Author Note: much like the Les Mis one I posted it and I’ll probs use this one as well for AUs
Masterlist
Takes place in Manhatten, New York
Background: All of the Newsie boys range from freshman to seniors. They go to high school and most of the seniors are preparing for college, and they all come from pretty crappy homes. They all have pretty rough jobs. A lot of their parents are immigrants. This is only some of the Newsies, since there are a whole lot of ‘em, after high school, they all move into the same apartment complex, and even some of those that are in high school and don’t have a great home life live the apartment complex.
Also all the boys are in the choir at school, and are part of an all boys choir(as well as a combined choir)-THEY MAKE THE BEST HARMONIES, it brings tears to everybodies eyes when they hear them sing.
Delancey Brothers-Senior bullies that constantly torture the Newsie boys.
Jack Kelly-Orphan. He’s been in a lot of orphanages and foster homes. Dreams of Santa Fe, New Mexico and wants to be an artist. In a relationship with Katherine Plumber. Been in so many detentions, he could be expelled, but Katherine convinces Pulitizer to keep him in school. Star of the baseball team. He was on the football team up until his junior year. He’s a doodler. He doodles over everything and anything and the teachers are very impressed by the doodles, and then they see things like his paintings and they’re amazed. The boy loves road trips.
Katherine Plumber-Aspiring journalist. She’s on the schools newspaper club. She’s part of the combined choir that the boys are in as well. Although she prefers non-ficitional, informational writing, the girl can write on heck of a fictional short story. She’s a senior and has a scholarship to the school of her dreams. She has a blog and all the boys read it. Everything she does is aesthetically pleasing and she is very organized. She’s a big procrastinator, but it almost helps her work be better.
Davey Jacobs-What a soft boi. His family is Jewish and he often gets the boys to come celebrate Hannukah with them. Wears a lot of sweaters. He’s a senior and cares about his grades so much. In his spare time, he tutors all the Newsie boys. He loves to read and is usually at the library or a book store. Extremely awkward around girls, and the boys love to tease him about it. He’s a total mom friend. He’s prepared for everything that the boys need. He has a locker filled with snacks and water bottles and money. He writes a lot as well. The kid is Student President and is pretty great at what he does, as long as the boys help him. His notes from class are the most aesthetically pleasing things you will see.
Les Jacobs-Only freshman in the group. Total flirt and gets a lot of girls. He usually helps his brother with girls. He is part of yearbook and takes all the pictures, and dang the boy is good.
Crutchie-The boy hurt his foot real bad when he was young. It had to be amputated and so his foot is a prosthetic, which means he limps a lot. He reports for the school paper. The boy likes to bake a lot. He’s a total soccer mom. He goes to every single performance and game.
Spot Conlon-Total bad-a. He lives in Brooklyn, but goes to school with all the boys. Not afraid of a fight and does not back down from anything. He’s on the football team and the captain of the wrestling team. Even though the kid is only 5’ 4”, the whole school is a bit terrified to get on the wrong side of him.
Finch-Finch’s parents immigrated from Ireland about ten years before Finch was born. He has carried a bit of his parents into his life, having a slight Irish accent. The boy is super talented with archery. He’s in an archery club at the school.
Elmer-This boy is killer at baseball. Jack tells him that next year, Elmer will be the star. His parents immigrated from Spain.
Albert-His parents immigrated from Scotland, and he has a bit of a Scottish accent. He is really into astronomy and made a whole astronomy club. Can surf and roller blade really well. He sleeps in class alot, but has pretty good grades.
Specs-This boy has a collection of vintage glasses and his closet is filled with single shoes, not pairs, a single shoe, so he’s often wearing mix-matched shoes. His parents immigrated from Sudan years before he was born. He is amazing at dance and is getting into an amazing school. He is part of the dance team for the school and the track team.
Romeo-This boy, what a flirt. He’s got his eye on a new girl every week, at least, that’s what all the boys say. And the girls definetly think he’s a catch. His parents immigrated from Mexico when he was 7. He caught on to English very fast, but speaks Spanish when he’s at home. He’s on the soccer team and on the varsity team, has been since his freshman year. He’s hoping that he’ll get a soccer scholarship for college because he knows his parents probably won’t be able to pay for college tuition. He works very hard so he can make money.
Mush-He joined Davey’s book club and they both geek out about everything. He’s also a mathlete. He’s only a junior, but he’s got his whole life planned out.
Racetrack-The boy is an amazing dancer and is also a mega theatre kid. He is on the dance team and is in every production of a play or musical the school puts on. He carries around a cigar everywhere he goes, but he doesn’t smoke it. He has a pretty bad gambling addiction, but he’s amazing at what he does. He loves Vines and can quote any Vine you mention to him. He cannot pronounce “oyster” for the life of him, it usually comes out as “erster”. He used to be on the soccer team, just for his freshman year. He is one of the youngest in the group, only a sophomore, which nobody really believes, since he’s around the boys a lot, and the kid is pretty tall, but then they get to know him, and know that he is not the maturist. He always wears hats. ALSO, his grandparents on his mothers side immigrated from Italy and his dad immigrated from Ireland
So that’s what you call a family... In a world full of poor orphans and runaways, the Jacobs were the picture of a proper working class household in 1899 New York. An unemployed factory worker, his wife, and their three kids came to be the symbol for many newsies for what a family was when many never had one. Also typical were their meager surroundings – likely a five-floor walk-up tenement with a shared bathroom, shoddy plumbing, and one full bedroom between the five of them. This was the average home of downtown immigrant families and, thanks to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, we can take a peek inside.
Built in 1863 and a stone’s throw away from the infamous Five Points, 97 Orchard Street was the home to German, Jewish, Irish, and Polish immigrants, just to name a few. Situated between Delancey Street (no, not those Delanceys) and Broome Street, this strip of the LES has weathered the test of time and stands largely unchanged. Most of the same tenements that stood during the 1899 are still standing, though with some renovations.
At the Tenement Museum, you have the opportunity to walk through the recreated homes of several families, spanning from the 1860s with the Irish Moore family, adjusting to American life after the potato famine and dealing with the loss of a child, to the 1930s with the Italian Baldizzi family who are weathering the hard times of the Great Depression. For an experience closer to that of David’s family, take the Sweatshop Workers tour through the at-home garment workshop of the Levine family before catching up with the Rogarshevskys for the Sabbath.
After the one-hour tour through three separate apartments, you can explore all the food the Lower East Side has to offer. China Town and Little Italy are within walking distance and offer many of the same meals turn-of-the-century immigrants would have enjoyed with their own families. Of course, if you happen upon the Jacobs family they may just invite you to dinner… and add a little more water to the soup.
