Author's Note: So it's been awhile, and this chapter is short, but I kind of have a feeling that the chapters for this story are going to be on the short side for some reason, I don't know why, I just have a feeling...
Anyway, thank you to your reviews! They were pretty awesome!
Disclaimer: Fly/Mollie is mine! (and don't worry, one name will be picked for her in the upcoming chapters so it won't always be so confusing/annoying flipping between Mollie and Fly or James)
Mollie…or Fly…or whatever the girl would be called next…was stretched out in a hospital bed, eyes closed, breathing evenly. A coma. That's what the head hoity-toity doctor had called her condition.
Mr. Warren, Fly's employer, was shaking his head, "I knew I shouldn't have hired a girl." He spat out the last word. Racetrack grimaced. How typical that a tycoon like Warren would turn a blind eye to all of the girl's triumphs on the track.
The doctor nodded. "Should've known better Warren, nothing good was ever to come of this."
"Nothing but a large sum of money!"
"Of which I now share!"
The two gray haired men chortled together, holding their bellies and grinning from ear to ear as Racetrack sat in the corner with a wilting potted plant.
"Well now," Warren began, the two suddenly serious, "How are we to wake her up so she can continue to clean up my horse's shit?"
Racetrack gaped at Mr. Warren's use of language. Suits usually had the decency to not show their bad side around street rats like him; usually too scared that some poor bloke would out them as vulgar and their reputation would be ruined.
"That's easy!" the doctor exclaimed, clapping his hands together, "We simply need to get someone to kiss her."
Warren wrinkled his nose. "But she smells like my horse's shit."
Racetrack raised an eyebrow as Warren once again swore.
"Well how about that boy?" the doctor asked, pointing to the corner that Racetrack resided in. Race looked over his shoulder, searching for the boy who had been elected for the job.
Only once Warren had pulled him to his feet and over to the bed did Racetrack realized that he was the boy. Warren and the doctor shoved him close to Fly, chanting, "Kiss her. Kiss her. Kiss her."
Racetrack tried backing away, but found he was froze in place; he tried turning away, but everywhere he looked was Fly's peaceful face, just waiting; he tried to drown out Warren and the doctor's words; he screamed…
Racetrack awoke, nearly hitting his head on the bottom of Blink's bunk and disturbing all of the newsies at the Lodging House.
"Race, what is it?" Jack Kelly mumbled, rubbing at his eyes and glaring at his friend. If it was one thing Jack hated, it was being awakened in the dead of night.
Other boy's heads popped up, peering over to where Race had suddenly sat up straight. He was covered in a cool sweat as he ran his fingers through his hair, shaking his head. "Uh, nothin', nothin', bad dream 's all," he explained.
Most of the newsies went back to bed, grumbling in irritation. "Oh, Race," Jack mumbled once again before pulling the covers over his head and snoring. Blink, who was hanging upside down form his bunk above, raised one eyebrow. "Ya sure you'se okay, Race?" he questioned.
Race grinned, placing his hand over Blink's face and shoving. "Yeah, I'se fine Blink, now go back ta bed!"
Blink chuckled and did as Race said.
Racetrack sighed, settling back down in his bed, putting his arms behind his head and staring intently at the bunk above. It wasn't that his dream had been bad, just surprising to Race. He closed his eyes, bringing the memory before his eyes. He made a face and scratched his head. What exactly was that dream all about? Sure he thought Mollie was cute, and she was fun to hang around, but he didn't want her in any way other than a friend.
Or so he thought. He didn't know what to think anymore. After one of his closest friends turned out to be someone else as equally important in Race's life, his world had been tilted. He stayed, thinking, until Kloppman came to get everyone up and out on the streets.
Racetrack went through the morning motions in a daze, not even noticing how Skittery refused Race a towel, still trying to figure out the mystery of his dream, until he heard Blink yell. Race's head snapped up and he saw Blink holding a paper out to him. "Hey, ain't this the goil at the track you'se always goin' on about?"
Race blushed and snatched the paper out of Blink's ink-stained fingers, staring, wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the front page of the World. There were two pictures, one of a grinning James the Fly mounted on Penny after winning his first race, and one of Mollie, softly smiling with pink cheeks, straw in her hair, and a pitchfork in her hand. Race couldn't choose which picture he liked better.
"They made the front page!" Mush squealed, he was a fan of Fly's after Racetrack had gone on and on about what a good jockey he was.
Blink shook his head, pointing at the picture, "No, Mush, they'se the same people."
Mush blinked quite rapidly. "What?"
Racetrack sighed, "Mollie was Fly the whole time, and she never told me." He threw the paper back in Blink's face, not understanding his new feeling of betrayal. Didn't Mollie know she could tell him anything? Didn't she trust him? Apparently not.
Racetrack made his way to Tibby's, in no mood to view his two—no, one—friend on the front page all day.
Author's Note: So like I said, short short short chapter, but not too shabby ha ha
Leave a review people and you shall be rewarded...with another chapter and some more Racetrack!!! Woo!! Who doesn't want more Racetrack I ask you? No one! That is the answer, which is why there should be numerous reviews, so that more Racetrack arrives soon!