"Jack...Jack," a soft voices interrupts Jack Kelly's wonderful dreams about this wonderful desert place out west. Sunrises painted soft hues of pink, purple, orange, yellow, and the deepest shades of indigo swing vividly through his mind. Somewhere, off in the distance, someone is calling his name. Perhaps that's the voice of his future wife or perhaps his mother from long ago. Wait, that wasn't possible. His mother had been gone since he was two. How could she be in this dream? The voice becomes more urgent, making Jack's dream a little bit more fitful,

"JACK!!!" Jack sits up straight and immediately regrets it as the cool morning air nips at his bare shoulders which had previously been covered by a blanket. His eyes are wide and he anticipates the worst. Someone had broken into the warehouse, one of the boys had become deathly sick overnight...Jack's mind races with terrible situations and things that could have gone wrong. 

It was only Jack's friend Crutchie Morris, sitting on the rooftop across from him with a mischievous little grin on his face.

Well that certainly wasn't his mother...or his future wife.

"Huh?" is the only response Jack can muster. The sun is barely grazing the horizon, turning the sky the faintest shade of pink and yellow over the tall buildings. Why does Crutchie have to be such a morning person?

"Mornin' Jack! Didn't want to be late!" Crutchie exclaims in response. Jack groans and puts his head in his hands,

"Ain't awake yet, Crutchie." Crutchie lets out a contented sigh.

"I've always loved mornings. They're so peaceful. The city's calm and for once everything is okay in this crazy world," he muses as he looks around with sheer joy at the skyscrapers surrounding them. Jack groans and flops back down on his pillow, pulling the covers over his head. Every single one of the other boys always complain whenever Jack or Crutchie go down to the interior of the abandoned warehouse to wake them up every morning without fail. Crutchie is the only teenager Jack knows who loves to be up in the mornings. He's always up before Jack is, shaking him awake before the bells at the nearby church chime.

"Lemme go back to sleep. Five more minutes. I'm not ready to risk my sanity yet," Jack mutters from under the covers. Crutchie, being the sometimes anti-sympathetic person that he can be, yanks the covers off of Jack's body. Jack mutters something that would have any of the other boys scurrying away. Not that they had any fear when it come to annoying or angering Jack but they never really want to risk it. Crutchie is an exception. He smacks Jack with his pillow,

"Watch the language, Cowboy. You already paint colorful things, you don't need to be sayin em too." Jack cracks an eye open and glares at Crutchie.

"I ain't colorful," he grumbles before yanking the covers over his head and burrowing his face into his pillow. His words slurring together making his Manhattan accent even more prominent than usual. This alone would make any girl from off the street swoon just at the sound of it.  Crutchie lets out a long sigh.

"I never swear, Jack...ever," Crutchie replies as he starts to get his bearings around for the morning.

"Bell hasn't rung yet so I am NOT getting out from under these covers until it does and at least let the boys sleep in until then. They need all the sleep they can get," Jack's muffled voice says through the covers. 

"I'll do that," Crutchie replies and then lets out a contented sigh as he watches the sun come up. Jack starts to drift off back to sleep underneath the covers when he hears the sounds of a scuffle. The voice of a boy that Jack doesn't recognize based on what he hears breaks through Jack's sleep,

"Please leave me alone! I'm new to this part of town and I'm not really interested in any gang business."

Not again. Does everyone think that being the leader of the Newsies gang means that he doesn't need sleep?  Jack groans as he hears the reply of one of the Delancys. Probably Morris just based on the sinister tone. He carefully peeks his head out from under the covers. His voice breaks the peace of the early morning,

"Hey, Delancy!" Then he quickly scurries down the fire escape, running down it multiple steps at a time. Both Delancys were staring up at the rooftop looking for any sign of their nemesis. He is nowhere to be seen. Jack sees a boy in between them struggling to break free. The boy looks to be about his age, maybe a year younger but is no match for the strength of the two brothers. Jack quietly starts to crack his knuckles, this is going to require some good old fashioned fist fighting.

"Where'd he go?" Morris asks.  Both boys are still oblivious to Jack coming closer to them. The boy in the middle starts to squirm the closer Jack gets.

"He's right here and he thinks you should let the innocent guy in the middle go," Jack answers, leaning against the front of the warehouse and crossing his arms, "What'd ya doing on my turf?" The Delancys stiffen at Jack's appearance but they quickly brush off any fear that they have.

"Kelly. Get out of here. We don't really care for your opinion and this certainly ain't your business to be worrying about," Oscar snarls, grabbing tighter to the boy in the middle's arm. The boy in the middle lets out an audible gulp of fear.

"It is to my business. You boys are on my turf. Now unless you want me to call out the rest of the boys, let this innocent kid go and mind your business. It's really too early for me to be getting my hands dirty," Jack threatens. The boy in the middle stands stiff now in between the two brothers. Neither Oscar or Morris moves away from the younger boy's side.

"Just pretend you didn't see anything. This is a part of his initiation...into our gang," Morris clarifies.

"Was it to see if he could beat me because that's a pretty tall order even for someone who can't seem to stay out of trash cans," Jack remarks resisting the urge to chuckle at the audacity that the Delancey brothers have as he casts a look in Oscar's direction.

"Why! I oughta..."Oscar snarls letting go of the boy in between him and his brother advancing towards Jack. Jack leans away from the building and takes more of a fighting stance.

"All you have to do is let him go and I'll walk you to the turf lines and you can be on your way. Nobody will be upset if we walk back to the boundary right now," Jack says, desperately trying to keep the peace. He tried to keep these scenarios diplomatic. He really did.

Well...until he didn't. Jack cracks his knuckles and moves toward the brothers. Oscar swings a punch in Jack's direction and it's on. Jack starts to move away so that the two brothers will eventually have to let go of the boy in between them, who seems more than thrilled at the possibility of getting away. Oscar drags the other boy and Morris behind him as he moves closer to Jack. He throws and successfully lands a punch on Jack's jaw. Jack's head whips back and he throws another punch in Oscar's direction equally hard. Oscar groans and stumbles back into a nearby trash can just off the street. The boy in between them manages to wrench free until Morris grabs him and puts him into a headlock, leaving Jack to take out both boys by himself. Oscar turns around to look at Morris putting their captive into a headlock. 

"What are you doing? He's smart! He'll break away from you the minute you get distracted," Oscar grumbles at his brother.

"Well, you can't find one-handed," Morris shoots back angrily. Jack takes this as his chance and shoves Oscar aside into the trash can yet again, delivering a swift punch as he does. He charges Morris, making the boy trapped in his grip squirm and fight to get out of the way. Jack shoves Morris up against the Lodge, the abandoned warehouse where the boys live, and starts throwing punches. In his attempt to hold his now bleeding nose, Morris lets go of the younger boy.

"Get out of here!" Jack calls out to the previous captive as he keeps Morris occupied. Oscar runs up to help his brother and Jack starts to fight him too. The boy who Jack rescued starts climbing up the fire escape while Jack finishes the fight. Jack shoves Oscar into Morris, throws a few more punches and shoves both of them into the street.

"Kelly," Morris grumbles miserably, "You're gonna pay for this. You and that other kid. We're going to have you both in the gang if we get any say in it." Jack makes sure that he is standing in between the Lodge's doorway and the Delancys.

"Stay outta my turf. Don't come back. I don't care what the reason is...don't come back," Jack snaps, starting to move closer to the brothers huddled together on the street. Both of the Delancys start to run back to their own turf, tending to their injuries the whole way back. Jack watches them go and then scrambles up the fire escape to see Crutchie quietly talking to the other boy.

"Don't let those Delancys scare you any. They're not the smartest and if you fight well, you'll be able to beat em just like any other troublemaker that double crosses ya on the street," Crutchie consoles quietly, "What'd ya say your name was again?"

"David Jacobs," the boy says quietly, "I have a family and school to get to soon so, I really can't stick around long. Those creeps apprehended me as I was walking trying to enjoy a walk in the morning."

"That sounds nice," Jack interrupts, sitting down on his little mat and getting ready for the day.

"Jack, you hate mornings," Crutchie says matter of factly. Jack sighs quietly.

"Your name's Jack?" David asks excitedly.

"Yeah, Jack Kelly. I'm one of the best paper boys in this city. If you ever want a job, come talk to me. I'll teach you how to do it and soon you'll beat out any other kid in the city," Jack introduces himself.

"Being a paperboy would be great except I don't want those boys to grab me again," David says timidly.

"Awww, don't worry about it, Davey. If I claim you as one of my boys, they won't want to. They're scared of my wrath and all," Jack says confidently. Crutchie raises an eyebrow, shooting Jack a look.

"You had to fight them off so I could walk away free," Davey remarks.

"I won't have to. Soon, they'll be scared of you," Jack says with a smirk and Davey raises his eyebrows nervously.

"WHAT? No one is ever scared of me. I'm one of the nicest people. I'm really smart and I hate starting trouble," David starts to protest but Jack shushes him.

"You know if you're going to be a part of a gang, you're gonna have to learn to fight," Jack says quietly.

"Gangs??? Fights??? I can't. I'm sorry but I..I...I have to go. I'm going to be late for school at any minute," Davey exclaims before running off frantically in the direction which both Jack and Crutchie know to be the high school.

"He does know that school doesn't start for another hour, right?" Crutchie asks Jack. Jack shrugs.

"Might be better if we just let him go," he replies. Crutchie nods his head in agreement. The two boys start to move down to the inside of the warehouse to get the rest of the boys ready for the day, wondering when they would get to see the frightened figure of a boy that makes up David Jacobs.

AN:/ Yay!!! I finally did it!! I finally wrote a chapter for this book. I think it's a good way to start the book and to get Davey in right away. I hope you all enjoyed it. I've cooked up some good ideas with a great friend on here, who will be mentioned throughout the book as we get further on. She knows who she is. :) There is so much more to come, you guys. I'm so excited for this book. When I first started writing stuff for this book like a year ago, I had no clue on how to write this but with the help of a friend on here, we have some great ideas. I'm soooo excited.  I'm not going to mention this person right now because my web browser, Firefox, when I go to mention someone and it turns the name of the person orange, the text just stays orange. Even once I'm done tagging people. So yeah, that's why I haven't done it yet but I will just maybe not now. I'll "mention" this person even though she won't get notified because of my stinking browser.

Nycnewsgirl, you, your support of me and my writing, and your ideas are all fantastic. Never stop writing and I love how much you fangirl over various Newsies with me. Thanks for all you do. I appreciate you bunches.

Back to everybody, feel free to vote, comment or do whatever it is you do. It all makes me happy when I see people enjoying the story so please don't hold things back. :) Thanks for doing it too. It really makes me happy to see people enjoying what I write. I hope you like the character development. The whole Jack and Crutchie morning argument was so fun to write and the next chapter with the boys waking up is going to be an absolute blast to write. So looking forward to it. :) Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and is looking forward to more.

Also, random little PSA just because I can and I really really want feedback on this idea because I just want to know that people are going to read it, please go check out my message board and read the post about the potential Star Wars book idea. It would make me super happy if you would leave your thoughts on the idea. :)  Thanks, peeps!!!

See you around, friends!!!!!

-Aisling