AAAAAAAAAAAA OK I'M BACK

Sorry for the hiatus!! I'm back now!!

I'm currently recovering from top surgery!! I'm two weeks post-op :))

So needless to say, I'm very free to work on this story haha.

So let's resume this story! It's been awhile :)

This mayyyy kinda be a filler chapter but I think we all need it before we jump right back into the action. Besides, I think everyone deserves some fluff after the last thing you read.

Enjoy! :)

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Race does feel better after they visit Moretti's ristorante. Moretti was very concerned when Spot told him that Race wasn't feeling too good today (not that Race was quite ready for more people to know but he conceded that it was probably necessary if he wanted to feel better), and stuffed Race to the brim with pane, pasta, and more pane.

Then, after Race finished his plate, when he figured it was probably time for them to head out so Moretti could give their table away to a customer who will actually pay, Moretti comes back to them with a surprise.

A whole plate of cannoli.

Race's eyes go as wide as i piatti. "Cannoli?!"

"My new waitress ha arrivato di Sicilia. Alas, they may not taste like the ones from Sicilia, ma she taught me very well! Goderli! Enjoy!"

"Grazie mille, Moretti!" Race exclaims. Without further hesitation he grabs one and takes a bite, closing his eyes as he relishes the flavor.

Spot grins as he watches Race eat enthusiastically.

Moretti pats Spot on the shoulder. "Mangi anche tu, figlio."

You eat up as well, son.

Spot is more than happy to oblige.

He's not quite sure he has had cannoli before, but he's pretty sure these go under the "Italian dessert category" that Race praises so much, and well, Spot is not one to turn down any dessert. Especially not Italian desserts--postri Italiani.

Very curious, he takes his first bite, and his eyebrows shoot straight up.

Race notices and grins. "Good, yeah?"

Spot nods slowly, stunned. Through a mouthful of his first cannolo he tells Race, "you have got to get the recipe."

Race laughs and picks up his second cannolo. He holds it out to Spot like he's about to make a toast. "Cheers?"

Spot picks up a second cannolo. "Cheers."

And so they continue eating in comfortable silence broken every now and then by a "it's so good" / "I know, right?" , savoring every bite of their lovely cannoli.

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They ultimately agree to take it easy for the rest of the day.

"Makes no sense to charge ahead into something that requires our full energy and mental capacity if we aren't at our full energy and capacity?" Spot reasons.

Race blinks at him gratefully. "Can't argue with that logic."

Sure, he still feels a little guilty, and feels like they are "wasting the day."

"You are not wasting the day," Spot reassures him when Race voices his concerns. Then he adopts a more light-hearted tone. "Hey, we aren't in the dark ages no more, right? We ain't in no strike. There's no shame in not being able to seize every day."

Race chuckles. "It was really fun to seize the day though."

"Maybe it was, but you had to be ready to seize the day. Are you ready right now?"

"No."

"Exactly. So let's rest today instead."

"I still feel a little bad that we aren't taking advantage of every moment but resting sounds like a really good idea so I'm not gonna argue with you."

"I knew you'd come to see reason." Spot grabs Race's hand. "Now come on! We got some resting to do!"

And so Race laughs as he follows Spot, curious to find out where they were heading to do all this resting.

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As most things do, "taking time to rest" led them back to Brooklyn's docks.

And, as usual, the sun is setting.

Race and Spot sit on the edge of the pier, dangling their feet, fingers laced.

"You ever wanna go out further than we've ever gone before?" Race asks suddenly. "Like...beyond Brooklyn and Manhattan. And Queens and Long Island and the rest of the boroughs. Beyond New York. Maybe to the rest of America, but also to see Europe, and everywhere else on Earth."

"I think about it from time to time," Spot agrees. "It would be really cool to see what's out there."

"Right? Because it's just...there's gotta be more out there than this, you know?"

"Exactly. And as much as everyone wants to claim that New York is the best place to live, I ain't so convinced that there's not somewhere out there that might be better to live in."

"Mhm!" Race nods enthusiastically. "Every newspaper, every rich fella, everyone is trying to convince you that this is the best place to be. Well, why did people go west then? If everything we need is right here?"

"Where comes the need to explore at all, if everything is so great where you live?"

"Exactly!" Race is so glad he has someone like Spot. "If you don't like your environment, you change it. And if you can't change it, then you move and start anew."

"And that's what our ancestors did. My ancestors weren't content with where they were, so they came here, hoping for a better life."

"As did my family," Race states. "They believed what everyone says, that America is where dreams come true, that it's the promised land, that it's the best place to be who you want to be. And while I hear some not pretty things about other places, I can't help but wonder how much of that is truth and how much of that is exaggeration made up by rich folk to keep us here convinced that we are in the best place in the world."

"It would be cool to see for ourselves what the state of the rest of the world was in, and determine for ourselves where the best place to live is."

"I think that's an amazing way for us to determine where we want to be."

"Unfortunately, it costs money to go most places," Spot states sadly. "Prolly more than we can ever afford."

Race deflates, moving to lie on his back. "I know." He wishes that weren't true. However he can't deny it, although he wants to. 

Then he sits back up. "So then we have to be the ones to change our environment to how we want it to be."

Spot tilts his head at Race. "Hm?"

"Y-yeah-yeah!" his hands start flapping. "We can't move, so we have to be the ones to change our environment! Of course we can't change all of New York, but we can do the small things we promised Ray and Stargazer, Fabrizio and Emiliano, Andrea and Giacomo, and ourselves--that we are going to listen to everyone impacted by Them and help them however they need!"

Spot's lip twitches. "Now you've got me excited to start."

Race grins at Spot, twinkle in his eye. "So let's start tomorrow, shall we?"

"Can't think of a better way to spend tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan then." Race lays on his back, staring at the sky, waiting for the first star to poke through as the sunset will soon transition into night.

They sit in silence for a few moments, contemplating.

"Yaknow, I don't think either of us imagined this was how we were going to be spending our time when we agreed to start wandering after finishing being newsies," Spot muses. "Did you picture this?"

"I can't say I saw this coming. But actually? Helping people is actually the best way I can imagine spending our wandering time."

"I couldn't agree more."

Finally, a star makes its presence known.

Race points up to it. "That's Polaris. The North Star."

Spot lays down on this back to join Race. "Do you think it's guiding us on our quest? That it approves of us?"

Race grins. "Yeah. I like to think it does."

And so they fall back into silence, broken every now and then by pointing out a new star that appears, content to be in each other's presence, content with how they ended up spending the day.

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Awwwww that was so sweet.

What did you think of that?!

"The American Dream" was a phrase coined in 1931 but the ~idea~ of the American Dream has existed since America began, so they couldn't quite use that exact phrase but they still knew the concept.

I think we all needed that as a little breather.

Gosh I'm so happy that my creativity is back.

I have like, a little over a month before summer camp begins, so hopefully I can wrap up this story in a month, but we'll see!! (I can't believe I wrote the first book of this in a month and three days. Especially since it was 59 parts and had notoriously long chapters. I still don't know how I did it).

So I just came back from another ten weeks traveling. And I wish traveling was something that everyone could be able to do. If you guys want recommendations of gap year programs where you can travel the world (that offer scholarships), let me know, I know a few now.

So cannoli are a Sicilian dessert and they are SO GOOD. OH MY GOSH CANNOLI ARE SOME OF THE BEST THINGS I'VE EVER EATEN. I miss cannoli so much. I thought Sprace deserved some.

Yeah, I have very few extra things to note down for this chapter haha. I'm just glad that I'm writing again. Do I have everything planned out? No, I absolutely do not haha. I have an outline for the next few chapters, *concepts* of what's next, and ~ideas~ about the ending, so we'll all find out together :)

Please, no homophobia/transphobia/aphobia, profanities directed at other users, hate etc in the comment section at all times.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who is listening to their wonderful cat purr beside them)