AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Thanks so much again to all my reviewers.  And a note for dragon:  Lizzy still wears her skirt for a few reasons.  I've seen pictures of girl newsies and they all wore their skirts.  Also, it wasn't really proper for a girl to go around wearing pants (they would show off her legs too much) and Lizzy's older brother James would therefore not let her leave the house in pants.  Plus, I just like skirts much better!  And they'll be more info on the mother and grandmother later in the story, so everything will be explained.

DISCLAIMER:  I own none of the newsies.

A NEWSIES LIFE

CHAPTER 3

            Race and Crutchy had been teaching Lizzy the basics of selling all morning long.  They had gone to Central Park, which Racetrack swore by when he wasn't selling at the tracks.  Although they really weren't able to talk much, Lizzy was having the time of her life with these two.  They treated her just like one of the guys, except she suspected that they were a little politer around her than they were around the rest of the newsies.  Around noon (according to Racetrack's watch, which Lizzy suspected was off by a half an hour) they stopped selling and headed towards Tibby's where the rest of the newsies would be gathered for lunch.

            "So how long have you two been selling?" Lizzy asked them.

            "As long as I can remember," Racetrack told her.

            "Since I was eight" Crutchy replied.

            "Wow.  Do you like it?"

            Racetrack shrugged.  "I guess I'm pretty lucky that I have a job that allows me ta go ta the races whenever I want ta."

            "Well, I wouldn't have it any other way!" Crutchy said in his usual happy tone.  "Life would be so boring if I was doin' anythin' but sellin' papes.  Those few weeks I lived in the Refuge – I had food and was warm – but I was so unhappy.  I regretted not breakin' out as soon as Jack and Davey left."

            "Wait, what?  What's the Refuge?  I don't quite understand" Lizzy said, shaking her head.

            "The Refuge is dis house for young criminals" Racetrack explained.

            "They put me in dere durin' the strike.  They caught me 'cause of my leg, but they couldn't catch the others." Crutchy told her.  "And then Jack and David came to bust me out, but I told them I wanted to stay – my leg was hurtin' me, you see – but I wished I hadn't told them I wanted to stay right after they left."

            "Can you guys still get thrown in the Refuge?" she asked.

            "Nope.  Snyder – he was the warden – got arrested 'cause he was pocketin' our food money.  Roosevelt hisself saw to it that he was put away" Crutchy said proudly.

            "Hey, we're heah!" Racetrack said.  "This is Tibby's, Lizzy.  This is where all of us newsies hang out when we're not sellin', pretty much.  Heah or our lodgin' house."

            They walked inside the restaurant, and Lizzy saw Jack, David, Les and Blink sitting at one of the large booths.  "Oh, there youse guys are!" Jack said.  "We've been waiting to heah all about how your first day of sellin's goin'."

            Lizzy and Crutchy and Racetrack sat down at the table.  "Pretty good, thanks" Lizzy replied. 

            "Where've youse guys been sellin'?" Jack asked Racetrack and Crutchy.

            "Where else?  Central Park" Racetrack told him. 

            "And she's a pretty fast learner." Crutchy told the rest of the boys, while Lizzy blushed a little.  "Reminds me a lot of another seller we all know way back when he foist started sellin' papes."  He grinned at the boys, while Lizzy once again felt confused.  She had been feeling that way quite a lot today. 

            "Who?" she asked. 

            "Don't worry 'bout it.  You don't even know him yet anyways," Blink told her. 

            "But lets just say it's a huge compliment to be compared to him" Racetrack reassured her.  Lizzy flashed him a bright smile. 

            "Thanks" she muttered into her lap.  They were certainly very gallant for dirty newsboys, and it embarrassed her somewhat.  She was very happy when Mush and Boots appeared at the door, and grabbed two chairs to sit at the end of the table. 

            "Oh, hey Lizzy" Mush said.  "How'd your sellin' go?"

            "Good, thanks" she told him.

            Mr. Howell, the owner of Tibby's, came to the table and asked them what they'd like to eat.

            "You go foist, Lizzy" Jack ordered.

            "Oh, I'm not hungry" she told them, lying through her teeth.  She'd eat dinner at home – lunch wasn't totally necessary, and she wanted to bring home as much money as possible.  The boys all looked at her, somewhat disbelieving.  "I had breakfast this morning, so I'm fine – really" she reassured them.

            "Well, we can chip in and-" David started.

            "NO!" Lizzy said forcefully.  "If I want lunch, I'll pay for it.  It just so happens that I don't want lunch.  Sorry, but I'm independent.  If you guys are going to be my friends, you're going to have to realize that."

            The rest of the guys looked slightly perturbed, then Blink spoke up.  "She's soundin' like him again!"  They all laughed at this, and Lizzy had to smile, although for all she knew that could be a horrible insult.

            The rest of the guys ordered, and then Lizzy asked the guys how many papes they sold per day.

            "We sell lots!"

"Oh, a hundred, easy."

            "Seventy-five most of the time!"

            "On a good day, two-hundred at least."

            They all grossly exaggerated their actual number, and Lizzy smiled.  "You guys are something else!" she said, shaking her head.

            "We sure are!" Les exclaimed.  "We're the best newsies in all of New York!"  Everybody laughed at that.  "Well, we are" Les continued.  "We got all the newsies to go on strike with us, and we beat Pulitzer" he bragged to Lizzy.

            "Ah, we weren't arguin' with youse" Jack told him.  "They're just other newsies that wouldn't agree with youse there."

            At this point, the newsies food came, and Lizzy watched them all eat ravenously.  "Haven't eaten in a few days?" she asked them jokingly. 

            "The nuns weren't at their usual post this monin'" Boots explained.

            "The nuns?" Lizzy asked.  "Is that slang?"

            Jack practically snorted.  "No.  The nuns go around each mornin' givin' food to the needy.  We get bread from the every mornin'." 

            "Oh, I see" Lizzy replied. 

            "So are you from around here?" David asked.  "You sure don't sound like it."

            "I've lived here for a while, but before that I lived out in the Midwest, in the middle of nowhere.  I practically spent all my time outside when I wasn't in school back then." 

            "Are you comin' to Medda's tomorrow night?" Boots asked her.

            "What d'ya mean, is she comin'?  Of course she's comin'!" Jack told him.

            "Well, um, where exactly is Medda's?" Lizzy asked.

            "Oh, it's about five blocks north from the lodging house – you know where that is, right?"

            "Yes.  But, there's just one thing I need to ask you guys to do."

            "What is it?" Jack asked.

            "Well, I guess I should ask you two" she turned to Crutchy and Racetrack, "seeing how I'll be selling with you two again tomorrow.  Could you come to dinner at our flat beforehand?  I'm not allowed to go out at night unless Papa and James meet someone I'm going with."

            "That sounds great to me!" Crutchy told her.

            "Who am I ta say no to a free dinner?" Race asked, grinning.  "Of course we'll come."
            "Who's James?" Les asked Lizzy.

            "My very protective older brother" Lizzy told him.  "He's always been that way.  He taught me to fight when we were kids so that I'd be able to defend myself when he's not around to do it."

            "Really?" Les's eyes widened.  "He *taught* you to fight?  David won't even let me learn how to fight."

            "If you want to learn how to fight, you'd better ask Jack to teach you.  I can't fight worth a darn anyway," David said modestly.

            Les grinned with delight.  "I supposed I could teach ya a few tricks," Jack told him, and Les positively beamed, while everyone else laughed at the elated look on his face.  "But right now, we'd betta get back to sellin'," Jack said. 

            All the newsies stood up, and leaving money by their plates, headed outside. 

            "Are we going back to Central Park?" Lizzy asked Race and Crutchy.

            "Might as well" Race said.  "We've only got a few more papers left to sell, so we might as well keep sellin' there."

            "How many did we have to begin with?"

            "Well, you had twenty, and we both had forty." Crutchy told her.  "So that's…" he squinted his eyes, trying to calculate how many papes they had that morning.

            "A hundred" Lizzy finally said, getting tired of waiting for Crutchy to figure it out.

            "Yeah, that's right" Crutchy said.

            "So we've only got about forty left to sell" Racetrack said.  "Let's hurry up and get those over with."

TBC…