Mush was one of the last boys to leave the lodging house, he hadn't gotten much sleep last night. Coming outside, he almost tripped over Spark who was sitting on the lodging house steps.
"Smooth," Racetrack laughed. Mush glared at him.
None of the boys looked happy today. It was like the day before had drained them of all their excitement.
"Come on fellas," David said, "Crutchy's fine for now, me and Jack saw him last night. But we have keep fighting for him."
"That's right," Jack chimed in, "we all owe him, he woulda done the same for us."
Mush followed David, Jack, and the other newsies out to the square. They all lined up, waiting for the circulation bell to ring.
"You ready?" he asked Spark.
The bell rang and the gates to the circulation building opened. About a hundred scabbers tentatively approached. Some of the newsies tensed, ready to fight.
"Alright, everyone remain calm." David said.
A second passed, Mush looked at Spark and then back to Jack, who spoke next. "Let's soak 'em for Crutchy!"
The newsies yelled in agreement and ran after the scabs. The Delancey brothers, who were just coming out of the gates, were pushed down by the crowd of boys. One of the scabs knocked on the metal door inside. Huge, menacing-looking thugs came out carrying clubs and chains, ready to strike.
Spark turned to leave when she heard the gates slam shut, she stopped dead. Spark wasn't getting out of there. She couldn't find Mush in the crowd, there were too many people in such a small space, but she had to find him or get out of there.
After they had been separated, it took a minute for Mush to catch Spark's eye from far away. "You gotta get outta here! NOW!"
There was no way for her to go. The gate was her only shot. She prayed that her tree-climbing abilities worked on gates too and she began to climb. It was a long way down if she fell and there wasn't much for her to hold on to. Spark got about halfway up when she screamed, losing her balance. She was barely holding on with one hand.
"Hey, Spark!" Spark didn't dare look down, it sounded like one of Mush's friends. Racetrack. "I got ya!"
There was no way she was going to jump down there in the middle of a riot.
"It's ok," called Racetrack. "You can do it."
Closing her eyes, Spark let go of the gate.
Just as Mush turned to find Spark, one of the thugs punched him right in the stomach, knocking all the air out of him. He felt like he was going to throw up. Black spots filled his vision as he fell to the ground in pain. Mush thought, This is the end... As the thug came closer to finish the job.
Suddenly, everything paused. A voice called from above.
"Never fear, Brooklyn is here!"
Mush opened his eyes. Above all of them were hundreds of boys. On the roof, in the windows, jumping in from the tops of other buildings. And the boy who spoke was their leader, Spot Conlon. The fighting began again, but this time the newsies had more of an advantage. Mush got a wave of energy.
He grabbed the ankle of the thug who beat him, pulling him to the ground. And Mush pounded him.
Mush stood up, wiping blood on his pants and he saw Racetrack and Spark. Their faces were so close together and they were staring into each other's eyes . Mush couldn't breathe again.
Spark and Racetrack's eyes met for a second. He smiled at her and she smiled at him. Then dropped her on the ground abruptly. He couldn't be like this with Mush's girl.
"You're ok, right?" He punched her in the arm like one of the guys. She was used to this in Brooklyn. "Just walk it off." And he joined his friends soaking the scabs.
Spot jumped down from the roof and ran to the gate. At least a hundred boys must have come through, pushing the thugs back, and there were even more boys out on the streets. The newsies won.
Mush didn't have time to comprehend what had just happened, he was in a daze. So he didn't notice that Denton brought his camera to take a picture of their victory and he was standing right in the middle of it. The flash brought him back.
"Are you ok?" Mush asked Spark, although not in the familiar friendly way he usually talked to her. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but he didn't like it. He felt bad, but he found himself glaring a little at Racetrack, who was one of his best friends.
Mush didn't even listen to her answer, obviously she didn't have the same feelings he did, so he walked away to join the other newsies celebrating.
A few hours later the boys met Denton at a restaurant. He was carrying an afternoon edition of "The Sun".
"Hey fellas! Big time." he said them as he handed the paper to Jack Kelly.
Mush, Spot, and a lot of Jack's newsies were on the front page. The picture was huge. This proved to be a little bit of a nice distraction for Mush.
"Where's me pitcha? Where's me pitcha?!" Spot Conlon said.
"Look at you, Jack. You look like a gentleman or somethin'." Mush said, excited that his picture was in the paper (even though it wasn't really a good one).
"Will you get your fingers off me face?" Jack pushed his hand away.
The boys all crowded around to see the picture.
"Where does it say my name? Where's my name?!" Spot pushed his way closer to see.
"Will you quit thinking about yourself?" said Jack, irritably.
Spot sat there with a smug expression on his face. He'd gotten himself in the papers! He was really the King of New York now! He stopped when he thought about Chase. She'd better not find out about this. If she did he would never hear the end of it. As he watched the other boys celebrate, he noticed Spark, he had forgotten he sent her to Manhattan that day. She was sitting in the corner, alone. She looked like she was holding back tears.
"What's a matter?" he asked her, sitting down in the chair across the table from her.
"Nothing." She wouldn't look at him.
"No, if I know girls, which I do," Spot said, all hoity-toity. "I know that 'nothing' always means something. Now what is it?"
"Boy troubles." Spark hoped Spot would leave her alone. He didn't like to deal with other people's emotions.
"A guy hurt ya? Who was it? I'll take care a' him for ya." Spot's eyes narrowed as he reached for his cane. Spot was extremely protective of the girl newsies.
"Thanks, Spot, but I don't want you to do that. He didn't hurt me on purpose."
"What do you mean?"
"I thought he really liked me, but he hasn't paid me any attention today and I think he's mad at me." She closed her eyes and tried to keep her voice from shaking. "He hates me. I know he does."
"Spark, you're one a' the sweetest girls I ever met; don't tell Chase I said that," Spot got Spark to smile a little. "What could you possibly have done to make this boy mad? Who is it anyway?"
"It's Mush, the one standing next to Jack over there. And if I knew what I did wrong, I would have tried to talk to him already."
Spot smiled a little, trying to stop himself from laughing when he noticed a couple of Jack's newsies staring at Spark with blissful smiles on their faces.
"Mush's probably just jealous." he then gestured to the whole room of boys, "Look at all a' them starin' at you, you're gorgeous and they all wanna get to know you."
"That's not true."
"Maybe you're just not paying attention. Look around and you'll see." Spot said. "There's that pretty smile a' yours."
Mush finally forgave Racetrack for whatever had happened earlier. Race didn't even talk to Spark once they got in the restaurant. He was too busy celebrating with the boys. He even agreed to Kid Blink's thoughts on the mayor's daughter. Mush wasn't worried anymore.
But he did wonder where Spark was. He hadn't spoken to her since Denton brought the paper either. Mush stood on a chair to see around the whole restaurant. There were so many boys, over a hundred, crammed into a small space, not that they weren't used to it from living in the lodging houses.
Finally, Mush saw Spark in a back corner of the room. She was sitting across from Spot. They were talking, their faces close together. She blushed and smiled. Mush needed some air.
He ran out the door, slamming it accidentally, but he didn't care. So many thoughts were running through his mind that he couldn't keep track of what he was feeling.
Spark and Spot jumped at the sound of the door slamming. Mush ran by their window.
"You better go after him, Girly." Spot said.
"Don't call me that!" Spark snapped, and she ran out the door after Mush.
"Mush, wait!" She called after him, but he didn't slow down. She quickened her pace and ran next to him.
"You know," said Mush, "I'm not really in the mood to talk to anybody right now." Mush sped up so Spark couldn't just walk next to him. He was going toward Central Park. It was so big he could find a place to have some time alone there.
"What's a matter, Mush? Did I do something?"
Looking back at Spark's sad expression, Mush stopped and turned. He sighed, a little bit angrily.
"I just thought that maybe, just maybe, you cared about me as much as I care about you." then he said, "Sorry, I'm just goin' through a tough time right now and I thought you could make it a little brighter."
Mush couldn't hold it back any more. He knew, from last night, that it was going to get better, but from personal experience he knew it was going to get a lot worse first. Everything hit him at once. Mush sat on the curb and started crying.
Spark sat down next to Mush and put her arm around him and let him cry. She didn't know what to say. She dealt with crying girls all the time at the girls' lodging house, but she'd never seen a nearly 16 year old boy cry. She started tearing up too. She tried to hold it in, but she couldn't stand to see Mush cry.
Mush stopped mid-sob. Spark really cared about him. His stomach filled with butterflies, so many that for a minute he couldn't he turned to Spark. Wiping a tear from her cheek, he said,
"You don't need to cry for me," he smiled through his own tears. "But thanks."
"I th-thought you c-cared about me. Wh-why did you—"
"I saw you with Racetrack and I thought—"
"Racetrack? Mush, he was helping me—"
"And then just now with Spot—"
"Spot already has a girl. Well, I know he has a girl after him, I don't know what he's feeling though."
"Oh." Mush said, feeling embarrassed but a little better.
"I like you, Mush. I wanna get to know you better but I really like you." Spark said.
Mush blushed a little, he was jealous of the other guys who liked Spark. But she wasn't interested in them, she liked him.
"Well, that's nice to know." He twirled her hair around his finger and looked right into her sparkly blue eyes and leaned in closer, slowly, but he wasn't going to back down now.
"Kiss her ya bum!"
Mush jumped and pulled away blushing even more. The moment was gone. He sighed, irritated and glared into the crowd of boys that was standing around them. He hadn't even noticed them come.
Mush laughed sardonically, "You know, Race, I was kinda in the middle of that before you interrupted." It was just like Racetrack to do something like that.
He took Spark's hand and helped her up. One of these days he was going to kiss her.
Race had to speak up when he did. Those two wouldn't have made it to a kiss anyway. They were both too nervous. But Racetrack wanted his friend to know that he wasn't trying to steal his girl. Mush looked pretty upset earlier and he hadn't even tried to talk to Racetrack, which bothered Race because they were close friends.
"You ok?" Spot asked Spark, patting her on the back. The whole thing with her and Mush and Racetrack ruining it all was kind of painful to watch.
"Hey, don't worry," he smiled at her, "your moment will come." Spot got lost in thought, he was thinking about Chase again. The boys back in Brooklyn always teased the two of them. Ever since he took her in, the boys joked that the two of them would end up together. They even called her the Queen of Brooklyn, which was pretty much true anyway. She was a born leader, just like Spot. She took good care of all the newsies in Brooklyn, especially the younger ones. And maybe that's why they really would be so good together.
Mush straightened and joined the crowd of newsies, seeing Spot and Spark together (now that he wasn't worried Spot would try to steal her from him). It was late and she would find her own way home anyway. He went up to Racetrack, who he knew was the one who shattered their moment.
"Don't you ever do that again." he said, punching Race in the arm, half kidding.
"Hopefully I won't have to."
Some of the other boys shouted congratulations and other words of encouragement to Mush, although most of them were sarcastic. Mush was too happy to pay attention though.