A/N: Okay, first things first to understand this fic you should read A
Little Game of Cat and Mouse, it's a prequel to this one. You should also
probably read Smarts and Dodger; it was the first in this series, but
that's not as important as reading the other one.
I wasn't planning on starting this one yet but since I was threatened with golf clubs, complained to and cursed at by reviewers in A Little Game's last chap I figured I should go ahead and post this one.
Disclaimer: Don't own…wish I did…don't sue.
Chapter One
Cat was back to her old self. She had come to grips with the loss of the last of her family. Cat realized that it was better for her sister if she was dead and in heaven with their parents rather than starving in the streets. Of course this realization had come in the midst of a drunken fight with another drunk, but that didn't make it any less true.
Cat and Mouse began to make a routine. They sold papes everyday until dinner then went back to the Brooklyn lodging house for the evening. Sometimes they would join the boys downstairs, avoiding River, who still hated them. Most of the time they would sit upstairs with Dodger while she told them stories about the Manhattan newsies. They had yet to meet these newsies since they were always out when the boys dropped by.
After a few days or so Dodger was able to go back to Manhattan.
"So, the boys are going to come and pick you up this morning?" Cat asked.
"Yep! I'm going back home and tomorrow I'll get to go back to selling papes. I can't wait! Remember you promised that you'd come visit me."
"We won't forget," Mouse promised her. Mouse had begun talking in front of Dodger now. This surprised her almost as much as it did Cat. Mouse hadn't spoken to anyone except Cat for close to three years.
"I don't see why I can't come here."
"Because the last time that you came to visit you stayed for two weeks," Spot told her from the doorway. He had just walked in to see how the girls were doing. It had become his custom to check on them as long as they didn't beat him out the door.
"Jack told me that I'm not allowed to leave the lodging house without one of the boys with me from now on. He's so mean," Dodger had been sulking ever since Jack had grounded her. She still hadn't forgiven him.
"It's for your own good," Dodger told her. "But don't worry we'll come by and see you next week, to make sure those boys are treating you right."
"You promise?" she asked.
"Yes, we promise." Cat answered for both of them. "Now we need to go sell, so we'll see you in a few days okay?"
"Okay."
The next week went by quickly. Finally the day came that they had promised they would visit Dodger. They sold their papers then started across the bridge. They reached the Manhattan Lodging House and walked through the door into a room filled with newsies.
The room full of newsies came to a halt as they saw two girls come through their door. The girls were different than most girls they knew. The boys stared for two reasons. For one thing the girls were wearing pants; which was very odd: girls always wore skirts. The second reason was that they were very pretty
"Mama mia," Race said, breaking the silence. At that moment Dodger came down the stairs.
"Cat! Mouse! You're here!" she said launching herself in their direction. Cat caught her in a hug.
"Did you miss us?" Cat asked.
"Yes. I'm so glad you came to visit. Let me introduce you to the boys." Dodger turned towards the boys and realized they were all staring. "Hey, guys what's wrong?"
Suddenly all the boys were talking at once. They all clambered forward to meet the girls. Dodger introduced them one by one. "This is my best friend Smarts…This is Racetrack Higgins…This is Specs…"
On and on she went introducing each newsie as she went through the room. Finally they were through and Dodger decided to show them the bunkroom. As soon as she had them up there she turned and said, "So what did you think?"
"Of what?" Cat asked.
"Of Dutchy. Isn't he the cutest boy in the world?" she demanded.
"Oh, yes, definitely the cutest, right Mouse?" Cat said with a wink at Mouse.
"Cutest I've ever seen," Mouse said with a grin. "But on the other hand I think that kid, Snipeshooter likes you, he's awful cute."
"Ew, Snipeshooter. He doesn't like me. He always so mean to me." The older girls shared a smile at this.
"Anyway," Cat said. "How have you been? Have these boys been treating you good?"
"They still won't let me go out by myself anymore. It's not fair."
"Well, I'm sure they'll let you before too long. Why don't we go down stairs and see what those boys are up to?"
"Okay, but they'll probably want to play poker and that's just boring."
"Poker!" Cat said her eyes lighting up. "Poker's not boring."
"Well, they won't teach me how to play so all I can do is watch and that's just boring!"
"Why won't they teach you?" Mouse asked.
"They say girls can't play poker that they don't understand it."
Cat laughed. "Well, well, I guess I'll just have to teach them a lesson."
Cat walked down the stairs back into the lobby. She gazed around the room until she saw a group of four newsies playing poker; a few others were gathered around watching. She walked over to them and said, "Mind if I join?"
The newsies looked up and one said, "Oh, sure, we'd love to teach you how to play poker."
Cat had difficulty keeping her face straight. "That's so nice of you, what was your name again?"
"I'm Racetrack Higgins, but you can call me Race. These guys are Kid Blink, Mush and Cowboy. Here just have a seat between Blink and me and we'll show you how it's done."
Cat sat down where Race had indicated and said, "Poker has always seemed like an interesting game."
Race proceed to explain the game to her in elementary terms. "You see right now Mush is the dealer and he's going to give everybody cards. It's dealer's choice so Mush gets to decide the game. Right now you need to ante. Now that means that you…"
Race went on to tell Cat about betting and which cards were which and other such things. Finally he felt she was ready to play. Mush dealt out the cards and they began to play. Cat folded even though she had a good hand. She wanted to give the boys a sense of false security. Jack won the pot in that hand. They played another hand, the deal passing to Race, Cat once again played bad deliberately. This time Mush won.
"Now," Race told her. "This time the deal would go to you but I can do that if you want me to."
"Oh, I think I'd like to give it a try." Cat picked up the cards and began to shuffle them expertly. She flipped through the deck without even looking at it or at her hands. She then began to deal them. The cards whizzed out of the deck like lightening. "Five card draw. Deuces, aces, and one-eyed faces are wild. Ante-up, boys."
The four newsies who were in the game, as well as the others watching had all gone silent when Cat began shuffling cards. All eyes were on her as she picked up her cards. She turned to Blink on her left and said, "Well, you gonna start betting or not?"
Everyone took turns betting then got more cards. Cat studied her hand: two Queens, a three, a ten and a seven. She discarded all but the Queens. The betting went around again, Mush, Jack, and Blink dropped out. Finally it was time to show down their cards.
Race grinned at her. "You know, kid, you must know a little bit about poker but you still got a thing or two to learn from the king."
He laid down his cards. Three kings. He laughed and began to pull in the pot.
"Well, that's nice, Race but I'm afraid that just doesn't come close to what you get when you stick with your sisters." Cat laid down her cards: the two original queens plus a deuce and an ace. Four of a kind.
"Us girls look out for one another," she said as she raked in the pot. The night went by in much the same way. Lady Luck was on Cat's side; she raked in two out of every three pots. Most of the newsies who were watching lost in the game and went to bed but the five players, Mouse, Dodger and a handful of others stayed until midnight.
At the end of the last game Jack turned to her and said, "Are you sure your name's not Cardsharp?"
"Yeah, or the Queen of Diamonds? She's shown up in four of your winning hands," Blink said pointing at the hand that Cat had just set down, sure enough there was the Queen of Diamonds.
Cat grinned up at the boys. "Well, Diamonds are a girl's best friend." (A/N: Sorry I was listening to the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack when I wrote that line…I couldn't help myself)
Cat picked up the pile of coins she had accumulated through the night and placed them in her gray cap. "Well, boys, it's been fun taking your money but we've got to be heading back to Brooklyn before it gets too late."
"Why don't I walk the two of you back to Brooklyn," Blink suggested.
"You want to walk all the way over to Brooklyn at night and then walk back by yourself? It'd be suicide to try and walk back by yourself at night. That's Sean O'Reilly's territory; his goons would make mincemeat out of you if you walked around by yourself," Jack told him.
"What about two girls walking around by themselves?" Mush interrupted.
"You know, he's right, girls." Jack told them. "Sean O'Reilly would be after you two in no time flat."
"We can take care of ourselves. We're both really good at sticking to the shadows and things like that. It's sweet of you boys to worry about us though," Cat told them with a smirk.
"I really think it would be better if you'd spend the night here. We've got extra bunks and that way we won't have to worry about you all night."
"Really, it's okay. I was walking around the streets of Boston from the time I was ten years old."
"These aren't exactly the streets of Boston, if you haven't noticed. This is New York City and you've only been here for a couple of weeks," Race interjected.
Cat started to argue again but Dodger jumped in, "Cat, please stay. Those guys are so mean. Please stay here."
Cat looked down at Dodger's pleading expression and remembered what Dodger had undergone at the hands of the goons they were discussing. Cat sighed, "Mouse?"
Mouse gave a small nod.
"All right, we'll stay, but just cause Dodger asked. Now why don't you show us where we're sleeping?" Cat suggested.
I wasn't planning on starting this one yet but since I was threatened with golf clubs, complained to and cursed at by reviewers in A Little Game's last chap I figured I should go ahead and post this one.
Disclaimer: Don't own…wish I did…don't sue.
Chapter One
Cat was back to her old self. She had come to grips with the loss of the last of her family. Cat realized that it was better for her sister if she was dead and in heaven with their parents rather than starving in the streets. Of course this realization had come in the midst of a drunken fight with another drunk, but that didn't make it any less true.
Cat and Mouse began to make a routine. They sold papes everyday until dinner then went back to the Brooklyn lodging house for the evening. Sometimes they would join the boys downstairs, avoiding River, who still hated them. Most of the time they would sit upstairs with Dodger while she told them stories about the Manhattan newsies. They had yet to meet these newsies since they were always out when the boys dropped by.
After a few days or so Dodger was able to go back to Manhattan.
"So, the boys are going to come and pick you up this morning?" Cat asked.
"Yep! I'm going back home and tomorrow I'll get to go back to selling papes. I can't wait! Remember you promised that you'd come visit me."
"We won't forget," Mouse promised her. Mouse had begun talking in front of Dodger now. This surprised her almost as much as it did Cat. Mouse hadn't spoken to anyone except Cat for close to three years.
"I don't see why I can't come here."
"Because the last time that you came to visit you stayed for two weeks," Spot told her from the doorway. He had just walked in to see how the girls were doing. It had become his custom to check on them as long as they didn't beat him out the door.
"Jack told me that I'm not allowed to leave the lodging house without one of the boys with me from now on. He's so mean," Dodger had been sulking ever since Jack had grounded her. She still hadn't forgiven him.
"It's for your own good," Dodger told her. "But don't worry we'll come by and see you next week, to make sure those boys are treating you right."
"You promise?" she asked.
"Yes, we promise." Cat answered for both of them. "Now we need to go sell, so we'll see you in a few days okay?"
"Okay."
The next week went by quickly. Finally the day came that they had promised they would visit Dodger. They sold their papers then started across the bridge. They reached the Manhattan Lodging House and walked through the door into a room filled with newsies.
The room full of newsies came to a halt as they saw two girls come through their door. The girls were different than most girls they knew. The boys stared for two reasons. For one thing the girls were wearing pants; which was very odd: girls always wore skirts. The second reason was that they were very pretty
"Mama mia," Race said, breaking the silence. At that moment Dodger came down the stairs.
"Cat! Mouse! You're here!" she said launching herself in their direction. Cat caught her in a hug.
"Did you miss us?" Cat asked.
"Yes. I'm so glad you came to visit. Let me introduce you to the boys." Dodger turned towards the boys and realized they were all staring. "Hey, guys what's wrong?"
Suddenly all the boys were talking at once. They all clambered forward to meet the girls. Dodger introduced them one by one. "This is my best friend Smarts…This is Racetrack Higgins…This is Specs…"
On and on she went introducing each newsie as she went through the room. Finally they were through and Dodger decided to show them the bunkroom. As soon as she had them up there she turned and said, "So what did you think?"
"Of what?" Cat asked.
"Of Dutchy. Isn't he the cutest boy in the world?" she demanded.
"Oh, yes, definitely the cutest, right Mouse?" Cat said with a wink at Mouse.
"Cutest I've ever seen," Mouse said with a grin. "But on the other hand I think that kid, Snipeshooter likes you, he's awful cute."
"Ew, Snipeshooter. He doesn't like me. He always so mean to me." The older girls shared a smile at this.
"Anyway," Cat said. "How have you been? Have these boys been treating you good?"
"They still won't let me go out by myself anymore. It's not fair."
"Well, I'm sure they'll let you before too long. Why don't we go down stairs and see what those boys are up to?"
"Okay, but they'll probably want to play poker and that's just boring."
"Poker!" Cat said her eyes lighting up. "Poker's not boring."
"Well, they won't teach me how to play so all I can do is watch and that's just boring!"
"Why won't they teach you?" Mouse asked.
"They say girls can't play poker that they don't understand it."
Cat laughed. "Well, well, I guess I'll just have to teach them a lesson."
Cat walked down the stairs back into the lobby. She gazed around the room until she saw a group of four newsies playing poker; a few others were gathered around watching. She walked over to them and said, "Mind if I join?"
The newsies looked up and one said, "Oh, sure, we'd love to teach you how to play poker."
Cat had difficulty keeping her face straight. "That's so nice of you, what was your name again?"
"I'm Racetrack Higgins, but you can call me Race. These guys are Kid Blink, Mush and Cowboy. Here just have a seat between Blink and me and we'll show you how it's done."
Cat sat down where Race had indicated and said, "Poker has always seemed like an interesting game."
Race proceed to explain the game to her in elementary terms. "You see right now Mush is the dealer and he's going to give everybody cards. It's dealer's choice so Mush gets to decide the game. Right now you need to ante. Now that means that you…"
Race went on to tell Cat about betting and which cards were which and other such things. Finally he felt she was ready to play. Mush dealt out the cards and they began to play. Cat folded even though she had a good hand. She wanted to give the boys a sense of false security. Jack won the pot in that hand. They played another hand, the deal passing to Race, Cat once again played bad deliberately. This time Mush won.
"Now," Race told her. "This time the deal would go to you but I can do that if you want me to."
"Oh, I think I'd like to give it a try." Cat picked up the cards and began to shuffle them expertly. She flipped through the deck without even looking at it or at her hands. She then began to deal them. The cards whizzed out of the deck like lightening. "Five card draw. Deuces, aces, and one-eyed faces are wild. Ante-up, boys."
The four newsies who were in the game, as well as the others watching had all gone silent when Cat began shuffling cards. All eyes were on her as she picked up her cards. She turned to Blink on her left and said, "Well, you gonna start betting or not?"
Everyone took turns betting then got more cards. Cat studied her hand: two Queens, a three, a ten and a seven. She discarded all but the Queens. The betting went around again, Mush, Jack, and Blink dropped out. Finally it was time to show down their cards.
Race grinned at her. "You know, kid, you must know a little bit about poker but you still got a thing or two to learn from the king."
He laid down his cards. Three kings. He laughed and began to pull in the pot.
"Well, that's nice, Race but I'm afraid that just doesn't come close to what you get when you stick with your sisters." Cat laid down her cards: the two original queens plus a deuce and an ace. Four of a kind.
"Us girls look out for one another," she said as she raked in the pot. The night went by in much the same way. Lady Luck was on Cat's side; she raked in two out of every three pots. Most of the newsies who were watching lost in the game and went to bed but the five players, Mouse, Dodger and a handful of others stayed until midnight.
At the end of the last game Jack turned to her and said, "Are you sure your name's not Cardsharp?"
"Yeah, or the Queen of Diamonds? She's shown up in four of your winning hands," Blink said pointing at the hand that Cat had just set down, sure enough there was the Queen of Diamonds.
Cat grinned up at the boys. "Well, Diamonds are a girl's best friend." (A/N: Sorry I was listening to the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack when I wrote that line…I couldn't help myself)
Cat picked up the pile of coins she had accumulated through the night and placed them in her gray cap. "Well, boys, it's been fun taking your money but we've got to be heading back to Brooklyn before it gets too late."
"Why don't I walk the two of you back to Brooklyn," Blink suggested.
"You want to walk all the way over to Brooklyn at night and then walk back by yourself? It'd be suicide to try and walk back by yourself at night. That's Sean O'Reilly's territory; his goons would make mincemeat out of you if you walked around by yourself," Jack told him.
"What about two girls walking around by themselves?" Mush interrupted.
"You know, he's right, girls." Jack told them. "Sean O'Reilly would be after you two in no time flat."
"We can take care of ourselves. We're both really good at sticking to the shadows and things like that. It's sweet of you boys to worry about us though," Cat told them with a smirk.
"I really think it would be better if you'd spend the night here. We've got extra bunks and that way we won't have to worry about you all night."
"Really, it's okay. I was walking around the streets of Boston from the time I was ten years old."
"These aren't exactly the streets of Boston, if you haven't noticed. This is New York City and you've only been here for a couple of weeks," Race interjected.
Cat started to argue again but Dodger jumped in, "Cat, please stay. Those guys are so mean. Please stay here."
Cat looked down at Dodger's pleading expression and remembered what Dodger had undergone at the hands of the goons they were discussing. Cat sighed, "Mouse?"
Mouse gave a small nod.
"All right, we'll stay, but just cause Dodger asked. Now why don't you show us where we're sleeping?" Cat suggested.
