Heloise woke early the next morning. At the same time as Sarah, 5:30 in the morning. She helped her cousin cook breakfast for the family.
"How is Jean-Luc?" Sarah asked, cracking eggs into a pan. That's a question Heloise feared to answer. She didn't know how Jean-Luc was. She hadn't heard directly from him since before she came here. He sent her a letter telling her he would be home in a few months. Actually, come to think of it, that was a few months ago. Jean-Luc could be on his way home. Here, if we got lucky. In the letter, he said he was still blowing kisses at the madamoiselles as they walk by the local cafe he and his friends have coffee at.
There really is no reason for the ladies not to be blowing kisses back at Jean-Luc. He and Heloise were always, what relatives said, the best looking of the DeLarouxs. Jean-Luc had the same hair color as Anna-Olivia. It was a golden, wheat color that always reminded great-uncle Jim of his life on the Saskatchewan praries. Heloise had the same color as her now-imprisoned father. It was a dark red that wasn't quite a brown and wasn't quite a red.
" 'e's ees een France. For work. I 'aven't 'eard much of 'eem" Heloise said meekly. Now she had a feeling that Jean-Luc would come home to no family. He would go back to Canada and someone would tell him "Your family has moved to New York City, sorry about that.". That made Heloise miss him more.
After breakfast, David invited Heloise to try selling newspapers. She remembered she still had four dollars and some spare changed she grabbed off of the kitchen table when she ran away.
On their way to the distribution office, there were newsboys already selling their papers. The boys were very loud. Heloise? Not so loud. Well for one, she could only say few english words without an accent, and two, she's a shy girl. She never really got a say in stuff, Pierre would always talk for her. This put Heloise in anxiety when it came to solo decision making. Selling newspapers was gonna work out well.
At the distribution office, there were boys in a line waiting to buy their papers, boys on their way out to go to work, and everywhere in general, boys. Heloise was going to stick out like a sore thumb. Like the time her mother bought a blue dress for her Christmas pagent when all the other girls had green dresses.
She could feel the eyes on her as she passed by. She tried her best to ignore them, or else she'd turn pink with embarassment. Though, she recognized some people who were staring at her. The ones she had met at the lodging house.
"60 Papes please." David said. The boy with a bowler hat gave David the papers. Then the round man hit the hammer like thing on the table and shouted "Next!" which made Heloise jump a little.
David gave Heloise around 20 papers, so he got the other 40. Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice calling her name.
"Heloise!" she looked around and saw Kid Blink jogging up to her, a his smile on his face. She smiled back at him. "I'se was wonderin' if you wanted to sell with me today?". Heloise nodded. She could hear wolf whistles from the other boys and things like "Got a new goil, Blink?". She chuckled lightly, just barely noticing the slight pink in Blink's cheeks.
It was...eleven o'clock? That's what Heloise assumed it was. She was selling when a boy with an English accent approached her.
"Heloise?" the boy asked. Heloise turned around. It was Daniel.
"Daniel?" she asked in return. Daniel looked long into Heloise eyes, as if he was trying to see where things went wrong for her. "Don't ask." she wispered to him. This was not how she thought things would go.
"What happened, Heloise? Where is Pierre?" Daniel looked around, trying to search for her twin. He was a nowhere we could be seen.
"I said don't ask!" Helosie raised her voice a bit now, catching the attention of both Daniel and Blink, who had just finished selling his papers. Daniel hung his head, shamed of what he just did. He knew he shouldn't of asked, and now he had hurt Heloise. He glanced up at the tear brimmed eyes of Heloise and left.
Blink was shocked at Heloise's outburst. He would of never had guessed that a girl that small could raise her voice like that. He had an idea.
"Come wit' me." He grabbed Heloise's hand and led her through the busy streets of New York, until they got to Central Park. He sat down by a small oak tree. Heloise, though reluctant about the situation, sat down beside him.
"Do ya need ta tawk it out?" Blink asked. Heloise nodded, which made a tear go down her cheek.