Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own the Newsies. It'd be nice, but...I'll just have to live with the fact I don't own a bunch of singing, hot newsboys...tear.
Carey flew down the hall, trying to push her glasses into place and balance her load of bookas at the same time as she turned the corner. She gasped as she ran into something and all her books went flying. And there were a lot of books, which was why she hadn't been able to see where she was going. Groaning, she knelt down and frantically began to pick them up. "I'm gonna be late for class" she moaned, "And they were in order too!"
"Calm down Carey, I'll help you sort them" she glanced up to see her best friend, Maggy, in front of her.
"Thank you! I'm so glad it was you and not Justin" she said, fetching a piece of paper that was about to slip under a door. She stuffed it in her notebook and then looked at Maggy, "He would've just stepped all over my notes."
Maggy sighed and continued to sort through the books and papers; she used to try to defend her boyfriend, but she had long since given up.
The girls were complete opposites. Maggy had curly, red hair and pretty green eyes. She was short and petite, and had a perfect dusting of freckles across her nose. All the guys loved her. Carey had dirty-blonde hair which she usually just threw into a ponytail, and blue eyes which might have been pretty if they weren't always distorted by glasses. She was tall and thin, and usually too busy with her schoolwork to notice any of the guys around her; though she often suspected that there were very few that noticed her either.
The girls had met when they had been assigned as room mates. They both went to the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, which was a residential high school that accepted students in their junior year. At first they had been unsure around each other, but had rapidly become best friends. Carey made sure Maggy did her homework and didn't party all the time, and Maggy made sure Carey loosed up in her free time. It was an arrangement that worked, and both girls needed it.
"You coming tonight?" Maggy asked excitedly, eyes large in her eager face.
Carey sighed and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "What is it this time?"
Maggy grimaced, "You make it sound like torture Carey. You'll like this one, its girls only, and we're not just dancing and talking."
Carey perked up, "Really?" She got so tired of those parties; she was never comfortable in social situations. And at a school like this, there was no lack of other geeky kids that just wanted to talk about science, but she had always felt left out; wanting to be normal, but too uncomfortable to try.
Maggy beamed, "Yes! Lara had this awesome new movie she says we have to see. There are a ton of hot guys in it!"
Carey bit her lip and then decided, "Alright, but only cause you really want me to"
Maggy squealed like she had just gotten the best present ever, threw her arms around Carey in a hug, than ran off. Carey went back to sorting her papers; hopefully Ms. Jenkins wouldn't be too mad at her for being late to class.
Carey stepped hesitantly into the dorm; it was shared by Lara and Anna, two people that were more Maggy's friends then hers. She looked around, and then spotting a friend, went and sat down by Tori, a girl with light brown hair that she and Maggy usually ate lunch with.
"Let me guess, Maggy talked you into this too?"
"Yup" Tori responded, taking a big bite of some pizza ordered on the sly from the near-by Papa John's. High schools were a bit stricter than colleges on food-in-the-dorm rules. She got up and grabbed some pizza, then joined Tori again on the red foam couch. It was perfect for small dorms, being so lightweight and easily moved. Then she spotted Maggy, chatting brightly with Lara on the girl's bottom-bunk bed. Maggy saw her too, and ran over.
"You're just in time!" she said brightly, squishing herself in between Carey and Tori. "Lara's almost ready to start the movie."
She pointed to the flat-screen that was mounted on the wall. Lara had a very, very rich father. Tori shrugged and let a big glob of cheese ooze into her mouth. Talking around her food she answered, "I dunno, I've never really been into music."
Maggy just tossed her head and glared at her, "Didn't your mother teach you to not talk with food in her mouth?"
Tori grinned at her, "My mom taught me how to wash my hands and make a bologna sandwich. As far as I'm concerned, that's all that matters."
Carey burst into laughter, almost choking on her own pizza. Maggie thumped her on the back, meanwhile muttering to herself, "I'm sure your favorite character in every movie is the one that eats."
Apparently Tori overheard, because she replied, "Actually, yes it is. I feel a connection with them."
"You would." Maggy answered darkly.
"Are there any like that in Newsies?" Tori asked curiously.
As if on a secret joke of her own, Maggy started laughing, than replied, "They couldn't afford it dear. The only one who eats is…well, Les, really."
"Then I like that one." Tori said, settling back into the couch.
All Maggy could do was laugh till tears poured out of her eyes, and she wouldn't explain to Tori nor Carey. She just kept repeating, "You'll see, you'll see."
As music began to come out of the portable speakers, Carey found herself captivated as a smooth voice with a strong New York accent began to speak.
"In 1899, the streets of New York City echoed with the voices of newsies…"
On the way back to the dorm, Carey chatted animatedly with an unusually sullen Maggy. She had really liked the Newsies, and made Lara tell her everything about them and by the end of the movie she knew their names and moods and she was in love with David, the most intelligent of the bunch. And in the process she had discovered Lara wasn't so bad. She voiced this thought to Maggy.
"I noticed. You both were getting so buddy-buddy" she replied with a scowl. Carey stared at her in surprise. Was it possible? Was Maggy jealous that she had made a friend? But Maggy had tons of friends. She shook her head, it was probably something else.
As she lay in her bed later in their dorm she leaned over the edge of the bunk and whispered down to Maggy, "I'm gonna do it Maggy."
"Do what?" came a sleepy reply.
"I'm gonna bring them here, the Newsies I mean. To our time."
"You're crazy. It's just a movie anyways. And they're just actors."
Carey shook her head, and then burrowed deeper under her covers. She spoke quietly to herself, absolutely certain, I'll find a way, somehow. I'm at NCSSM aren't I? And it'll be the real thing." With that, she fell into a deep sleep filled with singing, dancing newsboys; she fell, long and hard, straight into Newsie obsession.