A/N: This is a story I started forever ago. I hate that I never finished updating it, so I've decided to do some editing and repost the chapters. I'm determined to finish it.

Chapter 1:

Grace lay curled up on her bed, crying quietly. She couldn't find the courage to get up and tell her mother what she had done; she didn't know how she was going to face her father once he knew. Thinking about it only made her cry harder, until her whole body shook. Grace didn't notice when her bedroom door opened, but she did look up she heard her mother's voice.

"Grace? What's the matter child?"Opal's aged face was etched with concern.

"Mama." Grace sobbed loudly, but didn't answer.

"What is it? What's wrong?"Opal pulled her daughter to her, and rocked her, as she begged for an answer.

Grace gulped in some air. "Oh, Mama, I didn't mean to."

"Didn't mean to what, child?" Opal frowned.

Grace was afraid of what her mother's reaction would be to the news she was about to tell her. "I'm going to have a baby. I'm pregnant." She sniffled.

Opal's jaw dropped as her eyebrows shot up. "Are you sure?" She questioned her daughter. Grace only nodded her head. Opal couldn't help crying a little herself. "How far along are you? Do you know who the father is?"

Grace looked at her mother in disbelieve. "Of course I know who the father is." Then added. "I'm about three months."

"Who is the father, Grace?"

Grace looked at her feet. "He's a boy, about my age, his name's Spot Conlon. He's a newsies."

"A newsie? That boy probably doesn't even have home. How could you do this?" Her mother tears from her own face. "Oh good heavens, Grace, what have you done?" The last statement was more to herself, than to her daughter.

"Mama, I'm sorry. I really thought he loved me. He even said he did, but then after we...he just stopped coming around me." Grace tried to explain, knowing there was nothing to make the sitation any better.

Opal shook her head. "What men think, and what they say is two different things." She said matter of fact like.

"It was only one time, I swear, Mama."

"That's all it takes." Grace's mother sighed. "Does he know?"

Grace only shook her head no. At about that time they heard, Jared, Grace's father walk in the front door. He had worked late at the factory that day, and as they heard his feet shuffle around in the kitchen Opal gave her daughter an apologetic look. "I have to tell him."

She left the room without another word. Grace waited for only about five minutes, bracing herself for the worst, until she heard her father's bellowing voice. Her door flew open and in came her father, with her mother right behind him. "I want you out of my home, now!" He pointed an accusing finger her.

"Please, Jared, she's only sixteen." Opal pleaded with her husband. Grace sat on her bed, a little too afraid to move.

"I said get out you fifthly little whore!" He bellowed.

"She has nowhere to go. You can't just throw her out."

While Grace's tears had stopped, her eyes were huge, as she looked from her mother to father's faces. Jared's large hand went in the air, and was about to bring it down on his daughter's face, when Grace jumped up and dashed out the room. No thoughts of grabbing anything crossed her mind as she ran out of her home. She didn't look back once, as she reached the streets of Brooklyn, and ran as fast she could. However it wasn't long before that she winded and had to stop. Leaning against an ally wall, she gulped in air greedily. Her mind was spinning, trying to think of something to do. She had no money and no home to go back to.

Grace put a hand to her forehead and tried to fight off the rising panic in her. 'Oh God, what am I going to do?'

She looked about at the dark and empty streets. 'Pull yourself together.' She ordered herself. 'I've got to think a place to stay.' She stood there for a long while, trying to think of a place to go, but only one answer ever came up. She didn't want to go to him, and let him take pity on her. Grace didn't want to depend on him, but with nowhere else to go she had to swallow her pride. She pushed herself off the brick and made her way to the Brooklyn Lodging House.

A/N: Leave me some feedback.