DISCLAIMER: No, newsies does not belong to me! Really, is this necessary? *Mickey Mouse nods his head* Argh! Well now, Nicollet Cordelli, her parents, Merryll's parents, Lucas Conlon, Mr. Rogers, and all the other teachers, Natasha, Amanda Riley, Matt Bradshaw...all those people belong to me. The food chains used belong to the food chain used and, yea.

A.N. We are going to break 100!!! We're going to break 100!!! YAAAAAAAAAAY! C'mon, goils! We'se can do it! Send in those reviews, please? Please? PLEASE? We can break 100, we can do it!!! Yeeee HAW! There's only one more chapter after this; help a poor girl reach her goal, hmm? ^_^ Shout outs to: Meg, Deanie, kew, Ice Renegade, Spatz, unnamed, Kathryn Mason-Skyes (and when are you updating your story??), Dimples (you didn't sign in but you left your name in the review), Ember, Kate Lawrence, Isabelle Gibson, imaginelet, and Seraph! W00t w00t!

~Confessions~

Jack, Race, and Blink stood beside their lockers scouting the passing crowds for girls to use their newly acquired pick-up lines on. Supposedly, Blink had this new dream of his to one day author a book titled 'The Dating Game for Dummies'. He was hoping the already established 'Dummies' series would accept his idea and award him millions for the book he believed would become a best seller. Naturally, though they thought him insane, Jack and Race stuck with him nonetheless as he conducted his experiment.

Blink rubbed his hands briskly before him and grinned. "Alright, this is gunna work. Ya know why?"

"Why?" Race asked in an indifferent voice.

"Because I said so!" He laughed hysterically; Jack and Race only exchanged slightly amused glances. "Oh look! Here comes Madelyn! Get ready guys, you're about to see a professional capture the prey." Blink licked his fingers and then combed back loose strands of hair that had fallen over his face before fixing his shirt and then casually making sure he 'accidentally' bumped into Madelyn, thus causing all the books she had been carrying to topple to the floor.

He feigned an astonished and apologetic expression. "Oh, I'm so sorry, sweety!" He dropped to one knee and aided her in collecting the fallen objects. Once the last book had been picked up, the two stood to their feet and remained as so for a few awkward seconds.

Madelyn gave him a small smile. "Thanks," she said softly, stepping to the side so that she might pass the boy and be on her way.

Blink stopped her by resting a hand on her shoulder and looking her up and down as if she were some sculpture on exhibit at the Gallery. "Baby, are you a parking ticket? Cause you have fine written all over you!" His grin widened as he waited for her to respond.

"Are you a donkey? Cause you have jackass written all over you!" She shrugged his hand off her and marched off, only once glancing back to give him a disgusted look.

Jack and Race tried ever so hard to stifle their laughter but the rejection was so priceless that they were, in the end, unsuccessful. Blink glared at them as he retreated to his post and crossed his arms at the blatant failure. "Well, we'll just have to overlook that one. Maybe she's PMSing or something."

"Yea, or maybe she was just too smart to fall for a scab like you," Jack offered, chuckling away some more.

"Ha ha ha. But I don't see you winning over any ladies, Jack!"

The other shrugged. "I don't have a girlfriend because I choose not to. I mean, really. Do either of you want to end up being some goody-goody boyfriend like Spot? And do you really want to have to put up with a girl like Nikki? Damn, I can't imagine how the hell he deals!"

"Tell me about it!" said Race. "I still can't believe they're together! One day they're screaming at each other, the next they're making out between classes...well, at least that's what Spot says."

Blink caught sight of another girl worthy for his experiment, but Race's last comment was far too interesting to await later questioning. "What do you mean 'at least that's what Spot says'?"

"Well, he and Nikki barely touch each other in public! They don't even hold hands or anything to class! Spot says she only feels comfortable kissing him and all when they're alone." Race opened his locker to retrieve an item, but then forgot what it was he had wanted to get. Tapping his fingers against the metal, he stared at his books and tried to remember what class he had next. "If it was me in Spot's shoes, I'd put down my foot and tell Nikki a few things."

Jack grinned. "Yea, and after you're done, she'll just give you a few more shiners!"

Race glared at the comment. He didn't particularly like the idea that the guys still joked around about how Nicollet had socked him good that one day.

Blink playfully punched his friend's arm. "Ah, you gotta remember, though, Race. This is Nikki we're talking about. That girl can get us to walk on hot coals if she wanted to. It's in her genes, I guess. She's a master at seduction." The others agreed with head nods and Blink returned to scanning the female population for a victim. "Ah, there's another one!" He sprinted off to do his thing.

Jack and Race only rolled their eyes and prepared themselves to deal with yet another rejection.

~*~*~*~*~

Spot Conlon was just having one of those days. Ms. Stewart accepted his miserable excuse for an essay even though it didn't meet the 6-page requirement, but reprimanded him in front of the class for having adopted the attributes of a slacker this time around. Ms. Stewart loved to belittle her students as such. She never had an appreciative audience, though, as her students usually defended and pitied one another, but she did it nonetheless. Spot believed she got high from being a bitch.

A vending machine got on his nerves again later that day too. For reasons out of his grasp, the Doritos clasp still hadn't been fixed, and so the chips didn't fall down to the dispenser even after Spot paid his 75 cents. Fortunately, he hadn't been angered enough to bash his head against the machine's frame. However, when his locker got jammed right before third period, it was all he could do to keep from screaming at the top of his lungs.

It was bad enough his mother was making him walk to school from now on, worse still that his beloved Mustang Convertible wouldn't be able to taste the freedom of the city streets for a while. All in time, he kept telling himself. After school, he planned to corner Lucas when the brat wasn't surrounded by his friends and have a little man-to-man talk. Or more like a fist-to-face one, but that was beside the point.

All in all, Spot was just in a very bad mood. Which is why he wasn't too thrilled to walk into Mr. Rogers' class to see his girlfriend laughing up some joke with Matt Bradshaw. As he came to think of it, it didn't make any sense for Nicollet to sit with Matt anymore now that she and Spot were together. He smirked. He'd just have to give her a little reminder of what she was missing.

So with that in mind, he sauntered into the classroom and on his way to his seat, stopped by for the briefest moment at Nicollet's desk in which he leaned over and gave her a light peck on the lips. She flushed at the public display of affection and gently nudged him on his way. When he was gone, she turned back to Matt and lowered her eyes to her notebook.

"I didn't know you two were together," Matt said softly.

She frowned. She hadn't meant for him to find out like this. "Well, we just started going out actually. But hey, me and you can still be friends, right?"

He managed a small smile. "Sure."

Spot plopped down in his seat next to Heath Soto just as the bell to begin class rung. Mr. Rogers greeted his class and then dove right into his lesson about Imperialism. "Ya know, kids," he said, "during this time, a lot of nations thought Roosevelt was a son of a bitch. But ya know what the U.S. said in reply? He's our son of a bitch, so shove it and deal with it!" He went on with his lecture as if nothing out of the norm had occurred.

The students glanced at one another and then laughed hesitantly at the would-be joke. Spot was too busy watching Heath carve "Screw You" into their desk, though. He nodded his head in approval of the words and even offered to help engrave the last letter, but was interrupted when a girl in front of him passed him a note and whispered, "from Nikki."

Spot took the folded piece of paper and looked to where Nicollet was sitting. She smiled at him and then turned back in her seat to continue listening to Mr. Rogers' lesson. Spot opened the note and began reading the girl's fancy script, written in a pink gel pen that momentarily blinded him. Once his eyes had adjusted, he finished reading in about a minute and then smiled. It was simply a short letter of gratification in which Nicollet thanked him for comforting her last night.

Heath leaned over in his chair and briefly scanned over a few of the sentences. "Ah, you knockin' up Nikki? Damn, Conlon. You're good. Let me be the first to congratulate you on your babe magnetism. How do you do it, man?"

Spot rolled his eyes at Heath's blunt inquiry but smirked nonetheless. To be honest with himself, he didn't even know how he did it. Maybe there was still chance for the day to turn up after all.

~*~*~*~*~

Natasha Halls was on cloud nine. Mush had just given her a bouquet of roses simply because he had been thinking about her and wanted to buy her something special, and Sunday night, he had made reservations for them at one of the most romantic restaurants in the city! Running late for her buss, she tried to make her current lip-lock with the boy as heated as possible and then bid him farewell with a hug.

Mush staggered back, drunk with love. He watched the girl hurry down to the bus loop and then turned to face his friends with a lop-sided grin. "Ya guys, I think I'm in love."

Nicollet smiled back at him. "You two have only been going out for a few weeks!"

"Yea, but she makes me feel like...I don't know." Lost in his daze, he leaned back against Nicollet's locker and continued to stare off into space.

Jack shook his head and laughed. "Okay, well while Mush is daydreaming about the love of his life, let's think of what we're going to do this Friday."

Snitch opened his mouth to make a suggestion but suddenly, a blur of a person dashed down the hallways screaming, "Help Me", papers gliding out of their backpack and random objects scattering about. The boy's shoes skidded as he came to a sudden halt. He looked behind him as he gasped for breath and then started off again, only to slam head on with Spot.

"There you are, you little bastard!" Spot jumped to his feet and chased after his cousin Lucas out into the courtyard. Moments later, they rushed back into the halls, went in and out of the bathroom, encircled a trash can, and zoomed back out of view.

Race raised his eyebrows at this. It wasn't the first time Spot had vowed to kill his cousin while still on school grounds, but it certainly was one of the most unruly chases he had seen up to date. "Well, that was..."

Before he could finish the sentence, the two Conlons sped past the group of friends again, Lucas near tears and Spot punching wildly at the air. Jack thought to take matters into his own hands. Whistling innocent, he carelessly stuck out his foot and waited. Once again, the cousins raced down the halls, except this time, Lucas tripped over Jack's foot and landed hard onto the tiles. Spot nodded thanks to his friend and then pounced onto his younger cousin, gripping the boy's neck with means to strangle him.

Lucas screamed like a girl. "Merryll! Merryll! I'll tell Aunt Carol! Don't think I won't She'll ground you for the rest of your life if she hears about this!!"

"You can't tell her if you're DEAD!" Spot tightened his grip.

"Okay, okay," Lucas pleaded. "Please, I'm sorry! Stop, you're hurting me! I said I was sorry! Merryll!!"

The older gave him a judging look for a second longer and then rose to his feet, yanking the boy to his own and then slamming him into a locker. "If I go home today and see everything in my room is gone because my mom went on some rampage, I'm going to gouge out your eyes, rip out your heart, and chop you into little pieces. Is that understood?"

Nicollet and the others grimaced at the vivid description of the punishment Spot had in mind. Maybe it was time for them to get him to stop watching all those horror movies...

Lucas nodded his head vigorously. "Okay, okay. I'll tell her to go easy on you! Whatever, just let me go! Please!" Spot threw him to the ground and the boy scurried away like a frightened animal.

"Alright, Spot! You finally tamed the beast!" Jack slapped hands with him and patted him on the back. "You think he's going to be a problem from now on?"

"Nah, he knows when he's gone too far," Spot replied. Lucas looked back at him just as he was exiting out the hall doors. Spot brought a finger to his neck, and sliced it across the skin. Lucas shuddered and ran out.

Snitch laughed. "Well now that that's taken care of, where are we going this Friday?"

Spot groaned as he remembered that he currently wasn't allowed to go anywhere. Unless the crew decided to rent a movie and party at the Conlon house, they'd have to make plans that excluded him. "Why don't we...help me clean my room!" The others rolled their eyes and Spot smirked.

"Oh shoot!" said Nicollet. "I just remembered. I can't hang out with ya'll, I promised Matt I'd go to the movies with him this weekend."

Spot's eyes settled into a glare. "What d'ya mean you're going to the movies with him?"

"Spot, it's just an innocent date...not even a date! More like two friends just hanging out."

"Yea, well that's one 'date' you're not going on!"

Snitch and Blink started placing bets on who they thought would conquer this round of Conlon vs. Cordelli while Race suggested to run to the vending machines to buy everyone some snacks while they viewed. The couple shot a look at their friends for their lack of maturity, yet continued fighting anyways.

Nicollet looked indignant. "You can't tell me what to do!"

"I sure as hell can!" Spot threw back. "And I sure as hell will! The only reason Bradshaw wants to hang with you is because he likes you, Nikki. Don't be so naïve. As far as he's concerned, it's a date! And you aren't going!"

"Matt knows we're together, okay? He knows I only care about him as a friend!"

Spot's temper was steadily breaking. He couldn't believe this was happening! So much for a good day! Nicollet was acting so...difficult! "Yea, well if I was in his position, I could care less whether you were taken or not. I'd try to get ya in bed as soon as I could!" The words slipped out of his mouth before he had an opportunity to think them over, and after he had heard himself yell them out, he wished more than ever that he could take them back.

Nicollet stared at him in disbelief. "Is that all this means to you? A chance to get me in bed?!"

"Nikki, that's not what I meant..."

"Damnit, Merryll, you're just like every other bastard out there! Is that the only reason you wanted to go out with me, so that you could sleep with me one day? Does our friendship mean nothing?"

Spot rolled his eyes. He admitted he had made a mistake in blurting out the comment, but Nicollet was going too far now. He hadn't meant any of that, and she knew it! She was only trying to make this into some kind of dramatic soap opera scene. "Nikki, stop bitching about it," he snapped. "If anyone here should be mad, it should be me! You can't just go out with guys like this when you're with me!"

"I can do whatever I want," she replied. "You don't own me! I already told Matt I was going with him to the movies. If you're not man enough to deal with that, maybe you need to grow up."

"That was harsh," Blink whispered to Snitch. The latter nodded and they continued to watch the dispute.

Spot only scowled. "Fine, GO! See if I care! But on the subject of growing up, calling people pass 2 in the morning because you're too immature to deal with something yourself...well, you can figure the rest out. Later." He headed off down the halls and then disappeared around a corner.

Nicollet glared at him. She couldn't believe he had brought up her parents' break up! She fumed and stormed off in the opposite direction, cursing under her breath.

~*~*~*~*~

Review! Only one more chapter to Go! But let's break 100! ^_^ Love ya all!