"I need you to help me sneak into the Lodging House". He wants me to do what?
"You want me to do what?!". Just yesterday he told me that he didn't even want to hear me talk about the other boys, but now he wants me to help him sneak into the Lodging House?
"I know. I know, it sounds crazy, but I have to do this"
"But Jack, yesterday you didn't even want to hear me talk about them, but now you want to sneak into the Lodging House?"
"I know! But it is just something that I have to do"
"So that means that you still care about them?"
"Whoever said that I stopped caring about them? They are still my brothers and I have to make sure that they are still okay"
"But can you tell me what this is suddenly important to you?"
"Because of the turf war with Harlem. I have completely forgotten about them and I just abandoned them when we were in the middle of the war, so I have to make sure that they are still okay. It is the least that I can do because I am still their older brother and strike leader"
"There is the Jack Kelly that I always knew"
"Shut up. Can you help me or not?"
"Of course, I will help you. But the question is how we would be able to do that? The other boys would easily be able to recognize you the moment you walk into Newsies Square, so you will need a disguise"
"Well, I was kind of hoping that you would be able to help me with the disguise. I already have the fake name and fake story to use, but I just need a better disguise"
"Ok, I think that we are somewhat the same size, so you could use some of my clothes to wear at the Lodging House"
"Perfect, but which ones haven't you wore yet? I don't want to the others to see me wearing clothes that they know that you wear a lot"
"I will show you. Come on". I led him into Les and my bedroom and showed him all of the clothes that I had. He picked the one that he liked and that I haven't wore in a while or that I haven't wore in front of the others.
"It is a little loose on me, but it should work. Now, let's get to that Lodging House"
"Ok". I don't know if I have a good feeling about this. We headed toward Newsies Square and Race approached us.
"Davey, what happened? You have never been this late ever since... anyways, who is your friend?"
"Well, this is..."
"My name is... Jeremy. Nice to meet you"
"You look kind of familiar", Race said as he walked closer to Jack. Great, now he is going to figure out Jack's cover and blow it.
"Umm, in what way?"
"You look kind of like our former leader. His name...". He looked around to make sure that the others weren't listening to him. "His name was Jack Kelly. He was our strike leader and our brother, but we chased him away about three months ago and we haven't seen him since"
"Really? What did you guys do to chase him away? Especially since you mentioned that he was your brother?". What is Jack doing? I thought that he just wanted to sneak into the Lodging House, not try to expose himself.
"Well... we were mad at him for the speech that he said at the rally, but we took it too far, especially me since I destroyed the one thing that he cared about. Then, Brooklyn decided to come after him, which I wish that I didn't allow, but I thought that it would help us find Jack, so I could apologize to him. I am guessing that he found out about it because he was nowhere to be found in any city in New York. No newsie could find him anywhere"
"Well, from the fact that you are whispering about it, I think that anyone cares about him that much. Maybe that is why he left in the first place"
"Well, everyone who is out here are the ones who don't care that much about Jack or the ones who just want to sell, but some of the others haven't sold their papers since Jack left"
"Really?". Jack is about to expose himself. I better step in and make sure that his secret is still safe.
"Umm, Jeremy. Why don't you stay here at the Lodging House while I sell my newspapers? I will meet up with you at Newsies Square when I come back"
"Sure, I will do that"
"Well, why don't you do that right now?". Jack took the hint and ran inside the Lodging House. "Sorry about him. He used to be a newsie from where he came from, so he is curious about this kind of stuff". Why did I say all of that stuff? Now, I am going to expose Jack's secret. Maybe I am a walking mouth.
"What lodging house did he come from?"
"... Santa Fe"
"Really? Jack always wanted to go to Santa Fe". Ok, that made it worse.
"Papes for the newsies! Line up, boys!". For once, Mr. Wiesel saved me, even if it was indirectly.
"Well, you heard the man. We should get our newspapers and sell them!". I quickly ran in line and received my newspapers. I hope that I didn't mess this up for Jack. The least thing that he wanted was to be discovered, especially by the newsies he had the most issues with.