DISCLAIMER: I don't own the newsies. I don't own my friends. They own themselves. I own myself.
SHOUT-OUTS:
Mushtmblr: Glad you like it so far.
Mainecoon: Well, I'm glad the science stuff wasn't TOTALLY out there!
Raven: Don't worry – one of us definitely won't get together with a boy. And my friends are way too, um, odd (in the nicest way of course) to ever get boring.
Hobbes: I know it's unlikely, but think of the possibilities! And I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Lshorty: Thanks!
AN: The newsies don't speak w/ New York accents 'cause I didn't feel like writing it!
HAVE TIME MACHINE: WILL SELL PAPES
CHAPTER 2
Moni led the way into Tibby's, with Natalie, Eronn and Liz following her. They noticed the newsies sitting in the left corner of the restaurant. Moni, however, headed towards the right.
"So, what's the plan?" Liz asked. "We can't just walk up to them."
"We can't?" Eronn asked, glancing over at the boys.
"Well, we should work out something to say" Natalie agreed.
"The girls in the fan-fics never have to worry about what they're going to say!" Eronn whined. "They just tell the newsies they're from the future!"
"Eronn, what would you think if somebody came up to you and told you they were from 2050?" Moni asked.
"OK, OK. You have a point."
"So, what are we going to say?" Natalie asked again.
"Hey, do we have any money?" Moni asked suddenly, and rather randomly.
"Why?" Liz asked.
"I'm hungry."
"But we just ate!" Natalie exclaimed. "How can you possibly be hungry again?"
"I just am," Moni said as if the answer was obvious, with an imperturbable stare.
Eronn pulled out her wallet from her pocket. "Good thing my stepfather makes me carry identification with me wherever I go" she said, grinning. "I have twenty dollars and lots of change. That should be enough for a little while."
"We can't use the bills though," Liz pointed out.
"Why?"
"Cause I don't think money looked like that back then, Eronn," Liz explained.
"Oh." Eronn frowned.
"Well, what about the change?" Natalie asked. "What *did* pennies look like in 1899?"
"They look the same, except for the dates," Liz told them. "My grandpa collects coins, and I remember seeing some from the late 1800s, so I know."
"Well, that's good 'cause I have lots of pennies" Eronn told them. "I just hope they don't look at the dates too closely. I wouldn't accept money that said 2050 either."
"But we shouldn't eat right now" Liz told them. "We should try and save what money we can use."
"Agreed," said Natalie and Eronn.
"Oh, all right" Moni said reluctantly. "But if I keel over, it's your guys fault."
"Um, we'd better hurry up and come up with an excuse!" Eronn said urgently. "The newsies are almost done with their food."
"I've got it!" Natalie said. "Eronn, pretend to be blind. Liz, you pretend to guide her. Run into the newsies as they leave."
"Pretend to be blind?" Eronn asked. "I don't know, Natalie."
"Well fine then," Natalie answered, frustrated. "Just run into them, then!"
Eronn grinned. "You don't have to tell me twice!"
"What am I supposed to do?" Moni asked.
"Well, since you're the best actress of us all, you can pretend to be all worried that Eronn hurt her ankle. Eronn, pretend you can't walk after you fall down. Then maybe you can let drop, Moni, that we have nowhere to take Eronn. Hopefully they'll offer to let us use the Lodging House."
"I hope this will work" Liz said, skeptically.
"And I hope one of the newsies offers to carry me back!" Eronn said happily.
"They're leaving" Moni said, looking over her shoulder. "Hurry up and go, Eronn."
Eronn pretended to be lost in thought, and Liz walked along next to her. When they got really close to the newsies, who were leaving Tibby's, Liz gave her a little shove into Blink.
Natalie's plan worked a little too well. Eronn's foot got caught with Blink's, causing it to turn ever so slightly. Eronn fell to the ground; Blink stumbled back into Racetrack, who got tangled up with Jack who was next to him. In the end Eronn, Blink, Race and Jack were on the floor, Eronn clutching her ankle in pain and crying. Really crying.
"Eronn, are you alright?" Natalie said, really upset, coming over to where Eronn was on the floor.
"Natalie, I don't think she's alright," Liz whispered. "And she wasn't supposed to really get hurt."
"She's not hurt!" Natalie replied, uncertainly. "She's just a better actress then we thought. Maybe."
"Are you hurt?" Blink asked, concerned, from next to Eronn on the floor.
"No" Eronn said quietly, tears streaming down her cheeks. "My ankle really hurts!"
Moni rushed over to Eronn, ready to play her part. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "Eronn, how could this happen! You know we have nowhere to take care of you!" She was in major drama queen mode.
"What's going on?" Jack asked, confused.
"What are we going to do with her?" Moni practically wailed.
"Well, why don't you take her back to the Newsies' Lodging House?" Crutchy suggested from nearby.
"We're all newsies," Race explained to the four girls.
"That would be really great" Natalie gushed at Crutchy, smiling at him somewhat flirtatiously. Or at least, flirtatiously for Natalie.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Jack said. "Why exactly are we taking them back to the Lodging House?" Jack asked.
"Because this one here's hurt her ankle, and they have nowhere else to stay," Blink explained.
"C'mon Jack, they could become newsies too" Race said persuasively.
"Please let us become newsies. Pretty please" Eronn said pathetically from the floor. "Or it'll be back to the orphanage for us."
"You're from an orphanage?" Boots asked, coming up to the group.
Eronn nodded. "We just jailbreaked today" Moni explained, playing along.
"Oh sure."
"Yeah, that's what happened," Natalie and Liz agreed.
"Why'd you guys leave?" Jack asked, suspiciously.
The girls looked at each other. "Because they made us dress like this!" Eronn blurted out. "Wouldn't you have run, too? And do you guys have a change of clothes, by any chance?" She gave them a hopeful smile.
"Oh, alright, you can bring them to the Lodging House" Jack agreed. "I guess they can stay in what we've been using as the sick room."
"Great!" Natalie exclaimed. "Let's go."
Everyone started heading out the door, except for Liz and Eronn. "Hey, a little help here people?" Liz yelled after them. "I can't lift Eronn by myself!"
Blink came back and picked Eronn up. "Let's go," he said as Eronn smiled happily.
"We should introduce ourselves," Jack told them. "I'm Jack Kelly, or Cowboy. That's Blink over there, and these here are Racetrack, Boots, Mush, Crutchy, Specs."
"What happened to the rest of the newsies in Tibby's?" Eronn asked.
"They went to finish selling their papes."
"So what are your names?" Race asked Liz.
"I'm Liz, and this is Moni and Natalie. Blink is carrying Eronn."
"So where are you four from?" Jack asked them.
"New Jersey."
"Wisconsin."
"Philadelphia."
"Middle Earth."
All four girls answered at the exact same moment. "None of us are from around here," Natalie explained.
"Oh" Jack said.
"Where exactly *is* Middle Earth?" Mush asked, confused.
"Oh, Moni's just trying to pull your leg" Natalie told him.
"She does that a lot," Liz said.
The group had slowed down, but Jack had continued on ahead. "Come on you guys!" he said, frustrated. "We still have papes to sell sometime today!"
Liz looked over at Eronn and said, with a perfectly straight face "That Jack, he sure can fuss."
Eronn grinned, catching on. "Fuss, fuss. I think he like to scream at us."
"Probably he means no harm."
"He's really very short on charm."
"You have a gift for rhyme."
"Yes, yes, some of the time."
"Enough of that!" Nancy broke in.
"Eronn, are there rocks ahead?" Liz continued.
"If there are, we'll all be dead!"
Nancy spoke again. "No more rhymes, I mean it."
"Anybody want a peanut?" Eronn asked.
Moni just rolled her eyes. The newsies looked at the girls like they were crazy.
"Um, what was *that* about?" Race asked.
"It's from one of our favorite movies" Liz explained.
"Movies?" Blink asked Eronn.
"Flickers, really."
"Oh. Can we see this flicker sometime?"
"Sometime. In the future" Moni said, grinning.
Jack glared at the girls. "We were joking" Natalie told him, catching the look on his face. "Don't take everything so seriously. We think you have plenty of charm. Don't we girls?"
"Oh yeah."
"Barrels full!"
"Could I borrow some?"
They reached the Lodging House, and they walked inside. "Hey Kloppman, we've got some new newsies for you to meet" Jack told him.
Kloppman slowly looked over the rim of his glasses and frowned at the girls. "We've never had girls in here before."
"Well, we do now your Honor" Race told him persuasively. "They can stay in the sick room. After all, we haven't had any boys get sick in months."
"Please, Kloppman?" Boots asked.
Kloppman melted. "All right, that's fine. But no funny business around here, you girls understand?"
The girls nodded solemnly, while secretly trying not to grin. Then, after Kloppman let them go, Jack led the way upstairs to show them to their room.
There were four bunks in the room, and Blink put Eronn down on one of the bottom ones. "Hey, I want a top bunk!" Eronn said.
"Well, you're going to have to get up there yourself" Blink told her. "You're heavy."
"Hey!"
"She's not fat!" Liz told him. "She simply retains water!"
"That didn't help, Liz," Eronn muttered.
"You can have a top bunk Eronn" Natalie told her. "Just wait until your foot feels better."
"I want a top bunk too!" Moni said.
"Hey, I want the other top bunk!" Natalie replied.
"Ha ha ha – you already told me I could have a top bunk!" Eronn taunted.
"I should have the bunk," Natalie argued.
"No, I think I should have it," Moni replied.
"Are they *always* like this?" Jack asked Liz.
"Worse," Liz replied with a smirk that widened to a grin as the other three girls glared at her.
"Just because you're mature," Moni muttered.
"I'm mature!" Natalie said.
"In what alternate universe, Natalie?" Eronn asked.
"Guys, cut it out!" Liz yelled. Then she turned to the newsies. "They're normally not this bad. I can usually handle them, it's just they've been through a lot today."
The other three girls noticed the strange looks they were getting from the newsies. That wasn't good. So Natalie did the only thing she could think of to distract them. "Hey, who knows how to play poker?" she asked.