Chapter Ten: In Which Davey Walks Away and Lots of Other Kids Do, Too

Word Count: 1,447

Manhattan, 1899

Mush didn't want to be where he presently was. And that happened to be in the distribution center in the early morning, in the line to buy papers again.

The Delanceys, as he'd expected, were having a lot of fun with this. They taunted the newsies about how they'd "run from the fight" and apparently didn't have enough resilience to continue the strike after that. It was frustrating, sure, but the newsies knew better. If they gave Oscar or Morris or even Weasel the satisfaction of a reaction, they'd never hear the end of it.

"Aw, why so serious? It's all in good fun," Oscar teased. "I'm sure Crutchie would be laughin' right now, were he with us."

"Don't," Cassie finally said in a warning tone as the line moved up.

"Or what? You'll fight us?" Oscar acted like he was going to lunge at her, and she flinched slightly. Only slightly, but it was enough to make Oscar laugh malevolently.

"Don't," she repeated, louder this time.

"What's wrong, Girlie? Still upset about the last one?"

"Yeah, I don't think that worked out too well for her," Morris chimed in. "I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember that resultin' in you on the ground," he said pointing to Cassie, "and the crip in the refuge."

"Stop it," said Romeo angrily.

"Hey, friends are supposed to protect each other, right? We were just doin' our jobs. Not our fault Girlie here couldn't do hers."

Cassie glared, but didn't say anything as she purchased her papers and walked quickly off. Mush felt horrible – he wished they'd stuck with the strike or even not gone on strike at all. Whatever fights or conflicts they'd have to endure would be better than watching his friends get bullied by the Delanceys – more than they normally were, that is. But he noticed they faltered. Their faces wore smug sneers, but their eyes were nervous and darted about. They had some sort of fear of the newsies – the fight, or the resolve, was worrying them. Mush almost smiled at the thought.

Almost.

Davey, who was at the front, seemed to notice this too, because he hesitated to put down his coins. And then: "Actually, no. Never mind." And with his head held high, he walked away. Oscar and Morris looked mildly taken aback, but their shock quickly escalated when Race followed.

And then Romeo.

And then JoJo and Finch and Buttons and Blink and Mush didn't even know who else because he found himself walking away with them.

He didn't once look back.

They marched out of the distribution center, confident and assured. They went into Jacobi's, still looking proud. And they felt that way, too:

The strike was back on.

It had felt weird, being in that line. He'd been doing it for years, but after not doing it for a week it was suddenly so strange. The setting was all familiar to him. The newsies might have been what made it seem so different.

They looked sullen, and they were quiet and still. Very different than normal. Maybe that was why the situation seemed so weird. The newsies were almost never like that.

But now, some of them, many of them, were actually smiling. It was wonderful. After a while, the other newsies, the ones that hadn't walked out at first, had joined them (excluding Cassie; Mush didn't know where she was).

"Alright so, what're we doin' now?" Blink asked, sitting next to him.

He shrugged. "I dunno, whatever we did before we started almost sellin' again."

"Sittin' around, talkin' bein' bored out of our minds?"

"Pretty much."

Blink sighed and looked around. "Hey, where's your girlfriend?"

"What?"

"Where's Cassie?"

"That ain't what ya said."

"Well, that's what I meant, and ya didn't answer my question."

Mush rolled his eyes. "I don't know. Probably still sellin' papes or somethin'."

"Well, she couldn't have gone that far from when she left to when we started strikin' again."

"I dunno, she was walkin' pretty fast..."

"Mush. You'se her best friend - "

"And you aren't?"

" - you'se been her best friend longer than any of us have, so stop makin' dumb excuses and go look for her like the lovin' boyfriend you is."

Mush sighed. Blink had a point. "We ain't datin'."

"Are ya sure?"

"Why would you even think that?"

"Have you not noticed? I mean, I'se pretty sure no one's said anything 'cause we thought she was obvious enough in her own right."

"What are you talkin' about?"

Blink looked at him incredulously. "Honestly!" was all he said before he walked away.

He was right, though. Mush looked over and saw Davey talking to Katherine (who definitely hadn't been there a moment earlier), and then they said their goodbyes to everyone else and headed off, probably to find Jack. Mush, on the other hand, left to find Cassie in the place he figured she would be, if she wasn't actually selling: the library.

"Cassie? You in here?"

Cassie didn't answer.

"Cassie?"

She still stayed silent.

"Cassie." Suddenly, Mush was in front of her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Have you been in here all day? Since you left the line this mornin'?"

"Yeah." She sat down. Mush sat down next to her.

"What've you been doin' this whole time?"

"Reading. I don't know," she said.

"Hey...ya know that what the Delanceys said this mornin' ain't true, right?"

"Of course, I do," she said quickly, and it came off much colder than she'd meant it to. "Of course," she repeated, gentler.

"Okay. I just wanted to make sure." He smiled softly at her. "So. You really just read all day?"

"'The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.' Henry Tilney. Or Jane Austen, depending on how you look at it."

"I feel called out."

Cassie laughed. "You better. Reading is fun."

"I bet it is," said Mush, laughing too. "Oh! I forgot to tell you – the strike is back on."

"It is? That was fast."

"It was, wasn't it?" he remarked. "The rest of the boys is at Jacobi's, and Davey went lookin' for Jack."

"Good. When they find him, I'm gonna have a serious conversation with Mr. Kelly."

"I think we all will. Well, do ya wanna come back to Jacobi's? They's expectin' ya – Blink was actually the one who convinced me to come look for ya."

She nodded. What does that mean?

"Oh, and he thinks we's datin'!" Mush added, laughing. "Can you believe that?"

Cassie laughed nervously.

"No, of course not, that's kinda weird," she said.

"That's what I said!" He stood and held out his hand. "Well, we should be headin' back now."

"Okay, but can we stop at the lodge first?"

"Sure...?"

Mush waited outside while Cassie went in and got a piece of paper, a pencil, and a book. So, she couldn't tell him, but that didn't in any way hinder her propensity towards using language to express herself as opposed to...whatever else people expressed themselves with. If she couldn't say the words, why not write them?

When Mush saw the book in her hands, he smiled. "Really, Cassie? We were just in a library."

"I know, I know," she said, smiling too. "But this is my book, so it's different."

"Whatever you say." They walked together to Jacobi's, not talking much because Cassie was thinking about what she was going to write.

When they got inside, Blink cheered, and some other newsies joined in. Cassie grinned.

"We was worried about you," he said coming up to her. It was a nice thing to hear – if the Delanceys didn't care about her, at least her brothers did.

She sat down after getting a water and began writing her letter. When she finished, she read over it and stood up to give it to Mush, before the reality of what she was doing set in. Suddenly, every word looked off, and Mush seemed so far away, and if what he said at the library was any indication, he might not feel the same way. She decided she should just give it to him and leave; he could confront her some other time. She folded up the note and walked over.

"Here." Cassie handed it to him, sure her face was as red as Albert's hair (if not redder) and walked out of the deli without another word.

A/N: Mush's oblivion is one of my favorite things in this story to write, lol

This was a pretty short chapter, but I did enjoy writing it; I hope you liked reading it as well. Cassie's finally gathered up the courage to tell – or rather, write – Mush about how she feels, which was also fun to write. I'd love if you could review!

-mouse :)