Jack

A sweat broke from my hot forehead and I could feel my heart creeping unwantedly into my throat.

"So whadda ya say, Spot?" I laid an eye on the medium-sized boy, extremely nervous that he might say no.

He scratched his chin before answering. "I say...dat what ya say...is what I say."

Cheers erupted from every Newsie in the performance hall. I smiled at Spot and silently thanked him.

Christina

"Hey, Chris!"

I looked over my shoulder to see Spot. He was holding a bottle of something. He shoved his hand in his pant pocket and pulled out a quarter. 

"I bet ya a quarter dat ya won't drink dis beer." He gave me a confident smirk before handing me the bottle and keeping the quarter far from my reach.

"We'll see 'bout dat," I lifted the bottle to my lips and chugged the drink. I winced as the bitter liquid burned my throat. "Done!" slapping the bottle on a table next to us, I extended my hand in victory. He reluctantly slapped the quarter into my open palm. "Hand me another one!"

***

Jack

"Jack!" a voice interrupted my thoughts. Before I could barely turn around to see who it was, somebody fell into my arms. It was Chris. I grunted under her sudden weight as I wrapped my arms around her torso. "Hey, Jack. What's goin' on and where am I?" her words slurred together. She reeked of alcohol. 

"Have you been drinking?" I asked, looking down at her awkwardly hanging in my arms.

She hiccuped, "Yes, but only a little." Giggling, she regained her balance and stood up on her feet. She clearly had been drinking more than just a little. She was full-blown drunk. I looked around the room accusingly. 

"Who gave her alcohol?" I yelled over the crowd of talking boys.

"Spot!" everybody pointed in unison at Spot as he leaned back in a chair.

"What? No, I didn't!" he tried to defend himself throwing his arms up in disbelief of his friends ratting him out.

"Yes, you did!" somebody shouted.

"Spot!" I walked over to him. "Get up."

He raised his hands in surrender as he slowly got up from his chair. "Okay, I might've given her some beer but she was basically beggin' for it."

I slapped the back of his head. "Are you an idiot?"

He rubbed his head. "What the fuck, man!" he shoved me backward. I wasn't prepared for him to retaliate and I fell stupidly on my butt. "It ain't my fault that your girl needs to learn how to loosen up!"

"I'm gonna fuckin' kill ya, Spot!" in a millisecond, I was on my feet about to grab Spot.

"No, Jack!" Chris's voice rang out.

"Jack, stop!" I just about jabbed the guy before someone pulled me backward. "Snyder's here!" With those couple of words, I stopped fighting and froze in place. 

"What?" I choked.

"Snyder's here!" it was Davey's voice. A high-pitched whistle cut through the noisy party.  I immediately covered my ears with my hands and searched around the performance hall for the source of the sound. The white-haired Snyder was standing at top of the steps, blowing a whistle and motioning to some bulls where I was standing.

"Oh, shit!" my heart dropped to the floor. I began furiously shoving through the crowd of boys.

Chris pulled back on my shirt. "What the hell is goin' on?"

***

Christina

"Jack!" I yanked on him again when he didn't answer me.

He twisted back around and gave me a stern face. "I don't have time to explain!" he fretfully removed my hand from him and continued pushing past the other newsies.

"I'll get you, Sullivan!" a white-haired man yelled and began to shove everybody in the crowd back as he pursued Jack.

"Don't ya dare touch him!" I screamed, my balance abandoned me and everything was spinning around me.

I suddenly rammed into a giant man. He must have noticed how I was wobbling around because he grabbed me. "Have you been drinking, kid?"

I hiccuped. "No! Ugh!" I fell down on my butt.

"Get him, Officer!"

A thick pair of hands grabbed under my armpits and my senses returned. I squirmed around and tried to loosen their furious grip. I finally managed to break free and--I blame this on instinct--punched the guy in the face. I realized it was a cop.

I'm in deep shit now.

"Get outta my way!" I screamed as I tried to run out of the building. I saw Race standing by the doors.

Race! Oh sweet, sweet Race!

"Race...help me!" I was out of breath. "I'm in trouble."

"There he is!" the same bull pointed me out to some other officers. I noticed that his nose was bleeding.

Race had confusion written all over his face, "What? What's wrong?"

"Neva' mind!" I barely dodged the gorilla-like hand of the bull.

I dashed through the doors and out into the street. There was a ton of bulls everywhere. They were in a tight semi-circle, blocking people from escaping. In other words, I was trapped. I heard the doors flap open again. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Jack fighting against a bull's powerful grip.

"Stop!" I screamed. I kicked and slapped at the bull who was holding Jack. I turned around to go get help when there was the bull in front of me that I punched earlier.

"Now I've got you!" he pulled his baton from his belt loop. Before I could react in some type of way he hit across the head with the hard baton.

All I could see before everything went dark was Jack being dragged away.

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