Chapter One

Author's Note: So, here is my next story. This one is before my last one, well, a few years before my last one. In the story "So's the Bronx", you read a summery of a story on how Crutchy came to the newsies and how Kid Blink helped him and basically saved him from starving, and everything else that the story included. But I decided later on that I would do an advanced story of that, just more detailed and longer, so that you would get that story and probably a few others along with that. So this is that story, advanced and longer.

It had been a hot day out and Kid Blink had sold papers all day, as always. Then he had come back and eaten with Mush and Racetrack. When he had gone home to the lodging house earlier than usual, he went into his bedroom. He was only 12, but had a room of his own because Tommy Cat favored him. He always told Blink that he would be the leader someday. Blink believed him. And so, Blink washed up and then decided to get a breathe of fresh air before he went to bed, mostly so that he could stare at the sky and imagine life in a rich family or something like that. When he opened the door, there it was. A skinny, green eyed, brown haired boy with a few freckles. The boy was lying on his side and looked exhausted. Blink bent down and got the boy into his arms and ran inside. He put the boy on his bottom bunk. The boy looked up at him.

And then Blink noticed it. He noticed that the boy's right leg was twisted and bent up. The boy was a cripple, a gimp. Tommy Cat would kill the both of them.

Tommy Cat hated cripples. Anybody that tried to fake a crippled leg that was from Manhattan, a newsie, was in deep trouble. And a real cripple from other boroughs would die if they came near Tommy Cat without telling him or with someone else. But there weren't any for that reason; until now. The boy was looking around, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, but he seemed to be scared of Blink and could see that Blink was worried.

And so, Blink kept the boy out of sight that evening. The cripple was not allowed to move, Blink had told him, and so he didn't. Tommy Cat walked in much later and didn't come into Blink's room, but headed to his own bed. Blink was relieved. He went to sleep, but it took a while because he was so worried.

That morning, he got down to see the cripple sitting up. Blink went to him and kneeled down in front of him so that they could so that they could talk.

"I'll get ya breakfast." Blink said. The boy nodded, but was quiet. "Don' ya be 'fraid ta talk ta me. I be friendly."

He thought maybe it was because of his eyepatch. But the boy still did not respond. Blink sighed and stood up, then went to get changed. Afterwards, he snuck out and came back with food for the cripple. He gave it to the boy, then told him that he had to work and would be back later, and that the boy must not leave the room. The boy only nodded in reply. Blink sighed reluctantly, the cripple was silent still.

Kid Blink had blond hair, blue eyes, except that you could only see one because the other one was blind and had an eyepatch, his left one that is, and he was strong. Tommy Cat liked him. But Blink figured not for much longer because of what he was hiding. All day long, Blink was worried for the cripple. He didn't quiet understand, but the minute he had seen the boy on the doorstep, he had realized and seemed to have taken the boy as a brother and had started to love him in a brotherly way, the way he felt about the other newsies as well.

And so, he spent the day worrying. He was selling with Mush, as always, but was distant and Mush noticed it. During lunch, Mush came over and sat with him. Blink had been staring out of the window.

"Hey, Blink, wha's da mattah?" asked Mush.

"Wha-? Oh, nutin'. Jus' tinkin'." replied Blink, who was thinking, but not about something he could tell Mush. The 11 year old Mush was curious and great friends with Blink.

"Da youse fell okay?" he asked Blink next.

"Yeah, I do. Jus' stop askin' me, an' I'll be alrigh'." said Blink. He wasn't going to tell anyone what was going on. He couldn't.

"Alright. By da way, Tommy Cat says hi an' he wants ta sell wid us dis afternoon." said Mush. Blink froze, nodded, but as Mush moved to the other table, he stayed frozen.

Kid Blink had always believed as Tommy Cat did. The older boy was 15 years old, and was leader because he was so tough and, well, just the way he was had made him likable and picked. Tommy wen as Tommy Cat, but his real name was Jake and was known as Jake often to many. He had blue eyes, red hair, and was very muscular and pretty tall. He was the leader, and Blink was one of his closest friends. Blink himself was more or less not being voted, but growing into the role of a newsie leader. And he agreed with Tommy Cat on the basic idea that cripples, or gimps, were not allowed.

So today, when Tommy Cat came and stood near him, then moved away only slightly, Blink felt treacherous. He was disappointed in himself for not telling Tommy Cat. But he knew, for the gimp's sake, he couldn't. Because he had realized that Tommy Cat would not hurt him. While he shouted out headlines, which were interesting enough that day, he thought about what he would do with the gimp when he got back. Kid Blink had no idea what he would do.