Note: This story is a re-vamped RP by Morning Glory (as Olivia) and ShoeGoil (as Skittery). We hope you laugh as hysterically as we did while RPing it.

Livid Olivia and Skeptical Skittery

Chapter 1: There's a hole in my pocket

Scowling on this particular day, Olivia stormed down the streets back to the lodging house. She had sold all of her papers, though a hole that had gone unnoticed in her pocket, made a good escape route for all her change. Not to mention that it had started to rain now on this cool day. Olivia pushed back the wet strands of hair that were plastered to her face back. Shoving her hands deep into her pockets, her fingers poking through the bottom of the left one, Liv fumed into the lodging house. "Damn it!"

Heading up to the bunkroom at a quick pace Olivia smacked right into Skittery. It had been her fault completely, yet she blamed it on him. "Watch where you are going!"

"You watch it, dollface," Skittery said, shoving his elbow toward Olivia's face. He wouldn't really elbow her in the face, of course. But he was sick and tired of her attitude. And he wasn't the kind of guy to take attitude from just anyone. "And why don'tcha take a chill pill while you're at it?"

Liv made a face and grabbed his elbow shoving it back down to his side, "My name ain't dollface," she said to Skittery. She pushed passed him, hitting into him as she passed. "And I don't need a chill pill…I need you to stay out of my way." She snapped grabbing a dry shirt off her bed.

Skittery smirked slightly. "Yeah? You need me to stay outta your way? Maybe you should stop being such a joy to be around, DOLLFACE," he said exaggeratedly. "As you are now, you're so charming, I can't stand to be more than a few feet away from you."

Olivia made a face when Skittery called her dollface again. She hated when the guys called her dollface. Skittery was just adding to her bad day now. As if the rain and losing all the money she had wasn't bad enough now Skittery was annoying her. Liv grabbed a dry pair of pants and headed into the washroom. She changed into the dry clothes quickly and pulled her wet hair out of her face before returning to the bunkroom, "You're a jerk, you know that?" She sat down on her bunk examine the hole in her pocket.

Skittery frowned. "I'm a jerk, huh? Well, you're a..." He looked at her, his eyes narrowed. What could he insult her with? Plenty. "You're a dollface." So it was the worst he could come up with. Then he saw her looking at the pants she was holding. "What happened? You lose something?" he spoke with interest, not in a teasing manner.

Livia kept a small smirk to herself when the best Skittery could come up with was Dollface. She supposed it was better than being a jerk. Then she rolled her eyes a little. "Lost all my mornin' earnings." Her expression changed to anger, not at him, but at herself for being so stupid. The hole was the size of a half dollar so that meant that everything that size and smaller fell through. There had been too many people around for her to notice she lost all her money.

Liv leaned over the side of her bunk to look for the small sewing kit that was somewhere in the bunkroom, "Go ahead...tell me how stupid I am for not checking me pockets." She said to Skittery waiting for the insults.

Skittery had a reputation for being pessimistic, but really he just felt that he

told things as they were. It wasn't his fault that most of the time things were bad, so he pointed them out as such. It gave people the impression that he liked to insult them, when really, he thought he was being realistic.

Olivia's defensive attitude toward him now was proof of this common misconception. He had no interest in insulting her. But hey, if she wanted to start the ball rolling with calling herself stupid, he figured he might as well let her. "Awright. You WERE stupid for not checking your pockets. But you ain't the first stupid person, an' ya sure as hell won't be the last."

Livia found the sewing kit and pulled out some thread. She scowled a little more as Skittery made fun of her. Rolling her eyes she unrolled some of the thread around her fingers. Liv held the needle up squinting one eye as she carefully threaded it. "And that's why you're a jerk." She retorted. It wasn't much of an answer for what he had said to her, but still it was something.

"In what world," he said to her, "are people jerks for agreeing with people?"

"You're a jerk for agreeing with me." Olivia said to him tying a knot in the end of the thread.

He raised his eyebrows at her, and then wandered over to where she was sitting and sat down at the bunk across from her. "Hope you're using doubled thread. Otherwise you'll just get another hole in your pocket."

She stuck her tongue out at him as she started to sew the hole in her pocket. "Why do you care? It'll only be my money and my problem if I lose it again. And anyway, who made you sewing master?"

"I'm no sewing master. I just happen to have common sense, is all. I think you would do, considering that you're a poor newsie, just like me. Who can afford to NOT have common sense?" He looked at her pointedly.

"Common sense?" Liv laughed a little and shook her head. Skittery, have common sense? He didn't have enough common sense to leave her alone at times. Yet part of Olivia liked having the attention from people, even if it was negative attention. She felt less lonely. "And now you know everything, don't ya? Ow."

Livia had pricked her finger with the needle she hadn't been paying attention to what she was doing. "Maldígalo, yo odian coser! Aguja e hilo de rosca estúpidos! Agujero estúpido en mi bolsillo!" She uttered under her breath taking the tangled thread apart from the hole.

Skittery wrinkled his nose, not understanding a word she was saying. "I THOUGHT I knew everything. But I guess I don't. Mind translating for us uneducated folk?" It didn't occur to him that what she had sent wasn't meant for him to understand.

Livia looked up at Skittery from the mess of thread and her pants. "I ain't any good at sewing," she said to him in a matter of fact voice, "It's supposed to be simple. All the other girls around here can patch a damn hole." Olivia glared hard at the pants for a few seconds. Lousy pants, lousy life. "Nothin' ever goes right," she muttered to herself.

"Now, you know that's not true. Sometimes, things do go right," Skittery said. "Not often, but sometimes. An' this is one of those not often moments. So hand over those trousers." He held out his hands so she could hand over her pants and needle. "I'll get it fixed in half a second. Then you can find something more terrible to complain about."

Livia eyed Skittery. There had to be some kind of catch to this. "What's in it for you?" Olivia asked, handing him the pants, and the stuff to sew them. Liv had never had any one do anything for her just to be nice. Every one she had ever come across always wanted something from her in return. That's why Livia never asked for any one's help. "I mean it's not that I don't appreciate it…just no one does anything just to be nice."

Skit looked at Livia warily before looking down at the pants and concentrating on his stitching. "You wanna know what's in it for me? You keep pestering me with your mopey, 'everyone hates me' attitude and I'll sew your pants shut. That's what's in it for me." He hated being thanked. It made him feel so awkward. Why did girls always have to get all emotional on him?

Livia's nose wrinkled as Skittery threatened to sew her pants shut. "I ain't all mopey," she said to him. "Jus' there ain't ever much that goes right...plus no one ever does anything for other people unless they want something in return...no one's ever done nothing for me...I'd never ask no one for help either." Liv stopped talking and watched him sew. "Where'd you learn how to sew?"

"See, you say you ain't all mopey. But there you, go: 'no one does nothin'

widdout wantin' somethin' in return.' Blah, blah, blah," Skittery mocked Liv. "Git over yourself. You sound like me." He bit off the extra piece of thread, already finished sewing up the hole. "Anyway, necessity is the mother of inventions. I learned how to sew same as I learned how to sell papes. I hadta learn, so I did."

"Well I don't want to be sounding like you." Olivia watched Skittery, amazed that he actually sewed the hole for her. "See I need to know how to sew, however it isn't working quite that way for me." She wrinkled her nose. Liv took the pants and inspected the job that he had done. "Not bad," Livia commented.

Skittery narrowed his eyes at Liv. "Of course it ain't bad. An' if you look even closer, you'll find that it's sewn quite good!" He stood up. What was he doing wasting his time putting up with this girl's attitude? Even when she wasn't being rude, she couldn't stand to be polite. "Maybe you should rip your pants more often, then you'd have more chances ta practice sewing. You'd be quite good if you had to practice more." He reached for her pants and with his teeth, ripped open the seam he had just sewn. "There. There's your chance."

Olivia's eyes went wide when he pulled out the stitches in the pants. "SKITTERY!!" She shouted with shock and anger. "I can't believe you just did that!" She didn't know how to sew. She had tried many times. It was like one of those things that you just weren't good at no matter how hard you tried. "You get pleasure in bothering me and making me angry don't you?"

"Get pleasure in bothering you?" Skittery said, as if the idea shocked him. He put a hand on his chest with mock innocence. "I wouldn't dream of bothering you, let alone would I dream of bothering you for pleasure!" He frowned slightly. "Wait, am I bothering you right now?"

Livia had punched him in the shoulder, but she didn't punch him too hard, "I think you do!" She snapped, shoving him a little and then opening a drawer to get some thread. "Why else would you bother me? Unless you do it just to be mean!"

Turning back to her bunk she sat down again, attempting to thread the needle. Liv eyed him, she wanted to say, no, that he wasn't bothering her because the truth was she enjoyed the attention from him, "What do you think?"

Skittery took a step back with surprise after he was hit in the shoulder. He made a pouty face, not a pretend pouty face, but an actual pouty face, and rubbed his shoulder with the opposite hand. "Geeze, Liv. Can't take whatcha dish out?" With a scowl, he added, "I was gonna say that I'm not bugging you that much, but I may just hafta start bugging you after that..."

Livia wrinkled her whole face. "I can take it!" she said to him, "Just..." Liv threw the pants she was holding in her hands at him. "You're such a JERK!" she said angrily.

Her day was not getting any better. It was only a matter of time before she had to ask some one nicely to let her borrow money to buy some papers seeing as her money was laying out on the street somewhere. "You are always picking fights with me."

Skittery sneered. "Yeah? I'm a JERK, huh? Well you're a real pest, you know that?" He caught the pants angrily as she threw them at him, and was about to throw them back at her.

"If I'm a REAL pest then why do you even talk to me?!" Liv glared at Skittery.

"Maybe I talk to you the same reason that someone swats a fly. It's not because they like to spend time playing with the fly. It's cuz what else do you do to a fly?" Skittery frowned slightly, realizing that his metaphor didn't quite work. He shrugged. "Anyway, I could leave any moment and leave you alone. Wouldja like that?"

Olivia raised an eyebrow at the words spilling from the tall boy's mouth. She gave him a slow nod and rolled her eyes. Liv looked at the thread and needle. If there was another way to fix her pants she would do it. She put the needle down on the nightstand near her bunk along side of the thread. She gave up for now. She'd figure another way to get them fixed.

"I don't care what you do, Skittery." Livia said to him. Honestly deep inside Olivia didn't want Skittery to leave. He was one of the few people who actually spoke.

Standing up she headed over towards the window climbing out onto the fire escape. Sometimes Olivia wished that she wasn't so secluded from the other newsies. She just couldn't open herself up to let anyone get in close enough. She leaned forward and pulled a cigarette out of her shirt pocket. She held it between her fingers, but didn't light it, yet.