Hey all. I'm Kea, but everyone calls me Sparks. This is my first "Newsies" story so I hope you all like it. I'm gonna try really hard to update this one, unlike the rest of my stories.
Disclaimer: I don't own "Newsies", no matter how much I wish I do. I do own Sparks and all the Manhattan girl and guy newsies you don't recognize.
Prologue
My older cousin, Susan and I were driving home from one of her old friend's house when it happened. I don't really remember much, just two lights coming at me really fast, a loud, metal grinding crash, and the sudden feeling like I was flying. I guess I went unconscious after that, because the next thing I noticed was that I was standing in a line of people. The line was moving pretty fast and all of a sudden I was standing in front of a podium next to a doorway. It looked like the entrance to a fancy restaurant or something. There was a bored looking guy standing behind the podium.
"Name?" He asked, not even looking at me.
"Where am I?" I wasn't going to tell him anything about me until I got some answers of my own.
"You're dead. Name?" He still didn't bother looking up from the podium.
"So is this like heaven or something?" I stood on my tip-toes and peered over the podium to see what he was looking at. It was a computer.
"Or something. Name?" He was starting to sound a little aggravated with me
"Wow, computers. I'd've thought you guys would have a big scroll or book or something."
"We updated a few decades ago. Now will you please tell me your name?" He looked directly at me this time.
"Claire O'Connor." I finally told him, backing away from the podium. The look he gave me scared me a bit. He typed something into the computer, looked confused, typed something else, looked more confused, and finally looked back up at me.
"You're here too early."
"Early? How can I be early? I'm dead!" I was confused, probably more confused then him.
"It's happened before. Just go straight down that hall," he pointed to his right where I noticed a hallway suddenly form, "and enter the double doors at the end. Next."
Before I could say anything else, an old man had stepped up, and the podium guy turned his attention to him. So I wandered down the hallway to the doors. They had little windows in them, so I peered in one to see what was on the other side of them, but the windows were coated with some stuff to make them all foggy. So I pushed open the doors and entered. It looked just like an office. There was another guy, who looked very similar to the one behind the podium, sitting behind a wooden desk, and it too had a computer on it.
He looked up and smiled as I entered, apparently he was much nicer than the other one. "Claire, welcome." He motioned for me to sit in the chair that suddenly appeared in front of his desk.
"So what's going on?" I asked as I sat down.
"You have been killed in a car accident." He told me straight out. "It was rather unexpected, even by us. You weren't supposed to die for another 50 years."
"So what's going to happen to me now?" For some odd reason, I was not surprised by any of this. I guess it's because when you die, you know you're dead, unless you become a ghost.
"Well, normally when this happens, we put the person back in their body. But…"
"But what? Is my body chopped up into itty bitty pieces?"
"No, but you've been dead for a significant amount of time. For some reason your spirit did not come directly here, but rather flew around for awhile. I guess there was something that you needed to accomplish."
"Ok, so if I'm not all cut up, then why can't I go back to my body?" I was getting kinda bored. I really wanted to just go where I was supposed to and stop having people tell me stuff.
"It's because of the flying around. Back there, they have already found you dead, with no hope of returning. I don't want you to surprise them all by suddenly waking up. It would be too much for some of them to take. I hope you understand this." This guy was definitely nicer than the other one. At least he told me stuff.
"Yeah, I get it. So what exactly are you going to do with me?" Now I would finally get an answer.
"Well," he started, typing a few things into the computer. "Ah, here we go. I have found you a body. A girl your age has just died like she was supposed to, but has left a great deal of trouble behind. So you are going to take her place."
"Um, ok. So who is it?"
"I'm not allowed to tell you that now. But I will be in touch with you again to help. Oh, my name's Bill by the way. Now close your eyes." I did and I heard Bill typing something.
Next I felt as if I was being pulled somewhere else. I found myself lying down on something soft, with someone shaking my shoulder. A sad voice called out, "Sparks, wake up, pwease." I opened my eyes to look directly into a pair of bright blue eyes.
A/N: ok, first chapter coming soon. And the newsies will be in the next chapter, I promise.