Chapter 1:

Tiger walked into the Newsboys Lodging House, glancing around, Lifeless on her right, who was in front of Scar, Firetop on her left, with Seeker standing behind. Tiger no longer had her long, auburn colored, curly hair, now cut and covered by a cap, she no longer wore the dress, that I might add, she detested. She actually felt comfortable in the baggy shirt and trousers that she now wore.

Lifeless' brown hair, now tightly wound into a bun, was also hidden under the cap, the dark indigo dress, which her parents despised, was now officially a thing of the past. Now clothed in dark, dirty, green overalls and a cream colored shirt, she was ready to go.

Firetop's strawberry blonde hair was braided, then coiled into a bun, under a dirty brown cap, brown trousers with several patches on them, and a shirt that was originally white, now it's gray.

Seeker's white blonde hair had also been cut, she said she didn't know why Lifeless kept her long hair, and she didn't wear a cap, her white colored hair was enough protection. She wore blue trousers, which she 'borrowed without permission' from her younger brother, 'cause they were the same height, and a white shirt, which she also BWP'ed (Borrowed without permission), only from her other younger brother.

Scar's formerly rather short hair was now cut into a boy's hairstyle, thank Tiger, who had cut her brothers', yes more than one, she has three older, four younger, hair before. She wore a white shirt, red suspenders, both dirty, and, once more, dirty, brown trousers, with a, yet once more, dirty, brown vest.

Tiger, being the leader of the crew, said, "Hey, youse. We heard youse got beds fo newsies."

The old guy behind the counter looked at them, and said, "We don't have any left."

"Really?" Seeker asked, crossing her arms, "Or you don't have any fo us?"

"For one so poorly dressed, you sure talk well." At the man's words, Tiger turned to Seeker, her strangely colored eyes daring Seeker to speak again.

"Youse have ta forgive Seeker, he got a good teacher when he was in school, the goil didn't lack in brains. Seeker also got a quick temper."

"You also speak well."

"Wanna hear a secret, old man?" Tiger let her rough, male accent drop, her more feminin, yet still a bit rough, voice speaking. "We're runaways, runaway girls, striving for a buck. I'm Tiger, that's Seeker, the zombie's Lifeless, Green-eye's Scar and the last one's Firetop. We just wanna a place to stay for a while."

"We have no place for girls, they can't survive."

"Yea? Well, try surviving this." Lifeless's eyes took on an angry spark, something the other four had never seen, she grasped the man's collar, and said, in a deathly quiet tone, "I have been abused, orphaned, almost killed, and almost become suicidal. I've lived on the streets for a coupla years, I know how ta act, how ta talk, how ta be. I can lie, I can cheat, I can sell papes. Don't say I can't survive." The man, though trying not to, flinched. "See my point?" Lifeless let him go, and her eyes returned to lifelessness.

"We do have some room, but you'd have to share with boys." Tiger said, "I didn't expect anything less. Mind showin' us?" At this, the man started walking up the stairs, and he turned into a large room. There were five empty beds, but no fully empty bunks. Tiger, being the leader, and knowing what the others preferred, made the decisions, "Lifeless, you can have this bed," she hit the one closest to the doorway in which they had just entered through, "Seeker, I know you prefer ones in the middle, so you can take the one on the left, Firetop, take the last one on the right, Scar, why don't ya steal the first empty one ya see on da left, and I'll take da one next ta Lifeless." The others nodded and went to their beds. Kloppman, who has remained anonymous until now (A/N: Aren't I 

wicked?), said, "It's too late to sell papes today, so get out and get associated with your new home!"

"Ok, Ok," Firetop said, muttering, "Grouchy old guy."

"I heard that!"

"What does he have? Rabbit ears? Mouse ears?" Tiger asked.

"I heard that!"

"Ugh!" Both redheads threw their arms up, and chorused the word 'Ugh!', making the other three, yes, Lifeless, too, laugh. "Oh, shut it!" Firetop growled.

"What I say?" Seeker asked, acting innocent.

"We gotta clean up our acts," Tiger suddenly said, "We're acting too," the following word she said with a shiver, "Girly."

"Yea...I noticed." This Lifeless said with a snarl, "I HATE acting like a GIRL! Everyone believes girls are so WEAK! I wish I could kill the next person that says that!"

"Guys believe that goils are weak, not goils." Seeker contradicted.

"Ya already talkin' like a newsie." Tiger said, with approval in her voice.

"Thank ya." (A/N: I might slip up in writing like a newsie speaks, so gimme a break if a word could be spelt another way, I'm used to typing normal grammar, not this kind, so, forgive me!)

"Ya don't say 'Thank ya' or 'Please' when ya livin' like a newsie," Lifeless looked the pale girl straight in the eyes, "'Cept when youse in da company of a propa lady or gent."

"Right," Tiger said, with a nod, "We should listen ta Lifeless, she's been on da streets longa den da rest of us."

"Ah."

Five Minutes Later:

Tiger glanced around, but Lifeless was the one who spoke, "Dis be where we gonna woik."

"Why?" Seeker asked.

"'Cause it is." LIfeless turned around, and looked the girls in the eyes, "We gonna stop addressin' ourselves with da word 'goils', alright? We gonna woik where da otha newsies woik, an' we ain't gonna complain 'bout it."

"'Kay!" Seeker looked like she was on the verge of freezing, Lifeless had lost her lifelessness for the third time this day, scaring her. Lifeless hardly ever did that.

"Good. 'Cause dat's what's gonna keep us going, got it?" Her brown eyes now piercing, she looked at each and every girl there. (A/N: Yes, though they will stop referring to themselves as girls, I will still be calling them girls.)

"R-Right." This time they all spoke, and they all stuttered. Seeker mentally gulped, 'She's...Correction, he's scary...'

"Let's go." Tiger took the lead, with Lifeless on her right. Though Tiger would never speak of it, there was a time in which her family had no home, and lived on the streets of New York.

Flashback:

She was hiding in a box, her one older brother, Ryan, had his arm protectively wrapped around her shoulders. Tiger whimpered, looking up at the blond boy, she was scared, scared of dying, scared of being left alone, scared of getting separated from her family and never returning to them.

Her two other brothers, Lewis and Lenard, had just tried to get a job, Lewis succeeded, something the others had celebrated. One of her older sisters, Jewel, had gone out and got a job as a waitress at a restaurant. Ryan gripped her tighter at the whimper, and whispered, "Don't worry, I've got ya, I'll keep ya safe." And he did, pulling her closer, sharing the blanket on cold nights.



The family was separated between boxes, her mother, father and baby sister in a box two streets away from Pulitzer's place, she and Ryan shared this box, Lewis, Lenard and Jewel all shared a box, with two others, Fredrick and Ronald, just a street away from Tiger and Ryan, Gregory, a younger brother, Juliana, a girl just two years older than Tiger, and Ruby, a three year old, shared a box near to their parents, and the final box held Opal, the eldest sister, and Nigel, the youngest brother, which was just two blocks away from Central Park.

Flashback end

Tiger felt a shiver, as if feeling that cold wind that night. Scar noticed, and asked, quietly, "Tiger?"

"Yea?"

"Ya alright?"

"Somethin' like dat."

"Riiiight." This time it was Seeker that spoke. She stressed and dragged the 'i'. Tiger looked like she was about to get a little bit physical with the girl. Seeker, seeing the look she just got, held up her hands, as if in submission, "Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean it that way."

"Good." Tiger growled, and the five kept on walking.

Soon they came upon a newsie, though they didn't know his name, it was Racetrack. Tiger said, "I'll buy a pape." She gave him a five bit, and shared the paper with her gang. "Liar." Seeker said, with a scowl, "This ain't interestin'."

"Youse gonna be doin' dat soon, so get ova it." Lifeless growled, and Seeker shut up.

"Let's go home. It's almost dark." Scar commented.

"Huh?" The other four looked up, and sure enough, the sun was setting. They walked back to the place they had alreayd started calling home.

--

Forget ta do dis last chapta:

Disclaimer: Don't own Newsies, and never will. I only own my OCs and this plotline.

Seeya soon,

Tomato-Vampire