The four of us walked down the streets of Brooklyn. Now I've been to Brooklyn before; not your average friendly place. But where in New York City is friendly?

"So here's the plan." Jack said.

"I'm listening."

"We get Spot and the gang to join us in the strike.  Kylie, yous can probably handle that the best.  He won't listen to me and he don't know Dave and Les so you go for it."

"Sure thing."

"Alright lets go."

We walked down the street and turned the corner to find the building of their hideout.

• • •

"Is anyone else coming?" I asked, leaning against the gates the next morning.

"I dunno." Jack replied, slipping his hat back over his messy hair.

"Didn't yous see Spot Conlon?" Race asked.

"Yeah him and 'bout 20 of his gang."

"And?"

"He seemed quite impressed." Davey commented.

"Sooooo. . ." Race persisted.

"Well it depends on the way you look at it." Davey continued, "If you see Brooklyn, then yes they're with us."

All of the boys tilted their heads as if small puppies in confusion.

"They wanna know that we're not gon' leave at the first sight o' trouble." Jack muttered.

"Are we?" Finch asked.

"No! There's us, we got Harlem-"

"Hold up boss." Mush said, "Harlem is waiting fo' a signal from Brooklyn."

"Well we have Quee-"

Specs ran up to the gates, "Queens will be right behind us backing us up."

"Good." Jack said.

"-Right as soon as they know what Brooklyn's doing."

Jack groaned and lightly banged his head against the gates.

"I got the same answer from Midtown." Race said.

"Well lookie here Oscar. Someone told me there'd be a strike today. Guess we got some misinformation since these suckers are back." Morris snickered, walking up to the gate, "I guess my skull-bustin' arm could use a rest anyways."

"Are we doing the right thing?" Les whispered, eyes wide.

"Sure we are." Davey said putting a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Maybe we should put this off a few days. . ." Race mumbled.

"What? No!" Jack went over to Davey, "Say something! You gotta convince 'em!"

"Maybe we just won't show up fo' work?" Finch suggested.

"They'll just replace us!" I said, throwing my hands in the air, frustrated.

Jack gave Davey a pleading look. Davey sighed before walking over and putting his hands on Finch's shoulders.

"Have you ever heard of Carpe Diem?"

"Carpe what-em?"

"Seize the Day."

"I have now."

"See? That's what we have to do!" Davey said turning back to the other boys.

"Hey guys!" Crutchie came over and waved his crutch in the air that now had a small banner on it with the word strike written on it, "Strike! It's good isn't it?"

"It's great!" Race said before turning back to us, "It's pitiful." He said quietly, shaking his head.

"Well don't be so quick to judge.  Maybe Pulitzer will see if from his window and feel sorry for us?" Les said.

Jack looked up where Specs sat ontop of the gate, looking out.

"Specs! Any signs of reinforcements?"

Specs shook his head and gave a thumbs down.

Jack sighed and just rubbed a hand over his face, "Davey keep pep talkin."

"We have to have courage! We have to face our fears! We can't just give up to them, can we? All safe and mighty in their buildings while we all sleep on the streets!" Davey said.

"And all those other newsies? Who aren't able to make it to this strike?" Jack joined in, "Maybe they need the pay too badly, even if it's jus' scraping by on pennies! Well them? They're still our brothers.  We still fight fo' them too."

"And you know what?" Jack continued, looking around at us, "This strike-- it's gonna start.  It's gonna start right damn now!"

"Well the sun is up. It's a beautiful day to crack some heads."

We all turned to see Weasel at his normal spot, staring at us, "You payin' or you leavin?"

"Yeah, are ya workin' or trespassing?" Morris sneered.

A couple newsies we'd never seen came walking up, quickly giving Weasel their money and collecting their papers.

"Who the hell are they?!" Race asked.

"They're scabs what'dya think?!" Jack said.

"They think they can just walk in and take our jobs?!" Buttons asked.

"Well if we're on strike-- they're technically not our jobs anymore. . ." I said.

"Lets soak 'em!" Albert yelled.

"Wait wait!" Davey shouted, jumping in front of us all, "If we soak 'em, how are we any better than Pulitzer himself? It's all of us together or nothing!"

Jack walked up to the kids who stood nervously clutching their papers, "Listen fellas, I'll betcha Pulitzer put yous up to this.  Maybe he said he'd pay ya some more.  But whatever he's doing is not right.  And we all need to be treated as equals.  If we fight against eachother, what good will it do?"

"Please?" Les said.

The Newsies looked from one to another before the oldest stepped forward.  Jack took a slight step back.

"I'm with you!" The boy threw his stack of papers down and shook Jack's hand.

We all watched the other two scabs expectantly.

The youngest followed, grinning and shaking Jack's hand.

"Are you kidding?!" The last one asked.

"At the end of the day, who yous gonna trust?" The second one asked, "Them?" He pointed to all of us before pointing back to Weasel and Morris, "Or them?!"

The last kid stood there, contemplating.  His brows knit in concern as he looked from us to Morris and Weasel's hard glares. He walked up to Jack.

"Ah what the hell! My father's gonna kill me anyways!" He threw down his papers and all of us cheered.

We saw Katherine walk around the corner, flipping through her notes as she led a guy with a camera.  She looked up and grinned, motioning to us.

"We're gonna be in the papes!" Race yelled excitedly, running over to Katherine.  We all followed, cheering and jumping around.

Katherine gathered us all into one space before stepping back to the camera guy.  He clicked the camera and it went off with a flash.

"Guys watch this!" Jack took a newspaper and ripped it apart, throwing it in the air like confetti.

We all grabbed newspapers off of the stand as Weasel yelled at us.  We were enjoying this too much to care.  Les and I ripped up papers, laughing and throwing the little pieces at eachother and getting little shreds of paper stuck in our hair.  I took another paper before stepping into one of the stacks of newspapers.  I ripped it up and threw it over Davey's head as Les laughed.  Davey turned around quickly.

"Come back here!"

I grinned, running in a sprint down the street, "You'll never catch me!"

Davey quickly caught up, grabbing me by the waist and spinning me around in the air.

"Stop it!" I laughed, "Stoooooop!"

But then we did stop.  Every single one of us stopped dead in our tracks.  Because a loud whistle blew, screeching through the air.

Lmao cliffhangers you're welcome guys😊😂😂