Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies, they belong to Disney. I don't own Redwing, it belongs to Girl Scouts. I'm trying to organize a hostile takeover of the Downtown Girl Scout office. Anyone who wants to be involved, drop me a line!
Chapter 15: Gryffin in an Awkward Position
Tuesday Night
Trail's End cooked out for dinner. Artemis, Snitch, Eeyore, Storm, Boots and Tinkerbell were all invited. They made Gryffin's favorite camp meal, campfire stew. That meant that she had been in charge of all the fire building and the cooking. Maddie helped with the fire, and in the process she ate a stick. Cassie and Maddie were fighting so much over the boys that it was giving Gryffin a head ache. Near the first tent, Katie kicked another camper, Robin. When Katie was reprimanded, she showed Gryffin and Blink the teeth marks that Robin had left on her arms. Dinner was quickly becoming a complete fiasco. Artemis and Snitch were a bit late in coming, but they helped clean up afterward at least. Eeyore, Storm and Boots entertained the majority of the campers while the soup simmered. Tink helped Taylor and Itey to make the salad. Kristan, Snipeshooter, Sky and Skittery were taking advantage of the fact that they did not really have to do anything for the next hour or so. When they finally finished dinner, Gryffin was completely and totally beat, despite the fact that she ate three bowls of the delicious stew. It just didn't taste right if you did not remember to actually cook it over a fire or to include a can or so of Coca-Cola.
Around seven, the campsite was completely devoid of campers. Gryffin and Kid Blink walked toward the boys' tent, chatting aimlessly. As the daylight fell away, their conversation faded away from the mundane things of everyday life and fell into the depths of society, politics, religion and matters of the heart.
Gryffin lay down on Kid Blink's bed, which happened to be positioned across the front left of the tent, just like her's was in the tent next door. Kid Blink sat on the floor next to the tent pole, and next to her head. She closed her eyes as he pulled her head toward him for a long, exceedingly warm kiss. Gryffin fought off the urge to shudder as they broke away, the pure power of his kiss had made her feel so… perfect. Blink got up and walked inside the tent. He sat on the edge of the bed, looking down on her.
"Blink?"
"Hmmm?"
"Have you ever looked at the stars?"
"What?"
"The stars. Have you ever really looked at them?"
Kid Blink followed Gryffin's gaze out into the night sky. A few early stars dotted the bit of blue that he could see from the tent.
"No, not really. It's not exactly easy to see stars in New York City. They're pretty though."
"Yeah. I like them. They make me feel safe, as though there is always someone watching me."
"I like the night in itself. When you find a quiet place, you can hear everything else that is going on for miles around: the steady beat of the late-night factories; the crash of the waves against the harbor; a crowd cheering for the Yankees. You almost feel like you can control it all. You are the only one who sees the beauty. It all belongs to you."
"Sometimes that is how it feels. But other times the night makes me feel so small and insignificant that I wonder why I'm even here."
"I'm glad you're here," he said, as he bent down and kissed her on the forehead. Gryffin smiled in a shy sort of way as she traced her fingers down his sleeve, playing with the gummy bracelets that he had gotten from somebody sometime throughout the day.
"Have you ever wondered if the whole thing is worth it?" It was a rather vague sentence, but Blink was starting to pick up on Gryffin-speak, and he understood.
"The Strike was… hard. It was all glossed over in the things that we show you here. They didn't want the little goirlies to go home cryin' about how these boys they hardly know were livin' on the streets half starved to death. We didn't figure that their moms would like that too much. But that's how it was. There were plenty of nights that I slept on the streets, without anything but myself and an extra pape or two. That part wasn't so bad, because it was summer, but sleeping on the streets in New York isn't that much of a party. You kinda have to sleep with one eye open, as the saying goes. Some of the kids never came back. We don't really know what happened to them. Even if we did, we couldn't do anything about it. We are all too poor to afford a funeral. Their body would just be dumped into the river somewhere and hope that it remains undisturbed. We did have our alliances though. Medda had a few couches inside a her theater that she let us use sometimes. Denton, Brian Denton, he let boys stay at his place a few times too. It wasn't hell, but it wasn't a carnival either, ya know?"
Gryffin nodded. His voice was soothing, and she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. Blink continued talking about the strike for a while longer. He watched Gryffin, her eyes trading between looking at him, looking at the stars, and closing peacefully for a few moments rest. Eventually, these movements slowed. The time that her eyes were closed was starting to become longer than the time that her eyes were open. Blink told her a story of a legendary newsboy as she drifted off to sleep. He smiled to himself as he let the tent flap drop, hiding the night from view. Blink laid down next to Gryffin, letting one arm drape around her side and went to sleep, a very comfortable boy.
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"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Gryffin screamed as she opened her eyes and realized where she was. She tried to sit up so quickly that she rolled right out of Blink's bed and onto the wooden floor of the tent with a thump that shook the platform. Kid Blink, Snipeshooter, Skittery and Snoddy all looked up blearily in the half light of the dawn.
"Wassa mattah wid you'se?" Skittery asked, stretching as he sat up.
"What do you mean what's the matter with me?" Gryffin whispered now, not wanting to wake anyone up, or attract any more attention. "I just spent most of the night in Kid Blink's bed with him. Do you know how that will look?"
"Looks pretty damn good to me," Snipe said. Gryffin stood up and slapped the side of the smallest boy's head. "Ouch."
"Why didn't any of you tell me that it was the middle of the night. I should have gone back to my own tent. Oh my God… what if Spark-yo and Happy find out about this? I'll be in so much trouble." Scenes of the camp director and assistant camp director taking a leisurely stroll down the path to Trails End in the middle of the night flooded Gryffin's brain. She rounded on Blink. "Why didn't you wake me up!?! I know you were awake and well aware that I was here."
He looked up at her, his face hard. He was angry at her for being angry at him. It wasn't his fault… she was the one that went to sleep in his bed.
"You'se was asleep. You looked comfortable, so I didn't want to wake you up. You had a hard time with them campers today, and I wanted you to rest. I'm sorry I was being considerate."
"Yeah, well your being considerate could be loosing me my job if anyone notices!"
"Well maybe you should just break up with me and then you won't have to worry about your stupid job any more! That's all you've been doing all day anyway! Every time I start to even sit down next to you, you get up and walk away because you're too scared of what someone else might think about it!" Kid Blink was standing now too, an inch away from Gryffin's face as he yelled in a whisper. "Look around you, Gryff! Everybody in the whole camp's been pairing off. They put a bunch of boys who usually don't have any girls in the same place with a bunch of girls who don't usually have any boys. Did they really expect us to stay away from each other?"
"Maybe you're right," she said icily. "Maybe I should just break up with you. It sure would make life simpler. If you'll excuse me please, I need to go back to my tent and go to bed."
She strode out of the tent past Blink and into the night. Blink threw his hat on the ground by his bed and flopped down onto the cot, staring resolutely at the canvas above his head.
"Girls," Snipeshooter said, rolling his eyes and laying back down. Blink reached down and threw his hat at Snipe without looking at him. The bill caught Snipe's nose. "Ouch! Why'se everyone hitting me when they have relationship problems?" Snoddy chuckled as he rolled over and went back to sleep.
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Gryffin stormed into her tent, and didn't even care that she woke Kristan up.
"What's wrong with you?" her groggy friend asked.
"Oh nothing. Life is just freaking perfect." Gryffin changed into some pajamas and started readying her bed. She seemed to remember something, and calmly asked Kristan a question. "Didn't you guys notice that I wasn't here?"
"Honestly, no. I noticed you weren't there, but I didn't think anything of it. There are a lot of nights when you don't come back." Gryffin considered this for a moment. She went and sat on Kristan's bed, picking up the small stuffed frog that sat there.
"True enough. I hate boys. I wish they would just go home."
"What happened with you and Blink?" Kristan always did get straight to the point. Gryffin couldn't blame her… she would have done the same thing.
"I fell asleep in his bed."
"Go Gryff!" Gryffin smacked Kristan's arm.
"Thirty seven," she said simply. When Kristan had been a camper, Gryffin wasn't allowed to hit her when she did something stupid. Instead, she counted up the hits that Kristan deserved at camp, and doled them out over the school year. Since Gryffin had been going to a university and Kristan was still in high school for the past year, by the time summer came, not all of the hits had been awarded yet. So whenever Gryffin was pissy, she'd go and smack Kristan, who completely did not care, and it made her feel better to play their little game. "Anyway, it's not 'go Gryffin' because we were really lucky. Do you know how much trouble we would have both been in if someone came in and found us like that? We didn't even do anything, but it just looks that way and…" Gryffin let her voice trail off. They sat in silence for a moment. "And now it doesn't matter anymore anyway, because I broke up with him."
Gryffin put her head on Kristan's shoulder and started to cry, which was very uncharacteristic. Normally, the only person that could make Gryffin cry was her mother, and Gryffin hated every time that she had ever shed tears. She considered it a silly waste of time, but right now, she could not stop herself. Tears slid down her cheek and warmed her neck where they landed.
"What am I going to do?" she asked through her silent sobs.
"I don't know, Gryff." Kristan stroked her friend's hair comfortingly. "I don't know.
End Fifteen
A/N: Okay, short chapter I know, but I need some fluff, although I'm not great at writing it. I hope ya liked it!
Shoutouts!
Artemis: Yes, I know you want him, but he's probably going to have to do some serious groveling first, dontcha think? I love your ideas… I still have that song in my head. *devilish smirk* I'm skipping lunch to finish this, so you all know I love you that much. I'll let you do the teasing in your story. You're much better at making fun of me than I am. :-P Oh, and can you put Katie the Weasel in Laurel Oaks? She wants to be in the story so…
Cassie: Yes, Jack always needs help. He can't help himself, he always gets into trouble when he doesn't even try.
Shot: Nope, haven't got 100 reviews yet, but you still have a chance! Okay, with that said… I love boys gossiping. It's just great. ^_^ You know they all want to show off their respective girls.
Maddie: You're scaring me child. So you know, we love you dearly, but we don't put you in the story really… we just use your name and make you do stereotypical camper things. It's nothing personal, but we love you and want you to be the silly little camper who does dumb things to piss the staff off. Love you honney! ^_^
Moon: I was just thinking about doing it, I hadn't actually decided. Besides, if I know Kristan at all, she wouldn't wait long to post after I actually decided to do that anyways. This is another chapter for you… and if you have any ideas on how to fix my fluff, let me know and I'll see what I can do with them.
Kristan: I'm trying to think of things from Blink's B-day until THE BIG MOMENT, but I'm drawing a bit of a blank myself, I'll think about it though. Alright, well, see ya lata!