Vendetta didn't need to be up this early. The sun had barely risen over the East River. Vendetta barely understood why she needed to be up this early.

Maybe it was a dream about Auntie Carrina. She thought. She never remembered her dreams, even if she'd just woken up from them. Vendetta looked around the Queens Newsgirl Lodging House. She was the only one awake much to her surprise. Until she looked at one of the newbies bed.

"Twist." She whispered. Vendetta glanced at the window. Sure enough, it was open. She quietly got out of bed and went out the fire escape and up to the roof where the red headed girl was letting the river breeze wash over her.

"Mornin' Twist." She said to the girl. Twist jumped in surprise and whirled around to face Vendetta. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, mornin' Vendetta. Did I wake ya?" Twist asked, her Irish accent slipping through. Vendetta shook her head.

"Nah, just woke up some reason. Saw you were the only other one awake." Twist shrugged and turned back toward the river.

"Ya miss Drogheda don't ya?" Vendetta asked. Twist had gotten off the same boat Luck had, but she was the closest to her roots. Twist nodded slightly.

"Colleen too," Colleen was her childhood friend who went to live with her high society uncle. Twist hadn't seen her since. Before Vendetta could ask anymore, Athena came up.

"Time to carry the banner." Twist nodded and jogged down to the bunk room to get dressed. Vendetta followed behind.

One thing to note about the Newsgirl Lodging House, it's not crowded with people, but with clothing. All the girls were master intelligence gathers and had many costumes to do the job. Angel's alone cluttered the space.

"Where's my suspenders?" Twist asked. Her partner, Luna, tossed her black ones. Twist bowed and put them on.

"Where's my blouse?" Angel asked. Luck tossed the leader her blue one. Angel bowed and slipped it on.

"My bandanna?" Moirai demanded. Athena tossed a red scrap of fabric through the air. Moirai caught it and tied it in her hair. Vendetta got dressed with little issue. All the girls grabbed their cabbie hats and ran out the door. Vendetta walked with Angel, who was the oldest.

"How's life treatin' ya V?" Angel asked. She shook her black hair out and placed her tan hat on her head. Vendetta shrugged.

"It's given me the gift of its presence." Angel laughed.

"How's Ajax?" Vendetta blushed at the mention of her boyfriend.

"I'm still trying to convince him to move to East End. It takes me a days pay to see him for a few hours." Angel patted Vendetta's shoulder.

"Captain would love to have him." Angel's brother, Captain, ran the East End of Queens. Angel ran the West End. When the two siblings came into power, they split the borough in half.

"I know he's just so stubborn." Vendetta explained. They walked up to the Sun's distribution center. The others bought their papers and wandered, waiting for their partners or just thinking on where to sell.

"Mornin' Mr. James." Vendetta said flipping her coin in the air.

"Vendetta, thought something stank." He glared. Vendetta sneered.

"Just give me 50 or those bars won't do ya any good." Mr. James slid 50 papers under the guard.

"Next!" He called. Vendetta grabbed her papers and walked to her spot.

*~*LINEBREAK*~*

When she got there, she hawked the only thing she could.

"Assassination attempted on dignitary!" Several people got her paper. She was down to only ten when she heard.

"Vendetta! V!" Vendetta turned her head to see a young newsie running toward her.

"Viper, what happened." Viper shook her head.

"I'm the bearer of bad news." Vendetta's shoulders slumped.

"Something happen in Harlem?" Viper shook her head.

"No, I'm in the Bronx remember?" Vendetta nodded. She vaguely remembered Viper switching boroughs.

"It's about Ajax. I'm sorry V, but Sailor was right." Vendetta stepped back. Sailor had warned her a week ago that her boyfriend of two years might've been cheating on her. She dismissed it as crazy.

"Who is it?" Vendetta asked.

"A middle class tramp. Blonde dipshit." Vendetta fiddled with the ring around her neck. Ajax promised to marry her when they were done selling at 18.

"Thanks Vipes I owe you one." Vendetta handed her 8 papers to sell. She kept two to get on the ferry. She started the long trek to Brooklyn.

*~*LINEBREAK*~*

She made it to the ferry after arguing with one of Spot's birds at the boarder.

"Mornin' Barrowman." She said to the ferryman. He tipped his cap.

"Got the morning pape Vendetta?" She handed Barrowman the paper and sat down. The remainder of the people got on and the ferry to Staten Island.

When Vendetta stormed off and came to the docks where the Staten Newsies resided.

"Celtic!" She hollered up at the newsie. Celtic's green eyes glanced at the peeved Italian.

"Hey Vendetta," he hoped off the crate, "what can I do for ya?"

"Where's Ajax?" She growled. Celtic's face went pale.

"In his room, just don't kill him." Vendetta rolled her eyes.

"Make no such promises." She stormed into the lodging house and bashed on the door.

"Patrick Donaugh, open the damn door!" She screamed. Ajax opened the door. He looked terrified.

"Ya better be damned that you'd get away with this." She cornered him his room.

"Vendetta I have no idea what your talking about." He tried to get out of it.

"Babe... who's she?" Asked a voice behind Vendetta. She turned around the blonde dipshit.

"His ex-girlfriend." she growled. The blonde dipshit gasped.

"Ajax, you cheated?" The blonde asked.

"Elizabeth I can-"

"No, don't bother." Vendetta said. She ripped the ring off.

"We're through." And with that, Vendetta stormed out she ran into Celtic.

"Tell Ajax, I see or hear that his sorry ass is in Queens, I will send Captain or Angel to rip him to shreds. Hell, I hear he's in Brooklyn, I will have Sailor throw 'im off the bridge." Celtic nodded.

"Tell Luck I said hi." Vendetta nodded. She walked to the ferry docks and rode back to Brooklyn.

*~*LINEBREAK*~*

She made it to Queens with no problems and sat on a bench in botanical gardens.

"Hello." A voice said next to her. She jumped a little. Next to her sat a well dressed man in his late teens.

"Are you Vendetta?" He asked. She glared at him.

"Who's askin'?" Vendetta demanded. The man nodded.

"Richard Walkins, I'm Mr. Thomas's nephew." He stuck his hand to shake.

"Where's Mr. Thomas?" She asked.

"Bedridden." He answered.

"I just saw him yesterday." Vendetta muttered.

"Well, a lot changes in 24 hours. I'm here to collect his paper. So, are you Vendetta?" Richard replied.

"Yeah, here." She handed him the paper. Richard handed Vendetta nickel.

"Much obliged." Vendetta mock bowed and started running toward the lodging house.

*~*LINEBREAK*~*

Vendetta got back to the lodging house being greeted by Luck.

"Viper told me. V, I'm so sorry." Vendetta chuckled.

"It's alright Luck. I just... need to sleep." Vendetta jogged upstairs. She slowly drifted off and was woken up by Moirai and Athena arguing in a foreign language.

Vendetta can barely make it out, but she was annoyed.

"Moirai! Athena! The hell are you arguing about now?!" She called over the railing. The girls looked up.

"Nothing V, just arguing about the ethics of Jack's leadership." Athena replied. Vendetta rolled her eyes.

"You guys barely know Jack Kelly. What are you basing the argument off of?"

"Vegas." They said in unison. Vendetta and Luck both rolled their eyes.

"Here's a word of advice, don't take advice from Vegas." Luck told them. The next to come in was Luna and Twist. Twist was muttering something in Gaelic and Luna was looking depressed.

"Twist, cad a tharla?" Luck asked in Gaelic.

"Passerby eile a fuair mheabhair ar a bearla." Twist responded. Luna started to mutter something.

"Jeg forstar det ikke, jeg har ikke gjort raget fordem." No one in the room understood

"Luna, curious can you translate?" Luck asked.

"I don't get it, I haven't done anything to them." Luna translated. Vendetta nodded.

"Thank you." Luna smiled.

"No problem." She muttered. Just then Angel strode in the door.

"Did I just hear Luna say American slang?" Luna smiled.

"No matter. I think that this night's discussion is going to be cool."

"Whatever." All the girls trotted up to the room.

Angel sat on her bed as did the rest of the girls. They swapped stories about the day.

"I broke up with Ajax." Vendetta muttered. Angel hugged her best friend.

"I'm so sorry doll." Vendetta smiled.

"Thanks Ange."

"Night kiddies." Moirai said lying down. They slowly fell asleep.