Author's note: Thanks to all you guys who reviewed my story!!! And thanks
for some of your suggestions on the chapter. Just as a warning, this is
gonna be a "girly" chapter, so get ready for some serious cuddling!!!
* * *
It wasn't long until we all became friends with the guys. They were all nice to us, some a little over nice, and it didn't take much time for certain people to get attached. As the days passed we all went our separate ways to sell our papes, and then at night we would meet up again at Medda's or the lodging house. However, one day Lashes, Singah, and I got bored of our usual selling spot, and decided to go exploring. We ended up a long way from Manhattan. We ended up in Brooklyn (A/N: yeah, I know ya love me Singah).
The late afternoon sun was making us all sweat, and we wandered aimlessly, selling papes, stopping every now and then to stand in the shade of a tall building or tree. We had strayed a long way from the lodging house, but it didn't matter; we were used to traveling in strange places, and we were perfectly able to take care of ourselves. Or so we thought.
"Mutant baby born with three heads," I called out, easily selling three papes with the improved headline.
"Rabid squirrels attack innocent park-goers last Sunday night." Singah's voice raised above the noise of the crowd.
"20 foot crocodile found in sewers of Manhattan," Lashes put on her most serious face so that the people around her swamped us to buy papes. The small mob of people had taken the last of our papes for that day, so we decided to head back in the direction that we had come. But just at that moment a hand reached out and grabbed Lashes' shoulder.
"I don't ever recall seeing you guys in Brooklyn before, and only Brooklyn newsies are allowed to sell in Brooklyn."
At that we all whirled around, only to see that we had been surrounded by five newsie thugs with thickly muscles arms. There was no way that we could take them by ourselves, seeing as they probably had about another five more hidden somewhere in a nearby alley. Not good, I thought, we are all alone in a strange city with no one to back us up. We'll just have to wing it outa this mess.
"We're gonna have to go see Spot and see what he thinks of this little situation we have here." It was the same guy who had spoken before.
"Who's Spot?" Lashes batted her namesake with an innocent look on her face. This seem to startle the thug, and he stuttered as he answered her,
"Uh….. He's the leader of the… of the Brooklyn newsies!!" He smiled at his triumph over the temporary confusion. We all just smiled and pretended not to be worried as they lead us down to the docks, which we had to cross to reach the Brooklyn lodging house. There were many newsies swimming since the day was so hot, and frankly it didn't seem like such a bad idea to me either. I could tell that Singah and Lashes felt the same way by the way they looked at the water, and the people who were far away from the dock, splashing each other.
There were quite a few stares at us, and more than one whistle as we passed by the newsies. The leader thug approached a guy with walking stick who was using a slingshot to shoot bottles of the rail. The thug made some hand motions toward us, and the guy looked at us for the first time. His eyes were shockingly blue, almost like frozen steel. He had dark blonde to light brown hair that was almost hidden by the hat he wore titled over his forehead. He took a slow look at all of us, but his eyes lingered on Singah, who was equaling willing to stare back at him.
After a minute or two of whispered conversation with Thug, who I dubbed for his big muscles and small brainpower, the leader guy stalked over to us and pushed back his cap.
"So I hear that you three ladies decided to go selling papes in my territory without asking nicely first."
"We didn't know that this territory was taken by other newsies, or we wouldn't a come here." I was growing impatient of being treated like a child by guys. "We only sold a few papes here, nothing that will do any damage to you or your newsies, so just let us go and we'll leave your territory." I was fuming anger, mostly because of the heat.
"Well now, I just don't know about that. This is a first for me, seeing girls trying to be newsies. It's rather amusing." Spot smirked as a few of his newsies snickered at his joke.
I looked over at Lashes and then to the water where still a few newsies swam about. She grinned back at me, understanding my plan. In an instant the two of us ran towards Spot, and we shoved him over the edge of the dock into the water. Right on top of two other boys. There was a moment of complete silence, and then all the newsies burst into gales of laughter. Spot made a hilarious site when he broke the surface, red faced, and puffing for air. I couldn't breathe from laughing so hard, and I could see tears streaming down Lashes' face. The only one who wasn't laughing was Singah, she bent down the rail as Spot was climbing up it and helped him onto the dock. She said something to him under her breath so only he could hear, probably an apology of some sort. He just smirked and said something back to her. She blushed and finally started giggling with the rest of us.
It was a familiar voice who spoke up next "Hey Spot, I see you were trying to lay some moves on our girls here. I also see you learned your lesson." It was Jack, and none of the three of us remembered to point out the trouble he had caused us just a few short weeks ago.
"Yeah, Jacky-boy. You're girls like to cause trouble, but we'll just have to see how long they stay your girls." I caught the wink he gave Singah.
Jack came up and put his arm around me. I had gotten to know Jack and now realized that he wasn't such a bad guy. In fact, I really was beginning to like him, and I was beginning to think he liked me. So I just smiled and leaned my head down on his shoulder. Jack hadn't come alone either; he had brought with him Race, Snitch, and Blink. Later he explained that they came on a weekly basis to Brooklyn for a game of poker, which Race seemed to be pretty good at.
We spent the evening at the Brooklyn lodging house, and mainly watched the boys play poker and discreetly tried to help our favorites win by making faces above the players that they were against. More than once during the night I saw Singah talking with Spot, and Lashes, as usual, was surrounded by guys. I mostly sat with Jack and Snitch, although a few more Manhattan newsies showed up including Mush, Rae, Hades, Dutchy, and Specs. Mostly the guys joined in on the poker game, but there was some complaint from most of the other guys when Hades sat right down on Mush's lap and refused to get up. It was a wonderful time, but at one point during the night I looked up to see a blacked haired boy staring at me intently. I remembered him as the Crow guy from when I had been taken hostage by the others. I didn't realize until now that he was a Brooklyn newsie, but it made sense since he had disappeared after that one day. I didn't really think about it anymore after that, since the next moment was filled with the noise of Rae socking Thug in the stomach for trying to kiss her. All in all it was a good time.
* * *
The walk home was short and filled with laughter and talk between the Manhattan newsies. When we got back to the lodging house we found it was just the same there. Half-pint and Rabbit were talking about how they had spent that day selling papes with the guys that they like.
"Race bought me lunch today, and we talked for an hour before he left to go to Brooklyn with Jack. I think he likes me." Half blushed as we all joked about her and Race. He really did like her, and they spent the rest of the night talking in a small corner away from everyone else. Hades and Mush we had all given up on; they had gone out onto the fire escape and had been there for a long time, so we decided to let them stay out there. Lashes was deep in "conversation" with Dutch, and I was talking with Jack for the most part. It was deep into the night before anyone went to bed.
* * *
It wasn't long until we all became friends with the guys. They were all nice to us, some a little over nice, and it didn't take much time for certain people to get attached. As the days passed we all went our separate ways to sell our papes, and then at night we would meet up again at Medda's or the lodging house. However, one day Lashes, Singah, and I got bored of our usual selling spot, and decided to go exploring. We ended up a long way from Manhattan. We ended up in Brooklyn (A/N: yeah, I know ya love me Singah).
The late afternoon sun was making us all sweat, and we wandered aimlessly, selling papes, stopping every now and then to stand in the shade of a tall building or tree. We had strayed a long way from the lodging house, but it didn't matter; we were used to traveling in strange places, and we were perfectly able to take care of ourselves. Or so we thought.
"Mutant baby born with three heads," I called out, easily selling three papes with the improved headline.
"Rabid squirrels attack innocent park-goers last Sunday night." Singah's voice raised above the noise of the crowd.
"20 foot crocodile found in sewers of Manhattan," Lashes put on her most serious face so that the people around her swamped us to buy papes. The small mob of people had taken the last of our papes for that day, so we decided to head back in the direction that we had come. But just at that moment a hand reached out and grabbed Lashes' shoulder.
"I don't ever recall seeing you guys in Brooklyn before, and only Brooklyn newsies are allowed to sell in Brooklyn."
At that we all whirled around, only to see that we had been surrounded by five newsie thugs with thickly muscles arms. There was no way that we could take them by ourselves, seeing as they probably had about another five more hidden somewhere in a nearby alley. Not good, I thought, we are all alone in a strange city with no one to back us up. We'll just have to wing it outa this mess.
"We're gonna have to go see Spot and see what he thinks of this little situation we have here." It was the same guy who had spoken before.
"Who's Spot?" Lashes batted her namesake with an innocent look on her face. This seem to startle the thug, and he stuttered as he answered her,
"Uh….. He's the leader of the… of the Brooklyn newsies!!" He smiled at his triumph over the temporary confusion. We all just smiled and pretended not to be worried as they lead us down to the docks, which we had to cross to reach the Brooklyn lodging house. There were many newsies swimming since the day was so hot, and frankly it didn't seem like such a bad idea to me either. I could tell that Singah and Lashes felt the same way by the way they looked at the water, and the people who were far away from the dock, splashing each other.
There were quite a few stares at us, and more than one whistle as we passed by the newsies. The leader thug approached a guy with walking stick who was using a slingshot to shoot bottles of the rail. The thug made some hand motions toward us, and the guy looked at us for the first time. His eyes were shockingly blue, almost like frozen steel. He had dark blonde to light brown hair that was almost hidden by the hat he wore titled over his forehead. He took a slow look at all of us, but his eyes lingered on Singah, who was equaling willing to stare back at him.
After a minute or two of whispered conversation with Thug, who I dubbed for his big muscles and small brainpower, the leader guy stalked over to us and pushed back his cap.
"So I hear that you three ladies decided to go selling papes in my territory without asking nicely first."
"We didn't know that this territory was taken by other newsies, or we wouldn't a come here." I was growing impatient of being treated like a child by guys. "We only sold a few papes here, nothing that will do any damage to you or your newsies, so just let us go and we'll leave your territory." I was fuming anger, mostly because of the heat.
"Well now, I just don't know about that. This is a first for me, seeing girls trying to be newsies. It's rather amusing." Spot smirked as a few of his newsies snickered at his joke.
I looked over at Lashes and then to the water where still a few newsies swam about. She grinned back at me, understanding my plan. In an instant the two of us ran towards Spot, and we shoved him over the edge of the dock into the water. Right on top of two other boys. There was a moment of complete silence, and then all the newsies burst into gales of laughter. Spot made a hilarious site when he broke the surface, red faced, and puffing for air. I couldn't breathe from laughing so hard, and I could see tears streaming down Lashes' face. The only one who wasn't laughing was Singah, she bent down the rail as Spot was climbing up it and helped him onto the dock. She said something to him under her breath so only he could hear, probably an apology of some sort. He just smirked and said something back to her. She blushed and finally started giggling with the rest of us.
It was a familiar voice who spoke up next "Hey Spot, I see you were trying to lay some moves on our girls here. I also see you learned your lesson." It was Jack, and none of the three of us remembered to point out the trouble he had caused us just a few short weeks ago.
"Yeah, Jacky-boy. You're girls like to cause trouble, but we'll just have to see how long they stay your girls." I caught the wink he gave Singah.
Jack came up and put his arm around me. I had gotten to know Jack and now realized that he wasn't such a bad guy. In fact, I really was beginning to like him, and I was beginning to think he liked me. So I just smiled and leaned my head down on his shoulder. Jack hadn't come alone either; he had brought with him Race, Snitch, and Blink. Later he explained that they came on a weekly basis to Brooklyn for a game of poker, which Race seemed to be pretty good at.
We spent the evening at the Brooklyn lodging house, and mainly watched the boys play poker and discreetly tried to help our favorites win by making faces above the players that they were against. More than once during the night I saw Singah talking with Spot, and Lashes, as usual, was surrounded by guys. I mostly sat with Jack and Snitch, although a few more Manhattan newsies showed up including Mush, Rae, Hades, Dutchy, and Specs. Mostly the guys joined in on the poker game, but there was some complaint from most of the other guys when Hades sat right down on Mush's lap and refused to get up. It was a wonderful time, but at one point during the night I looked up to see a blacked haired boy staring at me intently. I remembered him as the Crow guy from when I had been taken hostage by the others. I didn't realize until now that he was a Brooklyn newsie, but it made sense since he had disappeared after that one day. I didn't really think about it anymore after that, since the next moment was filled with the noise of Rae socking Thug in the stomach for trying to kiss her. All in all it was a good time.
* * *
The walk home was short and filled with laughter and talk between the Manhattan newsies. When we got back to the lodging house we found it was just the same there. Half-pint and Rabbit were talking about how they had spent that day selling papes with the guys that they like.
"Race bought me lunch today, and we talked for an hour before he left to go to Brooklyn with Jack. I think he likes me." Half blushed as we all joked about her and Race. He really did like her, and they spent the rest of the night talking in a small corner away from everyone else. Hades and Mush we had all given up on; they had gone out onto the fire escape and had been there for a long time, so we decided to let them stay out there. Lashes was deep in "conversation" with Dutch, and I was talking with Jack for the most part. It was deep into the night before anyone went to bed.