OH MY GODS! I AM SO SORRY, I WAS WAITING ON BETA TO FINISH EDITING BUT THEN I NEVER SENT HER THE CHAPTER SO I FORGOT TO UPDATE! I'M SO SORRYYYY

Chapter is currently unedited because Beta is lazy and I dont have time to wait for her <3

"Will ya's quit followin' me around?" Race huffed, crossing his arms.

"Will ya quit hating me?"

"I don't hate you." Race crossed his arms, glaring down the small newsie. "I just don't tolerate you." And with that, he promptly walked away.

"Ain't dat da same thing?" She yelled, throwing her hands up.

"Nope." Race continued to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

"Nope!" Anastasia mimicked, making her voice deep. "Cause I'm Racetrack Higgins and I hate this poor little goil who's pretending to be a boy." She put her hands on her hips, huffing.

"What's da mattah with you?" Jack looked down at the smaller girl (who was currently huffing and puffing). "We gotta start sellin' before dem generous customers are gone."

They both walked back to Irving Hall.

"EXTRA EXTRA!" Jack yelled.

"Hey Jack?" Anastasia asked in a quiet voice, which shocked the older boy since she seemingly was always loud.

"What's up kid?" He tilted his head back to her after an old lady handed him a penny.

"Why does Race hate me?"

"Not everyone has to like you Stasia." Jack smiled softly. "Just look at me! I can't even count the amount of people that hate me."

"Why?" Anastasia tilted her head. "Is it cause no one hates you?"

Jack laughed at her response.

"No, cause there's more den five."

"Oh." Anastasia said, her voice small.

"It's just how life woiks kid." Jack explained. "Don't worry about it too much, sometimes things are out of your reach."

"But this is in my reach." Anastasia explained. "He's just a bundle of grumpiness... cold hearted grumpiness."

"Whatever you say kid." Jack rolled his eyes. "Extra Extra!"

"What can I do for Race not to hate me?" Anastasia asked.

Jack thought for a moment.

"Just be there for him." He put a hand on Anastasia's shoulder.

"Got it!" She picked up her papers.

"Whoa, where you goin' kid?" Jack watched as she put them in her bag.

"Of to the races, duh! See ya Jackie."

And with that, she was off.

~~~~~~📰~~~~~~

"What up Higgins?" Anastasia made her voice deep as she greeted the blonde boy.

"What do you want Redwood." Race groaned.

"I want what you want." She grinned, feeling proud of herself.

"You want to die?"

Her eyes quickly snapped up to see the grin of Racetrack Higgins. "Hah, youse so easy to trick."

"Uh huh- well- well youse so easy to punch!" She raised her fist.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!" She was about to charge at him when a cop grabbed the back of Race's shirt.

"You! You're the kid that stole the bread earlier!" He growled.

Anastasia's eyes widened.

So did Race's.

"What- I didn't-"

"Oh it's the kid." The bull snickered. "Not so fast anymore, are you boy? Straight to the refuge."

"Wait!" Anastasia yelled.

The cop turned back to her.

"I'm sure you have the wrong boy, I mean, he was with me for the past
fifteen minutes." She huffed, crossing her arms.

"Uh huh, and I'm Teddy Roosevelt." The cop snapped. "Bring him in too, lying isn't tolerated squirt."

She struggled to get free as another cop grabbed her too.

"Higgins, what did you do?!" She huffed as both her and Race were shoved onto a cops carriage.

"I didn't take the bread! But if I did, me being in here is my fault. You in here is your fault."

"Oh yeah, really noble knight."

"What? You need saving Redwood? Your bark bigger den yer bite?" He grinned fakely before his face went back to dead serious.

"Will you two shut up?" A bull growled. "I already have a headache."

"ANA- I MEAN- ANDREW! RACE! WHAT HAPPENED?" Jack yelled, running dramatically alongside the carriage.

"We'se going to the refuge." Race huffed.

Jack's eyes widened, running up near Anastasia. Race couldn't hear since he was on the other side of the big carriage and the hooves clomping were loud.

"You know Stais, when I told you to have his back I didn't mean follow him to your demise!" He flailed his arms around.

"Shut ya trap."

~~~~~~📰~~~~~~
(Hehehehhehehe) (beta's time to shine!) [ayyyeee] [i hope this is good-]

"Get in there!" Snyder snapped at Anastasia, shoving her into a cell. In the corner of her eye, she could see Race being thrown into the one next to her. "Six months! Ya got that?"

Before Anastasia could even nod, the door was slammed in her face.

"Rude," she mumbled. Through the bars in the wall separating her and Race, she saw his bright blue eyes full of panic. She fumbled for her newsy cap and shoved it on her head, tucking in all her hair before Race can see.

"Andrew? That you?" The cocky boy she once knew completely vanished.

"Who else would I be? Jack Kelly?" she asked him, blowing a strand of hair out of her face and hurriedly stuffing it under her cap.

"I'd much rather have Jack here than you."

There he was again.

"Well, it ain't my fault I'm in here, I covered for you when you did some stupid thing," she shot back. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for ya. So thanks."

"Anytime," Race retorted. "I'll be sure to steal more pieces of bread. Oh right! I DIDN'T TAKE THE BREAD!"

"Encouraging breaking the law, I see," she told him. "You must think you're so cool, being a rebel and stuff." Anastasia got up and started to pace around the small cell.

"Well, I'm flattered you think so!" Race stood up and walked to the bars separating them.

"Can your ego get any bigger?"

Race's face began to flush with anger. "Can your empathy get any smaller?"

"Wow, 'empathy', big word," she remarked dryly, rolling her eyes. "Didn't know you had the mental capacity."

"Where do you hold all that rudeness in your small brain?"

"Only if you tell me where you hold yours!"

Race rolled his eyes. "And while I'm at it, where do you keep those insults? There can't nearly be enough space to hold all of that with all your rudeness and pessimism."

"'Pessimism'. Racetrack Higgins back at it with big words." She waved her hands around for emphasis. "Extra, extra." (I don't even know what that means 🤣) [hUh??] (yEaH)

Race huffed and sat down against the wall with the bars.

"What, surrender already?"

"I don't argue with stupid people, because I know I'm gonna win," Race said, letting a humorless laugh escape his lips.

"Wow, really pulling out all the stops, huh."

He got up and looked through the bars again to see Anastasia pacing like there was no tomorrow.

"You really do have an endless supply or sarcasm, don't you," he said to her.

Anastasia rolled her eyes for what seemed like the trillionth time today to her. She walked up and put her face right in front of Race's. She smirked as she watched his cheeks flush scarlet.

Then he pointed a finger at her head, and for a second she was about to make a quip about him seeing things.

"You... you's a..."

"A what? Spit it out, Racetrack."

"You's a girl?"

Oh.

"So I am, and what about it? You have a problem with my gender, Racetrack?" She glanced behind her and saw her newsy cap lying on the floor, forgotten. It must've fallen off when she was walking around.

"No! I..."

Race was silent for a few seconds.

"What? Cat got your tongue?"

"I still don't get it," Race sighed. "Why'd ya cover for me?"

"Well, Racetrack," Anastasia replied, her voice dripping with scorn, "some of us actually have a heart." She crossed her arms and sat on the opposite side of the barred wall.

"Anthony," he told her in a low voice. "My name- my name's Anthony."

Anastasia stopped pondering over what insult to throw at him next.

"Anthony," she murmured, trying it out. She stood up and walked toward the bars where Race was.

"Don't call me that though," Race snapped, but there was no true bite in his words. "Ya call me Race or Racetrack, and that's all." He sighed. "You got a name? I mean, seeing as your name probably isn't Andrew."

"You promise ya won't tell anybody?" she asked.

"Swear on my life," he replied, and for once he was actually serious.

"Anastasia," she said quietly.

"I prefer Stupid," he told her, a smile growing on his face.

"And I prefer Jerk." He saw her smile back.

Well that's a rap. Stay tuned, another chap is going up soon