Author's Note: Guys, I just wrote the last chapter and I'm kind of freaking out. This last installation to the trilogy has been almost exactly two years in the making. Obviously I still have to edit and upload the last few chapters, but we're almost there and I couldn't be more excited.

Chapter 37- School

"The same tricks that
That once fooled me
They won't get you anywhere
I'm not the same kid
From your memory
Well, now I can fend for myself."
~Ignorance: Paramore~

When Listener and Jenna made it to the Distribution Center that morning, it was more more crowded than they had expected. The two had woken up later than usual and had expected to miss most of the other newsies. In fact, Listener had been bugging Jenna about it the whole way over, telling her, "Maybe if you hadn't been snuggling with my calves all night, we would've been more inclined to wake up." She answered back that he ought to stop running his mouth and start moving his feet, but they both knew she would have to run to keep up with him if he walked any faster. It didn't take much for those long legs of his to outdistance her.

They had barely made it past the Greely statue when Runner met them. He looked tired, but there was a manic energy about him that immediately seized her curiosity. The courtyard was abuzz with activity and Jenna could see Gin and Scotch having a serious conversation not far from where she stood. She couldn't help but wonder what Scotch's reaction had been to seeing his brother hurt. Those two were pretty rough and tumble, but she wondered if Scotch had been upset that his brother had gotten hurt when he hadn't been there to protect him.

"You two look better today," Runner commented, scratching the side of his face as he spoke. "I'm glad. Did you get plenty of sleep? 'Cause you're gonna need it." He bounced from foot to foot, like he was eager to be on the move.

"What? Why?" Jenna asked, still looking past him and taking everyone in. There weren't as many people as she had originally assumed. Now that she could get a good look at them, she'd say there were about ten others, not including herself or the two boys with her. There was no one under the age of fourteen and that seemed a bit strange to her. Usually the younger newsboys were dying to spend time with the older ones, especially when they were all congregated together like this.

"We're takin' the fight to Brooklyn. Now. I'm tired of waiting for them to kill someone. First Les, now the two o' you? This stops now."

This got Jenna's attention. Her eyes snapped to his and she could immediately see just how serious he was. A knot formed in her stomach. This explained why the younger newsies were off selling instead of hanging around here.

Listener's eyes went wide and he took a step back. "Whoa, that's a little quick. Shouldn't we-"

Runner cut him off. "I know you mean well, Listener, but my mind's made up. What if it isn't you, Gin, and Jenna next time? What if it's one of the little ones? What if it's someone selling alone and Brooklyn decides they wanna leave 'em worse off than Les? They don't get to make Manhattan afraid. They don't get to keep doing this. I'm ending it."

Jenna saw the effect Runner's words had on Listener. They washed over him like ripples in a pool of water as he realized exactly what Runner was saying.

"Okay," Listener said slowly, considering what his leader said. "You know I'm with you whether I think it's a good idea or not. What's the plan?"

Runner glanced at Jenna before starting to speak. "All of us are going over the Bridge as a group. I can't risk sending a birdie over there and getting him killed."

"They are the type to shoot the messenger," Jenna mumbled.

His eyes flicked to her again before he continued. "Exactly."

Listener raised an eyebrow. "We have to warn them somehow. Otherwise they'll make a fuss and we'll have an all-out newsie war instead of a brawl."

There's a difference? Jenna wondered, but didn't give voice to it. She didn't want to keep interrupting. Still, as bad as a brawl sounded, a war sounded very much worse.

"I know, which is why I'll send Scotch ahead to whoever's selling on the Bridge. Hopefully, that'll be Pepper. Anyway, we'll wait there for a bit while he goes and warns everyone. Then we go. I figured we'd have the fight by the docks just to the south of where their side of the Bridge lets out. It's usually pretty empty-"

"Whoa, you're fighting them on their turf?" Jenna interrupted before she could stop herself. "Doesn't that sound like a bad idea?"

"I know it's not ideal."

"Jenna's right. We all know they fight dirty. We could start out with a brawl against ten that turns into a brawl against thirty as soon as they start to lose," Listener said.

"What's the point of having the element of surprise if we're just gonna give them the upper hand?" Jenna added.

Runner suppressed a grin as he listened to the two of them. "What would I do without my trusty advisors?" he asked, and Jenna felt a surge of pride at the idea that she counted as a 'trusty advisor'. She tried not to let it show. "What do you suggest?"

"Our side of the bridge," Listener said immediately. "Empty lot behind the shoe factory. That way the bulls won't show up and they can drag themselves back over to their side at the end without bothering the rest of our kids." His eyes looked dark as he said it and Jenna thought back to the fight they'd been in yesterday and how the fear had bubbled up in her chest when she saw that dark-haired boy going after little Maggie. She saw Listener's point. She wanted that scum from Brooklyn on this side of the Bridge only for as long as it took for Manhattan to bring them down.

"Agreed. Go ahead and let everyone know. And see who has weapons and who can get their hands on some."

Listener looked at Runner sharply, warning in his eyes. Runner gave him a I know, but it can't be helped look. "It's just in case and we'll make sure everyone knows that. We don't pull 'em out unless Brooklyn does. But I'm not goin' in there without a blade and getting myself killed for the sake of playing fair."

Listener sighed, but reluctantly nodded. He headed toward the others.

Runner turned to Jenna. "Where's Les right now? Still at the apartment?"

"No, he went to school today. Figured he needed to go school eventually or he'd have to repeat a year."

Runner cracked a smile and ran a hand through his hair. "I hate to pull him outta class, but he'll kill us if we do this without him. Would you mind goin' to get him? Do you know where his school is?"

"Yeah, no problem."

"Thanks," he answered. "Tell him we'll be in that lot behind the shoe factory. He'll know where it is. Then get back to Al's. I doubt Jett'll try to pull anything outside of the brawl, but if he does - you've been seen with us too much and they already had reason to hate you after Les and I got you away from them when you first got here."

"No, I'm fighting too," she argued, her voice more steely than she felt.

"Jenna-" he began hesitantly, glancing over his shoulder at Listener.

Jenna's hands found their way to her hips without her prompting and she could feel her jaw jut out as she started to speak. "I am not going to go hide while you all fight. I know I'm not that good, but I'm better than being outnumbered. I'll stay in the back and try to take out the smaller ones, but I'm coming with ya."

The left side of his mouth twitched upward in the beginnings of a grin. "Fair enough. I guess you're tired of dealing with 'em too." She nodded, glad she wouldn't have to argue with him on this. "Go get him an' make sure he brings his slingshot. See if he can get you a weapon too."

"Got it."

With that, she took off in a southeast direction. She wasn't one for running very often, but the urgency of the situation kept her wanting to move faster. The morning crowd was still thick on more than one of the streets she took and she couldn't help her loud, irritated groaning every time she managed to get trapped behind someone slower than herself. She earned more than a few dirty looks for that, but she didn't much care. It felt like an eternity before she reached the school.

When she reached the front doors, she realized she had no idea how to find Les. The school wasn't huge, but it would take her too much time to look in every single class. Not to mention, she doubted the teachers would take kindly to her poking her nose in their classrooms. She saw an open door just a ways down the hall that had the word "Office" next to it and let out a breath. That would make things easier.

She smoothed down her hair and tried to calm her breathing a bit from the run. She hoped her face wasn't too red from all her rushing. At least she had taken time to make herself look presentable this morning. She had even put one of those ribbons in her hair that Al had given her ages ago. She entered the room with more than a little apprehension, but the woman behind the desk just inside the door looked up at her with an expectant smile that helped to calm her.

"Hello, how can I help you?" she asked, looking her over, probably wondering why she wasn't in class. Jenna was suddenly hyper aware of the bruising and scrapes all over her. She probably looked like someone had rolled her down a flight of stairs. Maybe she didn't look so presentable after all.

"Yeah, sorry. Um, I need to see Les. Uh, Les Jacobs."

The woman tapped the top of her desk with her pen. "He's in class right now."

"I figured. It's just that I really need to see him. It's important," Jenna answered, fidgeting with her her hair, which was braided and draped over her left shoulder.

"Are you family?" she asked, her right eyebrow raised.

Jenna wished she would stop asking questions and tell her where Les was already. "Yes," she answered quickly. "I'm Jenna . . . his sister." She looked the woman steadily in the eye, almost daring her to call her bluff, yet praying that she didn't.

It felt like an age before the woman stood and moved over to a filing cabinet against the wall. She pulled out the second drawer from the top and rustled through it. Jenna swayed from side to side, trying not to shout at the woman to hurry up. She didn't want the others to start the fight without them.

The woman pulled a thin yellow folder from the drawer and opened it. "There. It looks like he's in English right now. He'll be just down the hall in room 115. It'll be on your left."

"Thank you," Jenna answers, relieved. She turned toward the door.

"I do hope everything's okay," the woman called after her. Jenna didn't know how to answer that, so she simply lengthened her stride and made her way deeper into the beast that was Les's school.

She almost missed the door because the little plaque with the number on it seemed to have lost the top nail and was hanging upside down. At first glance it had looked almost like 211. She started to continue down the hall before her brain caught up with her and she realized all the numbers were just upside down.

Jenna bit down on her lip and twisted the knob before pushing the door slowly open. It creaked in protest and caused roughly half of the students inside to immediately turn and look at her.

She scanned the room and her eyes fell on Les, who was sitting in the second row from her, three seats back. His right elbow was propped up on the book that lay closed on his desk and his chin was in his hand. He twisted to see what all the new whispers were about and startled so violently when he saw Jenna that his head fell off his hand.

"Can I help you?" An elderly man at the front of the class had stopped mid-sentence and Jenna realized this must be the teacher. He looked at her with barely concealed irritation.

"Yeah, um. I need to talk to Les," she said awkwardly, hyper aware of the fact that about twenty sets of eyes were on her at the moment. She fidgeted with her braid.

"And you are?"

"I'm his sister," she said quickly, trying to ignore the whispers that were getting steadily louder. "Sorry, it's really important," she added, hoping it would pacify him.

Les was halfway out of his desk before she had finished. The man sighed. "Hurry up, then."

The whispers turned into a low buzz of chatter. She picked up, "She's all beat up too!", "Think he beat 'er up?", "Think she beat him up?", "She doesn't look anything like him.", and "Bet she's actually his girlfriend." Les closed the door as quickly as he could without slamming it, put his hands on her shoulders, and bent his head to look in her eyes.

"What happened? What's going on?" he asked, fear painting his voice.

"No one's hurt," she told him quickly. "Everyone's fine."

He let out the breath he'd apparently been holding and let his hands slide off her shoulders in relief. He rocked back on his heels. "Then what's up? What couldn't wait 'til after school?" Jenna couldn't help studying the yellowing bruises on his face and crooked nose. Her mind flashed to the way he looked when she found him under that bench and she almost considered lying to him, going back to Runner and telling him that Les couldn't get away and wanted them to fight without him. She never wanted him to look like that again.

But he would probably never speak to her again if she did that. They'd go back to the way they were when she first moved in with the Al and David: always at each others' throats. And she knew how she had felt when she thought Runner would keep her from helping them take down Brooklyn. She wanted to defend her home and she had only been a part of it for a few months. Les must feel tenfold what she did.

"Runner told me to come get you. We're having a brawl with Brooklyn. He wants to end this."

Unlike Listener, who had responded to the news with hesitancy and concern, Les pumped a fist. "All right! It's about time we took down those sons of bitches." When he looked at her, there was an excited glint in his eyes. He looked ready to fight. She couldn't blame him. He had clearly been feeling helpless since being attacked, especially since he hadn't been able to fight back when it happened and hadn't been able to make anyone pay for it since then. He was ready to get his revenge.

"Listener says to bring your slingshot and to help me find a weapon," she continued. "He told us to meet him in the lot behind the shoe factory. Said you'd know where that is."

"You're fighting too?" he asked, looking pleased. She nodded. "Sweet! This'll be fun." She didn't know if his lack of protest on the matter made her feel better or more apprehensive.

He started walking, but not toward the front entryway. "Where are we going?" she said, keeping up with him.

"I have to go put my stuff in my locker and get my slingshot. You can wait here if you want. Your face is all red from rushing. I'll get you a slingshot too. Think you can use one?"

She figured it couldn't be too difficult, and if she couldn't figure it out she could just hit people with it. She nodded before falling back. She leaned up against the wall and waited, glad for the chance to catch her breath, especially if she was going to be fighting soon.

Her mind wandered toward Listener. Were they already at the Bridge or were they still trying to find weapons? Did Listener have a weapon? Oh God, she hoped he didn't forego getting one for himself because he was trying to be noble. The thought made her stomach twist. What if someone pulled a knife on him? She wasn't great with blood, but maybe she should get Al to teach her how to give stitches after all this was over. She'd heard David and Jack joke about her being a skin seamstress and even that made her feel queasy. Maybe she should just stick to hoping that no one needed stitches in the first place.

"Wow, looks like someone really did a number on you."

Jenna looked up at the sound of the voice and couldn't help the involuntary roll of her eyes when she realized who was coming her way. Of course she would end up running into that hoity-toity asshole she'd had the pleasure of meeting outside of Les's school nearly a month ago. What's his name again? Starts with a W . . .

He pushed his dark blonde hair out of his face as he came closer, looking at her curiously. "What do you do? Get in bar fights when you're not in school?"

He didn't recognize her. Fair enough. She had been in pretty bad shape then. She almost laughed, but she was too irritated by his presence to bother doing so. Besides, she didn't want him thinking she thought he was funny or anything. "No, I'm a newsie," she told him curtly. It was the first time she had said it out loud and she felt a rush of pride in getting to say it.

"What're you doing here then? Oh, you're friends with Jacobs." His expression turned sour and she almost marveled at how quickly he could switch off the nice guy act. He eyed her with an overwhelming sense of distaste.

"Surprised you don't recognize me, actually," she said, glaring back. "I mean, you think you'd remember the girl who gave you those marks on your arms." She had noticed, with a great deal of satisfaction, the scars that had been left on his inner right arm from her dragging her nails down it when he and his friend had jumped her outside. They were nearly healed, but still whiter than the surrounding skin.

His whole body tensed and he took a step toward her. "You little bitch."

She rolled her eyes, trying not to smile at how successful she was at making him angry. She was surprisingly unafraid. She had to attribute that to the fact that she had already taken a beating since last time they had met and the ones who had done this to her had been much better fighters than this kid. She had survived a hit from Brooklyn and was about to fight them again. She could take this kid.

A surge of confidence boiled up in her chest and she took two steps toward him so that they were nearly toe to toe. "There aren't two of you this time and I know how to fight now. You wanna try me? Go ahead, asshole."

The kid's eyes were hard, but she watched as they flickered from one of her eyes to another. He was trying to figure out what to do and his hesitation gave him away even before he took a step back from her. He made a disapproving noise in the back of his throat while looking down his nose at her. "Go home, bitch, before you get hurt."

Jenna laughed out loud at that and his whole body went rigid again, but he had already backed off. He cast her a look of disgust and walked away.

Les came around the corner mere seconds later and handed her a dark brown slingshot. "Sorry it took so long. Had to break into some other lockers to find you one. Come on, we can practice with it while we walk. We'd better hurry."

Jenna grasped it tightly in her hand and looked up at less with a beaming smile as they started walking toward the exit. He laughed at her and raised an eyebrow in amusement. "You look excited," he told her.

She shrugged, the smile not fading. "I'm just ready to kick some ass."