Authors' Note: This fic is
co-written by Natz and Christi. We are terribly proud to be posting their joint
fic on FF net. Please review.
DISCLAIMER: "Newsies" the movie
is owned by Disney. Neither I nor Christi own it (even though we wish we could buy
Spot and Skittery for a day). We are not making ANY money from it. This is a work
of pure fan love. However the characters of Christi and Estha belong to us and
if you steal them, we'll send the Delancy brothers after ya.
^o^ nut_natz
Chapter
2:
ESTHA
Estha rolled over.
She was in that moment when she was awake but she wanted to be asleep.
She did not want to be awake. She wanted to be back in that place with the warm
sunshine. It was a place she could not return to, that place of good memories
and friendly faces.
"Home, I wanna go home." Estha said to herself. But she did
not even know what direction home was from there. She had been wandering around
the city for a few weeks, eating when she could and sleeping in the alleys.
"Arrgghh!" she screamed inwardly. Her eyes opened slowly,
adjusting to the light and she cringed. "Another day, not a dollar" she said to
herself. As her eyes came into focus, she looked around, investigating all
around her. She recognised some of the objects as thing she had bumped into the
night before: a few wooden crates, some barrels and yard and yard of torn,
dirty tarpaulin. Then there were other things which she could not remember
seeing the night before: a large red door on one side of the alley, a barbed
wire fence at the end of the alley, a girl laying crumpled on the side, a few
glass bottles laying around.
..……..A GIRL LAYING
CRUMPLED!!!!
Estha's survey of the area halted immediately and her
attention was focused on the crumpled body. She got up and went over to the body.
As Estha knelt over the girls limp body she saw that there was a large red
bloody welt on the girl's head. Maternal instinct took over and she tore off a
piece of her already tattered, brown overalls. She found a barrel of water, and
cleaned the girls wound with it.
"What am I doing?" worried Estha, " I don't even know this
girl. I'm not a nurse. I am in the middle of the big city alone and lost." She
began to panic. Then with the panic, the tears began to fall. Estalia Lorde
began to cry for the first time in weeks, since she had been on the streets.
'Why are you crying?" a heavily accented voice broke
through her weeping.
Estha quickly spun around to face whoever
had spoken to her. She wiped the tears from her face and sniffed, quickly
standing up. A boy was standing behind her, about her age, from the looks of
it. He had sandy blonde hair, and one of his eyes was covered with a brown
patch. Estha quickly began to explain the situation.
"This girl,
well... she's hurt..." was all that she could think of to say. The boy
peered around Estha to see what she was talking about.
"Oh wow! She
looks banged up really bad! We gotta get her to a doctor... or something!"
the boy said side stepping Estha and picking the girl up quickly.
"Careful! Her
head looks bruised...." she trailed off.
"Come on, follow
me, she'll be fine once we get her to Kloppman... I hope."
'Who is Kloppman? Who
is this boy? And why on Earth am I thinking about following him?' Estha asked
herself, almost dazed as she began trailing after the boy, who apparently had
no trouble carrying the girl down the alley. Estha helplessly looked around and
scooped up the coat and sketchbook lying in the alley, figuring they belonged
to the girl. She took a deep breath, bit her lip, and fell into step with the
boy... whoever he was. She kept glancing at the girl, hoping she would wake up.
What if she died? No, Estha wouldn't allow herself to think of death. She
concentrated instead on supporting the girl's head as the boy quickly trotted
down the sunny street.
The day was already becoming hot. People
threw glances at Estha and her two companions, but no one asked if they could
help. Estha looked at the girl again. Why was she alone in an alley? Who had
beaten her up? The girl had an innocent look to her face. It was a tanned face,
and she had curly, reddish brown hair. She was clad in a pair of knickers and a
now bloodstained blue button up shirt. She had on a pair of boots that looked
scuffed and dirty. Estha wondered if this girl had no one to call a friend...
no one to call family... almost like herself except for … that thing which she
did not even want to remember.
~~*~~
