Chapter 2- The Crowd

Slick was only an hour into her shift, but she already felt overwhelmed. Katz had done a good job showing her the balancing method for holding trays laden with drinks and food, teaching her how to give the orders to Damien or whoever was working the bar, and cleaning her up. Though Slick almost had to run out on the whole thing when Katz said she had to wear a dress, the two had compromised, mainly under Slick's threatening fist, and so Slick was stuck wearing a skirt and a nice shirt. Her point was further justified by the fact that all the other girls stayed away from the dresses and stuck to skirts and simple shirts. She would have died in embarrassment if any of the boys would have walked in and saw her like this. Slick had met most of the other girls while Katz was fighting her in cleaning her up, including the hyper Hayley, she felt bad for thinking so, but Slick could tell why Damien had started laughing at the mention of the girl's name before. She really hadn't met anyone with the amount of energy Hayley had, and her nickname, Splash, seemed to do her justice.

Aside from meeting Splash and Emotions earlier, Slick also met Alexia 'Doll Face' Miller herself, the short girl made quite the impression on Slick, who had a respect for those musically talented, unlike herself.

Nevada Mckinney was the next girl she met, Slick's first impression of her was that this was one girl she would want on her side in a fight, her green eyes seemed to know everything that was going on, they almost reminded her of Raider's eyes. Nevada seemed a little wary towards Slick at first, but after the two started talking she warmed up.

Next on the greeting list was Katie 'Skatters' Reece, the Blonde-haired blue eyed girl was exuberant yet extremely welcoming of Slick, her 5'4" frame put her about 4" shorter than Slick, but she was one of the sweetest girls she'd met in a long time.

The next blonde girl Slick met really seemed to deserve her name as well Nicole 'Dreamer' Makram, was just that a Dreamer, you could see it in her bright blue eyes. Slick almost laughed out loud when Roger had come and asked if there would be anyone interested in doing an act since Anna was holding back and Nicole was practically jumping up and down for the job.

It was no wonder Sierra was already tired and when Katz informed her she hadn't even met all of the girls yet, that she wondered how she would ever be able to keep their names straight. But after being set straight by Katelin's point of how she could keep all the Newsies straight, (No pun intended -lol-) she figured she'd get it eventually.

Both Doll Face and Dreamer had great acts, and Slick was rightfully impressed, Katz was right too though they both brought in a great crowd. A crowd, unfortunately for Sierra, that needed to be constantly tended to.

Damien watched the new girl with interest as she rushed back and forth with orders, then food and drinks, she moved with such a slickness that his naughty boy thoughts started wandering. But when he was caught staring and not doing his job, was when Katz took the opportunity to smack him none to lightly over the head with a tray, and glare at him.

Slick wasn't blind, she saw the looks she was getting from all corners of the room, including the ones from behind the bar and from the eyes of a co-worker. They made her uncomfortable, she was used to guys watching her, it was normal back in Chicago and even in Manhattan or other parts of Brooklyn. But that was when she was dressed like one, and the looks were those of respect and wariness, not ones that wanted to gaze over the curves of her body that were more visible in the clothes she was wearing. It was just too weird, that she even glared her notorious icy glare at some of them, it set most back in their rightful places, but she was informed by Nevada that she probably shouldn't scare off customers.

All in all it was a long night for someone who had a very rough week, and Sierra was plenty glad when the last of the patrons were ushered out. And, she along with the other girls, Damien, Roger and Avery, another young bartender and a good friend of Damien's, cleaned the place up, and headed out.

Slick had her small bag of possessions thrown over her shoulder and stood on the step outside Salvatore's waiting for Katz to finish up her argument with Damien and come out. She was dressed again in her normal boy street clothes as were all the other girls who were leaning against the wall next to her. "So.........uhm......... where do ya guys stay?" She asked trying to sound offhanded.

All six girls looked up at her with surprise, "We all stay in a lodgin' house inside Queens." Nevada spoke up.

"Really?"

"Yeah, where didja think we stayed? We ain't got no families." Skatters said.

Nevada, shifted slightly, escaping everyone's attention except Slick's, but she didn't say anything, instead answered Skatters's question, "I didn' know, Katz didn' say anythin ta me, jus' lead me here."

Doll Face laughed, "Sounds like Katz, jus' kinda rushes on, kinda skips the later details. Don' worry, we got room for ya, but it's 3 cents a night."

Slick smiled, "Alright, thanks."

Katz walked out of the door at that moment with a laughing Avery at her heals the others tried not to laugh, to avoid embarrassing their friend until later. "Shuddup Avery." She muttered before motioning for the other girls to follow and the 8 of them headed back off towards Queens.

"So.........Katz, what was that all about?" Splash asked with a knowing smile, Katz shot her a dark look, which caused the rest, including Slick to crack up. "Hey Katz, didja know ya forgot ta tell Slick she could stay with us?"

Katz looked at Slick guiltily, "Oops............ sorry Slick."

Slick grinned at her new friend, "Don' worry about it."

The grin was knocked off her face though as two figures stepped out into the 8 girls' path and glared at them darkly, "Where do ya t'ink you goils is goin'?"

The girls stopped dead and looked back and forth at each other nervously, this was why they traveled in groups at night, but they had never actually been stopped. Slick didn't appear to nervous though, instead a smart-ass grin crawled onto her face, the light from the moon must have illuminated it because the bigger of the two boys turned to her with a gleam in his eye, "Somethin' funny?"

"Yeah actually." Slick said, while the other girls turned to her like she was nuts, "Uhm............Shiner, ya want those cards a yers back yet?"

"Dammit Slick, what'er you doin' 'ere?" Shiner hissed

"Walkin' what's it look like? Who's that with ya? Laz?"

An affirmative grunt came from the other boy, as Shiner looked at Slick and her pack of girls with slight amusement, "Honestly Slick, whatcha doin' 'ere, I ain't neva seen ya this far inta Brooklyn."

"And that's something we need to keep between the ten of us got it? Spot can not know I was 'ere." Slick said suddenly, realizing the predicament she'd put herself in.

The eyebrows raised on the other nine as the looked at her curiously, but for different reasons. Right now Slick just ignored the girls and concentrated on making sure Shiner and Laz didn't go reporting to good ol' Spot that she was in Brooklyn. "Got it?" she asked.

"Got it, dis gets me an' Laz inta any trouble though, it's all comin' down on yer head though Slick." Shiner said seriously, wanting at all costs to avoid the temper of his leader. Slick smiled slightly but nodded. "Oh an' yeah, gimme my cards back!"

Slick laughed, and reached into her bag slung over her shoulder, pulled out the pack of cards and handed them to Shiner. "Thanks for their uses, theys a nice packa cards!" Shiner shook his head, nodded to the girls and motioned for Laz to follow, and the two disappeared into the night.

"Care ta explain that Slick?" Katz asked once the girls were on their way again.

"Explain what?"

"Explain how you know a couplea Spot Conlon's goons." Emotions said.

Slick looked around uneasily at the dark alleys, "Not 'ere." The rest nodded and made a beeline for the lodging house in attempts to avoid being stopped again.

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"Ok, now you explain!" Hayley said once the girls were settled in their bunks in their own separate room in the Queens Girl's Lodging House. It was a lodging house for all girls in Queens who needed it, but the girls who worked at the bar had their own bunkroom.

"Explain what?" Fighter asked, she was new to Slick, but she could see how the black-haired girl got her name.

"Explain how a couplea Conlon's goons knew her an' how she knew them." Nevada said looking at Slick with interested eyes.

"You know some of Mr. I'm so High an' Mighty Spot Conlon's goons?" Fighter asked.

"HEY! He's not all bad!" Katz and Doll Face yelled at the same time.

Slick cracked up, "Yeah I know some of his goons, an' I know Conlon himself." The eyebrows of all the girls quirked up. She smirked, "He was or rather kinda is a friend of mine, as with most of his 'goons' an' the Manhattan newsies." Excitement shone in all pairs of eyes now, "Geez, they ain't that great." She muttered

"Yeah they are!" Splash screeched, and was echoed, though not so enthusiastically by the rest.

"Alright so I can see ya know 'em. But PLEASE do me a favor?" Slick almost pleaded.

"What?" Dreamer asked.

"Don' tell 'em, any of 'em ya know me, or jus' don' eva mention my name, at least my "Newsie Name", Slick." Slick said earnestly.

"'Ow come?" Skatters inquired.

"'Cause right now I need a li'l space from 'em." Slick answered

"Ya do know they come by the bar doncha?" Dreamer put in

"Yeah, but I'll conveniently not be waitressing those days. Jus' please, promise me?"

All heads nodded, "Promise." Was the unison response.

"Thanks." Slick said relieved

"Alright, lets go ta bed." Katz said tiredly crawling into hers, her action was mirrored by the rest as they all drifted off to sleep, the last thought going through Slick's head was how different it was to be sharing a bunkroom with girls instead of boys, nice, but very different.

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A/N: An' there's chapter 2 for ya…I'll get 3 an' maybe 4 up soon. REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!