Happy Birthday, Racetrack! [4M]

[Anthony Higgins]

Some newsies were orphans, and no one was really sure of the exact date of their birth. They made up a birthday, usually choosing a day like Christmas or sharing days with their good friends, maybe a day like the second day of the second month. But Race was a different story. He'd had a family for some of his life, and his grandmother always threw him a little party (by that, of course, she bought him a little present and made a batch of his favorite cookies) on the fifteenth day of September.

Today.

Racetrack, of course, tried to check out the date on top of the newspapers he sold, considering he didn't have a calender and the days sort of melted into each other, Monday no different from Friday. It was sort of what happened when you were a newsie: you didn't even get days off. When Racetrack was routinely checking the date yesterday, he was surprised to see that it was September 14. He grinned to himself, and started his selling, keeping in mind that tomorrow was his birthday.

And now, here it was. Racetrack was in a fair mood all day, from the knowledge that he was finally sixteen. He had definitely grown out of being fifteen...the age seemed so young already, and he had considered anyone even a year younger to be a kid. Now he knew he wasn't a kid any more, and everyone fifteen and younger was. For arrogant Racetrack, it was a pretty good feeling.

He would still be the youngest out of his mischievous group of friends, the Four Musketeers, but at least they couldn't slam him for being younger...well, not for another few months, at least. He hadn't committed his friends' birthdays to memory (yeah, he felt bad about that, but what did they want him to do?) but he knew that the other Manhattan newsies knew his birthday. And he was a little concerned. With best friends like Chance, Blink and Mush, you never really knew what you were getting...

Little did he know, as he entered the bunk room, he was about to find out.

((Wow. That was a little goding of me, wasn't it? I hope you all don't mind. I kind of assumed here, but I think I have good reasons for assuming? Let me know if anyone has a problem.))

[Mush]

Being the kind person Mush was, he knew what day everyone's birthday was on. Birthdays were special, and he wanted to make everyone feel special. It was their special day, the day dedicated to them. So when September 15th rolled around, Mush couldn't help but feel excited.

Racetrack was different from his other friends, he pretended that he didn't really care about exciting things sometimes. That's why for the past year Mush, Chance, and Kid Blink have been planning Race's birthday. They have decided on multiple things, but the most important was a scavenger hunt. Each one of them would write a note leading up to the main event. Mush beamed, he couldn't wait to see Race's face when everything came together.

He entered the Lodging House, and found the scrap piece of paper under his pillow. He grabbed the lead pencil next to it and began to write the first clue. He snickered to himself as he thought about Racetrack's face when he saw this. The mental picture of Racetrack wearing the item that Mush was writing was even funnier.

He finished his badly-worded note, and looked up to make sure the coast was clear. He glanced down at the piece of paper he held in his hands. It read: "Moody person likes colors. Colors is a girls colors, hehehe. Put on these colors and you will find the next clue." Mush couldn't help himself, he burst out laughing. He put his hand over his mouth, and looked around. Not really knowing why he was acting so suspicious. Everyone in the Lodging House, except for a few, and Racetrack of course, knew what was going on. Basically all of the older boys knew what was going on. Mush wasn't sure if Chance or Blink told any of the girls, he knew he didn't.

Mush carefully folded the piece of paper, and set it on Racetrack's bed. He then left the lodging house, trying to suppress his laughter as he ran past Kloppman who gave him a funny look. "Hey Kloppman, when Race gets here, tell him to go up to the bunkroom for me." Kloppman smiled, he knew that the boys were planning something big for Race's birthday. Mush ran out of the Lodging House grinning. This was going to be something Racetrack would never forget.