See, I promised that I would have more T.A.R.K. for you all, as well as a
surprise!! (It'll be at the end of this chapter!!) But first, the Thank
you's! Thank you to:
Monday
Slash!
Reeny
Tunes
Discord
Tinker
Quipster
Prankster
Patchess
Princess
Lucky
Wish (Can I have my chocolate-covered Jack now?)
Loch
Chesa
Quirky
Holiday
Jibajabba
Gemini
Sab
Iris (thanks for dancing Jack!)
Megs
Satine
Shimmer
Moneybags
Squibble
Laces
Pisky
BlackRose
Bon Bon
Briar
And anyone else I may have forgotten… I love you anyways!!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I kin answah dat question, Missy." came a voice that seemed to appear from nowhere as another black hole appeared.
All thirty-one of the girls jumped into the air and landed in a huge dog- pile upon hearing a voice call from the black hole. No one moved at all, all of the girls waiting for the knowledgeable person to fall from the sky like they had.
Instead of entering the white nothing-ness, the voice stayed lodged in the black hole. "Ha ha ha, you'se goils look so funny down deah." an annoying male voice, riddled with a thick - and grammatically incorrect - New Yawk accent, called.
Though many of the girls shook their fists up at the black hole and mumbled curses towards it, no one actually stepped forward to ask him the answer to Slash!'s question.
"I have an idea!" whispered Discord, who was at the top of the dog-pile. She whispered it to Quirky, who whispered it down to Moneybags who whispered it to Tunes and so on and so forth until everyone had heard Discord's idea except for Stress. Discord, who was still on the top of the pile since none of the girls had moved at all, shouted "One, two, three!" and upon three, Loch, Reeny and Braces pushed Stress out of the pile.
"Hey, what's the big idea?" she called as she landed again on her rump. If she wasn't careful she was going to have one hell of a bruise when she got back to Edison!
"You were voted leader, remember? Now lead us and find out who that voice belongs to!" called Monday's voice, faintly because she was still hidden under Lucky in the middle of the pile.
Stress shrugged and looked up at the black hole that was looming above them. "O.K., since I'm the leader, as Monday was kind enough to point out, I guess you have to answer to me, the all-mighty Stress." she yelled as she flexed her measley biceps.
The semi-fierceness she had wanted to portray was thrown off when two other girls that were still lying at the top of the dog-pile, Feisty and Chesa, broke out into giggles. The other girls all joined in, pointing at Stress who was still acting as if she was a candidate for the Mister Universe Contest.
"Silence, miserable Newsies fans." screeched the voice, while shaking the white-nothingness and knocking the blue sticks out of their floating positions. "Mwahahahaha!" he laughed as the blue sticks fell on top of the dogpile, quieting all the giggles.
Stress stood up and glared at the black hole. "Who do you think you are? That hurt!" she cried as she rubbed her head where a blue stick had just whacked her. A chorus of "Yeah"'s and "Ouch"'s followed as all of the girls finally got to their feet. Well, most of them tried to get to their feet; As Sab went to stand up, she tripped over a non-floating blue stick on the ground and sent herself flying. As she flew she grabbed onto Megs and Frizz and took them with her, resulting in another, smaller, dog-pile. "Oops, did I do that?" Sab giggled as Megs and Frizz rolled their eyes and crawled away from the ditzy brunette.
Stress took a few steps over to her right to stand directly under the black hole. "Who are you, Mister-I'm-So-Mighty-Up-There-In-My-Black-Hole-Where- the-Beautiful-and-Talented-Girls-of-the-NML-Can't-Get-Me-and--?"
"Stress, shut up!" cried Laces, Iris and Dice in one voice. As Stress wandered off to sulk because her rant was interrupted, Dice turned to face the black hole. "What our - er, verbose- leader meant to ask is: Who are you?"
Once again evil laughter errupted from the black hole. "You'se goilies wanna know who I is? I'll give you'se a hint. 'Get da lead outta your pants!' Mwahahahaha!"
In unison, all the NMLer's let out a gasp. It couldn't be...No, he wouldn't...
Squibble turned to face Quipster. "I know that's not who I think it is because he's still locked in your drawer, right? Right Quipster?"
Quipster started to whistle as she avoided making eye contact with any of the other girls.
Tinker hit her forehead with her hand. "You let him escape, didn't you Quipster?"
"You don't know that that voice belongs to the annoying kid. He could just be pretending to play a joke on us all." Quipster said indignantly, trying to save her own butt.
Prankster threw her arms out around her. "Lovely joke, eh? In case you've all forgotten, we're still stuck here."
Satine stepped forward. "And where is here? And who are you? If you're not the kid in Quipster's drawer, who are you?"
Patchess chimed in. "Yeah, why don't you show yourself, you big coward!" she cried before turning to hide behind Briar. Briar, afraid that Patchess may have offended the voice, pushed her towards Pisky. Pisky pushed her back at Briar and a full-leghth game of Pass-the-Patchess was started. After a quick game, where Pisky's team won 21-20, the girls turned back to face the black hole and question the voice that had shut up while he had watched the match.
"O.K., are you ready to show yourself to us, now?" called Wish.
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, their surroundings glittered bright orange and there was a tiny explosion as a figure appeared. "As per you'se request, I'se heah. Da one an' only - T.A.R.K." the short red- headed figure announced as he took a bow.
"Quipster?!" cried thirty female voices.
"I didn't do it!" Quipster said in response as she shook her head. How was she to know that the annoying kid in her drawer could - and would- escape?
"Naw, she didn't do it. I escaped meself." he said proudly.
"Why did you escape? And why are we here? And where is here anyways?" questioned Holiday in rapidfire succession. She was about to let out another round of questions when Jibajabba noticed and covered Holiday's mouth with her hand. "Let him answer those questions first, Holiday."
T.A.R.K. smirked at the girls as he gestured all around him. "I t'ought dat would be obvious. Why else would awl dese floatin' sticks be heah if dis place wasn't Limbo?"
T.A.R.K.'s sentence was cut off when thirty of the girls groaned at the awful pun. Only Sab looked confused. "I don't get it? I like to limbo."
T.A.R.K. ignored Sab's stupid comment and continued with answering Holiday's questions. "Now dis brings me why I escaped an' got awl you'se goils ta come heah."
"Let me guess, it was you that sent us an e-mail to get us here, right?" questioned Stress, with an obvious pout in her voice. She still hadn't gotten over being told to shut up.
"Ooh, Stress, you'se so smaht." T.A.R.K. said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. How many ever-mighty, immortal and powerful-enough-to-suck- thirty-one-girls-through-their-computer-screen-T.A.R.K.'s did this girl think were running around nowadays?
The sarcasm was lost on Stress. "Thanks, I always thought so." she said smugly as the other girls all ignored her and turned back to listen to T.A.R.K's reasons for dragging them out of their homes.
"Well, I got bored bein' locked up in Quipstah's sock drawah an' I t'ought dat I'd have some fun wreakin' havoc in Manhattan."
Loch looked over at T.A.R.K. in confusion. "But why do you need us here? I don't think any of us live in Manhattan, so what good are we?"
T.A.R.K. laughed evilly again. "Mwahahahaha! When I say Manhattan, I don't mean Manhattan in 2002, I mean Manhattan 1899 wheah awl me fellow newsies live."
Not being able to control herself, Reeny screamed out loud. "You mean, we're going to be able to meet the newsies? Quick, someone catch me! I think I'm going to faint!" Unfortunately no one was paying any attention to her because they were too busy freaking out at the idea of meeting their beloved newsies.
As Reeny rubbed her butt where she had landed when she had fainted, Princess calmly asked T.A.R.K. "Is it true? Is that why we are here? Are we gonna get to meet the newsies? Am I going to get to meet Skittery? Please tell me I'm going to get to meet my Skittery!" she ended her sentence in a high-pitch squeal as she started to jump up and down.
T.A.R.K. shot Princess a warning look as Chesa ran forward to calm her down. "Like I was sayin' befoah, yes I'se gonna take you'se awl ta me hometown. But be prepared of what you'se find, goilies! Tis wreakin' havoc time!" he shouted as he snapped his fingers three times and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"That was strange." Quirky said as she watched the smoke clear to find that T.A.R.K. was gone.
All of a sudden, Limbo began to shake, rattle and roll. The girls flew from one side to the next, upside down and inside out until they found themselves sprawled out in the middle of a dirt street in a crowded city.
"That was stranger." Tunes remarked as she got to her feet , looking around, wide-eyed.
"Girls, I think we have arrived." Discord remarked with a huge smile on her face.
"Ahhh! We're in Manhattan!! Where are the newsies?? I wanna see my JAAAACCCKKK!!" Stress screamed as she got up and began to run around in circles, taking in all the sights at once.
Slash! reached outwards and tapped Stress on the shoulder. Stress stopped running around in circles and calmed down. "O.K., I think I got that out of my system. Now, as your leader, I think we should make a quick plan up. Any ideas?"
Tinker jumped forward. "Oooh, I know. I can go run to Brooklyn, find Spot and rape him!" she said excitedly.
"Umm- no. I don't think so. Any other suggestions?" Stress asked, ignoring the look Tinker was giving her. When no one else gave an answer, they all wanted to go find and have their way with their favorite newsies and had no other ideas in mind than doing that, Stress came up with a *gasp* good idea. "I know, guys. How about we try to find the Lodging House and then we can meet the newsies and do the unmentionables. Then we can go to Brooklyn, find Spot and Tinker can rape him." she added so that Tinker would stop shooting death glares in her direction. It was scary.
All the girls applauded her idea; They knew that the only thing in her mind was to get Jack alone while she had the chance.
"Now, in order to make things a little easier for everyone, especially since I think that thirty-one girls waltzing into the LH knowing everything about them might make the newsies a wee bit nervous -- Don't you just love that phrase? A wee bit? I think it's darling and--"
"Stress, just when you come up with a good idea, you blow it by opening up your mouth." Quipster said, anxious for Stress to just get to the point for once. "What should we do to make things easier?"
"Like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," she paused a moment to stick her tongue out at Quipster, "I think that we might just scare them if we act like ourselves. I think that we should all agree on who is going for each newsie and afterwards we'll all meet up together later. You know, over by the Horace Greeley statue, so that we can share our adventures. Does that sound okay?"
When she was met with nodding heads, she opened her mouth.. "I get dibs on Jack!"
Briar and Lucky both groaned but knew better than to argue. Stress thought that Jack was hers and nothing they could say would ever persuade her otherwise. "In that case, I get Snoddy." claimed Briar.
"I want Specs." added Lucky.
Slash! turned suddenly to face Lucky. "No, Lucky, I get Specs."
Lucky tried to argue with Slash! "No, I called him first, therefore he's mine."
Eager to meet up with Skittery, Wish tried to point out the obvious before Slash! replied to Lucky's last remark. "Guys, you know that there is 31 of us but only a few of the prominent newsies. Of course there is gonna be doubles, so we are just gonna have to share, k?"
Briar looked over at Stress eagerly. "Stress, will you share Jack with me, then?"
Stress looked appalled at the very idea. "No. You can have Snoddy."
Briar shrugged. It was worth a shot. "O.K., I get Snoddy."
Soon the air was full of the NMLer's calling out names of their favorite newsies. Once everyone had staked their claim, Stress recited the groups to make sure everyone knew who was doing who-- I mean what. "O.K., when we get to the LH, I'm gonna get Jack, Briar gets Snoddy, Monday gets Dutchy, Pisky gets Mush, Squibble gets Davey, Prankster gets Itey, Quirky gets Jake and Holiday gets Bumlets. Slash! and Lucky are gonna share Specs, Sab and Patchess are gonna share Blink, and Feisty, Dice and Moneybags are gonna share Race. Of course Spot is the most popular. I guess we're gonna have to visit Brooklyn soon so that Megs, Iris, Braces, Discord, Jibajabba, Laces, Frizz, Tinker and Loch can grovel at his feet." she said with a smirk as she ducked the playful - O.K., not so playful - shoves the Spot fanatics gave her. She then turned to face another group of girls who were shooting each other suspicious looks. "And, for some reason, Princess, Wish, Chesa, Tunes and Reeny want to spend some time with Mr. Pink Undies, himself. What about you Quipster?" she addressed the only girl who couldn't make up her mind of which newsie she was going to attatch herself too.
Quipster smiled a knowing smile. "I don't know yet. I just want to meet all the newsies."
Stress shrugged and stopped a young newsie passing by. "Hey, you. Can you tell us how to get to the Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House?"
The kid looked up at Stress with a sad look in his eyes. "Hehe, dis heah dame looks like da poifect suckah for me poor orphan routine." he thought to himself before coughing pitifully. "Shoah, ma'am. COUGH COUGH It's a few blocks COUGH COUGH dat way. COUGH COUGH COUGH." he added for insurance.
"Oh, you poor thing. Here's a dollar for you. Thanks for telling us which way to go." she said as she patted him on the head and handed him a dollar, not realizing he had taken her for a sap.
The other girls just shook their heads at Stress's gullibility - if that's even a word. They all eagerly headed in the direction the young nameless newsie had pointed them in, anxious to see their newsies in person.
When they reached the lodging house, all thirty-one of the girls squealed in delight to see the building from the movie they knew so well standing right in front of them.
Before any of the girls had a chance to run inside, Chesa voiced something that had been nagging her since they had left Limbo. "Hey guys, what do you think T.A.R.K. meant when he said that he brought us all here to see him wreaking havoc in Manhattan 1899?"
The only one who actually paid attention to her when she asked her question, Monday, just shrugged as she followed the girls into the lodging house. As they ran past the lobby, leaving a bewildered looking Kloppman in their wake, and thundered up the lodging house stairs, the girls were all giddy and excited at the idea of seeing their newsies in person.
When they arrived at the door of the bunkroom the domino effect took over. The first five girls at the door, Stress, Feisty, Squibble, Holiday and Loch, stopped once they saw the sight before them. The next five girls, Frizz, Megs, Wish, Discord and Sab, didn't have enough time to stop and ended up bowling the first three over. Then the next five girls knocked over them and so on until the only two girls, the two girls that had calmly strolled up the steps instead of stampeding like a herd of rampaging elephants, worse yet female elephants with raging hormones, that were left standing, gawked in horror.
"I think this answers your question, Chesa." Monday whispered.
Chesa nodded slowly, her eyes transfixed. "I think you're right, Monday."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mwahahahaha!! The power of a cliffhanger!! But here's a surprise for you all!! Since I'm a major dork with way too much time on my hands, there is now a T.A.R.K. Control website- a site for people to join a club where we battle T.A.R.K.!! There has been such a nice amout of support for T.A.R.K. that I've decided to make him a character in other stories. Therefore I need a place to put those adventures!! You can apply to be a member of T.A.R.K. Control and see what else is in store for him!!
Check out the new site (just opened today!!) -- http://www.geocities.com/tarkcontrol/index.html
Monday
Slash!
Reeny
Tunes
Discord
Tinker
Quipster
Prankster
Patchess
Princess
Lucky
Wish (Can I have my chocolate-covered Jack now?)
Loch
Chesa
Quirky
Holiday
Jibajabba
Gemini
Sab
Iris (thanks for dancing Jack!)
Megs
Satine
Shimmer
Moneybags
Squibble
Laces
Pisky
BlackRose
Bon Bon
Briar
And anyone else I may have forgotten… I love you anyways!!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I kin answah dat question, Missy." came a voice that seemed to appear from nowhere as another black hole appeared.
All thirty-one of the girls jumped into the air and landed in a huge dog- pile upon hearing a voice call from the black hole. No one moved at all, all of the girls waiting for the knowledgeable person to fall from the sky like they had.
Instead of entering the white nothing-ness, the voice stayed lodged in the black hole. "Ha ha ha, you'se goils look so funny down deah." an annoying male voice, riddled with a thick - and grammatically incorrect - New Yawk accent, called.
Though many of the girls shook their fists up at the black hole and mumbled curses towards it, no one actually stepped forward to ask him the answer to Slash!'s question.
"I have an idea!" whispered Discord, who was at the top of the dog-pile. She whispered it to Quirky, who whispered it down to Moneybags who whispered it to Tunes and so on and so forth until everyone had heard Discord's idea except for Stress. Discord, who was still on the top of the pile since none of the girls had moved at all, shouted "One, two, three!" and upon three, Loch, Reeny and Braces pushed Stress out of the pile.
"Hey, what's the big idea?" she called as she landed again on her rump. If she wasn't careful she was going to have one hell of a bruise when she got back to Edison!
"You were voted leader, remember? Now lead us and find out who that voice belongs to!" called Monday's voice, faintly because she was still hidden under Lucky in the middle of the pile.
Stress shrugged and looked up at the black hole that was looming above them. "O.K., since I'm the leader, as Monday was kind enough to point out, I guess you have to answer to me, the all-mighty Stress." she yelled as she flexed her measley biceps.
The semi-fierceness she had wanted to portray was thrown off when two other girls that were still lying at the top of the dog-pile, Feisty and Chesa, broke out into giggles. The other girls all joined in, pointing at Stress who was still acting as if she was a candidate for the Mister Universe Contest.
"Silence, miserable Newsies fans." screeched the voice, while shaking the white-nothingness and knocking the blue sticks out of their floating positions. "Mwahahahaha!" he laughed as the blue sticks fell on top of the dogpile, quieting all the giggles.
Stress stood up and glared at the black hole. "Who do you think you are? That hurt!" she cried as she rubbed her head where a blue stick had just whacked her. A chorus of "Yeah"'s and "Ouch"'s followed as all of the girls finally got to their feet. Well, most of them tried to get to their feet; As Sab went to stand up, she tripped over a non-floating blue stick on the ground and sent herself flying. As she flew she grabbed onto Megs and Frizz and took them with her, resulting in another, smaller, dog-pile. "Oops, did I do that?" Sab giggled as Megs and Frizz rolled their eyes and crawled away from the ditzy brunette.
Stress took a few steps over to her right to stand directly under the black hole. "Who are you, Mister-I'm-So-Mighty-Up-There-In-My-Black-Hole-Where- the-Beautiful-and-Talented-Girls-of-the-NML-Can't-Get-Me-and--?"
"Stress, shut up!" cried Laces, Iris and Dice in one voice. As Stress wandered off to sulk because her rant was interrupted, Dice turned to face the black hole. "What our - er, verbose- leader meant to ask is: Who are you?"
Once again evil laughter errupted from the black hole. "You'se goilies wanna know who I is? I'll give you'se a hint. 'Get da lead outta your pants!' Mwahahahaha!"
In unison, all the NMLer's let out a gasp. It couldn't be...No, he wouldn't...
Squibble turned to face Quipster. "I know that's not who I think it is because he's still locked in your drawer, right? Right Quipster?"
Quipster started to whistle as she avoided making eye contact with any of the other girls.
Tinker hit her forehead with her hand. "You let him escape, didn't you Quipster?"
"You don't know that that voice belongs to the annoying kid. He could just be pretending to play a joke on us all." Quipster said indignantly, trying to save her own butt.
Prankster threw her arms out around her. "Lovely joke, eh? In case you've all forgotten, we're still stuck here."
Satine stepped forward. "And where is here? And who are you? If you're not the kid in Quipster's drawer, who are you?"
Patchess chimed in. "Yeah, why don't you show yourself, you big coward!" she cried before turning to hide behind Briar. Briar, afraid that Patchess may have offended the voice, pushed her towards Pisky. Pisky pushed her back at Briar and a full-leghth game of Pass-the-Patchess was started. After a quick game, where Pisky's team won 21-20, the girls turned back to face the black hole and question the voice that had shut up while he had watched the match.
"O.K., are you ready to show yourself to us, now?" called Wish.
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, their surroundings glittered bright orange and there was a tiny explosion as a figure appeared. "As per you'se request, I'se heah. Da one an' only - T.A.R.K." the short red- headed figure announced as he took a bow.
"Quipster?!" cried thirty female voices.
"I didn't do it!" Quipster said in response as she shook her head. How was she to know that the annoying kid in her drawer could - and would- escape?
"Naw, she didn't do it. I escaped meself." he said proudly.
"Why did you escape? And why are we here? And where is here anyways?" questioned Holiday in rapidfire succession. She was about to let out another round of questions when Jibajabba noticed and covered Holiday's mouth with her hand. "Let him answer those questions first, Holiday."
T.A.R.K. smirked at the girls as he gestured all around him. "I t'ought dat would be obvious. Why else would awl dese floatin' sticks be heah if dis place wasn't Limbo?"
T.A.R.K.'s sentence was cut off when thirty of the girls groaned at the awful pun. Only Sab looked confused. "I don't get it? I like to limbo."
T.A.R.K. ignored Sab's stupid comment and continued with answering Holiday's questions. "Now dis brings me why I escaped an' got awl you'se goils ta come heah."
"Let me guess, it was you that sent us an e-mail to get us here, right?" questioned Stress, with an obvious pout in her voice. She still hadn't gotten over being told to shut up.
"Ooh, Stress, you'se so smaht." T.A.R.K. said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. How many ever-mighty, immortal and powerful-enough-to-suck- thirty-one-girls-through-their-computer-screen-T.A.R.K.'s did this girl think were running around nowadays?
The sarcasm was lost on Stress. "Thanks, I always thought so." she said smugly as the other girls all ignored her and turned back to listen to T.A.R.K's reasons for dragging them out of their homes.
"Well, I got bored bein' locked up in Quipstah's sock drawah an' I t'ought dat I'd have some fun wreakin' havoc in Manhattan."
Loch looked over at T.A.R.K. in confusion. "But why do you need us here? I don't think any of us live in Manhattan, so what good are we?"
T.A.R.K. laughed evilly again. "Mwahahahaha! When I say Manhattan, I don't mean Manhattan in 2002, I mean Manhattan 1899 wheah awl me fellow newsies live."
Not being able to control herself, Reeny screamed out loud. "You mean, we're going to be able to meet the newsies? Quick, someone catch me! I think I'm going to faint!" Unfortunately no one was paying any attention to her because they were too busy freaking out at the idea of meeting their beloved newsies.
As Reeny rubbed her butt where she had landed when she had fainted, Princess calmly asked T.A.R.K. "Is it true? Is that why we are here? Are we gonna get to meet the newsies? Am I going to get to meet Skittery? Please tell me I'm going to get to meet my Skittery!" she ended her sentence in a high-pitch squeal as she started to jump up and down.
T.A.R.K. shot Princess a warning look as Chesa ran forward to calm her down. "Like I was sayin' befoah, yes I'se gonna take you'se awl ta me hometown. But be prepared of what you'se find, goilies! Tis wreakin' havoc time!" he shouted as he snapped his fingers three times and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"That was strange." Quirky said as she watched the smoke clear to find that T.A.R.K. was gone.
All of a sudden, Limbo began to shake, rattle and roll. The girls flew from one side to the next, upside down and inside out until they found themselves sprawled out in the middle of a dirt street in a crowded city.
"That was stranger." Tunes remarked as she got to her feet , looking around, wide-eyed.
"Girls, I think we have arrived." Discord remarked with a huge smile on her face.
"Ahhh! We're in Manhattan!! Where are the newsies?? I wanna see my JAAAACCCKKK!!" Stress screamed as she got up and began to run around in circles, taking in all the sights at once.
Slash! reached outwards and tapped Stress on the shoulder. Stress stopped running around in circles and calmed down. "O.K., I think I got that out of my system. Now, as your leader, I think we should make a quick plan up. Any ideas?"
Tinker jumped forward. "Oooh, I know. I can go run to Brooklyn, find Spot and rape him!" she said excitedly.
"Umm- no. I don't think so. Any other suggestions?" Stress asked, ignoring the look Tinker was giving her. When no one else gave an answer, they all wanted to go find and have their way with their favorite newsies and had no other ideas in mind than doing that, Stress came up with a *gasp* good idea. "I know, guys. How about we try to find the Lodging House and then we can meet the newsies and do the unmentionables. Then we can go to Brooklyn, find Spot and Tinker can rape him." she added so that Tinker would stop shooting death glares in her direction. It was scary.
All the girls applauded her idea; They knew that the only thing in her mind was to get Jack alone while she had the chance.
"Now, in order to make things a little easier for everyone, especially since I think that thirty-one girls waltzing into the LH knowing everything about them might make the newsies a wee bit nervous -- Don't you just love that phrase? A wee bit? I think it's darling and--"
"Stress, just when you come up with a good idea, you blow it by opening up your mouth." Quipster said, anxious for Stress to just get to the point for once. "What should we do to make things easier?"
"Like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," she paused a moment to stick her tongue out at Quipster, "I think that we might just scare them if we act like ourselves. I think that we should all agree on who is going for each newsie and afterwards we'll all meet up together later. You know, over by the Horace Greeley statue, so that we can share our adventures. Does that sound okay?"
When she was met with nodding heads, she opened her mouth.. "I get dibs on Jack!"
Briar and Lucky both groaned but knew better than to argue. Stress thought that Jack was hers and nothing they could say would ever persuade her otherwise. "In that case, I get Snoddy." claimed Briar.
"I want Specs." added Lucky.
Slash! turned suddenly to face Lucky. "No, Lucky, I get Specs."
Lucky tried to argue with Slash! "No, I called him first, therefore he's mine."
Eager to meet up with Skittery, Wish tried to point out the obvious before Slash! replied to Lucky's last remark. "Guys, you know that there is 31 of us but only a few of the prominent newsies. Of course there is gonna be doubles, so we are just gonna have to share, k?"
Briar looked over at Stress eagerly. "Stress, will you share Jack with me, then?"
Stress looked appalled at the very idea. "No. You can have Snoddy."
Briar shrugged. It was worth a shot. "O.K., I get Snoddy."
Soon the air was full of the NMLer's calling out names of their favorite newsies. Once everyone had staked their claim, Stress recited the groups to make sure everyone knew who was doing who-- I mean what. "O.K., when we get to the LH, I'm gonna get Jack, Briar gets Snoddy, Monday gets Dutchy, Pisky gets Mush, Squibble gets Davey, Prankster gets Itey, Quirky gets Jake and Holiday gets Bumlets. Slash! and Lucky are gonna share Specs, Sab and Patchess are gonna share Blink, and Feisty, Dice and Moneybags are gonna share Race. Of course Spot is the most popular. I guess we're gonna have to visit Brooklyn soon so that Megs, Iris, Braces, Discord, Jibajabba, Laces, Frizz, Tinker and Loch can grovel at his feet." she said with a smirk as she ducked the playful - O.K., not so playful - shoves the Spot fanatics gave her. She then turned to face another group of girls who were shooting each other suspicious looks. "And, for some reason, Princess, Wish, Chesa, Tunes and Reeny want to spend some time with Mr. Pink Undies, himself. What about you Quipster?" she addressed the only girl who couldn't make up her mind of which newsie she was going to attatch herself too.
Quipster smiled a knowing smile. "I don't know yet. I just want to meet all the newsies."
Stress shrugged and stopped a young newsie passing by. "Hey, you. Can you tell us how to get to the Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House?"
The kid looked up at Stress with a sad look in his eyes. "Hehe, dis heah dame looks like da poifect suckah for me poor orphan routine." he thought to himself before coughing pitifully. "Shoah, ma'am. COUGH COUGH It's a few blocks COUGH COUGH dat way. COUGH COUGH COUGH." he added for insurance.
"Oh, you poor thing. Here's a dollar for you. Thanks for telling us which way to go." she said as she patted him on the head and handed him a dollar, not realizing he had taken her for a sap.
The other girls just shook their heads at Stress's gullibility - if that's even a word. They all eagerly headed in the direction the young nameless newsie had pointed them in, anxious to see their newsies in person.
When they reached the lodging house, all thirty-one of the girls squealed in delight to see the building from the movie they knew so well standing right in front of them.
Before any of the girls had a chance to run inside, Chesa voiced something that had been nagging her since they had left Limbo. "Hey guys, what do you think T.A.R.K. meant when he said that he brought us all here to see him wreaking havoc in Manhattan 1899?"
The only one who actually paid attention to her when she asked her question, Monday, just shrugged as she followed the girls into the lodging house. As they ran past the lobby, leaving a bewildered looking Kloppman in their wake, and thundered up the lodging house stairs, the girls were all giddy and excited at the idea of seeing their newsies in person.
When they arrived at the door of the bunkroom the domino effect took over. The first five girls at the door, Stress, Feisty, Squibble, Holiday and Loch, stopped once they saw the sight before them. The next five girls, Frizz, Megs, Wish, Discord and Sab, didn't have enough time to stop and ended up bowling the first three over. Then the next five girls knocked over them and so on until the only two girls, the two girls that had calmly strolled up the steps instead of stampeding like a herd of rampaging elephants, worse yet female elephants with raging hormones, that were left standing, gawked in horror.
"I think this answers your question, Chesa." Monday whispered.
Chesa nodded slowly, her eyes transfixed. "I think you're right, Monday."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mwahahahaha!! The power of a cliffhanger!! But here's a surprise for you all!! Since I'm a major dork with way too much time on my hands, there is now a T.A.R.K. Control website- a site for people to join a club where we battle T.A.R.K.!! There has been such a nice amout of support for T.A.R.K. that I've decided to make him a character in other stories. Therefore I need a place to put those adventures!! You can apply to be a member of T.A.R.K. Control and see what else is in store for him!!
Check out the new site (just opened today!!) -- http://www.geocities.com/tarkcontrol/index.html