In eighteen ninety-nine the New Yawk streets echoed with the voices of newsies, peddlin' the newspapers of Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph-Hurst and other giants of the newspaper world. On every corner you saw 'em carryin' the banner. Bringin' you the news for a penny a pape. Poor orphans and runaways, the newseis were a raggid army without a leader, but one day all that changed…
Few things were consistent when you lived on the streets of New York. A few of them were: the same four kids, three boys and a girl, were always sleeping on the Horace Greeley statue, the uncertainty of the day to come, and the organized mess that was the newsies of Manhattan's Newsboy's Lodging House getting up and ready for the day.
Ever since the day she and her older brother had split ways, Anna Richardson had been a light sleeper. She had to be; otherwise she wouldn't have made it until Checkers, the former leader of the Manhattan newsies, found her. And even then, she had been near death because she had just been beaten by some upper-class boys who had needed a bit of entertainment.
So it goes without saying, that when Kloppman began his ascent up the stairs that led to the bunkroom of the lodging house, that Anna heard his footsteps. She sighed as she stretched her body until she heard the popping of her back and then opened her tired eyes and sat up. She rubbed her eyes with a fist as she grabbed her clothes and walked off to the wash room.
Once there, she went into a changing stall and shed herself of the old large button up of her father's that she slept in. She then began the process of binding her bust as flat as it would go. Once finished with the binding process, she pulled on a boy's under trousers and then her brown pants. She paused in getting ready as she heard Jack fighting with Kloppman about getting up, to see if she had to go back in there. On some days, she would have to go in there and bang the side of his bunk a few times to get him up.
"Get away from me! Yer mad!" Anna heard the boy exclaim. She rolled her eyes as she heard him get up and then continued to get dressed.
She then pulled her royal blue suspenders up and over her shoulders as Racetrack exclaimed, "Where's my cigar!" as he did every morning, before actually looking up to see Snipeshooter with it,
"You'll steal anodder,"
"Hey bummers we got woirk to do." Kid Blink snapped as he kept them away from each other to keep them from attempting to pound on each other. She then pulled on the slightly baggy white button up that had turned slightly grey over the years and fastened the buttons.
"Since when did you become me mudder," Specs asked.
"Ah, stawp ya bawlin'," Crutchy told him.
"Hey!" Most of the boys remarked in unison, "Who asked you,"
She then heard Crutchy ask Jack where to get a new selling spot, because he needed to sell where people weren't used to seeing him. He was thinking his usuals were starting to think him a fake cripple.
"Try bottle alley or da harbor," she heard Mush say in reply.
"Try Central Park it's guaranteed!" Racetrack put in.
"Try and banker, bum, or barber!" Jack remarked.
"They almost all know'se how tuh read!" Skittery commented.
"I smell money!" Kid Blink exclaimed too happy for a morning.
"You smell foul!" Crutchy told him and Anna assumed Kid Blink had just come out of a toilet stall.
"Met this goil last night!" Of course you did Mush, Anna thinks as she begins to pin her slightly unruly curls up in a way that made it look like a boys cut.
"Move your elbow!" Crutchy snapped.
"Pass the towel!" Racetrack exclaimed.
"For a buck I might!" Skittery put in teasingly.
"Ain't it a fine life, carryin' the banner trew it all!" Anna and a bunch of other newsies that had been in the other shower stalls announced – alright, well, more like sang – as they swung the doors open and walked out.
Anna went about splashing some water over her face and drying it, before discreetly smudging a small bit of dirt along part of her hair line, on a corner of her chin, and then rinsed her hands. She poked at the slightly green-yellow stage of a black eye that she had from a loose punch thrown by Morris Delancey.
"Sprints!" Jack exclaimed and Anna looked up, "What 'ave I told ya about pokin' at it," Jack swatted her hand away from her face. She made a face at him before walking back into the bunkroom and sitting down on her bunk underneath his.
"A mighty fine life, carryin' the banner tough and tall!" She began to pull on her boots and laced them up as she sang along with the rest of the guys, although quieter, because most of them didn't know she was a girl.
"E'ry morning we'se goes where we wishes! We'se as free as fishes!" Anna/Sprints grabbed her cap and began to walk towards the stairs. "Sure beats washin' dishes! It's a fine life carryin the banner home-free all!" She pulled on the head ornament as she made it through the door and met up with Jack who had been waiting for her.
While Jack Kelly had been her best friend ever since she came to Manhattan, he was one of the many that didn't know she was a girl. There were a spare few who did, like Mush, Race, Crutchy, and Snipeshooter, but that's because Racetrack had walked in on her with her hair down and then ran and blabbed to the other three.
"Mornin' Sprints," Jack told her jovially as they walked down the street amongst the rest of the Manhattan newsies jumping and running about goofing off and horsing around. "It takes a smile that spreads like butter," he remarked smiling charmingly at her.
"The kind that ladies can't resist," Crutchy added.
"It takes an orphan with a stuttah'," Race remarked, causing Mush to add
"Who ain't afraid to use his–"
"Fist!" Kid Blink cut Mush off.
"Summer stinks and winter's waitin', welcome to New Yawk!" the newsies sang as they made their way through a maze of sorts of barrels. She clambered up one and then leaped from one to one with ease. "Boy, ain't nature fascinatin' when you'se gotta walk!" The boys cheered and followed her example as she flipped off the back of the truck that had been going to load the barrels up.
Coming to a clearing, Sprints watched as Jack and the rest of the newsies begin to dance as they sang, "Still it's a fine life, carryin' the banner with me chums! A mighty fine life, blowin' every nickel as it comes!"
"I'm no snoozer!" Crutchy bellowed as he had his crutch taken from him and he did an odd sort of dance as he gripped his bad leg. "Sittin' makes me antsy, I likes livin' chancy!"
"Harlem to Delancey!" The rest of the newsies joined in once again, "What a fine life, carryin' the banner through the slums!"
As they began to walk again, a car with a cart that held three nuns rolled up. Every now and then the nuns from the nearby Catholic Church would come and hand out food to them and the rest of the poor. As they did this today, a woman came up asking about her son named Patrick. The boys either shook their heads or just gave her a funny look as she walked around asking them.
"Just gimme half a cup," Race told the nuns.
"Somethin' to wake me up," Kid Blink chimed in.
"I gotta find and angle," Mush muttered in tune to himself.
"I gotta sell more papes," Crutchy muttered also.
Sprints also heard the voices of several other newsies thinking out loud about what they were goin' to do about sellin'. Sprints took a piece of bread from the nuns and ate it slowly as she continued to walk towards the Distribution Center with the other 'hattan newsies as they continued to sing,
"If I hate the headline I'll make up the headline, and I'll say anything I hafta! 'Cause it's two for a penny. If I take too many, Weasel just makes me eat 'em aftah!"
"Look!" she exclaimed in her best attempt of a guyish voice, "They're puttin' up the headline!"
"You call that a headline!" They all sang as the men writing on the board finished, "I get better stories from the copper on the beat! So where's yer spot? God it's hot! Now can someone tell me, how'm gonna make ends meet?" Sprints sighed and fiddled with the inside of her pockets as she began to walk towards the gates. "We need a good assassination!" she and the rest of the newsies sang. "We need an earthquake or a war!"
"How 'bout a crooked politician?" Snipeshooter asked.
"Hey, stupid, that ain't news no more!" the rest of the newsies sang and Sprints rolled her eyes at them for that.
"Uptown to Grand Central Station, down to City Hall! We'se improves our circulation, walking 'til we fall!" some newsies chuckled humorlessly at this.
"Still we'll be out there, carryin' the banner man to man! Always out there, soakin' every sucker that we can! See the headline: Newsies on a mission! Kill the Competition! Sell the next edition! While we're out there, carryin' the banner it the–" the groups fun was cut off by the Delancey brothers, Oscar and Morris, pushing their way into the center of their circle.
"Deah me," Racetrack remarked taking off his hat and fanning at his nose, "What is that unpleasant aroma?" Sprints laughed.
A/N: So there it is. My first Newsie FanFiction. I hope you guys like it, review and tell me what you think. Also, if you're into Harry Potter or The Avengers make sure to check out my other stories and tell me what you think of those. I hope you stick around for more of the story.
Song used in this chapter: Carryin' the Banner - Newsies (Original Movie)