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"NO way …" Dianna's eyes grew wide and she broke into a smile.

"It can't be happening …" Janet said, looking around for a reasonable excuse.

"But …but …how?" Becca puzzled.

"Oh, GREAT!" sighed Laura, rolling her eyes. "Just what I need …"

"Hey, what happened to the theater?" It could take a while for Sam to catch on, even to things as obvious as this.

"Hey Sarah, we couldn't have … could we?" Michele thought out loud.

"I'm just as confused as you." Sarah turned to look at Dianna, who looked like she was ready to scream. "Dianna! Don't attract any more attention then we need!!" Dianna looked hurt. "Look at the way we are dressed! Now look at the way everyone else is dressed, they are going to think we're sluts or something."

"She's got a point." Becca added.

"I guess … okay, I won't scream. But can I jump up and down?" Dianna squealed, getting excited again.

"No!" this is probably just a joke …" Michele disappointedly said, looking around.

"Well it's an expensive joke then." Dianna retorted.

"I don't know … but we can't stay in here, we have to get out, and then decide. People are going to start to wonder." Janet suggested.

"Like they haven't already." Laura grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder. "Hey, at least if we're stuck here, then you," she pointed to Michele, "still have another pair of clothes."

"That's right! And you can buy SOO much more with money now. Just think, 5 bucks can get us through a week at least!" Dianna commented, glad that she had brought all of her money with her.

"Well, this place is almost empty, let's go." Sarah said, lowering her voice.

So they headed outside, only to find that everything was completely different. No typical movie theater parking lot, instead just a busy road, filled with horse-and-cart wagons, and tons of busy people. They tried to stay together, but they got separated. Janet, Becca, Sam and Dianna made it across the street, while Sarah, Michele and Laura got swept into the crowd. "We gotta find them!!!" Dianna started to say, but was cut off by someone tapping her on her shoulder.

"But me las' pape, miss?" A voice coughed.

"No-" Dianna started to say, but then abruptly changed her mind. "Why, sure, I'd love to." Dianna fished around in her pocket for a penny. "Got one!" she pulled it out, and bought his 'last paper'. He quickly hurried off, and Becca, Janet and Sam looked at her like she was crazy.

"What ever made you do that?" Sam asked.

"Now we know the date, and we know what's happening this time in history." Dianna smiled, knowing that she had done the smart thing, for once.

"Good move!" Becca said, reaching for the paper. "June 14, 1900."

"So it's a year after the strike. I wonder how much has changed." Janet calculated.

"Well, almost a year." Interrupted Dianna. "Not quite."

"Shut up." Janet opened up the paper, skimming for headlines. "Loser."

"Did you recognize the newsie who sold you the pape?" Becca asked, then looked off into space.

"Wondering if it was Spot?" Janet folded up the paper, and stood up on her tiptoes. The crowd had left, or so it seemed. "We gotta find Sarah Michele and Laura. They were headed down thata way, wanna start walking?"

"Sure! A tour of …Manhattan?" Sam got that confused look on her face again.

"I'm not sure, but if I see any random newsie I'll ask him." Dianna looked more than happy to.

So the group started walking down the street, until they passed the building that they watched the movie in. "You would think that they'd be around here someplace …" Sam wondered.

"Yeah, hopefully they won't be far." Dianna was still flabbergasted about actually being here. Maybe I'm just knocked out cold … and I don't even realize it, she thought to herself.

"Excuse me, ladies." A teenage boy came up and said to all of them. He looked like a typical newsie, a stack of papers in his arm, a hat, and the newsie style clothes. "Are you'se lookin' far someone?"

"Yeah," Janet answered. "do you know where I might find three girls, about our age?"

"Are dey lookin' like you'se?"

"Like our clothes?" Becca retorted.

"No need ta get awl snippy. Yeah, don't "like you'se" mean dat?" He looked a little hurt, so the girls decided to cut the guy a little slack. He was, after all, trying to help them.

"Do we really stick out that bad?" Sam raised her one eyebrow.

"Yeah." He paused. "So if ya goils wanna find whoeveah, follow me, a'aight?" he started to turn and walk away, but stopped after he noticed that no one was following him.

"Can we at least know ya name?" Dianna, regardless of how gross she really thought this was, spit in her hand and held it out. "My name's Dianna." She waited for a response and then continued. "This is Janet, Becca and Sam." She pointed to each of them, and they all said "hi" or gave a little nod.

For the first time, he smiled, and then returned the spitshake that's gross!!. "Da name's Hawk. You'se da fiost goil dat would evah spit shake wit any guy."

"Well, I can't say that I would do it again …" Dianna shuddered, and wiped her hand on her jeans.

"Da guys would love ya, far spit shakin'." Hawk started walking in the opposite direction. "I should take you'se ta meet da guys. Spot would be interested."

"So we're in Brooklyn …" Janet concluded.

"Where else would ya be?"

"For only trying to help us, you seem pretty snippy." Janet didn't like this guy that much.

"Well, if ya don't wan me ta help you'se …" Hawk trailed off, stopping.

"No, we're just kinda stressed out now …" Dianna motioned for him to continue, and so he did.

It wasn't long before he came to the spot that he was looking for, the doorway to an old house. And on the doorstep were Sarah Michele and Laura.

"We thought we lost you guys!" Becca looked relieved to see the three other people that she had met *hours* ago.

"So," Hawk began, after seeing that they were all okay and glad to be rejoined, "where do ya goils wanna go? Do ya have any friends dat I can take ya's to?"

"The Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House!!!" Dianna shouted.

"Who ya friends wit dere?" Hawk was baffled.

"Well nobody … yet" Dianna blushed, thinking of actually meeting all the guys from the movie.

"Den why would ya want ta go dere?"

"Uhh …no reason …I just like to see the sights …" Dianna looked to any one of her friends for some help, but they were just busy trying not to laugh.

"Dose are certainly not one o' da sights o' New Yawk City." Hawk thought of where the girls could stay. "If I ask Spot, den I could see if ya could possibly stay da night at our lodgin' house …but I'se gonna have ta ask him …he's kinda picky about dese things …"

"SPOT!?" Becca was starting to hyperventilate. "Spot Conlon, the most feared newsie in all of New York???"

"coughMANOFYOURDREAMScough" coughed Janet from behind.

"What was dat?" Now Hawk was really baffled. 'Where do dese goils come from?' he silently wondered.

"Nevermind, you said that you could bring us to Spot, and maybe we could spend the night?" Becca said, quickly changing back the topic and glaring back at Janet.

"Yeah, I'se gonna drop you goils off at a dock, not too far away from Spot. I'll talk ta him, den I'se gonna come back far you'se, a'aight?" Hawk didn't want Spot to say no, which he knew what would happen if he saw these girls.

"Yay! A Brooklyn dock!!" Becca jumped up and down.

Hawk just rolled his eyes, and then started walking again. "If ya wanna go ta da docks, den follow me." So without another word, the girls followed Hawk. They walked for about 10 minutes, until Laura asked, "Are we there yet? And what time is it? I'm hungry."

"We'se still got a ways to go." Hawk looked down at his pocket watch. "It's 4:02, and if ya gots some money, ya can get a pretzel when we get ta da docks."

"Okay …" Laura sighed. Her hungry stomach was going to have to wait.

"Another t'ing dat's been really buggin' me is you'se accents." Hawk didn't like all the looks that the passer-byers were giving him.

"What's wrong with them?" Michele asked.

"It makes ya stick out like a sore thumb." Hawk looked back at the girls as he continued walking. "Ya gotta use 'dey' instead o' 'they' and 'dat' instead o' 'that'. And when you'se talkin' ta a group, ya gotta say 'you'se'. do ya undahstand?"

"Kinda …but why do we have to change our accents?" Sarah questioned.

"Because, if ya don't ya just attractin' to much attention ta yaself, an' dat's just askin' far trouble."

With some other little unimportant questions, they finally got to the docks. He took them to one dock, which didn't go out that far. "Now you goils gotta, mean gotta, stay here. I ain't comin' lookin' far you'se again, so if ya wandah off, you'se on ya own." Hawk looked each in the eye to make sure they understood. "Da city ain't da safest place at night, which it will be in t'ree hours or soonah."

With that, Hawk turned and continued to walk in the same direction, until he was out of sight. "Didn't he say that there was a pretzel stand around here?" Laura asked, her stomach rumbling.

"Yeah, I believe he did…" Sam looked around for any sign of one. "Is that it, over there?" She pointed to a small stand, with an old guy in the back of it.

"Yay! I think it is!!! Let's go check it out." Laura's stomach was getting really hungry now.

So while Laura and Sam went over to the pretzel stand, the other girl sat down on the dock. "Can we still see them?" Sarah worried, she didn't want to mess with this guy Hawk, and he looked dangerous. And he could be back any second.

"Yeah, I can see them." Michele said standing up.

"You guys think that this water is warm?" Dianna slipped off her shoe and dipped her foot in the water. "Hey! It's warm. Really warm."

"Yeah, and it is pretty hot, especially here in the sun." Becca looked at everyone. "Wanna go for a swim?"

"Sounds like a good idea, I mean this Hawk character could be taking a while …and how is one dip going to hurt us?" Janet took off her shoes.

"Guys …I don't think we should …he said not to go anywhere." Sarah looked around, she was getting kind of paranoid. "Look, here come Laura and Sam …maybe they'll object too."

But not much to Sarah's surprise, they quickly agreed with Janet, Becca, Dianna and Michele and were the first to jump in. "Hey!!! The water is Great!!!" Laura went underwater and swam a little further out.

"Wait for me!" Becca called as she jumped in. Soon Michele dove in, followed by Janet. And as soon as Dianna got her other shoe off and pulled back her hair, she slid in the water also. And poor Sarah was left on the dock all by herself.

After quite some time of watching all of her friends swim and have a great time, Sarah decided that she would go in too. Why should they have all the fun? She silently thought. But before she jumped in, one thought popped into her head. What if they have sharks here? I just finished reading about all those shark attacks …so she looked in the murky water to see if she would be able to see anything.

"Hey guys …" Sarah yelled out, "What is that thing in the water?" All she could see was a deeper shade of the murky color of the water, but she could have sworn that it wasn't moving and that it wasn't there before.

"What thing?" Someone called out from in the water. "You're probably just paranoid, you get like this every year when we got to Island Beach."

"No, I'm serious!" Sarah tired to follow it. It was definitely moving. "Becca!!! It's coming towards you!" And by now, the girls had started to swim closer to the docks, just in case. But as Becca turned around, she saw it.

"BECCA!" Janet yelled at the top of her lungs, swimming towards her to see if she could help.

Becca tried to swim as fast as she could to the dock, but it looked as if she wasn't going to make it in time.

Splash! Someone has jumped in the water, and that was all that Becca could tell. She heard other voices coming from the dock. She turned back to see how far away it was, and when she did, she froze. She just couldn't move.

Sarah had been watching this whole thing from the dock, and before she saw Becca turn around, Sarah saw its lone fin rise out of the water …and she immediately knew that it was a shark. Sam and Laura had swam to the dock already and gotten out, but as Michele, Janet and Dianna saw that Becca needed some help, they turned back to help her.

But that wasn't really necessary because Hawk had picked this moment to come back to the docks. Luckily he had brought a friend with him, namely Spot. When Hawk saw that there was only one girl on the dock, he picked up his pace and almost started running back to the docks. Spot, wondering what the heck was going on, started running to catch up with him. They reached the docks at the same time that Sarah saw the fin come out of the water.

Spot dove in, and headed for that girl who was frantically swimming to get away. He swam with all of his might to get to her as fast as he possibly could. He came at her from the side, so with his foot he was able to kick the shark's gill. The shark ((yes I control the shark …muahahahaha!!!)) didn't feel like fighting for a meal, so he just turned back around and headed for the shore.

Hawk, who didn't jump in, stayed by the dock and called Janet, Michele and Dianna in. ((he didn't know their names, but that doesn't really matter, does it?)) He pulled them in, once they saw that Becca would be safe. Spot was helping Becca swim to the dock. She was just recognizing the fact that this boy had just saved her from her death ((she didn't realize it was Spot yet)). Finally, once everybody got out of the water and was on the dock, that's when the problems started.

"I said, don't leave da dock. An' what do ya's do?" Hawk hated it when people didn't listen. "Ya left da dock. I'se tryin' ta help ya 'ere, an' you'se couldn't even stay put." Hawk turned to Spot. "Well dese are da goils I was tellin' ya about. Dey are quite a handful, lemme tell ya."

"So I can see." Spot took off his shirt and wrung the water out of it, then he put it back on. "so, alla you'se is lookin' far a place ta stay, huh?"

"Yeah …just for tonight. And we'll be good, so good ya-" Janet started to say, but was cut off by Spot continuing.

"I'se don't wanna listen ta false promises, dat's da one thing I hate." Spot grabbed his slingshot off of the dock and put it back in his pocket. "Now what happened dere …just don't say nothin' ta any o' me boys …or you'se 'll wish ya hadn't."

Spot started to walk down the dock, and motioned for the others to follow. They all got up from the dock (they were just kind of laying there) and walked off the dock. Hawk was the last one to leave, making sure that everyone was there and accounted for.

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