AN- Thank you so much Wand, Pbuttercup, and especially Sapphy. Your reviews keep me writing. Or, at least publishing. Anywho, if anyone is reading this, please review, even if it's criticism. Tell me how to improve, or at least let me know you're reading the story.

This chapter is short, boring, but a necessary evil.

I hurt my foot after my course concert on Wend, so now I'm limping around like Crutchy. My daddy let me use his cain for awhile, which made me feel like Spot. It's very pathetic when you're happy you got hurt because now you're like a newsie. Anyway, on with the story.

Mush lay on the ground in an ally in the Bronx. He acted as though he was passed out as Sam pretended to be trying to wake him up. Any minute now Chase Gordon would walk down the ally to the local restaurant for lunch. Mush went through the plan in his head. He and Sam had arranged what they were going to say ahead of time.

"Here he comes." whispered the ten year old red head into Mush's ear. Then, more audibly he said, "Jake, Jake wake up! Please. It's me Eric. Please wake up! Excuse me, sir?" He asked as Chase walked by, "Could ya please help. My brother is passed out and I can't get him to wake up."

Chase, being the kind-hearted boy that he was, stopped to see what he could do. "All right, what's the trouble here?" He asked.

"Well, my daddy was hitting him, then we ran out of the house and, and he just passed out here." Sam spit out between fake sobs.

"All right, well let's help him up." They hoisted Mush up and tried to drag him down the street to the restaurant Chase was going too. When they arrived outside, Chase ran in, grabbed a glass of water and poured it on Mush's face. Mush cringed and pretended to come to.

"Sweet mother of pearl." He mumbled sitting up. Eric and Chase snickered.

"Do you kids have a place to stay, uh, Eric, right?" He asked Sam.

"Yeah, it's Eric, but no, we don't have anywhere to stay."

"All right, then you'll come to the Bronx lodging house. We could use a few good newsies in a time like this."