Disclaimer: Me no own Newsies. Duh.
This is a side story to City of Angels which is obviosly not written yet. Em and Saphira I own. Shoe owns herself.
Enjoy.
Itsy Bitsy Spider
"OK, I'll see your two cents and raise you one." Shoe threw down her three cents into the pile and looked back at her cards. Em peered over her own hand of cards, trying to read her friend's expression to no avail. Shoe had one of the best poker faces, making her one of the few to survive against Racetrack. The two girls were alone in the room, save for Saphira, who was reading on her bunk. All three had decided against joining the boys downstairs.
"Ugh. I don't care anymore. I quit." Em sighed with boredom and threw her cards down and rolled onto her back, resting her head on her arms. Shoe squealed happily and gathered her winnings, which consisted of five cents, three having been hers to begin with. But nobody paid any attention to the details.
"Hey, Em?" Shoe asked curiously. Em tilted her head in response, but the other girl wasn't looking at her. Her eyes were focused on a lone brown box, tied loosely with a piece of twine.
"Hmmm?"
"What's with the box?" Em grinned wickedly and rolled over once more, reaching for her box.
"You ever heard of a goliath birdeater tarantula?" she questions slyly. Shoe furrowed her brow, thinking.
"As in David and Goliath?" Em snickered and shook her head. Her hands closed on the box and brought it out from under her bed. She quickly untied the knot and slid the top off. Shoe crawled over and peered over Em's shoulder. Inside was an assortment of leaves and twigs. Shoe frowned and rocked back on her heels.
"That's it? That's lame."
"Ummm...Hey Saphira?" Saphira looked up from her book at her friend's tentative question.
"Yea?"
"Did you touch Skittles?" A look of disgust passed over Saphira's face.
"Eww no. You know that thing creeps me out...Why?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously but Em smiled innocently and hurriedly placed the lid back on the empty box.
"No reason!" Saphira continued to stare skeptically at Em as she placed the box beside her and decided it was probably best to go back to playing cards and hope the problem would just go away.
Unfortunately, things don't always work out the way we want them to.
A loud crash echoed up the stairs followed by shouts of surprise and strings of curses. Em jumped to her feet and, grabbing the box, swiftly ran to the door and flung it open.
"EM! What did you do!?" Em ignored Saphira's shout and fled down the stairs, followed closely by her friends.
Em skidded to a stop at the bottom and swore viciously under her breath. Her eyes scanned the room taking in toppled chairs, cracked tables and fleeing girls.
"Ho-ly crap." Em followed Shoe's gaze across the room where several boys were cornered by a very large angry, hairy, hissing, eight-legged...thing.
"KILL IT!! JACK, KILL IT!!" Blink cried, shoving Jack forward armed with a rolled up piece of paper. Em sucked in air and jumped the last couple of stairs, racing toward the hostages.
"NO!! Don't hurt it!!" Em grabbed Jack's wrist, trying to prevent the complete annihilation of her pet tarantula. The spider hissed angrily, drawing several wary glances. Jack wrenched his arm free of Em and swung his arm at the beast, missing as it scuttled to the side and jumped onto the ground.
"SKITTLES!!" Em circled around the small cluster of boys and vaulted over a chair, in hot pursuit of her hairy buddy. The spider scurried around in circles, dodging left and right to avoid the flying projectiles that were being hurled at it. Em could not keep up with the speedy devil as it ducked under a table, forcing Skittery to leap on a nearby chair. A few of the older boys were brave enough (or stupid enough, Em wasn't sure) to take the monster head on with books and a rolled up newspaper.
In retrospect, it was a pretty stupid idea. Finding itself surrounded by three well-armed boys who were each several times larger, sent the spider into defense mode. It reared back on six legs and raised its front legs, clawing at the boys in warning. Blink lowered his book slightly and looked uncertainly at the other two. Their eyes met briefly and decided to call the creature's bluff. Big mistake. Skittles hissed one final warning and unleashed its secret weapon.
The trio leaped back with yelps of pain and surprise. Dropping their weapons they clawed madly at their bare limbs as hundreds of tiny hairs embedded themselves deep in their skin, irritating the flesh like tiny nettles.
"SKITTLES! NO!!" Em hollered, horrified at the chaos her spider was creating. Seemingly satisfied with her last attack, Skittles turned from the three boys writhing in pain and sprinted off in a new direction, firing her deadly missiles at anyone who happened to be in her way, as well as those standing on the sidelines. Em was right behind her, her attempts to capture the horror proving futile.
Closing in on the spider, she pounced on Skittles, hands cupped to trap it. Unfortunately, things with eight legs tend to move faster than those with two. The spider dodged to the side and scrambled away, scurrying under a table. Several boys dove out of its path, but Race was not so lucky. The hairy beast clamored over his foot and promptly vanished up his pant leg. Racetracks's eyes bugged and he shrieked, clawing wildly at his leg. The spider hissed angrily, clearly indignant at being swatted at, and scaled higher. Race hopped on one foot, his screams reaching new octaves no one imagined a boy could reach. His hands flew to his pant buckle and he fumbled with the clasp as he danced around in circles.
Em was right behind him, scrambling to secure a grip on Race's leg, trying to cut off the spider's upward ascent. It would have worked, if Race had been able to hold still long enough. She lost her grip on Race as he tore across the room, ripping his pants off and throwing them behind him, his shrill screams still echoing off the walls.
"SKITTLES!!" Em lurched forward to catch the pants in the air. As her hands closed around the cloth, she proceeded to turn the pants inside out, frantically rummaging for her pet tarantula. It didn't take long to realize that the reason Race had not ceased flailing around the room was because Skittles was still latched on to his leg. Tossing the jeans to the side Em once again pelted after Race, who was desperately trying to shake off the horrid creature. Blink appeared beside Race armed with a heavy book and attempted to squish the thing. Race yelled as the book made contact with his bare leg. Skittles hissed angrily at the attack and launched herself at Blink, sinking her fangs into his arm.
With a yelp Blink shook his arm violently, flinging the spider across the room. Em grabbed the discarded box on the stairs and brought it down quickly, trapping Skittles inside. Carefully she slid the lid underneath, scooping the spider into the box and tied the string tightly, preventing another escape. She stood slowly, chest heaving, and eyed the others carefully, cradling the box protectively against her chest.
"Heh." Em let out an uneasy laugh, attempting to lighten the mood. The glares from the others let her know just how happy her "friends" were. "Um, would it help if I said 'sorry'?" Blink, nursing his stinging arm, scowled at her.
"What the hell is that thing!?" Skittery demanded, leaning on a table for support. His legs looked like the boy had decided to spend the day sleeping in a patch of poison ivy. Poor kid. Em looked at him innocently.
"It's just an itsy bitsy spider," she protested.
"Itsy bitsy spider my ass!!" Jack managed to choke out. "Did you see the size of that thing!?" Em glared defiantly, scoffing at his comment. Jack matched her glare for glare.
"Get. Rid. Of it." he said evenly. Em narrowed her eyes and peeled back the lid of the box, threatening to release the spawn of Satan once again.
"NOOOO!!" came a collective objection and Jack took a hesitant step back. Minutes ticked by as the two glared, neither one backing down. Finally, after carefully weighing the probability that Em would cooperate versus the chance she would release her spider just to spite him, he sighed and picked up Race's abandoned slacks, tossing them to the cowering boy.
"Race, put yer pants back on. No one wants to see ya streaking around in yer knickers." Em snickered at his dry comment and turned back to her two friends still standing on the stairs.
"Come on Shoe, let's go finish our card game." Em said nonchantly.
"With that thing in the same room? Yer crazy!" Em stuck out her tongue playfully and grinned.
"And that's why you love me." She replied coyly, shifting the box under her arm and proceeded up the stairs, leaving behind several annoyed boys. Saphira raised an eyebrow as she passed.
"Um Em, I'm not so sure about that." she stated simply, nodding toward the group of boys who had begun to clean up the mess. Well, except Race, who was still huddled in a corner rocking back and forth, muttering incoherently about large hairy eight-legged demons devouring his soul. Or something like that. Em merely smirked and sashayed back to the bunkroom.
R&R!! Reviews may speed up my next story!!
Also, I must apologize to Racetrack for putting him through hell and possibly scarring him for the rest of his life. SORRY!! I love you kid.