The long, hot days of summer had an edge to them now, a ticking clock that seemed to beat constantly in the back of David's mind, as August turned to September. His father had taken off his sling two weeks ago, and if David had any delusions about what that meant, he was only fooling himself. He should have been happy, ecstatic even, that his dad was better. It would take some pressure off of the rest of the family, especially his mother and Sarah, who had been the sole income earners for the family during the days of the strike. David had hated watching Sarah work long into the night on fine stitches. Stitches that were holding the family together. But still, despite all that, David felt a dread building up the back of his neck, with his dad back to work, he'd have to hold up his end of the deal and go back to school.

"Where's your head at, Dave?" Jack asked, a smile in his voice. David could hear it without even having to look. It pulled him back from his dour thoughts. They were sitting on the East River docks, on the Manhattan side, letting the breeze from the river cool them off.

"Yeah, you're bringing down the whole mood, snap out of it, or I'll throw ya in," Racetrack threatened, ankle deep in the water, cuffs rolled up to his knees. David waved him away, pulling a smile to his lips.

"What's going on? You're worse than Skitt today!" Swifty called, walking behind him and Jack as he stripped his shirt and dropped it on the worn boards of the dock.

"Hey!" Skittery heard the comment and gave chase, hurling himself at Swifty and sending them both into the dark water. David kept his eyes carefully trained on the waves until they reemerged, smiling.

"I start tomorrow," David finally muttered, to Jack only, when the other boys had distracted themselves with something else. The din of their voices over the water helped to drown out David's.

"What?"

"School. School starts again tomorrow," he explained, distinctly not looking at Jack, busying his hands with the gravel on the warm wood.

"And...you're going?" Jack asked. David could feel his eyes trained on him.

"Yeah. My mother sent me to enroll earlier this week, that's why I missed the morning edition that one day."

"So what? You're just going to go back to school and forget this summer ever happened?" Jack asked, his voice low and hurt. David looked up then. Jack's green eyes were dark and contained none of the careful mirth he was used to.

"No, Jack. No. Of course not, but you've heard my parents all summer, this is something I have to do," he insisted, leaning closer to him. Specs and Dutchy had picked up the intensity of the conversation and had stopped talking, obviously looking their way.

Jack looked away from him, out at the river, "Guess this whole newsie thing was temporary after all then."

"I'll still sell weekend editions most likely, maybe evenings too, when we need the money."

Jack didn't say anything and David resisted the urge to reach over and touch his arm. "I don't want to go back to school, if that wasn't obvious, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't make me feel worse about it than I already do," he said, getting up and walking off the dock to the rocky edge of the shore. Racetrack had waded further in now and only Snipeshooter and Tumbler were close, huddled together looking intently at something on the ground. David picked up a rock and skipped it, watched it sink below the waves.

He watched Jack sit there a moment longer before getting up and joining him on the shore, hands stuffed deep in his pockets.

"Listen, I'm sorry Dave, I know you don't want to go. But"- he looked at him, wrung his hand over the back of his neck- "It's a good thing you did for your folks, working all summer."

A smile pulled at David's lips despite himself. He looked up at Jack. "Let's just enjoy the rest of today, okay? Tomorrow will come soon enough."

Jack smiled back at him, then looked out at the newsies swimming and splashing in the water.

"C'mon, bet you I can get Racetrack to go in the water above his head."

"You're on."

David pulled at the collar of his shirt. Being done up to the neck with a bowtie suddenly felt like strangulation. He'd gotten too used to his newsboy dishevelment. He swallowed back a sigh. It was only the first day, he'd get used to it in time. David sucked a deep breath in, the room around him smelled like new wood. He was in a new school, the one he'd attended for high school before this had closed down and he was now in the inaugural class of the institution that took its place. The walls were tall and brick, the windows open to the late summer breeze. David tried not to fidget. What was the teacher saying? History. He was introducing their history lessons. This should be easy, David had always liked history, with the Romans and Greeks and their ideas about civilization and politics. That line of thinking only brought his mind again back to his summer. Politics. It had taken on a new meaning in July, when suddenly the politics of men had become the business of mere boys.

Suddenly, David felt eyes on him. He flicked his gaze to the right and saw two boys whispering and looking at him. He swallowed. Instead of reacting, he took out his pencil and pad and started copying whatever it was the teacher was saying. He knew his suit was old, that his complexion was tan from his summer in the sun. He wasn't the only working-class kid here, but he was decidedly in the minority. Most of the kids who made it to high school, especially three years into high school, were middle class at least, even in the city's free public school. Les would fare better, everyone his age was still required to attend school. His class would be much more diverse.

David ducked his head, his teacher was going on about the curriculum for the year and David tried to write a bare outline from it. It's not like he didn't like school, he did, in theory. He liked learning. It's just that, in contrast to this summer- he glanced at the whispering boys again- he was no longer used to feeling so excluded.

He thought again of the summer, of the friends he'd become so close with. At least half of them took classes at night, at the lodge house, with Kloppman doing the best he could to teach them what he knew. He swallowed. He should be more than grateful to be here. The thought alone of what half of the newsies could do with this education got him through the rest of the day. Turns out guilt is a good motivator.

"You're free to go, I'll see you all tomorrow," his teacher boomed, erasing the chalkboard methodically as the class sprang from their seats. David sighed in relief. He hadn't exactly managed to focus as well as he would have liked but, it would get better. He scooped up his pencils and pad with the short stack of notes he'd actually managed to take and walked out through the hallways. Most of the kids headed straight for the double set of front doors and David didn't waste any time following. Maybe he could catch up with one of the guys before heading home.

"Hey! Jacobs, right?" someone called behind him as he pushed through the doors and walked to the top of the steps. He turned, unsurprised to see the two whispering boys from earlier, one was tall, with dark brown hair carefully combed back, with bright green eyes that seemed to bore into him. The other was slightly shorter and so blonde his hair looked translucent. He suppressed a sigh, he should have seen this coming.

"Yeah," he answered shortly, anxious to get this particular interaction over with.

"We thought so, saw your picture in the paper this summer. We've got a famous classmate, James," the blonde boy said, looking exaggeratedly at the brunet. David kept his mouth shut for once.

"Yeah, Phillip, famous for causing trouble. You and that Jack Kelly. Guess you like to hang with convicts," James said, stepping closer to David.

"Just the fun ones," he said before he thought better of it. He stumbled down the top step as James shoved his shoulder back roughly.

The blond-Phillip- stepped closer, "We're just giving you a friendly warning, you can't do that here, this is our school," he punctuated that with another shove, "and we don't take kindly to poor upstarts."

David was about to retort, something about having more original threats, when a voice sounded behind him, "Hey David, you got this handled?"

David risked a glance over his shoulder and nearly smiled, there was Jack, arms crossed over his chest, standing in a veritable crowd of the other guys, he saw Specs, Mush, Blink. Dutchy, Race, Jake, Bumlets, Boots, and Snoddy.

Bumlets moved first, jogging up the steps to put a hand on David's shoulder. "Who's this David? Miss the Delanceys already?"

"James here was just telling me how he read about us in the newspapers this summer," David supplied, nodding at James and moving slightly closer to Bumlets. The tall boy was a welcome presence.

"Oh wow, hear that fellas?" he called over his shoulders to the rest of the newsies, "We've got some fans!"

James scoffed but Phillip had scooted back some, his bravado fading quickly. Snoddy and Jake walked up the stairs then too, standing on either side of David and Bumlets. David spotted the principal out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't seen them yet but it was only a matter of time, they weren't exactly hiding.

"It's nice to meet you fellas," Jake started, stepping up to them, a smile plastered on his face in typical Jake fashion.

"Glad you're getting on with our friend David," Snoddy said, slightly darker than Jake.

"Just remember, there's a newsie on every corner, from here to Brooklyn" Jake finished with a grin so deceiving it hardly sounded like the threat that it clearly was.

Phillip's eyes flicked to David. David looked between him and James, straight faced. If they wanted a fight, they'd get one, but it likely wasn't one they could win with just the two of them. Phillip put a hand on James' shoulder, tugging him backward. Without a word they retreated back into the school and David let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. Bumlets slapped him on the back and gripped his shoulder.

"Can't manage to stay out of trouble for even a day, huh?" he asked, as the four turned and joined the rest of the boys at the bottom of the steps.

"New found talent, I guess," he murmured, shifting his pad and notes to the other hand. He'd been clutching them so tightly he'd wrinkled the edges. Jack looked down at his taut hands.

"Guess it was good we showed up when we did," Jack said.

"Yeah, but we had a different reason, we didn't think you'd get in a fight," Mush said, pulling out a brown paper wrapped package from behind his back.

David's eyebrows drew together. "What's that?"

Mush broke into a grin, "It's your first day of school present."

"My...what?" David asked, looking up at Jack.

"Listen, we knew how much you didn't want to come back so we thought we'd pitch in."

David took the parcel from Mush's outstretched hand. The brown wrapping crinkled under his fingers as he pulled the twine off. It was a notebook, paper bound with a dark brown cover and fine detailing pressed into the edges. He looked up at them, eyes wide.

"This is too much, you guys," he muttered, running his hand over the front which in cursive, read "1899"

"Open the cover!" Blink called, practically reaching over and doing it for him before Jack pushed his hand back. David dutifully opened it and there on the inside cover were all their names, the whole lot of everyone who chipped in, scrawled across the front in various degrees on penmanship. David swallowed back a lump in his throat.

"Wow. This is, wow," he started, at a loss for words again, His friends kept surprising him.

"C'mon, let's go to Tibbys or something, I'm starved," Jack said then, throwing his arm around David's shoulders and steering them away before he could make a bigger fool of himself. He leaned into him for just a moment, appreciatively.

"Yeah me too," Jake said as they all started towards the restaurant. "Also, David, what the hell are you wearing?" he intoned, reaching over and messing with David's bowtie before he shoved him away, laughing.

Maybe this school year wouldn't be so bad after all.