Dollface awoke one cold morning in December, shivering under her thinning blanket. The air felt much colder than it had the previous night, which meant one thing. She suddenly felt wide awake as she jumped out of bed and scrambled over to the window. Outside, the city had been coated with a fresh blanket of snow. She pumped her fist in the air excitedly. True, snow and cold weather meant harsher conditions for the newsies, not to mention there weren't as many people out and about to buy papers. But Dollface had always loved the snow. It was so beautiful, covering up the ugliness of the city. It had also provided a form of comfort for Crutchie and her as children; when their father beat them, they would go outside and press a handful of snow to soothe their bruises.
Dollface took one last look out the window and then ran over to her dresser. She pulled open the drawer where she and Crutchie kept their few belongings, such as their clothes, a picture of their mother, and the coats that Dollface stole from her father when they left him at twelve years old. She made lots of noise rifling through her clothing trying to pull out as many layers and warm clothes as possible. So it was no shocker when Crutchie awoke, his bed being right next to the draw.
"You crazy or somethin?" he grumbled, wiping the tiredness from his eyes. "Go back to sleep."
"Crutch, it's snowed last night," she said excitedly. Just like Dollface, the mere thought of snow woke him up and he grinned broadly. He pushed his blanket off of him and grabbed his crutch, hobbling quickly to the window. He pressed his hands to the cool glass as he looked outside.
"Geez, they sure didn't predict this one," he said as Dollface resumed her search for warm clothing. "Think it'll be in the papes this mornin?"
"Why would it?" she asked. "People don't gotta buy a pape to see it a snowed. All they gots to do is look out the window."
"Would yous two shut it?" a sleepy Racetrack shouted from across the room. "Some of us still wants our sleep."
"Well yous gonna need it for today," Crutchie said, turning away from the window."It snowed bout two feet." Racetrack groaned and hit his fist on the mattress.
"We just can't get a break, can we?" he complained, sitting up and letting his feet dangle over the edge of his bed.
"Hey maybe we finish sellin papes early and then we's can enjoy ourselves in the snow," Dollface said optimistically. She closed the drawer, having found all the clothes she was looking for. Racetrack rolled his eyes.
"I forgots," he said, hopping down from bed, shivering as his bare feet touched the freezing floor. "Yous two are snow freaks or somethin, ain't ya?" He made his way towards the bathroom just as Kloppman entered the room to wake up the boys.
"Well I'm not surprised to see you two up," he smiled, seeing Dollface and Crutchie up and about. "I know you two can't wait to get out there today but I'm sure the others won't be so thrilled."
"Oh trust us," Crutchie said, walking towards the lamp in the room. "Racetrack's already let us know how he feels." He turned the lamp on, flooding the dark room with light. Some of the boys groaned as the sudden light awoke them. Others didn't wake until Kloppman's booming voice filled the room.
"Alright boys, it snowed about two feet last night so it's not going to be a fun day," he said, walking around to wake the boys who still were not stirring from their sleep. "But just go out, do what you can, and come back here when you've had enough. Share some clothes and make sure everyone has enough on so none of you freeze to death today, alright? And come back soon as you're done, I don't want you fellas goofing around in this. All this ice and snow is a good way to get hurt or sick."
"Come on, Kloppman," Dollface whined. "A few snowballs ain't gonna hurt nobody."
"Just listen to him, Doll," Jack said, as he sleepily walked past her on the way to the bathroom. "We can't afford to get hurt or nothin. Just sell a few papes and get back here."
"Yous all big babies," Crutchie said, hobbling toward the pile of clothes Dollface had set on his bed. "If the crip says yous babies, the yous babies."
"I don't care what the crip says, the crip will be home once he's done selling papers," Kloppman said sternly, giving the siblings an authoritative look that told them to stop joking around. "The crip's sister too. Understood?"
"Yessir," they mumbled sadly. He nodded, satisfied with their answer, and left the room. The boys spent longer than usual getting ready that morning. They dressed in as many layers as possible and gave any extra clothes to some of the boys who didn't have many clothes to bundle up in. After about fifteen minutes, they were all ready to leave, thoroughly glum about the weather of the day. They waved goodbye to Kloppman at the door, grabbing bread off the table, and walking out into the wintry day.
The moment Dollface got outside, she stopped and spun around, breathing in the crisp air. It was perfect. There wasn't any bitter wind and it had stopped snowing an hour ago. All she had to do was enjoy the snow that surrounded her. She couldn't wait to get to Brooklyn. She was sure that Spot and his Brooklyn blood would want to go have an adventure in the snowy city.
Suddenly she felt a cold, stinging pain on the side of her face. She put her hand to her cheek and brushed off the snow that had just been thrown at her. She spun around and saw Crutchie laughing. She swooped down and scooped up a handful of snow and packed it into a ball. Crutchie ducked as she threw it towards him but not in enough time. It hit him clean in the face.
"It's on!" he shouted as Dollface laughed at him. They began throwing more snowballs at each other, dodging them for the most part, though occasionally getting hit.
"Would you two grow up?" Dollface and Crutchie froze, both of their arms raised and ready to throw another snowball. Kloppman was standing in the doorway that had previously been closed. He was frowning at both of them, causing them to drop their snowballs in the snow.
"I told you, no fooling around," he said crossly. "It is far too easy to catch something in weather like this. Now both of you promised to come home when you were done selling papers and I expect you do so."
"We's sorry, sir," Crutchie said guiltily. "We'll get goin now." Kloppman said nothing as the twins began trekking through the snow after their friends who had long ago left them to play in the snow but they soon caught up with the group.
"Kloppman do you in for goofing off?" Mush asked, seeing their dejected and slightly guilty faces. They nodded.
"Don't know what's so bad about it all though," Dollface said, shoving her cold fingers in her pockets. "It's just some frozen water that fell from the sky." The group walked in silence the rest of the way to the circulation center, all of them now in bad moods, either because of or despite the snow. Their moods were not to be improved. When at last they reached the circulation center, they were only greeted by the Delanceys standing behind the closed gates.
"Closed for today boys," Morris informed them. "Snow prevented all the papes from being distributed to their respective centers." The boys groaned, having trudged four blocks in the snow just to be turned away.
"Shit," Kid Blink mumbled. "Now how's we supposed to make money for the day?"
"Shoulda thought of that before ya became no good newsies," Morris sneered. Oscar laughed along with his brother.
"Although, if you's lookin for a little extra money, Dollface," Oscar said to her, a perverted smirk on his face, "My bed is always open to you." Dollface clenched her fists, ready to punch the living daylights out of Oscar, even through the gate, when suddenly a snowball came hurling at Oscar's face.
"Yous a disgustin piece of slime, Delancey," Jack said roughly.
"Hey we was just bein courteous towards her in this difficult time," Morris said. "We know what a thrill she must be in bed though. Afta all she's bangin a Brooklyn, that's gotta be crazy!" The Delanceys were bombarded with snowballs, thrown by all of the now angry newsies. The Delanceys shielded themselves and retreated back to the safety if the distribution office, where Wiesel was watching the whole thing. Crutchie ran to the gates, his crutch lying forgotten in the snow, and grabbed the bars, a look of pure anger on his face.
"Yeah you betta run!" he shouted after them. "Yous betta be glad this gates between us othawise I'd shove my crutch down ya rotten throats!"
"Crutch, calm down, they's gone," Jack said, prying him off the gates. Dollface handed him his crutch, and he took it, looking down, his anger quickly fading and slightly embarrassed at his behavior.
"Sorry, didn't mean to act like that," he said, not looking at anyone. "They just make me so mad the way they treat you, Doll."
"Crutchie, it's ok, they's been doin shit like that since we was twelve," she said, trying to get him to look at her. "You know it don't botha me much."
"Yeah well it bothas me a lot," he grumbled. Dollface knew how much he hated the Delanceys. Ever since the strike, Crutchie had been filled with a strange mixture of loathing and fear towards them; loathing for attacking Dollface and fear for busting him up so badly. Add on that they threw in a blow to Dollface and Spot's relationship, which Crutchie still was unsure of, and Dollface could completely understand why he reacted the way he did.
"Well it's done now," Jack said, giving Crutchie a pat on the shoulder. "Now we just gotta figure out what to do. If The World didn't get its papes to its center, then I doubt any otha pape did. Since we can't sell papes today, I guess we should just go back to the boardin house."
"Are you shitting me?" Dollface asked in disbelief. "Jack 'Cowboy' Kelly, leada of the newsboy strike, newsie extraordinaire, is just gonna let a perfectly good day go to waste and head inside cuz its a wee bit too cold?"
"Kloppman told us to come back-" Boots said but Dollface cut him off.
"And we will," she said, with a mischievous grin on her face, "Afta we play around in the snow. Come on, boys. The city's our playground. There ain't hardly nobody outside, Kloppman ain't expectin us til two at the earliest."
"Let's seize the day!" Crutchie said, his spirits suddenly higher at the prospect of spending a day in the snow.
"Davey's been rubbin off on ya," Specs said.
"Hey and we can go get Davey and Les too," Dollface said. "There ain't no way they's goin to school in this weatha."
"You's two is crazy," Racetrack said, rubbing his cold hands together. "It's already gettin cold. No way we's gonna be able to spend the rest of the day in this weather."
"It's only cold cuz we ain't movin around," Crutchie said. "Once we start running all ova, we's gonna warm up. Come on, we can play a game of capture the flag or have a snowball fight or something."
"Or we can go to the streets in Brooklyn," Dollface suggested. "Grab a tin trash lid and go sledding."
"Course you wanna go to Brooklyn," Buttons mumbled.
"Well it would be more fun with Spot's gang," Bumlets shrugged. It seemed Crutchie and Dollface had convinced some of the boys.
"We could have a snowball war with them," Skittery said excitedly. "Boy, imagine that!"
"Come on, Cowboy," Mush said, elbowing him in the arm. "Let's live a little!"
"Alright, let's go then," Jack said, rolling his eyes as the other boys cheered. "But we gotta be back around four so Kloppman don't suspect nothin."
"Well let's get goin then!" Dollface cheered as she led the group towards Brooklyn.
not really sure if this is gonna be liked by everyone but I liked writing this story. This will probably only be five or six chapters, nothing major, just a fun easy read. Kind of a boring intro but it gets better :) review and comment please!