Author's Note: Ok, sorry it took me so long to get this chapter posted...it actually was supposed to be longer than this but, I figured I'd cut it in half to make two different chapters instead. This one...pretty much blows, I'm not gonna lie to you...*blushblush* but it introduces a few other Newsies and has some humor, so I hope you enjoy it just the same. Next chapter is more introductions, more humor, more goodness =)

Please don't forget to review!

Chapter One

"Of all the stupid, harebrained, idiotic screw ups…" Lyle Williams muttered to himself as he marched across the grassy quad heading for the admissions building. It wasn't so much that a girl had been mistakenly assigned as his roommate—albeit a slightly strange girl who apparently knew no other color than black and hot pink—it was the fact that after two years of enrollment they still had not fixed their typo. How they ever got "Lyla" out of "Lyle" in the first place, he didn't know. It wasn't like the letters were right next to each other on the keyboard or anything!

"Dutchy! Hold up!"

Pausing to glance over his shoulder, Lyle raised his hand in greeting before turning to continue down the walk. He really didn't have time to stop and talk to anyone; he was on a mission. Something needed to be done—mostly about that blasted typo that had been haunting him but also about Lil Miss Skills who was currently making herself comfortable in his room!

"Dude, what part of hold up didn't that blond head of yours comprehend?"

"Sorry Skitts, can't talk." Dutchy shook his head as he clenched his fist tighter around his room assignment.

Mikhail "Skittery" McKenzie broke his stride for a just a moment, blinking his chocolate brown eyes in confusion before jogging to catch back up with his friend. "Why not? Why such the hurry? Get another psycho roommate?"

Dutchy shook his head, his slightly shaggy blond hair rustling from side to side as he did. "They screwed my name up again."

Skittery gave a small snot like laugh—which he quickly covered by pretending to clear his throat—before rubbing the back of his neck and quirking his eyebrows a little. Keeping in stride with his friend's pace, he shrugged as he shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.

"Well, ya know, do you have pretty girly handwriting, Dutch. Sometimes your E's wind up looking like A's and your O's look like E's…maybe if you'd learn to stop putting loops and curls where they didn't belong, they wouldn't have this problem." The taller brunette jabbed playfully as he followed his aggravated pal into the admissions office.

Ignoring his friend –and the two people who had been in line in front of him—Dutchy moved to the desk, slapping his hand down hard on the smooth surface and startling the woman behind it. The office full of people froze when they heard his hand hit the desk and all turned to stare. Taking a step back, Skittery's eyes widened slightly as he gave a subtle nod to the two boys in front of him. A senior and junior respectfully, David Jacobs and Jake Robertson took a few steps back; wanting to stand near their friend should the blond finally flip his lid.

"What's with Blondie? His roommate try to kill him already?" Jake asked playfully, a goofy smile on his lips.

Skittery snicker but shook his head, his arms crossing over his vintage "Pink Floyd" concert shirt. "Wouldn't surprise me, but no…not yet anyways. Seems they—"

"LYLA?! Lyla Williams? Seriously? I've been here three years now and your record still says my name is LYLA?"

Trying to hold back their laughter—and failing horribly—the three boys broke into a chorus of cough-covered-laughs, gaining the attention of the admissions councilors. Quickly finding out what they boys needed and ushering the group away from the desk, the office women did their best to keep from over hearing Dutchy's complaint. Jake and Dave forced themselves to stop laughing and put on innocent looks as they explained how they still hadn't heard who they were to be showing around the first few days and were both curious as to how to find their charges.

Corky smiled to herself as she strolled into the admissions office, the metal hooks and loops of her hot pink suspender straps dangling from her black pants clanked and jangled as she walked. Giving a polite nod to the group of boys standing just inside the door, she moved to stand directly behind her would-be roommate just as he started in on his next tangent. Looking to each other before back at the very Gothic appearing girl, the boys all quietly wondered to themselves who she was, where she'd come from, how out of place she seemed among the rest of them and if she was all doom-n-gloom like the rest of the Goths out there seemed to be. From her black pig-tails tied up with hot pink rubber bands, to her plain black T-shirt, the black with red stitching lace up arm warmers, down to her black with red and orange flamed Converse sneakers, it all seemed to scream outsider.

"I'm telling you, my roommate is a girl! Female! Gender opposite of me! Whatever you wanna call it!" Dutchy exclaimed. For a place of higher education, he thought to himself, these people are seriously stupid!

"Dutch got a girl roommate?" Dave questioned in mild confusion.

"Wonder what her name is. Bet she's hot!" Jake smiled at the thought as his two companions chuckled and nodded. Glancing back at the desk where Goth-Girl stood statue still behind their friend, they all asked themselves the same thing, how'd he get so lucky?

Growling and rolling his eyes, Dutchy shook his head as he tried to explain the situation to the woman behind the desk. How could she not understand the words coming out of his mouth?! Was it really that hard to get? At least they finally understood they spelled his name wrong…

"Now Lyle, I'm sure there's some kind of misunderstanding. We wouldn't pair you up with a female roommate," the middle aged woman behind the desk said patiently.

Smirking to herself, Corky stepped out from behind Dutchy and gave a small wave. "Eh, I'm afraid the blond one is right. Hi, I'm his roommate, Corky MacGreggor."

Eyes going wide, Dutchy spun around to look at the girl behind him. When the hell did she get there? Blinking at her for a few minutes, he looked back at the office worker and nodded.

"See? I told you!"

Pausing as the three boys had started out of the office, Jake, Dave and Skittery all turned back to look at the girl. They found it very hard to believe that she was assigned as Dutchy's roommate. Looking between each other, they slowly moved back into the room to stand off to the side to listen. Not like they had anywhere better to be. Jake and Dave's mini-tour groups hadn't even gotten there yet and Skittery wasn't due to meet up with his girlfriend for lunch until closer to one o'clock, plenty of time for them to see the fit hit the shan.

"Excuse me?" The woman asked, looking between Dutchy and Corky in confusion. When neither of them offered to argue or explain, she knitted her eyebrows together before turning to her computer and quickly began hitting the keys.

Hands in her pockets, Corky rocked back and forth on her toes, humming a bit to herself as she waited. For some reason, this was a lot more fun than she had originally thought it was going to be. Who knew changing her entire appearance before leaving for school was going to be so liberating? Had this of happened to her the year before, she would have timidly walked into the admissions office and begged and pleaded for something to be done. Now though, she was having way too much fun watching her aggravated roommate become even more bothered.

"Oh dear…ohhh dear. This is not good. It seems all the rooms on the girls' floors are taken." Looking up from the screen, the woman stared at the pair in mild horror. The thought of a co-ed room was just not going to fly with the board.

"Taken? What do you mean taken? You mean…I'm stuck with her? I'm stuck with a girl roommate?"

"Oh c'mon now, Blondie…it's not that bad. Hey, don't worry about it ma'am, honest. We're both adults, we can handle ourselves." Smiling to the woman who Corky still didn't know a name for, she gave a small nod and shrug. "We'll hang a curtain up in the room or something. Then, once a room opens up, I'll switch. It's not a problem."

Dutchy's jaw dropped slightly open when he heard Corky suggest that she just stay where she was. This was not how his junior year was supposed to start out. He'd finally made it to upperclassman, he was supposed to share his room with a fellow upperclassman, one which would go to parties with him and help him snag a girlfriend. Not some freaky Goth girl who probably sacrificed cats and built weird alters to a God of Death or something! This girl was probably going to try to drain him of his blood in his sleep for some creepy Voo Doo ritual or conjure up a ghost or something!

Looking between Dutchy and Corky, the admissions councilor looked back at her computer once more before frowning. "I'm sorry Lyle, but there's nothing we can do. We don't have any available rooms right now. As soon as one becomes available, we will move, uhm, Corky into her own room. In the mean time though…"

Corky smirked proudly as she dropped her arm around Dutchy's shoulders and pulled him in for a shoulder-to-shoulder "hug". She could feel his heavy sigh as his shoulders dropped and he cast a look of 'I am not amused'. He'd warm up to her, eventually, and if he didn't, well then that was his loss.

"C'mon Blondie, you and your pals can show me around."