Chapter 1

"Man, Kloppman's gonna kill me!" Kid Blink shouted out loud as he hurried blindly through the dark streets of Manhattan.  He was out way past curfew, but he just couldn't pull himself away from Julia, the girl he'd been courting that night.  The only reason he'd left at all was because she had made him.  "She looked so good tanight." Blink muttered to himself as he rounded a corner.  Suddenly, his foot hit something making him fly to his feet.  "OW!" He cried loudly.  "What da hell did I hit?"  Blink quickly turned around and saw a body lying in the street.  "Holy shit!"  Blink muttered as he quickly walked over to the body.  In the dim light of the moon he saw it was a young girl around his age.  Blink then checked for a pulse and when he found one he scooped her up in his arms and headed back to the LH with her.

            "Kid Blink!  Where have ya been?" Kloppman shouted as Blink walked in the door.  "Oh my, who is that?  Is she ok?"

            "I don't know who she is.  I stumbled over her on me way home."  Blink told him.  "She's breathin' though."

            "Well bring 'er up stairs and put 'er in a bed.  I'll be up in a minute ta check on 'er." Kloppman told him.  Blink did as he said and took her up stairs.  The other boys were still up playing cards when he reached the top of the stairs.

            "Hey Blink, who's dat?" Mush asked as Blink entered the room.

            "I have no idea." Blink informed him as he set the girl down on his bed.  All of the boys gathered around her.  "Any of ya eveh seen 'er before?"  Everyone shook their heads 'no.' 

            "Out of da way boys!" Kloppman shouted as he rushed in with his medicine bag.  He then checked her pulse, breathing status and bandaged up a bad cut on her forehead.

            "Is she ok?" Blink asked timidly.

            "I'm not sure.  She has a concussion and at the moment is in a coma." Kloppman told him.

            "Is she gonna wake up?" Mush asked.

            "Hopefully." Kloppman frowned.

            "What's a coma?" One of the young newsies asked.

            "It means that she's sleeping and we can't wake her up." Jack explained.

            "Oh…"

            "Ok.  Everyone to bed!" Kloppman announced.  "If she wakes up come tell me." He told Kid Blink.  Blink nodded. 

            Slowly everyone changed and got into their beds, except for Blink who had to sleep on the bunk above his which was thankfully vacant.  Unfortunately he didn't sleep much that night.  He kept thinking about the girl.  Who was she?  What had happened to her?  Was she going to wake up?  Right before he nodded off he decided that until he found out her real name he was going to call her Ann for Anonymous.