NOTE: I do not own any characters from Newsies. They belong to Walt Disney. I only own Mr. Fuzzlekins.
A Very Newsies Christmas
In Manhattan, a light snow was falling. Well, it wasn't remarkably light, but not too heavy, either. Basically, it was a perfect winter snow. In the Newsboys Lodging House, the newsies of NYC were busily preparing for the next day – Christmas.
Jack 'Cowboy' Kelly had gotten a little too addicted to eggnog, and was now stumbling around the room, singing a very off-key "Santa Fe" at the top of his lungs. Sarah Jacobs, the sister of his best friend Davey, was staring at him with a blank look on her face. Not a thing going on in that head of hers. When Jack stopped singing, flopping into a nearby chair, Sarah just giggled quietly and said in a monotone, "I should get ready for work."
Her younger brother Les rolled his eyes, and continued to practice sword fighting with the air. In order to make it more festive, Les had painted his wooden sword with red and white stripes, making it look like a giant, odd-shaped candy cane. His fellow newsie Bumlets had done the same thing with his stick. Speaking of the stick, nobody really knows the origins of it. Not even his friends, the newsies.
Bumlets was currently spinning around on a ceiling fan. He was dressed in his almost-complete Santa Claus costume. The missing item? A hat. Unknown fangirls had stolen it in order to expose his luscious black hair. As he twirled about madly, he narrowly avoided kicking Mush and Kid Blink in the face as the two shared a glass of eggnog. A little bit spilled on Mush's shirt, and he began to cry, but Blink comforted him by saying they had some extra stain remover in storage. With a sniffle, Mush went back to drinking some more eggnog.
Racetrack walked in with a bit of a grim expression on his face. "Davey wanted me to help him get into his costume," he said, sitting to Blink's left. He looked up briefly as Jack began to sing quietly, getting the words wrong. "You'll never believe what he's wearing."
"Dave, you almost done getting dressed?" called Blink, and Racetrack lightly slapped him in the face.
"Don't encourage him, Kid," said Race. "It'll only make the situation worse."
Of course, as Racetrack hit Blink, more eggnog spilled onto Mush's shirt, and by now he was starting to cry rather hard. With a sigh, Blink began to calm him down.
"You have more than one shirt, y'know," he said desperately. "Besides, it won't even stain that much."
But Mush was still crying. After a few more minutes, Blink turned to Race and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. "Help me, Race! I need some help!"
Racetrack removed Blink's hands from his shoulders. "All right, I'm not deaf!" he snapped. "Jeez, Blink, you're turnin' into-"
He was interrupted by Boots poking his head into the room and clearing his throat. The other newsies silenced. Jack had already silenced, as he was close to passing out.
"I'm proud to announce," he said unenthusiastically, "that David Jacobs is prepared to perform for us newsies in order to get us into holiday spirits."
David's hand reached over, holding mistletoe. "Put this on the doorway, Boots!" he ordered quietly.
With a sigh, Boots took the mistletoe and hung it over the door. Then he stepped into the room, while the other newsies – except for Race, who was doing a facepalm and shaking his head – watched the door with great curiousity.
Then David appeared.
He was in a white leotard and a matching tutu. And, of course, matching tights. On his curly, dark brown hair rested a silver tiara with a snowflake design. And, to top it off, he wore white point shoes…and carried a fairy wand in his hand.
"Tell me I'm seeing things," begged Spot Conlon, who appeared out of nowhere from his home territory, Brooklyn. "Just tell me I'm seeing things."
"Oh, but you aren't, Spot!" said David, bounding over. He tapped Spot on the head with his wand. "Can anyone guess who I'm supposed to be?"
He twirled around for effect. Les was staring at his older brother in horror, and Sarah was staring at him with the exact same expression on her face as before. The rest of the newsies basically shared an expression with Les – mouth open, eyes widened. Blink dropped the eggnog glass, breaking it and getting the drink all over Mush's boots, but Mush was too shocked to even start to sob.
"Boots, start the music, please," said Davey, and Boots started up a record that played music from The Nutcracker Suite. Then everyone realized that David was trying to be the Sugarplum Fairy.
He smiled, and began to prance around the room. Racetrack and Boots just watched, both thinking, This is so sad. He's crazy. Jack was currently humming along to the music, and still had his eyes closed.
On David's third lap around the room, he began to tap all of the newsies on their heads. He even tapped Sarah. Her eyes stayed where they were, looking up at where the wand had been. As David approached Spot(Brunette Spot, to be exact), Brunette shoved his blonde counterpart in front of him. Of course, the Sugarplum Fairy was careful to get both of them.
Mush screamed as soon as the wand touched his head. He barreled out of the room, as David began to sing with the music. "La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la," he said.
Kid Blink stood up and followed Mush, who appeared to be suffering from a nervous breakdown out on the sidewalk. He sighed, and grabbed Mush's shoulder, literally dragging him back to the sitting room.
"No, no, no!" cried Mush, trying to break Blink's grip.
"If we have to endure this nightmare, so do you," said Blink. When they returned, Davey had gotten a basket and was flinging fake snow on everyone.
The Brunette and Blonde Spots had decided enough was enough. They started using their slingshots, grabbing popcorn from the garlands on the tree and shooting them right at David. He just ignored the two. He was enjoying himself too much, and was trying to get everyone's spirits up.
Specs suddenly cried, "Hey, it took me hours to make that popcorn garland!" He and his best friend Dutchy began to protect the tree, which almost fell on Les. Les leapt out of the way, landing on Jack's lap, and then tumbling into Snipeshooter. Then everyone was fighting, trying to break up the argument between the Spots and the tree decorators. Race and Boots sat in the corner by the gramophone, trying to avoid looking at Davey.
The chaos – as well as his noticing the eggnog on his shoes – was enough to set Mush off into hysterical bawls. He ran around, waving his arms and wailing, only resulting in more pandemonium. Kid Blink sighed, gave up on Mush, and joined Racetrack and Boots in the corner.
Finally, the music ended. Davey had made it through the piece without any trouble, and stood in the center of everything. Bumlets was waving his stick around madly in panic, Les was waving his sword, the Spots and decorators were still trying to kill each other, Mush was still charging around the room, flailing his arms around in terror. Everything got worse when Jack stood up and began to sing "Santa Fe" again.
Bryan Denton and Mr. Kloppman walked in, surveying what was going on. Kloppman just left, wanting to avoid the situation, but Denton stayed behind to snap a few photos, ask a few questions, and scribble a few things down. Then he left to the safety of his home.
Finally, Crutchy walked in from a bit of shopping. He grinned at everything that was going on, and cleared his throat. The other newsies stopped everything.
"'Scuse me, everyone," he said. "I just have a few words to say."
He looked at the newsies, and Sarah, who all had their eyes boring into him. "What, you don't have a guess?"
"No," the others said in unison.
Crutchy giggled and said, "Never mind. I can tell you tomorrow."
Christmas morning began on a far more pleasant note. David – although wearing bunny slippers – was dressed in normal pajamas. There was a load of presents under the tree. Dutchy and Specs had been up half the night trying to repair it, and they smiled at their handiwork.
The newsies began ripping open presents. Jack had a bit of a headache, but was thrilled when he received a book entitled Santa Fe in Pictures. Sarah looked at her Complete Idiot's Guide to Not Being Stupid with a very confused expression on her face. She decided it was a hat, and placed it on her head as she opened her next gift. Of course, she didn't even notice when it fell off and landed on the floor behind her.
Race was overjoyed when he got some new dice and a new deck of cards. Blink got a spare eyepatch, as well as a list that the other newsies had compiled called What to Hide Behind Your Eyepatch. Mush got some stain remover – a last minute gift hastily purchased by the other two members of the Slap Pack – and a pair of new shoes with matching laces. When he got the shoes, he exclaimed, "A pair o' new shoes with matchin' laces!"
This caused the other newsies to burst into song. Bumlets was thrilled and ended the number by spinning once more on the ceiling fan, and then he sat back on the floor. The gift exchanges continued as if nothing had ever happened.
Both Spots got some real good shooters, and some new slingshots. Les received a bunch of gumdrops and licorice whips, as well as a brand new wooden sword. Snipeshooter got Havana cigars which, of course, cost a quarter. He and Boots(who had received a corduroy suit with fitted knickers) both showed each other their gifts, and the result was the newsies singing most of "King of New York" again.
David was plowing through his gifts at a remarkable speed. When he got to the last one, he said, "I'll bet I know what this is!"
He opened it, and found…
A scrapbook of him and his newsie pals.
"We all chipped in," said Jack. "We hope you like it."
Davey spent a few moments turning the pages, a look of awe on his face. Then he began to wail, and jumped up, hurling the book to the floor. "No fair!" he shouted. "No fair! I wanted a fuzzy little bunny! A FUZZY LITTLE BUNNY!"
By now, he was leaping up and down, having a full-out temper tantrum. The Slap Pack and Bumlets recognized his signature jumps, and Blink exclaimed, "Hey, he's doing the Bunny Hop!"
The newsies broke out singing again, but now it was "Seize the Day." They had to do a bit of improvising what with David in no condition to do his solo lines, but it went pretty well.
Still, the song did nothing to cheer up the newsies. Christmas was supposed to be a happy day, and David's disappointment and rejection of their special gift all got them down. They were silent as David continued to scream and cry. The only person in the room who wasn't bothered by Davey's outburst was, of course, Sarah.
Denton suddenly walked in. He obviously understood what had happened – David had confessed his love of bunnies only to Denton – and spotted a red and green striped box under the tree. It shook a little bit…ah, the gift Davey wanted.
"Wait, David!" said Denton, pulling the box out. "There's one more gift under the tree! And it has your name on it."
David froze and turned around, looking at the box. He heard the thumping noises inside, and shucked the wrapping paper at lightning speed. Inside was a cage with a little white baby bunny inside.
"Hooray!" he cried. "I'm going to name you Mr. Fuzzlekins!"
And so Christmas was perfect after all…David got his bunny, and most of the newsies got their desired gifts from "King of New York."
Crutchy ended the celebrations with his planned words:
"God bless us, every one."