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Jack Kelly didn't want to admit it to anyone, but he hated having to work alone. He was one of the younger newsies at the moment, only just turning ten years old. It worked in his favor, his age and his boyish charm, making it quite easy to sell his newspapers. At that moment, he was walking back to Newsies Square to ask if he could get more papers from Weasel, when he heard crying from a back alley. Jack moved a pile of cardboard to see a small boy leaning on a makeshift crutch. The kid looked about eight, with tangled blond hair and a leg that was poorly wrapped by a piece of cloth. The boy's leg appeared not to be working. Oh! That explains the crutch! Jack thought to himself.
"Hey, Crutchie," Jack knelt down to the little boy. "Ya alright?" The boy looked at him. His hazel eyes were glossy, and his face was red from crying.
"My name ain't Crutchie." The boy whispered. "Its Andrew." Jack laughed.
"Whadeva your name is, ya alright?" Andrew shook his head.
"I wanna go home." The boy's voice cracked. Jack wrapped his arm around the boy's small body. Andrew flinched at Jack's touch, but he didn't pull away.
"Where's home anyway?" Jack asked. He could see Andrew's tears hit the ground.
"I ain't got one no more." He replied softly. Jack lifted Andrew to his feet. Andrew's left leg wouldn't move, so he kept his arm around Jack.
"How bout ya come to mine." Jack smiled, leading the younger boy to the lodging house. Jack explained being a newsy to Andrew, who looked excited to work.
"Could I sell with ya?" Andrew asked.
"Yeah sure, kid." Jack didn't who was more relieved about them working together, Andrew or himself.
Andrew was a slow mover, but Jack couldn't blame him. By the time the two had gotten to the lodging house, some of the others had already gotten home. Jack was quickly met up by Race, the only other newsy his age.
"Hey, Jackie!" Race said excitedly. He nodded towards Andrew. "Who's this? New kid?"
"Race, meet An-"
"I'm Crutchie." The boy interrupted, shaking hands with Race. Jack grinned.
Okay, so this little fanfic is dedicated to TeamJacob1998, who came up with the idea for this story for me. Anyway, here's my little one-shot just giving my explanation of how Jack and Crutchie had met. Please review! As always, if you have any ideas for any one-shot ideas or any ideas for future chapters for my longer stories, please let me know! Newsies forever, second to none!
PS: You may not have noticed it, but the die hard fans (like me) will. Did you catch Crutchie's real name? ;-D I did that on purpose!
