So finally the stories real plot is here in this chapter. Continued thanks to Scuff, Smiley, Snick, and Swirly. Especially Smiley for giving me the idea for this chapter!
The next day was another long and boring one for me, there didn't seem like anything to do for entertainment, again. I was flopping foolishly off the edge of my bed upside down, trying to think of an idea. Someone had told me that the blood rushing to your head made ideas come to you quicker. Except today I wasn't alone. Smiley was right next to me, also slumped over the edge of my slightly uncomfortable bunk. We must have looked ridiculous.
"Thought of anything yet?" I asked doubtfully, turning my head towards her.
She sighed lamely. "No, not yet, you?"
"Not a thing." I answered. "This method doesn't seem to be working very well" I stated matter-of-factly, with a hint of a smile.
"Yeah, but it's still fun." She replied giddily.
"Haha, yeah it is kinda fun." I laughed.
We just stayed as we were, lounging upside down, engaged in random conversation, and at times laughing our butts off. We were laughing at one of Smiley's crazy ideas, or Smideas as Snick liked to call em, when we heard a light rap on the door.
"I'll get it." We both squealed in unison, jumping excitedly off the bed, but doing it too quickly and stumbling forward foolishly as the blood rushed back to our feet.
We ran down the stairs eagerly, giggling childishly as we went. We were happy just to have something to do, but we were also quite curious who could be at our door. I skipped up to the door lightheartedly, swinging it open, with Smiley waiting behind me anxiously. We were both extremely surprised at who we found there. Standing at the door was a young girl about my age, who was slightly taller than myself. She carried one very expensive looking bag, but other than that she was empty handed. She looked like the spoiled daughter of a rich man, and she was absolutely beautiful too. Her blonde wind tossed curls fell to her shoulders shaping her face flawlessly. Her eyes were electric blue, graced with long dark eyelashes. Her cheeks were a rosy pink, and her eyebrows perfectly shaped. She was wearing a stunning, light purple dress that flattered her perfect figure. She came across as the kind of girl that everyone ought to be jealous of.
I looked over at Smiley who had the same bewildered expression on her face that I assumed was on mine. What was a girl like this doing at the newsies lodging house? I thought to myself. Did she come here to mock us? Or to flirt with the guys maybe? I had no idea.
"This is the newsie lodging house right?" She asked, in a small weak voice.
She looked rather pale, and somewhat worn out as well. I suddenly felt pity for the girl, it was impossible not to. Even if she was dressed like a rich child, she appeared to be scared and lonely, and all us newsies knew how terrible that feeling was.
"It sure is, are you looking for someone?" I asked in the sweetest voice I could manage, motioning for her to come in as I spoke.
"Actually," She began in a soft voice, stepping into the lodging house, her shoes making a light tapping sound. "I was wondering if maybe you had room for one more newsie?"
I looked over at Smiley to see if she was just as puzzled as I was. She wore a perplexed look on her face, she was obviously just as clueless as I was. The girl must have noticed our bewilderment because she was quick to explain.
"You probably are wondering why a little rich girl is at your door begging to be a newsie. Well you see, I was rich, but not anymore. My parents are dead, and I'm all alone, I need a place to live and a way to earn some money for food. I figured that being a newsie was my best chance." She finished, her face completely drained of any joy that might have been there before.
"I'm sorry about your family." I said, my expression changing from uncertainty to pity.
"Thank you." She answered, squeezing out a tiny smile.
"Well what do you know about bein a newsie?" I asked, not expecting much.
"I can't say I know anything about selling newspapers." She answered, her eyes dropping to the floor, and her cheeks rapidly turning red.
"Well, to start with we call em' papes, not newspapers." I explained, in a kind tone trying to make eye contact with her, so she could see the sincerity in my eyes.
"Papes, got it." She responded with a nod of her head, looking up and meeting my eyes.
"Of course you're more than welcome to stay here with us." I said my heart warming up to this girl. "We'll have to get you some different clothes though, at least for sellin anyway." I informed her, my eyes overlooking her dress.
"I'm Snapper, and this is Smiley." I said, pointing to Smiley, and adding an extra tone of friendliness to my voice.
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Melanie." She responded politely, holding out her hand for us to shake.
Out of natural habit both me and Smiley spit in our hand before holding it out to her. She wrinkled her nose making a disgusted look at our hands.
"Oh, sorry." Smiley said. "It's a newsie tradition we forgot that other people find it gross."
We both reached out our clean hand in order to shake hers, but instead of shaking our hands she brought her own hand to her mouth and lightly spit in it. A grin spread across both our faces as we spit shook with our newest newsie. Maybe she wasn't a rich snob like we thought. I'm sure we could learn to like this odd girl who had very randomly showed up at our door.
"Ok one more thing Melanie." I said. "We usually change our names when we become newsies. It's kinda a way of forgetting our past, and starting a whole new life as a newsie. So in just a little while you will meet many newsies with strange names. It's your choice whether you wanna change or not. So what do you want to do?" I asked.
"I think I would like to change my name." She replied nonchalantly. "It would be better for me that way. So, what do you guys wanna call me?"
"ummm….. Stay here for a sec while me and Smily talk about it ok?" I said.
"Sure." She said, showing us her full smile for the first time. It was beautiful.
I pulled Smiley out of Melanie's earshot, wanting to talk to her about this privately.
"What do you think we should call her?" I asked her.
"I'm not sure she deserves a good name though she's absolutely gorgeous!" Smiley's eyes opening wide as she said these words.
"Tell me about it." I said feeling just a little bit jealous. I paced back and forth silently, trying to think of a good name for Melanie. After about a minute I thought of something. "How about Dewdrop?" I suggested.
"Yeah that's perfect. Dew is so beautiful in the morning sun, it fits her just right, let's go ask her." Smiley said, her light brown curls bouncing uncontrollably as she whipped around excited to suggest this perfect name to Melanie. "How do you like Dewdrop?" Smiley asked her, her wide grin never leaving her face.
"I think it's perfect." She said after thinking for a minute.
"Alright, dewdrop it is then, welcome to the Manhattan newsies Dewdrop." I announced. "Are ya ready to meet the rest of the Manhattan gang." I asked, holding the expression on my face until she answered.
"I've got to meet them sometime right?"
"uhh yeah." I said scrunching my face in confusion.
"Well I guess now is as good a time as ever then" She said.
"Haha, yeah I guess so" I answered, no longer feeling confused.
"Alright then I guess I'm ready." She announced, nervousness edging her normally perfectly even voice.
"Smiley you wanna do the honors this time?" I said, turning to look at her.
"I sure do." She responded, her violet eyes sparkling at the thought.
She took in a deep breath, and brushed her curls out of her face. "HEY BUMMAS, GET IN HERE NOW! ME AND SNAP HAVE AN ANNOUCMENT!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. "They should come now." She said to us, a very satisfied look on her already glowing face.
Dewdrop must have jumped back ten feet at the sound of the stampeding newsies. I laughed at the memory of my first introduction to all these crazy fellas. Skittery had screamed just like Smiley just had using his deep attractive voice. I had braced my self against the wall when all the newsies had very nosily made their way into the room. Skitt had had a good laugh about that one.
"Don't worry they are nicer than they sound" I said, placing an assuring hand on her shoulder.
She looked at me in disbelief with an expression that said you guys are crazy I wanna get outta here.
"Heya who's the goil?" Race asked, a cigar in his mouth like usual.
"You'll find out in a minute." Smiley said impatiently. She was constantly getting annoyed with the boys' stupid questions.
"Ok whateva." Race replied indifferently, dropping the subject.
Mush walked in next flirting with Swirly who walked beside him. Her emerald eyes shining brightly as he happily chatted with her. She liked Mush already, I could tell. She continually talked about him, and spent as much time with him as possible. A bright smile lit up her face as she walked into the room beside him. Mush's reaction to Dewdrop was what I expected from all the guys, except for maybe Race who could care less as long as he had Scuff. Mush's eyes practically popped out of his head. It's very rare that a girl like Dewdrop stops by the lodging house. I also anticipated the jealousy that crossed Swirly's face at that moment.
We didn't have a chance against her, and we all knew it. Us girl newsies fixed our hair every morning, and made an effort to look neat, but dewdrop looked like she put all her effort into looking lovely everyday. We couldn't compete with her; it was like comparing a raindrop to a diamond. They were both pretty, but one was far more beautiful than the other. Me, and all the other girls grew more and more jealous each time another one of the boys noticed Dewdrop.
When Snoddy entered the room, he couldn't keep his eyes off Dewdrop. Smiley's normally violet eyes turned a fiery red. She stomped across the room, her light brown curls bouncing furiously. She made her way over to Snoddy, and firmly locked arms with him forcing him back to reality. His generally pale complexion was now a deep red as he realized what he had been doing. Right in front of everyone, she reached up and yanked his face down kissing him determinedly. His eyes shot open in shock, but immediately closed again as he leaned into the kiss and wrapped his arms around Smiley's waist. I had never seen Snoddy happier in my life, nor Smiley more content. When they were finally finished, and everyone had calmed down, I stepped forward to make the announcement.
"Okay fellas, I know we had to do this just yesterday, but as you can see we have another introduction to make. This is Dewdrop everyone, and she wants to become a newsie. Her parents died not to long ago and she is all alone now, she needs a family just like we did when we came here lonely and nervous. So can we all please help Dewdrop feel welcome and help her get the hang of bein a newsie?"
Mush was the first to reply. "Yeah sure, I'll take her sellin wit me tommora, and teach her some techniques."
"Naw I'm a better teacher than you, I'll take her wit me." Blink argued.
When Snick realized that it was Blink who had said that, she got this look on her face like she was gonna eat someone. She fiddled with her brown suspenders, running her fingers up and down them numerous times, almost wearing them down to nothing. She finally stuck out her chest proudly and waltzed over to where Blink was standing. She put the bet fake smile possible on and looked up at him fluttering her eyelashes.
"You are supposed to sell with me tomorrow remember? Me, your girlfriend, Snick" She said anger edging her voice.
"Oh Yeah I forgot, sorry Dewdrop maybe another time."
"It's ok Blink there will be plenty of times when we can sell together."
"Oh, no there won't be." Snick said, hauling Blink away, her auburn hair flying back and forth as she trudged off, pulling Blink along furiously.
Dewdrop had her eyes on Race, and it didn't go unnoticed. Race saw her staring at him, but he also saw Scuff looking terribly jealous but not doing anything about it.
"Hey Scuff baby, come stand wit me." A smile graced Scuff's face as she skipped over to where race was standing and laced her fingers through his.
The guys were still bickering about who would take Dewdrop selling with them tomorrow, and I was fed up already, thankfully Dutchy didn't seem interested in her, or at least he didn't show it if he did. He just sat in the corner, his glasses resting comfortably on his nose, and his eyes occupied elsewhere.
"QUIET" I yelled angrily. "I will take dewdrop selling tomorrow and that's that, so just shut-up all of you.
After a few moments the heat died down, and I went around the room introducing each and every Manhattan newsie to her. When I finally finished I told them they could go do whatever now, but instead of flocking out of the room like usual they all assembled around Dewdrop. There were a select few who did not, like Snoddy for example who was still in a bit of a daze, and Racetrack who sat in the corner his lips entangled in Scuff's.
Snick walked over to me her eyes a flaming red, and her hair all askew. I don't like this girl all ready." She complained. I looked up and noticed that Dutchy had finally taken fascination in Dewdrop. "I don't either." I replied annoyance edging my voice. This girl was gonna be trouble, I had a gut feeling about it……….
Sorry this chapter was so long, I had to make it kinda long in order to fit everything in.
