A/N: This is my first story about the classic movie Newsies, one of my most favorite movies growing up. I hope you like it! Enjoy and Review!
If I Were a Boy: Prologue
It was July 5, 1901 in New York City. Two years after the famous Newsies strike, the Newsies voices continue to ring all across the city's streets. Now you may be assuming that this story is about Jack and the other Newsies that participated in the strike. Well the tale I'm going to tell isn't just their stories. I would like to start this tale by going back May 6, 1882 in Boston, Massachusetts.
A woman by the name of Anna Jo Garrett, her hair matted to her neck and forehead from sweat, and her husband Craig Garrett, were looking down at the two beautiful babies that had just entered the world just a few minutes ago. The eldest of the twins was a beautiful baby girl, they named her Kylana. She had her mother's crystal blue eyes and blonde hair. The other was her brother, Grant who had his father's hazel eyes and blonde hair. The look on Craig and Anna Jo's faces showed that they were complete. Soon after the twins were born, Craig returned to work at the factory. Anna Jo and Craig settled into a routine.
Every morning, they would get up just before dawn. Craig would prepare for work, eat the breakfast his lovely wife would make for him, kiss his sleeping children and his wife before leaving, and head for work. He had to walk four miles to and from the factory where they made the cloth for privately owned tailors and dress shops.
Anna Jo would take care of their small apartment. Clean around the rooms, can preserves from her small terrace garden, wash, mend, sew their clothing, take care of her two beautiful children, and prepare a hot meal for her wonderful, hard-working husband.
As the twins grew, Kylana only got more beautiful. She grew into a tiny replica of her mother. Her blonde curls, that hung passed her shoulders, reminded everyone that saw little Kylana of the golden plains that people could only dream about and eyes as blue as stilled water in the morning that sparkled whenever her daddy would come home from work, and she never stopped smiling, even when she was deep under the sandman's spell, a beautiful smile was still plastered to her face. Grant however, grew to look more like his father. Though Grant often was the cause of all the horrible trouble he and Kylana got into, though he never really got punished for it. His hair became a blonde closer to the color of ash. His skin pale from his Irish descent, his hazel eyes twinkled and the side smirk would appear whenever he got into mischief.
As they went through school, they were very smart children. Kylana tested at the top of her class and soon became the teachers' assistant, until she was sixteen when she stopped attending. Grant and Kylana where always close and you rarely saw one without the other. When the twins were ten, Anna Jo gave birth to another son, which she named Samuel.
After Samuel's birth, they moved to Brooklyn because Craig had taken a job at Sheepshead Races, to work for a man named Vincent DeLugio as the stable manager. He owned the track and had wanted Craig on his staff for the main reason of seeing little Kylana and seeing a potential wife for one of his four sons', Stefano, Benedict, Alexander, and Jovanni. Kylana only really cared for Mr. DeLugio's eldest son, Stefano. All of Vincent's sons' looked exactly like him, tanned skin, chestnut hair, and they had their mothers' darker brown eyes. . Often, Mr. DeLugio asked Craig to bring his daughter along to the track. Kylana loved going to work with her father, so she was almost always with her dad after school. Benedict, Alexander, and Jovanni were always trying to get her attention by showing off their horses and when she would ignore them, they would beat their new horses in front of her.
By the age of 12, Anna Jo and Craig welcomed another baby boy into their home. Baby Seth began to grow and was another huge part of the family. Everyone who met Craig saw how he looked at his beloved wife and his precious children and their loving family, along with their happiness became contagious. As the kids grew up, Kylana was developing into a proper lady. Her blue eyes showed her innocence, her golden curls were soft and perfect, and she truly was her mother's daughter. Grant was looking like his father, his hair turned into a light brown, which he greased back, his eyes were like his sister's, and he was a tall boy for his age. He joined the Brooklyn Newsies to make some money for himself.
On Grant and Kylana's 17th birthday, Kylana and Grant had decided to take a walk along the pier not long from their small home. Grant was wearing the new shirt his older sister had made him, a pair of newer trousers, and a new pair of shoes. His arm was linked with Kylana's, she was dressed up in a new light blue dress with lace trim on the bodice and around the shorter sleeves that her mother and father bought her, a pair of heeled boots, and a hat with light blue ribbon that her brothers bought. Grant and Kylana were saying their final goodbyes, as Kylana was leaving for finishing school in the morning. It was a beautiful, cool evening in Brooklyn. They were just about to head home when they heard, "Garrett, Come ova' 'ere. I need ta talk ta ya 'fore ya leave for home." Kylana saw a boy in red suspenders who's face was handsome, but scared her for some reason.
Grant looked and nodded before turning to his sister saying, "Kylana, I won't be too long. I'll be back soon." Then went to join the boy. They entered the alley, Kylana sat down on one of the crates to wait for Grant to join her back home. About thirty minutes later, a gunshot came from the alleyway that Grant and his friend went into. The boy in the red suspenders came running out screaming for help. Kylana raced to the alley and saw her brother lying on the ground. She dropped to the ground and grabbed Grant's lifeless corpse, not caring about her dress ripping or staining from the blood, he said to her, "Ky, I wanna tell ya that I love ya. I also-Gasp-wanna-Gasp-tell-Gasp-ya-Gasp-marry the DeLugio boys-Gasp-because...because..." with that last word he took his last breath and he was gone.
The Irish boy with the red suspender came up and said in a sad tone, "I'm sorry. The name's Spot Conlon, Miss. How did ya know Grant?"
Kylana whimpered through her tears as she rocked her younger twin and said, "He was my twin brother. Spot, could you help me carry him home. My mudda and dad will be worried if I don't bring him home." She got up and Spot and the boy who came to help him carried Grant home. Anna Jo and Craig ran out and Spot explained what had happened. After that day, Craig never smiled and Anna Jo drank and kept herself shut in her room. A year later, Kylana found herself an eighteen year old girl left alone to raise her younger brothers, Samuel and Seth. After her father died, she joined a group of girls to become a member of the Prescott Newsies. Soon she will find herself, the Prescott Newsies, and some other familiar faces from the past coming face-to-face.