It was Saturday night and the Newsies were bored. Race had no races to go to, and Bumlets was tired of spinning on the fan. Suddenly, Katherine came waltzing in. "Guess what guys? I found this old movie, it looks ancient. Should we try to watch it?" She was met with a couple half hearted yes's. "I'll make popcorn!" She offered.
Jack, David,and Les came strolling in through the front door. "What's goin' on guys?" He asked.
" Katherine wants to watch some dumb old movie", Mush replied.
"A movie? I want to watch a movie!" Les exclaimed.
Jack chuckled and patted Les on the head. "Maybe we should try it. What's it called?"
"Newsies"
"Newsies? But that's us!"
" Well do you want to watch it or not? It's not like we have anything else to do. And if I recall, this lovely lady offered to make popcorn." Jack persisted.
"You mean a movie night?"
"Yah! That's it. A movie night. All the newsies are invited."
" All of them?"
"Maybe just all of us that live at Kloppmann's place, and a couple of the Brooklyn newsies"
"What time?"
"Seven p.m. sharp."
"It's all set then. Da newsies meet at our place, at seven p.m. to watch Katherine's movie. Anybody got a problem with that?"
" No.."
"Alright then!"
"Me and Davy are gonna go grab more popcorn. We'll be back in 20 minutes."
Jack shouted to Katherine.
They stepped outside into a sunny, blue sky day. Birds chirped and flew by.
Jack stretched his arms and yawned, breathing in the clean summer air.
They walked to where Jack's car was waiting. Jack had a beautiful red mustang, complete with a white stripe running down the back. In the back was a small bumper sticker that proclaimed "Driving Until I Reach Santa Fe." Katherine had gotten it for him last Christmas and Jack had not had the heart to take it off, partly in fear that Katherine would notice and go ballistic.
Hopping into the car, they drove down to the local gas station with the roof down.
Jack handed David a pair of sunglasses and turned the radio to the country music.
" Country? Seriously?" David turned the knob until a local podcast came on.
"Well Ise like country music." Jack turned it back to country.
"Welll ISe like podcasts"
"Country"
"Podcast"
'"CounTRY"
"PODCAST"
"COUN-"
"Jack watch the road!" Jack swerved the car to the left, just in time to avoid a big black Jeep, slamming him and David against the side of the car. The radio station turned to Indie. "Do you like Indie music?"
"Sure"
They drove to the gas station uneventfully, just chatting, talking and listening to music.
Jack pulled into the gas station. Davy and him walked out into the store. They walked to the chip section. David glanced down at all of the different options. Sun chips, Doritos, Ruffles, and ... Act ll Popcorn! "Ise found the microwaveable popcorn!" David exclaimed at the same time Jack held up Orville Redenbacher's microwaveable popcorn. They were the same price. Jack stared at David, and David stared at Jack. Neither boy wanted to put his popcorn down. After a intense staring contest, Jack put his popcorn down. A little grumpy after, Jack insisted that he got to pick the type of candy to put in the popcorn, deciding on chocolate covered raisins and M&M's.
Driving back, both boys were satisfied with their choices.
Back at the lodging house Katherine was having the boys bring the TV to the main room. After multiple tries complete with Boots almost dropping his end, they managed to get it where they wanted. Kloppman stood in the background, shaking his head at the crazy teens.
Jack and David returned from their errand, and were greeted heartily. Crutchie wobbled over to Jack. "We're almos' ready, just waitin' for Spot and his crew." As if on cue, a knock signaled Spot Colon had arrived. Skittery grabbed the door. "Oh, It's just you" he muttered. Spot looked offended. "I'se the greatest newsie in all of New Yawrk and how do ya greet me? Oh it's jus' you."
"It's 'cause he's 'specting a pretty goil!" Mush piped up from the back of the room. Skittery shot him a death glare. Mush went silent.
"Alright let's start this thing!" Crutchie said, trying to avoid conflict. Katherine popped the disc into the DVD player.
The movie started with a bunch of boys hanging off the side of their beds and a old man began waking all the boys up.
Kloppman nodded his head at the guy waking all of the boys up. "It's a hard job." He thought.
The movie panned to the old man waking a boy with dark haired bangs up. " Is that su'posed to be you Jack?"
"I guess" Jack answered, transfixed on the screen.
" Youse rather ugly Jackie boy" Spot commented, and shoved his hand into the popcorn bowl. That earned a few guffaws from the other boys. Jack scowled at them.
A young, dark haired man wobbled onto the screen.
"Hey lookie it's Crutchie!" Boots piped up.
"Dats not me! It's some other gimp on the streets. Ise got better poy-sin-ality!" Crutchie protested.
"And youse shorter!" Mush said.
"Will ya shut up and jus watch the stinkin movie?" Skittery complained. All of the boys turned their attention back to the screen.
The Newsies on the screen had started a very off key song called Carrying the Banner. Everyone agreed they were way out of tune.
" I can sing better then that, and I'm the worst singer in all of New York!" Davy said. Jack patted him on the shoulder. "Don't flatta yourself Dave. Youse the worst singer in the whole continent." Davy glared at Jack.
They all watched as the Newsies laid down some sick burns on the Delancey brothers, complete with Jack stealing Oscar Delaney's hat. ( don't know how else to say sick burns)
"Mebbe this Jack ain't so bad" Jack subconsciously said out loud.
Davy's face got red when he saw that Mr. Wiesel cheated out the Davy on screen. "That isn't fair. He paid for twenty!" Davy protested while pointing at the TV.
His face got even redder when he saw the Jack on the screen pay for even more papes than Davy had wanted. "Jack!" He shouted, pointing at the screen. "What?" Jack said. "Nevermind…" Davy muttered.
Jack-in-the-movie casually mentions the Refuge, and half of the boys in the room flinch, then pretend like they didn't flinch. Romeo starts crying at the mention of the place. Race rubs him on the back. "It's ok, it's ok." He murmurs. Romeo takes a couple of deep gulps and stops crying. They continue with the movie.
The movie comes to the part with Medda's show. A loud and outraged Jack stands up and points at the screen saying "Dat ain't Medda! It's one a dose impastas!" Katherine convinces him to sit down. All of the boys watch in horror of the Jack on the screen's flirtatious behavior towards Les and Davy's sister . "We never had a sister!" Les protests.
Davy laughs as soon as Jack on Tv starts singing. "And you said I was tone deaf! Can you even hear yourself?" Katherine ends up getting ice for Davy's new bruise, compliments of Jack.