The rest of the newsies all met in Tibby's and waited for Denton to show. David was pretty quiet after hearing Brenna's story. It was probably a shock to hear what she had been through before becoming a newsie. However, she could tell that even though she told him all of that, he was still pretty peeved that Jack had lied to him the entire time he had known him.

It had been hard for Brenna to recount her story. She spent a lot of time trying to push those memories down, but she felt David deserved to know about her and why she hid the truth about her real identity from everyone.

Denton walked in the door with a smile, but it was apparent that it was a fake smile. Something was wrong. Denton greeted a few of the boys, while David cut straight to the chase.

"Why didn't the Sun print the story?"

"Because it never happened," Denton responded sadly.

This was met with a lot of very loud protests from all the boys in the restaurant.

"It's not in the papers, it never happened!" Denton said over their voices. "The owners decreed it not be in the papers, therefore…I came to tell you fellas good-bye."

"Wait a second," Brenna said bolting up from her seat. "Good-bye?"

"What happened?" David asked. "Did you get fired or something?"

"No, I got reassigned back to my old job as the Sun's ace war correspondent. They want me to leave right away. The owner thinks I should only cover the really important stories."

"Well, aren't we important?" Brenna asked, feeling more anger rise up inside her.

"Not in their eyes. Wish me luck fellas. At least half of what I wish for you." Denton started to leave, then turned back to David. "They don't always fire you." He walked over to the boy who angrily had his back to him. "I would be black-balled from every paper in the country. Hey." He forced David to turn around and look at him. "I'm a newspaper man. I have to have a paper to write for." He took a piece of paper out of his jacket. "This is the story I wrote about the rally. I want you to read it at least."

David made no move to take the paper, so Denton put it in his hand for him. He went over to the waiter and gave him a huge sum of money. "This should cover it."

David looked about ready to cry. He balled the paper up in his hand and threw it down on the table. Denton watched in sadness before leaving the restaurant.

Brenna looked at the newsies. She had never seen them so dejected before. Not even when Crutchy was taken to the Refuge. First Crutchy, then Jack, now Denton. Things just were not going according to plan.

"We get Jack out of the Refuge tonight," David announced. "From now on, we trust no one but the newsies!"

The other newsies stood up and voiced their agreements.

Brenna decided to leave the restaurant and head to Irving Hall. She quietly snuck in through the door and went up the stairs to Medda's dressing room.

"Medda?" she called. "Ya here?"

"Trickster, is that you?" Medda's voice answered. "Come on in!"

Brenna stepped into her familiar dressing room that was all decked out in pink and purple.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," Brenna said to the woman.

"I'm fine. How about you guys? I wanna know everything that happened."

Brenna sighed and explained how they had all been put on trial and were fined five dollars, but Denton paid the fee. Unfortunately, Jack was not so lucky and got taken away to the House of Refuge again. Then she told her how Denton had been demoted and was no longer working with them on the strike.

Medda took the young girl up in her arms. "Don't you worry, sweetie. Everything will work out."

"You know Jack isn't gonna stay there. He's either gonna break out or da newsies will break him out themselves."

"I know. I hate to think of that poor boy in such a horrid place."

"Medda, do you think we were wrong to start strikin'? I mean, ever since we decided to go on strike, we've made no money, Jack and Crutchy are in da Refuge, and now we have no leader or even an someone high up in da world like Denton to stand up for us."

"I don't think striking was a bad idea. I think Snyder and the policemen did not handle it well at all. They were abusing all of you boys so terribly last night. And I feel awful that I couldn't do anything for you."

"I feel like it's my fault Jack's in da Refuge right now. He told me to leave, but I didn't. Maybe if I had…"

"Trickster, listen to me. Jack Kelly is lucky to have a friend like you to watch out for him. There were way too many people and I think he would've gotten caught whether you had stayed or not. At least Jack was taken knowing that you were there for him."

Brenna smiled. Medda always knew exactly what to say to make her feel better. She stayed with the woman until night had fallen.


That night, David, Les, Mush, Blink, Racetrack, Boots, and Brenna all snuck through the gates of the Refuge. The boys had tried to get Brenna not to come, but she insisted that she owed it to Jack.

"That's the window where we saw Crutchy," David said, pointing to the window in front of them.

Before any of them could do anything, they watched as Jack was led out of the door by Snyder and a couple policemen and put into a carriage.

"It's Jack!" Les exclaimed quietly.

"Shh!" David shushed his brother.

"Where they takin' him, Dave?" Mush asked.

"Only one way to find out. I'll meet you guys at the square." He took Les and handed him to Racetrack. "Racetrack, watch him."

He took off after the carriage as the other boys watched. Brenna wasn't really sure what possessed her to do so, but she waited just a few seconds before running after him.

"Tricks!" she heard Racetrack yell in a whisper. "What are ya doin'?"

What was she doing? Why didn't she just listen to David? Why was she putting herself in danger again?

Brenna saw that David had hopped onto the back of the carriage. All she could do was run after it and duck into the shadows when necessary.

The carriage finally stopped in front of an absolutely huge house. As she caught her breath, she watched as David crawled under the carriage and removed the pin that connected the horses to the carriage. She smiled at his cleverness. He crawled away and she went to meet him.

"David!" she whispered.

He jumped at the sound of his name, and when he saw it was her, he didn't look too happy. "What are you doing here? I told you I'd meet you in the square!"

"Don't ask me why I did it because I honestly don't have an answer!"

David sighed. "Well, here's the plan. When Jack gets out, we'll call for him and run as fast as we can."

"Dat's all ya got?"

"What, do you have something better?"

Brenna let out a small laugh. No, she didn't.

It really wasn't very long that he was in there, but the wait was painstakingly slow. Finally, the doors opened and Jack came out.

"Jack!" David yelled. "Come on! Come on!"

Jack slid down the railing on the stairs and jumped down, managing to escape Snyder's arms.

"After him!" Snyder yelled.

The driver of the carriage whipped the reins but thanks to David, the horses took off without the carriage.

The three of them kept running until Jack slowed down once they made it into an alley.

"Come on! Keep running!" David insisted.

"Ya shouldn't have done this, guys!" Jack yelled. "They could put you both in jail!"

"I don't care, and neither does Tricks!"

"Come here!" Jack roughly grabbed the both of them and put them against the wall. "What about your family?" he asked David. "What happens to them if you go in jail? You don't know nothin' about jail!"

"Jack…" Brenna said. "What happened in there? Normally, you'd be happy that we helped you escape."

"Tricks, you wouldn't last one night in jail, ya hear?!" he yelled. Jack had never yelled at her before. It was kind of scary. "I know you're tougher now and all, but with you bein' a girl, they'd gut ya before dinner! Now, thanks for what ya both done, but you get out of here."

"I don't understand," David said.

"I don't understand either, but just get outta here!" Jack yelled even louder, pushing the two of them away.

"No!" David yelled back.

"We can't leave without ya, Jack!" Brenna added.

"Go!"

David sighed and took Brenna's arm. "Come on, Tricks."

Together, they walked back to the square in silence. When they got back, all the boys anxiously approached them. Their faces quickly fell when they realized Jack was not with them.

"What happened?" Mush asked.

"Where's Jack?" Blink said.

Brenna looked down at the ground, unwilling to meet their eyes.

"He's not coming," David muttered.

"What?" Race nearly yelled. "Why not?"

"Somethin' happened," Brenna said. "He wouldn't tell us what, but I've never seen him so angry before."

"Ya mean…he yelled at ya?" The boys were in slight shock. Jack had been nothing but nice to Brenna since Day One. The thought of him yelling at her was something no one could picture.