This story was written for the Newsies Pape Selling Competition.

Word count: 2349

Task: your newsies meet in a movie theater

Prompt: Dialogue-"This shouldn't be possible."

Newsie pair used: Les meets Les

I used a modern-day movie theater, which was fun for me since I usually write in cannon era. Enjoy!

"Save your popcorn, Les!" Davey groaned.

Les looked up guiltily, a handful of buttery popcorn halfway to his mouth. "Idoewanna! Ihtoogoob!" A few kernels fell on the floor.

"If you eat it all before the previews even start, you'll get a stomachache," Davey said. "And swallow before you talk," he added, frowning. "I can't understand a word you're saying."

Les chewed ferociously and then gulped. "I said, I don't wanna. It's too good." He took several big gulps of his large soda, which was already half empty. Davey sighed, staring wistfully at his own medium bucket of popcorn, which he always saved religiously until the movie started.

Les kept eating. "When's it gonna start, Davey, when?" he asked.

Davey looked at his watch. "About five more minutes. Won't you just save your popcorn? You're going to regret eating it all right now."

"I'm not eating it all," Les said through another mouthful. He tilted his bucket towards Davey. "See? There's still a lot in there."

"If you say so." Davey gave up.

Les had reason enough to be excited. They rarely went to the movies; Les hadn't been to the cinema for years. Their parents were strict about not giving them money for recreation since they'd gotten their paper routes, so when Les came home from school begging Davey to take him to the newest popular sci-fi movie that everyone had seen but him, Davey suggested they save up their money. The paper route meant they had to wake up before dawn to make their way down the street, throwing a newspaper on the porch of each house in their neighborhood, but the cash in what Les dubbed "The Movie Jar" was worth it. They were allowed an entire Saturday afternoon to spend their earnings, and the first place Les wanted to go was the cinema, as planned.

So here they were. Les had just shoved another handful of popcorn in his mouth and frowned because his fingers had scraped the bottom of the tub when the big screen lit up and the first previews began. Les grinned, several pieces of popcorn fell out of his mouth. He'd forgotten how awesome the surround-sound was.

The first trailer finished with a series of explosions that made Les's teeth vibrate. He suddenly realized he had to go to the bathroom, and poked Davey as he stood up. Davey nodded dismissively and Les hurried down the aisle and out of the dark theatre, trying not to bounce around too much. His bladder felt as if it was going to burst-what was it about soda at the movies that made a person have to go right away?

In the restroom, he did his business as quickly as he could and rinsed his hand, not bothering to use soap. No one else was in the bathroom.

That is, he thought no one else was in the bathroom.

But when Les looked up, he saw a very familiar person standing behind him. The figure was slowly peeking out of a stall. Les froze, staring at the mirror. The person paused. Their eyes met.

The boy looked just like Les.

Sure, he was a little dirtier; he was wearing old, torn clothes, and his hair was shaggy, but the resemblance was astounding. Les turned around and clutched the sink behind him. The two boys stared at each other.

Then the dirty boy spoke. "You look a lot like me."

Les laughed. "Yeah." Even their voices were similar.

"Can you help me?" The boy seemed frightened. "I don't know where I am. I've been hiding in here..."

"What happened to you?" Les's eyes suddenly widened. "Did you run away?" It was the only conclusion he could come to based off the other boy's appearance.

"N-no. I was just..." He scrunched up his nose. "I can't remember. I just need to get back home."

"Whaddya mean, you don't remember?" Les asked.

"I mean, I can't remember how I got here. The last thing I remember is-I don't know, maybe this is just a dream!"

"It's not a dream for me," Les said.

"Is this..." The other boy was staring around. He jumped suddenly; the automatic paper towel dispenser had just gone off though no one was near it. The boy looked as if he'd never seen such an invention in his life. "...is this the future?"

"I don't know." Les frowned. "It's not the future for me."

"Well, when is it?"

"What?"

"I mean what's the year here?"

Les raised an eyebrow. "What year should it be?"

"1899, ain't it?"

Les's jaw dropped. "Not here!" he exclaimed. "What's going on?"

"I dunno. I just gotta get back to my mother and dad and Davey and-"

"Davey?!" Les nearly shouted. "My brother's name is Davey!" He ran to the door, peeked out to make sure no one was coming, and ran back to the boy. "Who are you?" he asked incredulously.

"I'm Les. I'm a newsie."

Les buried his face in his hands. How was this possible? Something weird was going on. "My name is Les, too." The newsie Les was silent, and the present-day Les looked up. "This shouldn't be possible."

"It shouldn't be, but it's happening."

"What're we gonna do...Les?"

"I dunno, but I gotta get back home, Les!"

Present-day Les smiled mischievously. "Don't you wanna see some stuff? It's not every day you get to see the future."

The other Les considered for only a moment. "Sure. As long as you help me figure out a way to get back to 1899."

"No problem. You ever seen a movie on the big screen, Les?"

The theatre was dark, so Davey couldn't see the resemblance between the two boys. Les whispered to his older brother that he'd met one of his "school friends" on the way back from the bathroom who was also going to the movie. Davey didn't mind the other boy sitting with them, and Les was just glad he didn't ask questions.

The movie was action-packed and filled with futuristic guns, spaceships, and jet-packs. There was a subtle love story, but Les thought it was stupid and therefore ignored it. The romance wasn't what everyone at school was talking about anyway. The excitement was all about the hero's awesome powers and his twenty-minute fight with the monster at the end. At first, the past-Les clutched the arms of his chair whenever there was a particularly loud explosion, but as the movie progressed, he got almost as into it as present-Les. As the credits began to roll, present-Les began to wonder how Davey was going to react when he realized who this other boy was. He pulled the other Les to his feet and handed his empty popcorn and soda to Davey. "I'll be right back, uh, we gotta go to the bathroom again."

"I do too, wait for me."

"No!" Les bit his lip. "I meant...actually we gotta go...meet his parents!" he explained. The other les nodded eagerly. "I'll meet you at the front door, Davey!" Les called, pulling past-Les after him as he ran out of the theatre. "We gotta hurry!"

The past-Les sniffed.

"Hey, are you okay?"

He wasn't crying. "Yeah. It's just weird seeing my brother...er, your brother...I don't know. It's weird seeing Davey here and not being able to say anything...he doesn't even know me here."

"Hey. It's okay. We'll get you back to your Davey as soon as possible." He laughed. "You know what else is weird? Talking to a past version of myself."

The 1899-newsie-Les laughed too. "Yeah. That too."

They didn't know where to start, so they decided to go to the first place Les remembered being-the bathroom. "Which stall?"

"This one. I woke up sitting against the toilet."

"Gross."

"It was."

"I bet. Maybe we could flush you down the toilet." Les flushed the toilet to demonstrate. The past-Les flinched.

"Maybe not..."

"Um..."

"I just wish I could...wait!" Past-Les ran a hand through his hair. "I just remembered...it's like a dream..." There were several posters of old movies taped to the inside of the stall door. "I've seen this poster before!" He pointed. "Well, it wasn't exactly like this. It was a drawing my friend Jack made-"

"You know Jack too?!"

"-of-hey, yeah, I do! But he drew something just like this! A fella jumping into the air, holding a pape..."

Present-day Les clapped a hand over his mouth. The title of the old movie was "Newsies", and the poster had begun to glow. In one motion, the two Les's pressed their hands against the poster.

"Les? Are you up there?" A very familiar voice woke Les out of his daze. They were on a rooftop, in a place Les would have never recognized as New York unless he'd scene a picture in his history book. The other Les was right next to him. "That's Jack-I remember now! I came up here to look through his drawings."

"He doesn't like that," Les found himself saying.

"I know. That's why I was being sneaky about it...and I found that picture that was on the poster."

"And you touched it."

"And then I woke up..."

"...in the bathroom at the movie theatre."

"You gotta go back before Jack gets up here."

"I know." Present (or future, now) Les sighed. He looked over the edge of the railing. "This is just so cool."

"You need to get back."

"You got to spend two hours in my time...I want to spend some time here." Both the Les's could be stubborn when they wanted to.

Les grabbed his double's hand and pressed it against Jack's drawing.

Nothing happened.

"It's not glowing!" Les grinned; the other Les's eyes widened. Jack's footsteps were becoming audible on the stairs. "Now I have to stay for a while."

"You need to hide from Jack."

"Why? I wanna meet him."

"No, he's gonna go crazy if he sees us!"

"Well...okay. Fine, I guess you're right."

"There's a ladder-" Les led the other Les to the edge of the roof. "You think you can hang onto the rungs until Jack goes away?"

"Sure." Les swung a leg over the railing.

"Hurry!"

"Les? Who are you talking to?"

Jack opened the door to the rooftop. He expected to see Les and someone else, but he only saw Les, frantically trying to pick up Jack's drawings, which were spread all over the roof.

"Sorry!" Les said convincingly. "They just got knocked over!"

Jack snorted. "Sure they did. Why were you up here anyway?"

"No reason," Les said, shrugging. Jack didn't believe him, but he didn't push it. Easier to just laugh it off.

"Hah, sure. Who were you talking to anyway?"

"Just myself. Telling myself to hurry, you know. I thought you'd be mad."

"I ain't, not now anyway. Well, hurry, before I get mad. Davey's waiting for you to go home."

"Aw, Jack, can't we stay a little longer?"

"Don't ask me, kid." Jack tousled Les's hair. "Now hurry. If I find one of those drawings out of place, I ain't gonna be happy." He left, shaking his head and grinning.

Future-Les climbed back into the roof. "That was Jack."

"I know."

"I wanna go back now."

Les set the picture that had allowed them to travel through time on top of the pile. It still wasn't glowing. "You can't yet. I bet you have to spend as much time here as I spent in your time."

"Oh. Well, how about you show me around then?"

"Okay. But first I gotta lose Davey. Then we'll go do something fun."

Les watched from the shadows as the other Les spoke to his older brother. It was so strange to see Davey in such old tattered clothing that he was in shock when his double came back. After that they were able to enjoy scampering around the city. Les was amazed at how much New York had changed in a little more than a hundred years. He was amazed at how cheap everything was. He felt like laughing at the dresses ladies were walking around in, but he didn't. Everything seemed so dirty, but Les didn't care. It was too incredible to see everyday life in 1899.

All too soon, the two hours were up. "I gotta get home and eat dinner anyway. Let's go get you back, quick." Newsie-Les started back towards the Lodging House.

The other Les followed, beginning to think about what was going on back in his own time. Was Davey missing him? Had any time passed at all? He was sad to leave, but worries began to creep into his mind. What if he couldn't get back? What if he was stuck in 1899 forever? How could he live, hiding from people he knew but didn't know him?

But all his worries were unfounded. As soon as they climbed back on the rooftop, they could see the drawing glowing.

"Well, see you around."

"I guess. It was nice meeting you...Les."

"It was almost like meeting myself."

"It was exactly like meeting myself."

"Yeah." Les adjusted his suspenders. The other Les knew that in his own time, such suspender straps would be considered an oddity, but here they were the norm.

They shook hands.

Then Les pressed his hand against Jack's drawing of a newsie jumping in the air and was pulled back to the future.

Les was sitting on the cold tile floor, leaning against...a toilet?

He was back.

"Les?"

He stood up and opened the stall door. Davey was entering the bathroom. "I looked everywhere for you and that other kid...what did you say his name was?"

Les hesitated.

Davey didn't wait for an answer. "His parents must have been right outside, huh?"

"You...you weren't looking too long, were you?"

"Nah, just a minute or two. What were you doing? Why are your shoes so dirty?"

Les looked down. His shoes were dusted with dirt off a street from 1899.

"Oh...they were, um, dirty before. Come on, let's go, Davey."

"Okay, Les."