Chapter 3: Getting to know you...maybe

Gabriel was quiet most of the next day, while Jack, on the other hand, talked long and loud. Not just to Gabriel, but announcing the "headlines" and showing Gabriel the ropes. Gabriel's constant tension and low speech was starting to bother Jack a little, and he commented on it every now and then, but didn't get on Gabriel's case about it.
There was something strange about this kid, though, and he knew it. Like there was a whole other world inside his head, something or somewhere other then the newsie he now was.
Sometimes he hid it well enough, shouting right along with Jack and selling quite a few papes, but other times, when business slowed, he drifted off again.
"Hey, you in there?" Jack said suddenly, nudging Gabriel in the side. Gabriel nodded quickly. "Ya, sorry. Just thinkin'". Jack noticed he'd gotten a little more comfortable with is surrounding's, and with Jack. "Well, keep day dreamin' and you won't sell no papes". Jack said before shouting out the headline. "Right". Gabriel said, shouting along with him.
That evening, when they started back to the lodge house, Jack talked and Gabriel listened. He didn't say a word.
"...And tomorrow aftah sellin' we'se goin' to Medda's for a while, the guy's and me. Brooklyn'll be there, too, and Davey and his sister, Sarah, me girl..." He rambled on and such about some of the stuff that they'd done last time a bunch of newsies got together at Medda's, which was just earlier that week, and about the strike a couple months back.
Gabriel was only half listening, though. His mind was somewhere else.
When they reached the lodge house and made it up to the bunk room, Gabriel went over to his bed and sat down, taking something out from under his pillow. He grew quiet, and no one paid him much attention. Jack sat down with some of the others for a couple games of poker.
"How'd sellin' go, Jack?" Mush asked, dealing the cards.
"Pretty good, I s'pose. He's gettin' there, slowly".
"You mean Gabriel?" Said Skittery as he looked over his hand.
"Yeah, I's teachin' him the ropes".
"Sixty-Forty, right, Jack?" Racetrack asked, and Jack shook his head.
"Nope, even split. He looked like he could use a brake".
"Oh, gettin' soft there in your old age, huh?" Teased Mush, and Jack just rolled his eyes.
"So how was he?" Racetrack asked then. "How was he what?" Jack asked, slightly confused. "You know, did he talk to ya at all? Did he say anything weird?"
Leave it to you, Jack couldn't help but think in regards to Race's kind of rude question.
"No". Was all he said instead. The others looked at each other. "No what?" Asked Kid Blink. "No, he didn't say much. He was pretty quiet". Jack said.
Crutchy, who was laying on his bed near them, listened to their conversation and looked over at Gabriel's bed. He was gone!

*

After the others had all gone to bed, Crutchy lay still on his bed, listening. He hadn't said anything about Gabriel disappearing, and he wasn't sure if any of the others had noticed it. If they had, no one said anything. Gabriel would have to come back some time, and for some reason, Crutchy felt like waiting. There was definitely something about this guy, and he couldn't shake the thought of Gabriel from his head.
Crutchy's eyes were just starting to droop when the door creaked open, and Gabriel slipped in silently. He didn't notice Crutchy watching him as he made his way over to his bed and lay down, falling quickly to sleep. Crutchy waited a moment, then got more comfortable for sleeping and shut his eyes. He was too tired to ask Gabriel about anything right now.

*

The next day went quite the same as the first, with Jack giving instructions and talking and Gabriel keeping quiet most of the time.
"Hey, you in there, kid?"
The sound of Jack's voice brought Gabriel back from wherever his mind had been, and he apologized. "Why you always doin' that?" Jack asked without hesitation, and Gabriel shrugged. "I don't know, just trying to remember everything I guess".
"Everything I's teachin' ya?"
"Yeah".
"Well, I guess whatever gets you selling earns us both money". Jack said half-heartedly just before shouting out another headline, ridiculously exaggerated, of course. Gabriel followed suite, not quite shouting as Jack did, though, which was something Jack knew he'd have to work on with the boy.
That evening, Gabriel disappeared once again until later that night after all the others were asleep, when he crept quietly into the room full of bunks and tiptoed to his by the window. He shivered slightly, feeling the draft from the window, which was wedged open about two inches. He'd tried to close it that morning, but was told that it was stuck that way and couldn't be budged. Kloppman had yet to fix it.
Gabriel slid under the thin blankets on his bed and was quickly asleep. Crutchy, who'd waited up for him again, noticed how incredibly bushed he looked when he'd walked into the room. But he decided again to keep quiet and not ask Gabriel where he'd been.
Things continued as such for about two months, and Gabriel grew more accustomed to the way things worked in the Lodge House, as well as the way the newsboys acted. Though he rarely spoke or sat to play cards with them or anything, he was getting used to how to act and defend himself and such around them. Still curious but never letting on, Crutchy tried every now and then to strike up a conversation with Gabriel. It worked sometimes, and though Gabriel still didn't say much, Crutchy was able to get to know him a little better.
Gabriel was now going off to sell on his own, without Jack's expertise, and still did not come back before at least eleven at night, despite how cold the weather was becoming. Few of the newsies took notice to the fact that, though he sold fifty papers a day, the only extra money that Gabriel had was what he gave to Kloppman for his bunk. Crutchy and Jack were the first one's to catch on to this fact, and Mush soon asked what was up to. He'd asked Gabriel one night if he was going with a bunch of them over to Medda's, and he'd said he had no money. It didn't take a genius to see that Gabriel had obviously been loosing weight since he first became a newsie, and Mush asked Jack about it. The three of them seemed to be the only one's who noticed, other than maybe Racetrack and Kid Blink, who merely made a crack every now and then about the "Ninety-five pound Weakling". They meant nothing by it though, and it was obvious that Gabriel didn't let them bother him.