Hello! Blink is my favorite newsie, and ever since I found out his name (my brother and I had been calling him Patchy) I've wanted to write a story about him. So here it is! I own nothing.
Blink was yawning widely as he stood in line at the Distribution Center. He had been up late last night, trying (and failing) to beat Race at poker. He hadn't bet too much, though, because he knew he wouldn't win. But hey, it was fun to try.
He was looking around, because he couldn't really do much else when he waited in line, but he didn't see anything interesting. That is, until the girls showed up. This was always interesting to watch. The female newsies seemed certain that they constantly had to fight to win their place in the paper selling business, probably because they were pretty much outnumbered by the newsboys. And because after the strike six months ago, a lot of girls semed to have decided that it was their life's calling to become newsies. Weirdos.
Most of the girls came in in the usual way, laughing and shouting and shoving. However, in the very back of the group, his friend who was not his girlfriend but just happened to be a girl, Kay, was leading another girl that he had never seen before by the elbow. Kay was saying something to her friend, who smiled a little nervously and did not look at her.
After buying their papes, Kay lead her friend over to Blink, walking carefully around cracks in the cement. "Heya, Blinky," she greeted him. She was the only one that could call him Blinky withought getting soaked.
"Heya, Kay. Who's ya friend?"
The new girl smiled at him. She had brown hair, pulled back in a neat braid. Her cloudy grey eyes did not focus on anything. Her smile was quick and nervous, unsure about things but confident she would be okay. "This heah's Cloud. Can she hang wit you taday? I'se gonna sell wit a nuddah new girl, and I figahed you could take pretteh good care of 'er."
"Sure." Cloud's smile grew. Suddenly she turned and whispered something to Kay that Blink couldn't hear. Kay frowned in concetration. "Well, I guess the foist thing ya'd notice'd be the eyepatch. I ain't sure wha's undah there. Don' tink nobody's seen it. But yeah, he's got blond hair and blue eyes... Uh... He's taller than me by about four or five inches. Tha's abou' dit." Cloud nodded, looking serious.
Kay walked off. Cloud just stood there, looky nervous. Blink patted the sidewalk next to him. Cloud looked at him but didn't do anything. "Er- sidown," Blink tried, and she did, crouching slowly down and feeling the ground with her hands before she actually sat down. Blink thought she looked kind of weird, so he snorted. She just smiled, though she looked just the tiniest bit hurt.
"What's the headline?" she asked. She didn't have much of an accent.
"Can'cha read? Yer what, sixteen?"
She shook her head. "No. I'm fifteen. What's the headline?"
"Can'cha read?"
She smirked slightly, though there was a trace of sadness in her expression. "I can spell perfectly fine, and even write a bit, but read? No."
"And this is because...?"
Cloud didn't say anything. She just crossed her arms, looked around, and very carefully ignored him. Kay, glancing over to see how they were getting on, saw this and came over. "Cloud?" she said sweetly. Cloud glared at her.
"You said he'd already know," Cloud said accusingly.
"Yeah, yeah I did. And I'm sorry. I meant ta talk about it with him foist, but I didn't get da chance."
Cloud snorted and muttered something that sound suspiciously like, "Yeah, right."
Blink looked at Kay questioningly. She shrugged. "Figah it out. Or," she added, staring at Cloud, "Mebbe someone'll tell ya."
"Fat chance," Cloud replied acidly.
"Aw, come on, Blinky's not too smart, but he should be able to figah it out wit'out choo tellin' 'im."
Cloud stiffened, and something seemed to go off in her head. "Wait. You said he has and eyepatch?"
"Yeah..." Kay said, looking nervous. She glanced at Blink, chewing on her bottom lip.
Cloud suddenly turned to Blink. "Can you see with that eye, or is the eyepatch just for selling?"
"I-I can't see wit' it." He was startled by her abrupt change in conversation.
But Cloud wasn't even paying attention to him anymore. She was glaring at Kay and breathing hard. But when she spoke, her voice was strangely small. "You... you mean... We only have one eye between the two of us?"