"Do dis Goggles, Do dat Goggles! Dats all I's ever hear!" Goggles stomped through the market place with a sour expression tainting her usually cheerful face. "Nobody eva' appreciates me! Eva!"
She folded her arms across her chest defiantly, giving her already tough looking appearance appear even more threatening as she swaggered down the sidewalk, nodding a silent hello as she passed by familiar venders with their merchandise. A few raised their eyebrows and gave concerned glances which she either shook off or didn't see; just more people who probably didn't appreciate her and wanted to poke around for gossip. True, she usually walked around with a more upbeat persona, but she was sick of it.
After a morning of listening to the guys in the lodging house complain, whine, and crack horrible jokes for hours on end about how SHE should make the beds, clean the sinks, and the toilets because SHE was the girl and THEY were sitting on their butts being lazy, Goggles stormed out of there quicker than the Banner with a selling headline, slamming the door behind her.
With her height of 5'9 and lanky body, she had hidden herself for almost ten years amongst the unruly pack of wild boys, and even now without her goggles she could still pass as male from behind. Not that she was much different from them in soul anyway. Most days she got into the same amount of trouble plus more than they did, all while still maintaining to be a girl, and most of the time getting the proper respect she deserved.
But not on this sort of day. It hurt when they cracked jokes like that, even when she knew they were joking. A lot actually, even more than they knew, or didn't know. She had known most of those boys for a long time, they were her brothers, and Mush was her best friend and maybe even something else. Even though he hadn't participated in the crude cracks, he had laughed, and didn't seem like he was even trying to stop them. Hearing things like this come from the people she deemed close hammered a stake deep into her heart, and it wouldn't stop bleeding.
It made her angry. Painfully, blindingly angry. She'd show them, she'd-
Oomph! What da…? The blonde newsie looked down, finding a little brown haired girl with pigtails wobbling backwards from her collision with Goggles' legs.
"Watch it, kid!" she snapped, her face hardening to a glare.
When the girl's eyes began to water, Goggles caught a glance of her own reflection in Barber's window beside her and recoiled back. A ghastly, furious, blonde brute stared back at her, filled with rage and bent on giving it back to everyone else double fold whether they deserved it or not. Even to adorable pig-tailed little girls that did nothing wrong. Who was this person? This reflection frightened her, and seeing the child cry was enough to break her heart, even more so that she was the one who caused those tears.
"O-Oh gosh kid… I's sorry, I didn't mean it!" She dropped down to the girl's level on one knee and caught her arm before she could scamper away from her. "Please!" She quickly pulled out an apple from her delivery bag and held it out to her, "Take dis apple as my apology."
The little girl shuffled her feet before slowly turning back sniffling, and took the apple gratefully in her small dirty hands.
"There ya go!" Goggles smiled and ruffled up the girl's hair, pushing a few strands away from her cute pink face, the little pigtailed girl giggling in response. "Now ya dry those tears right up!" she said as she began to stand, "An' take dat red beauty wit cha!"
"Th-Thank you!" the little girl ran over and hugged Goggles' legs before bouncing off in the opposite direction, clutching her shiny red apple tightly, and disappearing in the crowd of bustling city people in the distance.
Goggles chuckled, a grin escaping from her face, before sitting down against the little patch of wall beneath the window of the barbershop, her mat of curly blonde hair visible through the window of the shop and the customers inside it. Her hand reached into her red mail bag and withdrew another bright, red apple as she let out a satisfied sigh. "At least somebody appreciates me," she remarked as she bit into the juicy crimson fruit, letting the sweetness drip off the corner of her lips and down her chin before catching it with her fingertips and delicately licking it off.
The Barbershop bell rang, dinging a sweet sound above her as the door to the right of her opened in response. Goggles looked up towards the green door instinctively, and observed a posh looking woman with a huge dress rump stroll out of the doorway as the door swung out to the right.
She laughed to herself; she'd NEVER be caught dead in a dress like that, even if it was the last thing on the entire planet and beyond. Sure, Tam and Sarah had gotten her into a dress once before, but that was different. It had been a simpler dress than what the woman before her wore, a velvet red dress with amusing poufs at the shoulders and skinny sleeves that restricted movement, and a flared out at the waist like a fountain of some sort. She had felt ridiculous, like a cat wearing pants, but somehow, just a little, she had enjoyed it. For a few hours she had become a girl again, and the feeling of not having to be on defense all the time had been a wonderful relief; that she had not felt in a very, very long time.
Goggles returned her gaze to across the street, taking a bite out of her apple and chewing it slowly, rolling the piece around in her mouth and savoring its deliciousness before she noticed the woman staring. She quickly swallowed the apple bit, and turned to meet the woman's gaze. The woman continued to stare for a few seconds more before approaching the blonde newsie.
"Hello, how do you do? Forgive me for being too forward but I couldn't help but notice what you did out here." She looked down kindly and pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear with her gloved hand.
"Oh… Ya mean how I snapped at her? I didn't mean tah, it was an accident mam, hones-"Goggles rambled, shaking her head and looking down at the ground before returning her daze up at the classy lady.
" Oh no no no! I didn't mean that deary, everyone makes mistakes!" The woman put her hand to her heart, "But what you did after was truly wonderful! I saw the whole scene from inside!" She motioned towards the barbershop before catching herself, "Oh dear me, where are my manners? I am truly sorry, my name is Ms. Eliot Shepherd." She reached out her delicate gloved hand towards Goggles to shake.
Goggles tossed her apple core to the side, got up from her spot on the ground and wiped her good hand on her pants, staring at the dirtiness of it before accepting Ms. Eliot's hand and firmly shaking it. "Da names' Goggles, well dats what my friends call me. You could call me Danny if ya'd like, mam, Danny Robinson."
Ms. Eliot let out a boisterous laugh, "Oh dear, you can stop with the officials, Danny! You'll make me sound older than I am!" She patted Goggles on the arm gently and winked, "A head of a beauty department must look young and youthful, you know!"
"Whoa… Well gee Ms. Shepherd, what's a fancy lady like you talkin' to a… a lower class person like me for? Was it Petey that sent ya here? Not tah be rude or anything…" Goggles added, tucking her dirty hands into her pockets.
"Petey?" Ms. Eliot raised her eyebrows curiously.
"Yeah, me buddy Peter Morgan. He's dating my best friend and works with the governor..? I don't know if ya knew him, but I supposed he was da one dat sent ya, seein… I don't get many people like ya talkin to me." Her voice started out strong, but dropped a whole volume as she shrugged the last part. There was always something intimidating about talking to rich, fancy people. As friendly as they'd seem, you had be wise to keep your guard up; things were dirty in the higher ups. Politics and money ruled their land, and you were a goner if you succumbed to their greedy traps and trickery.
"Oh my goodness, well this just settles it! No friend of Mr. Morgan is going to be sitting outside in the dirt of my boutique if I can help it! Let alone a girl as pretty as you!" Ms. Eliot exclaimed, clapping her hands together with such force that the sound bounced off the stalls in the marketplace a mile down the street before she grabbed Goggles' arm and started to drag her towards the door of the boutique.
"Huh? I's sorry Ms. Shepherd but what settles what?" Goggles stumbled towards the door as the stewardess clutched her arm. "And you know I's a goil?"
Ms. Eliot opened up the door to the Barbershop and ushered Goggles' inside, "Why, an entire make over and beauty session of course!"
Goggles jaw dropped as she started backing out of the doorway, only to have the insistent woman shove her back inside and sit her down on chair along the window. Ms. Eliot smiled sincerely, putting her hand on her heart and another on Goggles' shoulder, "I thought you looked down earlier when I saw you through the window, and when I saw that wonderful deed of yours I couldn't help but feel completely touched." She wiped a tear away from her eye, "And now that you mention dear Mr. Morgan is your good friend, well! I could not let you just get away without thanking you in some way! So please, take my offer and enjoy it!" She beamed and walked over to a barber sweeping up hair on the floor away from a chair, and whispered something into his ear. He nodded, and ushered Goggles to follow him to the back room.
Goggles walked over almost timidly, and followed wide eyed. So much for not getting any appreciation. What in the world had she gotten herself into?