' hand. "Quick, give me more of those papers."

David put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Wait, wait, hold on."

He knelt down to the shorter boys' level, sniffing.

"You smell like beer."

Jack made a face similar to someone seeing someone else get into trouble.

"Oh, that's how I made the quarter. The guy bet me I wouldn't drink some."

David's look slowly went to Jack, who let out a short laugh.

"Hey, no drinkin' on da job, 's bad fo' business. I mean, what if somebody called a cop on you?"

David looked around the crowd, seeing someone staring at them. He pointed to him.

"Is he a friend of yours?"

Jack got up and looked around the crowd, spotting a man.

His eyes widened, and he started pushing David in the chest to run.

"Beat it! It's da bulls!"

Jack looked over and saw some men coming, so he ran towards the fighting rink, ducking under the ropes as a whistle blew.