Author's Note: It's been a crazy weekend, but a rather good one. :) I know y'all were wondering where your new chapter was, but here it finally is! :P Thank you so much BritishIsBetter639, Ealasaid Una, destaaa246, Narniafan96, JacobsConlonBrooklynNewsie, Rachel, The Broadway newsie, and mysterygirl for your lovely reviews. They make me grin like a crazy person each time I see a new one!

Chapter 7- Dumb Questions

Al felt more exhausted than she cared to admit.

Her limbs were stiff and her head felt heavy, but she wasn't about to go back to the Lodge now. Not only was she tired of sitting indoors all day, but now her mind was abuzz with the news of Shifty and Keeps being back in town. She didn't want to admit that the fact made her feel antsy and unsafe.

She needed to talk to someone and she knew exactly who that someone was.

"Come on, Runner." She waved him toward the direction in which she was turning.

He hurried up alongside her. "But Jack said-"

"We're not gonna go follow 'im." She rolled her eyes, both thankful for and irritated with his loyalty to Jack right now. The walk was longer than usual. She had expected as much, but it was still frustrating. All Al wanted to do was collapse and she had to keep trudging on, looking as if she wasn't thinking about passing out where she stood.

She had the strange urge to burst into tears when she found herself standing before the school's front gate. Runner moved up beside her and pointed to a tree nearby, suggesting they rest beneath it. Al nodded and the two made their way over.

Al was more than thankful to lay in the grass. She didn't care if she got grass stains on the back of her shirt or if laying on the ground messed up her hair. Then again, she hadn't done much to it in the first place this morning. She just shoved a newsie cap on top of her head. Out of all the things she had been more than happy to give up when she started dressing like her own gender, she had never stopped wearing the caps. At least her nickname still fit.

Al didn't realize she had fallen asleep until she felt someone touching her face. She opened her eyes and found David leaning over her, a gentle smile on his face and his fingertips lingering on her cheek. She pushed herself up slowly with her one free arm and smiled back.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Forever," Runner exaggerated with a groan.

When she sat up, she realized David was holding a pail that she assumed contained his lunch. Sure enough, once he was situated on the ground in front of her, he pulled out a sandwich and ripped it in half, offering her some.

"M'fine. You eat it." David tossed Runner some jerky before trying to offer the half to Al again. "You deaf?"

"Come on, Al. You need to eat and keep up your strength if you wanna heal up faster," David pleaded sweetly. For some reason it reminded her of the reason she was here in the first place and she accepted the sandwich half, biting into it and chewing slowly so she could piece together everything going on in her mind.

"How was school?" she asked after swallowing the first chunk.

"I've never been asked so many questions in my life," David answered, rolling his eyes. Al bit back a remark about how she still called him 'Questions' when his curiosity got the best of him- which was often. He continued, "I think it's made some of them more scared of me and some of 'em less. It's definitely strange."

"Weird," Al commented. She looked past him and realized they weren't the only ones taking advantage of the cool weather. Half the student body, she guessed was sitting outside, and more than half of those were looking their way and whispering. "Looks like we got an audience."

David glanced over his shoulder and groaned under his breath. "And we've got a visitor."

It was that girl again. The blonde giggly one who was always eyeing David like he ought to be hers and glaring at Al like she was just in the way. Two could play at that game, though.

"Why is she coming ovah here?" Al mumbled.

"Beats me," David whispered back.

Irritated as she may be, though, Al wasn't concerned. She knew David, and she knew he only had eyes for her. He felt nothing for Hannah, no matter how intense Hannah's feelings may be.

Runner looked interested and moved in closer so he could get in on whatever was happening.

"Hey, David. Hey, Sal," Hannah chirped brightly.

"Al," David corrected, sounding irritated. Al guessed the whole being-in-pain thing had done about as much for his temper as it had for hers. It had shortened it considerably.

"Is it cool if I sit with you?" She didn't wait for an answer, she just sat down as close to David as she thought she could get away with.

"Runner, this is Hannah. Hannah- Runner." Al gave the introductions. Runner lifted his cap and continued to chow down on the jerky he had been given.

"So Jack said you could come today?" David asked, looking back at Al.

"Who's Jack?" Hannah asked, cocking her head to the side. She tended to avoid approaching David outside of school grounds when most of the guys were there. The only newsie besides Al and David she had ever spoken to was Racetrack, and he had been rude enough to her to keep her from making that mistake again. Race didn't mince words with people who didn't strike his fancy. Al guessed that Runner was so young that Hannah didn't see him as being much of a threat.

Runner's mouth hung open, half-chewed food hanging out of it. In his small world, everyone knew who exactly who Jack Kelly was.

"My bruddah," Al answered as she gently pushed up Runner's chin so his mouth snapped shut. "An' he don't know I'm here." Some of her dark hair flew into her face, obscuring her vision, and she pushed it back behind her ear.

David's brows knit together. "Where is he then?"

"I 'spect he's fightin'," Runner answered, talking around his food.

"Don't talk with ya mouth full, Runner," Al reprimanded.

"Fighting who?" David asked. "What happened?"

"Shifty an' Keeps are back in 'Hattan." Al rubbed the back of her neck and gave him a sheepish half smile, mostly because she didn't know what else to do. She watched his eyes go hard.

"Who're Swifty and Keen?" Hannah questioned.

David ignored her. "What happened?"

"They're helpin' out whoever jumped us. They tried to get Runner to join 'em this mornin'. Stole 'is papes an' sellin' spot when 'e refused," she explained. "Jack wouldn't lemme go with 'im, so we just came 'ere instead." She gestured vaguely at Runner and the stack of papers that he had set down beside him.

"Shifty and Keeps," Runner corrected, talking to Hannah slowly, as if he believed something wasn't right in her head.

"He took Racetrack'n Blink with 'im."

"Whatever. Who are Shifty and Keeps then?" Hannah answered with a roll of her eyes.

"You okay?" David asked, softening considerably when he realized the three of them were handling it. He reached out a hand and grasped hers.

Al shifted where she sat. "Yeah, I guess. I mean, I ain't scared or nothin', but I ain't happy 'bout it eithah."

"Excuse me!" Hannah exclaimed with more than a little irritation and prissy attitude. "I'm still sitting here."

"Are you?" David responded coldly with just as much irritation.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, eyes narrowed.

"It means you're excused." He turned back to give Al his full attention and she could feel her own eyebrows reaching dangerously close to her hairline. Al had never heard him be so short or cross with any girl other than Sarah before. He was generally a very genteel person.

Hannah stood abruptly, face turning an ugly shade of red and looking like she was resisting the urge to stomp her foot. Instead, she whacked David in the back of the head with her open palm. The sound of the smack was loud and it hit Al like a smack in the face. She hadn't been legitimately irritated or angry until that point.

David put a hand to the back of his head and scowled. Al was on her feet in a minute, glowering dangerously at the blonde girl. Hannah had another thing coming if she thought she was going to get away with smacking David, especially when he was already hurt.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Al hissed, fully aware that the attention of everyone out on the lawn was fixed on her. She could care less. She took a threatening step forward and Hannah took a reciprocating step backward.

Hannah looked shaken, but in her anger she gave Al a condescending smirk. "You might wanna get some rest. You look terrible."

Al raised an eyebrow. Really? That was the best she could come up with. At least Mush's girlfriend had been able to come up with "Newsie whore" when Al had gotten into that row with her a week or two ago. Make that Mush's ex-girlfriend . . . who walked away from the encounter with a bloody lip.

"Nice try. You can go now." Al answered, she turned to sit back down, but apparently her dismissal caused something to snap in Hannah.

The girl let out a cry of outrage and kicked out at Al, her foot connecting with Al's right calf, right where the stitches were. Al crumpled in on herself as fire shot up and down her leg. Runner yelled out a curse word that he had probably picked up from Kid Blink and David was on his feet, yelling as he shoved Hannah with enough force to put her on her back. He was right in Al's face seconds later.

"Al, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"Stop askin' dumb questions," Al answered through clenched teeth, only halfway joking. "I'll be fine in a minute."

"We should take you to the school nurse." It wasn't David or Runner talking now, but it was definitely a guy.

"Don't need a doc," she answered, not bothering to look up.

"S'okay, the nurse is free," David answered. His next question wasn't directed to her. "Can you carry her, John? I don't think I can yet."

A boy who must have been John crouched down to her level. He had blonde hair and green eyes. He looked a tad lanky, probably a couple of inches taller than her brother "You okay with me carrying you?"

"M'fine."

"Al, please? You might've ripped your stitches," David pleaded.

She glowered as she looked up. "Fine, but I wanna walk." Al wouldn't allow herself to be carried unless she was unconscious or entirely unable to walk. It made her feel too vulnerable, like she couldn't fight back.

David nodded at the same time as John and they helped her stand up, allowing her to wrap an arm around each of them, though both had to crouch a bit to be of any use. Runner tagged along behind muttering something about girls, oblivious to all the stares that Al wished would turn away from their little group already. She didn't enjoy her weakness being showcased for David's entire school to see.

It didn't take long to reach the nurse's office, but it took longer than Al would have liked. She was just so damn tired. Maybe it had been a bad idea to come out here. She hadn't even really been able to talk to David and she had ended up aggravating her injury.

"Miss Greenbriar?" David called as they entered a small but tidy reception area. The head of the woman at the desk closest to them looked up. "We need to see Nurse Wilma."

"Oh, of course, dear. Go right on in. Is everything okay?" Miss Greenbriar, a pretty girl who could only be a year or two out of school, looked concerned.

"M'fine," Al answered wearily.

Nurse Wilma turned out to be an ugly woman with a jutting brow and a manly build. She was large and gruff enough to make Al fear for the condition of her stitches if the woman messed with them. She looked as likely to rip them out as look at them. The three other boys stepped out of the room to allow her privacy, since it was considered improper for a girl to show her calves in public. Having grown up with a gaggle of boys who grew up on the street, she wasn't used to worrying about the rules of propriety when she was hurt. At least, not the ridiculous ones like keeping her calves covered.

Nurse Wilma did not, in fact, rip out Al's stitches. As it turned out, they had barely opened up at all. It was nothing a little gauze and bandaging couldn't fix. Nurse Wilma seemed to assume she was a student, because when Al was all bandaged up, the older woman told her to get to class.

Disclaimer: John, Mrs. Greenbriar, and Nurse Wilma are all my OCs. No stealing! :P