Hey party people! NewsieGirlScout is back, with a short little one-shot to show I'm not dead. (No folks, not yet. ;p)This will be a multi chaptered work, with all characters genderbent, because genderbending is awesome. ;D
In the back of the lodging house, someone coughed weakly.
The coughs became louder, until all heads were turned toward a freckled girl in her teens with curly ginger hair wearing a tan, nineteenth-century style shirt , a brown vest, and a gray skirt with a long rip up the side, clearly hand-stitched back together, sitting on her bunk nearly doubled over with pain, wheezing for air.
''What happened, Crutch?'' asked an older girl with half-tangled brown hair wearing a blue-striped shirt with a red bandana tied around her neck and dirty coffee-colored skirts, jumping down from the bunk above Crutchy's.
Crutchy reached for a canteen in the canvas paper-selling bag under her bed, pulled the cork out, and drank half of it in one gulp before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and replying, ''I'm fine.'' Then a few seconds later, ''Actually, I'm not fine, I just came back from the refuge last week, if you remember, where you got whupped whenever you stepped outta line, plus all the kids beat each other up in their free time, and I probably contracted a few illnesses.''
''But I'll probably be alright, I mean, I'm still breathing, ain't I?'' she said, finishing the note with a smile.
''Those are strong words from someone who was just coughing their lungs out a second ago, Crutchy.'' Jackie said, a serious expression on her face. She had been to the refuge numerous times, and she knew for a fact that the scrapes and bruises you got there weren't just the kind you could put some alcohol on and walk off. In fact, Kid Blink (A girl with scruffy blond hair tied back in a ponytail,with one crystal-blue eye and the other covered with an eyepatch, wearing the same shirt and vest as Crutchy, but with a light, key-lime green skirt) had gone to the refuge, and well…look at her depth perception now. Crutchy had a weak immune system to begin with, but if her wounds didn't get cleaned out, she'd probably kick the bucket by next week.
''C'mon, Crutchy, let's get you into the washroom.'' Jackie said, pulling the girl forward in the direction of the room.
Crutchy, always realizing things about about a minute too late, didn't notice what Jackie intended to do until her feet felt the cold tiles of the floor and the small puddle of water that someone had spilled earlier, and nobody bothered to clean up. At that point, she jumped and slid under Mush's bunk, cowering near the wall's wooden slats for the rest of the night.
To put it shortly, Crutchy turned out to be a pretty good thinker under pressure. The bunk she had slid under was one of the few that didn't have burnt-out cigarettes littering the floor under it, and when Blink teased Crutchy about the rats in the walls eating her flesh while she slept, Mush (A girl with short, curly black hair wearing the same shirt and vest as Blink, but with a skirt striped rainbow) had told Blink to lay off on scaring the poor girl, or she would catch one of the rats herself and set it loose on the blond, one-eyed teen while SHE was sleeping, and how would she like that. This of course set off an argument among the girls about if rats ate human skin, and if so, why hadn't they eaten Snipeshooter yet, and so on, until it turned into a series of scary stories, (none of which I can print here, for fear of being kicked off . This isn't , guys.)
So the next morning, when Crutchy scootched over to her own bunk on her stomach to grab her crutch, she expected that she had completely managed to avoid complete and total embarrassment, and that today would just be a totally normal day.
Well….not really.
Last night, everyone was too paranoid to go back to their own bunks, for fear of flesh-eating rats chewing their faces off while they were sleeping, so everyone had just kinda passed out around 1:00 AM in the exact spot they were in when they were listening to the stories swapped around. Which of course meant that, while Crutchy tried not to step on anyone or any of the traps they set, she was bound to hit at least a few.
Which was why she found herself tripping over Dutchy (A girl with shaggy blond hair that fell to just above her hips, with glasses tucked on the collar of her light blue blouse and dark blue denim vest, with a caramel-colored skirt), landing hard on her backside , then getting up and trying to walk past Jackie's bunk (or where she was sleeping anyway), and finally getting drenched with a bucket of ice water.
Jackie sat up and immediately looked at the moonlit figure. ''We've got you now, Jeff!'' she said, her breath coming out in short pants, ''Leave now before we kill you in the face! A lot!''
''Jackie, calm down.'' Crutchy said, moving a sopping mass of curls out of her face, ''It's me, Crutchy.''
At this point, Dutchy dug a small flashlight out of her pocket and shone it in the girl's eyes. ''Hang on, Crutchy.'' she said, ''We need to make sure you ain't possessed.''
Crutchy herself reacted by looking away and holding her hand up to block the beam. ''Ugh, Dutchy! Can't a girl get her papers around here without getting ambushed on all sides?''
She coughed again, covering her mouth with her handkerchief. She tried to hide it, but there was a light sprinkling of blood on the cloth.
''It's the real Crutchy.'' Dutchy confirmed.
But after seeing that, that's not what Jackie was concerned about. The poor teen's illnesses had gotten worse, and it was time to take action before she took her final breath. ''There's no way you're selling today, Crutchy. You're sick as a dog.'' she said sternly.
''Aww, but Jackie…'' the girl's words were cut off as she coughed again, prompting Dutchy to put a hand on her shoulder and lead her back to her bunk. ''Ssh, It'll be alright, just stay here.'' she said.
If only it could be certain.
-TIME SKIP-
Crutchy was sitting on her bunk, her back against the wall and her feet crossed at the ankles, reading Little Men and overall, feeling like there was something left out. The girls should be here, , smoking, talking, laughing, and gambling. She was one of the quieter ones, but if her friends were here, she'd probably get hit in the head with a pair of socks around….
WHAP!
Crutchy's hat was knocked off onto her pillow, and she heard Racetrack's voice echoing from the washroom. ''Hey Crutch, come look at this!'' Race yelled. Curiosity got the best of the teen and, tucking her crutch under her arm, she limped to the washroom.
As soon as she entered, though, she felt Jackie's knee drive into her ribcage. The brunette grabbed Crutchy's namesake and tossed it under the sinks, and Crutchy crumpled to the floor, weakened sufficiently from the knee to the chest. The freckled redhead's fleeting eyes caught a quick glimpse of Race filling up the bathtub, and she immediately began to panic, knowing what would happen next.
''Jackie! Please! You don't have to do this, it's completely (cough) unnecessary! I'm (Hih-CHU!) fine, I swear!'' Crutchy pleaded. Jackie pulled her up to her standing height, and Crutchy's face began to turn a light pink when she saw that Jackie and Racetrack were undressing her.
Racetrack continued undoing all the buttons on Crutchy's shirt as she lectured gently. ''Crutchy, you know Jackie is doing this for you, right? You need to get the wounds cleaned out before they get infected.''
''Racetrack, I really appreciate the gesture, but seeing as I just got soaked to the bone with a bucket of water this morning, JACKIE….'' Crutchy said, glaring at the girl, who just gave a shrug. ''Hey, at least I'm not scared of taking a freaking bath once in awhile.'' Jackie said, giving a small laugh.
''I'm not scared of taking-GWYAH!'' Crutchy's words were cut off as Jackie tugged down her skirts, leaving the poor teen in her undergarments. Jackie picked her up and set her in the washtub, much to Crutchy's embarrassment.
''Jackie, why can't I do this myself?'' she pleaded to no avail, ''You know I hate this!''
''I know, Crutch,'' Jackie responded, ''but I've been to the refuge, you're gonna have injuries all over yourself, it's much easier if you just have someone do it for you.'' Jackie pushed a warm washcloth over Crutchy's ribcage, being careful where she saw the various scrapes and bruises.
As Racetrack and Jackie continued, the water got tinted a light pink, then red, then a slightly deeper red, much like Crutchy's face whenever something like this happened to her. When Crutchy was handed the worn, threadbare yellow towels, it wasn't soon enough.
While Crutchy got dressed again, she noticed Jackie rummaging through a cabinet in the washroom containing various knicknacks. Soon, she reached what she wanted, sifting through bottles and used stamps and broken combs before pulling out….
A chef's knife, glistening in the pearly moonlight.
Jackie turned to face the freckled redhead, still holding the knife. ''Hold still,'' she said, ''This should only take a second.'' Crutchy walked back and tripped over the rim of the washtub in her haste to get away. ''Why are you doing this, Jackie?'' she called to the shadowy figure, ''What did I ever do to you?''
''You have too many injuries. I'm going to finish the job.'' Jackie said, ''Besides, you were never any worth to me anyway. Or any of us. In fact, we all hated you because you brought us down so far in the strike. You've always depended on all of us to help you out when you needed it, like when you got beat up back in last December, but where were you that time Skittery got a papercut, huh?''
''That's not true!'' Crutchy said, her heart beating faster than ever, ''I offered to get her a bandage, but she said she was fine! And even if you do kill me, I know Scout will notice!''
Just then, a milky-white moonlit figure appeared on the windowsill. Jackie looked up to see one of the Queens newsies that Crutchy talked with often, a boy in his teens with shaggy, mouse-brown hair, wearing an icy blue shirt under a dark blue denim vest with caramel-colored trousers, looking at the scene below. Finally, the boy nodded approvingly. ''Go ahead,'' he said, ''She won't be missed.''
At that point, Jackie drew nearer and plunged the knife into the girl's heart, a scream echoing across the night sky.
Jackie held up a glassy sea foam bottle filled about a third-full. Jackie wasn't planning to end the teen's life and hear her dying breath, but she might as well have been. The bottle's faded label claimed that the content was pyrazinamide, a medicine Crutchy knew burned your throat as you swallowed it, and tasted like if coffee and nightmares had a baby.
And now she was going to drink it.
Racetrack left the room and came back with a shot glass, and Jackie cautiously tipped most of the bottle into it. Then, Racetrack handed the glass to Crutchy, saying, ''Here you go, Crutch. By the way, if this is anything like strong liquor, you'll want to drink it in one gulp, just to get it over with. A word to the wise.''
Race winked, and then left the room, her midnight-black hair flying out behind her.
Crutchy looked at the glass in her hand, and finally decided that Racetrack was probably right. In one gulp, she tipped the pyrazinamide down her throat and almost immediately felt a knot in her stomach form. She leaned over threw up in the trash can next to her, and dragged her hand across her mouth. Just then, Jackie walked in, a glass of water in hand.
''See, this is why Race and I didn't wanna be here while you were drinking it,'' Jackie said, ending with a soft giggle. Crutchy took the glass from her hand and drained half of it before sliding her hand across her mouth again. ''Ugh,'' she said, ''Well, that felt terrible.''
Just then, Dutchy flipped over the railing, her hair quickly braided with more than a few strands out of place. ''What's the matter?'' she said, ''Did I miss anything?''
''Well, Jackie just undressed Crutchy against her will, threw her in the bathtub, gave her a bath, and then forced her to take medicine that made her puke her guts out,'' Race said sarcastically, ''So no, you didn't miss anything.''
''Well, it's 9:06 now, so you should probably be getting some rest now,'' Dutchy said.
When all four of the girls had gotten into their nightclothes, Dutchy looked over to Crutchy's bunk and saw that she was still awake, staring ahead and looking like she couldn't sleep. Probably still shaken up from that awful medicine, Dutchy thought, smirking silently. She rifled through a book bag under her bunk before pulling out a small Dutch comb made from mahogany with butterscotch colored streaks running through it, the one thing she'd been able to bring when she left home.
Wordlessly, she walked over and hugged the shivering girl close. ''I'm guessing you can't sleep.'' she said, her voice tinged with sympathy. Crutchy gave a small nod before saying, ''It felt like fire. The medicine, I mean. They all tell me Jackie means the best, and I know she does, but haven't you ever doubted a promise like that?''
Dutchy's heart pained with memories of her past, filled with broken promises and people who acted like they were on her side, then stabbing her in the back once she really felt she had someone to believe in, who would always be there for her. One person had always cared for her though, and that had been her mother. Even when the chips were down, or Dutchy lay awake at night stressing about who was really her friend and who wasn't, her mother had always been there for her.
Dutchy brought the comb up and slipped it through the pre-teen's auburn curls. ''Ssh,'' she said, ''It will be alright.'' With that said, she began singing an old sea shanty from her past she knew well.
''Hush, the waves are rolling in,
high and white with foam,
The moon sets high above the rocks,
The eagle calls us home.''
''Hush! The winds sweep over land,
Crisp and cold they come,
The stars will twinkle in the night,
The eagle calls us home.
Hush! The cows are herded in,
Back to the barn they come,
The angels keep watch as you sleep,
The eagle calls us home.''
Dutchy smiled when she saw Crutchy, asleep from her singing. She tucked the comb onto the bedside table before pulling the cover up to the girl's collarbone and finally going back to her own bunk.
I hope you enjoyed that last one as much as I enjoyed writing it! Hope you don't mind that this is a little different from my usual, I had it in my head for a while to do a Crutchy/Dutchy instead of a Jack/Crutchy, you can still see here that Jackie really cares a lot about Crutchy, though. I'm planning to make this a multichaptered series of genderbent stories if people like it. Anybody have any suggestions for the next chapter?
Soak em' for Crutchy!
-NewsieGirlScout