This was a plot-bunny that wouldn't leave me alone.
I hope you like it.
I'm Not Crazy
"I'm not crazy."
That phrase ran through her head as she stared at the white walls.
She wasn't crazy.
She was just stuck in the wrong time.
She had fallen asleep to the comforting snores of her baby brother and somehow woke up to the busy streets of New York City in 1898.
She had nearly been run over by a carriage, beat up by some street kid, and saved by Jack 'Cowboy' Kelly. Could the day have gotten any crazier?
Of course, it could, the world loved to prove her wrong. She fainted after she realized she was stuck in 1898. She woke up to the many faces of the newsies in Manhattan. Her foggy brain randomly told her this must have been how Snow White felt when she woke to the dwarves.
The newsies watched her guardedly. They told her what she had missed; after Jack saved her from stepping in front of a carriage she had fainted and he had brought her back to the Lodging house.
She refused to tell them where she came from. They gave her odd looks about her clothing but she absolutely refused to change. To her, this was all a bad dream. She'd wake up soon enough, back in her own time.
When she woke up still in 1898 the next day she was very confused. She sold papes, as the boys called them but her head was too distracted to really pay attention to what they tried to teach her.
The boys were even more on guard after she started talking about a strike. They thought she was crazy. Jack especially was on guard. She might not remember but after he had saved her she muttered his real name, Francis Sullivan. No one knew his real name. And she seemed to know things no one else knew. It was unnerving.
After a week the boys got used to her odd behavior, how she spoke differently than them and how she used different terms. It wasn't until she met Spot Conlon that they did something.
Spot Conlon decided to visit Manhattan to talk to Jack about some issues with Queens.
She took one look at him and fainted. The boys heard her mutter things about Sprace and Javid and fan fiction.
It was actually Skittery who suggested they get her help. She just randomly shows up one day, nearly dies, and talks about things that aren't real and haven't happened. Something was wrong.
She woke up to the white room. Nurses walked in, treating her like a fragile child. It was when Jack visited that she realized they had locked her in an asylum. They thought she was crazy.
In hindsight, when he told her that she probably shouldn't have thrown her food tray at him. That just gave him more reason to believe she was out of her mind.
No one came to visit her afterward.
She didn't care though. She'd have the last laugh. They thought she was crazy but none of them could foresee what would happen in a year. In one year the boys would be on strike. In one year they would face the truth of Jack Kelly. And in one year she would prove them wrong.
She wasn't crazy.
I seriously hope that this sounds better than in my head. The story wouldn't go away until I wrote it.
Comments are always appreciated. I have several other stories on the Newsies that I'm working on.
I actually saw the filmed version just last month. Best show ever :)
Keep Carrying the Banner,
Tmr_Potterhead250