"Wait, so, we have to leave school?" David asked, panic in his voice.

"Just for a while." David's mother said comfortingly.

"But, I have essays and tests and-"

"We talked to your teachers already. They said you'll be fine." Mr. Jacobs reassured him.

Davey slumped down and picked at his potatoes. "You should have consulted me."

"We don't have any other options!" Mrs. Jacobs said.

Les hopped into the room. "Okay, I washed my hands. Now can I have my food?"

"Yes, you may." Mrs. Jacobs smiled.

Les sat down and hurriedly devoured his portion of pork. "Wow mom, meat and everything!"

"Yes, it's a sort of, special day..."

"Why?" Les asked.

"Well, you know about your Father's accident."

Les nodded.

"He simply cannot return to work, at least until his arm is healed."

"Wait, then how are we gonna get money?"

"That's where you come in. You and your brother need to find work. Sadly, you'll have to drop out of school for a while but-"

"YES! NO SCHOOL!" Les shouted. David shook his head and laughed.

"Wait, but where are we gonna work?" Les questioned.

"Well, we don't want you to go to the factories. Perhaps you can be one of those newsboys!" Mrs. Jacobs smiled.

Les liked that idea. David didn't.

"What if we can't sell enough papers?" David asked.

"You'll be fine." Mr. Jacobs smiled.

"Okay, okay. I'll do it. I'll probably regret it, but I'll do it." David agreed reluctantly.

"I'd be happy to do it Dad! When do we start?" Les said, bouncing up and down in his chair.

"Tomorrow morning!"

•••

David slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out the door. It was even earlier than it was when he got up for school. He rubbed his eyes and put on his cap. Les stood beside him, yawning and groaning.

"This sucks. I wanna go back to sleep." Les complained.

"You were excited about it yesterday." David said.

"Yesterday I didn't know we had to wake up so early!"

David laughed. "Okay, this way to the World." Les followed, dragging his feet.

When they arrived at the World, they were greeted by a dozen boys waiting outside the open gate with glares on their faces.

"Um, you know you can go in, right?" David said, pointing to the open gate.

"Yeah. But we on strike." a boy with a cigar said.

"Oh. Um..."

"You're either with us or against us." A tall boy in a blue shirt walked forward.

"Wait, why are you striking?" David asked.

"Because they raised the price of the paper! A whole 10 cents per 100!" another boy shouted.

"I don't see why that's such a big deal. It's only an extra tenth of a cent more per-"

"Hey, does we look like we can afford to lose a tenth of a cent! I don't know about you mister, but I'm already sleeping on the street as it is." the boy with the cigar shouted.

"Look, I'm just trying to feed my family-"

"You can't go in." the boy with the blue shirt said, folding his arms.

"Says who?" Les shouted, folding his arms in mimicry.

The boy in the blue walked up to Les and knelt down in front of him. "Says me. Now you can join us, beat it, or get beat."

"You can't just threaten a little kid like that!" David said, grabbing Les' hand.

"What're you gonna do about it?" a boy in glasses shouted. The other boys behind him cheered.

"Fine, we'll just take our business to another newspaper." David turned around and began to walk off.

"Ah, ya see the problem with that is, they on strike too."

"There's no escaping us, pal." the boy in the blue said mockingly.

David shot them a glare and stomped off.

•••

"Touchy. Shoulda just joined us." Race laughed.

"Stubborn."

"Kinda ugly too." Specs added. They all burst out laughing.

"Where do ya think he's going?" Race asked.

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe he'll be a shoe-shiner. Either way, I still think we shoulda socked him a few times." Romeo stated. The boys nodded in agreement.

"Maybe he's telling the cops!" Specs joked.

"Whatever. Let em come at me! I'll show em who means business!" Crutchie laughed, raising his crutch in the air.

{wow, fast update. I'm just really getting into the story I guess. Hope you guys like it so far!}