Thank you NewsiesRacetrack88 for reviewing!
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Ever since Racetrack brought Les to Sheepshead the kid had been bugging him to bring him back. Everyday Racetrack told him to ask David and occasionally he agreed, but most of the time David said no. He believed that it was not good to be around gambling that much. David was not sure what Les would learn from the older guys that spent their time at the racetrack. As much as Racetrack wanted Les to grow up and be just like him, he knew that David was right. Les had more opportunities than Race did and he should not be influenced by Racetrack's lifestyle.
When Racetrack first woke up he looked out the window and noticed snow falling down around the city. As beautiful as the first snowfall was it meant that there would be a long hard winter ahead of them. Some of the younger boys were crammed in front of the window staring with wide eyes and big smiles plastered on their faces.
One of the boys turned to him, "Isn't dis great?"
Racetrack rolled his eyes, "Sure kid, great." He went to the bathroom to wash his face and get ready for the day.
After Racetrack was finished getting ready he went to his bunk and started looking under it for the coat Medda had given him. Every winter he loved Medda more and more, if that was even possible. Racetrack followed all the newsies out the door and to the distribution office. The snow and wind seemed to pick up acting like a sign for the day Racetrack would have. The only good thing out of it was seeing all the younger kids playing. They were trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. Some were even holding out their hands in hopes of collecting enough to make snowballs. Although the snow was sticking it had barely covered the streets, so unless it stayed snowing like that all day the kids would have to wait a while to have a snowball fight.
Once Racetrack got his papers, he waited around to catch a ride with the news paper guys. They were not going all the way to Sheepshead, but they were going about halfway there, which would cut Race's walking time significantly. When the cart stopped the snow had started to let up a little, Race hoped that meant by the time he came home it would have stopped altogether. Racetrack found his normal customers at the track and sold most of his papers off pretty quick. After scanning the horses Racetrack found that Cowboy Jack was racing. Racetrack smiled to himself and remembered the good luck he had with Les on that horse. He decided to try the horse's luck again and bet on him.
Unfortunately for Racetrack Cowboy Jack was not doing very good today. He got second to last. Racetrack wished he would have brought Les with him, maybe then he would have better luck with winning. Although the horse lost Racetrack could not help but keep betting. One thing Race was really bad at was stopping when he should. It was in his blood to keep going until he got some money, so he could not stand to walk away from a losing horse. Racetrack went back to the betting window and made another bet on a new horse. Its odds were good, so he thought it would get him a little money. But this horse got fifth place. Racetrack swore and decided to try again, so he bet, but again the horse lost.
By midday Racetrack was more than furious at his luck. After another horse had lost, Racetrack went back up to the window and bet on a random horse out of anger. He watched the horses take off and watched his horse run around the track. It was a beautiful dark brown and black horse with a very shiny coat. He watched it as it gained speed and passed the other horses. Soon enough it was in second place.
"Yeah, come on!" His luck finally seemed to shape up. Racetrack smiled with wide eyes as the horse was nearing the finish line. All he wanted was to win, even though he knew at this point he would not get all his money back.
Just as Racetrack's luck seemed to change the horse began to slow down, and it was not just a little bit, this horse seemed to be letting the other horses pass by it on purpose. It ended up in the middle somewhere with a mass of other horses around it and finished no where near first.
"No! He cheated!" Racetrack was irate at this point. That horse was winning, but then all of a sudden it just slowed down. The jockey must have done something to the horse, he was a cheater and Race knew it.
He stomped up to the betting window and looked at the woman behind the counter. "My horse cheated! I can't be da only one who thinks so!"
The woman rolled her eyes slightly, "I'm sorry, but all bets are final."
Racetrack knew that no one would look into the situation, so he left dropping several curses in Italian. He walked quickly down the Brooklyn streets still furious. At least it had stopped snowing a few hours earlier. He was not sure how long he walked until he heard someone call his name. Racetrack stopped and looked up.
"Oh, hey Spot."
Spot smirked, "Tough day at da track?"
Racetrack huffed, "Tough? Tough! It wasn't tough, I'se got cheated! Dat guy did somethin' to dat horse I know it!"
Spot laughed a little to himself, ""Okay den…I'se gotta head back, maybe tomorrow will be better, yeah?"
"Yeah, maybe, see ya." Racetrack was worked up again and began to mumble more curses under his breath. He walked back to the lodging house without really realizing getting there. It was not until he was on the front steps that he noticed he was in Manhattan.
Racetrack shrugged and went inside to get warm. Almost all the newsies were back at the house, which Race was used to. He was almost always last to get there. Dutchy noticed Racetrack's bummed look and went over to him.
"Bad day?"
Racetrack did not want to get worked up again so he just nodded.
"Wanna play some cards for marbles?"
Racetrack smiled a little, Dutchy could tell Race had just lost most, if not all, of his money at the track. Sometimes he would offer to play cards for something that was not money and only when Racetrack felt bad did he enjoy playing. He nodded and took his cards out of his pocket so they could enjoy a game.
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A few days later Racetrack was walking to Sheepshead. It was not snowing, but it seemed colder that it was the day before. Race noticed that there was a lack of Brooklyn newsies on the streets; in fact he did not see one. This was pretty strange, because most the newsies had certain spots they kept to everyday and if they did not keep to it; Spot would get angry. Racetrack instantly got a bad feeling and decided to go talk to Spot so he could put his mind at ease. Once Racetrack reached the Brooklyn lodging house Sneaks, Spot's second in command, cracked the door open.
"Whadda ya want?" Sneaks blocked the opening of the door, so Race could not see inside.
Racetrack could tell something was wrong the moment he opened the door, he looked upset and more defensive that usual, "Where's Spot?"
For a moment Sneaks did not say anything, "He ain't here."
"So where is he den?" Racetrack decided he was not going to leave until he got answers.
"It don't matter just leave it." Sneaks was about to shut the door when Racetrack stopped it from shutting.
"Sneaks, what happened?" Racetrack was getting worried now.
Sneaks sighed and opened the door, "I guess everyone's gotta know sometime."
Racetrack walked in and noticed a few newsies at the table holding identical expressions as Sneaks. After a moment of scanning the room Racetrack looked back at Sneaks, who had shut the door.
"So…"
Sneaks leaned against the wall, "Last night, Spot killed Grim."
He could not believe this; he had just seen Spot a few days before, "What? Da last leader of Queens!" Racetrack stared wide eyed. He knew Spot could be a tough guy when he was mad and they had a rival with Queens, but he never thought Spot would actually kill anyone. "Why would he do dat?"
"Ya remember Sour? Da leader before Spot?"
Racetrack nodded, "Yeah."
"Well Grim killed him last night too. Grim always had a problem with Sour and Spot, so he knew dis would get rid of both them." He saw Racetrack's look of disbelief, "Yeah, and now he's gone, skipped town, and not coming back."
"Wow, I-I don't believe dis." Racetrack was trying to get his head around the news. "So you're da leader of Brooklyn now?"
Sneaks nodded, "For now. Guess I got big shoes to fill."
Racetrack stayed quiet for a moment, until a thought jumped in his head, "If Spot killed Grim is dere gonna be a retaliation or turf war or somethin' since he used to be Queens' leader?" He knew things could get ugly for everyone if Queens and Brooklyn decided to fight each other.
Sneaks shook his head, "No, I talked to the leader, Pinky, he didn't want a war as much as I don't, even they didn't like Grim dat much. No, things will be just like they always have."
Racetrack stared bewildered for a moment before deciding to leave, "I'se gotta tell everyone 'bout dis."
Sneaks nodded, "Yeah."
Race was walking out the door when he figured it would be good to say something to Sneaks, "Ya know, ya'll make a good leader too." And then he walked out the door and ran back to Manhattan.
It was still early in the morning so none of the newsies were back yet; he decided to go round them up, because he figured they should all know as soon as possible. They gathered around the Horace Greely statue and listened to what Racetrack had to say.
He got up in front of everyone and quieted them down, "I was went to see the Brooklyn newsies today and dey told me Spot killed Grim last night and now he's ran outta town."
There was and uproar of questions and comments about what Race had just told them. He repeated everything Sneaks had said to him. He told them there would be no fights against Queens and Brooklyn as far as he knew, and that Sneaks was leader now. He told them that Spot was not coming back, but Sneaks seemed like he was going to keep everything the same. All the boys were stunned at the news, they, just like Race, could not believe Spot would kill someone. All of them wondered what was going to happen now that Spot was out of the picture. It made a lot of the newsies worried that soon enough everyone would disappear from one reason or another. First the strike, then the rumors about a delivery system starting, and now this. The world they had created seemed to be crumbling one brick at a time.
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AN: I am so sorry that this took forever again! I'm trying a new system out to write fanfiction better and more often, so hopefully that will happen! So this chapter definitely was not going to be about just this, but it ended up turning into a chapter of its own. I would have written the next chapter onto this, but I feel that what is going to happen next deserves to be by itself. Thanks so much for reading and again I apologize for the lateness!