Pain's Point of View
Hi there. My name is Susannah Bodnar, but I haven't used that name since I was fifteen and my entire family was wiped out during a nasty bout of influenza. Instead, all of my pals call me Pain. Don't laugh, it's my true nickname. My younger brother Thomas, younger by two years, gave it to me after a pretty tough sibling fight we had when I was eight years old. Tommy was the only one who called me by that, though, until now. Now that I'm a newsie up here in Canada - Niagara Falls, Canada to be exact - I've decided it was time to use a nickname. I mean, everyone else does.
Wait, you don't know what a newsie is? Well, I guess I better tell you then. As a newsie, newsie being the slang term for newsboy or newsgirl, I make my living by selling newspapers to customers on the street. I live in a lodging house a block or two away from the distribution center.
The Rainbow Bridge Lodging House, called that due to the proximity to the real Rainbow Bridge, is a marvelous place with marvelous people living inside -- Iris, Dice, Stress, Rae, Lucky, Angel Face, Moneybags, Raider, Puck, Cole, Lips, Moth, Taps, Bailey, Leon, Candy, Hazel, Jack, Race, Mush, Spot, Chump, Teddy Bear and Riley. Especially Riley.
Riley, Riley Hanson. Words cannot describe the feelings I have for that young man. In the month or so I've been here at Rainbow Bridge, all I've heard about was the entire "Jack-Stress-Riley" triangle that had occurred only a week before I had arrived. It seems that Riley had a thing for Stress and tried to break her and Cowboy up. It didn't work, obviously, and there are times that there's quite a bit of tension hanging around the lodging house due to Riley's insistence to live in the same lodging house as the other two.
But, heck, I don't mind. As long as Riley's living here, I got a chance. Right?
Riley's Point of View
Nice to meet you, there. I'm Riley, though I'm sure you already heard of me. I mean, after what happened here last month *everyone* has heard of Riley Hanson, the girlfriend stealer. But I'm not going to talk about that yet. Instead, I'm going to talk about my life. And what a fine life it is! I love being a newsie. It's so hard to believe that it took me until a couple of weeks ago to become a newsie. Until then I was living over at a boy's home, since the orphanage kicks you out upon your eighteenth birthday. God, I hated that orphanage.
Back onto me being a newsie. I always begged, borrowed and stole everything I needed, sweet-talking those I needed to to make sure that I survived. But that all changed when I met Stress.
I remember the day as if it were yesterday. I was just hanging around downtown when I ran into Stress and Cowboy, fresh off the train. I lost my heart to her at once. I brought her to the Rainbow Bridge Lodging House and made friends with her. With my goal in sight, I decided to start working for a living. O.K., I admit it. I knew that if I became a newsie, then I would be able to move into the Rainbow Bridge Lodging House, as long as I paid my lodging fees.
Unfortunately, I guess that she never felt the same way. No matter how hard I try, Stress remains with Cowboy. But that doesn't mean I plan on stopping any time soon.
Sure there are other girls out there. And they are all special and cute in their own way. But there's just something about the one I have my eye on and I won't stop until she's mine.
Or until I find someone better. Hey, it is possible. But, when I have to compare them to Stress, I don't think it's too likely.