I walked into the city of Manhattan and saw a bunch of kids no older than 5 or 8 sleeping on the streets.
"Move it!"
"Watch where you're going!" everyone shouted at me.
"You watch it!" I shouted back. I started to walk around, looking for work. It wasn't easy when you are a 16-year-old girl with short-ish brown hair and brown eyes. Still, I was strong and came from a healthy background. 'Which is why I had to get away,' I thought.
Suddenly, the streets were filled with sounds of boys shouting.
"Coispe found in alleyway!"
"Fire erupts in Bronx!"
"Escaped prisoner on a riot!"
I turned and saw a whole bunch of boys waving newspapers around. They went up to random people on the streets and started selling their papers.
"Miss, care to buy a pape?" a little boy with brown hair asked me. He couldn't be more then 10.
"How old are you?" I asked.
"I'se… um... seven," he said, looking at me with huge brown eyes.
"Les!" an older boy caught up with us. He had curly brown hair and blue eyes. "Don't run away like that!" he scolded the little boy.
"Sorry, David…" the boy, Les, said. "But this girl looked like she needed she needed a pape, uh.. maybe two." I laughed.
"So, Les, that's your name?" Les nodded. "I'll take one." I handed over a penny and read the headline.
'Child Crusade: Newsies won the strike!'
" You won a strike?" I asked David.
"Oh, um yeah. Well, we did." He said and gestured to the other Newsies. I thought about that for a minute.
"Any chance a girl could get a job?" I asked.
"As a newsie?" David looked doubtful. And about ready to laugh.
"What's wrong with that?" I asked, getting defensive.
"Well, nothing, but-" David got cut off.
"You'se gotta ask Jack!" Les finished. David pointed to a boy, about 17, with dark blonde hair surrounded by a bunch of girls.
'Oh, great,' I thought. "Okay," I told David. We walked up to Jack and his girl crowd while Les went to go sword fight with other Newsies and sell the rest of his papers. David shook his head as Les ran off.
"Excuse meh, goils," Jack said, after David whispered something in his ear. The girls went away, giggling. I rolled my eyes. "What?" he asked David.
"She wants a job." He said bluntly and gestured to me. Jack's eyes lit up when he saw my "Woman Figure" as my mother used to say.
"Well what's her name?'" he winked at me. I rolled my eyes and answered.
"Sarah,"
They looked uncomfortable for a minute, but Jack said, "Well, Sarah, welcome to New York!" he smiled and his teeth were straight. "Do you think you have what it takes to be a Newsie?" he struck a pose. "Danga' at every conrna'! Fights where every you'se goes!"
I couldn't hold back a laugh because he looked so ridiculous.
He smiled again. "OK, then, Sarah! Welcome to the Newsies!"