An unexpected turn of events.

by Gears

Gears is out of work and living on the street until one day she is run over by a strange boy and suddenly her life takes a turns that she never expected.

Tital- Unexpected turn in events

Rating- pg

Author- Gears

Disclaimer- I don't own the newsies they are disneys playground and all the newsgirls but Gears belong to themselves as well as Jesse and Kelt….so Im in collage and that automatically translates into poor. So don't sue me.. I have nothing…besides it not like a make money from this.

Gears sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes then she rubbed her sore back and made a mental note to herself not to sleep in ally's ever again. She slowly got off the ground and looked down at herself. Her overalls where amazingly clean for someone who was out on the streets for a week. She started to make her way out from behind the crates she was sleeping behind, there came a crashing sound from the end of the ally, instinctively she turned around toward the source of the sound. She turned back around just in time to be run over by a boy in a cowboy hat and bandana . She quickly picked herself off the ground in time to see the boy bolt into the building to her left.

'I wonder where he was going in such a hurry' she thought.

"Hey you! Kid!" A deep voice boomed from behind her.

Gears quickly turned around and came face to face with in her opinion one of New York's most disgusting looking police officers. She guessed he was probably about 37 years old, he was about Five foot four and probably weighed around 190 pounds. He was balding and the hair he did have was greasy and hung in clumps. He had a very poorly trimmed handlebar style mustache and he had a gut on him the size of the Brooklyn bridge. Gears visibly shuddered when he spoke, his breath smelled like garlic and sewage. The sound of the cop once again broke her train of thought.

"Hey! Kid! Are you listening to me?!"

Gear's head snapped up " umm uh yeah, Ise am ummm what is it dat you want ?"

He gave her a look like she was a piece of trash and replied

" Yeah Ise wanted to know if youse seen a kid run thru here."

Gears assumed he was talking about the boy she had just seen and replied

"nope aint seen no one in dis ally but me, but one did run by the opening just a couple a minutes b'for youse showed up."

The cop looked at Gears as if he was trying to figure out if she was lying, this went on for a couple of minutes.

"Which way did he run?" The officer finally asked. Gears noticed a slight hint of annoyance in his voice and pointed to her right, The officer looked to right and swore under his breath before taking off. Gears waited until the officer was far out of sight and began to leave the ally. 'Crap! I left me stuff in da ally' Gears thought ' hope its still der."

Gears turned around and took off in a run for the ally, she rounded the opening to the ally and ran into something sending her to the side walk. Gears looked up pushing a stand of dirty blond hair from her face and saw the same boy who ran over her earlier. He was already on his feet and was looking down at her.

"Um Uh sorry about dat. Ise wasn't watchin where ise was goin" Gears quickly apologized getting to her feet.

"S'ok I ran into you first so I guess dis makes us even." He replied with a grin.

Gears just smiled shyly and said "It really wasn't your fault Ise would run people ovah to if Ise was bein chased by him."

The boys face started to portray a worried expression and he began to look around. "did ya see which way he went?" The boy asked cautiously.

"Yeah I told em you ran by da ally an up da street. He ran up dat way." she said pointing to her right.

"Tanks …uh whats yer name? He asked as he looked at her.

Gears looked at him for a minute or so before deciding she could trust him. "It's Gears." She replied quietly.

"Well Gears tanks fer throwin dat bull off me trail" He spit in his hand and held it out "by da way my names Jack Kelly but Ev'ryone calls me Cowboy." Gears looked at him once before spiting in her own hand and clasping it around his. " Nice at meet ya Cowboy." she said politely.

"So uh where you headed in such a hurry" Cowboy asked scratching the back of his head.

" I uh….left me stuff in da ally."

"whys yer stuff in da ally?"

"cause dats where I slept last night. Now if you'll excuse me…." Gears stepped around Jack and made her way over to the crates. She moved two crates to revile a tool box and small bag. She sighed in relief to find that her stuff had not been stolen in the couple of minutes that she had been gone. She quickly slung the bag over her shoulder and picked up the tool box. She started to turn around and head out the ally to the street. She could see Cowboy standing right where he was when she left. 'Whys he still dere' Gears wondered as she passed him ' Oh well he's got his reasons' she concluded as she started to walk down the street.

"Hey!" Cowboy yelled "Hey where ya goin?"

Gears turned around and shrugged.

"Well den youse stayin at da lodgin house, youse can be a newsie. I tink we got plenty of beds in da goils room."

"I…I don wanna be a bothah to youse."

Jack laughed "Nah you aint gonna be a bother besides I owe ya fer getting dat bull off me back."

"Is it hard?"

Jack looked at her confused "Is what hard?"

" bein a newsie?"

Jack burst out laughing "Not if youse good at improvin da truth , It aint."

Gears gave Jack an amused smile and asked " Improvin da truth?"

Jack smiled "Yup!"

"I tink I kin manage dat"

"Really?" Jack asked

"yup."

"k, prove it den" He said shoving a paper into her hand. He pointed out an article and said "Lets see you improve dat!"

Gears just looked at the article and quickly went over it then she looked up at Jack "Missing lion found in busy playground." The article was really about a stuffed lion that a little girl had lost and it had been found on a playground and returned.

"Pretty good fer a beginner…."Jack mumbled " now do another."

"Why?!" Gears asked this was ridiculas she already did one now he wants her to do another. To her that just didn't make sence.

Jack sighed "because anyone can make dat one sound good."

Gears just sighed 'might as well, besides this is kinda fun.' she thought as she shuffled through the paper finding a small out of the way article and quickly reading it. She looked up at Jack and smiled "Mayors daughter found swimming with Frenchman."

Jack looked at her " Where's dat one at?"

Gears handed him the paper and showed him the article.

"Mayors daughter is recievin swimming lessons from Jacques Renoir" Jack read aloud. He laughed

" Dats pretty good, well youse kin stay wit me until Ise done sellin, den I'm headin to Tibby's to meet da odders."

" Sounds good to me." Gears said smiling as she started to walk down the street after Jack.

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They walked for a couple of minutes before coming to a boxing ring with a crowd full of people around it cheering on the boxers inside.

"dis is where Ise sellin today." Jack said turning to Gears. "It shouldn't be to hard since I am da best newsie in Manhattan."

"Your awful sure of yerself aint ya?" Gears said smirking

"Just watch an learn." he said as he turned around and began to scan the crowd. " See foist thing ya gotta know about selling papes is dat headlines don't sell papes, newsies sell papes."

Gears took a seat on a pile of crates. She had a feeling that this talk was gonna take while and it did, about 10 minutes to be precise. He only stopped six times to sell papers to passing people. Gears listened to his whole lecture giving it her full attention until he was finally done.

" Ya got all dat? " Jack asked turning around to face Gears and grab some more papers off of the crate next to her.

"Yup. Headlines don't sell papes. newsies sell papes, younger sells more papes, and making people feel sorry for youse will get em to buy a pape. I tink I got it." Gears said hopping off the crate. she was hungry she wondered if he was hungry to but she didn't say anything ' I don't wanna bother him' she thought ' I'll just get something later'. She walked around the crates once to stretch out her legs. She began to sit back down when she heard Jack yell " I'm done!"

Gears turned around and gave him an odd look. "Already?"

Jack just smirked and replied "like Ise said earlier Ise da best newsie in Manhattan, now come on." He waited for Gears as she picked up her stuff and joined him.

" So ummm Where are we goin?" Gears asked quietly.

" Wha?" Jack asked

"I asked where we was goin." Gears said again she was a little quieter this time.

" Here." He said stopping outside of a small restaurant with a sign outside that read 'Tibby's'. Gears was suddenly not so sure about this whole newsie thing and was seriously considering backing out and making a run for it.

"Come on I'll introduce ya to da guys." Jack said grabbing her arm and pulling her through the door behind him.

As they entered the restaurant Gears tried to pull her arm out of Jacks grip, but he was holding on to it to tight and the fact that he was practically dragging her behind him didn't help her situation. They stopped in front of a big booth in the corner of the restaurant. Gears looked at the booth and noticed a short Italian boy smoking a cigar and fiddling with a pack of cards. Next to him sat a pale girl with blond hair and blue eyes, she was wearing a blue skirt with a white tank top and a black newsie cap. She was trying to steal the Italians cigar but he kept swatting her hand away every time she was about to get it. She was having fun and he didn't exactly look annoyed by her attempts at his cigar. She looked to the right of the blond girl and found herself looking at another girl, Gears could tell that she was tall even though she was sitting down Her long red hair fell past her shoulders a little and her green eyes sparkled as she moved her hand over to the collar of the blonds shirt, it took a little bit but Gears finally realized what the girl was about to do and smiled to herself. She was broken from her observations when Jack suddenly let go of her arm. She looked over in time to see him hugging a girl a little taller than herself with long brown hair and Brown eyes. Gears could tell that they where probably going out when after a minute they where still hugging. A scream came that from the booth followed by laughter broke it up. The three of them looked at the blond girl who jumped up and started to wiggle around franticly while the girl to the right of her was going into hysterics.

"Noodle!" The blond girl screamed "Dats it Ise gonna kill ya!"

The redheaded girl Gears could only assume was Noodle Took off from the booth with the blond close at her heals they made a circle around the restaurant before heading back towards the booth. The blond was about to catch Noodles when Jack decided to step in.

"Hey youse two knock it off , you's gonna kill one anudder" Jack said smiling obviously amused at the whole thing.

The blond took a her seat back beside the Italian boy who was still giggling at her misfortune, Noddles took a seat next to the blond. She looked at Jack with an amused smile on her face and said "Yes dad!"

Jack chose to ignore the comment and turned his attention to Gears.

"Hey guys" He yelled , the entire restaurant started to get quiet as Jack spoke. Jack pulled Gears forward and pointed to her.

"Dis here's Gears she's gonna be a sellin papes and stayin at da lodgin house."

There came a few scattered hellos from the restaurant and then went back to what they where doing before. Gears could feel her cheeks turning bright red, she had never been so embarrassed in her entire life. She just stood there not knowing what to do, Jack grabbed her arm again and pulled her to the table. "have a seat" Jack said motioning for her to sit down next to the brunette he had just been hugging. Gears took a seat and Jack pulled up a chair from a nearby table and sat at the end of the booth.

"Lemme introduce ya to the dese guys here" he said as he started to point to the Italian boy.

"Dis here's Racetrack, and da blond next to him is his goil Baby, Da goil next to her is Noodles and da one next to you is my goil Midnight."

"Hi." Gears greeted quietly She didn't like being around large groups of people she never knew what to say to them.

"Hiya!" Noodles said rather loudly.

"So Gears how did you run across Jack here?" Midnight questioned.

"We met in an ally." Jack said and suddenly realized What he said. "I mean I was being chased by a bull an she covered fer me."

Midnight gave Jack an amused look and tuned her attention to Gears " Have you sold papers b'for kid?"

Gears shook her head "Nah but I have a good idea on how it's done." she said smiling as she remembered Jacks little lecture about selling papes.

Races head popped up

" He gave ya the lecture didn't he?" He asked looking at Cowboy with a knowing smile on his face.

"Yup!" she said giggling "all ten minutes of it."

Midnight cracked up "Oh you poor thing you survived dat?"

Noodles was giggling madley trying not to make eye contact with the confused Cowboy.

"Yeah I did. It wadnt dat bad." Gears said laughing a little, she was definitely beginning to feel more at ease with these people.

The waiter came by and asked what everyone wanted and took their orders. As They waited for their food the others asked Gears about herself and whatever else they wanted to know. The waiter retuned a few minutes later with the sandwiches and they began to eat.

"So…" Baby began "why are you carryin around dat tool box?"

Gears looked at the toolbox sitting by her on the floor then she looked up at Baby.

"They used at be me uncles."

"What happened to yer uncle?" Race asked taking a bite out of his sandwich, He nearly choked when Baby elbowed him the ribs shooting him a dirty look.

Then she looked at Gears "You don gotta answer it if you don't wanna." she said.

" Nah its S'oK," she said to Baby and then turned to look at Race "He was killed in a fact'ry accident."

"Oh….sorry."

"S'oK"

" So Gears anything we should know about you?" Jack asked taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"Like what?" Gears asked rather confused.

" Like are da bulls aftah ya ?are your parents afteh ya? did you run away.. Dat kind a stuff."

Gears shook her head "no not as far as I know, Why?" she asked before taking huge bite out of her sandwich.

"No reason it jus makes it easier to keep da bulls off ya if I know stuff like dat."

"Oh." replied Gears, she had finished with her sandwich as had everyone else and they where now sitting in an awkward silence.

"We goils are gonna go back to da lodgin house." Midnight said as she stood up. " We'll take Gears with us an get her settled an introduced."

Jack looked up from where he was sitting

"Good idea. You can meet da rest of da newsies dat way." He said to Gears.

" Ummmm exactly how many more newsies live in da lodgin house?" Gears asked.

Jack thought fer a second and then replied " Oh about thirty of us all together."

'Thirty!' Gears thought in astonishment, she honestly didn't know how she was going to survive meeting thirty new people.

"Welp come on." Noodles said dragging Gears along behind her, Baby gave Race a peck on the cheek before she left snatching his cigar in the process and ran out after the other girls.

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The girls walked in silence, Gears was still wondering how the hell she was gonna survive meeting thirty people, it wouldn't be like at the factory's lodging house where they don't even notice your there, these people actually knew who each other where.

After a couple of minutes they reached an old building with a sign hanging out front that read 'Newsboys lodging house'.

"We're here." Midnight said to the group as she hoped up the first step. As the group entered the lodging house Midnight stopped at the desk and pulled Gears over to the side.

"Dis is da front desk. Youse gotta sign in whenever ya get to da lodgin house so Kloppman kin keep track of ya." Midnight said indicating a brown hard cover book filled with names and times.

Gears looked up at Midnight with a confused look on her face.

"Who's Kloppman?" she asked before looking back down at the counter to find a pen.

Midnight looked around the lobby and office before turning back to Gears.

"Well he aint here right now but he's da guy who runs da lodgin house, he wakes us up in da morning an makes sure we get up in time to sell our papes."

Gears found a pen and found an empty spot in the book to sign her name while she was doing this Midnight continued to explain about the lodging house.

" Now its about three cents a night, but Kloppman normally lets you stay yer first night fer free. He normally wakes us goils up before he wakes da boys, so's we have first dibs at da bathroom."

Gears finished signing in then turned to face Midnight.

"k. I'm done." she said simply. Midnight looked at the book once before closing it " Awright." She said as she shoved it back into its proper spot.

"C'mon the bunkroom is upstairs, most of da oders should already be up dere."

Gears picked up her tool box and bag off the counter and followed Midnight as she made her way up stairs. At the top of the stairs she turned to the left, Gears followed her into a big room full of bunk beds, there where a couple of groups of boys sitting all around the room.

Two groups where playing cards and the other one group seemed to be talking amongst themselves.

"k. Dis is da boys bunk room." Midnight said as they entered the room. She pointed to one of the groups playing cards. "Over dere we got Itty , Snipeshooter, Boots and Snitch." Each boy looked up at the mention of their name and mumbled a hello to the new girl and continued with their game..

"An ovah dere." she pointed to the second group of card players "is Jake, Jesse an Kelt." Again each boy looked up and mumbled their greeting to the new kid before going back to their game.

"Dose guys ovah dere" she said pointing at group of boys in the corner "are Dutchy, Specs, Blink , an Snoddy." A few hellos could be heard coming from the group before they became totally engrossed in their conversation once more.

"An dat guy in da corner bunk is Crutchy." Midnight added pointing to a boy in a corner bunk, that Gears had not noticed in her initial scan of the room.

Crutchy looked over at the new girl but did not say anything, instead he just looked back up at the top of his bunk.

Gears didn't have time to think on it, because Midnight had already started to pull her out of the room and into the room right across the hall. Midnight pulled Gears almost all the way in the middle of the room before letting her go. Gears took a second to scan the room on the left side of the room was a tall girl , she was taller than Noodles by a couple of inches, she had chestnut brown hair with blond streaks here and there. She had the greenest eyes that Gears had ever seen she wore black pants and a grey shirt. The only reason Gears had noticed her first was because she was dancing around on a table by the wall. Gears suppressed the urge to laugh at the girl who seemed to be enjoying herself.

"New girl!" Midnight yelled from behind Gears.

The girl that Gears was looking at suddenly stopped and jumped off the table. The girl just walked up and to Gears and stood in front of her.

"Hiya! My names Cricket!" She said rather enthusiastically. Cricket spit in her hand and offered it out to Gears, Gears spit in her own hand and clasped it around Crickets and gave her a polite yet slightly uncomphortable smile.

Cricket was about to open her mouth to ask a bunch of questions, when another voice cut her off.

"Down dere Cricket, I tink youse scarin her." The voice belonged to another girl she had shoulder length brown hair and hazel eye's. She stood about two inches taller than Gears which would have made her about 5'6, she wore baggy khaki pants and a large white shirt.

"Hi I'm Whisper." The girl said as she held her hand out. Gears shook Whispers hand and smiled.

"Hi. Whisper , Cricket , my names Gears." Gears said suddenly feeling very self aware and started to look at her feet.

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"Where all da odders at?" Midnight asked looking around.

Whisper looked over at Midnight who had taken a seat on her bunk on the opposite side of the room.

"Um, I tink Mockin Boid is meetin Davey an comin back wit him later an everyone else hasn't come from lunch yet."

Almost immediately after Whisper finished her response a stampede of footsteps could be heard on the stairs along with a jumble of voices . After a few seconds a large group of boys and girls came into view.

Crickets head popped up and a wide smile came across her face. She seemed to have seen someone in the hallway. Before Gears knew what was happening she was being run over for a third time that day. Gears looked up and realized that this time she had been run over by Cricket who was now hugging one of the many boys in the hallway.

As Gears picked herself up off the ground and noticed the giggling coming from behind her. She turned to see Midnight and Whisper trying not to laugh out loud.

" You OK?" Midnight asked in between giggles.

"Yeah, Ise fine" Gears responded as she started giggling herself.

Whisper pointed to the door with a smile on her face and indicated Cricket and the boy who now had his arm around her.

" That's Snoddy." she pointed to the boy " He's da reason dat Cricket dere ran ovah ya."

Gears looked back from the couple and around the bunk room.

"Um, where kin I put me stuff?" She asked Midnight.

"Well. Dose two bunks are free." She replied pointing over to two in the corner of the room.

"Thanks"

"No problem"

Gears walked over to the bunk in the very corner of the room away from everyone else. She put her tool box on the floor and pushed it under the bed. She picked up the pillow and placed her bag underneath it. When she turned around she saw that more girls had entered the bunk room.

"Gossip session!" Baby yelled pushing two guys away from their conversation with some of the girls and out the door. She shut it and looked around making sure that there where no stragglers.

The two girls who where talking to the affore mentioned boys looked very miffed with Baby. Gears did a little double take, the girls both had similar hair. The one on the left had light brown hair with a mess of red highlights that fell to the middle of her back. The one on the right had darker brown hair and a few red highlights, her hair fell to her shoulders. Gears noticed that they both had brown eye's. the one on the left had hazel eyes and the one on the right had dark brown eye's that almost looked black from where Gears was standing. They both where about the same height, Gears looked at all the girls who where currently in the room.

'Is everyone here taller den me?' she thought with a sigh. This apparently alerted the two girls to Gears's presence, they tuned and walked the short distance over to Gears and stopped a couple of feet away.

"you must be da new goil." the one with the Dark eye's said stepping forward a little.

"Uh yeah..dat would be me." Gears replied shyly

" Well, welcome to da lodgin house. Me names Cotton Balls , but ev'ryone calls me CB for short." Cotton balls replied spitting in her hand and offered it out in front of her.

"Ise Gears, Nice at meet ya Cotton balls." Gears replied spitting in her hand and clasping it around Cotton balls.

"An Ise Spade." The other said stepping forward. "nice at meet ya Gears"

"nice at meet ya to spade." Gears said spit shaking with spade.

There were a couple of moments of awkward silence before Cotton balls spoke

"So Gears who recruited ya?"

Gears looked rather confuse before asking

"What do you mean who recruited me?"

"She means which one of da bums dat lives here found ya?" Spade explained stepping forward.

"Jack. Why?" Gears responded finally getting the meaning.

" Gaw does Jack find ev'ryone?" Spade said with and exaggerated sigh.

"Shoulda known." Was all Cotton Balls had to say.

"He lectured her an everthin" Noodles said popping her head down from her spot on the top bunk.

Gears was met with two looks of pity.

"How long did it last?" Spade asked giving Gears a sympathetic look.

" About Ten minutes I tink. It wadnt dat bad." Gears said stuffing her hands in her pockets and shrugged

"Ten Minutes! Dats da longest time so far! An what do ya mean it wadnt dat bad? You actually listened to it all?" Cotton Balls exclaimed her eyes wide in shock.

Gears just nodded her head and glanced at the floor.

"Wow you must have a lot of patience to put up wid dat fer Ten minutes." Cotton balls said calming down. "When I hoid it, I started to ignore him"

Spade looked over at Cotton Balls with an amused smile on her lips.

"You too?"

Cotton Balls turned around and yelled "Hey guys how many of ya actually listened to all of Cowboys newsie lecture?"

"I didn't." Whisper said "I dint mean to I just got so board, It was much more interesting when Kelt explained it to me."

"Everyone thinks its much more interesting when their boyfriend explains it." Baby giggled "I know I found it waaayyy more interesting when Race explained it all to me."

Whisper got a look of alarm when she realized what

Baby had insinuated She stood up quickly. "Kelt and I are not goin out!" She said defensively. Baby just giggled and replied "Well you should you guys spend enough time togeddah."

"Dats cause we're best friends! Not cause where goin out!" Whisper exclaimed.

"So Snoddy an I where best friends B'for we got togedder ." Cricket said from her seat by the table.

"Yeah best friends for about three hours." Midnight laughed "before ya jumped on da table he was sitting at and started to dance around."

"Yeah as I recall ya slipped an nearly cracked your head open, Good ting you landed in Snoddy's lap. Huh?" Noodles said getting laughs from the rest of the room.

Cricket just smirked and put her feet up on the table. " Now who said dat I slipped? And as I recall" she said looking at Midnight. "You where to busy starin at Jack to hear his lecture."

"I was not starin at him I was admiring his hat!" Midnight said trying her best to keep a strait face.

"Sure admiring his hat. Right." Cricket muttered loud enough for the whole room to hear and start to laugh all over again.

" Do all of ya have boyfriends here?" Gears asked finally calming down.

"Pretty much" Cotton Balls replied. " I'm Mush's goil."

Gears remembered the boy with fluffy curly hair who was talkin to Cotton Balls before being kicked out. She figured that he was Mush, Gears concluded that Cotton Balls and Mush looked good together.

"An Ise Skittery's goil." Spade said with a content look on her face.

"Races mine!" Baby piped up proudly Before taking a puff off of races cigar.

"Me an Pix an Fairy don got guys, but I tink Pixi's close to getting one…"

Noodle was cut off when the door suddenly flew open. All Gears saw was a blur as the figure rushed past her and threw herself onto a nearby bed.

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" Dimples whats wrong?" Baby asked walking over to the girl who had just buried her head into a pillow and now looked as if she is crying.

Dimples brought her head off the pillow pushing her light brown hair out of her face to revile tear filled brown eye's. "I… I saw me brother today when Ise was waiting fer Blink…"she started to cry again before finishing her sentence.

"It's Ok Dimples jus take yer time." Cotton balls said sitting down on the foot of her bunk.

Midnight hopped of her bunk "He didn't hurt ya did he?" she asked suddenly becoming very protective

"Yeah cause if he did We's kin take care of em fer ya" Spade said indicating Midnight and herself.

"Hey don't count me out" Baby said from her spot by Dimples.

"An me" Cricket chirped from where she stood starting to roll up her sleeves.

Of the girls in the bunk room Midnight, Spade ,Baby and Cricket where probably the most overprotective when it came to their friends. Dimples lifted head off the pillow now wet with tears and looked at Midnight, Baby, Spade and Cricket. "No he didn't…but…but….well, he tried to drag me back home an I told im dat I didn wanna go back an dat I was much happier an dat I had someone who really did care an I wasn't goin back home……Dats when Blink came and helped me….. Me brudder ruined me life!…." She stopped once more and buried her head in her pillow once more.

"Oh , he didn't get into a fight wit Blink did he?" Noodle asked from her perch on the top bunk.

"No he didn… He just ruined me life! He told Blink dat I was seein him and dat I should be ashamed of meself fer cheatin on my boyfrind an before I could explain meself Blink was telling me he did want to see me face evah again an he ran off! ……" She stopped an started to cry harder than before.

"Blink believed him!" Cricket exclaimed. "He should know better dan to take someone else's woid ovah yers."

"Don't worry Dimps I'll have Jack talk to em fer ya. If anyone kin talk some sense into him Jack could." Midnight said walking to the door of the bunk room.

"An I kin get Mush to go too." Cotton balls piped up

"An I kin get Race!" Baby said "besides If I know Blink we'se gonna hafta gang up on em before he'll listen to anyone."

"Oh an get Crutchy! He's good at talkin to people an most every one in da lodgin house trusts him wit everting!" Cricket said.

Midnight nodded "Good Idea , So Jack Race Mush an Crutchy are gonna gang up on Blink an beat… I mean talk some sense into im."

Midnight opened the door to leave the bunkroom.

"Hang on a sec I'm comin wit youse Ise got a feelin dat da boys are gonna need some help talking to Blink," Whisper said following Midnight out the door.

Once the girls left the bunk room Cotton balls, Spade , Baby, Cricket and Noodles started in on the task of calming their friend down. Gears watched from her spot near the corner she had backed herself into from the beginning of the whole scene. She thought it best to make herself scarce and let them take care of take care of their friends problem. She walked over to her bunk hidden away in the corner and laid down, she stared at he top bunk and eventually drifted off into a light sleep.

Gears woke up about five minutes later by a knock on the door. She pulled herself out of the bed and started to walk out into the main part of the room. She looked over at the door to see Noodles pull it open. A boy with sandy colored hair and an eye patch stood in the door, "Heya, Noodles Is Dimples in here? Ise gotta talk to her." he said peering into the room.

Noodles opened the door the rest of the way. "Yeah she is, you better be comin to apologize." She said letting him in.

Blink instantly found Dimples still on her bed sleeping. Blink slowly walked over to her bedside receiving many dirty looks from Spade, Cricket, Baby and Cotton Balls.

He reached over and shook her lightly. She opened her eyes and rubbed them sleepily.

"Umm kin I talk to ya?.." he took a quick glance around the room "in private?"

Dimples looked up at Blink the hurt still visible in her big brown eyes and nodded. Blink grabbed her by the hand and led her to the fire escape and up to the roof.

Once they had left the bunkroom all of the girls save Gears darted to the window.

Apparently the sound carried really well and you could hear everything being said on the girls side of the building.

"He's apologizing." Spade said nudging Cricket over to get more space.

"He better be." Baby whispered from her spot beside Cotton balls.

"Wait! They stopped talking. Wanna go see what they're doin?" Cricket asked a mischievous smile spreading across her face.

Gears just stood there, she was very amused by this whole thing. "So its safe to say dat dere is no such ting as privacy round here."

"Nope, none whatsoever." Noodles said trying to shove her way to the front of the group.

"Crap, cheese it dere comin back down." Cotton balls whispered making a be line for her bed. Each girl quickly found something to be doing right as Dimples and Blink entered the bunkroom. Blink noticed the many sets of eyes on Dimples and himself and suddenly decide that now would be a good time to make his exit. "Ummm.. I gotta go talk to Jesse about sumthin I'll meet ya later fer dinner aright?" He said giving Dimples a hug.

"K. Later." Dimples said as she watched he boyfriend leave the room.

"So how sorry was he?" Noodle asked looking down off her bunk.

" Well you guys were listening in on it so, why are ya askin me?" Dimples said as she made her way to her bed.

" because…" noodle rolled her eyes "I was in da back an couldn't hear tha whole thing"

" Well he said dat Jack, Mush ,Race , Crutchy an Whisper cornered him and told him what happened, den he said dat Whisper started to make im feel really guilty." she giggled " He wouldn't stop apologizen until I made im…"

"Really and How did you 'make him'? Midnight asked from the door.

"I aint tellen." Dimples said leaning back on her pillows a wide grin spreading across her face.

"Dat means she kissed im." Cotton balls piped in from her 'card game' with Cricket.

" Mind yer own business." Dimples said a blush rising across her cheeks.

"Fine. We'll leave ya alone" Spade said looking around "Hey where did Whisper go?"

Midnight shrugged and plopped herself down on her bunk "She an Kelt went fer a walk."

" I think that Kelt has it fer Whisper." Cricket said putting her feet on the table once more.

" No doubt do ya see the way he looks at her when she's not lookin?" Cotton balls said sitting on her knees.

"But she is not goin out wit Kelt! They are best friends an nothing more!" Baby said mocking Whispers earlier outburst.

Spade looked at the clock "It's 6:00 already! Hey we gotta get to Medda's fer her show."

The girls all looked at the clock and started to pull out of the room. Gears Tapped Spade on the shoulder "Um Who's Medda?

Spade jumped " Geeze Gears Ise forgot youse was here, Medda owns Irving Hall she's got a new show tonight. We always go watch when she git's a new show."

"Oh. K. Ise was jist wonderin." Gears said following Spade out the door.

"Hey who're you?" Gears turned around to face the source of the voice.

"I'm Gears." Gears said facing Dimples

"New?"

Gears nodded her head and stuffed her hands in her pockets.

" Well Ise Dimples" She said spiting in her hand and offering it out.

Gears spit in her hand and clasped it around Dimples.

"Nice to meet cha." Gears said looking at the floor.

"You don't gotta be nervous I aint gonna bite er nothin." Dimples laughed

"Sorry" Gears said as she to started giggling. "Dis whole meeting new people thing is still new to me."

"Don worry everyone was nouvus when dey foist came." Dimples said indicating the rest of the girls around her.

The girls talked the rest of the way to Medda's where they met the rest of the boys inside.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once the girls got inside they split up finding their boyfriends. Gears just stood in the doorway with Noodle. Noodle scanned they room and found an open table.

"C'mon Gears we kin sit ovah here." Noodle said grabbing Gear's arm and pulled her to a table in the middle of the room.

"Anyone sittin here?" Noodles asked indicating two empty seats at the table.

"No they're empty. You can sit here if you want to." Replied a boy from the other side of the table.

"Thank you . Ise tink I will." Noodle said sitting in a chair beside a boy with black hair and brown eyes. She pulled out the other chair and motioned for Gears to take a seat.

" You haven't met dese bums yet." She said to Gears indicating the people at the table.

Noodle pointed to the boy Next to her. "Dats Bumlets an da goil next to him is his goil Lotus Blossom." Gears looked to the girl that Noodle had pointed at, Gears noted her waist length brown hair, but the real attention getter was her eye's they where aquamarine and had what seemed to Gears as silver flecks in them.

"An dat is David Jacobs and his goil Mockin Boid…" Noodles said pointing to the boy that had replied to Noodles earlier and the young girl next him.

" An dose two right Dere." Noodles finished pointing to two girls. "Are Pixi.." Noodle indicated a girl with reddish brown curly hair with striking green eyes. "An Fairy." She finished indicating a very young looking girl with blond hair and blue eyes.

"Guys dis is Gears." Noodle said slapping Gears rather hard on the back. Gears winced 'Dose bruises still havent healed.' She noted to herself as she put a smile on and Greeted the rest of the table.

" Hiya …." Gears said as she smiled shyly.

" So Gears, Where do you come from?" David asked trying to make conversation.

"Here in Manhattan for most of me life anyway." Gears said Looking over at the well spoken young man.

"Where'd you live before dat?" Mockin Boid asked putting her arm around David.

"Ireland… Dublin I think." Gears replied

"Who do you have a crush on?" Fairy asked looking at Gears expectantly.

Gears's head snapped up and looked a bit shocked " wh?..wha?…excuse me?" Gears stammered.

Bumlets laughed "Back off Fairy not ever'one has a crush on one o da guys on dere foist day."

Lotus looked over at Gears "She's had a crush on Snipeshooter over dere since her foist day in da lodgin house."

Gears looked over to the young boy that Lotus was pointing to.

Fairy blushed furiously and turned her head toward the stage as the lights began to dim.

"It's starting!" Lotus said resting her head on Bumlets shoulder.

The hall went dark, suddenly the stage foot lights came on reveling a shadowy figure sitting on a swing.

"Dats Medda" Noodle said pointing to the shadow on the swing

Just then the house lights went up to revile a woman in her twenty or early thirty's with red hair. She was wearing a pink dress and as soon as she came on all the guys in the place started to clap and cheer loudly. Gears looked around and noticed that all the attached girls weren't so enthusiastic about the upcoming show as their boyfriends where.

'So that's why they always go see medda's new shows!' Gears thought with a half smile.

As soon as it quieted down the show began. Gears stuck around through about 3 of the acts that night, before she began to get tired. Gears leaned over and taped Noodle on the shoulder.

"I'm really tired. Ise gonna head back to da lodging house." Gears whispered getting up.

"K. be careful" Noodles whispered back, still watching the performance.

Gears exited Irving Hall and began to make her way back to the Lodging House.

'One more block and then I'm…' Her thoughts where cut short when she heard a giggle come from somewhere in front of her.

Gears looked around and found herself standing by the Horas Greeley Statue outside the distribution center. She scanned the area to find out where the giggle had come from. Her eyes stopped on two figures under a street lamp.

'Is dat Whisper? Who's dat wit her' Gears eyes widened when she realized who it was ' Oscar DeLancy!'

Gears started to take a step forward 'He better not be tryin to hurt her' she stopped mid step suddenly confused 'Then why was she giggling?'

Gears looked over at the two once more 'He don look like he's tryin nutin. In fact he looks like he's talkin to her.'. It in fact did look like they where just talking to each other. Oscar was standing at least 2 feet away from Whisper and had his hands at his side. Gears just stood there for a minute trying to decide if she should just leave or confront the situation. She didn't know Whisper very well but she did know Oscar enough to not trust him as far as she could throw him and the fact that she cant even pick him up didn't help matters much. Apparently she stood there to long because Whisper caught sight of her and excused herself. She walked up to Gears.

"What are youse doin here?" She asked looking a little panicked

"Umm Ise was jus goin back to da lodgin house an I umm." Gears fumbled with her words.

"Please don tell anyone!" Whisper asked with a pleading look in her eyes.

"What? You mean youse goin out wit him?" Gears asked a little surprised that anyone would want to be with a DeLancy.

Whisper nodded "Yeah Ise am, Please don tell Jack or anyone…especially Kelt dey would go nuts."

Gears didn't like this, she had just got there that day and already she is being asked to lie to them.

"K. I wont tell no one…just be careful." Gears said before she could stop herself.

" Oh Thank you! Dis is really important at me!" Whisper said before turning around to go back to Oscar who was patiently waiting under the street lamp.

Gears sighed and started back on her way to the Lodging house.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Five minutes later Gears found herself outside of the lodging house. She slowly pushed open the door and slipped inside.

"Can I help you?"

Gears spun around quickly, Startled by the voice behind her.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you." The voice said again.

It took her a minute but she finally found the source of the voice. Apparently the voice belonged to an old man with white hair and a pair of glasses, standing behind the desk in the lobby.

"Umm…I'm new..and.I..I.." Gears stuttered awkwardly.

"Oh so you're the new name I saw in the book…what was it?..umm oh yes Gears." He said looking up from the sign in book.

Gears just nodded not exactly sure about what to do or say.

"Well" he said pushing the book forward "I'm Kloppman."

"Hi Kloppman. I'm Gears but you probably already know that…." Gears said signing in the book and placing her time.

"Did one of em explain how dis place woiks?" Kloppman asked taking the book back after she was done.

Gears nodded "Midnight did."

Kloppman smiled "Well then I will see you tomorrow morning."

Gears nodded "Goodnight" she said as she turned around and climbed up the stairs and to the washroom.

She turned on the water in the sink and rolled up her sleeves. She glanced down at her bruised left arm and frowned. It hadn't gotten any better still all black and blue, she glanced over to her other arm. Same thing.

'damn' she thought

"What happened to you?"

Gears spun around. "um.. Nothing" she said pulling her arms behind her back.

"Nothing. Right." He said taking a step back into the hallway.

"Ok then, What happened to you?" Gears asked folding her arms across her chest not caring if he saw anymore.

"Nothing happened." He snapped stepping farther back into the hallway.

"Really?" She asked raising an eyebrow. "Cause it looks to me like you jus got soaked."

The boy sighed and stepped out of the dark hallway and into the bathroom. Gears shook her head and stepped aside to let him get to the sink.

"So." She said looking at his black eye "How did that happen?"

Normally Gears would be feeling very nervous just to be in the same room with someone she didn't even know, but when it came to people being hurt or sick ,she basically throws nervousness out the window.

The boy pulled out a handkerchief and held it under the water for a minute, then brought it up to his eye.

"I'll tell you if you tell me about your arms." He said leaning heavily on the counter.

Gears sighed they where probably gonna find out about the bruises sooner or later. Hey why not sooner? She shrugged and hopped onto the counter.

"Some Guys I used to work with found out I was a goil and soaked me."

She said looking at her feet, not wanting to think about it.

"The DaLanceys" The boy said wincing as he tried to clean another one of the cuts on his bottom lip. "One of em anyway."

"Which one Oscar or Morris?" Gears asked looking over at his sad attempts at cleaning his wounds out.

"Morris, Oscar had something more important to do." He said sounding relieved

When Gears heard this she nearly fell of the counter. She quickly regained her composure and franticly tried to think of ways to change the subject. Fortunately for Gears the boy did it for her.

"I'm Crutchy." He said turning around ,spiting in his had and offering it out to her.

"I'm Gears." She said spitting in her hand and clasping it around Crutchy's.

Gears looked over at his face once more and noted the extremely poor job he had done trying to clean it up.

"Hang on jus a sec I'll be right back." Gears left the bathroom and went to her bunk and pulled out her tool box. She once again entered the bathroom and set her tool box on the counter. Crutchy looked at it then back up at her.

"What's that fer?"

Gears looked over at him and then started to rummage through the toolbox.

"I got alchahol and gauze in here somewhere…." she mumbled while rummaging.

"I don't need your pity." He hissed glaring at her.

"The only thing I pity.." She said as she pulled out the alchahol "Is your face. Where did you learn to take care of your injuries?"

Crutchy just stood there dumbstruck.

"So yer not doin this cause you feel sorry fer me?"

Gears just shook her head.

"Den why are ya doin dis?"

Gears laughed "Cause If dey git all infected I'll feel bad….of course I wouldn't be feeling as bad as you would."

"Fine you win!" He said pulling up a chair from the wall and sitting down.

Gears grinned and poured some alchahol onto a towel and started to clean out one of the cuts on his chin.

"so where did ya woik before?" He asked.

"A factory." Gears said moving on to the one on his lower lip.

He waited till she finished then asked "what did ja do?"

She rinsed the towel and rung it out over the sink.

"I fixed da machines when dey broke." She said moving to put the lid on the bottle of alchahol.

"I'm guessin you wernt dressed as a goil." He said looking in the mirror.

"Nope, hence me getting soaked." She said rubbing one of her arms absentmindedly.

He looked back down at her arms. "Geez did they do all dat to ya?"

Gears shook her head. "Nah they got me on me back."

Crutchy frowned and nodded at her arms "Den how did dat happen to yer arms?"

Gears looked down. "Oh these I got in a fight wit da DeLancy brothers. Dey got some lucky shots off on me is all"

Crutchy laughed.

"What's so funny?" Gears asked looking over at Crutchy with a weird look.

"Yer da one dat gave Morris a shinah?" He asked between giggles.

Gears smiled "He has a shinah?"

Crutchy nodded still giggling a little.

Gears smiled even bigger. "Good. I tol him dat I was gunna hit em an he didn't listen to me."

"Morris getting a shinah from a goil. He musta been pissed off." Crutchy said.

"He was. Dats how I got most of dese bruises." She said nodding at her arm.

Crutchy grabbed his crutch and started to get up.

"Hey do ya got a sellin partner?"

"A sellin partner? What's dat?" Gears asked picking up her tool box.

"A person you sell wit. Jack prefers dat we got one, safer dat way." Crutchy replied stopping in the door.

"No. Don't got one as far as I know."

"Well neider do I, you wanna sell wit me?"

Gears shrugged her shoulders.

"Sure why not?"

"K. Den I'll see ya tomorrow. G'night."

"Alright tomorrow, G'night."

Gears said heading into the girls bunk room.

Gears got to her bunk and put her tool box on the floor then slid it under the bed. She pulled her bag out from underneath the pillow and took out a pair of loose baggy khaki pants and one of her uncles white shirts that were two sizes to big for her. She went over to the bunk and laid down. She stared at the top of the bunk for about an hour thinking about 500 hundred different things at once amongst those things she had a feeling she was going to like it here. Finally after a good hour of silence she drifted off to sleep.

-------------------A month later-----------------------------------

"Old woman found dead in her mansion last night! 10 year old grandson murder suspect!" Gears called out waving her last paper in the air. An old woman with graying hair stopped.

"I'd like a paper miss." she said handing Gears a Dime

"Thank you miss heres your papah an heres yer change." Gears said as she handed the woman the paper and began to dig through her pockets.

"No no sweetie you keep it." The woman said putting a hand on Gears's shoulder.

"Ummmm but I kin get yer…." Gears started as she looked up "huh? Where'd she go?" Gears looked around trying to find the old woman who had disappeared on her. After a minute or so she gave up and headed across Central Park to the park benches by the pond. She was supposed to meet Crutchy and then they where going to head to the poker game at the lodging house. Gears walked for a couple of minutes before finally reaching the benches.

"You ready?" Crutchy asked from his seat on one of the benches.

"yup." Gears replied sitting next to him for a minute.

" Good cause I'm ready to git back to da lodgin house, I don wanna miss nutin." He said getting up.

Gears raised an eyebrow "You hardly even participate in the poker game so why are you so anxious to get back tonight?"

Crutchy just smiled and said "Spots bringing Enchanted tonight."

Gears stopped and smiled mischievously at Crutchy " Crutchy has a crush huh? Dats so cute!"

"You tink yer cute don cha?" He asked putting his one free hand on his hip.

"I don't tink Ise cute I know Ise cute"

Crutchy just shrugged and laughed a little. He turned around and started walking again. Gears just followed after him with that mischievous smile still plastered over her face.

"So." she started when she caught up to Crutchy. "Do ya got a crush on her or not?"

"Are ya nuts dats Spot Colnons goil everyone knows dat." He said laughing.

Gears just looked at him and replied " I've only been a newsie fer a month I don' even know who Spot Colnon is."

Crutchy stopped and stared at her in disbelief. "You..you ..don't know who Spot Colnon is?

"Nope."

"Well didn't Jack take ya to Brooklyn to learn how at fight?

"I already know how to fight why would I need to go to Brooklyn to learn how to fight?"

Crutchy couldn't believe this she didn't know Who Spot Conlon was. He was sure that one of the girls told her about him. He sighed to himself and took a deep breath. It took awhile but he finally explained to Gears who Spot Conlon was and why you don't get on his bad side.

Gears nodded "Ok so dat's who Spot Conlon is but Ise still lost."

"Whatr ya lost about now?"

"Ise still wanna know why yer so anxious to see dis Enchanted goil, I mean if she's Spot Conlons goil you'd be stupid to even try anyting wit her."

Crutchy laughed " I aint in love wit Enchanted, da reason Ise exited is because of what she might do to Kelt."

Gears head popped up. "Why's she gonna do somthin to him?"

Crutchy laughed " Long story, but lets jus say he's getting payback and when dat payback comes from Enchanted it aint never pretty."

Gears laughed a little "How do you know all a dis."

" I don play poker so's I watch what goin on outside da game, dats where most of da interestin stuff happens."

Gears laughed again as they approached the Lodging House " Hey you want some company tonight?"

Crutchy just looked at Gears "Aint cha gonna play poker?"

"Nah Ise seen da way Race plays an I don need to lose all me money in a poker game…..Besides Ise horrible at it, Blackjacks more me game."

"Well in dat case I wouldn't mind da company in da least."

They got to the top of the stairs and Crutchy pushed open the door. They walked into an empty Lobby. "Nobody's here yet." Gears said looking all around trying to find a sign of life.

"Nobody shows up until at least 7, but Race should be up dere gettin ready wit some of da odder guys." Crutchy replied as they headed up the stairs to the Boys bunkroom.

"Hey I'll meet ya in da bunkroom in a couple of minutes, I just gotta take care of some tings in da goils bunkroom." Gears said as she cut off into the girls bunkroom. Gears walked over to her bunk and flopped down on her bed sighing loudly. A snapping sound from the right side of the room made her jump into a sitting position. Gears looked around the right side of the room wearily trying to locate the source of the noise and she found it.

"Whisper what in heavens name is wrong wit ya? Ya nearly scared me half at death."

"Sorry" Whisper said in a rather low voice as if she didn't want anyone to hear her.
"Why are ya hide'n? Come on out." Gears said trying to get a good look at the girl.

Whisper stepped out into what little light was coming through the window.

Gears sighed and dropped back on her bed " Not again!"

Whisper pulled at her braid nervously " I know, I know, but C'mon It wont be fer to long, I'll be back before ya know it!"

Gears sat up running her hand through her ponytail." C'mon Whisper I don know how much longer keep dis up. Kelt keeps on getting more an more persistent every time youse go out."

Whispers head jerked up suddenly and looked nervous.

"He..He's been askin ya bout where Ise at?"

Gears merely nodded her head before saying.

"Yeah, an its getting harder an harder to convince him Oderwise."

"Oh no, Jack an Kelt cant know bout dis. Please don say a woid to either of em?"

Gears just looked at Whisper in total disbelief. She had to lie to Jack now! She couldn't do it! She could barely lie to Kelt now as it was.

Whisper gave her a pleading look and asked again "Please promise me ya wont tell Jack or Kelt bout me an Oscar?"

Damn it to all bloody hell! She was gonna do it again. She couldnt stand it when people gave her that sad "pity me" kinda look.

"Sure…sure I promise." She said again before she could shut herself up.

"Oh Thank you! Thank you! I'll be back early tonite I promise! We'se jus gonna go to eat an den Ise comin right back." She said going to the widow and slipping out on to the Fire escape.

Gears just fell back in her bunk again and sighed in defeat.

"Is Whisper in here?" A voice called from the door.

Gears shot strait up in bed and looked to the door.
"Um no she aint Jesse."

"Really?" the blond questioned folding his arms in front of his chest "Cause I could have sworn that I heard her in here just a second ago."

"Well then you where probably hearin things cause Ise da only one in here."

Jesse just leaned on the door frame arms still folded across his chest and sighed " I know I heard someone in here an it didn't sound like jus you."

Gears sighed and thought for a quick moment. "I was jus talkin to meself aright?

Jesse just laughed a little to himself, "You actually talk to yourself?"

Gears kicked herself for saying such a stupid thing but she couldn't think of anything better to say.

"Right whatever I'm goin back into the guys bunkroom, you have fun talking to yourself now!" Jesse said turning around and heading down the hall.

'Ise gonna kill dat goil.' Gears thought menacingly before getting up and heading into the guys bunkroom.

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She entered the boys room and stood in the doorway for a minute. She looked around the room and found who she was looking for. Crutchy waved at her from the corner of the room and signaled her to come over. As she made her way across the room she could feel many eyes peering at her, 'Oh great now they all think I'm friggin insane!' she thought as she reached Crutchy's bunk. She sighed and sat down on the vacant bunk across from his, She had a feeling this was going to be a long night. Crutchy just sat there with a very amused smile on his lips. Gears looked up and arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"Nothing" He laughed

"What?"

"Nothing"

"Crutchy , there is something so you had better tell me now or I'll drag it out of you before the night is through." Gears replied slightly annoyed by whole thing.

"You talk to yourself?" He said finally breaking into hysterical laughter.

Gears laughed as well, she shouldn't have been , by all means she should have been pissed, but right then she also found it funny.

"Yes, Yes I do. The voices keep me company!….Y'know me Brain its got a mind of its own." She replied laughing once more.

Crutchy just looked at her "Hey so does mine!"

Gears just smiled " Well then dats anudder ting we got in common."

"Yeah, yeah it is isn't it?" He said giving Gears a goofy grin and a look Gears couldn't read. Gears looked back at Crutchy and noticed the look he was giving her.

'What da hell is dat? It couldn't be. Could it? Nah! I aint never gotten one of dose looks b'for, Only girls like Midnight an de oders get looks like dat an dats usually from dere boyfriends… No Crutchy definitely does not like me like dat or does he?…..'

Fortunately Gears's train of thought was derailed when A large group of people flooded into the room. She knew who most everyone was…except for three people. One was a boy and the other two were girls, the boy and one of the girls where talking to Jack and Midnight.

Crutchy nudged Gears in the side with his elbow and pointed to the two.

"Dats Spot…." He pointed to the thin boy with mousy brown hair, red suspenders and gold handled cane. "..an dats Enchanted." He finished pointing to a girl with black hair that went to the small of her back she was wearing a gray shirt with black suspenders and pants. She looked over at the other girl who had seated herself on one of the beds by the door. "Who's she?" Gears asked as she nodded her head toward the girl. Crutchy looked over to where Gears had nodded.

"Oh! Dats Gambler. She's just as good at cards as Race. Dey's always havin a big game between da two of em just to see who's better."

"Oh, I see….." Gears said as her gaze moved over to the next bed over.

"Oh dear. I think dat Kelt over dere is gettin a bit nervous" Gears giggled as she nudged Crutchy. Indeed it did look as if Kelt was nervous. He just sat on his bed being as quiet as possible watching Enchanted and twisting his handkerchief in his hands nervously. Crutchy looked over and laughed.

" Oh boy is he in fer it tonight."

Gears looked over to Crutchy once more and gave him a quizzical look.

"What'd he do to get Enchanted mad at em ?"

Crutchy laughed. "Like Ise said earlier it's a long story but Lets just say he picked a bad time to embarrass her."

Gears raised an eyebrow. "Bad mood."

Crutchy nodded "Yup."

Gears just shook her head " She aint gonna hoit him er nothing is she?"

Crutchy shook his head. "Nah, Not physically anyway."

"Oh" Gears knew that kind of payback, It was the kind of payback where they find out what scares you and uses it against you.

" I tink some of da odder goils are in on it to. I wouldn't want to be him right now."

"What do ya tink she's gonna do?" Gears asked looking over once again to Enchanted.

Crutchy shrugged " Don't know."

Right then the rest of the Manhattan newsies and some others from Harlem and Queens arrived. Once all the girls where together Enchanted gathered them up and they went into the girls bunkroom. Crutchy looked over at Gears.

"Aint ya goin wit em?"

Gears shook her head smiling. "Nah dis is dere ting an I wasn't invited, Sides I would rather stay here an watch Kelt squirm."

Crutchy laughed. "I bet they embarrass the hell out of em."

Gears looked over and smiled. "I'll take that bet."

At the mention of the word 'bet' Races head snapped up and looked around.

"Bet? What bet?"

Crutchy and Gears looked over at Race in astonishment .

"How did he hear that?" Gears asked wide eyed

Crutchy just shook his head and laughed. "Go figure Races hearin gits really good when gambling is mentioned."

Race looked at the two of them. "So you guys did make a bet!"

"Yup but not fer money, just fer the sake of bettin." Gears said back raising her voice slightly so she could be heard over the noise in the room.

" Not bettin fer money! What kind of bet is dat?" Race shouted as the room quieted down and looked at him.

Crutchy looked at Race noticing the look he had on his face and said " Jeez Race calm down it was just fer fun. Ya don gotta git so woiked up about it."

"Yeah ok yer right." Race said sitting down at the makeshift poker table. "Hey Ise startin a game of Blackjack while da goils do dere ting anyone dat wants to play git over here now." He called.

Crutchy looked over at Gears. " Hey you said ya play Blackjack didn't ya?"

Gears looked back "yeah so?"

"Are ya any good?"

"I used to win a lot when Ise played it in da fact'ry."

"Well den go join in da game."

"What?"

"Go. Join. Da. Game."

"Why?

"Jus to have some fun. Who knows ya just might win a game."

"Fine. Just one game den Ise comin back. Ise don wanna be in a game wit Race fer to long."

Gears got up and headed to the table and took a seat next to one of the boys from Harlem as Race delt the cards out.

Gears threw a dime in the middle of the table and picked up her cards. A 10 of hearts and another 10 of Spades. She looked around the table at the others, Most of them where smiling and some had worried looks.

' Should I do it? Hmmmm well gotta take risks sometime' She thought as she said " Hit me."

Race slid a card her way and then slid cards to some others.

Gears picked up her card and looked around the table she caught some of the newsies from Queens and Harlem looking at her so she kept an aloof look on her face. She turned over the card she was just delt. A one of clubs!

"Alright boys show yer cards." Race turned his over to revile that he had a 20. The boy to the left of him swore and put down his cards an 18. The boy next to him sighed and tossed down his cards " bust". Next was Jack who proudly laid his cards down to revile that he to had twenty, Spot showed his cards, he to had 20. All the other players at the table busted.

"Well it looks like we got ourselves a tie." Race said.

"I haven't shown me cards yet." Gears said from her seat.

" Whoa! Hey Gears I didn't know you was in dis game! Well what da hell show yer cards den."

Gears laid her cards on the table.

"Twenty one ! You had a twenty one! Damn!" Race said as he looked at the cards she just put down. Then he shrugged and sighed " Well it looks like we do have a winner." He gave Gears the money from the middle of the table. "There ya go. Ya gonna stick around fer anuther game?"

Gears stood up and shook her head as she pocketed her winnings, "Nope just wanted to play one game, Well it was nice playin with ya boys."

Gears turned around and headed back to where Crutchy was sitting.

He smiled as she sat down.

"What?" She asked.

"You won."

Gears laughed a little " Yeah yeah I did dint I?"

Crutchy took that opportunity to laugh as well "….. Gaw you had to see Races face when youse put yer cards down it was priceless!"

" Well, Well Jack ya didn't introduce me to dis one." A voice cut their conversation short and the both of them looked up at the source of the voice.

Spot Conlon and Jack stood in front of the bunk, Jack just shook his head

"Sorry Spot. She's new, I totally forgot she was here." Jack said rubbing the back of his head.

" What am I invisible? First the Blackjack game and now you?! Ise gonna start takin offence here soon." Gears cried in mock anger.

Jack laughed and backed up a little. "Hey! Ise sorry! Ise sorry!"

Spot just looked at his friend and asked " So Jackey boy you gonna introduce us or am I just gonna have to call her 'new goil' from now on?"

Jack laughed. " Nah Spot dis is Gears She's been here fer a month. Gears dis is Spot. He's .."

"The leader of the Brooklyn newsies." Gears finished. She looked at Spot and stuck out her hand "Nice at finally meet the infamous Spot Conlon."

Spot shook her hand and looked at Jack. "I tink me and Gears here are gonna git along just fine."

Jack just smiled " Yeah ya jist might.." Jack slapped himself on the forehead " Urggghhh I was supposed to take her to Brooklyn earlier so you could teach her how to defend herself!"

Gears just rolled her eyes. " I already know how to defend meself."

Jack just looked at her and folded his arms across his chest. "Oh yeah? Kin youse proove it?

Gears took that for the challenge it was and folded he arms in front of her chest mocking jack "Yeah."

"Alright den proove it. Now."

Gears stood up and looked Jack square in the eyes. "Fine."

"Alright den say someone bigger den you like oh say…… Bull over dere comes at ya from behind?"

At that Bull started to run at her, Gears stepped aside and grabed his arm. She tripped him and he fell face first into the floor. She then got on his back and twisted his arm behind it.

Spot just looked at the newsie from Harlem and said " Hey! Get up she cant be heavy."

" I cant." replied Bull from the floor

"An why cant ya?" Jack asked putting his hands on his hips.

" Cause she's jabbing her knee into me back!"

"Yer spine." Gears corrected.

Jack and Spot just laughed " Alright! Alright ya passed just let Bull up now."

Gears was happy to oblige and stood up. She reached her hand down and gave Bull some help up. "Sorry If I hurt ya"

"Nah its S'oK. Were'd ya learn to fight like dat?"

"My old job."

"Yeah where was dat?" Spot asked leaning against one of the bunks.

" Greendale Glass factory."

" Only guys worked dere. Aint it closed down now?"

"Yeah it is and I wasn't exactly dressed like a goil when Ise woiked dere."

"Oh." Spot nodded, He didn't ask anymore questions about it. Lots of girls dressed up as guys to get into jobs only boys were allowed to do. It was just their way of surviving. The door suddenly burst open and the other girls spilled into the room.

"Here it comes." Crutchy said watching the group.

"Look at him he looks like he's gonna jump and make a run fer it." Gears said sitting down next to Crutchy, still watching Kelt.

The group of girls walked over and started to hang around the window leading to the fire escape. The second group headed by Enchanted walked up to where Kelt sat on his bed.

Enchanted Gave Kelt a sideways look and then shrugged "He looks good enough."

"Wha? What do you mean I look good enough?" Kelt asked eyeing the group wearily.

" Why for your date silly." Noodle said ruffling his hair a bit.

" Date ? What date?" Kelt asked again pulling his head away from Noodles hand.

" No time to explain C'mon lets get goin ya don't wanna keep her waiting" Midnight said as she pulled the confused boy out of his bed.

"What do ya mean keep her waiting?" Kelt gulped, he really wasn't liking this. Knowing them they probably set him up with some old lady who lived in the park and talks to birds.

"Well she is waiting downstairs, It would be rude to keep her waiting." Dimples said smiling mischievously.

Before Kelt could say another word the girls grabbed his arms and pulled him out the door saying things like:

"Aren't ya the lucky guy."

" She sure looks purty tonite."

" She's had the biggest crush on ya since she foist saw ya!"

And "You'll love her I swear."

The group of girls at the window waited a few minutes and then followed the group. Spade glanced to her right as she passed Crutchy's bed, and stopped. "Hey Gears ya gotta see dis. C'mon."

Spades grabbed Gear's arm dragged her off the bed and then continued to drag her downstairs to the lobby. Once Gears managed to rip her arm away from Spades death grip, she took a look around the room.

Kelt was on the left side of the room by the desk with Enchanted, Baby, Noodle, and Cricket, who had her hands clasped firmly over his eyes preventing him from seeing. On the other side of the room standing close to the door was a girl with light brown hair. Half was pulled into a bun and the rest hung down past her shoulders. She had a very big smile on her face as she smoothed out the wrinkles in her brown skirt and checked the buttons on her white blouse. Next to her stood Mokin' Boid, Fairy, Pixi, and Cotton Balls. Gears was pretty sure that they where there to catch him, should he try to escape through the open door. Gears then looked around herself and found Spade, Lotus Blossom , Midnight and Gambler. They where probably guarding the stairs to keep him from escaping up there. Gears wondered what was so wrong with the girl and then wondered what kind of revenge this was. You don't set a guy up on a date to get revenge, you put petroleum jelly in his pillow or dress him as a girl and leave him out in the middle of a crowded street, but you don't set him up with a date.

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Enchanted smiled evilly and stood in front of Kelt.

"Alright Cricket ya kin let him see."

Cricket smiled and removed her hands from over his eyes. Kelt had to blink once or twice before his eyes could adjust to the sudden brightness. Once he eyes where adjusted he found himself looking right at Enchanted. He didn't like the fact that she was standing in front of him. 'Oh god it is an old lady who talks to boids!' He thought after his attempts to see his 'date' had been thwarted by Enchanted. When Kelt finally stopped trying to see the girl Enchanted began.

" Kelt! Me boy dis is yer lucky night! We's got you a date! Now I know you think I'm gonna git ya back fer that whole fiasco last month, but see Ise a very forgivin person. So it was just natural, me bein forgivin an all to do something nice fer ya to show ya there was no hard feelins. So I thought to meself 'What would Kelt enjoy?' An den it came to me. A Date! An you havent had one in what three months now?…."

Kelt got very red in the face. " Its only been two months…" He corrected in barely a whisper.

Enchanted just shrugged. " Three months …Two months ,same difference. Anyway like Ise said I thought ya might like to have a date aftah all dat time. My next problem was finding someone that was just right fer ya… then all of a sudden it came to me. So I went to her apartment a week ago an set youse up wit dis real nice goil, and wasn't it weird? She just happens to have a crush on ya! So C'mon lets git your date started." with that Enchanted grabed a very confused Kelt by the arm and dragged him over to the waiting girl.

' Oh god no! Real Nice Goil ? Jeez! It isn't a crazy old lady! It's a street walker!…. Or worse yet…'

Kelts wild speculations where cut short when he was suddenly spun around to face his date. Sara Jacobs.

Kelts face suddenly grew pale and started to back away only to be pushed forward again by Baby.

Sara smiled widely completely missing the terrified look on his face.

"So Where are ya takin me tonite Kelt?"

Kelt was about to say 'Nowhere' when Enchanted threw her arm around his shoulders or more like his neck and gave it a squeeze. While Kelt coughed for air Enchanted proceeded to fill in Sara of the evenings events.

" Well foist youse guys are goin to dis nice Little Italian restaurant. Den aftah dinner Kelt here." She squeezed his neck tighter and shook him a little. " Da little sweetheart is gonna take ya fer a romantic ride through Central Park."

Sara now had one of those ' Oh my god I am so in love' looks in her eyes. Kelt just had one of those 'Oh my god Kill me now' looks in his eyes.

"Now before yer off I need at give Kelt here a quick little lesson in manners and you guys will be off." with that she dragged a very pale Kelt over to the corner.

Kelt shook his head franticly. " I aint goin!"

Enchanted just shot him another evil smile. "Oh yes you are. It would be rude to just stand her up after all! Oh by the way don't even think of trying to make a break fer it Luna and Pan are gonna be tailing ya guys on yer date tonite."

" Luna and Pan are in Manhattan tonite?!"

"Yup." Enchanted grinned " So don't try nothing funny, like oh say ditching Sara , you wont get far I guarantee ya."

"Now" Enchanted said throwing her arm over his shoulder as she pulled him back over to Sara. "You have her home by Midnight, an remember she's Davy's sistah an ya gotta see him everyday, So ya better not try nothing funny. Now you kids go have a good time."

Before kelt knew it Sara had latched onto his arm and was dragging him out the door.

As soon as the door shut all of the girls burst into laughter.

" Enchanted dat was positively evil." Baby said before falling to the ground in laughter.

" Dats what he gits fer embarrassing me like dat!" Enchanted said grinning in triumph. Enchanted looked around the room at all the laughing girls… well all the girls were laughing except one, one she didn't recognize.

Gears was confused, she didn't understand this prank if that's what it indeed was, a prank. Gears slowly backed up the stairs, Maybe Crutchy knew what was so funny, or at least know why this girl was so bad. Gears finally turned around after she nearly tripped over the stairs and continued her journey up the stairs.

Gears nearly tripped for a second time when she felt two taps on her shoulder.

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Gears quickly turned around on the to find no one behind her. Gears shrugged and started to turn back around.

'Boo!'

Instinctively Gears turned around to the source of the voice and punched. Gears got a good look at the person and was able to stop her fist just before it made contact with his stomach.

" What the?! Don't do that?!" Gears cried.

The little boy in front of her just laughed.

"That isn't funny! I nearly hit you!" Gears exclaimed

"Your jumpy!" the boy giggled.

Gears just stood there still trying to slow down her racing heart.

"Who are you?" the boy asked jumping up and down.

"Gears. Who are you?"

"I'm les! Davids my big brother!"

"Poor guy." Gears muttered under her breath.

"Anyway.." he continued more hyper than ever " Since Sara's goin on that date thing, and ma and pa are out for da night I get to stay here, so Davey kin keep an eye on me."

"And again I say poor guy." Gears muttered under breath.

"What?"

"Nothing"

"Wanna play?"

"No."

"Wanna spy on the others?"

"No."

"Wanna go make fun of the Da Lanceys. I saw Cowboy do it the other day, it looks like fun!"

"Not with you, no." Gears said rolling her eyes. Normally she really liked little kids, but this one was just annoying her to no end. The boy did not seem to hear her, either that or he didn't care because he just continued talking.

" Cowboys my hero! I wanna be just like him!"

' I feel sorry for Cowboy….' Gears thought as she tried to move around the chatting boy to get upstairs. After about five minutes and complete failure Gears figured it would be best for her sanity if she just went back downstairs until Les went away.

Les went on chatting about only god knows what and failed to notice Gears quietly slipping back downstairs. When Gears had made it safely down the stairs she walked over to the desk and slid to the floor. After Gears had recovered from her encounter with les she noticed that she was all alone in the lobby.

' Where the hell did they all go? They where just down here a second ago….'

Gears was broken from her thoughts at the sound of footsteps from the stairs. She looked up and to her horror she found Les bounding towards her.

" That was rude you don't leave people while they are talkin like dat." He said stopping right in front of her.

Gears just burried her head in her hands and began wishing that she would just die.

Again the imp began babbling a mile a minute. Gears began to contemplate the many ways she could end her life without having to get up from her spot.

" Les leave her alone right now!"

Gears didn't even bother to look up. She just kept her head buried in her hands.

"No!"

"Les I said go away an stop bothering her. Now!"

"Who's gonna make me?"

"I will!"

"Fine! I'll go see Cowboy!"

At that Gears heard the footsteps retreat back up the stairs.

"Hey you OK?" A voice asked

" Yeah, thanks." Gears said as she looked up at the girl who had kindly disposed of les for her.

"No problem, I don't see how Cowboy puts up with him sometimes, by da way my names Enchanted."

"Ise Gears nice at meet ya. I would shake yer hand but I should probably stand up first." Gears said getting to her feet.

"S'oK" Enchanted laughed " New huh?"

Gears nodded

"no one said nothing bout a new goil they probly fergot youse was here fer awhile."

"Yeah Ise been getting a lot of dat tonite."

"Yeah well it happens, listen I'm headin up stairs you comin?"

"Yeah sure I was only down here trying to escape les."

"Didn't work to good" Enchanted stated starting up the stairs

"No…no I guess it didn't." Gears giggled as she followed the raven haired girl up the stairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kelt poked at his food with his chin cradled in his left hand. He had spent the last thirty minutes listening to Sara chat nonstop.

"..And yesterday David and ma went to the market, pa was at work sooo I had to watch les. All he does is talk about Cowboy this and Cowboy that! The way he talks about Cowboy you would think he was God or something. Which he isn't! He's a jerk! Midnight can have him for all I care!."

Kelt rolled his eyes he had heard this once before as a matter of fact any of the newsies who was unfortunate enough to be around Sara heard it or something close to it. Apparently Sara had misunderstood Jack in some strange way and thought that he liked her. She was really surprised and pissed to find herself wrong when Jack asked Midnight to be his girl. After that Sara set her sights on who she thought was the next cutest newsboy, Kelt.

"Well I'm done! Are you?"

Kelt nodded and called the waiter to get their check.

A tall man in a white shirt , red apron and black suspenders approached the table.

"Can I help you?" He asked

"Yeah kin we get our check please?"

"It been taken care of."

"Excuse me what do ya mean by dat?"

" What I mean sir is that your meal was already been paid for, by one Miss Ordona.

Sighed and shook his head and made a mental note to himself to never make Enchanted angry again.

"Wonderful!" Sara exclaimed as she got out of her seat and began to drag Kelt out of his.

Luna and Pan sat in a booth in the other side if the restaurant watching as Sara began to drag Kelt out of his seat. Luna smiled sympathetically when she spotted Kelts 'kill me now look'. It was becoming more and frequent as the night went on.

"How long do you think he'll last?" Pan asked grinning at the sight.

Luna shrugged. " No telling."

"I bet he cracks before the night is over." Pan said shooting a mischievous glance towards Luna.

Luna turned to face Pan. "That's horrible!, I'll take that bet."

"Oh they're leaving sooo I guess its time to be off ourselves" Pan said watching them leave the restaurant.

"Yup, we should, where to next?"

"Central park." Pan said as he got up from his seat and started out of the resteraunt followed by Luna.

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~~~~Later in Central park~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sara snuggled up to Kelt as the carriage made its way through central park. Sara was very relaxed and had a dreamy look about her face while sitting next to her Kelt's posture was rigid and he was very tense they sat like that for the whole hour until they reached the outside of the park.

Kelt was relieved to have it over. Not five seconds after the carriage stopped Kelt had already hopped out. Sara just sat in the carriage. Kelt wondered why she wasn't getting out so he walked around to the other side where Sara was seated and opened the door.

"Are ya gonna get out?" Kelt asked still holding the door.

"Oh what a gentle man You are holding the door open for me!" Sara squealed as she stepped out of the carriage. "Jack never would have done this for me. Jerk…"

"I uh wasn't…I really didn't…..Oh damn" Kelt muttered giving up.

" Well This is the best date I've ever had!" Sara sighed as they walked back to the Jacobs tenement.

'This is the only date you ever had. Cant say I don't see why..' Kelt said as they reached the door.

"Well see ya later had a great night rea……" Kelt was cut short when Sara grabbed him and kissed him. Kelt tried to pull away but it was to no avail. This was traumatizing for him especially what happened next. Sara stuck her tongue in his mouth and then grabbed his butt. Kelt was close to panic now trying franticly to try to get out of her grip or tear his head away which ever one came first…… Finally after a minute or so Sara stepped back and opened the door to the apartment.

"Thank you for the Magical evening" Sara giggled as she closed the door on Kelt who seemed to be in shock.

As soon as she shut the door Kelt re gained the feeling in his legs and began to run back to the lodging house to brush his teeth over and over and over again.

Pan and Luna sat in the ally they had been hiding in laughing their ass's off, they had been following the two all night and had just caught up with them in time to see their kiss.

" Poor guy! She grabbed his butt!" Pan said in while trying to catch his breath.

"Yeah but he made it through the whole date an didn't crack" Lunaa said before laughing again.

"Yeah so?" Pan asked giggling himself.

"I won our bet!" Luna said smiling widely.

"We didn't bet anything, So all you get is da joy of knowin you won!"

"Uh uh! You don get off dat easy. You gotta………Be my slave for a week!" Luna said smiling mischievously

"Theres no getting out of this?" Pan asked I with a groan

"Nope! Now lets go tell Enchanted!" Luna said jumping to her feet

" Yeah, lets go I know a shortcut." Pan said exiting the ally.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The lodging house~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kelt burst through the door and headed strait to the bathroom. Upon his entrance everybody in the room started to laugh hysterically. After spending 10 minutes in the bathroom he emerged with a more than pissed look on his face.

"How many times did you brush your teeth?" Race asked while he was stacking the crates he used for his poker table in the corner.

" Fifteen." was all he mumbled before stomping over to his bed and sitting down.

Enchanted walked up still unable to hide her smile. " Did ya learn your lesson?"

" Yeah I learned, I learned more than I needed." His voice was completely void of emotion as he stared on at the floor his fists clenched at his sides.

Enchanted smiled triumphantly and started to go back to the girls bunkroom.

Spot noticed the look in Kelts eye's he knew that look well.

"Hey, whats eatin at ya it aint da Sara thing. I know dat look, yous pissed."

Spot said sittting himself down on the bunk across from Kelts. Jack heard what spot had said and now looked at his friend with concern.

" You wanna tell us what got ya like dis?" Is it da DeLancy cause If it is."

Kelt nodded " Yeah one of em anyway. I cant belive she didn't tell us!" Kelt said slaming his fist into his mattress.

" Who didn't tell us?" Jack asked

" Whisper! She's going out with that… that..she's goin out with Oscar!"

"DeLancy?! Oscar DeLancy are you sure?"

"Yeah I saw em at the distribution center all laughing and she…she ..damn it! She kissed him!"

Spot and Jack couldn't believe what they had just heard. Then after the denial came the anger, well jack was the angry, spot it was still disbelief.

Just then they heard the door downstairs shut and footsteps making their way upstairs.

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Kelt stood up and stormed out the door. Spot got up, followed him to the door and grabbed his arm just before he could get out.

"Whoa! Dis is gonna sound odd comin from me, but you should probably explain dis from da beginning befor you start in on her."

Kelt just glared at Spot, before walking back to the bed and sitting down.

Whisper slipped back into the girls bunkroom and made her way to her bunk.

"Heya Whisper! Where ya been all night." Baby asked looking up from her glare at Gambler.

"Oh I just went for a walk and then spent some time at the park."

Okay so she wasn't entirely lying she and Oscar did go for walk through the park but ended up at the distribution center after they went to dinner. But they only wanted to know where she had been all night and that walk technically took most of the night, Oh well she wasn't going to worry about it right now. Baby just shrugged seemingly happy with the answer she was given and went back to glaring at Gambler.

The area around Whispers bunk was vacant, most of the other girls were on the other side of the room either talking about how Kelt looked when he came back or playing a card game headed up by Gambler.

Whisper sat down on her bunk and started to take out her braid letting her brown hair fall to her shoulders. The night was perfect nothing at all could possibly ruin it. Whisper leaned back on her pillow and began to think about how lucky she was to have found Oscar. He was so kind and caring and he didn't mind the fact that she didn't wear tight cloths. He was always a gentleman on dates and despite what everyone including Gears on many occasions warned her, he did not try anything more than just kissing.

"Gonna be back early tonight huh?"

Whisper jumped slightly at the sudden disturbance in her thoughts. She looked to the foot of the bunk where she found Gears with her arms folded across her chest , giving Whisper a stern look. Whisper giggled and shrugged a little.

"Sorry Gears but we went for a walk in da park and den we ended up at da distribution center kissing and……."

Whisper mentally kicked herself she hadn't meant to give away that much but it just sorta came out before she could think about what she was saying.

Gears just closed her eyes ,shook her head slowly and sighed. She walked over to the bunk next to Whispers and sat down.

" I know what yer gonna say, and no Oscar is not tryin to get me in bed!"

Whisper cut in before Gears could open her mouth to say anything.

"Whisper, I don't mean to say ya cant git a guy but he only stays wit goils until he sleeps wit em and den he dumps em."

Whisper just shook her head with a small smile on her face.

"No, he isn't like that at all, maybe if ya stopped listening to dos whores from the red-light district and tried getting to know him like I have den you would see he aint a bad guy. He's sweet an charmin an he is really good looking…."

"No! No! Stop this I am NOT listening lalalala!" Gears said quickly covering her ears and looking at the ground.

Whisper just laughed and pried Gears's hands from her ears.

"Look Ise fine Ise sorry I was late an it wont happen again, I swear on me woid as a newsie!"

Gears just looked at Whisper skeptically befor shrugging and mumbling.

"Better not"

" So." Whisper asked trying to look casual and calm " Did anyone ask were I was?"

"Just Jesse He nearly caught ya Whis, lucky fer you I convinced him Ise was talking to meself and now everyone tinks Ise weird and yous is off da hook."

Whisper smiled widley "Kelt didn't ask? Or jack?"

"Your welcome and nah dey didn't ask, Jack spent most of da night playin poker and disappearin to da closet with Midnight. As fer Kelt he had a little date wit some goil named Sara an he jist got in b'for you So nah he don't know eider."

Whisper heaved a big sigh of relif and flopped back down on her bed. Her content expression was soon replaced with a look of confusion.

' He went out wit Sara?! What?! he hates Sara. Or does he? She don't deserve him he should be with someone who loves him not some desperate street walking……Wait whoa! Where did dat come from? Are you jealous?…..No! of course not we are just friends and nothing more….are not….are to….are no-.." Whispers thoughts where soon silenced as the sound of the door slamming open echoed about the room.

Kelt stood at the door glaring around the room before finding his target. Kelt stepped into the room and proceeded to Whispers bunk followed closely by a very mad looking Jack and Spot. Whisper sat up and smiled at Kelt as he approached the bunk and quickly took notice of the looks on Jack and Kelts faces.

'Uh Oh….' whisper thought as Kelt stopped directly in between Gears and herself.

"OSCAR DELANCY!" Kelt cried unable to keep all the anger from his voice as his face began to take on a dark shade of red.

'Oh man he knows! Whisper thought as she tried to think of how to handle the situation.

' How da hell did he find out?' Gears wondered as she backed onto the bed further. Then a little light popped on inside her head and she suddenly knew. ' Oh man……dis aint gonna be pretty…'

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"How can ya kiss him?!" Kelt shouted. "How could ya even go out with him? And da most important question How could ya not tell me about it?"

Whisper just peered around the ranting Kelt and looked at Gears.

"Did you tell him?" Whisper whispered (authors note: Ha I made a funny!)

Gears just shook her head.

"Wait! Whisper kissed Oscar DeLancy?" Gambler asked " Alright Whisper!"

"NO NOT ALRIGHT WHISPER! SHE SHOULDN'T BE GOING OUT WITH HIM!" Kelt was shouting now. It was kind of weird for a lot of the newsies to hear him shouting, seeing as how he hardly raised his voice around so many people, much less got angry.

Whisper stood up directly in front of Kelt glaring at him

" I will go out with whoever I want and you cant tell me what to do!"

" No you cant not with Oscar!"

"He's right not with Oscar." Jack said slowly and clearly from behind Kelt.

" Jack ya just cant tell da goil who she can or cant go out wit." Midnight said from the table.

" Yeah she kin go out wit him, we may not like him, but he aint hurtin her so I don't see da problem." Lotus Blossom said as she stood up from her perch on the bunk.

" Oh so you goils knew about dis all along." Jack asked throwing a sidelong glance at all the girls near the table.

"No we didn't! an if we did what would ya do?" Baby said glaring at Jack and Kelt.

" Thanks girls but I think I kin handle dis." Whisper said "First off Kelt YOU are not my keeper, so you cannot by no means tell me who I can or cannot go out with. I will keep seeing Oscar, no matter what you say. This is my life Kelt and you do not run it! I am a big goil now and are perfectly able to make me own decisions. So get over it!"

Kelt just stood there for a minute before looking Whisper straight in the eye and saying " Only street walkers date DeLancy's."

Whisper Just stood there and Glared hard at Kelt before pulling back her hand and slapping Kelt hard on his cheek.

Kelt put a hand up to his cheek and looked down to the ground in embarrassment. The whole room was silent save a stifled giggle from Gambler no one talked.

" When Kelt looked back up Whisper was no longer in front of him. He looked around and just caught sight of her before she disappeared through the window.

" Great." Gears muttered as she slipped off the bed and headed for the window.

" Whisper. C'mon do-" Gears didn't finish there wasn't a reason to, Whisper had already gotten out of the window.

" Hey wait a second Where you covering fer her?"

Gears turned around to look at Kelt.

"What?"

" Did you know that Whisper was going out with oscar?"

Gears just shrugged a little. "Yeah I did."

Jack stepped forward this time " An you didn't tell us why?"

Gears took a deep breath, she wasn't about to be sorry for keeping her secrete.

"Because she asked me not to."

Spot sighed and finally spoke.

" Do ya know how dangerous the DeLancys are?"

Gears rubbed her arms and frowned slightly before catching herself .

" Yeah actually I do."

"Well I don't think ya do." Jack said stepping forward once more.

" You don't know anything about me! And what I know. So ya might wanna think before telling someone they dont know nothing." Gears said calmly, She wasn't angry, but Jack and Kelt where.

"How long?" Kelt asked softly.

"What?"

``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Kelt looked up once more and stared Gears strait in the eyes

"How long?"

" About one month." Gears said quietly.

" ONE MONTH! She's been seeing him fer one month!" Kelt exclaimed.

" You lied to us fer a month?" Jack asked slowly

" No I did not lie to you. You asked if I knew where Whisper was, I told you where I thought she was, but you never asked who she was with." Gears said leaning against the wall.

" It doesn't matter you shoulda told us!" Kelt said trying to get calm.

" If I thought she was getting in trouble I woulda told ya."

"It dosent matter! How could you be so irresponsible?!" Kelt yelled yet again losing his calm.

Ok now he was ticking her off. He was slowly getting her angry and that was not a safe or smart thing to do.

"Look Kelt, I don't rat people out, she asked me to keep me mouth shut an I did an I aint sorry fer it either." Gears said. Her voice sounded as if she where trying to stay calm.

"I don't care, you should have---"

"Yeah I should have said something! Great I already heard dat Kelt! I heard it three times! So you kin stop soundin' like some broken record and think of something original fer once! As fer me being irresponsible. You have no right to be calling me irresponsible! And if you were such a good friend as you said you was you would've noticed and asked her where she was, not me! An dat way you would have known sooner bout her an Oscar!" Gears turned around and walked out the of the girls room down the stairs and out the lodging house.

After she left everyone was silent. No one knew exactly what to say after that 'little' scene.

"Ummm What just in happened here?" Kloppman asked from the doorway, scaring the snot out of everyone in the room. " I hear all dis yelling and then Gears walks out lookin very angry. She didn't even reply when I asked what was wrong, so now I'm askin you. What happened in here?" He stood in the doorway looking at everyone in the room with that kind of fatherly look he got so often.

"Ya want da short version?" Mockin Boid asked from her bunk

Kloppman nodded " That would be nice."

" Whisper an Oscar are goin out an Kelt and Jack didn't like it and dey got into a fight." Cotton balls said fiddling with her cards

"Den Whisper left an Kelt got into a fight wit Gears an she left." Lotus Blossom continued from her chair by the table.

" and then youse came up an wanted to know what happened." Fairy finished up as she played with her hair.

Kloppman nodded slightly confused. "Oh an do any of ya know where Whisper an Gears ran off to in the middle of the night?" Kloppman emphasized the last five words as if he was shouting Get your butts out there and find them.

Of course no one in the room took any notice of this and shook their heads.

"We could have handled dat better." Jack said looking at Kloppman who just nodded and headed down the stairs saying.

"I'm sure you'll figure out what to do."

Which was another way of him saying ' hint, hint, go find them.'

Again it went unnoticed by the group upstairs.

As soon as Kloppman was gone Jack looked around and rubbed the back of his head, " Dat went well…..ah who am I kiddin it we messed it up."

Spot just shook his head and went over to stand by Enchanted,

" What do ya mean we? I didn't say nothing to em."

"Well we should probably go find em and do it right then." Jack said as he started counting out how many newsies where in the room.

" Or better yet we find em an you guys leave em alone?" Baby said breaking yet another glare away from Gambler.

" Yeah, she's gonna go out with him no matter what ya say so just let it be. She kin take care of herself, if Oscar does try anything funny." Midnight said moving to Jacks side.

Kelt just nodded " Lets go find em, I think I'm gonna have some apologizing and explainin to do with Whisper."

Jack was about to issue search party's when someone beat him to it.

"Alright. Pixi , Fairy, Mockin Boid and Lotus Blossom you guys check da park. Dimples, Noodles, Baby, and Spade you guys check the distribution center. Me, Jack, Enchanted, and Midnight will check da alleys and streets. Cotton Balls, Cricket, Gambler and Kelt kin go see if one of em went to Tibbys."

Spot finished and looked around to find the groups had already started forming.

" I wanted to form da groups." Jack whined as he pulled Midnight towards Spot and Enchanted.

Midnight smirked and nudged Jack in the side with her elbow.

"Get over it."

"Hey where are we goin?"

Everybody looked to see where the voice had come from it didn't take them long to find Race, David, Skittery, Snoddy and Mush standing at the doorway trying to peek in.

"Oh it looks like they're goin searching. Who'd we lose?" Mush asked as he shoved his way into the room and headed strait for Cotton Balls.

"Whisper an Gears ran out angry an now we're goin to look fer em." Spade answered as she patiently waited for Skittery to get the hint and come see her.

Lucky for him he did and he promptly went and put his arm around her waist.

"I'm in Spades group." he said

"Oh I'm with Cotton Balls!" Mush chimed in.

David laughed and walked over to Mockin Boid, " I'll be with Mocking Bird." He said mocking Mush and Skittery's almost child like tones.

Snoddy Just walked over to Cricket and put his arm around her shoulders.

"I call dibs on dis one."

"Oh and Race kin be in our group!" Gambler said quickly grabbing Race and dragging him over to her little search party.

All Baby could do was glare at Gambler and then at Race who didn't seem to mind being pulled away by someone who wasn't his Girlfriend. As a matter of fact he was spending more and more time with Gambler each time she came over. Which was quiet often now. They hardly even spent time alone with each other. She knew that Race and Gambler where best friends but recently she couldn't get over the feeling that Gambler was trying to steal Race away from her. All this and more plagued Baby's thoughts until Jacks voice disrupted them.

"Alright everyone know where theyre goin? Good. Now lets go ,an don't forget, we meet back here in an hour." With that having been said the groups took off to their assigned locations to start their search.

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Whisper stood outside an old apartment door.

"I hope he's home." she mumbled to herself. She had run strait there from the lodging house not knowing where else to go or who else she could talk to. She knocked on the door and waited for a few minutes. Then she knocked again.

" Oscar ya in there, Open up, its Whisper!"

Whisper was about to turn around and leave when the door opened and Oscar poked his head out.

"Whisper what are you doin here?" He asked sounding more than a little surprised.

" I got into a fight with Kelt and Jack. I didn't know where else to go. Can I come in I really need to talk to ya."

Oscar looked around and then back at Whisper.

"Uh…sure ya can but wait a minute..I uhhhh need to pick up da place a little.." And with that he shut the door.

Whisper wondered why Oscar had sounded so rushed and nervous. She pulled her arms closer to her chest to get warm. It was a chilly night and Whisper didn't have a coat with her. She shifted from foot to foot out of boredom but somewhere in doing so started to lose her balance. This caused her to put her hand on the door to balance herself. When she did that the door opened and she saw Oscar pulling on a pair of pants and telling some woman to get out of the bed and get some cloths on.

The woman noticed Whisper and said something in what sounded like Italian causing Oscar to turn around and face Whisper.

Whisper just stood in the doorway and took in the sight before her all the while balling her hands into fists.

"You are cheating on me?!" Whisper finally yelled.

Oscar just looked at her and smiled " Well you weren't putting out. What else was I supposed to do?"

Whisper could not believe it, She was more pissed off now then she had been all night.

She wasn't mad because Oscar was cheating on her and only going out with her to sleep with her. No. She was angry because Kelt and Jack were right and she was to in love with this….this…* insert bad word that younger listee's shouldn't know here* to see it. Well she could fix that.

"Well y'know it aint to late, maybe you could slip outta those baggy cloths and show me the woman you are."

"Oh I'll show ya something but It dont involve strippin!" Whisper growled. She took two big steps over to Oscar and landed a right hook to his temple dropping him like a sack of potato's. Whisper looked down at the unconscious Oscar and then to the whore in his bed.

An evil grin came across her face and she looked down at Oscar one last time.

"Do ya understand English?"

The whore nodded.

" Good. Do ya know the other boy who lives here?"

The whore nodded again.

" They say their brothers but they aren't. Oscar here is gay and Morris the boy he says is his brother. Is really his lover."

The whore looked down at Oscar and then back at Whisper with a questioning look.

"Ok He's into girls and guys, but he prefers guys."

The whore just got out of bed, quickly dressed herself and began to leave.

" Be sure to tell all your friends," Whisper snickered as the whore made her way out of the door.

A few minutes after the whore left Whisper decided she should leave to. She went turned to the door but turned around again and gave Oscar a good swift kick in a rather sensitive area for good measure. Then went on her way.

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Gears was walking for thirty minutes She was close to the red light district of town. She smiled to herself. 'Cricket would have a heart attack.' she thought 'wonder why she's so afraid of whores?' She had always meant to ask but never did. Cricket didn't generally talk about her past ,ever and If you asked about it, it was a good way to get on her bad side. Gears rubbed her arms some before the sounds of bottles breaking behind her made her turn around.

Running from one of the whore houses behind her was Morris DeLancy desperately trying to pull his shirt on while dodging the bottles being thrown at him. Gears looked at the sight before her and had to laugh, Morris was being thrown out of a whore house.

'well I guess dis says a lot about his manly hood' she thought still giggling.

"Hey!"

Gears stopped giggling for a moment to look at a very angry Morris making his way towards her. She stood still and waited for him to reach her.

"You told them I was gay!" Morris shouted angrily balling his hands up into fists and waved them around.

Gears couldn't help it she burst out into a big fit of laughter. Morris on the other hand didn't find it so amusing.

"Some newsgoil told one of da whore dat Oscar an me was gay! You did it! I know you did! And you're here to watch me get embarrassed!" Morris raised his fist and brought it down toward Gears stomach.

Gears quikly dodged the blow and grabbed Morris's fist in a death grip.

"I did not tell da whores you an Oscar was gay…I wish I had, but it wasn't me and da reason I'm here right now, is cause I went walking to calm down, and I just happened to end up here." Gears finished and released Morris's hand shoving him back a little.

Morris looked at Gears and smirked.

"Ya got into a fight with them didn't ya?"

Gears just glared at him,

"If be dem ya mean da oder newsies yeah I got into a fight but with only two of em. Besides it aint none of yer business."

That having been said Gears turned around and began to walk away.

"Hey youse just cant leave like dis!" Morris yelled.

"Yes I can!" Gears yelled as she continued to walk out of the red light district.

"No one walks away from me!" Morris mumbled under his breath and began to slowly walk after Gears.

About 15 minutes later Gears found herself in a small park just a couple blocks away from the red-light district. She was lost in thought and didn't even notice all the noise coming from behind her. When she finally did decide to look up she noticed exactly where she was. She and Crutchy sold in this particular park on some occasions when the both wanted a change of scenery.

She sat down on one of the park benches and sighed…this whole night was a disaster the only highlight for her was seeing Morris being tossed out of that whore house. Gears giggled at the thought, again a noise came from some bushes behind her and this time she noticed it. She quickly jumped to her feet and looked towards the bush cautiously.

" Alright whose dere? Come out an show yourself!……." Gears called to the unknown person in the bushes.

After a few moments Morris DeLancy emerged from the bushes pulling branches out of his hair and cursing about it all the while.

Gears just rolled her eyes and turned to walk away again. "Morris go home an leave me alone. Ya don't wanna start nothin' with me tonight."

Morris just watched her and gritted his teeth "No one walks away from me until I say they can!"

Gears turned around and put her hands on her hips glaring at him all the while.

"Ok y'know what? I can. An I will so get over yerself." and with that Gears turned and began to walk away once more. She didn't get but ten feet away when she was tackled from behind by one very angry Morris DeLancy.

" What the fuck do ya think yer doin?" Gears asked as she tried to wiggle out from his grip on her arms.

"No one walks away." Was all he said as he let go of one of her arms to bring it up to punch her. That was a big mistake on his part Once she had her arm free she used it to push him off and then wrench her other arm out of his grasp.

"Ise gonna kill ya!" Morris mumbled as he picked himself up off the ground.

Gears was already on her feet and had her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Try it." Gears said as she looked just behind Morris a small grin forming on her face. Morris who was now on his feet stood there for a moment trying to figure out why the hell she was smiling.

"Why are ya smiling? You don't think I'll kill ya?" he screamed.

Gears shook her head slowly still smiling at what she saw behind him.

"No.No. I don't think you'll be killin anyone tonight."

Oscar shot her a look that would kill a horse, then fell to the ground ,out like a light.

Gears smiled. "Took ya long enough."

Crutchy put his crutch back down and smiled at her. "I'v always wanted to do dat! You OK?"

Gears smiled and brushed a piece of her dirty blond hair away from her face. "Yeah I am thanks…..hey what are ya doin dis far away from the Lodging house dis late at night?"

"What are you doin this far away from the lodging house this late at night?"

"You first"

"Why?"

" cause I asked first"

He sighed and sat down on a Park bench nearby. "Ise out here thinking. Now whats yer excuse fer bein out this late."

Gears looked at him for a moment befor sitting down next to him on the bench. "I got in a fight with Kelt an Jack." He looked at her with wide eyes. "Excuse me? Did I hear dat right?"

Gears nodded. " 'fraid so."

"Why?"

So Gears proceeded to explain the whole thing from the very beginning to what had just occurred a few moments ago. Crutchy leaned back on the bench and looked at the tree's across from where they sat. A few moments of awkward silence passed between the two of them before someone finally spoke. "What are ya gonna do?"

Gears shrugged a bit. "Dunno. Probably leave."

Crutchy shot strait up in the seat and looked at her. "You cant leave!" He blurted.

Gears cocked her head to the side to look at him. "Why?"

"Because I like ya dats why!"

"WHAT!"

Crutchy Blushed furiously and mentally kicked himself for saying that out loud. "If ya don't feel tha same way I understand it was stupid of me to even say that. I'm just gonna go now." He started to get up as quickly as a guy with a crutch could, Gears rolled her eyes and grabbed his arm pulling him back down into the seat. Crutchy just looked at the ground.

"Look…Gears.."

"Crutchy Look at me."

"What?"

"Talk to me not the ground."

Crutchy looked up from the gaze at the ground he was about ready to open his mouth to tell her she didn't have to see him again. What happened next nearly sent him into shock. She kissed him. It wasn't a long kiss but it was a kiss all the same. Crutchy looked at Gears for a moment, "You just kissed me!"

Gears looked at him laughed some. "Yes I did. So…"she said leaning back into the bench "does that tell ya anything?"

"are you serious?" was all he said

"are you serious?" Gears asked back.

"Yes."

"So was I."

"So ya aint leavin?"

"Lets see what happens when we get back to the Lodging house..But I'm probly stayin."

Crutchy got a thoughtful look on his face.

"When are ya planning on heading back?"

Gears shrugged, "Now I guess, you comin or are ya still thinking?"

Crutchy stood up, "Nah done thinking, come on."

Gears smiled and got up. "Morris is gonna have one hall ova headach when he wakes up. Ya think the others'll belive us if we told em you knocked Morris out?"

"Nah." they said in unison as they made their way back toward the Lodging house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whisper entered the girls room Via the window, she sighed in relief that she had gotten back before everyone else. On the way back she had barely missed multiple groups of newsies looking for her and she had to go through a lot of back roads to miss them. She plopped down on her bunk and closed her eyes for a moment, she missed the door opening completely.

"Hey….Kin I talk to you?"

Whisper didn't look up, she knew who it was and right now she really wasn't in a mood to talk.

"Go away Kelt."

Kelt walked over to her bunk and sat down on the bed across from it.

"Whisper I'm sorry."

Whisper didn't respond and for a few minutes there was an uncomphortable silence between the two. Kelt stood up and looked at Whisper "I'm sorry again and understand is ya don't want to talk to me."

"No. I'm sorry." Whisper said as she sat up "Its kills me to say it but you guys where right Oscar was just usin me. I found him at his apartment in bed with a street walker."

Kelt started towards the door. "Why that….I'll kill him!"

Whisper sighed and rolled her eyes, "Kelt git back here."

Kelt stopped at the door and turned around " No Whisp No one does dat to the goil I love!" Kelt stopped for a moment and relized what he just said "……Oh crap! Nice there Kelt." He muttered.

"I think I love ya to." Whisper said standing up.

Kelt put his hands on his hips "Why didn't ya say anything before?!"

"Why didn't you?"

"cause ummm uhh…I don't know."

"exactly, same here!"

Kelt looked at the ground for a moment and then back at Whisper.

"Alright then I guess we gotta do this right. Whisper Would ya be me goil?"

Whisper resisted the urge to laugh flat out and just nodded her head. Kelt smiled. "Great now I kin go murder Oscar ,in a good mood!"

Whisper laughed and shook her head. "ya don't gotta!"

Kelt turned around and smirked. "Why not?

"Cause I already punched him in da head pretty hard an I don't think he's getting up fer awhile." Whisper said in between giggles.

Kelt walked over to her and smiled. "Dats me goil."

"KISS ALREADY!"

Whisper and Kelt both looked towards the door and into the face of every one in the Lodging house.

"KISS!" Spot and Enchanted said again together.

"Yea c'mon do it!" came another voice from somewhere in back.

Kelt and Whisper pulled apart "Not in in front of ya we aint!"

Everyone laughed and soon everyone began milling around the bunkroom carrying on their own conversations.

Crutchy and Gears snuck in the front door with little noise. They didn't want to wake Kloppman.

"Hello you two. Do you know what time it is?" Kloppman asked from his usual place behind the desk.

"So much for trying not to wake Kloppman up." Gears sighed, Crutchy stifled a giggle. Gears rolled her eyes. "Laugh it up I think were about to get it."

"and just what where you two doing to keep you out so late?" Kloppman asked as he leaned on the counter.

"Nothing." They said in unison. Kloppman looked at them and smiled. "Really now?" Gears couldn't believe this. What was the old guy psychic? He didn't know. No he didn't no, he was just trying to psyche them out. Well two could play at this game. Gears smiled at Kloppman and then sighed as if defeated. "You caught us Kloppman Crutchy and I just spent the last hour having sex in the ally next to the Lodging house, Your just to smart for us Kloppman, I thought we could get it by you but I was sooooo wrong."

Crutchy just stood there in shock, he couldn't believe she actually said that To Kloppman of all people. Kloppman just laughed and shook his head. "Smart ass. Ok you two get on upstairs, the others are back and I'm sure you'll find something to do."

Gears shook Crutchy gently by the arm trying to get the shocked look off of his face, then she looked at Kloppman.

"They were all out?"

"Yep, they went looking fer Whisper and you."

Gears laughed. "I guess they found whisper then huh?"

Kloppman nodded. "Snuck in the window upstairs 5 minutes before the boys reported back in. I wonder how long it will take them to figure out they forgot you."

Gears shrugged. "I get forgotten often." then she smiled "I'll play with their heads later though. I cant belive they aint mad anymore."

Crutchy smiled and poked her in the side. "Told ya they'd be over it."

Gears smiled at him. "Know it all. C'mon lets go upstairs, I wanna ask Whisper if she knows who told the whore Oscar and Morris are gay."

Crutchy and Gears Had almost reached the bottom step when they where nearly bowled over by Jack and a couple of other newsies.

"Hey Crutchy, Hey Gears." Jakc said as he quikly passed them.

"Hey Jack." Gears said.

"Bye Jack." Crutchy finished as the both made their way up the stairs.

"Yeah bye. Kloppman, I know its past curfew but, ya gotta let us out we forgot at find……..Hey! Did she just go upstairs?!"

Kloppman nearly died laughing as Jack and the others realized they just missed who they where looking for.

Jack Burst through the Girls bunkroom door and found who he was looking for. "Gears! There ya are!"

"Yes here I am. What can I do ya fer Jack?"

"Jack just stood there with a blank look on his face. "nothing..um just don't stay out dat late again..yeah that's it. don't stay out late. UmYeah and Kloppmans coming up fer light out. Night." With that Jack exited the room leaving the girls laughing hysterically at him.

"Dat was priceless!" Cricket yelped at she fell of of her bunk in a fit of giggles.

A grumbling noise came from the corner, Gears looked over to see it had come from Gambler who was sporting a nice shiner. Gears leaned over to Midnight. "Why does Gambler have a black eye?"

Midnight looked over at Gambler and shrugged "She tried to take race away from Baby and Baby popped her one."

"Oh" was all gears could say before the door was opened to revile one tired looking Kloppman.

"Alright you girls lights out, ya got at get up and carry da banner tomarrow." with that Kloppman turned out the lights and everyone fell asleep happy.

The end.