Hey all! This is my first Newsie fic, but it feels like I've been reading them for years. Practically since I started using this website. I hope you like it and reviews are always nice too but only if you want too haha. I try to update quickly and try to please my readers. When I start a story I finish it, so no matter what happens. This will be finished eventually (:
Summary: When a Newsie war starts with Queens against Manhattan, and everyone begins to take sides, who will be safe? No one. This story follows Hum, an orphaned girl who is too kind for her own good according to everyone else. Things get interesting when she is sent to stay with allies in Brooklyn…
Rated: T – For language and some violence
Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies.
"Mommy…?" A young voice quietly sniffled from somewhere across the room. At first I just decided to pretend I didn't hear anything, maybe whoever it was would go back to sleep. Sometimes the little kids did that they'd have a bad dream and then fall back to sleep before they would fully wake up.
"Mommy!"
"Ise is trying ta sleep heah!" Someone shouted gruffly, only to be followed by another tearful shout. I quickly dragged myself off my cot and slipped through the maze of bunks until I found the source of tonight's disturbance.
"Dolly." I said softly, it's always Dolly. Her bed creaking as I sat down on it. "Dolly, wake up." I said quietly so as not to provoke anyone else in the room to wake up as angrily as the last person had.
Dolly's tangled strands of hair fell off her slight shoulder and onto her pillow as she turned to look at me. She was so little, like a toy. That's how she got her name. Molly the Dolly. I brushed her hair away from her face softly as she gazed at me with big brown eyes to match her dark, dark hair, glistening in the dim light. "Hey sweetie." I mumbled giving her a smile.
For a minute I thought she might actually just fall back to sleep knowing that she was safe and that someone was watching over her. Knowing that helped a lot of kids when they had nightmares. But I couldn't be so lucky, could I? Her reddened nose twitching as her lower lip trembled and without warning she was crying. A bit too loudly for the surrounding people.
"Jesus Christ!" Someone yelled grumpily from somewhere to my left. There were growls and grumbles of agreement from all around, including from the other side of the curtain that divided the boys and girls from each other. Of course whoever was yelling did nothing to help the situation at all since she simply cried louder. "Just shut up!"
"You shut up!" I shouted back sharply, glaring in the direction the voice had come from, "All of ya! Get back to sleep."
Despite a few quiet murmurs of annoyance all became quiet. Turning back to Dolly I gently picked her up and scooted into the bed, repositioning her next to me. She rolled over and curled her little body against me, "I want to go home to my mommy." She cried quietly.
"Shh, Doll, it's okay." I told her quietly brushing my hand through her hair. Please note I didn't answer her question, this would be because I don't know if she could actually ever go home. Maybe she could, but maybe she couldn't. I always liked to try and think of the positive more than the negative in cases like this. Since she was tired she was calming down quickly.
Her little six year old voice spoke into my ear, "Is everyone m-m-mad?"
Smart kid. I thought as I said quite the opposite, "No, they're fine." It was the truth, but just bent a little. Everyone was fine, just maybe a bit annoyed if they had woken up.
I could feel her nodding into my shoulder, her face warm through my shirt. Subconsciously I began to hum as I continued to stroke her messy hair. That's sort of a tick of mine, humming. That's how I got my name actually, Hummingbird. It was soft, and no one who could hear me was complaining so I kept it up as Dolly swiftly fell back to sleep right next to me. After getting up and shouting at someone and comforting Dolly, sleep wasn't really coming to me anymore. It was dark in the way that it is right before the sun is about to rise, so it cast an odd light on everything.
Above me I heard, Chips roll over, the mattress groaning slightly. All was quiet, or as quiet as it could be in New York. I wasn't sure how much time passed but I looked up to see a familiar face leaning against the wall, staring at Dolly and I through the small space the curtain didn't cover.
I raised my eyebrows questioningly, asking with my eyes if something was wrong. He just smiled slightly before his face became serious again. He nodded at Dolly. I took that as his way of asking if anything was up -Apparently she hadn't waked him. Jack sleeps like a log sometimes-, I attempted to shrug my shoulders without moving Dolly around too much, in the end I just opted for a shake of the head.
He stared at us for a few seconds more, though Jack was anything but an early riser, he normally got up and took a quick scan of the room, of both the twenty boys and the seven girls, before getting a drink and then going back to sleep.
"What?" I mouthed at him, but he just smiled and slipped out of the room. Jack can be weird at times, but he's a great leader. He could, as they say, charm a bird out of its nest.
After that I zoned out for a bit, I'm not sure if I fell asleep or not to be honest. I was somewhere in between. But eventually I heard Klopman calling for us to get up, sell the papes. I closed my eyes for a second before pulling myself up, shaking Dolly's shoulder to make sure she got up too.
"Get up everyone!" Blitz shouted as she slid a red checked shirt, the only other one she had, on and slipping through the curtain. Rolling my eyes I gazed around the room. Blitz is as fiery as her red hair, she thinks of herself as the unofficial leader of the girls. She's seventeen, making her the oldest girl since Dove left.
My eyes roamed the room falling on Tic and Tac, the newly teenage twins, who were bickering about something or other. Then Dolly's bunkmate, Chips, who was sixteen hopped off her bed, narrowly avoiding crushing Marquee who glared at her as she shot out of the way. Marquee doesn't speak English amazingly, so she muttered something to herself in Italian as she walked away.
Marquee is fifteen, we think, she and Racetrack talk sometimes but he can't get her real age out of her. As for me, at sixteen, I had been at the Manhattan Lodging House for years. I got there after I snuck out of the orphanage I had been raised in. I'm not sure what happened to my parents, I don't really think about it though. Whoever they are, they aren't really a part of me, and I'm my own person.
At my bunk I threw the covers over my bed quickly and stepped into my pants and fresh shirt, grabbing my hat. Just as quickly I headed into the wash room where boys and girls were bustling around.
"Heya Hum!" Race called from across the room, tripping over Specs' leg.
"Heya Race," I called back with a laugh, rinsing off my face with some water and brushed my hair up so I could plop my hat over it, "How'd you sleep?"
"As good as anyone else." He told me, falling into step next to me as I stepped out of the room. The short Italian, ever the sarcastic jokester, who looked three years younger than he really was, and my ex boyfriend, that's Race to me in a nut shell. "How 'bout you goily?"
He gave me that smart smile that used to make me giggle. We were never really official to be honest, we just sort of would hold hands, and he'd buy me lunch and put his arm around me at Medda's and such. And of course we kissed several times. This was all back when I was fourteen and he was fifteen, it had only lasted a couple of weeks, but if you add on the months that I had a crush on him and the time it took for me to get over him after he broke it off, it felt like it had been a long process with Race. This was a long time ago though and we were good with one another now.
"I slept-"
"Terribly." Blitz said, coming over and grabbing his hand as we headed on to the street. I forgot to mention that Race and Blitz got together. It had been a few months so they seemed pretty real, that's why his flirting didn't get to me anymore. Because it was just his personality, not any real interest. "Dolly was up all night cryin' again. When's dat kid gonna grow up?" She demanded, annoyance lacing her tone.
"Leave her alone will ya?" I said, "She's just a little girl, and it's not like you never cried when you first got here Blitz."
She and I had come around the same time, I had been nine and she had been ten. Trust me I had heard her cry when she was little just as much as any of the other kids.
Blitz glared at me and Race speedily intervened by saying, "Little Molly Dolly was cryin'? I didn' hear nothin'." When neither of us said anything and he realized his attempt at making our moods to one another any friendlier failed he continued, "Why can't you goils just get along?"
"What would be the fun in that?" I laughed, sticking my tongue out at the two of them as I ran ahead of them. Blitz and I were not rivals in any way, sure we banged heads every so often, but we got along just fine. We liked each other just fine. We just would never be best friends or anything like that.
With a yawn I felt a hand grab my elbow. Jake, a little boy around eight, was grabbing my arm looking up at me hopefully. "How's it rollin' Jakey?" I asked, patting his head. I knew what he wanted, and though I felt bad I did have to tell him my honest answer. "Why don't you ask one of the boys to give you a piggyback ride?" Glancing around I pointed out several options, "Like Doc, or Blink, or maybe even Jack? You like Jack right? The big famous strike leader?"
The look in his eyes told me that he would listen to what I said, but he really didn't want to. I don't know what it was but for some reason kids came to me like flies to honey. And despite the fact I was tired and knew he would go ask someone else like I had requested, I caved. What can I say, I felt bad? "Oh come on."
With a gleeful smile the tan boy jumped onto my back and we trudged onward to the distribution center. Mush and Blink were engaged in one conversation or other about how exactly they had been cheated out of winning poker last night by Race, they nodded to me as I passed. Doc, Dutchy, and Sneaks were half asleep as they walked forward; when we passed them I had Jake poke them on the head to wake them up. And just ahead of us Jack was meeting up with David and his little brother Les.
"Hummin' ta yaself again Hum?" Jack asked teasingly, looking back over his shoulder at Jake and I. Suddenly I realized that I had in fact been humming and stopped immediately, blushing slightly. I had to learn to get control of that.
"Hey Jack!" Jake cried, I ran straight to him since Jake was so eager to say hello. The burst exercise kicked my energy levels up a bit.
"Heya Jakey-boy." Jack said fondly to the kid. "Ya look bushed." He added to me, I almost told him that it was because I was in fact tired, but in the end I decided not to and started talking to David instead.
"Morning Dave." I told him and he nodded to me curtly. Dave can be a bit awkward sometimes, but he's really smart. I used to read when I was in the orphanage and so I could tell he was a book person, it wasn't just what he spoke about but how he said it. "Ready for another day of sellin'?"
"Oh you know I am." He smiled putting an arm around Les to drag him along with them as we rounded the corner. At this I tripped slightly and almost dropped Jake. I'm not that big of a girl, so exhaustion does not help make me any stronger. I quickly trying to right myself before anyone could intervene, but I felt Jack's arm grasping mine as I straightened out again. "But I don't think you are." David laughed.
"Hummingbird's a bit more like an owl, Davie." Jack laughed in that way that you know is because you did something but isn't insulting because whatever happened was still funny, even to you. "She don't sleep none."
"That's such a lie." I told them, trying to readjust Jake again. "Forgive me for saving the rest of you from waking up last night."
Jack and David watched me struggle for a bit, David looked a bit uncomfortable but didn't say anything either. Just to set one thing straight, boy newsies were just as hard on girls who are newsies most of the time. You get no sympathy for being a girl unless someone soaks you for no reason or something like that. If you're going to dress like a boy you're going to be treated like a boy. And I liked that motto.
"Jake," Jack said eventually, grabbing him off my back while still walking next to me, and placing him on the ground. "I have a mission foah youse."
Jake's chocolate eyes flashed with excitement.
"I need ya ta run up ahead and get find Crutchy, tell him it's his turn now. But don't let anyone else know I sent ya ta do this!" Jack cautioned, I was a bit curious as to what this actually was. "Can ya do dat kid?"
Jake nodded eagerly. "Well off wit ya den!" Jack said giving him a shove ahead of us. And with that he was gone.
My back was thanking him, but I let it's comment stay quiet as I looked at Jack, "I could have handled taking him you know, it's only two more blocks."
"Hum, knowin' you, ya would o' taken da kid around on ya back all day." Jack told me matter-of-factly, smirking the whole time.
"No I wouldn't have ya bum." I shoot back with a roll of my eyes.
"Ya damn well would have." Skittery called from behind us, apparently listening in on our conversation was more interesting than his own.
"Mind ya own business!" I shouted back, the lack of sleep was getting to me already. I almost apologized but chose not to in the end, he could deal with it. Jack just laughed, which in turn made me more annoyed. "I wouldn't have." I finish.
"Sure." Jack scoffed, "That's ya problem Hum, ya too nice ta everyone. Like last night, if ya wasn't up putting Dolly back ta bed ya wouldn't be fallen asleep on ya feet right now!" His hair fell in his eyes as he readjusted his red bandana, his trademark.
"I'm not too nice, I just don't want ta be mean is all." I tell him with another yawn. If he knew I was tired already, it didn't really help to hide it. "What was the big mission anyway?"
At that David looked at him too, curious as I was.
"Oh dat?" Jack smiled, "Jake went to go tell Crutchy it was his turn ta look aftah him. Is Dolly wit someone?" He asked, since normally she would sell with me.
"Yeah, Tic took her for the day." I told him, we had finally reached the distribution center. "Thanks Jack." I tell him with a small smile. Sometimes I wonder how I became the way I did, polite, when I was basically brought up with these boys.
He gave me a warm smile, "There's da nice goil I know and love." I gave him a shove to show I didn't think his comment was so nice but he just laughed, Jack laughs a lot. It's what I like about Manhattan over the other boroughs. We laughed a lot. "No problem Hum."
Jack, David, Les, and I stood in line with each other, Leap Frog –a younger newsie- came to stand next to me. He was around twelve now, but had been glued to me like all the others since he got here at age nine. I ruffled his blonde curls as I listened to Jack and David debate about some issue with Queens. I knew that there was a problem for a while, but the extent of it wasn't completely clear.
It was getting pretty serious though, from what I could tell. The guys all seemed a little on edge when it came to leaving our territory and made all the girls and kids go in pairs if we did. People were getting soaked on both sides, but the sides seemed to be getting more and more blurred. So I knew something pretty legit was going on.
Just as we were nearing the front of the line, as Jack asked for his usual hundred I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was Jake, and he was running toward us.
And he looked scared.
Something was very wrong.