A/N: Hello people of fanfiction. This is my Skittery one shot! I'm attempting to do a one-shot for all the characters from the movie! enjoy!
Skittery stood on the corner of forty-forth and second. The wind rushed past him and toyed with his blond-brown hair. He rung his hat between his dirty calloused hands as he looked up at the dirty brick building in front of him. Smoke billowed out of an unseen chimney. The smoke was a sooty dark black cloud and it made Skittery nervous.
He looked at the plain wooden door of the building for a long time, not the door itself, but the sign that hung from a dirty string.
"Now requesting help"
People pushed past him without a second look. The buzz of the city went on around him but Skittery felt like he was making the biggest decision of his life.
He felt someone bump into him, and it brought him out of his self-induced trance
"What are you doin' Skitt? Just standing here like a maniac?" Jake asked, joking as usual. For some reason, most likely do to the stress of the situation, it made Skittery mad. Why could everyone else afford to joke around and he had to be faced with the hard stuff?
"What does it look like I'm doing Jake?" he shouted, pointing at the sign on the worn door.
"I'm getting a job." He finished in a whisper. It was hard to say, and he felt like his throat was closing. Jake looked confused, so innocent, so young.
"You have a job. You're a newsie." Jake explained, pulling off his derby and looking at the frayed edge, knowing what road Skittery was headed down.
"That's not a job Jake; it's a child's game! I'm almost 19. I've got to grow up." Skittery said, sitting on the broken curb, fingering the pebbles at his feet. Jake looked up at the heavy billows of smoke coming from that horrid building and sat next to Skittery.
"But a factory Skitt? I…I heard they're dangerous." He said glancing over his shoulder at the place no one wanted to end up. Skittery sighed and put his head in his hands.
"I'm left without food Jake. What am I supposed to do? And…and I found myself a girl. She needs someone to support her." Skittery sighed. Looking down the busy street he pictured the pretty girl he knew well.
"Come back to the lodge house with me Skitt. You don't want to work here." Jake said, pulling at Skittery's arm.
"What else am I supposed to find?" He shouted, startling some passersby.
"I'm stuck in this rut, Jake; I've had so much trouble just getting through my days and nights." He said combing his fingers through his hair. Jake stood and sighed with an air of definitiveness.
"Tomorrow I won't sell. I'll find you a good job Skitt. Then you won't need to worry anymore. I promise." Jake said, smiling cheerily at Skittery.
Skittery looked up at Jake, covering his eyes from the sun's glare. Jake looked so sure of himself, and suddenly Skittery had a little more faith. Jake had never been close to Skitt. He had never said anything more than a passing hello or a simple joke, yet he was willing to give up a whole day of selling for Skittery. If Jake could do that, Skittery could find a way to move past this. He stood, and silently he and Jake began to slowly make their way back down the crowded streets to a bunk room they had shared for years.
Skittery didn't want to leave the newsies. But he knew if he had to, he'd never lose his friends or his memories from the twelve years he knew the lodge house as his home, because he knew you never really leave the people you love.