Strike

The World Will Know

"Aw man, 'em fire sirens kept me awake all night," Race complained. It was another morning and all the newsies were dead beat tired. If the Summer heat wasn't already bad enough, the headline from the day before was so bad that they barely had anything to work with, and on top of everything else, the sirens were waling through the air all, night, long. Leaving a bunch of teenage boys, and girl, very cranky the following morning.

"Sirens are like lullabies ta me," Mush said in a matter of fact tone. "The louder they wale the better the headline, the better the headline the I eat, and then I eat-"

"The further away from you I sleep," Feister snapped while knocking Mush's cap off. For some odd reason she decided to sleep in her old bunk last night. But, then again, she was pretty out of it, and when she's tired she never makes the best choices.

Mush then knocked her cap off as well, making both her braids fall down. She rolled her eyes and went to pick up her cap that had landed on top of his. Mush went to grab his as well, leading them to touch hands, they both froze and started to blush. Pretending that nothing was even happening they both quickly picked up their caps, only to realize that they had the others. Blushing even more they handed each others cap back before turning their backs to each other.

Crutchie, Race, and Henry, all smirked at Feister (who was tucking her braids in her cap) with a knowing look in their eyes. Feister gave them her best glare, but the three boys kept the wide grins on their faces. On the other side Albert, Jojo, and Romeo were also smirking. Mush rolled his eyes since he knew what they were thinking.

"Morning everybody," Davey said as he walked in with Les in hand. "Sorry we're late, we had to help our mom with something," he quickly apologized.

"Oh they got a mudda?" Race asked. "I was gonna get me one." he then stuck his cigar in his mouth and smirked.

"What'd ya do with the one you had?" Romeo asked with a confused look.

"He traded her for a box of cigars," Buttons explained while pointing to Race with his thumb.

"Hey! They's was coronas," Race replied while pointing a finger at Buttons' chest.

"We have a father too," Les added happily, with a smile on his face. The almost ten year old was then met with a few moments of silence. If it wasn't already obvious, a lot of them had been fending for themselves since they were little kids. Some of the newsies' parents died, others weren't so nice to them, and the rest probably had nice folks, but they ran away because money was tight, or for other reasons. It wasn't uncommon to have two or more newsies to have a similar backstory.

"A madda an' a fudda?" Feister asked in shock while resting her elbows on her knees as she looked at the two newbies. 

"Ain't we the hoi ploy today," Race added with a little smirk.

"So how's it going today?" Les asked changing the subject.

"Ask me after they put up the headline kid," Romeo replied in an obvious tone. If there was one thing that could brighten up any newsies day, it would be a good headline they could actually hawk.

"Here comes the headline!" Les yelled while pointing to the chalkboard. Albert was the first to look up at the headline, and when he saw it he couldn't believe his eyes. "New newsies price? sixty cents per hundred!"

"What'd ya say?" Mush asked while quickly standing up before walking up next to Albert, along with the rest of the boys, and Feister.

"Is that news?" Davey asked. In all truths he didn't really know what was considered news to the newsies, but if it was making them this riled up then it had to be news....right?