Disclaimer: I do not own the Manhattan newsies, but I DO own the Chicago newsies! BWAHAHA! All mine! Well…except ToT, Dottie, Sparkles, Red, Skitch, Beamer, and Belle. They all own themselves. I had to put 'em in! We're all Chicagoans (Skitch ish an honorary)! Bwaha! ::runs in circles::
Opening Comments: Yes, the malicious duo of us ish back. Ths fic may not be just as insane as our other. ^^; Heehee.
Title: Miles Away
Authors: Stage and ToT
****
"UP! Everyone out of their beds! Lets go, right now. Sell the papers or I'll kick ya'll out! Up!" Windy yelled at the top of her lungs, ringing a large bell as she walked into the girl's bunkroom. Bleary-eyed and still half asleep, they grudgingly complied.
Windy walked out of the room and into a much smaller one. There were fewer bunks in this room, seeing as how there weren't as many boys who took up the job of a newsie. There were other things for them to do, but some found newsie life easier and safer as opposed to the meat packing industry.
She gave them the same wakeup call as the girls, but they were slower in getting up. A few didn't even bother. Windy sighed and walked out. She returned with three buckets full of ice-cold water, taken directly from Lake Michigan. The youngest boy stopped and whispered something to an older one with dark hair and brilliant green eyes. The younger one giggled in anticipation.
Windy picked up the first bucket and walked up to a bunk. On the lower bed, one of the older boys was buried underneath a heap of blankets. She lifted up the bucket and poured the water onto the boy. He fell off the bed with a muffled shout and jumped to his feet.
"What was that for?!" He demanded, water dripping off his hair.
"Sorry, Beamer…you know the rules. Now get going." Windy replied sternly, making shooing motions with her hands. "You have to pay your own way."
"Hug first!" Beamer exclaimed, hugging her and she shrieked. Windy swung at his head with the empty bucket and he dodged off to the left, laughing. The other boys congratulated him and Beamer took a sweeping bow.
"Get going, all of you!" Windy yelled, pointing a finger. They all walked out and into their bathroom. She turned around, tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder. Stealthily, Windy approached her next victim.
She applied the same treatment to the next bed. This one reacted differently, sitting straight up in the bed and banging his head on the top bunk. He yelled out a curse and got up from his soaked bed.
"Don't curse like that, Skittles. 'Specially not in front of Cheese and Crackers."
"Crackers ain't here."
"Doesn't matter. Move along." Windy replied, pushing him forward. Skittles slouched off, he was never a morning person. She turned toward the last bunk—this one being on top. Windy sighed…she should be used to this. She half-heartedly poured the water over the last one.
"Aaah," He said, lying on his back and his hands behind his head. "Good morning, Windy. You know, with you doin' this every morning, I don't need to take a bath. My own bed is the Mediterranean."
"Mop Top, d'you have to do this every morning?"
"What are you complaining about? Its very refreshing."
"There's no fun in it anymore."
"That hurts." Mop Top said with a grin. He jumped out of the bed and sauntered towards the bathroom.
Windy sighed and headed downstairs. She was in her early twenties with blonde hair and green eyes. Windy had set up the newsie boarding house when she had first come to the "Windy City". It was then that she had gotten her nickname from the first few kids there.
The first two down the steps and into the kitchen were the twins, Cheese and Crackers. Both were brown-haired and hazel-eyed. Crackers was a short girl while her twin brother towered over her by three inches. The two had English backgrounds and were ten.
Windy looked up when she heard a commotion at the top of the stairs. She smiled, she knew who was up there.
"ToT!" Beamer exclaimed as he ran into her at the top of the stairs. ToT looked up from where she had been leaning against the banister and talking with Stage, a fellow roommate.
"Beamer!" She replied. Stage rolled her eyes as the two launched into a conversation.
Stage was average height with mahogany hair and blue eyes. She had a slight Italian look about her. Stage tapped her foot impatiently for a while, then pulled out her pocket watch and looked at it. She snapped it shut and waited further.
ToT was a few inches shorter with brown hair and hazel eyes. The traces of her German accent had long since faded and she now talked like the others. Beamer's dark auburn hair was swept back with the help of added water. His eyes were a hazel-ish color.
"Let's go ya bums, we's gots papes to sell!" Mop Top exclaimed in his awful replication of a New York newsie accent. "We's also gots breakfast to eats!"
"Mop, dat's awful." Stage said in her own version of a New Yorker.
"Stage, don't encourage him." ToT groaned. Stage grinned and started to ruffle Mop Top's hair.
It was obvious that Mop Top was full-blooded Greek. His dark brown hair was very curly and shaggy, it hung down to his cheekbones. Mop Top's eyes were a dark hazel color, darker than ToT's. He sighed in somewhat annoyance as Stage continued to run her fingers through and play with Mop Top's hair.
"Stage, d'you have to…?"
"Mmhm." She replied, grinning. Mop Top sighed again.
"Scratch a little to the left then, will ya?" He asked.
"There?"
"Yeah! Thanks. You have longer nails than me."
"Maybe if you didn't bite them..."
"So! Breakfast!" Sparkles interrupted quickly. She was the shortest of the newsies (apart from the twins) and had shoulder-length blonde hair. Sparkles had bright blue eyes and knew when to stop conversations.
"We'd better get down there," Red spoke up. She was Irish and had flaming red hair—hence the name. Red's eyes were unique among all of them, being an orange-ish color. "Penny'll eat it all otherwise."
"That hurts, Red." Penny said, coming into view. Immediately, all the girls—except Stage who was still busy with Mop's hair—turned and stared at Penny. He did his best to ignore them, you could practically see them drooling.
"Must you do this every morning?" He sighed.
"Do what?" Stage asked, looking up. "Ooh…good morning, Penny."
"ToT? ToT!" Beamer snapped his fingers in front of her face. She remained distant-eyed. "TOT!"
"Hm? Sorry? What?" ToT asked, coming back. Beamer rolled his eyes. Dottie strolled up to the group, hands stuffed in her pockets.
"Hey all." She greeted them. Dottie had an unknown background as she saw it unimportant to live in the past. Her eyes and hair were both brown-colored and her height was of average. "Are we going down to breakfast?"
"TAG, YOU'RE IT!" A fifteen-year-old boy yelled, smacking Stage hard on the back. She lost her balance and started to fall over forwards, pulling Mop Top by his hair. Mop Top reached out and grabbed Beamer's suspenders who in turn snatched ToT's arm for support. She grabbed the back of Penny's shirt, he seized Red's shoulder, Red clutched Dottie's arm, and Dottie took hold of Sparkles's wrist.
"ACK!"
"Ouch!"
"Eek!"
"Look out!"
"Hey, that's my hair!"
"Let go!"
"Ah! Here we go!"
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump! The nine newsies tumbled down the stairs amidst many shouts and curses. They landed in a heap at the bottom of the staircase, Stage and Mop Top on the bottom, Sparkles on the top. Sparkles, Red, and Dottie hopped off the pile and Penny stretched out, still perched in his spot now atop the pile.
"PENNY! Get off!" ToT yelled in a muffled tone.
"I don't know…I'm pretty comfortable…" Penny replied.
"That's funny, I'm not!" Beamer shouted back. ToT's elbow was digging into his stomach. "It's rather hard to breathe here!"
"How d'you think I feel?!" Mop Top demanded. "Get off, ToT!"
"I can't!"
"Ah, watch those nails!" Mop Top yelped.
"Sorry!"
"PENNY!" Chorused four annoyed voices. Sparkles, Red, and Dottie were overcome with peals of laughter.
"TAG! YOU JUST DUG YOUR OWN GRAVE!" Stage yelled.
Tag, at the top of the stairs, was clutching the banister for support. He started to hyperventilate from laughing so hard.
"What's going on in there?" Windy yelled from the kitchen.
"Nothing!" They all answered in unison.
"That is the biggest lie I've ever heard…" Windy muttered.
Skitch and Belle came down the stairs, casting odd glances at the pile. Belle was French with blonde hair and blue eyes while Skitch was from Austria with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes amidst a sea of freckles. Belle was the only female newsie to wear a skirt on a regular basis. They walked by the pile without helping.
"Save us!" ToT yelled after them. Belle sighed and turned around.
"Penny, you want breakfast?"
"Alright!" He exclaimed jumping up, making the others "oof!". Penny trailed after Belle like a puppy.
"Not if that's not the sickest thing I've ever seen…" ToT muttered.
"Get off!" Beamer yelled, pushing her. She landed on the bottom step of the stairs. Mop Top and Stage threw Beamer forward and he grabbed the banister for support. Stage laid on her back, shutting her eyes tightly.
"Ehhh…" She complained. Mop Top hauled her up. "No…need sleep…"
"Naw, you know the rule. Sleep in and get a bucket of cold water dumped on you." Mop Top replied. "Since you aren't used to it…"
"Ew, how'd my back get wet?" ToT asked, twisting her head around to look at the spoken of body part. "Beamer!"
"What?"
"You got soaked this morning, didn't you?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Hey, I'm wet too." Stage said with slight surprise. "But in the meantime…" Stage glared up the stairs at Tag. She ran up the stairs, two at a time. Tag stopped laughing and bolted. Mop Top ran after Stage, overtook her, and dragged her back.
"Come on, breakfast. He always hides in the boys bunkroom anyway." He told her, pulling her along into the kitchen.
****
Closing Comments: Heh…there's the first chapter about the Chicago newsies. We have about seven more characters to introduce.