The Tip-Off (Chance)

[Jack Kelly]

"You're sure about it?"

Crutchy nodded solemnly. "Plain as day, Jack. I was around, like I says. And I turn the corner, and I sees Chance talkin' with that Mike Greaser. Chance tol' Mike somethin'. Mike was lookin' pretty happy. Looked to me like they was in cahoots."

"Ya sure it was Chance?" Jack asked tensely.

"Looked like him. Couldn't have been anybody else..."

Jack rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, his thoughts troubled. He knew for a fact that Crutchy wouldn't lie; he just wasn't that type of fellow. He trusted Crutchy and he always had, but Chance in cahoots with Mike? It couldn't be true. Chance had been with them for a while, and he had made fast friends with Race, Blink and Mush. Jack didn't want to believe it, but he had heard from Scamp, the messenger among the newsies in New York, that there would be spies among the boroughs. And Chance had shown up around the same time as Mike...

Crutchy spoke. "Chance is a nice fella. I wouldn't say nothin' if I wasn't sure somethin' was a little...hornswaggly, see?"

Jack nodded. "A'right, Crutchy. Say, go find Chance for me. Bring 'em in here, but don't say nothin'. Got that?"

Crutchy nodded dutifully and hobbled off. Jack rose from his bunk and took a seat around the small crate that served as a makeshift poker table in the bunk room. He leaned his head in his hands and waited impatiently. He didn't like this, not one bit. It wouldn't have been half as bad if he didn't know there were spies for Mike everywhere, and the fact that Chance was never in Manhattan until Mike came back. This looked bad, and as much as Jack didn't like to accuse Chance, he didn't doubt Crutchy a bit.

He would believe Crutchy over Chance any day.

[Chance]

Chance grumbled as he stalked to the lodging house. Today had not been his day. First off, he'd not had enough money to buy papers (he'd taken Joker out the night before and had spent almost all of his money), so he decided to borrow from one of his friends. Unfortunately, all of his friends liked to see him suffer. They made a deal with him. Chance agreed quickly, more than ready to buy his papers and be on his way. Little did he know that this "deal" was really an evil plan to bring down Chance and humiliate him. The deal was that every time Chance made a sell he had to blow a raspberry and then when the client turns around and looks at Chance, he would have to stare at them for a moment and then cluck like a chicken and run off. Chance hadn't sold more than half of his papers. It was an awful selling day.

Secondly, Chance had gotten stung by a bee... twice. Chance hated bees...

Thirdly.... well there wasn't a thirdly. But Chance was sure that there was going to be.

Chance needed his Joker. She made everything better. But he knew he had been spending a lot of time with her, a little to much time. The four musketeers were getting upset with him and he promised them he would spend the day with them. And his brother, oh Lordy his brother. His brother was not very happy with him, to say the least. He needed to talk with him and get things resolved.

But Chance would worry about that later. Right now he was going to spend some quality time with his friends. Chance walked to the lodging house, trying to get in a better mood. But every time he thought about being in a better mood, Chance remember that blasted bee. It just loved him or something. Maybe it had a crush on him... Oh goodness, I have been hanging out with Joker to much!

Chance shook his head and entered the lodging house. He opened his mouth to let out a greeting when he saw Jack sitting at the poker table, head in hands and looking stressed. Chance knew the reason. Mike. Every thing Jack had worked for for the past few years was slowly being stripped away from him. Chance didn't know much about the whole Mike thing, he choose to stay out of that business as much as possible, but he did know that it was adding years to his leader. And his brother was partly to blame for that.

"Is something wrong, Jack?" Chance asked as he approached him.

[Jack Kelly]

"Is something wrong, Jack?"

Jack looked up to see Chance approaching him. For an instant, Chance seemed too innocent and concerned to have anything to do with what was being accused of him. Jack came close to telling Chance that nothing was wrong at all, and letting Crutchy know that he had to have been wrong in seeing Chance talking with Mike. It was impossible. Jack hadn't known Chance all that long, but the way he had found his niche with Race, Mush and Blink, Jack almost couldn't accuse him.

But then, a split second later, Jack thought of Crutchy again. Everyone at the lodging house knew Crutchy inside and out: there wasn't a wicked bone in the boy's body, and he wasn't a rat for nothing. If Chance was being accused by someone else, Jack thought, it would be Crutchy among the boys to deny Chance's involvement emphatically. But now that Chance was on the other end of things from honest Crutchy's perspective...Jack didn't have much choice but to suspect him.

Quickly, a type of fury began to escalate inside Jack: a subtle type that came with stress, paranoia, and difficult decisions. Did he believe Crutchy or trust Chance? Who could he trust? What was going on? What could he do about it? If there was one thing Jack hated, it was feeling helpless. And right now he felt a terrible lack of control over the situation, and at last his eyes darkened and his heart sped up. He looked at Chance stonily. "Yeah. Siddown..."

The words were commanding; he spoke to Chance in a way that he would speak to one of the younger boys, or someone he wasn't on borrowing terms with. Either way, he waited for Chance to oblige before regarding him with a stony gaze. His voice was hard, and bespoke the anger and frustration he felt as he said, "Anythin' you should be tellin' me, Chance?" The question not only gave Chance an opportunity to come clean, but it also gave Jack a chance to gage his reaction.

[Chance]

"Yeah. Siddown..."

Uh-oh. Something was definitely wrong, and that something had to do with Chance. By the way Jack was looking at him, Chance knew he did something really bad this time. Chance was always known as the one to get in trouble or get you in trouble. He was the guy taking chances. He wasn't worried about the consciences. Obviously, he got in trouble before, but it wasn't anything like this. Just the simple, "Chance, ya idiot!" but nothing like this.

Chance sat down across from, careful not to knock something over in his nervousness. Why was he so nervous? He had nothing to hid, right? Chance gulped and started to rack his brain for something he might have done that would have made Jack mad. Last night him and Race had burnt a lovely whole on the floor of the lodging house. That was actually a really funny story. They both had been drinking, not enough to get them stinking drunk, but enough to make them pretty loopy. After singing and laughing, they proceeded to grab some of Race's matches. Fire+Alcohol+ Race and Chance= Bad smell and mad Jack.

But that couldn't be why, could it?

"Anythin' you should be tellin' me, Chance?"

Chance shifted uncomfortably. What else had he done? The other night, him and Race had taken the cards out of the box and replaced them with a bunch of bugs. It was a gross job, but seeing the boys faces when they opened the box of cards, expecting cards, was well worth it. Chance woke up sore the next morning from laughing so hard.

Then there was this morning. Chance still chuckled at the thought. Him and Race had put pepper all over the wash room. It was a lame prank, but it was a last minute, very entertaining thing. But that shouldn't be enough to make Jack this mad.

"Uh... no?" Chance answered, utterly confused.

[Jack Kelly]

As soon as Jack said something, there was a tangible change in Chance. Jack could see it right away, but he wasn't all too sure as to how to interpret it. Something that Jack could do was hone in on changes in people depending on what you brought up: a change in voice, posture, or eyes. It came in handy being a leader and having a bunch of boys to look over. What he couldn't do was interpret it. He could see someone tense up, but he often couldn't tell what the reason behind it was.

To him, Chance looked guilty somehow, and overall wary. Neither of those reactions would help his case in the long run. It took a moment, even, for Chance to give an answer.

"Uh... no?"

It was possibly the most uncertain-sounding thing Jack had heard all day. His jaw tightened as he shook his head. "If you're tryin' to sound convincing, Chance...it ain't workin'." Chance was increasing Jack's suspicion even before their conversation began. Jack made sure he wouldn't say anything in cold blood, but now his coldness was escalated. It was apparent that Chane knew something he didn't want Jack to know...at least to Jack, it was apparent.

Jack leaned in over the table, locking his cold eyes with Chance's. "Think I can't tell when someone's lyin', Chance?" he said accusingly. "Huh? Ya think? I'm askin' you one more time," his voice lowered in an unspoken thread. "Anythin' I should know, Chance? Anythin' someone else mighta told me?"

[Chance]

"If you're tryin' to sound convincing, Chance...it ain't workin'."

Chance gulped and nodded. He didn't reply though, his mind was racing. What in the world? What had he done to make Jack this mad? He hadn't seen Jack this mad... since, since Mike. But that couldn't have anything to do with it, could it? What if he found out about Shadow? Few people knew that Chance had a brother, but no one knew he was a twin and absolutely no one knew that Shadow was on Mike's side. Had Jack found out? Chance pushed that thought aside. There was no way. They had been so careful!

"Think I can't tell when someone's lyin', Chance? Huh? Ya think?

Chance gulped, he'd been doing that a lot. "I'm not lying, Jack. I don't know what your talking about." Of course he wasn't going to tell Jack about Shadow. That could condemn them both. Chance cared way to much for Shadow and if that meant him being kicked out of the Manhattan lodging, then so be it. But Jack wouldn't do that, would he?

I'm askin' you one more time. Anythin' I should know, Chance? Anythin' someone else mighta told me?"

Chance grew angry. What exactly was he accusing him off? "No, Jack! I haven't done anything... aside from the normal pranks that I pull." Chance was rambling now, which is what he usually did when he was angry.

[Jack Kelly]

"I'm not lying, Jack. I don't know what your talking about."

Jack heard the words, but he searched Chance's eyes. Although some would call Jack shallow, Jack knew something about liars. After all, he was one of the best. Not many people could get away with changing their name and lying so many times to so many different people that the lies became true after a while. So he could see in the way Chance's mind seemed to be racing that Chance might just have been hiding something. At this point, though, Chance's reaction thus far along with Crutchy's accusation made Jack more certain than ever that Chance had a secret.

Jack said, "I think ya do, Chance. We both know ya do." Jack looked at Chance with cold eyes that he saved for only about four people in his life: Pulizter, Snyder, his father, and Mike. "An' if you tell me now, you better believe it's gonna be better than me finding out later..."

"No, Jack! I haven't done anything... aside from the normal pranks that I pull."

At the sight of Chance's anger, Jack's temper boiled as well. He shot up from his chair, and towered over Chance, with a glare that could melt iron. "This ain't a prank, Chance!" Jack thundered, not bothering to keep his voice down. "What you been doin' ain't no prank. Someone seen ya, Chance. Someone tol' me everythin' about what you been doing. So you better fess up cause if you don't you better believe you're gonna get it worse..."

[Chance]

"I think ya do, Chance. We both know ya do."

Chance met Jack's questioning glare with a hard stare. This was going to happen, Chance knew that. It was destined to. Two twin brothers could not hide themselves for long. But, Chance thought bitterly, Shadow was not exactly helping in this situation. They had both decided at the beginning of their stay in New York that they were going to keep each other present. Shadow's reasons were simple; he feared for Chance's life. If anyone on either side found out about Chance, his life would be in danger. Chance simply agreed to agree.

Finally, Chance shook his head and turned away. "I don't know Jack," he stated simply. Jack and Chance had never gotten along. They never had gotten close like the other Manhattan newsies had. Chance knew this was not helping his cause in the least.

"An' if you tell me now, you better believe it's gonna be better than me finding out later..."

Chance threw his hands up, frustrated. "There is nothing to tell! What do you want me to say? That yes, I did it? That would be lying, Jack!" Chance knew he had crossed the line. True, he wasn't here for when the Manhattan newsies had found out about Jack's past life, but Chance knew about it. His anger had caused him to act rationally, and say something he knew he would regret later.

"This ain't a prank, Chance! What you been doin' ain't no prank. Someone seen ya, Chance. Someone tol' me everythin' about what you been doing. So you better fess up cause if you don't you better believe you're gonna get it worse..."

Chance jumped as Jack flew out of his chair. Copying his movements, Chance pounded his fists on the table. "What exactly are you accusing me of? I don't even know what I am being blamed for! Shouldn't that count for somethin'?"

[Jack Kelly]

"I don't know Jack."

Jack fumed. Chance was apparently not about to bow under pressure. The more Chance denied everything, the more sure of his guilt Jack became. Keeping his gaze locked with Chance's, Jack tried to keep his tone conversational, but the animosity tainted it audibly. "How'd you spend the day, eh, Chance? Sell a good amount of papes, then? Walk around? Talk to some old friends? Maybe some new ones?" He was alert to Chance's eyes and body language, hoping to pick up on anything that might hint further to his guilt.

"There is nothing to tell! What do you want me to say? That yes, I did it? That would be lying, Jack!"

"Now don't tell me," Jack said fiercely, "that you got a problem with lying!"

"What exactly are you accusing me of? I don't even know what I am being blamed for! Shouldn't that count for somethin'?"

Infuriated that Chance would have the brazenness to have a shouting match with him, Jack grabbed a fistful of Chance's shirtfront and yanked him forward. "Enough of this!" he cried menacingly, his voice loud and booming. "I don't wanna hear no more. You know what I'm talkin' about, Chance! Someone tells me they seen ya with Mike Greaser! Don't tell me you don't know what you're bein' blamed for, a'right?"