Disclaimer: Any characters/things related to Newsies, belong to Disney, and their respective owners. Firefly and Mystery, the Liberty Gang, and Richie are the only characters that I own.
A Fight For Liberty
by Mystery and Firefly
Summary: After getting caught by the police while robbing a house, Kaitlin and Ashlee (Members of "The Liberty" a gang in New Jersey) get on a train, and end up in New York, where they meet the newsies. While they are there, a letter to an old friend ends up bring up their past.
Chapter 1
Kaitlinslipped her accomplice a small flat pen. Ashlee took the pen and slipped it into the lock of the house. She turned it slowly and waited to hear the small click, confirming that the door was unlocked. Kaitlin slowly and silently opened the door and they walked in, letting their eyes adjust to the blackness. As their eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, the girls saw the outline of a stairway. Kaitlin continued to walk forward, not really sure where she was going. After a minute, she found the first step, and began to slowly walk up the stairs, with Ashlee following. She turned left at the top of the stairs, running right into a cabinet. "Ouch!" she said as quietly as she could, and bent down to touch the scrape on her leg, which was bleeding.
"Shhh." Ashlee whispered taking the lead. Wrapping her bandanna around the cut, Kaitlin followed Ashlee into the master bedroom. "Jackpot," Ashlee mumbled opening up the jewelry box and pulling out some jewelry. "I'll check over there," Kaitlin whispered, heading to the nightstand with a box on it in the corner of the room. Opening it u p, she was pleased to find many papers inside, concerning business deals. Ashlee emptied the jewelry box into a bag, and Kaitlin dumped the business deals in the back as well. Right as they turned around to leave the lights flickered on, and the police blocked the doorway. Ashlee and Kaitlin froze in their tracks as the police grabbed the back and tied their wrists together with rope. The two girls were then hauled off to the police station.
Kaitlin and Ashlee soon found themselves sitting across from a short, skinny, man at the station. "So what have you got to say for yourselves young ladies?" the man asked, crossing his arms and looking expectantly at the girls. Kaitlin and Ashlee, still in shock about getting caught, simply shrugged their shoulders. The man sighed "Alright, but you aren't helping your case any. Now I know you two are part of a local gang called "The Liberty." We've been trying to track them down for months. If you kids could supply us with the names of the members and their hideout, we'll let you go, scotch free."
Kaitlin and Ashlee looked at each other, then Kaitlin turned to the policeman. "How do you know we're part of this gang? For all you know we could have been robbing that house for our own profit, and not for some gang. "
The officer sighed and rolled his eyes. "It wasn't too hard to figure out. All I had to do was look at your wrist bands." The girls looked down at their wristbands, suddenly trying to cover them up. "
"So, if we give you the names what will we get in return?" Ashlee asked carefully.
"I'll let you go free," the officer replied simply, as if it should be obvious to them. Ashlee and Kaitlin exchanged glances once more, trying to figure out if they should tell or not.
Finally, Kaitlin turned to the officer and asked, "What will we get if we don't give you the names?"
"10 to 15 years. I don't have all day either. You either give me the names or you don't."
"We'll give them to you," Ashlee spoke up. The officer nodded and picked up his pen as the girls began to rattle of names, places, upcoming robberies and plans.
After the officer had gotten what he needed, he showed them to the door, "I would be careful if I were you," he warned and then went back into his office.
"We need to get out here," Kaitlin said speaking for the two of them.
Ashlee nodded. "Where to?"
"Wherever the train is headed at this hour I guess..." Kaitlin replied.
They hurried to the train station, constantly looking over their shoulders, half expecting a gang member to pop and grab them. "They couldn't possibly know that we've betrayed them yet," Kaitlin whispered as Ashlee looked back for the umpteenth time that night.
"I guess not, but it still makes me nervous. All we know is that we've got to get out of New Jersey...fast!" Ashlee responded, as they headed for the train yard.
When they reached the station, Kaitlin and Ashlee counted their money. They found out they didn't even have enough money to buy one train ticket. Ashlee sighed. "Now what are we going to do?"
"Well..." Kaitlin responded slowly, "We could try and hitch a ride in the baggage car. All we need to do is sneak past that man over there." Kaitlin pointed to a big, tall man standing near the baggage cart.
Ashlee nodded. "Shouldn't be too hard, when he's busy with someone, we'll make a dash for the luggage car."
They waited for the man to get engrossed in a conversation, and then they made a run for the baggage car. They jumped in and closed the door. "Hopefully no one has any more luggage," Kaitlin replied as she and Ashlee hid among the bags.
"If they do, we'll just have to make sure no one sees us," Ashlee whispered as she pushed a larger bag in front of her. "Besides the train looks pretty full anyway... where do you think it's going?"
"Who cares? As long as it's out of here, and we never have to see the rest of the gang again," Kaitlin answered. "You don't think that they'll try and track us down....do you?" Kaitlin whispered as she leaned back against the side of the car. Then she answered her own question, "Of course they wouldn't... They wouldn't because- " she stopped short as she heard voices outside the car.
"This is the last bag... I'll just put it in and close the baggage car and then we can get going," one man said.
"Be careful, there are very fragile things in that bag..." The man said nervously.
The other man nodded and said, "Don't worry, it'll be fine. I'll just put it over in the corner." Kaitlin and Ashlee held their breath and ducked down as the man put the bag in and looked around one last time before locking up the car.
"Boy, that was close..." Ashlee whispered relieved they weren't caught. They leaned back, closed their eyes, and tried to relax as the train continued on it's way to wherever it was going.
In a few hours the train stopped, and Ashlee and Kaitlin peeked out of the car. "Alright, the coast is clear. Lets get out of here!"
Ashlee and Kaitlin jumped from the car, and tried to walk as casually as possible, so they wouldn't be noticed. Ashlee looked at a sign, "Grand Central Station." She read aloud. She turned to Kaitlin, "Do you know where that is?"
"Yeah, we're in New York." Kaitlin answered, looking at her surroundings.
"New York! Well I guess it's a good enough place as any. I don't think that the gang will think of looking for us here." Ashlee replied as they started walking away from the station.
Without noticing where they were going they bumped into two young guys, one with a red bandanna around his neck and the other with a cigar in his mouth. "Excuse us." Said the two boys,
"We weren't lookin' where we'se was goin." Said the boy in the red bandanna with a New York accent.
"Dat's foin. It was our faults too." Kaitlin answered picking up the accent perfectly.
"I'm Racetrack." Answered the boy with the cigar, holding out his hand. "And dis heah is Jack, also known as Cowboy."
Ashlee laughed, "Cowboy, an' Racetrack? What kind of names are dose?"
"Newsie names." Answered Jack.
Kaitlin stared at them, "Newsie names?" she asked. "What are newsies?"
"We'se are newsies, we sell papes fer a livin'" Racetrack answered.
Kaitlin and Ashlee looked at each other, as the same thought ran through their minds, "we could do this, and we'd blend in."
"Can anyone be a newsie?" Ashlee asked.
"Well, we'se nevah had a goil be a newsie befoah, but dere's a foirst t'ing fer everyt'ing." Race answered.
"So what are yer names," Jack asked.
The two girls gulped. Kaitlin racked her brain. "Newsie could make one..." she thought to herself. "Fiahfly!" Kaitlin blurted out the first name that came to her mind.
"Noice ta meet ya, Fiahfly." Said Racetrack shaking her hand.
"I'se uh...Mystery." Ashlee answered thinking of the last book that she had just finished.
"Heya, Mystery." Jack grinned, shaking her hand.
Racetrack laughed, "for not knowin' what a newsie name was, you two shoah thought up one fast."
"Well I'se take it dat you'se two wanna become a newsie, so why don't ya follow us." Jack offered, putting his unsold papers on his rope.
Ashlee and Kaitlin walked behind their two new friends. "Do you think this is going to work?" Ashlee whispered to Kaitlin.
"I don't see why it wouldn't. And anyway, this way it'll be harder for the gang to find us, if they decided to look for us." Kaitlin answered. "And it better work or we're in trouble."
"Did ya say somethin'?" Jack asked, turning around. He had been yelling out headlines and hadn't really heard them.
"No," Mystery said quickly. "We didn't say anythin'."
"'Ere," Racetrack said handing Firefly some newspapers, "Why don'tcha see 'ow ya do? Jus' yell out da 'eadlines an' people will come ova an' buy dem," he explained.
Jack handed Mystery some of his papers, "'Ere ya can give it a try ta." Mystery looked over at Firefly wondering what to do, but Firefly took the papers from Racetrack and began to call out headlines, and Mystery followed her lead.
"Not dat bad," Jack said. "Da foirst t'ing ya gotta loirn is dat headlines don't sell papes, newsies sell papes."
Racetrack rolled his eyes. "Let's not start dis talk again. Dey're doin' fine for da foirst time. C'mon I'll take ya ta Tibby's an' introduce ya ta da rest of da guys. Where are ya goils from anyways?"
"Virginia," Firefly answered, while at the same time, Mystery said, "Connecticut." They exchanged glances, and Firefly said quickly, "We're both from different places. We met on da train comin' up 'ere."
"So what brought ya ta New Yoirk?" Jack asked as he led them to Tibby's. He thought their answer was a little odd but he decided not to question it.
Firefly shrugged. "No reason, just got on a train and decided to ride it to wherever it ended up, and ended up here."
Mystery nodded. "Same here... just needed to get away for a while. Change of scenery. Dis Tibby's?" she asked as they stopped in from of a restaurant.
Race nodded. "Yep, dis would be Tibby's. Dis is where all da newsies 'ang out when dey're not at Medda's."
"Medda's? What's dat?" Mystery asked as she walked inside. Almost every table was taken.
"Medda's a good friend of mine, she owns Vaudeville Hall. She lets the newsies see da shows fer free, you'll meet 'er later," Jack said leading them over to a booth in the corner. "Mystery, Firefly, dese are da guys, guys dese are Mystery and Firefly. Dis is Boots, Skittery, Bumlets, Mush, Kid Blink. Ova at dat table is Specs, Snoddy, Pie Eater, David, Snipeshooter, an' dat ova dere is Crutchy."
"Nice ta meet ya," Firefly said trying to commit every name to memory.
Mystery echoed the greeting and they sat down at the table. "Dey'll be stayin' wid us at da Lodgin' house. Dey're gonna be Newsies," Racetrack said pulling out his cards. "Anybody up fer a game of poker?"
"Sure! I'll play!" Firefly exclaimed. Poker was one of her favorite games, and she and Mystery were pretty good players back in New Jersey. "Mystery, want to play?" she asked her.
"Sure, why not?" she answered.
"Count me in," Jack answered sitting down, and Mush and Blink came over to play. Racetrack shuffled and then dealt the cards. After everybody had made their starting bets, he asked everybody how many cards they wanted.
Firefly looked at her hand shuffling the cards around for a minute, and then asked for two. Mystery, looked at hers also, but only needed one. Blink and Mush each needed three, and Jack needed one. The rest of the game proceeded, and after the last bet was placed; it was time to reveal what everybody had. "Full house," Firefly answered, putting her hand down.
"Three of a kind," Mystery said putting her hand down. Mush had two pair, and Blink had a pair. Jack and Race each had nothing, and Firefly ended up winning the game.
"Good job, Fiahfly!" Mystery congratulated her friend.
"Yeah, good job. Where'd ya learn ta play so good?" Racetrack asked, in awe at her playing skills.
"Oh, I learned from some of me friends back in Virginia," Firefly answered, shuffling the deck of cards. "Another game?"
"Nah, I'se gotta get back ta me selling." Jack said.
"Yeah, same wid me." Race agreed. "Hey, you goils can come wid us, an' we'll teach ya more 'bout sellin papes."
Mystery and Firefly looked at each other, "Shoah, dat's foin."
Jack and Race got up from the table, and left some money on it. Mystery and Firefly did the same.
Back on the streets, Jack and Race started calling headlines, while Mystery and Firefly trailed behind them.
Jack turned to face Mystery, and held out a couple of papers. "'Ere, now you try, afta seein' me do it fer a while." Mystery took the papers, and called out the headlines, expanding the headlines as Jack had been doing.
Race turned and handed Firefly some papers. "'Ere ya go, you'se can try again, an' tamorra we'll get ya yer own papes."
"Thanks," Firefly answered, giving Race a smile and grabbing the papers. She turned around and started hawking the headlines around Mystery.
"Thank ya, very much," Mystery thanked a lady, as she handed her the paper, and taking the money.
"I've noticed there are so many newsies here that the gang will never be able to find us!" Mystery whispered, to Firefly, as she was handing an old man a paper, and sticking the money in her pocket.
"Yep, plus, we found ourselves a job, and a place to live! Talk about luck." Firefly answered.
Finally they were finished selling their papers, and went back to Jack and Race.
Racetrack stood by Jack, as he finished selling his last paper. "Well, let's go by da Lodging House, and get ya goils settled in."
Jack fell in step with Mystery, as she followed Firefly, who followed Race. "So what's it loik in Connecticut?" Jack asked, innocently.
"Uh..." Mystery looked at the street as she walked. She had never been to Connecticut, and didn't know what to say. "Oh, it's just loik a normal place, nothin' special wid it." She answered, nonchalantly. Jack gave her a strange look, but didn't push her any farther.
Finally they reached the Lodging House. "'Ere it is, home sweet home." Race said, opening the door for Firefly.
"'Eya, Kloppman, I'se got ya two new borders!" Jack said to the old man behind the desk.
Kloppman looked at Firefly and Mystery, "Girls?" He asked surprised.
"Yeah, goils, dey can sleep in da spare room you'se got 'ere." Jack told him, grabbing two form sheets from behind the desk. "Here, just fill out this form, and hand it back to Kloppman." He said, handing the girls the sheets. "Ya do know how to write, roight?" He asked just to make sure.
"Yes," they answered, taking the two sheets from him.
Racetrack handed them two pencils, "'Ere."
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