Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies

Why the idea of holding study hall in the auto shop classroom ever seemed like a good idea was beyond Anthony 'Racetrack' Higgins. The sounds coming from the garage adjoining the classroom made it impossible to study. And of course the teacher was almost always absent as he preferred to spend his time helping those kids fortunate enough to have cars do maintenance. So the students were left to their own devices which basically consisted of doing anything but studying.

"Look who came back from juvey," Alex muttered when Sean Conlon walked in the room and tossed his hall pass onto the empty teacher's desk before taking a seat. Race didn't need to look. Every inch of his body knew that Sean had just entered the room. Just like every inch of him knew Sean had been gone for two weeks, three days, and 13 hours. But rather than admit that Race tried to appear as interested as possible while Alex applied midnight blue polish to her nails.

"Christ, just go talk to him," she told him without looking up. "And quit breathing heavy in my ear and shit."

"I can't," Race answered shortly. "It ain't that easy."

"Sure it is," Alex told him. She capped the nail polish and blew on her nails as she turned in her seat.

"Don't even think about it," Race interrupted. He didn't dare look over his shoulder to see if Sean had noticed. He probably hadn't as Race knew perfectly well that the most likely scenario was that Sean was either already asleep at his desk or scowling at the clock as if that would make time move any faster.

"Race, how long have I known you?" Alex asked.

"Since second…"

"Right, since second grade. And in all that time I've never seen you back down from anything. So stand up, go over there, and talk to him." She grinned broadly. "Or do more than talk. He's very good at what he does."

Race frowned down at the notebook in front of him. "I can't believe you slept with my crush."

"Oh, give it a rest. It was a one-time thing and it was two years ago, I might point out," Alex explained. "At least I've talked to him. Although, there was very little talking involved."

She nudged his shoulder jokingly but Race was in no mood. "How do I even know how he'll react? What if I go over there and he tells me to fuck off?"

"Fine, we'll just keep sitting here until the bell rings and then you can run off and waste another whole day pretending not to notice him. Good plan."

"I'm serious, Alex." Race rubbed the palms of his hands on his jeans and the smile faded from Alex's face as she looked at him.

"Like I said, if you never talk to him, you're never gonna know. If he tells you to fuck off, then screw him. Not literally. You're a decent guy, Race. He'd be lucky," Alex told him. She uncapped the bottle of nail polish and went back to work.

"Maybe tomorrow."

Author's Note: Well, that was a little silly but sometimes you just need a break from doom and gloom :-) Just wanted to also say that I tend to go by the popular idea of Spot's real name being Sean (in more modern-ish stories) but feel free to change it to whatever you life. After all, Spot doesn't belong to me ;-) Enjoy and as always reviews are welcome and appreciated! Thank you! (oh, and this is my first ever time writing slash so I hope it wasn't too terrible! There are some really wonderful slash authors out there so please read and review their pieces...they are amazing!)