I recently found a new love for this movie and my mind started going crazy with ideas. There are fifteen chapters in a total and I will update every two days. The beginning is kinda boring, but it gets better as time goes on :)
This is a Jack/OC fanfiction because I cannot stand Sarah's character. That relationship was based on nothing. However, I don't bash her because every time I started to, I just felt guilty. So I'll just leave you to it.
Enjoy!
The sound of footsteps on the stairs awoke Brenna very early in the morning. Before she was caught, she ran to the washroom with tiny footsteps so as not to alert Mr. Kloppman of her hasty getaway. She hid behind the wall, occasionally peeking out to see Kloppman getting the other newsboys up.
Brenna lived in the Newsboys Lodging House with about thirty other boys, all of them newsies like her. She had been with them for two and a half years now. The problem was though that it wasn't safe for girls to be newsies so she had to conceal the fact that she was actually a female. Every morning, she would hear Kloppman on the stairs, run to the washroom, wait for him to leave, and then Jack Kelly would assist her in making her appearance that of a male.
She had to wear bandages over her chest, hide her long brown hair with an old cap, and wear male clothes. It had of course been strange at first, but she had grown used to it over time. The thing everyone really had to get over when she first started was thirty boys getting dressed in the presence of a girl and one girl getting dressed in the presence of thirty boys.
Every single boy in the Lodging House knew that Brenna was a girl, but they had decided to keep it a secret from Mr. Kloppman. While they admired him and looked up to him, they had no idea how he would react if he found out a girl was staying in the Lodging House with them. They had a feeling he would send her to the workhouses under the belief that that was better for her in the long run, but they all knew that was not the case. Therefore, she had to hide her identity from him and the rest of the public every single day.
"Boots!" Kloppman screamed.
Brenna laughed to herself as she saw the young boy bolt upright for a second and then plunge his head right back down onto his pillow.
"Skittery! Skittery! Skittery!"
Skittery sat up quickly. "Wha…I didn't do it!"
"What do you mean you didn't do it?" Kloppman said.
While Brenna was always really stressed about hiding from the man every morning, she had to admit that it was really funny to watch how he woke up all the boys.
"Will ya get up? When ya get up, it's time to get up! Snitch! Get up! Get up! Everybody's sleepin'. They sleep their lives away these kids! The presses are rollin'! Sell da papers, sell da papers!"
He walked from bed to bed shouting in everyone's ear as he tried to get them out of bed to sell the papers. "Come on, come on!"
He finally made it to Jack's bed. "You dreamin' about selling papers?" he said as he tapped Jack repeatedly on the back.
Jack let out a groan and turned over. "What's da matta with you?"
"What's da matter with me?"
"What's da matta with you?" He mumbled something incoherently and closed his eyes again.
"Come on!" Kloppman started shoving him and almost pushed him off the top bunk he slept on!
"Get away from me, you're mad!" Jack said jokingly.
Kloppman laughed as Jack fought with him for a few seconds. "Get up boy! Come on. Alright! Carry da banner! Sell da papers!"
Kloppman finally went back downstairs and Brenna came out of her hiding spot in the washroom. She approached Jack, who had closed his eyes once again, took her cap and whacked him on the head with it.
"Ow!" he exclaimed.
"Come on, slowpoke! I need ya to help me get ready!"
Jack groaned again and slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Ya torture me, Tricks."
"Ya torture yourself, Jack!"
All newsies had nicknames because most of them wanted to completely start over when they became one. Almost all the nicknames reflected their personality or what they did or some trait they had. Brenna's nickname was Trickster, though pretty much all the boys took to calling her Tricks, because she tricked the public into believing she was a boy.
Jack hopped down from his bunk and the two of them went to the washroom.
Because they both couldn't fit in the stall, they had to leave the door open, but the boys didn't look out of decency. Only Jack was ever allowed to help Brenna put her bandages on and take them off. Even then, he only ever saw her backside. Brenna put the bandages on her front side and then Jack tied them and secured them in the back. When she was all tied up, Jack closed her stall door and left her to get dressed.
Brenna put her usual shirt and pants on and then went to the sink to wash her face.
"Dat's my cigar!" she heard Racetrack say to Snipeshooter from the beds.
"You'll steal anudder!" Snipeshooter shot back. Brenna rolled her eyes. A good number of the boys in here smoked cigarettes and cigars, but she had made very clear that she did not approve and was not going to join them.
"Hey, bummers, we got work to do!" Kid Blink said as he broke up the scuffle between the two boys.
"Since when did you become me mudder?" Specs asked Blink sarcastically.
"Aw, stop your bawlin'!" Crutchy said getting between them.
"Hey, who asked you?" all of the newsies, including Brenna said. She smiled as she said it. She couldn't be mad at Crutchy if she tried. He was the sweetest out of all the newsies and had taken a shine to her from the first day he met her.
The washroom was always crowded at this time in the morning and it was nearly impossible to completely clean up. Luckily, Brenna always managed to wash up before all the boys flocked in. She went to the bed area to grab her cap.
"So how'd ya sleep, Jack?" Mush asked as Jack tucked his undershirt into his pants.
"On me back, Mush," Jack replied shortly.
Mush started laughing like that was funniest joke he had ever heard. "Hear dat fellas? Hear what Jack said? I asked Jack how he slept and he said 'On me back, Mush'!"
"Mush!" Brenna called. "It ain't dat funny!"
"Speak for yourself!"
Crutchy walked up to Jack as he finished buttoning his pants. "Hey, Jack, when I walk, does it look like I'm fakin' it?" he asked.
"No. Who says you're fakin' it?" Jack answered as he put his arm around Crutchy's shoulders.
"I dunno. It's just there's so many fake crips on da street today, a real crip ain't got a chance. I gotta find me a new sellin' spot where they ain't used to seein' me."
Brenna sighed. Being a crip on the streets was almost as bad as being a girl. She could definitely relate to his struggles. It wasn't his fault that he couldn't walk well, and it made Brenna angry to think that he had to work harder because of that minor detail.
"Try Bottle Alley or da harbor," Mush sang.
"Try Central Park, it's guaranteed," Racetrack added.
"Try any baker, bum, or barber," Jack threw in as he shaved his face.
"They almost all knows how to read!" Skittery sang as he dried his face after washing it.
"I smell money!" Blink said as he came out of one of the stalls.
Crutchy fell against it as he attempted to walk in. "You smell foul!"
Brenna smiled to herself. Unfortunately, she knew exactly what Crutchy meant. On more than one occasion, she had gone to use the bathroom after one of the boys and could've sworn that she would die if she stayed in the stall longer than a second. Since then, she had learned how to breathe through her mouth.
"Met this girl last night!" Mush sang as he prevented Blink from beating the lights out of Crutchy.
"Ow, move your elbow!" Crutchy sang as he tried to wash his face.
Racetrack finished washing his face with soap and water and walked around the room blindly. "Pass da towel!"
Skittery pushed his head playfully away. "For a buck I might!" he kidded.
Brenna laughed and handed a towel to Racetrack who was still trying to find one with his eyes closed.
Then all the newsies started singing as they put on their last articles of clothing.
Ain't it a fine life
Carryin' da banner through it all?
A mighty fine life
Carryin' da banner tough and tall
Brenna put on her cap and tucked her hair into it, leaving a bit of her part showing so it didn't look like she was bald.
She looked over at Jack and he walked over to her. They had this silent communication in the morning where Brenna would look at him to make sure enough of her hair was tucked into her cap. This morning, she had missed a piece. Jack took the extra hair that was showing and tucked it into the cap for her.
The newsies ran downstairs and onto the street to head to the World Distribution Center to start selling their papers.
Every morning, we goes where we wishes
We's as free as fishes
Sure beats washin' dishes
What a fine life
Carryin' da banner home-free all!
Brenna pulled her cap down a little further over her eyes as she passed Mr. Kloppman just to make sure he didn't notice her. She always got nervous when she walked past him, afraid that he would want to talk to her and in doing so, he would discover her secret and then off to the workhouses she would go. But just like every other morning, Kloppman did not notice her.
The newsies started running through the streets way too energetically for that early in the morning.
Summer stinks and winter's waitin'
Welcome to New York
Boy, ain't nature fascinatin'
When you'se gotta walk?
Still, it's a fine life
Carryin' da banner with me chums
A mighty fine life
Blowin' every nickel as it comes!
All of the newsies were dancing right in the middle of the New York streets for all to see. Brenna loved this time of the day when all of them were together, singing and dancing. Once they started selling, they usually didn't see each other until they were all back at the house that night. This was the time Brenna took advantage of.
"I'm no snoozer!" Crutchy sang. "Sittin' makes me antsy! I like livin' chancy!"
Harlem to Delancey
What a fine life
Carryin' da banner through da slums
A group of four nuns on a wagon sang to the workers kindly and each boy, or in Brenna's case girl, went up and took a little bit of bread from them. Most of the boys removed their hats in respect, but for obvious reasons, Brenna could not do so. She crossed her hand over her chest as she took the bread from one of the nun's outstretched hands, silently thanking them for the little food that would have to be enough to get them through the day. Brenna saw a woman looking for her son and sadly could not offer words of comfort to the poor mother who just wanted her little boy back.
If I hate da headline, I'll make up da headline
And I'll say anything I hafta
'Cause at two for a penny, if I take too many
Weasel just makes me eat 'em afta!
All of them started singing over one another as they watched the headline get put up on the board, seeing with dismay that it was the same headline they had seen for the last couple of weeks…a headline that wasn't selling very well.
They made it to the gates of the World Distribution Center when two very unfriendly faces forced their way into the crowd.
Racetrack sniffed the air. "Deah me! What is dat unpleasant aroma?"
"I dunno, Race," Brenna said as she pretended to wipe her eyes. "But it is makin' my eyes water!"
"I fear da sewer must've backed up in da middle of da night!"
"Nah, too rotten to be da sewers!" Boots remarked.
"Yeah, yeah, it must be da Delancey brudders!" Crutchy exclaimed. All of the boys started laughing together. It was no secret that all of them, and for some reason Brenna noticed that especially Jack, hated the two brothers with a passion. And they certainly had no problem making that fact known to them.
Oscar grabbed Snipeshooter's neck and said in his face, "In the back, ya lousy little shrimp!" before throwing him on the ground.
Brenna glared at the boy angrily. She didn't take kindly to people who abused her friends.
Jack helped the boy up off the ground. "Ya shouldn't call people lousy little shrimps, Oscar, unless you're referrin' to da family resemblance in your brudda here."
This was met by a chorus of "Ohs" from the group around them. Brenna smiled and put her hand to her mouth. She was always envious how Jack could come up with the perfect insults on the spot.
"Five to one dat Cowboys skunks 'em!" Racetrack called out. "Who's bettin'?"
Brenna laughed at Racetrack's playful tone. Jack got close to Morris's face.
"Dat's right. It's an insult. So's this!" He whipped Morris's hat off his head and the rest of the group shouted their praises to Jack for being so bold. Jack took off running and they all followed him to see what he would do next. Brenna watched in amusement as Jack lifted himself up into the overhang on a shop and then swung down, letting his feet come in contact with the Delancey brother's faces.
Suddenly, Jack bumped into a young boy about his and Brenna's age. "What do you think you're doing?" the boy asked.
Brenna suddenly felt the brothers behind her and worked with all the other newsies to keep them at bay. "Jack!" she called as a warning to him.
"Runnin'!" Jack exclaimed as he took off again. He managed to lose the brothers and came back to join the group, bowing at his feat. He took Brenna and slung his arm around her neck and dug his knuckles painfully into her head. He did that a lot, and secretly Brenna found it kind of funny. She playfully squirmed out of his hold and smiled at him.
Suddenly, the brothers came back and pushed Jack on the ground. He quickly got up and managed to get Oscar in a chokehold and taunted his elder brother. Morris tried to take a swing at Jack but ended up hitting his brother instead. Jack climbed up the gate to the Distribution Center and they swung open as the newsies flooded in to start their day.