Gods, this week has been hectic. Two swim meets, a choir audition, and now I'm waiting for the cast list of my school musical. This is the worst kind of anticipation.

Anyway.

Review Responses:

JustVildaPotter: Sorry 'bout that, I was trying to post it earlier due to your time difference, but the site was being glitchy. But you were willing to procrastinate on sleep to read this, so thanks! It's not the Suite Life! We don't got a sweet life! Poor Jacobs siblings indeed. Their father needs to calm down, but he won't (at least not in this story). Cats are choas. Good random time of day to you, and enjoy the chapter!

AndrewKeenanBolgerFan: 1. That's such a cool coincidence! (I have not watched "The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals", but plan to, and really need to get on top of reminding myself.) 2. YOU HAVE A POINT THERE, MR. JACOBS NEEDS TO SHUT UP. 3. Les appreciates the toast. Thank you.

Also, thanks so much to lucykeeven7 for following this! I often forget to recognize people who follow the story, but I greatly appreciate it. (And if you're comfortable with leaving a review to tell me your thoughts, that'd be delightful.)

Okay, chapter time! Let's get some drama resolved!


Chapter 44- Tommy Boy

Sunday, September 19, 1999, 9:30 a.m.

Dogs were much less complicated than people. Replacing all of his friends with dogs was an idea that became more and more appealing to Tommy Boy as the morning dragged on. He sat at a small table with only two chairs, one of which was filled by Les holding Chuck, the mutt he'd found in the East Side days before. The normally talkative little boy had been silent from the minute he and his siblings had arrived at Jacobi's. Tommy Boy had spent enough time studying people to see that Les was bothered about something, but being a man of few words he hadn't interrogated his young friend for details. Anyway, Les had quickly become immersed in petting Chuck upon spotting her and Tommy Boy, so he hadn't made any attempts at conversation either. And Tommy Boy, sharing the same opinion, understood why Les preferred interacting with the dog. She didn't complicate her friendships unnecessarily; she was simply a dog doing dog things: barking, rolling in mud, scratching at fleas, and so on and so forth. Why couldn't everyone else be as simple as that?

"So Snipes was here earlier, an' ya had a million chances ta talk ta her, but ya still haven't?" Albert was grilling Finch, circling back to a point he had made at least three times already. "How hard is it fer you ta make things right wit 'er?"

Finch, who clearly wasn't feeling up to an argument this morning, muttered, "Harder than ya think."

Shaking his head in disdain, Albert returned to setting up tables for customers that wouldn't be coming, as Jacobi had closed his restaurant the minute the newsies showed up. The redheaded boy had been given this unnecessary task after he wouldn't stop pestering the restaurant owner, and he was intent on his work.

Finch, meanwhile, was looking on from his place in one of the chairs, unable to move much due to his sprained ankle. "Yer the one who made it hard," Mush pointed out to him, trapping the boy in uncomfortable conversation. "I mean, ya did throw 'er out yesterday."

"You should talk," scoffed Blink when Finch did not retort to Mush's statement.

Tommy Boy's two best friends were, big surprise, still in the middle of their argument as well. In his opinion, their fight shouldn't have even existed, but both Blink and Mush were too petty to resolve their issues in a reasonable amount of time. And he was lucky enough to be involved in their drama. Yippee skippee.

After being ignored by his boyfriend, Blink walked over to Tommy Boy's corner of the room, huffing dramatically, "Can ya believe him?"

Tommy Boy could believe Mush. The guy had been punched in the nose the previous afternoon, so he honestly had a right to be angry. Although, Blink had had just as much right to punch Mush after the comment he'd made regarding Blink's eyesight. Their fight was still stupid and pointless, but at least there was a source for both boys' anger.

Contrary to this was Specs, who had just yelled at someone for asking about Jack and Crutchie for the millionth time. Specs had been in a foul mood all morning; he'd developed a vendetta against practically everyone, but particularly the mystery person who had left a rotten batch of coffee in the kitchen at Duane Street. The initial blame for this incident had been placed on Albert, but after the redhead had denied any involvement ten times, the culprit was deemed unknown. Even so, this didn't stop Specs from hating them. He was in the middle of his second or third rant about the bad coffee, saying he was going to make whoever it was regret being born, and other overdramatic phrases. If the bags under his eyes were any indication, Specs had no intentions of acting upon these threats. Henry, Jojo, and Buttons were nodding along to this sleep-deprived tirade. All three of them were listening intently, but not so intently that their focus could not be stolen by the arrival of Katherine.

"Good morning, everyone!" The student teacher greeted, orange skirt swishing around her legs as she bustled into the diner. She was only answered by a few half-hearted "hey"s. Most people barely waved, to which Katherine remarked, "Would you get a load of these glum mugs?" as if she were someone from the eighteen hundreds. Then she raised a newspaper. "Are these really the same kids who made the front page of today's New York Sun?"

Within seconds of that announcement, the room exploded into exclamations of "Holy shit!" and "Front page?"

Race, who had been sitting atop the counter, promptly jumped down and bounded across the dining room to grab the paper from Katherine's hand. He spread it out in front of him, leaning back slightly as he examined the photo below the headline. "Check it out!" Triumphantly, he tapped the paper. "That there's me!"

Jojo nudged their way through the crowd and yanked the paper from Race's hands. "Where's me?"

Before they could find themself, Buttons took hold of the pape. "Wait 'til my old man gets a load a' this!" They marveled, then gasped, "I won't be last in line for the tub tonight!"

Next to Tommy Boy, Les mumbled to Davey, who stood nearby, "I wonder what Dad'll say 'bout us gettin' ourselves in the pape."

Davey made a face that implied he knew what their father was going to say, and Tommy Boy was about to ask what they meant by all that, but Mush hopped up on the table and read the article's title aloud, interrupting all other conversations. "'Newsies Stop the World'." He bumped shoulders with Henry, who had climbed up next to him. "Now there's a headline even Elmer could sell!" Rather than laugh along with the joke, Henry looked at his feet, not saying anything. The excitement among the rest of the newsies deflated as well, causing Mush to knit his eyebrows in confusion. "Hey, c'mon! I wasn't tryin' ta insult no one."

Blink rolled his eyes. "That's sensitive of ya."

"I was only pickin' on Elmer like we always do, geez. Pardon me fer forgettin' he ain't here, it was an honest mistake."

"Speakin' of which," Specs piped up, shoving his way toward Katherine while Blink glared at Mush. "How're Elmer an' Romeo doin'? I neva' heard back from ya, Kath."

"Oh, they're fine," Katherine reassured him. "Sorry, I forgot to let you know. I got all caught up in an argument with my father. He saw my article, and now I'm blacklisted from every paper in the city, including The Sun. Typical Joseph Pulitzer, stifling the voices that need to be heard most-" she cut herself off suddenly by slapping her hand over her mouth.

Every pair of eyes in the room- save for Sarah's and of course Chuck the dog's- were now narrowed suspiciously at the student teacher. "Uh, Kath?" Tommy Boy asked, "What'dja just say?"

"Nothing! Just that I'm blacklisted from every paper in the city, nothing specific or anything like that!"

Arms crossed, Albert came forward. "Really," he challenged, "'cause it sounded ta me like ya said yer fatha's Pulitzer."

"No, no, you misunderstood! What I meant was... Well, what I meant... I..."

"What else couldja possibly have meant?" Davey cut in.

Katherine shrugged, shutting her mouth as an expression of devastation spread across her face. Sarah spoke for her. "So the truth's out. Katherine is Pulitzer's daughter. Deal with it."

"Deal with it?" Albert repeated. "She's workin' fer da enemy!"

"Bet she's been feedin' ol' Joe information from day one!" declared Blink.

Mush accused, "She's prob'ly the one who called the cops!"

That brought a look of absolute horror to Specs' face. "Wait a sec... that's why ya were so intent on helpin' Ro get ta the hospital, isn't it? 'Cause you brought the bulls in the first place."

"No!" Katherine waved her hands wildly, as if clearing the air of all accusations. "Nothing like that happened. I haven't been feeding Pulitzer information, and I didn't call the cops."

Henry gave a little shake of his head. "How can we believe you?"

"Come on, guys! You all know me! You know I would never-"

"Henry's right," said Jojo, their eyes downcast, "we can't believe you when we can't trust you."

"I could never turn in my students. I dated Jack, for cryin' out loud! I know better than to call the authorities on any of you."

Buttons proposed, "But what if you told Pulitzer accidentally? I know random stuff can come out over family dinner, even if ya don't mean for it to."

"I'm not close with my father, let me tell you that much. I've been just as annoyed with him as the rest of you."

Specs inquired, "Annoyed 'cause ya care about the strike, or 'cause he hadja blacklisted from all the papes?"

"...Both."

"Uh-huh."

"If I didn't care about the strike, why would I write about it?"

"Ta get yourself a job," Davey groused.

"Who cares why she wrote it, s'long as we're in da papes?" piped up Race. Nobody shared his sentiment, but he continued anyway. "You guys, c'mon. It's Kath we're talkin' about. We've always trusted 'er. Jack trusts 'er, despite knowin'-" He broke off, shell-shocked in a realization.

Les picked up where Race had left off. "Jack doesn't know, does 'e?"

Covering her mouth with one hand, Katherine could only admit, "I told him my parents lived far away, so he'd never ask to meet them."

"Ya even lied ta Jack?" At the end of his sentence, Albert snarled like a feral cat. "You scum. Wait'll he finds out!"

"Please, let me tell him myself. He needs to hear it from me."

"Jack ain't hearin' nothin' from you," snapped Specs. "You need ta go. Now."

"Have y'all forgotten how much we need Kath?" asked Finch, still stuck in a chair. He crossed his arms, stating, "She got us in the papes. One lousy parent shouldn't affect her trustworthiness."

"Oh, really?" demanded a voice from the doorway. Sniper was standing there, and from the looks of her, Tommy Boy assumed she must have been caught up in another fight on the way over to Jacobi's. There was a nasty, fresh-looking bruise visible on one of her cheeks, and numerous red marks up and down her arms. "So, if I obey my fatha', it makes me a traitor, but Kath says she's Pulitzer's daughter an' yer okay with it?"

Clearly taken aback, Finch forced himself out of his chair. "Snipes, I-"

"Y'know Finchy, afta' I saw yer mom this mornin' I thought about forgivin' ya. But the second I get here, I can tell nothing's changed."

"Somethin' changed," Race volunteered, "we got in da papes."

"Oh, well, don't that jus' make everythin' better."

"Good point," agreed Mush, finally stepping down from the table. "The headline don't change the fact that certain people nearly killed us all."

Blink told him, "If youse had jus' listened ta our warnings in da first place, we wouldn't a' been in any danger."

"Please. It took ya all a' two seconds ta join us afta' the Delanceys left."

"An' yet ya can't believe me when I say I didn't do nothin'."

"Tha's 'cause ya did do somethin'."

"So accordin' ta yer logic, Finchy," Sniper's wondering overlapped Mush and Blink's conversation. "Kath ain't like her father, but I'm exactly like mine fer tryin' ta protect myself?"

Finch attempted to explain, "I wasn't referrin' ta you when I said-"

"Yeah, sure ya weren't. Goddamn hypocrite."

"Traitor!"

"Mouth, whaddaya say we do 'bout Kath?" A third layer of disgruntled conversation was added as Albert's voice joined the din. "'Cause I think we should throw 'er out."

"Well..." Davey considered. "We do need her, but-"

"So all she is to you is some reporter?" exclaimed Sarah.

"I never said that, I only meant-"

"I don't understand why ya don't trust what I say!" Blink's voice rang out, drowning out the rest of Davey's response.

"Ya sided with the Delanceys!" Mush cried, even more loudly.

At the same time, Finch yelled, "Sniper, just listen to me!"

"I can't take this anymore!" Sniper screamed over top of him, at the same moment.

Meanwhile, Albert proclaimed, "It's eitha' we soak Kath or we throw 'er out, jus' tell me what ta do, Mouth!"

"I'm not the authority here, ask Specs!" Davey replied.

To this, Specs shouted, "I ain't in charge a' decisions eitha'!"

"One of you has ta take control sometime!" Sarah ordered.

Race called out, "Doesn't anyone care that da headline makes us Kings a' New York?"

All the while, Tommy Boy had been standing on the sidelines of these not-so-friendly discussions, aiding Les in holding Chuck back by her sad excuse for a collar. In an effort to stay out of the arguing, he had pressed his lips together, pulling his mouth into a tighter and tighter line. But with Race's last shout, he snapped.

Letting go of the circle of rope tied around Chuck's scruffy neck, Tommy Boy hollered "ENOUGH!" at the top of his lungs. Amazingly, everyone fell silent and collectively focused on him. Even Chuck whimpered and stopped trying to bolt from the room. Les knelt down next to her while Tommy Boy continued yelling. "THAT'S IT! Youse gotta listen ta me now, ya hear?"

Startled, Les tried to protest, "Tom-" but was quickly shut down.

"I SAID ENOUGH!" The little boy shrunk back, and Tommy Boy lowered his voice, but kept up the harsh tone. "I'm sick a' this. All this fightin'. It's gotten way outta hand."

"Tommy," Blink started.

"Zip it! You've all said enough already, an' we ain't moved on from where we was before! So, now youse're gonna listen ta what I says. What I says, that's what goes. Got it?" The other newsies nodded, rather than verbally reply and risk inciting more of Tommy Boy's rath. "Right," he said, "first up: you two." With this, he pointed to Mush and Blink. "What the hell's goin' on wit youse? I know I got no authority on romance, an' I can't expect everythin' ta be sunshine an' rainbows all the time, but youse were golden until..." Tommy Boy thought back, trying to place when the drama had started. "Come ta think of it, 'til Les showed up."

At that, Les' face fell, and he hopped up from the floor. "It ain't my fault they's having trouble in paradise!"

"No, kid, a' course it ain't. I'm jus' sayin' tha's where da tension started."

"'Cause you two decided lettin' a fifth grader sneak inta our school would be a good idea," explained Mush, directing the comment toward both Blink and Tommy Boy.

Blink responded, "We only meant ta let 'im in one day, but he kept showin' up."

Davey sighed, "Les, honestly."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Tommy Boy stepped forward before the Mouth could reprimand his brother more. "I'm da one who's kept lettin' 'im sneak in."

"Oh."

"So that makes you the cause of Mushy's drama then, not me!" Les decided.

"Well..." Tommy Boy didn't want to contradict the kid. "I mean, yeah. Kinda. But-"

Davey interrupted, "Cause of drama or not, you need to go back to your own school, Les."

The younger boy sat back down, averting his eyes toward the dog as he scratched her behind the ears. "I like it better here."

Mush gave him a small smile. "Tha's great, kid, but it's been a lot a' work hidin' ya ev'ry day."

"Sure has," Blink agreed.

"Ya don't know how many times we almost got caught," said Tommy Boy. "Besides, don'tcha wanna go back ta school, make some friends yer own age?"

"But you guys are my friends already," Les insisted. He brought his gaze back up. "I don't care if you're all older." Hesitating for a moment, he added, "But I guess I won't come around anymore, if it's such a problem."

"Whoa now, hold on," Tommy Boy placed a hand on the kid's shoulder. "All we're sayin' is it's been stressful, keepin' ya hidden. But that don't mean we don't wantcha here."

"Right," Les batted away his friend's hand. "Sure. Whatever."

"We ain't tryin' ta throw ya out or nothin'," Blink reassured, giving Mush an accusatory look. "Unlike some people."

"Look," Mush said, putting his hands up. "I don't like surprises. I mean, seein' you three sell out the strike... Guys, I knew youse heard the Delanceys' plan, but I neva' expected you ta actually agree wit it."

"We didn't wanna get suspended, Mushy," Blink told him. "The option was there, so we took it. An' when it turned out that we didn't actually hafta rat on youse, we didn't do that." After a quick glance in Sniper's direction, he continued, "It's the truth, and we've toldja so, ova' and ova', but ya still don't believe us."

Mush stuffed his hands in his pockets. It appeared that the floor had suddenly become the most interesting object in existence with how intently he had started staring at it. "Ya always tell me everythin', an' when ya didn't say nothin' about tellin' on us beforehand, I..."

"Ya stopped trustin' 'im," Tommy Boy finished while Mush looked back up.

"I did, yeah. An' then I got punched in the face."

Blink rocked back and forth on his heels, letting out a sigh. "Yeah... sorry 'bout that."

"Thanks. Sorry it took me so long ta believe youse."

"You's an idiot," Blink remarked. He stepped closer to Mush, then tossed an arm around his shoulder. "But, you's my idiot."

"Aw, shuddup," Mush replied, leaning forward to kiss Blink on the lips.

Tommy Boy didn't try to disguise the fact that he was rolling his eyes at the cheesy make-up conversation. "Alright," he announced after a minute of watching the pair kiss, causing Mush and Blink to remove themselves from each other's faces. Glancing around the room, Tommy Boy's gaze fell on Finch and Sniper, seated on opposite sides of Albert. He pointed at them both. "Yer turn."


Place your bets now, everyone. Will my school get cancelled on Monday, resulting in me posting the next chapter? We're currently getting a lot of snow, and the forecast says it's gonna be 7 degrees, so we'll find out.

Question: Did anyone spy my In The Heights references in this chapter? Anyone at all? If so, you deserve the King/Queen of musical references title. If not, you can just be King/Queen of New York.

Time to check that cast list in a minute! Wish me luck!