Title: Origin Stories (Part One?)

Era/AU: Canon Era

Word Count: 879

Race.

"How did you become a newsie, Racer?"

"Me?" He shrugged. "I can hardly remember at this point. I'se been here most of my life."

"Well, that's a boring origin story if I ever heard one."

"Les - !" Davey started to say, but Race waved a hand.

"Nah, Shortstop's right. That is a pretty boring origin story, ain't it?" Race turned around and called Jack over. "Hey, you've been with me for a while, right? Maybe you could try joggin' my memory of how I became a newsie?"

"I could try," Jack said as he approached. "It was a dark an' stormy night..."

"Woah, wait, why are ya startin' this off like a horror story?"

"'Cause it was a dark an' stormy night. You came here late at night in the pourin' rain!"

"If ya say so..."

"It's true! Anyway, as I was sayin'..."

It was a dark and stormy night. Our leader at the time went an' answered the door 'cause you would not stop knockin'. Only a few of us were actually sleepin' anyway – the thunder was keepin' us up. A bunch of us looked over to see what all the fuss was about, and there you were, soakin' wet. I recognized you immediately.

Jack turned to Les here. "A few weeks before, I had seen him beggin' on the street and, out of the goodness of my nine-year-old heart, invited him to become a newsie."

"That ain't what happened!" Race protested quickly.

"I thought ya didn't remember," Jack smugly replied. "But alright, whaddya think went down when we met?"

"You tried to sell me a paper, and I said I couldn't buy it because I had no money. No beggin' involved."

"Ah, right, and then I invited you to become a newsie so you could make more money. Okay, if that's how you remember it...now where was I?"

"You recognized me immediately."

"Yeah." Anyway, our leader agreed to let you stay the night, since it was late and rainin' and you was probably about to get pneumonia. And he said you could sell papes with us the next day, and if you stayed out o' trouble you could become a newsie.

The next day, we all walked to the gates to buy our papers, but you didn't have any money, so -

"So Weasel let me have fifty papes for free because I was just so darn adorable." Race grinned cheekily.

"That definitely ain't what happened," Jack said, chuckling.

"Yeah, that doesn't seem very likely," Davey added.

Les nodded. "I agree with Davey and Jack. That can't have been what happened, or else I woulda gotten free papes for all of us on my first day."

Race's grin widened. "So you're all gangin' up on me now, huh? I thought you wanted an interesting origin story!"

"An interesting one, not a fabricated one."

"Oh, I see how it is. Shortstop here don't want any fabrication. Okay, okay, tell it like it is, Jack."

I had to pay for your papes, but Oscar and Morris were a lot nicer back then, so it wasn't too big a deal.

"Nuh-uh! They was always jerks."

"There might be more to them than you think," Jack said enigmatically. "But I digress."

The day went pretty average as far as days go. I was showin' you the ropes, you was makin' jokes about everything, and we was just sellin' papes all day, which is, you know, what newsies do.

"And then we got jumped!"

"You got jumped?" Les said excitedly – perhaps more excitedly than he should have considering that situation could have ended very badly.

At least, it could have if they'd actually been jumped. Race, Davey and Jack all made eye contact to make sure the others knew that them getting jumped was, in fact, a fabrication. Two defenseless kids Les' age getting jumped by older and meaner boys was not something that would have turned out well at all.

"Yep, we got jumped," Jack said. "But luckily, we'se both very strong."

"Between the two of us," Race said to Les in a stage whisper, "I'se the stronger one."

"In your dreams, Racer."

"The only thing I'se dreamin' about is a leg o' lamb!" Race retorted, sticking his tongue out.

"Did you get hurt?" asked Davey (who was very obvious about the fact that he knew they were lying - but thankfully Les was too enthralled in the story to notice).

"We got soaked pretty badly," Race said, exchanging an amused glance with Jack.

" - but we soaked 'em worse!"

"And after we'd beaten them up to our satisfaction, I simply smiled at them and they were so in awe of the fact that I could be this charming and this menacing at the same time that they ran away!"

"Yep, that's exactly what happened." Jack said, nodding solemnly.

"Woah," said Les. "So did you become a newsie right away? I feel like getting jumped counts as getting into trouble."

"It does...but our leader was so impressed by these two nine-year-old kids being so brave and cool that he let Race become a newsie – and he didn't kick me out. And, well, the rest is history."

"Now, that's an origin story!" Les exclaimed.

"Indeed, it is," Race said as he winked.

A/N: So today is National Superhero Day, and I figured what better way to celebrate by writing some origin stories? I was planning on doing a "hero" and a "villain", but the Delancey brothers' story just was not turning out the way I wanted it to, so if I put that one out it will be later. I might make a part two to this if I can figure out the right words, but for now, I hope you enjoyed Race's (sort of) newsie origin story! I debated changing Jack's part to be Albert's, but I think I like this one more. Please let me know what you think!

-mouse :)

A response to AetherlightGirl: Thank you! I'm glad you liked the story! And the duck pun was appreciated as well ;)