Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters from the Disney movie, "Newsies." The only characters in this story that I claim ownership over are Ella, Silver, Jayson, and Mrs. VanWyck.

Hey guys. Wow, it took me so long to get this chapter out. Sorry about that. I've been going crazy, trying to get ready for the Newsies Rally. (5 Days!! If anyone's still planning on going and needs info on it, you can find the site by typing in "2007 Newsies Rally" in just about any search bar on the internet.) My friends and I are all going dressed as Newsies (As of yesterday, I finally found some quite-Mush-looking brown short-pants) so we've been looking for clothes, not to mention doing a whole lot of planning. All my friends have to be at my house at 5:30 AM so we can get to the city on time, and then we have to catch the train and hope to god we take the right subway... In Racetrack's words, "dear me." Anyway, sorry for the wait. Here goes.

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Even though I'd lived in New York City for almost 6 years, I'd never been to Tibby's before. While I lived in the orphanage, most of us didn't have jobs. We had very little spending money to use on going out to places like diners, so we always just ate at the orphanage.

I absolutely loved the diner. What with the beige pattered wallpaper, the quaint lamps and the old pictures on the wall, it reminded me of a diner I used to go to with my mother when I was really young.

The newsies filled just about half of the small room. Of course, there wasn't a table big enough for all of us to sit, so the newsies split up into smaller groups and all chose tables towards the same general side of the diner.

Silver pulled me to a table where she was sitting along with Kid Blink, Racetrack, Cowboy, and a boy introduced to me as David. I made a mental note of the name, but it would be one of the easier ones to remember since it wasn't a nickname. David was quiet towards me, but he and Cowboy were arguing non stop since we first sat down. They seemed to be arguing innocently, as if they were good friends, but it was still obvious that they had different views on everything.

Every few minutes, David would also tip his chair backwards to talk to a young boy at the table behind us. I assumed that he was his little brother, because David kept a strict eye on him at all times. Every once in a while, he'd bark orders like "Les! Stop getting up from the table!" or "Les! Tibby's isn't the place for you to play with a wooden sword!" Then Cowboy would elbow David, and mumble something along the lines of, "Aw, let da kid have some fun..."

By the time we all had ordered our food, Silver was in a detailed conversation with Kid Blink. Cowboy and David were still arguing over one thing or another, and Racetrack was moving around the napkin holder and the salt and pepper shakers, seemingly looking for something.

Since I had nothing better to do while we waited, I began to look around the diner, trying to get the newsies' names down. I was starting to get better at it as the names and faces started to stick in my mind. That's when I noticed that one newsie was missing. Dutchy wasn't seated anywhere in the small room. I was about to nudge Silver and ask her where he could be, but then I decided against it. She would wonder what difference it made to me, anyway.

Everything was going fine, and my worries about the newsies were slowly starting to slip away. That is, until our meals came. The waiters began to put dishes of food on the tables, but Racetrack paid no attention to that. He was still searching for something, growing angrier by the second. "Where is it!?" He muttered impatiently to himself.

Skittery overheard him and turned around in his seat. "Where's what, Race?" He asked, picking up his sandwich that the waiter had placed in front of him. "Me cigar! I know I brought it heah... Jus' had it, five minutes ago..."

Just as Racetrack finished his sentence, I looked past his shoulder and saw Snipeshooter. He was sitting at Les' table, along with Boots and Snitch. The boy had a cigar wedged between his lips, but when he heard what Racetrack said he quickly took it out of his mouth and hid it behind his back.

Race suddenly stopped looking and froze, as if he had just thought of something. After a moment, he turned around on his heel and began slowly advancing towards Snipeshooter. Snipeshooter, looking quite terrified as he glanced up at Racetrack, gulped.

"H-hey, Race." He stuttered. Racetrack's glare hardened. "Where is it, squirt?" He asked with annoyance, using the collar of his shirt to pull Snipeshooter to his feet. "Where's what?" He played dumb, but the look of guilt on the boy's face gave him away. "You know what! Me cigar!" Race stated.

Without meaning to, Snipeshooter's trembling hand dropped the cigar from behind his back. Racetrack looked down at his cigar on the floor, growling irritably as he bent down to pick it up. "I knew it! Quit stealin' me stuff, would ya, Snipes? I swear, I should soak ya!" Racetrack yelled. By now the entire diner had quieted down and all the newsies had turned in their seats, peering over towards the two boys.

Racetrack looked like he was ready to punch the petrified boy, but Cowboy cut in. "Race, calm down, will ya? Take a deep breath." Racetrack let go of Snipeshooter's collar, but the frustrated look in his eyes didn't go away. Then something on the table next to him caught his eye. A plate, filled with chicken and mashed potatoes. Racetrack had an idea.

He slowly scooped up some of the mashed potatoes. As he held it, he glanced from the food in his hand to Snipeshooter. Then abruptly, he flung his arm forward, sending the mashed potatoes through the air until the food splattered all over Snipeshooter's face.

The boy's mouth dropped open and Racetrack smirked right back. The air in the room was tense until Snipeshooter, out of rage, picked up a glass of soda, dumping it all over Racetrack's head. The icecubes fell to the floor and the coke dripped down Race's face and soaked into his clothing. The rest of us had to hold in laughter. We wouldn't dare make Race any angrier than he already was.

Just as he picked up another plate (This one full of spaghetti) to shove into Snipeshooter's face, Specs jumped to his feet with a palm full of beans and yelled, "Food fight!"

Within a matter of seconds, everyone was up off their chairs and running around. I, however, was frozen in place. I was only brought back to reality when a slice of ham from a sandwich hit me square in the face, which I rapidly wiped off. I scrambled off my seat and dropped to my hands and knees, crawling underneath the table.

From there I watched the incident unfold. Waiters and waitresses fumbled around, attempting to stop all the newsies without tripping over food scraps lying on the floor. Racetrack and Snipeshooter were covered with the most food at this time, still going at it and flinging anything at each other that they could get their hands on.

Silver and Blink were over on the other side of the diner, acting as a team while ducking behind one of the booth seats. Snitch put butter in his hand and smacked Skittery across the face, so the butter smeared from Skittery's ear all the way down to his mouth. David was hurrying towards a more shielded area with Les in tow, until he skidded and slipped on a gravy puddle on the floor. The two both landed on the floor. Les was laughing like a maniac, while David couldn't look more upset.

Jake snuck up behind Itey and poured a whole bowl of coleslaw down his shirt, while Crutchy opened up the salt and pepper shakers and dumped them over Snoddy's head.

Bumlets had Swifty cornered against a wall as he squirted mustard and catsup at him through plastic squeeze-bottles. Mush was pitching clumps of rice at Boots, who was attempting to hit them with the wooden sword as if he were playing stickball. However, most of the rice-clumps missed and hit the window behind Boots, splattering all over the place.

Jack had just hit Pie Eater with a hard boiled egg when Silver slid underneath the table. She was covered from head to toe in food and she grinned at me as she wiped some of the oatmeal off her face. "Well, you'se managed to stay pretty clean." She commented. I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. "T-they're animals!" I finally managed. Silver laughed.

"If ya take a run for it now, I'm shoah you'se can get outta heah before it gets worse." I nodded quickly and waited for the opportune moment to leave my shelter. Finally, I crawled out from under the table and, on my hands and knees, advanced towards the door. A couple of times, my limbs slid out from under me because of all the soup and condiments on the floor. I ended up sprawled out on my stomach, but quickly got up again.

Just as I reached the door, someone flung a plateful of salad in my direction. Sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce got stuck in my hair, but the salad luckily didn't have any dressing on it. I scrambled to my feet and closed the front door to Tibby's behind me just as a whole plate of shepard's pie hit the glass.

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Wow, I had so much fun writing this chapter. Huge thanks to my good friend Tetris, whom without her help I would not have been able to write this :D To everyone else, thanks for reading!

SantaFeDreamer: Yay! I'm so happy you decided to read this! I was afraid that I'd lose a lot of my old readers by the time I came back :D Glad you like the story... Dutchy does seem like he'd be a sweetie, doesn't he?. :)

Passionate Fire: ::Dances for joy right along with you:: haha Yeah, I don't think I've ever come across a non-slash Dutchy fic either... So I figured, "Alright. I've written Mush, Race, Skittery, Blink, Spot, David... Why not Dutchy?!. :D" Thanks for the review, and I'm glad to hear from you again!

Racerchick: Believe me, I'm way happy to be back! Having my own original characters was cool for a while, but I guess once a newsies freak always a newsies freak :). Thanks for reading the prequel to this, and I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I'm also really glad that you decided to keep reading my writing!

Spinner: It was great to hear from you again! I'm thrilled about being back. Yeah, I wanted to make Ella different from the rest of my characters, and I didn't want to make her a mary-sue. When I wrote the prequel to this, I wasn't planning on making a sequel with Ella as the main character, so when I gave her the whole blonde-hair-blue-eyes thing I think I sorta screwed myself over, haha. I just hope she doesn't come off as too shy and too ordinary.

ktkakes: Yay! My oldest reader, lol. I was absolutely thrilled when I found that you sent me a review, because I wasn't sure if you would keep reading or not... With your last review, you hit the nail right on the head with the newsies being rowdy. Especially in this chapter! And don't worry about repeating yourself in the reviews, believe me, I really appreciate the positive comments you always send!