| I Am | |a Rock |

| | |By Ophilia Le Noir |

|Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies or the characters. | |I also do not own the Simon and Garfunkle song I am | |a Rock. I am not making any profit off of this story| |so please don't sue me. |

|It was two in the morning and everyone in the Lodging house was | |asleep. Everyone but Jack Kelly. Jack had been tossing and turning | |all night. | | "Awww, who'm I kiddin'? I can't sleep," he said and got up. | |He pulled on a pair of pants over his long underwear. He walked over | |to the window, opened it, and stepped out onto the fire escape. He | |went to the roof from there. | | He started thinking about that day. He had taken on two new selling| |partners, David Jacobs and his little brother Les. Les was a typical | |ten year old younger brother. David was stubborn, but he was nice | |enough. | | They had a family. How unusual, for a newsie to have a family The | |Jacobs had been awfully nice, especially the sister. Sarah. Jack | |smiled as he thought of Sarah. "She was pretty," he thought. | | Jack's smile turned into a frown. | | "But what would she think if she knew about my family?" | |Jack thought about his father, Gerald Sullivan. Gerald hadn't been a | |good man. He was in jail now. Jack could hardly remember his mother, | |but sometimes he would remember. Kathleen Sullivan had been a sweet | |lady. Why she had ever married Gerald, Jack couldn't figure out. | | " I can't let them find out my real name. Dave and Les came close | |enough to it today," Jack thought, "No thanks to Snyder. They know I | |was in jail too, 'cause of him." | | Jack thought back: |

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|"Who is heand why was he chasing you, and what is this refuge? David | |shouted. | |Jack glanced around. | |"The Refuge is a jail for kids," he began, "the guy chasin' me is | |Snyder. He's the warden." | |"You were in jail?" Les asked in awe. | |"Yeah," jack answered. | |"Why?" les asked. | |"well I was starvin' so I stole some food," he told Les. | |"Oh right, food," DAvid said sarcastically. | |"Yeah food," Jack replied edgily. | |"he called you Sullivan," David said. | |"Yeah well my name's Kelly. Jack Kelly do ya think I'm lyin'?" Jack | |said a little too hastily. | |"Well you have a way of improving the truth," David accused. | |"Yeah?" Jack said darkly. | |"So why was he chasin' ya?" David asked. | |"' Cause I escaped," Jack replied. | |"Oh boy! How?" Les asked. | |Relived Jack replied, " Well this big shot gave me a rid eout on his | |carriage-" | |"I'll bet it was the mayor. Right?" David had said. | |Jack became annoyed. | |"No Teddy Roosevelt. Ya evah hoid of him?" he asked angrily. | | | |*************************************** |

| Medda had come in then and stopped the conversation. Good ol' Medda. Even if | |most of socioty looked down on her, she was a decent person. | |"She was the most decent person my faddah knew," Jack thought. | | "At least I didn't lie da whole time.When I did tell the trut' it sounded | |like I was lyin'. I can't let 'em find out about my family! Dey can't know what| |I'm t'inkin'. i gotta be like a rock. I can't let 'em touch me." | | Jack looked down into the lonely streets of Manhattan. At three in the | |morning, the city streets were almost empty. | |"Whoevah said this was the city dat nevah sleeps didn't live heya," Jack | |thought. | | Feeling tired, Jack climbed down the fire escape and back into the Lodging | |House. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was | |asleep. | | | | | | The End |

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