"Where are we going?" Rosie asked.

"The girls' lodging house. Come on." Spot helped her up and grabbed the rest of his papers. The two of them ran down busy streets and narrow alleys. Roselia felt her throat start to burn from running in the cool evening air. She was falling behind Spot. He grabbed her hand and ran even faster.

"Almost there."

Roselia nearly collapsed on the stone steps of the lodging house. It was situated right in the middle of a nice, quiet street. The lodging house was a brick building with flower boxes in the window. Actually, it looked a lot like the boarding house, just a little older.

"I'll let you catch your breath." said Spot and he went inside.

Roselia didn't know what to expect. She prepared herself for the worst. Rosie jumped when she heard the door open. Spot stood next to a pretty, red-haired woman. She smiled at Roselia.

"Oh, you poor dear. Spot told me everything. Come on inside and we'll get you all fixed up." Spot helped her up and they followed the woman inside the lodging house. "I'm Ms. Evelyn Casella, by the way."

"Did you tell her everything?" Roselia whispered to Spot.

"Everything." he answered, and feeling her grip tense and her eyes widen, he added, "It's going to be ok. Relax, she'll take care of you."

They were led to a big room with three rows of bunk beds right inside the door. To the left were sinks and mirrors lined up, stalls that probably had toilets inside; and drawers that were half open, ribbons and rags were spilling out the top. Spot didn't come through the door.

"It's ok Spot," Evelyn said. "No one's here. Well, except for Katrina and Ellie." Roselia saw two little girls, who looked to be 2 and 3 years old, playing by the window.

"Thanks," said Spot smiling and waving at the little girls, "But I think I'm gonna finish selling my papes."

"I'll take one of those." Ms. Casella searched her pockets and produced a dime which she handed to Spot.

"I don't think I have enough to make change." he said, turning out his pockets.

"You can keep it all."

"But Ms.-"

"I insist." Evelyn said sternly, a smile played on her lips, though.

"Thank you." he turned to Roselia, looking into her eyes. "I promise I'll be back as soon as I'm done." She watched him walk out the door and down the steps.

"Right," said Evelyn, "We'll have you fixed up in no time."

Ms. Casella seemed very nice. She had kind hazel eyes, and she was always smiling. Roselia figured she was probably the age her parents would be if they were still alive. "Spot told me you're on the run from Mr. Snyder."

Roselia nodded, not knowing what to say. "You'll have to change your clothes. That dress is too conspicuous." Ms. Casella rummaged through closets and trunks gathering clothes for Rosie.

She was given a white blouse, a little worn but still in one piece; a black button up coat, a gray hat like Spot's, gray trousers with suspenders, and brown leather boots with mismatched laces. "I'm sorry," said Evelyn, "most of the clothes we have here are for boys. These girls don't have much. You'll get your dress back tomorrow, after I dye it black to disguise it, if that's ok."

"Thank you," Roselia said. "You're not going to turn me in, are you?"

"Of course not!" said Ms. Casella, looking surprised. "You did nothing wrong." Roselia was relieved.

"I don't have any money. How will I ever repay you?"

"Room and board here is free. The state pays my husband and I to run this house." Evelyn led Rosie downstairs to the counter she pulled out an old, brown leather book. "Could you sign your name and date of birth, if you know it."

Roselia wrote: Roselia Emmeline Meyers, October 31, 1883.

"You're near 13 years old?" Ms. Casella asked. "There are a few girls close to your age here. I think you'll all get along great." Roselia hoped so.

She noticed a lot of the girls had words in parentheses next to their names, like Spark, Swing, and Story. Every word was different.

"Those are their nicknames," said Evelyn. "You'll get one eventually." She stopped and looked at Roselia right in the eyes. "You know, it will get better." she said.

"How can you be so sure?" Roselia asked. She felt like her dreams had been crushed.

"Because it's always better in the end. When I was your age all I wanted to do was marry my prince and have children." said Ms. Casella, Rosie smiled. "Well, I did meet my prince and we're still in love. But after we got married, we found out we couldn't have children." Tears filled Evelyn's eyes. "But we didn't let that stop us. We saw all the poor orphans out on the streets, barely surviving and we petitioned the mayor to let us start an orphanage. He told us Brooklyn needed a newsgirls lodging house. Now we have 50 beautiful daughters. My point is, keep on chasing your dreams, it will get better in the end." Roselia couldn't stop herself. She ran to Ms. Casella and cried into her shoulder.

"Thank you." she said. A few minutes passed and they heard the door open. Roselia turned and saw Spot standing there, looking uncomfortable.

"You ok?" he asked her.

"Yes," Roselia, a little embarrassed, dried her tears.

"Spot," Evelyn said, "Tomorrow I need you to teach Roselia to be a newsie. I can't think of anyone better to do the job.

Spot beamed.

"I'll be back here tomorrow, then." he said. Spot opened the door and an never-ending line of girls piled into the house. Spot laughed, holding the door open and greeting each one of them by name. When the last of the girls ran past Spot, giggling, he tipped his hat and said, "Goodnight ladies." and left.

Roselia was given a bed on the top bunk between two sisters, Story and Spark Masi. Katrina and Ellie shared the bed underneath hers.

Even after all that had happened today, Roselia smiled in her sleep.


"Wake up! It's time to get ready!" said Ms. Casella the next morning.

Roselia wasn't used to waking up so early. The sun wasn't even up. She blinked several times to get her vision to clear. She nearly ran into one of the girls.

"Whoa," the girl said. It was Story, one of the girls who had the beds next to Roselia.

"Sorry," Rosie said groggily.

"It's ok. Hey, I heard you already met the famous Spot Conlon."

"Yes, he um... Kind of saved my life." Roselia pulled on her dress that Ms. Casella had hung on the edge of her bed after it was finished dying. It was almost unidentifiable as her school uniform. She put on the hat Ms. Casella had given her as well.

"Oh, how romantic!" Story said as she brushed her hair. Spark giggled beside her.

"So you're gonna be a newsie?" said Story's sister, Spark.

"Yeah," said Roselia. "There's not much else I know how to do."

"It's a fine life carryin' the banner." said Story.

Roselia followed the girls downstairs and out the door. Spot was already there waiting for her. When he saw them he stood up and put his hat to his heart as he had before.

"Morning, ladies." he smiled right at Roselia.

"Morning, Spot." said Spark. She winked at Roselia.

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Story added.

Roselia and Spot stared at each other for a minute. Story and Spark giggled.

"Oh... Good morning." Roselia said.

"Shall we?" said Spot, leading the way.

Although Rosie had lived in Brooklyn for 5 years, she hadn't seen much of the city. She never noticed how many children worked in the city. They saw kids of all ages, sleepily walking off to work.

Roselia's stomach growled loudly.

"You hungry?" Spot asked. Roselia nodded. "Hold on one minute." Spot led the girls through a small alley that led to a big square. Around the perimeter were tall business buildings. An open carriage was stopped in the middle of the street. Nuns were handing out bread and cups of coffee to some of the working children.

"Good morning, sisters." Spot said cheerily, taking off his hat for them.

"Good morning, Spot." a few answered back.

"And who is this pretty young one you have here?" one asked gesturing to Roselia.

"This is Roselia, she's new." Rosie smiled politely and her stomach growled again.

"Oh you poor thing." The nuns handed her a cup and some bread. The bread was stale and the coffee bitter, but it woke her up.

They walked down the street, a little ways and reached a gate. The bell rang and the newsies lined up. Roselia realized something kind of important.

"I don't have any money." she said when she saw other newsies paying for papers.

"That's ok," said Spot, smiling. "I'll pay for your papes we'll be selling partners. 50/50 sound fair?"

Roselia wanted to hug him.

"Thank you." was all she said.

Spot bought 150 papers and handed Roselia some.

"Here's 20. See what you can do with that."

Roselia and Spot sat down on the curb to read. "These are terrible headlines." She said flipping through the pages.

"Well then, that's the first thing you gotta learn. Headlines don't sell papes, newsies sell papes. Take a lesson from Story. She's one a' the best girl newsies in this city." Spot pointed to Story, who had already sold 5 papers. Roselia listened carefully, Story was just making up headlines.

"But isn't that lying?" Roselia asked.

"Nah, it's the same thing the writers do. Just gets more people interested, you know?" Roselia realized this actually made sense.

She and Spot walked down the street to find a spot to sell their papers. As Spot made a sale to a couple of businessmen, Roselia saw four boys sitting on steps of a house, talking. One looked over at her and smiled. They were definitely rich boys, judging from their clothing. The youngest looked to be about 14 and the oldest looked 17. They were probably getting ready to go off to school.

"Good morning, gentlemen." Roselia gave them her sweetest smile. The youngest boy blushed and the other boys laughed at him. "Care for a paper?"

"Any good stories in there?" asked one of the older boys, smiling back at Rosie.

"I don't know." She said flirtatiously, "You're going to have to buy one to find out."

"Ok then," said the oldest boy. "Boys we got ourselves a cute little business girl right here. What do you think, should we help her out?"

The others nodded in agreement. The oldest handed Roselia a quarter, insisting she keep the change, and she gave them the four papers.

"Thank you, very much." she said, curtseying to them.

"Any time." The boys waved goodbye to her.

Roselia walked back to Spot, a big smile on her face.

"You just get out on the street and you're already chasing the boys?" Spot teased.

"That's just what I do. I'm a chaser." She said. "I chase my dreams. And I chase the boys." Spot smiled at her.

"Maybe that's what we should call you, Chase."

"I like that."