A week had passed since I had last seen Jack Kelly, he seemed to have just disappear from the streets and I couldn't seem to find a newise that would be able to explain what had happened.

I walked out of the school building one day and decided today was the day I was going to hunt down a newsie who hopefully would explain to me what the hell was going on. I got out of school and ran into David outside the school who was waiting for Les to get released.

"Hey Sam," he greeted.

"Hey David, have you seen Jack? I haven't seen him in a week and that seems odd even for him." I asked. David nodded.

"He's been out sick, bedrest. Tried to go out selling a couple of times but he's either not made it down the stairs or Kloppman's stopped him before he could leave the lodging house." David said. I spotted the spare papers in his hand.

"Is that the afternoon edition?" I asked. David nodded; I swiped it out of his hand and counted the papers left. 19, "Seriously Davey, you can't sell 19 papers?" I asked. David rolled his eyes.

"I can, it's just not giving me any material to work with." He replied. It was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Has Jack taught you nothing?" I asked.

"Fine, you sell them. Let's see how you do." He said. I chuckled and flipped through the pages to find something.

"EXTRA EXTRA, HOMELESS CHILDREN MOVED TO ABANDONED FACTORY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ATLANTIC. NO REMORSE AT THE HALL!" I shouted out. A couple of women scampered toward me and bought papers, handing me nickels and dimes. I wasn't in the game of correcting them about the price. I then went to appeal to the men. "EXTRA EXTRA, SHEEPSHEAD FOUND TO BE RIGGED!" Several men ran to grab a newspaper and with that I had one more left. I ran to a young woman. "Buy me last pape Miss?" I asked. Miss nodded and took the paper for a dime. I bowed and walked back to David.

"How did you-"

"I mastered the art of bullshiting at a young age." I replied. I shelled out the money out of my pocket and counted it out. "Hey, can you walk me to the Lodging House? I'm gonna give this to Jack." I said. David nodded and the two of us walked toward the Lodging House. We walked in silence and it nearly made me nervous, but then I remembered it was Davey and if he didn't have anything to say, he would stay quiet. "Hey, so how's selling gone for you, I mean other than today?" I asked.

"Oh, it's been going well, a bit difficult without Les helping me out." He said.

"I assume he pulls all the coins." I joked with a smirk.

"Oh shut up, just because you can sell 19 papers doesn't mean you can sell 100 by noon." David challenged
"Tomorrow's Saturday right?" I asked. David nodded.

"Alright, challenge accepted. Tomorrow, I'll buy 100 papers, and sell them all before noon." I said.

"And if you don't?"

"Lunch for the entirety of the Lodging House is on me. If I win, you buy lunch." I replied.

"Done." He said. He spat in his hand and I spat as well and we shook on it. We had arrived at the Lodging House and I walked in to find Race, a couple of newsies I couldn't name, Spot, and Snipeshooter.

"Hey ya Fox, what brings you here?" Spot asked.

"Hey Conlon, I came to visit Jack, is he upstairs?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah, he's in his bunk." Race replied not looking up from his card game. I nodded.

"Cheers, side note, Spot why are you here?" I asked.

"Race invited me." He said. I shrugged and jogged up the stairs and remembered the way to the bunkroom. I walked in and found Jack lying on his top bunk and looked not as sickly as he could.

"Hey Cowboy," I said walking toward his bed. Jack attempted to only put his neck up, then groaned and then sat up and threw his legs over the edge.

"Hey Sam, sorry I haven't been around." He said. I took note of his appearance: his hair was knotted and messy, his smirk was wiry, and his eyes were slightly darker than normal.

"Sorry, heard you were sick, though I couldn't seem to find a newsie to explain it." I said. I pulled the coins out of my pocket and put it in a jar that was also filled with coins. "I'm assuming that's the pitch in jar since you haven't sold in a week." I said. Jack nodded and popped off the bed.

"How'd you get the money?" He asked.

"David had 19 papers left, so I volunteered to sell them for him and voila, more coinage for you I suppose. He also bet me that I couldn't sell 100 papers before noon tomorrow." I said. Jack chuckled and yawned.

"You sure you can take it?" He asked.

"Totally, I've watched you enough." I said.
"Yeah well, I've had years you've had a couple sporadic instances." He replied. I rolled my eyes.

"Relax, it's not like my life is on the line, just whether or not I buy lunch. If I don't David does." I said. Jack laughed at that and walked towards the bathroom, I just leaned against one of the bed posts.
"Alright," he replied.

"Hey, where are you going?" I asked.

"Well you're here, so I'm gonna attempt to clean up." He replied. "Why, wanna join me?" He asked with a smirk so sly that it made me briefly forget that he had a smile that could melt a normal upper class woman. I rolled my eyes and chuckled.

"No thanks, I'm good, might nap though." I replied. Jack chuckled.

"My bunk is your bunk. Though I wouldn't recommend it, I've been sick in it."

"Whatever," I replied. I jumped up and pulled myself into the bed and sort of dozed in and out. Then I heard Jack.

"We was never meant to meet, and then we meet, who knows why. One more stranger on the street. Just someone sweet passin' by. An angel come to save me, who didn't even know she gave me something to believe in for even a day." I woke up a little and just listened to Jack humming to himself. I opened one of my eyes and saw a shirtless Jack with his suspenders on his hips and a towel in his hands trying to dry his hair. When he made it to the bed, he looked at me. "I know you're awake." He said. I was startled out of bed and Jack caught me. I laughed.

"I have to stop getting out of your bed like this." I said.

"Tell me about it, I'm starting to think that you're planning this." Jack replied. I laughed and Jack set me down, putting on an undershirt and then his shirt. "Well then, should we go see the others?" He asked. I nodded and the two of us and jogged down the steps to find more of the newsies sitting around a small table playing poker, I looked outside and noticed that the sun was going down.

"I should probably head home." I said. Jack nodded.

"I'll walk you."

"Oh no you won't." Mush called. "You're still completely sick. You'll have to talk to Kloppman about selling tomorrow, but you are still sick." He said. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Fine, same time tomorrow Sam?" Jack asked.

"Same time tomorrow Jack." I replied. Mush opened the door and the two of us walked out. I was happy not talking but Mush broke the silence.

"So, what's going on with you and Jack?" He asked. I raised my eyebrow.

"Nothing? We're just friends?" I said. Mush chuckled.

"Please, Jack's been trying to get one of us to find you to tell you that he was sick."

"And how come no one did, I'll admit I was a bit panicked when I hadn't seen him in a week." I said.

"Well, slightly because we don't get to annoy Jack that often and when he's sick he can't slug us for being smartasses." I chuckled at that. "And, because not all of us are Jack and don't know your schedule." Mush said.

"Alright well fair enough," I said. We walked a bit more in silence and arrived on my doorstep.

"Thanks for walking me back."

"No worries, Cowboy would've had my head." He said. I laughed and jogged up to my apartment and opened it up. Liam was crashed on the couch and I had to assume that Jacob was asleep in his room. I smiled and walked into crashed in Liam's room.

A/N: Apologies for the delay. The world decided to implode around me for the bit and I was forced to deal with it, but seeing as I'm going on a Newsies kick, figures it's about time I update. See you guys in chapter 8.