[Assorted flickering lights sounds]

Intermission is ending, people. Grab your snacks and get back to your seats.

Review Responses:

AndrewKeenanBolgerFan: Yep, that was really the only way to end 2020. (Sorry 'bout that.) Thank you very much, person who's heart I killed! Jack appreciates your virtual gifts. Uh-oh... you can't trust a man dressed in yellow. We better start running and hiding our immortality water.

JustVildaPotter: I broke Vilda! We need a doctor in here, stat! I'm sorry, Jack, but I had to do what I did for plot reasons. And poor Crutchie, trapped in the Refuge. WAN is indeed going to get real sad this year. At the end of this chapter, I'll be starting a list of characters who need hugs. Thank you, and welcome to the crazy world of fansies!

Since it's been a while, and Act II is about to start, I thought I'd take a moment to remind you guys that I DO NOT OWN NEWSIES. None of this is mine, though I wish it was. But it's not, so don't go around thinking otherwise. (Not that any of you were, but anyway.)

Okay, it's time to play the music, light the lights, and put an end to this incredibly long preface.

So, without further ado, welcome back to We Are Newsies. Enjoy the show.


Chapter 40- Jojo

Sunday, September 19, 1999, 6:01 a.m.

Beep-beep, beep-beep. Pause. Beep-beep, beep-beep. Pause. Beep-beep, beep-beep. Pause.

From down the hall came the sound of one of the boys bellowing, "Will you turn that freakin' thing off?" in response to the sound of the alarm.

More shouting followed this, as the person being shouted at did not comply with the request. Then a door slammed, and Buttons appeared in the hall, leaving the argument behind in the room they had slept in.

Standing behind the counter in the small kitchen area, Jojo waved to their friend. "How ya doin'?" they asked when Buttons sat down. Maybe, if they pretended this was the coffee shop, this morning would feel normal.

"This apartment's crazy," Buttons muttered, laying their head on the countertop. Their hair was already rapidly growing back from the day they had been forced to shave it all off, and Jojo had to resist the urge to reach over and ruffle it. "I'm so glad I don't gotta live 'ere all the time."

Jojo nodded and busied themself with pouring coffee into mugs. Duane Street certainly was an unusual place to wake up. Although to be fair, the boys who lived there weren't used to having more than half of their friends come by for an impromptu sleepover. Occasionally, a couple newsies would stay over when and if they needed to, but that was always one or two of them at a time. The apartment didn't have enough beds for eleven people. Except, Jojo reminded themself with a frown, maybe it did, in current circumstances.

"Any word on Crutchie yet?" asked Jojo, pushing a mug in front of Buttons.

They shook their head. "Nope. Specs is goin' outta his mind."

"I bet. He sleep at all?"

"I hope 'e did!" a voice called from the couch. Jojo looked over in the direction of the sound, watching Race sit up. The boy's hair looked like a mad scientist's wig; it stuck out in all directions as if it had been rubbed with a balloon or a giant sheet of tinfoil. "I gave 'im my bed."

Clearly surprised at this news, Buttons turned to Race as well. "When'd ya get out here? They're all yellin' at you in there." He gestured toward the hall. From a distant bedroom, faint arguments could still be heard over the blaring of the alarm.

Race shrugged, "They'll figure it out eventually," as he adjusted his position so that his arms could rest atop the back of the couch. "Hey Jo, how's about ya give me some a' that coffee?"

Wrapping their arms in a circle so as to protect the coffee mugs, Jojo shook their head. "Uh-uh. You'll sleep all day."

"But I barely slept all night!"

After exchanging a concerned look with Jojo, Buttons questioned Race, "Ya hear from Jack yet?"

Immediately, Race's bouncy demeanor fell. "No." For a moment his head disappeared as he felt around on the couch for his cell phone. He reappeared with the object in hand. "Lemme try again."

"Race, ya don't hafta-" Jojo started.

"No, no, I got it. He's gotta pick up this time." As he got off the couch, Race punched in the number. "He wouldn't be ignorin' me 'less he was in trouble." Phone pressed to his ear, Race walked out of the apartment, pulling the door shut behind him as he escaped into the hall.

"He prob'ly is in trouble," muttered Jojo at the closed door.

Buttons nodded. "He's definitely wit the bulls if we ain't heard from 'im by now." He took a sip of coffee, only to promptly spit it out. "JJ, what the hell happened?"

"Is it really that bad?" To investigate the reasoning behind Buttons' reaction, Jojo took a drink from one of the other mugs, grimacing as they forced it down.

It was in fact that bad. The awful taste- a mix of burned rubber and dirt- came as no surprise to them. Duane Street had had a coffee pot, but unfortunately no actual coffee. As a result, Jojo had attempted to substitute a mixture of teabags and hot chocolate packets, hoping it would work just as well. To be honest, they hadn't really been thinking when they'd jolted awake at five in the morning. But they'd known they wouldn't be getting back to sleep, so they had taken control of the kitchen and tried to occupy themself with what felt normal.

"Sorry, B," they apologized, wiping off the counter. "That ain't exactly coffee."

"Yeah, no sh- kiddin', no kiddin'. What'dja do ta it?"

"Somethin' very, very wrong." Jojo looked over the numerous mugs they had filled with the doomed concoction. "Guess this all goes down the sink, then?"

"Yeah... wait." Buttons stopped as a smirk spread over their face. "Actually, no. Leave 'em there an' see who drinks it."

"Is this really the time fer pranks?"

"Sure it is. Now c'mon." With that, Buttons got up. "Let's get away while we still can."

"Alright," agreed Jojo, coming around the counter. They glanced down the hall, which had thankfully quieted down since the last time they'd been paying that area of the apartment any attention. Remembering the previous day's events, they started toward one of the bedrooms, Buttons following behind. Within moments the pair was standing in front of the only bedroom door on the left side of the hallway. Jojo gently pushed the door open and stepped into the room; they didn't turn on the lights, but called softly, "Hen?" knowing the boy in question would be easily woken.

But no response came. Now Jojo did flick the light switch on, only to find that all the beds were empty. Piled on the floor, under a collection of random blankets, lay Blink, Tommy Boy, and Tommy Boy's dog, but there was no sign of Henry. In confusion, Jojo spun around to face their companion. "He wasn't in the otha' room, was 'e?"

Buttons looked just as taken aback by the absence of Henry as Jojo was, which was enough answer to the question on its own. However, they answered anyway, "Nah, there was already four a' us in there."

"Huh." Jojo stepped back into the hall, failing to hit the lights on their way out, which was sure to annoy the two sleeping boys when they eventually woke. But what difference would a smidge more irritation make? At that moment, the door at the top of the staircase leading to the roof opened, and Mush walked down, leading Jojo to address him and wonder, "You seen Henry anywhere?"

Mush tilted his head at the steps behind him, quickly stating, "Penthouse."

"Great," Jojo bounded past Mush, sprinted the stairs two at a time, and burst out the rooftop door.

They didn't see Henry at first. What they did see was a ragged old sleeping bag in the midst of a load of ripped up drawings. Evidently, this was where Jack had been staying, but there was no telling how recently he had last been around. Wondering if Henry had been the one to tear apart the drawings, Jojo scanned the rooftop, finally spotting their friend standing against the wall, watching the sunrise.

"Hen!" Jojo called, jogging over. "There you are."

Henry turned around, looking oddly surprised to see Jojo. It was clear he had hardly slept; the bags under his eyes were nearly as dark as the bruises on his arms and legs. "Oh, hey," he said casually. "Is somethin' goin' on?"

"No, ya jus' weren't in yer room, so I..." Jojo trailed off. Now that they were up on the roof, they realized there hadn't really been a point to them searching for Henry. "I, uh, wondered where ya were. Tha's all. And uh, here you are."

"Ya found me."

Neither person seemed certain of how to proceed from this conversational rut. That was, until Jojo blurted, "Some shit went down yesterday."

Behind them, Buttons burst out laughing at the sound of his friend using a curse word, which slightly offended Jojo. They weren't that innocent, for goodness sake. Henry, on the other hand, ignored this, simply mumbling, "Yep," while staring at his feet.

"Are you alright?" Jojo asked, reaching out to touch Henry's shoulder. Until this moment, they had forgotten about their mildly sprained wrist, and winced when it was moved.

Hearing Jojo's pained noise, Henry looked up, but he didn't exactly look at Jojo, and his words came out choked when he finally spoke. "No, I'm not." Jojo didn't even get a chance to open their mouth before that confession became a full-on rant. "I dunno what ta do. Smalls ran off, Jack must a' been 'ere but he clearly ain't now, an' we got no clue where the fu- heck Crutchie is! An' Romeo's concussed, an' Elmer-" Henry's hand, on which he had been counting out the missing newsies, shook for a second before curling into a fist. As Jojo watched, the boy turned to the side and brought both his hands down on the wall surrounding the rooftop. He started crying; either from the pain of the impact, the stress of the week, or a mixture of both. Most likely the last one. "I was such an idiot!" Henry's palms smacked against the wall. "He was tellin' me ta watch out, an' I couldn't!" Smack! "I couldn't freakin' move!" Smack! "He's hurt an' it's my fault!" Smack! Smack! Smack!

"Hen!" Jojo grabbed their friend's arms, holding them back so he couldn't injure himself further. "Don't say that. It ain't yer fault, okay?"

Henry stopped struggling, coming to notice the bruises he had just caused to blossom all over his palms. "But- but I got 'im hurt."

"Ev'ryone got hurt yesterday. Some more than others."

"But Elmer-"

"Stop. He's gonna be fine, y'know that. He'll be back in a couple days an' he'll be just as cheery as eva'."

"Prob'ly gonna hafta sit around fer weeks though," Buttons put in. "An' he'll be complainin' 'cause he can't go anywhere."

To Jojo's relief, that idea made Henry smile. "He's gonna be so pissed when 'e wakes up stuck in a hospital. Wit a massive headache too."

"An' no coffee ta fix it with," added Jojo. "He'll be miserable."

"We could bring 'im some from downstairs," suggested Buttons, winking at Jojo.

"You made coffee?" Henry perked up more at this news, rubbed the last of the tears out of his eyes. "I didn't think we had any."

Rapidly, Jojo declined this. "You don't. I tried to use whatcha did have, an' it didn't end well. Don't drink it."

"Ew, curdled coffee."

"Well, technically, it ain't coffee. I mean, there's not a drop a' coffee actually in it."

Henry eyed Jojo concernedly. "Ya didn't need ta use any sandwich stuff fer that disaster, didja?"

"Uh, no. It's coffee. Why would I need-"

"Ya just said it wasn't actually coffee!"

"Ya know what I mean! Why would I be usin' sandwich ingredients ta make a drink?"

"I dunno, I had ta make sure there wouldn't be a sandwich shortage!"

"What is this conversation?" Buttons asked no one in particular.

"No idea," answered Jojo, just as unsure as Buttons. Then something else caught their eye. "Hey, look at that." They pointed at the bits of sky that were visible between the many buildings. During Henry's one-sided attack on the wall, variations of pink, red, orange, yellow, and purple had exploded across the eastern sky.

This sunrise looked like a real life depiction of what Jojo had always imagined the inside of Jack's head to look like; colors spread as far as the eye could see. Just looking at it could fill a person with hope, even if that person had come off worse in a fight the day before. Even if half of their friends were missing.

"Whoa..." Henry murmured, backing up against Jojo. They were still holding his arms, and neither of them had yet objected to the embrace. Jojo shifted so Henry could back up against them, raising their arms up and over his head. In this way, they came into a position where they were hugging him from behind. And still, Henry didn't object.

Nothing felt awkward or odd in front of a sunrise like this. The morning may not have been normal, as much as Jojo had wanted it to be. But right now, that was okay, because the events of the day before were behind them all, and surely would become a distant memory soon. After all, it was a new day. And with a sunrise this grand, anything could happen.


Woohoo! First new chapter is done! Jojo's entire character arc revolves around coffee, which is kinda weird, but oh well. Also, there's a bit of a new ship in the works. Did you spot it?

Newsies that need hugs:

1. Henry

Do leave a review and tell me what you thought of this! The next update will probably come next weekend, so stay tuned!