Disclaimer: Still don't own Newsies, it belongs to Disney. I decided that the part of Redwing I want to own is the patch of ground under the Sycamore tree in Laurel Oaks. It is a very big tree, and I would be proud to own it.

A/N: Okay, my Blink-muse is going nuts. I think it has PMS, because it keeps having mood swings. I don't know where all of this random stuff is coming from, but I think it's actually pretty good. I guess I'll just write and go where the style takes me. Read, REVIEW and enjoy!!

 

Chapter 7: Blink's Big Secret

Monday Night, Part Two



       "Jac - Key," Blink called into Cowboy's ear in a sing song voice. "Jac - Keyboy. Wakey wakey."

        Skittery shook his head as he punched Snitch in the arm.

"Come on Snitch. Get up."

"Why?"

"Cause Blink is mad, dat's why." Snitch sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and stared blankly at Blink, who had moved onto poking Jack's side in a very childish manner. His finger would approach very slowly, then he would jab it into the sleeping boy's side and pull his hand back to his chest as if he may get it ripped off if he left it there too long. He may well have been right. Jack still refused to move though. He slept like a log.

Blink stood over Jack's bed and leaned down until his face was barely an inch from Jack's.

"WAKE UP!" he barked. Cowboy's eyes shot open and he tried to sit up. Instead, he cracked his head off of Blink's so hard that it sent Blink crashing to the floor and Jack back to his pillow. Blink groaned and stood up, rubbing his head where Cowboy had hit it.

"Maybes ya knocked some sense inta 'im," Skittery said hopefully.

"Dude! That hurt dude!!"

"I knows alright. I knows." Jack sat back up and looked at Blink shuffling around the tent. "What are you doing? Go to bed."

"Nope! Havin' fun. Come on!" Blink bounded back outside.

"Can't we just soak 'im an' go back ta sleep?" Snitch asked as he pulled on a shirt.

**********************************

They crossed the swinging bridge to Orchard slowly so that they didn't wake anyone up in Sunny Banks. It was barely 100 ft from the bridge, and the cables clanked together loudly in the silence of the night.

"Okay," Gryffin said, stopping in the Orchard Unit Shelter. (read: Dirty Pavilion.) "Kristan, Eeyore, Hermy and me will go get Christine and Brooke. You guys stay here and be quiet." Everyone looked directly at Blink.



"Wha'd I do?" he asked, stopping in the middle of the dance from Seize the Day where Race stands in the middle of a circle and marches in place like an idiot. Race slapped him in the back of the head. Blink's head was probably going to be black and blue before the night was finished.

The girls walked up the hill and into Nike's tent. Gryffin shook Brooke awake while Eeyore headed over to Christine's bed.

"Um, we have a little problem. Since when did Christine become invisible?"

"What?" Hermy asked, walking over to join Eeyore.

"Either she learned to turn herself invisible, or she isn't here."

"That's weird," Gryffin said. "Maybe she got sick and is spending the night at the nurse or something. Guess we'll just have to go without her."

They tromped back down the hill with a sleepy-eyed Brooke and went into the log cabin. Eeyore pulled a handful of silverware out of a drawer and shoved them in her pocket. Race sat at the table and put his head down. The other boys walked around, looking at the 200-year-old building. Artemis began to explain how the Critchlow brothers built this cabin after the Civil War, and then she continued with other random camp history. Snitch seemed really interested. Gryffin leaned casually against the door to the stairs, hoping that none of the boys would notice it was there. The lights upstairs were hardly ever turned on, and everyone would be able to tell that something was out of place. Brooke pulled a pack of cards from the cupboard and sat down opposite Race.

"Since when doesn't Orchard have any decent food in the cabin?" Kristan asked from the refrigerator.

"Since everyone else keeps coming across the creek and going through our fridge," Brook retorted, shuffling the cards. Race lifted his head at the sound.



"So what's that?" Blink asked Gryffin, bored with Arty's sphiel.

"A door."

"Where's it go?"

"Nowhere. It's a door. It just sits there, and swings on its hinges. Back and forth, back and forth."

Blink giggled, then straightened up. The caffeine was beginning to wear off already.

"I mean where does it lead," he asked seriously. Gryffin sighed.

"Upstairs."

"Can I go look?"

"No. If you turn on the lights, you'll wake up the staff in Orchard, and you may even wake up some people in Trail's End, or at least attract their attention if they are already up." Blink considered this for a moment.

"Then I won't turn on the lights."

"How will you know where to go? You've never been up there before."

"But you have. You can show me." Gryffin sighed again. The last thing she wanted to do was climb the rickety, narrow stairs in the dark, to be in a room that was beginning to resemble a bowl because the floor was warped so badly with a boy who had been bouncing off the walls for the past few hours.

Reluctantly, she opened the door. "Watch your head, and stay to the left, the stairs are wider there. Shut the damn door behind you too. I don't want anyone else hurting themselves on the steps."

Blink actually walked for the first time that night. He seemed interested in the construction as he wandered around.

"Reminds me a home," he said finally.

"The Lodging house?"

"No. My real home. Before dat."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn'" Blink waved her off.

"Don' worry 'bout it. You didn' know. Nobody really does..." his voice trailed off. Gryffin sat on a stack of mattresses, fidgeting with her fingernails. "Back when me mum was still aroun' we lived in a liddle cabin like dis. Me an' me bruddah, Charlie, would sleep upstairs in liddle cots."

"I didn't know you had a brother."

"I 'aven't seen 'im for years. See, me ma re-married, den she died durin' child-birth. I gots a liddle sistah somewheres. She'd be near ten now. Anyhow, my step-faddah trew me an' Charlie out afterwoird. Said we weren't 'is kids an' 'e wasn' takin' responsibility fer us. I tink 'e woulda drown Emily too, but 'is sistah came an' took da baby.

"We made our way ta da city. I was 'round nine, an' Charlie was thirteen. Dere weren't 'nuff ta steal ta eat out where we lived. Charlie brought me 'ere an' we sold papes tagether fer a while. When 'e got olda, 'e decided dat 'e couldn' deal wid sellin' papes ta earn a livin'. 'E took off somewheres. I dunno, maybe 'e's still in New York, but I probably wouldn' recognize 'im even if I did see 'im. My view a Charlie fell from a God to a monstah in less dan a day." Blink stared out the window, his face silhouetted in the moonlight.

"I... I'm so sorry." Blink sat down next to her. Why had she been so hard on him? Why did she act like he was just some dumb hoodlum? What had she done?

He slowly lifted his face to her. One tear rolled down his cheek. She touched his cheek tenderly, wiping the tear away with her fingertips. He let his head fall against her hand. Completely unsure of the world and everything in it, Gryffin leaned in and kissed him on the other cheek. Blink smiled shyly.

"Tanks."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking when I told you off. I had no right too..."

"Like I said, don' worry 'bout it." He pulled her hand from his face and held it

The door of the stairs hit the wall downstairs. An instant later both Race and Kristan were fighting to get up the steps. Gryffin stood up and took a few steps from the mattresses before Race finally crawled over Kristan and stood up.

"Awe, man!"

"Hah! I told you! I win!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gryffin asked. "What did you win?"

"I won a kiss from Spot!" Gryffin's jaw dropped.

"And how did you do that?"

"Race bet me that you two were up here snogging." She shrugged. "You weren't, so I win."

"Dat ain't fair!" Race yelled. "Yous made so much noise comin' up da stairs dat dey coulda stopped by da time we got up 'ere."

"Take one look at Blink, man. His clothes aren't any different, his eye patch is still on straight, and does he really look like a guy who just got some?" Kristan asked Race.

Race walked over and put his hands on Kid Blink's shoulders. Blink looked up, an icy stare on his face.

"Damn," Race said, flicking a quarter to Kristan.

"Hey, you said a kiss from Spot."

"Yeah, you'll get over it."

       They headed back downstairs, still arguing about Kristan's kiss. Blink got up silently and followed. Gryffin did the same.

End Seven

A/N: Yeah, like I said, it's totally and completely random. Hope you enjoyed. The night's just beginning. *big stage bow* Thank you and goodnight.

Shoutouts!

Moon: Glad you like. I can't answer your question. I wanted it to happen last chapter, and I just keep putting it off. I don't know why. * shrug * I guess it will come when it comes.

Blink: What are you talking about, Gryffin?

Gryffin: Oh, nothing.

Blink: What was going to happen?

Dave: Nothing knucklehead. Go away, she's trying to write.

Blink: I just want to know what Moon's talking about.

Gryffin: Believe me, you'll know.

Blink: MOON!!! Tell me what's going on!!

Luna: Hey, glad you approve. I hope you enjoy, though I wasn't going to write much about you and Cowboy because I don't know you that well. I guess that I'll have to add something in while Trail's End is at the barn sometime when its daylight again. XD Anyhow, enjoy!! ^_^

Smartimas: hehe Don't be paranoid. Do you know how many times we have done this? And we got caught only once, and that was because we were being stupid. I have to add something about Snitch finding out that you're ticklish now, but I have lots of other good stuff planned for you two. A lot is going to happen before the night is done. I know, I really do need to describe Kitch*Nsynk, but I haven't found a good time to explain it. I'll find a place sometime soon. I would like the CD with Blink's picture on it. You should just send it to my house though, they don't have our mailboxes set up yet here.

Kristan: I did NOT steal your Race!muse. He's probably just sleeping or something. Maybe he can't think straight with Mush walking around your house shirtless. Make Mush go outside for a while and then see if Race wakes up.

Cassie: Spot kissed Race last chapter? Don't remember that... oh well, my mind is too far in the future. I wouldn't mind switching bodies with either of them for a moment either. *ponders a possible storyline* hmmmmmmmmm.

Maddie: Yeah, as I told Moon, I keep putting it off. I dunno why, but I do. You can smack me later hon, but believe me, BLINK IS MINE!!! ^_~ Enjoy the story!!