Jack had finished giving all the other newsies their papers, which was pretty much all he had to do until evening, when some of the other newsies did evening selling. He went home with Morris, as he supposed he'd have to.
They went into the room, which Oscar and Morris shared. "How-why-would somethin' like this happen?" Jack wondered aloud. It's not every day you wake up in your enemy's body. "Why Oscar, of all people? The one person I can't stand, is the one I wake up as?"
"Maybe that's why." Oscar suggested.
"Whaddya mean?"
"Maybe the powers that be decided that it would be the two of you 'cause ya hate each other."
"That...actually ain't a bad point." Jack stood up and started pacing the room. "Maybe if we stop hatin' each other-temporarily, o' course-we'll be switched back. Whaddya think? Wait, why'm I askin' you? Nevahmind..." He was talking a lot, most of it was pointless rambling, because of confusion and frustration.
"Jack-Oscar-whatever I should call you! Stop, all you're doin' is worryin' yourself more. Think about this. If ya need to make amends with each othah, do that. But it's probably not just gonna work. There's probably more to it."
Once again, Morris had a fair point. Just being nice to each other was too simple. Jack stopped pacing. But both of Morris' suggestions begged the question: Why Jack?
Plenty of other newsies hated the Delanceys, and plenty of them would probably get over that resentment easier. He realized there was one person who could help him. He started to leave.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"There's someone I need to talk to!" Jack shouted as he ran out the door and towards the newsies lodge.
...
"So, you expect me to believe that Jack switched bodies with Oscar and this is truly Jack standing in front of me, blatantly lying to my face?"
Davey asked, clearly skeptical and probably a bit concerned.
"It is! He proved it earlier." Race insisted. "Just...trust us on this one, will ya?"
Davey sighed. "Alright. And say that your obviously delirious theories turn out to be true. What exactly would you want me to do about that?"
"We don't know. We was hopin' you could help us. Jack says that they figured out it could be 'cause they hate each othah, so God decided to switch them or somethin' like that."
"Okay, okay, I'll play along-suppose they apologize to each other, reconcile, and become friends. Is it suddenly lollipops and rainbows, and they switch back? Or is it more than just being nice?"
"Prob'ly." Jack said. "But we don't know what 'more' is yet."
"Me neither. I'm not sure what you expect me to do, though I can maybe help you be nice or something."
"I ain't bein' nice to that jerkwad. I hope he enjoys the mystery bruises I'm gonna leave for him-"
"Jack. Do you want your body back?"
"Course I do."
"Then shut up, put aside your differences, and work this out with him. I'm not Oscar Delancey, and I sure as heck won't sit here and watch you destroy yourself to destroy the body you're in."
Jack sighed. "Fine."
And he left to go try to find Oscar.
