Hi, all! So back in October I accept ed a challenge from the Fabulous KnightNight7203. She challenged me to put aside my fear of not doing the characters justice, and finally contribute a fic to the fandom I love so much. I had a plot, mind you. A nice cheery, cutesy, adorable Les one-shot. But I sat down to write it, and I just couldn't. So I opened a new note on my tablet, and this happened. It's not my official response to Knightnight7203's challenge, which I'll hopefully Finnish at some point, but it is a contribution to this amazing fandom.
Warning: this is rather angsty, and could be considered triggering. There is mention of some serious topics like depression, but only mentions. None of the possibly triggering things happen to the main character, my OC, but rather to people around her. This is a fic about how some people around people with depression or anxiety or any other problem may feel. While the following reaction isn't true for everyone, it is how a Hufflepuff may react.
While we're on the topic, if you never need someone to talk to, give me a PM. I do not have problems of that sort, but I have two ears, and I can listen.
Sorry if this makes you sad, but I hope you enjoy this anyway. Please feel free to leave I review. Even if it's hate (which I have never ever seen in this community. Anywhere! Go fansies!) I'd really like to see what you think. Thanks!
Connie's POV
At Denton's instruction, I seated myself in the overstuffed chair across from him.
"How do you do, Ms. Rose?"
"Very well, thank you. And you?"
"I'm quite well myself. Are you ready to begin our interview?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then let us begin. Would you mind telling me how you came to live with the Newsies?"
"Not at all. I was sixteen years old, and fresh off the boat. My parents and siblings had stayed back in Britain, and so I needed to find a job to help pay for their passage over here. I was walking along, looking for a boarding house at which to spend the night, when I heard a ruckus coming from within what I soon discovered was a newsboy lodging house. I went inside to see if I could be of any assistance, and, much to Mr. Kloppman's amazement, managed to calm the newsies down and keep them from destroying the place. Well, Mr. Kloppman offered me a job right then and there. I received little pay, but I got to stay in the attic of the lodging house for free, received at least one meal a day, and had a rather free-flowing work schedule."
"And you stayed with the newsies even after more of you family came over?"
"Yes, sir. The two eldest of my younger siblings came over the next year, and two more after that, but I've stayed with the Newsies. I just take care of the rent for my siblings, and check up on them a couple times a week. My parents are still back in Britain with with my three youngest siblings, but I plan to stay with the newsies even when they come over. I'll stay on as long as Kloppman wants me to."
"You were not here during the strike, correct?"
"No sir, I was not."
"Well, we'll just skip over the next few questions then, shall we. What would you describe you relationship with the newsies as?"
"Um, I clean the bathroom, bedrooms, and main room. I keep the larder stocked just in case of foul weather and the Newsies are unable to buy their own food. I help Kloppman keep book, and I help keep the boys from getting too out of control. That being said sir, I'm not quite I maid, or hired help."
"No? Than what are you?"
"A friend, I guess. I play with the little ones, we make up stories, and shoot marbles, and play with whirligigs, and play pretend. And I talk with the older ones, and hang out with them too, although I never gamble. And, I listen."
"What sort of things do you listen too?"
"Anything they want to talk about. Girl troubles. Financial troubles. People troubles. Trouble troubles. The newsies have more troubles than anyone ever should. They tell me about their past some times. About the things that have happened to them. We sit on the front steps, or the fire escape, and they talk to me. I just sit and listen."
'Some of their pasts are dark. Romeo had an alcoholic abusive father. Race's mother turned to, well, 'sleeping around' to pay the bills. Albert was left in the middle of the park, alone, with his two year old kid sister when he was six. Some of their pasts aren't as dramatic, but even then they're still so sad. Crutchie didn't get a gimp leg do to polio. He had it from birth. But he did loose his whole family to the same disease most people think caused his disability."
'It's all just so sad. And it makes me want to hug them, and try and squeeze away all the sad and the hurt. They suffered -are suffering. And I want to make it so they aren't. It makes my heart feel so heavy, almost to the point of physical hurt, to know that they went through all of this. And I don't even know all of it! Finch has depression, and I have reason to believe that there is cause for it on his past. Smalls gets night terrors almost nightly. Henry has problems, but he won't talk to me, and pretends that nothing's wrong. Specs admits to hiding under a façade, and Mush just invests himself so emotionally in things that it's almost a façade. "
'It also makes my troubles seem so small, so insignificant. I've had a fantastic life. Sure, my family isn't exactly rich, we aren't even middle class, but we've never been staving. I've always had a roof over my head, food on the table, and a family that loves me. My family loves me. And I know that they support me. And that no matter what happens, I'll be alright, because they'll always be there for me"
'So when something happens, and I end up crying, reading a dime novel I saved up for or writing home to my family to calm myself down, I feel guilty. Because I know that no matter how bad I have it, I'll never have it as bad as they have had and have it."
"Do you think that all of this." Denton waved his hands vaguely through the air. "Effects how you see the newsies?"
"Of course it does! Everyone has problems, its what makes us human. But knowing that they've had to deal with all of these things, and still had the courage to stick up for what the believe it, to stand up to The World, makes them so much stronger in my book. They are so courageous, and they'll never know how much I look up to them, how much I respect them, and how much I care about them. But as long as I live, I will make sure I'm there. I will always be there to listen. I will always be there to help. I will always be there to help them forget their troubles. And I will always be there to have fun with, to goof off with, to laugh with. Because sometimes, all we need, more than a listener, more than a confident, is someone to laugh with."
"Ms. Rose? How much of what you just confided in me do you want in the paper? I don't work for The World, I work for The Sun. But even if your newsies don't read it on their own, one Ms. Katherine Kelly happens to work here. And I know for a fact that she would tell her husband, who would tell the newsies."
"None of it. I'd rather you not publish any off it. Part of me wants to make myself understood to the newsies. But part of me doesn't want them to hear this. Maybe someday I'll tell them. Or at least slip them a hint. But for now, I'd like to keep this between the two of us."
"Well then. Let us move one to some questions with answers more suitable for them to read."