Disclaimer: We do not own any of the Newsies, we do own Brandyn and Tru though.

A/N: It's awesome that you guys like this, and thanks for the reviews! This chapter was written by both of us, so credit to Melissa on the part that she wrote. Oh, and I know Tru is a total hard ass to Mush, but it's only beginning of the story, you never know what could happen, wink. I hope you guys like this one, there aren't much of the boys talking, but there is much talking about the boys. Oh, and it's the introduction of Skittery to the story. Enjoy.

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FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Tru sighed and threw her back pack on her bed. She had just come home from babysitting her neighbor's kids, and as much as she loved little Chris and Frankie, their incessant chatter and constant running exhausted her. She plopped into her computer chair and signed onto AIM. A few minutes later, Green Day's American Idiot could be heard from the pocket of her sky blue Northface jacket. When she retrieved her phone, 'Randy' was flashing on her cell phone screen.

"Hey, homie."

"Yo, man." Tru smiled to herself, in reaction to Brandyn's, just as absurd, response.

"How's the party goin'?" Tru asked, folding up the edges of her post-its.

"Eh, a few of the footballers just arrived." Tru could hear Brandyn rolling her eyes.

"Any cute ones?"

"Hah, I didn't check. Ooh, but speaking of 'cute ones' when are you ever warm up to that Mush kid, huh?" Now Tru was the one rolling her eyes.

"Ugh," Tru's grimace was quickly followed by gagging noises.

"What? He's cute. Well, aside from that brillo pad on his head, but then again you always like guys with weird hair. Remember that Chris kid?"

Tru blushed. "Shut up, and Mush is NOT cute. Not unless you go for that "mack-daddy pimp I-can-get-any-girl" type, which I don't go for."

"Aw, come on. He's not as bad as you think he is. He's in my bio class, he's a good kid."

"Oh really, and have you ever talked to him?"

Brandyn thought for a moment. "Well, no."

"Aha! See, you don't even know what he's like!"

"I do too! Okay, well not really. But I've seen how he is in class and he's not the man-slut that you make him out to be."

Tru rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Besides, he's friends with Crutchy, whom we've known since we were in like, diapers, and he approves. And I think he's best friends with Snitch, too, and we've known him since like what? Fifth grade?"

"Yeah," Tru mumbled.

"See? Completely trustworthy."

"Well, just because he's friends with Crutchy and Snitch doesn't mean I'm going to go out with him!"

"I never said that. I just meant for you to ease up on him. You know, like stop slamming doors in his face, say 'hi' without the death glare, or maybe even, dare I say it, let the poor boy walk you to class. You know he's going to follow you anyway. That boy's like a lost puppy."

Tru pouted. "Oh, leave me alone." A phrase she said quite often when she had no other comeback.

Brandyn rolled her eyes. "Hey, well, at least you have someone for me to leave you alone about! Look at me, I got nothin'. The only boy I have whom I can complain about is Skittery. And that's only because he's my brother, and he yawns in my face in the morning when he KNOWS his breath reeks.

Tru laughed at this.

"It's not funny! This one time--"

"At band camp?" Tru interrupted.

"No, shut up. One time I think he had a burger for dinner, and you know how he likes his onions on his burgers, and he must not have brushed his teeth that night 'cause MAN was his breath kickin'!"

Tru couldn't help but laugh at her best friend's rant about her older brother. Brandyn and Skittery's love/hate relationship was always amusing to watch and listen to. They were extremely close, but were constantly bickering over nothing, volleying sarcastic remarks like a tennis ball back and forth across the court. Practicing comebacks and insults was a favorite past-time of theirs.

Tru's mind soon floated away from the rant Brandyn was giving about Skittery, and entered the blurry memory of Crutchy's end of the summer party. Her mind played the scene as a continuous movie, which Tru couldn't shove out of her mind.

Tru, whose heart was beating one hundred miles per hour, was walking towards Mush, whom she decided to go up and talk to. She missed the playful hitting they were interacting in, just a few minutes ago. Just as Tru was a few feet away, she was cut off by another girl, who, for a young one, was quite flirty, and disgustingly obvious about it. Her friends walked over, and flirted as well. Tru froze in her steps, watching as Mush began to playfully hit them, the same way he playfully hit her. Tru's feet slowly began to go back in her tracks, and she turned around, feeling the pain of knowing that playfully hitting with Mush wasn't going to mean a thing to him.

"Can you believe he did that to me?!" Brandyn's sharp voice asked, quickly thrusting Tru back to reality.

"Nope, I really can't believe he did that to you," Tru replied, with Mush's flirtatious smile to the pretty flirty sluts flashing in her mind, like electric shocks.