Disclaimer: This is a non-commercial work of fanfiction. Anything recognizable from Newsies belongs to Disney and not to me.


Chapter 43: Careless Words

It felt strange to be getting ready for school in the morning instead of preparing to head to the lodging house.

Davey frowned at his reflection in the washroom mirror. He'd knotted his necktie unevenly.

Shaking his head, he undid the entire thing and started over again, trying not to think too hard about it. He really should have been able to accomplish the action in his sleep - he'd been doing it for years, so forgoing the habit for less than a few weeks shouldn't have left his fingers this clumsy.

Maybe it was nerves.

He wasn't sure what he had to be nervous about. Not long ago he'd been mourning the fact that he'd had to drop out of school to help feed his family. He'd actually walked past the school grounds on his first day as a newsie, wishing that he could just drop the heavy bag of papers right there at the gate and walk inside the building to where his classmates were learning and reading and thinking, all of the things that he loved to do, things that certainly appealed to his interests and suited his disposition better than the unlikely profession in which he'd found himself. He'd only allowed himself to stand at the gate for a moment before forcing himself to move on, but the melancholy wistfulness had stayed with him for the entire day. He'd simply wanted to be a schoolboy again, not a newsie.

But that had all been before the strike began.

Now, suddenly, it didn't feel right to be shining his shoes and knotting his tie and buttoning his vest. It didn't feel right to be setting his books and his lunch pail by the door instead of his newsboy cap and bag. And it felt oddly unsettling to think about being among near-strangers again when he'd come to look forward to the brotherly camaraderie that he shared with the newsies (though he still felt like an outsider at times, even with them).

He'd made the decision to absent himself from the lodging house meeting that day in an attempt to get Jack and Race to work through their differences, and since he'd cited a desire to return to the classroom as the reason for his truancy, he figured he'd probably better go. He'd assumed that the feeling of enthusiasm for school that he'd felt previous to the strike would instantaneously return...but instead he found himself more anxious than excited, wondering if maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all.

Well, no one was forcing him to go back to school. He'd made the decision, it was for the good of the newsies, and that was the long and short of it. Perhaps he'd settle in once he got there.

Exiting the washroom after he'd determined that he looked presentable enough (though the stubborn tie refused to cooperate no matter how many attempts he made to fix it), Davey returned to his family's apartment. Les was already up and dressed, pulling on his shoes by the door and only half-listening to their mother as she reminded him to pay attention in class and to remember to bring home his school book and not leave it sitting in the schoolyard as he had the day before.

"Ready, Les?" Davey asked as he picked up his books and their shared lunch pail. The younger boy nodded in resignation, and the Jacobs brothers set off in the direction of the schoolhouse.


Sadie had just finished putting her handbag and books away in her desk when Margaret slid into the seat beside her.

"Good morning, Megs!" Sadie said cheerfully. "I'm sorry we couldn't walk with you today. Abby had to get here early to go over one of her assignments with Mr. Crowell."

The other girl completely ignored her apology. "Did you see who's back in school?" she whispered eagerly. Sadie responded with a confused look, and Margaret inclined her head subtly towards the back of the schoolroom.

Turning to look over her shoulder, Sadie was surprised to see her neighbors standing near the door, Les chatting animatedly with one of the girls in his class, and Davey looking a little overwhelmed by the chaos swirling around him as students trickled into the room, finding their seats and loudly greeting one another.

"What's he doing here?" she murmured. Had the rally failed and the strike been called off? She fervently hoped for his sake that this wasn't the case. But no, she reminded herself quickly, it had to be something else. If the strike had failed, Davey would have been out selling newspapers, not here at school.

"Well, whatever the reason, he looks lost," Margaret observed. She nudged Sadie with her foot. "What are you waiting for?" she teased. "Go and retrieve your stray newsboy."

"'Stray' is certainly not the word I'd use, and Davey is not my responsibility," Sadie answered primly, turning up her nose at her friend. Margaret really was insufferable sometimes, and Sadie didn't understand why she insisted on fabricating something out of her friendship with Davey that wasn't there. The teasing was probably well-meant, but Margaret should know better by now, and Sadie was determined to prove that her friend's insinuations were completely unfounded.

So she checked her initial reaction (which would have been to immediately approach Davey and pepper him with friendly questions) and instead busied herself by cleaning her slate for class. A part of her felt that it was a little unfair to give him the cold shoulder just to prove a point (and he had looked lost, so she really ought to do something to ease his re-entry into their class), but she really wasn't in the mood for teasing this morning, and she was sure that he was more than capable of figuring things out for himself.

Sure enough, when she stole a glance over her shoulder (Margaret's attention having been momentarily drawn elsewhere), she saw that he'd taken his seat in the row behind them and had begun taking out his school supplies, exchanging a few polite hellos with their classmates and looking a little more comfortable now that he had a place to belong and something to do. She caught his eye, giving him a little wave, and he smiled cautiously in return but didn't seem inclined to strike up a conversation, so she let him be.

The morning passed by quickly enough, Sadie finding herself surprised that she must have developed a stamina for listening to the lectures of their schoolmaster, for she paid attention throughout the entire lesson even though she was well aware that she didn't need to attend to the subject so closely since no tutoring lesson would be required of her on this particular day.

When lunchtime came, she wondered if Davey would default to his previous habit of solitary dining with his book, or if he would elect to join her friends at the park for their usual picnic. She peeked in his direction and saw that he did indeed have a book close at hand, probably waiting to be read. Les had walked over to get his portion of food from the brothers' shared lunch pail, the contents of which Davey had set on his desk so that the younger boy could claim his allotment.

Was that really all that they ate? Sadie wondered, watching as Les scooped up his serving - a small cornbread muffin, a boiled egg, and a chunk of a potato. Davey's portion really wasn't much bigger. She forgot sometimes that money was tight for the Jacobs family, but moments like these reminded her of that fact with sobering clarity.

Her own lunch seemed rather extravagant by contrast.

"Are you coming?" Margaret asked, her teasing voice breaking into Sadie's thoughts. "Or are you a bit preoccupied right now?"

Sadie stood up, looping her arm through the handle of her lunch pail without a word.

"Will you be joining us for lunch today at the park, David?" Margaret asked loudly. "We haven't seen you for a while, and I know that Sadie's dying to ask you some questions."

"Megs!" Sadie gave her friend a rebuking look. "I wasn't going to force Davey to come to the park with us if he'd really rather read."

"I didn't say anything about forcing him!" the other girl protested innocently. "I only said that you had some things that you wanted to ask."

"Margaret - "

"That's all right," Davey broke in hastily. "I'll come."

"Excellent," Margaret beamed, mincing out of the room and leaving Sadie to wait for their classmate to set aside his book and gather his lunch pail before joining her.

"You did have something to ask?" he said quietly as they made their way out of the school room together. "I couldn't tell if she was joking or not."

"I am curious to know how the rally went and why you're back at school," Sadie replied, "but those questions really could have waited for later. I didn't mean to cut into your reading time."

"That can wait for later, too," he assured her.

They walked out of the schoolhouse and joined Margaret, then set off in the direction of the park.

"So, how did the rally go?" Sadie prompted when Davey hadn't said anything for several moments. "Were you able to convince the rest of the newsboys to join the strike?"

He nodded. "I almost couldn't believe it myself, but yes - they're on board now." There was an uncharacteristic note of satisfaction in his voice.

"Davey, that's great news!" she exclaimed. "All of your hard work paid off!"

"Thank you," he replied, looking surprised but pleased at her enthusiasm.

"I take it Jack must have come through in time, then, if he was able to deliver his speech," Sadie remarked, remembering how concerned Davey had been about it beforehand. "That must have been a weight off of your shoulders."

He laughed. "I guess you could say that - it definitely wasn't the kind of speech that I expected, but things turned out all right in the end, so that's all that matters. I guess if there's one thing the rally taught me, it's that you can't really count on things happening the way you think they will no matter how much you plan - sometimes you just have to figure things out as you go."

"That's true for life as well," Sadie observed, "which is why it's good to do something ridiculous from time to time - it helps you stay adaptable." She gave him a cheeky grin, and to her surprise, he returned the smile.

"You may be right about that," he agreed. "Though I think 'ridiculous in moderation' is really what we've been discussing all along - emphasis on the moderation, rather than the ridiculous."

"To each his own," Sadie conceded. "So what happens now that you have the reinforcements you've been waiting for?" She was curious to see what his strategic mind had thought up (for surely he was already three or four steps ahead of things at this point).

"Well, now that Jack's back, he's going to reassume command of the newsies - that's why I'm back at school now, just for the day; they don't really need an extra leader hanging around at the lodging house. Jack and Race will be briefing the boys about some things, and we'll resume the strike efforts tomorrow. We took a few days off to let the impact of the strike be felt in the other newsies' neighborhoods and to recover after the rally before we make our final push. It's going to be a big one, though. We're hoping to finally settle things once and for all."

"Will you be protesting at the distribution center again?" Sadie asked.

Davey shook his head. "Outside of The World - but that's just a part of it. Katherine had a really brilliant idea for us to print our own paper, a paper that will be distributed to the rest of the city's working kids, calling on them to join the strike as well. If we can persuade them to combine forces, the entire city will feel the impact, and the newspaper owners and other bosses will have to listen to what we have to say. We're not just trying to change things for the newsies, now - we're trying to change the whole game. It's something that's never been done before, but if it works..." he trailed off, clearly getting ahead of himself in his excitement. "Well, if it works, it could change a lot of things for the better."

"David!" Margaret exclaimed, turning around to look at him in surprise, "I didn't realize that you were such a talker!"

"See, Megs? I told you," Sadie asserted, pleased at the acknowledgement of a point that she'd been trying to prove for a while. "Haven't I said as much from the start?"

"You have," Margaret conceded. "And if you'd made that bet with me, you certainly would have won it."

"I don't play to lose," Sadie answered loftily. "You ought to know that by now." Now that Margaret had seen the evidence for herself, perhaps she would be less inclined to persist in her irksome meddling. Sadie had proved, after all, that she had a much better handle on Davey than the other girl did.

Satisfied at this development, Sadie tried to recall what they had been conversing about before Margaret's unexpected interruption. Something about the rest of the city's working children, and changing the game…that was it - changing the game for all, not just for the newsies.

"I apologize for our rather rude tangent," she said. "But back to what you were saying - you mentioned that the newsies will be distributing their paper tomorrow?"

Davey didn't answer at first, and after waiting for a moment, Sadie gently asked her question again.

"Oh! Right. Sorry, I…" he trailed off, as though struggling to gather his thoughts. "Yes - the paper will be distributed either tomorrow evening or the following morning."

The rambling excitement in his voice that had been present only moments ago was gone, and he was suddenly back to his careful and deliberate answers. Sadie didn't know what to make of it, or of the fact that several attempts to draw him out after that proved to be unsuccessful. An abrupt and awkward silence descended as they continued their walk towards the park, which Margaret eventually broke into with some small talk. Sadie gamely chatted away, but she felt uneasy. Clearly, the brief derailing of the conversation had unsettled Davey, but she wasn't sure why.

When they reached the park, he suddenly spoke. "If I've answered all of your questions, I think I'll head back to school now. I've gotten pretty behind on my reading, and I should probably try to catch up."

Sadie looked up at him in surprise. Had he really come all this way fully intending to turn around and walk back as soon as they'd arrived? He had his lunch with him, though, which meant that he'd at least considered the possibility of staying longer...

"If there's more that you want to know, I'll do my best to answer," Davey said after a moment when neither girl responded to his initial statement.

Margaret and Sadie exchanged a glance. "I'll let Sadie make that call," Margaret said. She gave Davey a polite farewell, then turned and walked off towards where their group of friends had gathered.

"Is something wrong, Davey?" Sadie asked, as soon as the other girl was out of earshot. "We haven't offended you with our remarks, have we?"

"No," he said quickly (perhaps a little too quickly, she thought). "It's not - I mean, nothing's wrong. I just - I'd forgotten about my reading, that's all. I really do have a lot to catch up on."

"Well, I certainly wouldn't want to keep you unnecessarily," Sadie answered, still trying to put her finger on what was amiss. "But I do wish I had known that you weren't planning to stay. I wouldn't have let you come all this way just to subject yourself to my interrogation."

"You helped me with preparations for the rally," he said. "I owed you that much."

He didn't sound offended, and if she hadn't known him better, she would have taken his words at face value. But she found herself surprised to realize that she knew something was wrong, that he was holding back somehow, even though she still had no idea how to overcome the barrier that he had suddenly felt necessary to erect.

When she didn't say anything after a moment, Davey said politely, "Enjoy your lunch, Sadie. I'll see you back at school."

Then he gave her a forced smile and turned away, walking back in the direction from which they'd come and leaving her to puzzle over what had caused his abrupt departure.


The walk back to the schoolhouse wasn't nearly long enough, and Davey ended up taking several laps around the block, trying to sort out his jumbled thoughts.

It had to have been a coincidence - that was all, just a coincidence - a coincidence, and an unhappy choice of words. There was nothing wrong with what had been said; it was a harmless comment, and nothing more. He was transposing their recent conversation onto another completely unrelated incident, and it was unfair of him to do so, especially when common sense told him that the innocuous remarks on the way to the park were nothing like what had happened in the past.

This is something completely different, he told himself. She wouldn't hurt you; she's not like that.

He knew that he was being irrational, and it irked him to no end. At least he'd managed not to give away too much of his agitation (though Sadie clearly still suspected that something was wrong), but now he had to figure out how to push aside the unpleasant memories that had immediately surfaced when the topic of a bet had been broached.

It was just a coincidence, he reminded himself again.

There was no reason to conflate this situation with what had happened before, and the less he thought about the past, the better. All evidence pointed to the fact that Sadie was good-hearted and kind (if occasionally a bit careless); she'd certainly proven her generous nature several times over, and he had no reason to be doubting the sincerity of those actions now, just because of some ridiculous offhand comment. He could let this go. He didn't have to let it bother him...

But still...it probably couldn't hurt to be more careful.

I don't play to lose, she'd said.

Did she consider it a game, trying to draw him out? Was that why she'd been so persistently friendly towards him? He hadn't really known her all that long, but he'd sensed even before today that there was a playful side of her that liked getting a reaction out of him, whether that reaction was a rambling disclosure or a flustered silence. It probably wasn't manipulatively intended - in fact, he was sure that it wasn't - but maybe there was an element of diversion in it that he'd been unaware of.

Perhaps her attention had stemmed from a passing fascination with him because he was different, quiet and reserved, a puzzle of sorts. He wondered if that fascination would fade, now that she'd decided she'd solved him.

Well, a dose of reality was always a good thing. He'd probably just gotten ahead of himself, amplifying her friendliness because it was something that he was always hoping for whenever he moved to a new neighborhood and was faced with the prospect of having to make new friends. He'd been the outsider enough times to know that friendships didn't generally come about quickly or easily, and of course it would be no different here in Manhattan. He really should have given things more time before jumping to conclusions.

He seemed to be learning a difficult (but important) lesson lately: that people would eventually defy his initial categorization. The matter of the strike had complicated his perception of several of his newfound acquaintances, Jack, Katherine, and Race among them, and now Sadie as well. Jack wasn't just the cocky, confident leader whom Davey had met on his first day as a newsie. He was also a conflicted young man whose emotions were so strong that they could turn him one way in a moment and the opposite way in the next. Katherine wasn't just a crusading reporter, working her way up from the bottom to procure justice for the downtrodden. She was also a heiress with a pedigree who was willing to walk in both her privilege and her chosen anonymity when it suited her. Race wasn't just a flippant second-in-command, coasting along on sarcasm and quipping remarks while remaining uninvolved. He was also a quick-thinking and occasionally shrewd leader who both knew and felt much more than he let on.

And Sadie. Sadie was…

Davey wasn't really sure at the moment.

But in any case, it was probably all for the best. His friendship with the landlord's daughter had become more of a distraction over the past few days than he would have liked to admit, so in reality, this was a timely reminder to focus on what was important. He couldn't afford to be preoccupied right now; there was too much at stake. And even if that hadn't been the case, he probably wouldn't have wanted…

...well, he probably wouldn't have wanted whatever it was that he'd been feeling over the past few days whenever he'd thought of her, that perplexing welter of confusion and happiness that had hounded him despite his concerted efforts to resist it. It had been a relatively mild affliction...but it was still unsettling, and he would be glad to be rid of it now.

If the past had taught him anything, it was that the initial period of adjusting to someplace new was always the hardest, and that things usually had a way of settling eventually, so he would chalk this up to just a part of that difficult adjustment process. He'd perhaps made some errors in judgement and had misinterpreted a few things, but stepping back really wasn't so hard, and it was better to be cautious now than to be careless and regret it later. He would make his adjustments, move forward, and that would be that. He would be more guarded and more careful. Then he could put those confusing thoughts to rest, and put his energies towards what truly mattered.

It was all for the best.

Feeling better now that he had reasoned through the situation, Davey returned to the classroom, ready to focus his attention on his reading.

He really did have a lot of catching up to do.


A/N: This has probably been clear for a while now, but I've chosen to take a slant on Davey's character that goes past what might be considered a strictly canon interpretation. I always try to avoid writing characters OOC, but I do like to reasonably push the limits if I feel that doing so can offer a different angle - hence, my decision to write a highly introspective version of Davey who tends to overthink things and has a complicated relationship with words (his own and others'). He's intelligent and observant and has a lot of strengths, but he's also grappling with his own anxieties and his past experiences, and he's his own worst enemy at times. Despite the fact that he's not a completely faithful rendering of his musical predecessor and that he doesn't fit the archetype of the typical protagonist in this fandom, I hope that you still find him to be a realistic and compelling Davey to root for, and I thank you for following along on his adventures thus far! :)

I'd love to hear any of your thoughts/conjectures about this chapter if you're willing to share!