Disclaimer:  I don't own anything but the general idea and such.  The Chicken Patty Grace belongs to Elmo, and the other Chicken Patty Grace belongs to PB.  The Lion King & Beauty and the Beast belong to Disney or some such affiliation.  Newsies belong to Disney too, and Redwing belongs to Girl Scouts technically, though I truly believe that its spirit belongs to the lifelong campers and the staff that fall in love with it.  Yeah.  Moving on…

Chapter 12: Chicken Patties with a side of Spot

Tuesday Lunch

            "Hey Peebs," Gryffin said, walking into the Dining Hall.  The clamor of girlish voices floated in the hall from outside.  "What's for lunch?"

            "Chicken Patties," Sky answered for her.  "And smiley fries."  Sky must have been the hopper councilor. 

            For some reason, when Gryffin walked back outside to the railing to teach grace, Artemis wasn't there.  She put it out of her mind and raised her hand for silence.

            "Hi girls.  Grace for lunch today is the Chicken Patty Grace.  We'll sing it first, then we'll teach it to you line by line, and then we'll all sing it together.  Okay?  Here goes…

"Thank you for swimming,

Thank you for hikes,

Thank you for Tid Bits,

Slip n Slide, Boat & Bike,

Thank you for campfires,

Where we make S'mores.

CHICKEN PATTIES!

We love you even more!"

            "Okay, all together now!" Gryffin said.

            "All together now!" random staff chorused in a sing-song voice.  Pointless?  Yes.  But this was camp, and far too much of it cannot be explained with rational thought.  They sang the song once more and the staff headed inside,

            They took their seats as heads and feet rather quickly.  There weren't enough tables, so several staff members waited patiently by the doors.  The campers came in and scrambled for seats in the usual dining hall confusion.  It amused Gryffin, how each table seemed to have a head and a foot of different gender, save for a few.  Artemis was sitting with her head hanging down across from Luna.  Sky, for once, was not sitting with Skittery.  Jack took his place instead.  It seemed that Snitch had claimed lunch with Skittery, as Artemis was being unsociable.  You could watch the girls as they entered, first taking the seats next to their favorite Newsie, and then taking the seats next to their favorite staff members.  The seats in the middle of the tables were left empty for the last straggling children to sit in.  She noticed Maddie and Cassie, sitting at Jack's table, giggling madly over a piece of paper.  She wondered vaguely what they were on about, but decided that it would be too much of a hassle to find out, and then she probably didn't want to know anyhow.

            Gryffin woke back up from her thoughts and realized that the rest of the seat-less staff members had started setting down an extra table so that they could eat.  She sat at the head, between Blink and Snipeshooter (who was the hopper).  Kristan, Race, Spot, Nike and Davey filled the table.  Sky raised her hand.

            "Hi, I'm Sky and I'm your Hopper Councilor for lunch today."

            "HI SKY!" the room chorused, as was custom.

            "Today for lunch we're having Chicken Patties… the normal ones, not the ones that look like they might bite back… and smiley fries.  For desert, we're having sugar cookies."  *insert random whoops & cheers from the staff for a good meal *  "The grace today is the Chicken Patty Grace.  Everyone stand up!"

            The hall filled with the general noise of a hundred people stand up and scraping their chairs along the floor.  Before it was really quiet enough for Sky to start the grace, two loud, young voices rang out over the movement.  Gryffin didn't even turn around… she knew that it would be Maddie and Cassie singing.  Who else could it be?  The question was, what were they singing?  The hall stood in silent surprise, giggling at the improved lyrics to the grace.

" Thank you for Cowboy!

Thank you for Boots!

Thank you for Snoddy,

Skittery, and Snitch too!

Thank you for Racetrack!

And Aaron Lohr!

SPOTTY THE HOTTIE,

We love you even more!"

            With the mention (or lack there of) of each Newsie's name, the respective owner of each reacted in a different way.  Jack stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked around the Dining Hall, not looking at anyone's face.  Boots looked up from the spork he was playing with, a confused look on his face.  Snoddy, on the other hand, walked to the back of the kitchen, far away from the eyes of the campers.  Skittery raised his hands in mock triumph, but lowered them quickly when he realized that Sky was watching him.  Snitch blushed, turning his ears pink and looked down at his feet.  Spot scowled at the mention of Racetrack.  Race quickly stopped pointing at Jack and laughing across the room at his friend and leader.  A smile was chased off his face by a look of surprise that he would be brought into this mess.  Mush, who had never really gotten along with his real name, felt his cheeks suddenly burn crimson and he looked to Christine for support.  She was almost as read as he was though, and the bill of her ball cap hid most of her face.

            Spot… when they shouted his name… Spot went ballistic.  He started completely spazzing.  A stream of undistinguishable words (thank God) flew from his mouth in a flurry.  He was pushing toward the campers' table, a look of utmost disgust on his face where he should have been honored at being the hottest Newsie in Redwing.  The fact of the matter was though, that he only looked even sexier when he was angry.  Spot started fingering the cane at his side.  The Manhattan boys realized this and headed over to help.

            Race got in Spot's way just long enough for Blink, Mush and Cowboy to grab him under the arms and carry him, kicking and screaming more for the sake of doing so than to actually hurt anyone, into the bathroom.  The dining hall roared with laughter.  Maddie and Cassie received many hi-fives and claps on the back as they sat down to eat. 

            "I bettah go see if I kin help calm Spot down," Race said, getting up from the table.  Gryffin, whose curiosity was nearly unmatchable, got up and followed him before anyone could tell her not to

When they reached the bathroom, Spot was still swearing up a storm.  Jack pushed Gryffin between himself and the wall, motioning for her to be silent.  Spot had apparently already taken the paper towel dispenser off the wall, judging by its dented condition on the floor.  He was currently pounding his fists into the wood of the stalls.  It had already given in in a few places.  Holes the size of Spot's hand dotted the door.  Mush and Blink stood next to Jack, alternating between looking worriedly at each other and at Spot.  Once or twice things that were dislodged by Spot's pounding flew toward them.  The boys knew better than to try to talk to Spot at the moment.  Sometimes, he just had to let it out.

Race, who was by far the most comfortable with Spot, stood a few steps in front of the rest with his hand over his mouth in a pondering fashion.  He seemingly decided how to go about things, because he assumed the position of an annoyed parent, only much hotter.  (Though he was gay, Gryffin couldn't help noticing that the little Italian was quite nice to look at.  For some reason, that seemed to be a prerequisite for being a Newsie.)

"Spot, waddar you doin'?"

"What the hell does it look like I'm doin', Higgins?  I'm beatin' the shit outta dis wall!"  Race remained calm, and let Spot work his anger out on the semi-demolished door.  He would start cutting himself on the splinters soon if he wasn't careful.  Race cocked his head to the side and smacked his lips together in that Racy-sort of way.

"Why Spot?"

"Cuz I's mad, dat's why!"

"Why's you mad, Spot?"  Race had his poker face on.  He wasn't showing how worried he was that Spot would hurt himself, or the fact that he half thought that Spot would turn and start beating the closest available person.

"Cuz a dem damned goirls!"

"What?  You tink dat none a de oddah people in da woirld is gonna notice how sexy ya are 'cept me?  Cuz Spot, yous wrong.  It's really hard ta even pretend like yous don't notice." 

Spot sighed and pushed his hands through his hair instead of punching the door again.  It was falling off its top hinge by now.

"I's mad for you, Race."  Spot stuck his thumbs in his pants behind his suspenders.  He wasn't calm enough to hold them still by himself yet.  "I's mad fer you, cuz you's nevah shows yous mad.  I don' like dem makin' yas jealous.  I don' want chas ta waste yer time bein' jealous.  I want yas ta be happy, alright Anthony."

Spot leaned against the far wall, his piercing eyes daring them to say anything about his judgment.  Race's annoyed attitude seemed to melt away.  He walked up right in front of Spot.

"Yous nevah call me dat.  'Cept when it's serous."

"I tink it is serous."

"Ya shouldn'ta yelled like dat ya know.  Dey's jus' liddle goirls… dey don' know what dey's doin'.  Actually, it don' make me real mad or jealous, jus' a bit.  It kinda makes me feel lucky dat outta all dem peoples dat want yous, Spot, I'm da lucky bastard dat ended up witcha."

"Shut up, Race," Spot said, shoving the other boy into the side wall.  Jack held the door open so the others could slip out silently.  The last thing that Gryffin saw was a fleeting image of Spot's body pressing Race's into the wall, their lips locked together.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"So what happened, kid?" Nike asked as Gryffin and Blink returned to the table.

"Enh… lover's quarrel," Gryffin answered.  Blink looked confused.  He had though that Nike was addressing him… Kid Blink… not having spent enough time with her to realize that she called everyone kid, regardless of what their name was.  "I don't think they'll be back for the rest of lunch."

The Chicken Patties were delicious, as always.  Kathy, the kitchen lady, was a great cook.  They were indeed regular chicken patties, not the sort that smiled back at you and had random color splotches all over them.  Gryffin wasn't forced to think of eating some strange, deformed clown-gone-wrong while she enjoyed her chicken patty with cheese (because Kathy loves her that much).  Nike, who had been using the ketchup for quite a long time, returned it to the table, smirking.  Kristan looked up just in time to see the devilish grin.

"What did you do now?" she asked bluntly.  Nike's smirk widened.

"I got bored… so I drew a picture."  Nike held up her plate.  A few smiley fries were the only things left on it.  The character in the middle was obviously Kristan, with her wild red hair.  One next to that was Davey, with so many curls that you couldn't see the rest of his body.  The super short one was Snipe shooter, with a word bubble that held nothing but whining.

"Awesome Nike," Kristan said, putting her thumbs up in approval.  "I think you really captured me.  I think that you need to make some adjustments though." Kristan held out her hand for the plate and the ketchup, which were handed to her in turn.  When she had gotten done, there were two two-inch-high globs of ketchup from the place right under smiley-fry Kristan's head.

"That's a foul waste of ketchup." Davey said, turning up his nose.

"So what do you care?" Nike asked, letting the plate slide noisily back to the table.

"I have to clean it, that's why I care."

"So what, be glad its only one."  Nike had obviously tired of the conversation as she reached for the cookies Snipe had brought back. 

"But it shouldn't have been any.  You know, there's kid starving on the streets, who would be glad for just a little of this food."

"They ain't here!  If they come get the damned food, they can have it!"

"Some of them are!  These guys, they have gone countless days without their full share of meals.  If people like you quit wasting the things that you did buy, then more of the food would reach the people who need it and the world would be a better place."

"God, someone help us if it comes to fighting over which condiments the poor children of the world prefer," Kristan said to her plate.  Snipeshooter giggled.  Race and Spot emerged silently from the bathroom.  Spot sat back in his chair and put his feet up.  Race held a cigar in his mouth, but didn't light it. 

"Yeah, power to the mayonnaise!" Snipe shouted.

"Stuff it!" Dave said angrily.

"Shut yourself." Nike spat in his general direction.  The room was much tenser than it needed to be.  Thankfully, the meal was over and they could go to the relief of songs instead of the tense silence.

"Hey Race," Kristan asked.  He looked up from his lost position on the table.  "Have you ever heard of the Lion King?"

"Yeah, it's one a me favorite shows!"

"Wanna sing with me?"

"Okay!"

"Hakuna Mattata… what a wonderful phrase!" Race sang out the part of Timmone.  Kristan picked up Pumbaa

"Hakuna Mattata, ain't no passin' craze!"  Such went the beginning.  Nike and Gryffin both jumped in at the same time with the part of Simba, but as they sounded good, complimenting each other, they continued.  By the end of the song, most of the dining hall had joined in.

"That went well," Kristan commented.  "Quick, let's start another before they a chance to open their big mouths again."

"Okay!" Race said, and promptly jumped up on the table.  "Sing da song dat was jus' before dat."

"Now I think its time, that you and I, arranged a heart to heart!"

"Kings don't need advice from little hornbills for a start."

"If this is where the monarchy is going, count me out! Out of service, out of Africa, I wouldn't hang about"

Race started tap dancing on the table when Simba's parts came up, acting it up like a real ham.  It was of great amusement to all parties involved, be they Newsie, Staff or camper.  The only time that most of the Newsies had seen Race get up and dance was when he was completely and totally drunk.  Nike and Gryffin played the part of the other random animals, singing and praising Race.  Davey was stubbornly trying to wash the table while Race was on it.  Life, was back to normal.

"Everybody look left,

Everybody look right!

Everywhere you look I'm

Standin' in spot light!

Oh I just can't waaaaaiiiiiit,

To be King!"

"Cauze I'm da King a New York!" Jack shouted across the hall as they finished the song.  Randomness… complete randomness was what made the world go round.  Luna couldn't help but smile at the comment, weather she liked the person giving it or not.

Gryffin smiled at Nike, and they started singing a song from Beauty and the Beast at the top of their lungs, completely ignoring the groans and shouts they got from others.  Taylor, Kristan and Christine joined in and soon the whole hall filled with "Be Our Guest."  It was a subtle end to such a rousing display as lunch had been.

End Twelve

A/N: Yeah, having trouble cutting that, but I promise more in a few days!!  Ok, life, liberty, and Chocolate covered Newsies!!

Shoutouts!

Artemis:  Thanx for the awesomely long review!  Luv ya hon! ^_^  Oh, and anyone else, as soon as she gets it published, you should go read Newsies Meet Redwing: Artemis' Story.  Yeah!  So GO! (it's a fine life, carryin' da banner, a mighty fine life… sorry, random outbursts of song from one little word… I'm okay, I promise)

Luna:  Glad you liked it.  I wasn't sure at first how it turned out… but apparently it wasn't bad so yay!  ^_^  I'll put another barn chapter in later… maybe barn staff will miraculously have an afternoon off that they spend at the pool… we'll see.

Cassie:  We're only that tired when we don't sleep at night due to various reasons. (ie: campers who are homesick, campers who are just generally sick, campers who won't shut up, and the occasional night that we find better things to do than sleep) 

Moon:  More mush to come in the next chapter.  *ponders momentarily about actually writing about Mush and Christine soon… * 

Artemis… the second time:  Yes, definitely trying to fit everyone into the story at some point, as long as they are either one of my close friends or they have a Newsie obsession.  There will be a bit of a lack of you in this chapter but… sorry that's how it rolls.  Besides, who wants to write about a pissy Artemis?  Not me… that's your job.  = D

Kristan:  Did you die or something?  Please come back to life!! You're actually IN this chapter too!!