AN: This story is pretty much my first official fiction to be put up on. I had been toying with the idea for a while, and after giving it some more thought (and receiving the DVD as a Christmas gift from my wonderful aunt) I decided to go for it and see what happens. This is pretty much the movie with a few new characters. I'll do what I can to change the story a little, but I'm still keeping the songs because, quite frankly, they're just awesome and Newsies wouldn't be the same without them. I've already got it all written out, except for the epilogue. No worries; I promise that the epilogue will be finished in time, and I'll update this story once a week. Will this be a good story? The answer is up to you, the readers.
Disclaimer: Newsies is not mine. I only own the three new characters that appear in this chapter, as well as any others that likely sound unfamiliar.
Chapter 1: A Prologue of Sorts
Time: June 22, 2012
"Leah!" Ginny Rudabaker moaned, trying not to yawn. "Do we have to go to bed now? We're not tired at all."
It was still early evening, the night before my brother's wedding. Our extended family was coming to town, and so things had been pretty hectic throughout the whole week. My parents were out with my aunt and uncle, as well as my brother's future in-laws. Jana, my future sister-in-law, had a surprise bridal shower for the evening, and my brother was out doing who-knows-what with his friends. I would have gone to the bridal shower, but Ginny and Charlie, my two little cousins, were somewhat shy around strangers and weren't really in the mood for adult conversations. And that was how I ended up at home, looking after them and enjoying being a part of their childhood.
"You know the rules, Ginny." I laughed. "You start getting ready for bed at nine, and it's in bed by nine-thirty. You can change and get ready down here; I'll bring down your pajamas and everything else you need. Charlie, go upstairs and change in that bathroom. Come on, you guys know the drill. The wedding is tomorrow, and your mother will skin me alive if you two fall asleep during the ceremony or the reception."
"Does this mean we get to sleep in?" Charlie Rudabaker asked hopefully on his way upstairs.
"Heck no." I laughed, following him up to the room they would be sharing. "I don't make the rules around here, I just follow them. Now go get dressed, I'll tell you guys a bedtime story of your choice if you're both good and ready for bed by then."
That did the trick, and it was one that my aunt should have thought of a long time ago. By the time nine-thirty rolled around, they were both on the twin beds in the guest room, looking at me a little too eagerly.
"My teeth and hair are brushed, Leah!" Ginny grinned.
"Story time! Story time!" Charlie exclaimed.
"Not so fast, you two." I laughed. "Charlie, open wide."
"Aw, Leah-"
"Come on, you know the drill. Besides, if you really did brush your teeth you wouldn't have anything to worry about from me."
With that said, Charlie's mouth practically popped as wide open as it could. I leaned in a little and sniffed his breath.
"Ah, bubblegum toothpaste." I grinned. "No scent like it."
I moved on to Ginny, who had her mouth open as well, and I took a sniff. Fresh as a mint.
"Your breath is fine, but your hair still needs a little work." I said, taking the comb from her bedside table. "I'll work with it while I tell the story. So what kind of story do you guys want to hear?"
"I want a love story!" Ginny said as I began to work with her hair.
"Ew, gross!" Charlie squirmed. "Too girly. Tell us a story about a millionaire!"
I chuckled, trying not to pull too hard as I combed through a few tangles.
"I have a better idea in mind, and I think you'll both enjoy the story."
And without further ado, I dived into a pg version of Pirates of the Caribbean (well, they were only eleven and nine, after all). I figured that it was a nice compromise; it involved an island covered in riches and the love affair between Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner. When I was done, they were a little sleepier than they were half an hour ago. This didn't stop them from chattering away.
"I wanna be like that Captain Barbossa." Ginny yawned as I gently tied her dirty-blonde hair into a loose ponytail. "Everyone's scared of him, they respect him, and he's the real leader of the pirates."
"I would've loved to be in Jack Sparrow's shoes when he and Barbossa made that deal." Charlie said dreamily. "Then I would keep the job and have all of the gold for myself."
"You need to start by getting arrested, being left on an island to die twice and having guns and swords pointed at you." I reminded him, pulling the covers over his shoulder.
Charlie gulped; he was easily scared for a nine-year-old boy, and the pirates ride in Disneyworld had him covering his eyes for a good duration of it.
"Night!"
I laughed, kissing his head before moving on to Ginny.
"Leah?" Ginny said to me as I tucked her under her covers. "How come Elizabeth agreed to marry Norrington at first?"
"Well, she was desperate." I explained. "Will was Elizabeth's childhood friend, and I think that, while she didn't know it then, she was in love with him just as much as he was in love with her. Elizabeth just wanted to do whatever she had to in order to convince her father and the commodore to go rescue Will."
"An old childhood friend…" Ginny murmured. "Do you have one like that who loves you?"
"Well…I don't really have any childhood friends who were boys. I was kind of shy as a child."
This much was actually true; my family enjoyed meeting with friends of the family who had children, but these other children were all boys and therefore ignored me for the most part, preferring to play with my brother. I'd say that the closest thing I had to a childhood friend was Joey, a guy that I had started going to school with in seventh grade, and we hadn't started getting to know each other until my senior year in high school. Oh, Joey…
"Good night, you two." I whispered, kissing Ginny's head. "Tomorrow's going to be a big day for Peter and Jana, and we're going to be very supportive and happy for them."
Closing the bedroom door behind me, I meandered through the living room and sat down at the piano bench, playing my favorite song.
"Santa Fe, my old friend, I can't spend my whole life hiding. You're the only light that's guiding me today…"
I thought back to when I taught myself to play this song, thinking of Jack Kelly from Newsies. I had only seen the movie once in high school at a friend's house, but two things about it had stuck out to me the most. One of them was this song. When I heard it, I thought it was so good that I bought it on iTunes and taught myself how to play it on the piano. I found that I could sympathize with the character through this song; we were both living provincial lives and wanted out. The story's ending was the second thing that stayed in my mind. He had a chance to escape his provincial life and go to Santa Fe-in style, no less!-but he didn't. What was it that made him decide to stay in Manhattan? Was it just his love for Sarah?
I sighed. Love. One of the concepts that had kept me imprisoned in my own home city for years. As I sang the last verse, I silently wished that I had the courage that he did.
"Will you keep a candle burning? Will you help me find my way? You're my chance to break free, and who knows when my next one will be? Santa Fe, wait for me…"
I was broken out of my thoughts when the Tornado Warning wailed through the dark streets of the neighborhood. Not even three seconds later, my two cousins started screaming and running back down the stairs.
"Leah!" Charlie wailed, running to me and nearly knocking me over.
"All right you two, let's head downstairs!" I shouted over the sound.
Taking a flashlight with me, I led the two down into the basement. With this kind of storm, there was no assurance that the storm would leave the electricity alone.
Five minutes passed, and Charlie was still shaking. I wasn't sure of how we would know that it would be safe to go back upstairs; I had never experienced a tornado so close to home until now. Charlie and Ginny had, but they were only babies at the time.
"Why don't we play a game, or something?" I suggested. "It may be a while until the storm is over. Besides, it'll take our minds off of what's going on."
"But what if the tornado makes the whole house come crashing down on us?" Charlie asked frightfully.
"Momentai, Charlie." I said, using a Chinese word that I had learned from a friend of a friend. "That's why we go down into the ground during a tornado warning; if a tornado does come, it can't hurt us down here."
"What about our toys?" Ginny asked. "Won't everything be destroyed upstairs?"
"Well…" I started carefully, unsure that 'momentai' could get me out of this one. "At least we'll be alive."
Ginny rolled her eyes. Sometimes, I wonder exactly how much I'm rubbing off on my cousin. "Just get a game out already; I'm bored, and Charlie's getting awfully close to wetting his pants."
"I am not!" He protested.
Rolling my eyes at the pet argument, I walked over to the closet where the games were supposed to be. But the sight I met made me slam the door shut in alarm.
"Now I'm close to wetting my pants." I muttered. "Ginny, just tell me I was just seeing things when I saw a sunny bustling city beyond the closet door."
"No, I saw it too." She said, growing excited. "Hey! This is almost just like The Chronicles of Narnia!"
"That can't be." Charlie said. "Magic isn't real…right?"
"Exactly." I supported him, holding my hands behind my back, pinching myself hard to make sure that this was all just a dream. And believe me, it hurt like the dickens.
"Let's go!" Ginny exclaimed. "Maybe we'll meet Aslan!"
"A lion in a city?" I said incredulously. "That's a sight to see every day."
"What? It happened in Prince Caspian, when Aslan was in Telmar when the Pevensies had to go home."
"I'm just dreaming, I'm just dreaming, I'm just dreaming…" I repeated to myself over and over again.
"It would be better than waiting underneath a tornado." Charlie commented, taking Ginny's side. There was no way I was going to win this argument; when it came to my cousins, I was usually putty in their hands. At the same time, I was torn between two ideas here. On one hand, it was my job to keep my cousins safe. They were like the little siblings that I always wanted, too, so I was determined to keep my promise.
But on the other hand, I did have to admit that I was in the mood for a little adventure-I had been ever since we got Peter Pan on video cassette, and I had started watching it faithfully at least five times every day. I doubted that Narnia was beyond that door, but there was definitely something there. Needless to say, the small childhood part of me won over every other excuse.
"Okay, alright." I finally said. "Just let me check on a few things."
"Like what?" Charlie asked me, forgetting that we were in the middle of a tornado warning.
"Well, if we're going to walk through the middle of a city in broad daylight, we can't be wandering out in the streets wearing pajamas." I explained, opening the door just a crack and peeking out. "People would probably arrest us for it."
Looking out, I saw that it was somewhere around the crack of dawn, and people were just starting to walk about the streets. I also saw that the people in the city weren't exactly…well, let's just say that it looked more like the 1800's without slaves.
"Do we even have any clothes down here?" Ginny asked. "We can't go upstairs to get any clothes."
Charlie shivered as she said this, remembering the fierce storm going on outside the house.
"Momentai, Charlie." I said again with a smile. "Follow me."
Keeping my flashlight, I led the kids into the laundry room. It wasn't just a place for dirty/clean laundry; it was also a place for old clothes that weren't being worn anymore. I wasn't sure of exactly why any of this was happening, but I had read enough stories and online fan fictions to know that we had to fit into the town if we wanted to find out why. So I managed to find two of my brother's old plaid, church shirts from when he was around their age. I couldn't find any pants from an older time, so for that I had to find a pile of clean laundry that my mother had-rather conveniently, I had to say-forgotten to bring upstairs. Charlie's church pants were there, so his outfit was set. I couldn't find anything for Ginny, however, so she had to settle for a pair of jeans. For me, I found my favorite plaid shirt and put it on, with a pair of jeans-I had skirts that I could use, but nothing short of a pants holocaust would make me wear skirts outside of a formal event. I was relieved when I found the wallet that had gone missing about a year ago, along with some souvenir money left over from a vacation to California.
Finally, after taking turns changing in the laundry room, we were waiting to enter through the closet door. I handed my flashlight to Ginny, who turned it off and set it down on an old couch. At Charlie's request, we both held his hands so that he could remain calm in the dark.
"Okay, I gave in and we're going through." I said. "But keep in mind that not everything is going to be daisies and rainbows. There may be a few unexpected circumstances and surprises around every corner. And there's the slightest chance that someone might even get killed. So if either of you want to change your minds, now is the time to say so."
"I'm out." Charlie said automatically.
"Oh sure, then you can stay here in the dark and wonder if the house has been destroyed yet." Ginny said sarcastically.
I sent her a warning look that I know she couldn't see. I would have to talk to her later.
"What are we waiting for?" Charlie said automatically.
Without further argument, we stepped through the closet door and into the mysterious city.
AN: Okay, that's the first chapter. I was a tad eager to really get into the plot, but now I feel as though the story was a little rushed. Constructive reviews would be awesome, and I'll update the story sometime next week.
By the way, if you didn't catch on, there's a reference to one of my favorite TV shows hidden throughout the story. I'll review and leave constructive criticism for every story for the writers who can guess the reference. Don't worry; it should be fairly easy to guess, but just in case here's a hint: check my profile under my list of favorite TV shows, and it should be there.
Also, you might be wondering what 'Momentai' is. It actually is a legit word, just in a different language. The explanation will come in a later chapter, so bear with me for now; your patience will be rewarded in time!
