Christina

"Take these, and hand them out to anybody you see," Denton said, handing Race a huge stack of the newspapers we wrote. "But, ask them if they are literate."

Race gave Denton a blank look, taking the papers into his small hands.

"Ask them if they can read." Denton said, chuckling.

Race formed an 'O' with his mouth and headed out of the room.

Denton faced me and Jack with another huge stack of papers. "You take half," he passed me half of the stack. "And you take the other half." he handed the rest to Jack. "Go pass these out together."

"Sure thing." Jack said, flashing a smile at me. We both headed up the stairs and exited the Distribution Center.

We both walked a little bit, silence building a wall. It's not like I didn't want to talk to Jack, I just couldn't think of what to say.

"This is just like old times, ain't it Chris?" he stared down at me, holding the papers close to his chest. "I mean us selling together 'n' all."

"Yep, only this time we're working for ourselves, not some rich ass." I smirked, and he chuckled at this. I spotted a lady walking down the street like she was on a mission. It was worth a shot, I decided. "Hey, lady," she stopped, seeming annoyed. "take a pape."

She grabbed a paper from my hands, read the headline, then began to dig into her coat pocket. "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing," I smiled. "It's free."

She bared her teeth and strutted off away from the two of us.

Jack awed at me. "Wow. I'm impressed!"

I giggled lightly. "Why's that?"

"I've never seen you be so nice to somebody besides me," he joked, giving me a playful push.

I laughed, pushing him back. "Shut it, Jack."

***

We'd been handing out papers for at least an hour when we decided to take a short break. The papers were all gone. We sat on the edge of the river, our legs dangling off. The water was surprisingly calm down below, but I felt jittery and itchy all over. Jack must've noticed.

"Are you alright?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"I'm just a little nervous."

"Why are you nervous?"

"I don't really know why. I just am," I stared down at the water, not being able to bring myself to make eye contact with him.

"Am I making you nervous?" he questioned, brushing my leg with his.

I was about to speak, but I stopped. I blinked hard, wishing for there to not be any silence.

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me," he lowered his voice. I heard the familiar sound of a match being lit. I looked over and Jack was lighting a cigarette. The smell made me yearn for one, but I restrained myself from asking. The quietness continued for a few more moments between us, but he broke it sharply. "I make you nervous because of what I did, don't I?"

I wanted to deny it, but the more I thought of it, the more it was true. "Uh, yeah." I whispered.

"Of course. I should've known," he flicked his cigarette into the water. He jumped up and began to storm away.

"Jack! Jack, stop!" I pleaded, running to catch up with him. I grabbed his arm and he turned around, glaring down at me.

"What do you want, Christina?"

I was taken aback by him using my real name, but I shook it off. "Why are you running away from me?"

"Because I'm an awful person! What I did to you and to the boys is--is--unforgivable!" he shouted, throwing his arms around in frustration. "Tell me why I shouldn't just go and jump into that river right now!" he demanded, brushing a loose strand of his hair back.

"Jack. I need you. You're an amazing friend..." I felt tears begin to well in my eyes and his figure became blurry. "And because I love you." the tears were set free and they streamed down my red cheeks. My entire body suddenly felt weak. Jack opened his mouth like he was about to speak, but instead, he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in close, our lips grazing each others. He connected out lips, and my stomach felt tingly as we held the position. He dragged his hands up and down my back and I placed my fingers in his hair. I took a short breath as he flipped his head position. I followed his lead, flipping my head position too. We both slowly released our lips, making me feel energized and awake despite what I had just felt seconds earlier. I felt as though there were pins and needles poking under my skin.

"I love you too." he said breathlessly.

***

Jack

"Chris, you need to wake up!" I shook the sleeping girl and her eyes twitched open.

"What?" she said groggily.

"You need to come out and see this!" I practically pulled her out of bed. She slipped her shoes on quickly and followed me out of the of the orphanage. As I opened the door, her eyes lit up. Huge crowds of people filled the streets, cheering and screaming for the newsies. Our newspapers flew around everywhere, littering the street. People were pumping their fits up at the distribution center, where Pulitzer was most likely in his office, wondering what the meaning of this was.

"Pulitzer had no idea what was coming!" Chris gasped, laughing with excitement that shook her entire body.

"He sure as hell didn't," I agreed. "We're going to go up to his office to talk to him."

"How are we gonna do that?" she asked, turning to me, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Don't worry. He'll come to us."

***

"Let them in." the all too familiar voice of Pulitzer said through the wooden doors.

His assistant, whose name I never learned, opened the doors and gave me and Chris a hard stare. I returned the stare as we both stepped in front of Pulizter's large wooden desk. He had his chair turned away from us as he was staring out the window, probably at the mobs of people in the streets below screaming at him. Pulitzer probably never wanted to see our newspaper, but little did he know, I had a copy, specially made just for him.

"Extry, extry Joe. Read all about it." I threw the paper onto his desk, hearing it slap onto the hard surface. Pulitzer turned around in his luxurious leather desk chair, cigar hanging from his mouth, eyes squinted. He seemed calm, but I could see right through him. He was scared. He was almost timid to speak, saying, "I promised that if you defied me, I'd break you. I'll keep that promise, boy. Now, I gave you a chance to be free. I don't understand. Anyone who doesn't act in their own self interest is a fool."

Chris chimed in. "Then what does that make you?"

"What?" Pulitzer tried his best to seem clueless. He wasn't doing a very good job.

I suppressed a chuckle. "Oh, this is my pal, Chris. The Walkin' mouth." I laid a hand on her shoulder.

Chris wasn't done talking. "You talk about self interest, but since the strike, your circulation's been down 70%. Everyday you're losing thousands of dollars just to beat us out of one lousy tenth of a cent. Why?"

"You see, Chris," I started, "it ain't about the money. If Joe gives in to nobodies like us, it means we got the power. And he can't do that, no matter what it costs. Am I right, Joe?"

Pulitzer didn't reply as I expected him to, "I sent for the police. They must be here by now," he looked up at his assistant. "Send them in, Seitz."

I slapped the desk. "I am not going back to jail, Joe. Look out here," I ran over to the window, opening it all the way, the people chanting below. "Right out here is where the power is."

Pulitzer covered his ears like he just heard an ear-piercing scream. "Close the window! Close the window! Go home! Go home!" there was a slight begging tone to his words as he pointlessly shouted at the crowds below.

"I can't hear you!" I said, gesturing to the chanting outside.

"Now you listen to me!" he screamed.

"Maybe you should listen!" I yelled back.

"No, no! You listen to me!" he exchanged.

"No! You listen!" I demanded, stopping my foot in the ground.

"Close the window and shut up!" he continued to cover his ears and wince.

"There's a lot of people out there and they ain't just gonna go away. They got voices now and they're goin' be listened to. Putting them in jail is not going to stop them! That's the power of the press, Joe." I stated, pretty proud of myself for that one. I finally closed the window, and Pulitzer removed his hands from his ears. "So thanks for teaching me about it."

The man named Seitz spoke. "Those kids put out a pretty good paper there, Chief."

Pulitzer groaned, picking up the paper, skimming it over. "I ordered a printing ban on all strike matters. Now who defied me? Whose press did you use to print this on? Whose?" he demanded.

"Well, I only used the best," I grinned slyly, "So, thanks again."

***

"We beat 'em!" I screamed to the crowds of citizens and newsies, and the roaring of the crowd brought an ear-to-ear smile on my face. I looked at Chris and she had a huge smile too.

"Hey, Jack! Chrissy!"

We both turned and saw Crutchie, hobbling and fighting his way through the crowd.

"Crutchie!" she yelled, a whole new wave of happiness washing over her. She hugged him tightly like her life depended on it.

Crutchie laid his free arm around my shoulders. "I missed all of you."

"What about Snyder?" I asked.

"He's goin' to jail. The police figured out that he was taking all that money." Crutchie chuckled like it was a joke, which it kind of was.

"Hey, Chris." I grabbed her arm, leading her away from the boys.

"Yeah, Jack?"

"Well, uh, now that everything is settled," I rocked back and forth on my heels. "I thought I should tell you how I really feel about you."

"Okay," She said, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes. When I didn't say anything, she shifted her weight. "Go ahead."

"Oh, uh, um," was all I could say. So I decided that actions speak louder than words. I placed my hand on her cheek, pulling her into a kiss.

"Oh, jesus!" Race screamed, whistling. The other boys howled, but I didn't dare pull back.

"Get it, Jackie!" somebody else yelled.

We finally pulled away from each other. "I love you." I said, holding her soft face in my hands.

"I love you, too." she said, looking back at the boys.

I looked at them too. They were glowing. It was amazing to know that it was finally over, and that they stayed with me the whole time.

There's nothing better than friendship. I would never forget that.

It's hard to believe, but this is the final chapter of the book! It was such a joy to write it. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Thanks to everybody who has read this book. Also, I am not going to mark this book as complete just yet. I have further editing that I might do.

Best wishes and thanks again,
Katherine X