Ealasaid Una-Yeah, it was a pretty great gift.

MinnieG-Thank you! (As always.) Yeah, that part was fun to write. I also had fun coming up with Laura's reaction. (By the way, I really want to write you your own story. Please let me know any details you want included and I'll get to work on it.)

Panda Bear-Yay! You're back! How's high school going? Is it better than middle school? Marching band sounds exciting. If I'm ever in Florida I'll look you up and come watch. I'm glad you still like my stories. I had a lot of fun writing about Ally and the car and the last chapter was fun to come up with.

So this chapter was kind of inspired by a story by rellimmes. I think it was called the cat and the fiddle. Either way, go read her stuff. She's awesome. And I'll take requests. No slash or anything like that, but anything family friendly.

The last day of 1900 started with a blizzard and freezing rain; all the newsies were hiding indoors because of it. The atmosphere in the lodging house was cheerful despite the weather. Race had started a lively game of poker, several of the older newsies were placing bets on it, and David, who had brought Les for a visit the night before and stayed over, had Jack helping him tell a story to the younger newsies. The rest of the newsies were either watching the poker game, sitting around watching the story, or hanging off their beds talking. Blink was one of the latter people, his head hanging into Crutchy's bunk and his lower half on the bunk above. They had started a game of I Spy just before lunch, but being trapped inside, that game quickly got old.

"I spy somethin dat is..." Crutchy looked around the room for inspiration. "Somethin dat is...black."

"Jack's cowboy hat," Blink immediately said. "Dis game is boring."

"Well wat bright ideas do youse got?"

"We could...we could...Ise got nothin."

"All dat blood rushin ta your brain ain't helpin."

Blink sat up, his face a dark red. He flopped back on the bed and sighed, his mind starting to wander. Crutchy lifted his crutch and gently poked the mattress. Getting no reaction, he kept trying to get one. Out of nowhere, a cold hand reached up and pressed against Crutchy's face. He shrieked and shot up in bed, hitting the mattress above him. Blink flew a foot in the air with a cry of surprise. A pillow flew out of nowhere, hitting him full in the face and knocking him off the bed onto the floor. The room went dead silent except for the sound of two girls laughing.

"Ow," Blink finally managed to mumble about five minutes later. "Dat hurt."

The face of his girlfriend Laura appeared above him. He pushed himself up to a sitting position and mock glared at her. "Are you okay?" she asked with a smirk. "I hope we didn't hurt you."

He shook his head. Reaching for the hand she was offering, he gave it a firm yank and pulled her on top of him. She gave a small shriek and tried unsuccessfully to maintain her balance. Crutchy tossed a pillow to Blink as his girlfriend Carey threw one to Laura. Pretty soon an all-out pillow fight broke out and every newsie joined in the fray. It carried on until Kloppman walked in. He stared in a bit of shock at the sight of feathers raining down before collecting his wits and using his fingers to whistle.

"The snow stopped," he announced to the newsies, who were all watching for his reaction. "By the looks of it, none too soon. Go throw some snowballs instead of pillows."

Outside, the newsies took over the streets and turned it into a war zone. They threw snowballs at everyone and anyone; even Kloppman joined in for a while. Mid afternoon Spot came over with his girlfriend Robin and some of his newsies to wage war on Manhattan- Kloppman declared it a tie in the end and invited people to come in for hot chocolate. Blink, Crutchy, Laura, and Carey all gathered in the sitting room as everyone else ran upstairs with their drinks.

"Thanks for comin over," Blink said to the girls, wiping his mouth. "Ise was dyin of boredom."

"Yeah. I Spy was gettin old," Crutchy added.

After that, the two couples sat in silence, drinking hot chocolate and watching the gently falling snow outside the window.