Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies, Disney, or…well….I don't even own what Im wearing. Like my Pjs? My mommy bought them for me…but Ill let you have them for rights to the movie…No? FINE!
~*~*~*~
As a resounding crack came from the bunk beside her, Stretch opened
her bloodshot eyes only to see Snaps give her a sheepish face,
quietly apologizing as she finished popping her last knuckle.
Brushing a greasy, dirty blonde strand off her forehead, the young
newsgirl stared up at the ceiling above her and cleared her mind.
Well, attempted to anyway. Hearing several coughs a few bunks down
mixed in with the snoring and sound of squeaking springs as one of
the girls tossed and turned, Stretch sighed and opened her eyes once
more. Comforting as it was to have these girls as company, sometimes
each and everyone one of them longed to be in a room of their own,
with an actual blanket and windows that kept the cold out during the
winter, and brought the breeze in during the summer.
"Shut the hell up," came the familiar voice of the red head three
bunks down. Jade threw a spare shirt towards Snaps before rolling
over in an attempt to fall back to sleep.
"I can't sleep," Snaps whispered, mostly to herself than anyone
else. Stretch knew this feeling, they all did. The feeling of
complete exhaustion yet the inability to relieve it from sleep. It
was rare when any of the newsgirls got more than an hour of slumber
without waking up from a nightmare or sheer pain caused by illness
or the physical stress they were under daily. Stretch knew for a
fact at least half the bunkroom was awake, and no matter how much
they wanted to blame Snaps's noisy habit for their sleepless nights,
it was simply the lives they led that caused insomnia. Whether they
were too wound up from the mental anguish they had succumbed to
years before, or the shame that haunted them from the day's
misdeeds, they simply tossed and turned, desperately wishing for
slumber to take away the pain, if only temporarily.
Closing her eyes once more, the tall newsgirl cleared her mind yet
again and slowly drifted to sleep, only to be awakened by the sound
of the lodging house owner, Bridget Donovan, banging the walls of
the hallway with a broom on her way to get up the girls. Kind, yet
with a strict, no bullshit persona, Mrs. Donovan treated each of the
girls as if they were her own, both comforting and reprimanding them
daily.
"Up! Get up! Come on, you don't have all day. DON'T GIVE ME THAT
LOOK, GIN, I know how to hurt you! Don't test me, Zip. Up. Yes, now,
Beauti. No, you can't have another five minutes. I said get UP!" she
yelled, girls mumbling and moaning their way from their beds to the
bathroom. So began the day, starting with Solo and Firecracker
fighting over a bathroom stall, Fantasy clambering for mirror space,
and Sage nearly toppling over Sneaks, who, as it seems, had fallen
back to sleep on the floor of the bathroom.
"That's desperate," Hope laughed slightly, toothbrush in mouth and
she kicked Sneaks awake. As Raven helped the fatigued girl to her
feet to finish getting ready for the day ahead, the rest couldn't
help but sympathize for her, feeling her pain completely as they
rubbed their tired eyes, urging them to last through the day. No one
could spare the money for a day off. That luxury was lost on them.
As several of the girls wrapped cloth around their chest, hiding
their breasts as a defense mechanism, the girls that needed money
strapped on a corset, flaunted their goods any way they could.
Dressing as a boy was one way the newsgirls of New York kept their
dignity for a day, simply selling instead of being groped and
fondled. Yet, the sight of a poorly dressed girl selling papers
instead of herself never encouraged many customers. So, when the
days where bad the girls would dress in skirts and thin blouses,
showing their curves in order to gain a few extra dollars from the
perverts of the city. That was life, and if you were a newsgirl, you
had to be willing to show off more than headlines.
Suddenly, a sharp scream resonated off the walls, piercing the ears
of all near the bathroom stall it originated. As several of the
girls clambered to the stall to see what was wrong, Petite burst out
of it, screaming "IM DYING" in a panicky and distraught whimper. As
several of the older girls smiled, knowing exactly was the younger
one was going through, the smaller ones were pushed outside to get
an early start on selling. Slowly talking the girl down, Floaty
explained exactly what was going on while Sage told her what she had
to do for the next few days and Brink ran around to find spare
pieces of cloth.
"Not much ya can do `sides sell near da lodgin' house for da next
few days `til it goes away. Ya need at change cloths every hour or
so, or da blood'll soak through. Ya don' want all of New York ta
know Petite's a little lady now," Gip teased.
"But…I sell in Brooklyn," Petite protested, still quite shaken over
what had just happened.
"Mix and I will tell Spot that, well, ya have ta sell somewhere else
for a few days and unless he wants ta be given a lecture on female
ways then he should just keep out of it," Slingshot said before
grabbing Mix's wrist and leading the small Greek out the door and on
their way.
Stretch decided it best to leave, and a few others took their cue
and headed out, either grabbing a ride to Brooklyn, Harlem, or
simply walking to their selling spot in Manhattan. Looking up to see
the orange hue of another sunrise about to begin, she knew it
couldn't have been more than 6:00. Earlier than just about anyone,
and definitely the newsboys of the city, she made her way to work.
Oh, how lucky they were to live so close to the Distribution Office.
But she had to remind herself, they were boys, and had more lodging
houses scattered throughout New York than the girls. At least two
lodging houses per borough were generously given by the government
to aid the newsboys, whereas three borough's had to cram their
newsgirls in one building. That was life, and seeing as newsgirls
were both harder to come by and not as respectable, they were given
the inconvenient spots to live in. They just had to keep reminding
themselves: at least it was a place to sleep every night.
~*~*~*~
Stretch
