Y'know what, I'm goin' with two chapters today. Let's go.

But first, I already have reviews to respond to! (You guys review fast. I'm glad.)

JustVildaPotter: Speedy review alert! I'm happy you enjoyed! (Les is the best.) Hmm, that's an interesting theory you have about Sally... you'll have to see if you're right (someday, when I get to the concept of Les and dating).

AndrewKeenanBolgerFan: Thank you so much! (I need to figure out more variations of thank you, as I do a lot of thanking in these responses.) Your feedback means a lot. I'm glad I could help you relieve your stress (Newsies and stress relief go hand in hand, in my opinion).

Lights, camera, action!

Chapter 12- Romeo

Wednesday, September 15, 1999, 2:10 p.m.

The theater buzzed with excitement. Romeo bounced up and down in his seat, anticipating the beginning of class. For years, he had waited to reach high school so that he could participate in the theatre program. Now he was finally here.

As far as first days of school went, this one had gone pretty well. That very morning, Romeo had been reunited with Anthony, a former foster brother of his. Though Anthony, now called Racetrack, didn't exactly remember Romeo, his friends were quick to welcome the freshman into their group. Particularly an older, taller boy with brown skin, who went by the nickname "Specs".

The cause of this was simple: Romeo had a peculiar habit of flirting with any person as soon as he met them. This annoyed the vast majority of people, but once in a blue moon, there would be someone who didn't mind it, or better yet, actually enjoyed being flirted with. This blue moon, that person was Specs. He stuck to Romeo like glue, or rather, like a sticky substance that was trying to stick to something but was constantly prevented from doing so. The fact was that Specs was a senior and Romeo was a freshman. Their paths never crossed during the day other than at lunchtime, and they wouldn't have done before Theatre if Romeo hadn't run to the counselor and begged them to put him in the journalism class. Specs had been extremely pleased to see Romeo there, albeit a little surprised. The second he'd spotted the younger boy in the newspaper office, Specs had rushed over and filled the seat next to him before anyone else could even consider the idea. It was a bit like having a dog. Romeo loved dogs.

At the moment, Specs was turned halfway around in his seat- next to Romeo once again- talking to Jack and Davey, who were sitting behind him. On Romeo's other side sat Race, who was fooling around with Albert and the twins, Mike and Ike. Everyone in the class was older than Romeo. The fact that all the other guys already knew each other was beginning to get on his nerves. He would have liked to have a conversation with Specs, but every time he thought of a topic, one of the older boy's friends would interrupt, and Romeo would be forgotten.

Scanning the half-full rows of seats, Romeo concluded that in addition to himself, there were only two other new kids; Davey and Crutchie, both of whom were already close with Jack. Davey was too pretentious for his taste, and Crutchie was... well, it was obvious from the way Jack stood at his side every moment, always teasing him or ruffling his hair. Crutchie was taken, in some sense of the word. But he was new, and close to Romeo's age.

"Hey, Crutchie," Romeo leaned over the back of his seat. Then his mouth kept moving, causing him to blurt out, "What's your leg say? Gonna rain?" Why had he asked that?

Crutchie grinned. He smiled all the time, so that meant nothing, but the confusion was clear in his eyes. "Uhh..."

"Isn't that a thing?" Romeo continued, trying to save the conversation. "People with bad legs can sense the weather? 'Cause a' air pressure or somethin'?" Air pressure? Was he seriously talking about air pressure?

Fortunately for Romeo, Crutchie understood. He swung his bad leg stiffly back and forth, as if testing the aforementioned theory. "No rain..." his eyebrows shot up. "Ho-ho! Partly cloudy, clear by ev'nin'." As far as Romeo could see, he had no possible way of sneakily checking the weather, and whether the boy was faking this knowledge or not was debatable.

"Wow, Crutch," Race was suddenly part of the conversation. "You should take that leg on the road or somethin'. Bet you'd make a lot a' money."

Crutchie rejected this idea. "I don' need the leg ta make money." He drew a hand down through the air in front of his face, resting it, palm up, under his chin, like he was putting his head on display. "I got 'poisonality'."

"Ya sure do," Jack agreed, ruffling the younger boy's hair. "I mean, look at this face," he told Race as Crutchie broke out his contagious smile. "Who needs psychic legs?"

Specs whirled around in his seat, abruptly ending the conversation he had just started with Davey. "Psychic legs?"

"Yes," Race nodded, providing no context or information as to what they had all been talking about.

Before Specs could inquire further into the matter, a tall Black woman in a flamboyant pink dress walked onstage. A fair number of students began applauding loudly, and a few even cheered; most noticeably, Jack and Race. The teacher let the clapping go on for about a minute before raising her hands for quiet. Slowly, the applause died out, with one last cheer from someone across the theater who had been late to join in. Almost everyone burst out laughing when that person was revealed to be Elmer.

"Hello everyone!" Miss Medda Larkin announced as the laughter subsided. She spread her arms wide in a welcoming gesture. "Welcome to my theater. And relax," she said, looking in the direction of where Elmer was sitting, presumably looking embarrassed. "You're with Medda now."

Jack whooped encouragingly, either to voice his excitement for the class, or to attract Medda's attention, the latter of which he accomplished. When her eyes found him in the audience and she smiled at him in an almost motherly fashion, Jack got a goofy smile on his face, which told Romeo he was enjoying the attention but trying not to show it. Medda then beckoned everyone to come onto the stage.

Following that instruction, the remainder of the period passed too quickly for Romeo's liking. Firstly, they went through introductions, not that they were needed. Most everyone in the class knew each other already. Even the handful of girls who weren't part of the newspaper team and only took the class because they belonged to the dance team, which practiced afterward, knew everyone other than Davey, Crutchie, and Romeo. The introductions did, however, force a lot of people to reveal their additional names.

Specs was Samuel Jordan or SJ, which Romeo already knew, but he was surprised to learn that Henry had a nickname, and it was "Butts", short for his last name, Butler. Sniper, a girl who spent a lot of time around Smalls, revealed her name to be Terry, a nickname for Teresa Wah, at the insistence of her best friend, Finch. She proceeded to give out his name- Pat, short for Patrick Cortes- before he could decline to do so. He glared at her, while Smalls looked on, smirking. Unfortunately for her, Finch noticed her facial expression and quickly volunteered the girl's real first name, Agnes.

"Annie," corrected Smalls. At that, Albert started humming 'It's a Hard-Knock Life', from the musical Annie, and Romeo joined in, causing Smalls to throw her shoe at him.

Medda caught the shoe as Romeo threw it back toward Smalls. Dropping it on the stage floor, she moved on to the next person in the circle as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

Crutchie was Charlie and Buttons offered up the name Benji as an alternative to their nickname, while Jojo was just Jojo. Three boys with the nicknames Mush, Kid Blink, and Tommy Boy were actually named Nick, Louis, and Thomas, respectively. Meanwhile, Albert, Elmer, Mike, and Ike were sadly without nicknames. Though technically, the twins made a point of mentioning, Mike was short for Michael and Ike was short for Isaac. Race was skipped over, as everyone knew at least one of his many names already. Medda just told everyone to call him Race or Tony before it was Romeo's turn, which lasted the five seconds it took him to say that his own name was Romeo.

Jack closed out the list, saying "Ya can call me 'Francis if ya feel like gettin' punched."

Davey was the only one to react to this, appearing surprised to learn that his new friend was actually named Francis.

At the conclusion of the introductions, Medda led her students through a series of theatrical warm ups. All participated, with varying degrees of shyness. Romeo was one of the most enthusiastic, while Davey was the most reserved out of anyone, even the random dance team girls. To fill the rest of the time, Medda taught them a murder mystery game in which one person had to act as the narrator and come up with the ridiculous situation the rest of the players would be put into. The first run through didn't take nearly as long as the explanation had. Henry was the first person to be "killed", and immediately, the rest of his classmates turned on Elmer, who had indeed been the "murderer", surprising no one. Romeo, like everyone else, had noticed the way Henry teased his friend at every possible moment, it being his life's goal to annoy the hell out of Elmer. Granted, multiple other members of the group somewhat shared this goal, but Henry was Elmer's prime frenemy.

Five minutes remained in the period when Medda's cell phone rang. As she stepped away to take the call, the students vacated the stage, returning to the seats where they had all left their bags. Specs, Finch, Albert, and Sniper were the few who remained on the stage; Romeo and Smalls hung around as well. The three older boys, as members of the dance team, began to set up for their practice. Smalls stood with Sniper, getting in the way of the others. Not knowing what he could do to be of assistance, Romeo drifted absentmindedly into the wings. He didn't realize he had accidentally followed Medda until he overheard her phone call from the other side of the curtain.

"No Mr. Pulitzer, I don't have time to attend a school board meeting this afternoon," Medda told the person on the other end in a mildly annoyed tone. There was a short pause in which Mr. Pulitzer, whoever he was, was given time to reply, and then Medda continued speaking. "It's the first day back. What could possibly be so important?" Another pause, and then Medda sarcastically exclaimed, "Your daughter? Well, in that case, let me drop everything!" A third, shorter pause followed this. "No, I'm not going to the meeting. I'm sure the rest of the board can figure out your family problems in my absence. Meanwhile, I have to plan the next day's lesson and supervise the dance team practice, for I, unlike you, have to work for my salary." From above, the ringing of the school bell sounded, signaling the end of the day. "And before you say anything, I am aware that I have quite a bit of money. Goodbye," stated Medda. Romeo heard her end the call and quickly darted out of the curtains so he wouldn't be caught eavesdropping.

As he hopped off the stage and made his way between the seats to retrieve his bag, he pondered the phone call he'd overheard. Whoever Mr. Pulitzer was, he had not sounded pleased with Medda after she declined to solve his familial issues. And for some odd reason, the man felt the need to concern the entire school board with those same issues.

What on earth was that about?

So it begins. Kind of. You'll meet Pulitzer in a few chapters.

Besides the phone call at the end, this chapter doesn't really have a purpose. I used it mainly as a place to state names I might use for the characters besides their newsie nicknames. If you have any questions about where a name came from, I'd love to answer.

For now, let's have a random question: Have you ever taken a Theatre class? If so, did you like it? And if not, do you want to take a Theatre class?

See ya next time!