Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of the Newsies, the songs, or the plot line in anyway. Anything or anyone that you recognize from the movie belongs to the movie. I am not claiming ownership in any way, shape, or form. I'm just a girl who loves the movie and wants to write about it.
Chapter 7
Elizabeth's Point of View
I walked through the crowded streets of downtown Manhattan. Why couldn't I have gotten Matthew to drive me? I thought to myself. It was a warm afternoon and I could hardly breathe in the corsets I was wearing. Not to mention my dress was getting crushed from so many people passing by me and the skirt was dirty from dragging on the dusty ground. I hated summer in New York City. Thank God we were going up to our summer home next week, it couldn't come soon enough. I was on my way to Central Park to meet Katherine who was already there. Why didn't I ask Matthew to drive me? I asked myself again. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I passed some street children playing in an alley. Their skinny little arms and tan skin, they looked so pitiful. That reminded me to position my parasol higher so that it better shielded my face from the sun. I prided myself on my white complexion and many people commented on it, in a good way. I couldn't have myself becoming "brown as an Indian" now could I? I scolded myself yet again for not asking Matthew to drive me.
Finally I rounded a corner and found myself at the park entrance. Katherine said that she would be sketching down near the lake. I wandered down the paths towards the lake, taking my time. If all of New York City was like this I would want to stay here my whole life, sadly, it wasn't, far from it. Finally I reached the lake and found Katherine. She was sitting on a rock sketching a willow tree that was reaching into the lake.
"Good afternoon Katherine." I said sitting down next to her.
Her hand went immediately to her heart, "gracious me Elizabeth, you gave me such a scare, what possessed you come sneaking up on me like that?"
Instead of answering her question I leaned over to inspect her sketch. It was quite good, though the shading didn't seem right for some reason. "I started it around noon," she said as if reading my mind, "and the shadows have been constantly changing ever since" she let out a little sigh "I wish the sun would stay still for just the few hours it takes to finish a sketch." We sat in silence for a few minutes. The only sounds were those of the birds chattering, the small waves rippling, and Katherine's pencil scratching. Finally after fifteen minutes she stopped. "I can't do it! Leave art to the master's I'm through!" With that she crumpled up the piece of paper and tossed it at a nearby squirrel.
I almost had to try to keep from laughing. Katherine could be so funny when she was angry.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing" I managed to choke out.
"Humph, well, let's go, I've bored myself to death here."
I shrugged, "Alright, you didn't happen to have a carriage with you did you?"
"No I didn't why do you ask?"
"No reason." Glorious I thought I get to walk that whole way again. Katherine and I were about half way back to our home when someone ran into me.
"Sorry" she said, averting my eyes, and then kept running.
I sniffed, "how rude."
"Did you get a good look at her?" asked Katherine turning to me.
"No…why would I want to?"
"Well, if I didn't know better she could have been your twin, you looked enough alike and there aren't many sixteen year old girls that are only five foot one running around New York City."
Her?My twin? Rebecca? I spun around and searched the crowd for the girl but she was nowhere in sight.
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That night I lay in bed thinking. Could she have really been Rebecca? If so, our lives had sure turned out differently. Here I am, a member of the highest level of New York Society and there was Rebecca, at the distinct other end of the social ladder, a street rat. From the fact that she had been carrying newspapers I guessed that she was now making a living as a newsie. Everyone knew that newsies were trouble makers. They had rebelled against Joseph Pulitzer, a personal friend of my father's, and one of the most powerful men in New York City, and had actually gotten away with it. No one should be allowed to get away with that. And Rebecca had become one? She had always been wild and crazy, but she was smart and wouldn't get herself mixed up with those kinds of people. Would she?
Yeah, Elizabeth turned out a little full of herself didn't she? Well I'll see what Athena can do about that…but she won't be able to come up with any ideas if she isn't fed so go and review, or else she may need to go hunt down some of those lurking readers that I know are out there…
Shout outs:
Thanks so much to Star Lewis, Links aka Eruptingfender9, NarniaRulz, SilverRain1.3, and Racerchick for reviewing! (I'm too lazy to write individual shout-outs)
