After a while, Jack pulled his thoughts together and stood up.
"What can I do?" He asked, trying to make his voice sound strong and confident. The boys glanced at each other.
"Ah...dat's da problem."
"What?"
"Well...da gangs can't really...know...dat you'se helpin' us, see? If dey does...dey ain't the most forgivin' of people. Dey threatened ta kill us if we don't do dis stuff, an' dey'd probly git us if dey knowed dat we'se gettin' outside help."
"What am I supposed to do, then, Race? You came to me for help, and now you're telling me I can't! I'm not standing by and watching my family get torn apart! What am I supposed to be doing!"
"You need ta use your influence, Jack! Find things out about 'em, work behind the scenes, take 'em out!"
"How do you expect me to do that?" Davey stood up and put his hand on Jack's arm. It was the first contact between the two of them since they had shook hands, and the first friendly touch since they had lost the friendship between them.
"Don't you see, Jack?" He said quietly, a light of understanding and excitement in his eyes. "They don't want you on the front lines. You aren't the leader here. They need you to pull the strings behind the scenes, get the police to find out or something in a way that doesn't point back to us. You need to find a way to make it look like you found out about this on accident, use the information we can get you to shut this down. We don't need you to come with us, we don't need you to work with us on the inside, you need to be more of a person who will take what we give you and make it your own, so that we don't get hurt and you get protection for those who need it. That's what you do best, Jack! Take the information you're given and turn it into your own!" Race nodded.
"We don't need you ta be a leader! We need ya ta...ta be kinda what Davey was in da strike. 'Member that, Jack? He was always helpin' out behind da scenes, always givin' you advice, an' keepin' us all goin'! We need you ta do dat now, 'cause we'se gotta stop dis thing!" Spot looked at him coolly.
"Ya said ya realize ya made a mistake. Dis is ya chance ta fix it. An' it's da only chance you'se gonna git, 'cause if ya don't do it, we'se dead. You'se had bettah make it right. Dis is ya chance, Jacky-boy, ya chance ta fix ya mistakes an' help us out. Be our bruddah again." Jack looked around the room, seeing four faces he'd grown up with, four faces he'd known as his family. Four faces of people he'd abandoned for a life he'd thought was better. But they were also four faces of people who were willing to give him a second chance, a chance to right his wrongs, to save his family, both the old and the new. He looked at all of them and saw them opening themselves to what they knew might hurt them in the end, but what had a chance to save them in the moment. Him. He was their last chance, their final stand, and if he was anything in the world it was a fighter. So he made his choice right then that he was going to fight for his old family, fight for his new family, and fight for another chance to make the world better for those who didn't have enough. He made his choice to fight for the little ones as he walked out the door, for the ones who were surviving on almost nothing and for the ones who needed him most.
"Newsies forever," He whispered to himself as he walked home. "Second to none." A promise he had made long ago and failed to keep that he was given a second chance to prove. He wasn't throwing away his shot at redemption.
It has been a very long time, hasn't it? Only two words: HIGH SCHOOL. All I can say is that my advisory teacher was not exaggeratingat all when he told us our Chromebooks would be our best friends. You don't know how stressful it is to get home and realize you forgot your only Internet connection at school and you have a computer assignmentdue the next day before your only study hall until you've done it, and it was that moment in which I realized how much I depend on this wonderful device. So I apologize for leaving this for so long and for that meaningless rant. Also, I couldn't help but throw in a little reference. Anybody catch it? It's to an extremely popular soundtrack.
