Race pushed his way through the group of boys crowding around Stars. She seemed extremely overwhelmed by everyone talking at once, and her eyes lit up when she saw him struggled to get forward.
"Stars," Race called, shoving Finch into Henry. "Wanna go for a walk or somethin?" Stars nodded quickly.
"We'll talk later," She said to the other newsies, already starting towards the stairs. "Thanks," She whispered to Race. He smirked.
"Know ya don't like crowds." He laced his hand into hers. "C'mon."
"But what about Snyder?" Stars looked nervous. "I'm sure he ain't happy to find out Chris and I are gone."
"I'll protect ya, don't worry," Race assured her. Stars rolled her eyes.
"Well, alright. But if I get sent back to the Refuge, its on you." Race opened the door, leading Stars outside.
"So," He said awkwardly. "How've ya been?"
"Besides the fact that I escaped a hell hole yesterday, things have been good." Stars bit her lip.
"I'm sorry, Lyd." Race whispered. Stars looked at him with her deep brown eyes.
"You haven't called me that in forever," She whispered. "I kinda missed it." Race smiled as Stars rested her head on her shoulder. "Hey, Tony?"
"Yeah?"
"How did we meet anyway?"
"Ya don't remember?" He asked, laughing. Stars shook her head guiltily. "I saved your ass."
"Excuse me, Mister Higgins, but I think your chain of events is backwards. I was the one who," She deepened her voice to try and match Race's "Saved your ass."
"I thought you said ya didn't remember."
"Well," She blushed. "There are bits and pieces."
"Whaddaya want, Oscar," A fourteen-year-old Race asked, smirking at the two brothers as he hawked his headline.
"We're lookin for you," Oscar said. "You owe us somethin."
"Hate to burst your bubble, but I owe a lot of people a lot of things." Race pulled a cigar and a pack of matches from his pocket. "Gotta be more specific." He puffed the smoke in the brothers' faces, temporarily stunning them. "See ya." He waved good-bye to them, and took off running.
Race was a fast, but he couldn't keep a good pace while holding his 50 heavy newspapers. "Dammit," He muttered, throwing his bag on the ground. That was enough time for the Delanceys to get closer. He turned a sharp corner, running face first onto a girl, and both of them hitting the ground.
"Excuse me," The girl said underneath Race, pushing him off of her.
"Sorry," He muttered, scrambling to his feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Morris and Oscar were still looking for him.
"Are you looking for someone?" The girl asked, her eyebrow raised.
"See those two guys over there?" Race pointed to the brothers. "If they ask, you didn't see me." He smiled, climbing into an empty trash bin. "Thanks, doll." He said before putting the lid on, shutting off all light.
"Hey, girlie." Race heard one of the brothers, Morris he believed. "We saw ya crash into a little son-of-a-bitch."
"Yeah?" The girl replied, her voice extremely calm. "What about him?"
"Where'd he go?" There was a pause. Race held his breath, hoping the girl wouldn't blow his cover.
"He went that way." She said. Race heard the running footsteps, they were getting fainter and fainter. Someone was banging on the trash can. "Hey," It was the girl. "The two guys are gone. You can come out." The light blinded his eyes when she pulled up the trash lid. He began to climb out, but tripped over himself and toppled over, causing the girl to laugh.
"Great job." He muttered. The girl reached out a hand to help him up. "Thanks."
"Your welcome." For the first time, Race got a good look at the girl, and she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He suddenly understood why Romeo would only sell to women. "I'm Lydia, by the way. Lydia Karlin. You are?"
"Tony," He said. Lydia cocked her head.
"Is that all." She said, confused. Race suddenly felt self-conscious. It had never crossed his mind that people might find his name to be weird.
"Its enough for me." He fiddled with his hat.
"Oh, I'm sorry," She said. "That sounded so rude."
"Nah," Race shrugged. "Thanks for the help, but I gotta get back to work."
"Work?" Lydia looked excited. "What do you do?"
"I'm a newsie, ma'am." He said. Lydia rolled her eyes.
"No need to sound formal with me, Tony." She said, lightly. "You look older than I am anyway." Race laughed.
"Thanks again, but I really gotta go."
"You don't have any newspapers with you." Lydia noticed. Race groaned, remembering he left them a few blocks back. Lydia opened her bag, pulling out a crisp dollar bill. "Her," She held it out for him.
"Nah, its fine," Race didn't want to take this girl's money. "Maybe I can get Mr. Weasel-er-Wiesel to float me a few."
"Its going to be too late for you to sell any to anyone. All the rich people go to bed around this time." She shoved the dollar into his hand. "Please." His fingers curled around the money.
"Thanks," He said once again, tipping his hat, and running back towards the lodging house.
"I ended up sharin that buck with Romeo." Race said. "That Jacobi's tasted good." Stars laughed.
"Ya know I can't give ya dollars anymore, right?" She asked. Race dug into his pocket, and fished out four tarnished quarters.
"Bout time I paid someone back what I owe em." He dropped the quarters into her pocket.
"Race…" Stars started saying.
"Don't even." He said, cutting her off.
"You gotta let me finish what I'm saying." Stars grabbed Race's hand. "You repaid me a long time ago." She said before planting a kiss on his cheek. "Love ya."
"Love ya too." He replied. He kissed her on the lips, the world melting away until they were the only ones that mattered. But they're little moment of happiness was interrupted when Race heard a blood curdling scream.
Hey, I'm back, one month later. I noticed after I finished the chapter that Race meets a lot of people just by accidentally running into them. Eh, oh well. Sorry for the cliff-hanger, but I kinda ran out of idea for this chapter... so yeah.
Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter! I noticed that Romeo and Jack don't really interact with each other except for little like a minute right before World Will Know. That was originally going to be a separate one-shot, but it fit in too much that I just had to put it here.
This is sorta happier and fluffier than other chapters, but thats only because I needed to make the set up lighter so the pay off would crush everyone! Oh... did I say that out loud. ;)
Newsies forever, second to none!