Chapter Four
I walked into Tibby's restaurant and sat down. My head was spinning as I thought of the conversation with Spot and the incident with Race. A waiter walked to the table and asked if he could get me anything. I shook my head and said I was just leaving. I walked outside and turned the corner. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going. I in fact had no idea where I was headed. Suddenly my shoulder hit someone. I jumped out of my thoughts and gasped. I looked right into the faces of...newsies? Girl newsies! There was more of me. The thought of that made me laugh some. But the girls just stared at me in amazement and seemed confused of the fact that I was laughing about bumping into them. "Oh, I'm so sorry I wasn't really paying attention."
"Oh gosh," one of the girls smiled and they both relaxed and took off their hats, "Neither were we."
"We're so sorry, too." she smiled.
I smiled back at them. They looked me over. I'd never been caught in this position, so I decided I'd just mock what they did. I took the two in. The girl that apologized had long, straight, blonde hair to her waist and big blue eyes and was about my height. The other girl was also about my height but she had shoulder-length, strawberry-blonde hair, and green eyes.
"Um, well..." I said a bit flustered.
"I'm Lisa and this," the blonde said, pointing to the other girl, "is Grace."
"Hello." said Grace quietly after a moment of figuring she could trust me.
"Hello. Are you both newsies?" I asked. I realized it was quite the dumb question after noticing they're newsie attire.
"Yes, girl newsies. Are you?" responded Lisa.
"Yes, but its strange, I haven't saw you girls here before. Are you..." My voice trailed off when I noticed the wall beside us was paying more attention to me than they were. Their gaze was focused on someone walking up behind us.
I turned around to see ever confident, Spot Conlon walking towards us. I froze.
He's so handsome.
Oh come off it Emily. Isn't he just a bit too good for you?
No...is he?
Yes...he is.
I was right. Well, the negative side of me was. Then again has the negative side ever lost an argument with the confident side? No. Who was I kidding? The ever-famous, ever-perfect, ever-gorgeous Spot Conlon would never see anything in me.
"He's so amazing." breathed Grace, which was probably the only real thing she'd said all morning.
I grinned at her and tried to smother a giggle. She was so shy about saying hello, but she could surely tell you what she thought of Spot. "He is something else."
Lisa looked at me. "You like him?"
I know my face turned a bright shade of red and I glanced down admiring the sidewalk as though it was the most extraordinary thing on earth, embarrassed by the blunt question. I thought over my choice of answers. Were these girls my friends? Could I trust them? And I just met them. Did I want to tell them my true secrets of how I really felt for Spot. I looked up to Lisa, then to Grace, then to Spot and then back to Lisa. I decided to go with a shrug and "Oh, he's alright."
"I," Lisa stated with a confident smile, "think he is positively-" she cut herself off and her eyes looked straight through me to the arm that was hanging around my shoulder. I saw her eyes follow the arm hanging limply around me up the shoulders, neck and face of Spot.
Knowing how Grace felt and pretty positive how Lisa felt towards Spot, I could safely say I was dead target for hatred.
But I decided that if that was the reason I was hated by these girls, then there couldn't be a better reason to be hated.
"Hello beautiful's one, two and three." He said kissing our hands as he numbered us.
Grace stared with her jaw hanging open.
"Hey Spot." I said casually. I hoped that saying something would turn his gaze away from Grace so she could compose herself. I glanced at Lisa and threw my eyes back and forth between Grace and her. I believe she got my message because she gently nudged Grace with her elbow. "Where ya headed?" I asked him.
"I was headin' inside here," he nodded his head towards Tibby's, "I told the guys I'd meet them here. Would you lovely ladies like to join us? I know the guys wouldn't mind."
Lisa shrugged her shoulders pretending not to care, but we all knew that she cared as much as Grace and I did.
Grace on the other hand wasn't quite as subtle. Her big green eyes and the nod that practically threw her head off her neck wasn't exactly something Spot could look over.
I smothered another giggle and nodded hoping it'd show off my bouncy brown hair with the beautiful natural blonde streaks going through it, that I inherited from my mother. "We'd love to."
"Good. I'll go in and tell the boys." he said.
"Where are you guys staying?" I asked Lisa and Grace.
Grace spoke up, "At the orphanage," she paused for a moment, then started again. She wrinkled her nose and said with a giggle, "with Ms. Pace." We laughed about that. Ms. Pace was the old, mean lady that ran the orphanage.
"I thought if you stayed at the orphanage, you'd have to work in the factory." I commented.
"Well, you're supposed to." Grace said and I knew something was up because her eyes were gleaming. I noticed that whenever she had something she thought no one else knew, her eyes would gleam like that.
I laughed and then said "We should call you Gleam, you know, as a nickname. Every time you know something you think we don't, your eyes gleam."
"Gleam?" she questioned then she smiled at the idea of a nickname, "Or...Glitz!" she squealed.
I grinned. I liked it and Lisa said "I love it!" so that was it. Glitz. I think somewhere between being Grace and switching to Glitz, she had a complete personality change. She turned to a born flirt and a true girl.
Lisa suddenly whined. "I want a name! I mean you guys get great names, Glam, Glitz, and…Lisa." She made a face.
I laughed. "Okay…Glitter!" I shouted.
"Glitter…" Glitz tried it on for size.
"Glitter!" Lisa shouted. "It's perfect!"
I smiled, confidently. There we had it, the perfect newsie-girl names: Glitz, Glitter, and Glam. We would cherish them always and it didn't even matter that we sounded like strippers and hookers and prostitutes.
