AN: Hey everyone, sorry this took me so long, I hope you never have to wait that long again, but…don't hold your breath. I'm not the kind of person who can just write a chapter a day, at least not if I want it to be good and have a decent plot. Oh, and reviews always spur me along (hint, hint), so leave me one!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Newsies or any of the characters, much as I wish I did. They all belong to Disney.
HAVE TIME MACHINE: WILL SELL PAPES
CHAPTER 8
As soon as the girls found their way to the Brooklyn Bridge and crossed to the other side, they found themselves surrounded by dirty, grungy-looking newsies. The newsies were also all about a foot taller than each of the girls, save Moni.
"Whoa!" Natalie said, as the girls looked at the boy's raised fists. "What's this all about?"
One of the boys stepped forward. "Who are you, and what business do you have in Brooklyn?"
Moni raised an eyebrow at him. "Kindly remove your fists from our immediate vicinity," she said in a haughty tone.
"Huh?" one of the other boys asked. "We weren't even touching you!"
"Who are you and what is your business in Brooklyn?" the newsie asked again.
"We heard you the first time!" Eronn complained.
"And we really don't have any business here," Liz told him. "We're just exploring."
"Yeah, Manhattan got boring fast," Natalie told him. "There's really not that much to do there at all, except for wander around the streets and play poker with the boys. And they're not very good, so you have to force yourself to lose so they won't feel bad and…"
The boy sighed in frustration. "For the last time, who are you?"
"Well who are you?" Liz asked.
The boy groaned. "My name's Snoops."
"Nice to meet you Snoops."
"It's a pleasure."
"Never met anybody with that name before."
"Howdy."
Snoops looked at them with a blank look on his face, wondering if they were for real, or if they were just trying to get under his skin. He finally gave up trying to decide and repeated "Your names?"
"Oh, those!" Natalie said with a start, and then introduced herself and the other girls.
"Finally," Snoops muttered under his breath. "I'm gonna have to take you four to see Spot."
"Oh goody!" Eronn said with a little squeal.
Another newsie rolled his eyes. "Snoops, this is ridiculous! They're obviously no threat, so let's not bother Spot with 'em."
"Oh, but we are a threat!" Eronn said with wide, innocent eyes. "Aren't we girls?"
They nodded gravely. "We are highly threatening," Liz told Snoops.
"Really?" he asked with one eyebrow raised.
"Oh really," Natalie told him.
"Then why don't you prove it?" he said with a smirk on his face.
"Why don't you just take us to Spot you silly little imbecile!" Moni said very rationally, taking everybody by surprise. As she spoke, she grabbed his shirt by the collar and pulled on it hard. Snoops looked shocked. "What else do I have to do to convince you?" Moni asked, a slightly threatening tone in her voice.
"Um, now they're being threatening," one of the newsies watching pointed out. "You were right, let's just take them to Spot and let him deal with them."
"Now you're talking!" Liz said with a wide smile.
"Lead on," Moni said to Snoops and she let go of his shirt with a little shove. "We're waiting."
Snoops sighed and then nodded. "C'mon," he said, as he led the way down the street. "It's this way."
They walked along behind Snoops, Eronn practically skipping with joy.
They reached the docks in almost no time. The girls probably should have felt self-conscious because all the newsie's eyes were on them, but they shrugged it off and continued walking. "What have we here?" they heard a familiar voice ask, but the voice had a tone of surprise, rather than the haughty one they were used to.
"Hey Spot," Eronn said with a grin. "Nice to see you too," she said, looking up at the newsie sitting on top of the pier. Spot jumped down and walked over.
"Of course it's nice to see you girls," Spot backtracked. "I'm just surprised to see you here. Don't the Manhattan newsies generally spend their whole day either selling papes or hanging out at Tibby's?"
"Oh, that," Natalie said dismissively. "We got bored."
"So you came here?" Spot asked skeptically.
"We were really bored," Natalie admitted with a shrug.
"You don't really mind that we came, do you?" Eronn asked him hopefully.
Spot grinned. "Nah, of course not. Like I said, I was just surprised."
"Good," Eronn said, grinning back.
"Will you two stop all this mushy stuff?" Liz asked abruptly, after Spot and Eronn had gazed at each other for awhile.
Spot and Eronn broke off their gaze, both blushing a little. "So what is there for us to do?" Natalie asked Spot.
Spot looked around, and all the newsies who had been watching them closely automatically looked away, pretending to be engrossed in something else. A few of them jumped in the water, and the boys that were in the water began swimming around. "We could go swimming," he suggested. "There's not much else to do, except play poker."
"But we don't have any bathing suits," Liz pointed out.
"Yeah," Eronn agreed.
"You don't need one," Spot told them.
"Oh no!" Natalie said. "I am not skinny-dipping. No way, no how." She shook her head vehemently.
"Huh?" Spot asked. "I'm not quite sure what that is, but I know that we just wear our clothes in the water."
"Oh," Liz said, taken aback. "Well than that's fine!"
Moni shrugged. "Sound like fun to me I guess."
Only Eronn shook her head. "No way!" she said emphatically. "I am not going swimming right now!"
Spot gave her a puzzled look. "Why not?"
"I just don't want to."
"Oh, come on Eronn," Natalie pleaded. "It's really hot."
"Well I'm going in now," Liz said, taking a jump off the pier.
"But think of how dirty that water is," Eronn said, a little late for it to be of any use to Liz.
Liz surfaced just in time to hear here. "Oh well," she said. "It sure cools you down."
Eronn sighed as Natalie and Moni joined Liz in the water. She looked over at Spot with a scowl on her face. "You don't have to stay out because I'm staying out. You can go in."
Spot smiled at her – an actual smile, not his usual grin – "Oh, I wouldn't dream of going in without you," he told her, his smile quickly turning back to a mischevious grin. "That's why you're coming with me," he said, grabbing her arm and yanking Eronn into the water.
Eronn screamed as she hit the water, went under momentarily and then resurfaced a second later. Coughing and sputtering, she began flailing in the water, and then slowly began to slip under the surface again.
Spot and the other girls looked at Eronn with their mouths open, somewhat shocked at this performance. Then, with a start, they realized that she couldn't swim. Spot, who was closest on account of being the one to pull her in, quickly swam over and pulled Eronn so that her head was above the water.
Eronn coughed and sputtered a little as her friends gathered around. "Why didn't you tell us you couldn't swim?" Moni asked, exasperated.
Eronn frowned, but quickly brightened up when she realized that Spot was holding her up. Now that she was enjoying. "It's kind of embarrassing," she told them. "I don't really like people to know."
"Oh come on, we're your friends, you could've told us," Liz pointed out.
"Yeah, right in front of about twenty newsies that I don't know very well. Sure."
"Eh, don't worry about what they think," Spot told her. "Half of them can't swim either."
"Really?" Eronn asked.
Spot nodded. "That is, until we teach them how to swim."
Eronn's eyes got wide, realizing what he meant. "Oh no," she said, trying to break from Spot's grasp, which was not very smart considering that she couldn't swim. "You are not going to teach me how to swim. I just want to get on dry land."
"C'mon, you gotta learn how to swim someday!"
"Spot, do you know how many people have tried to teach me how to swim? And how many people have failed?"
"I've never met a single person who couldn't learn how to swim," Spot told her. "It's easy, you'll see."
***********************************************
An hour later, the girls and Spot were sitting on edge of the deck with their feet hanging over the edge.
"That was really easy, huh Spot?" Liz teased.
"Told you I couldn't swim," Eronn said, sticking out her lower lip. "Nobody listens to me."
"What?" Moni asked, teasing, which resulted in a playful slap from Eronn.
"Y'know, that was really entertaining. I'll never forget it." Natalie said happily.
Spot glared at them. "She wasn't even trying," he said defensively.
But Eronn had been trying, and they all knew it, as Moni pointed out a minute later.
"It was really nice of you to try though," Eronn told him. "Most people wouldn't even bother. It was very noble of you," she said, perfectly serious.
"Oh, of course it was," Spot said. "I'm naturally that way."
"Sure Spot."
"If you say so."
"Don't give up your day job."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Liz asked Natalie.
"It sounded good to me!"
"But it didn't fit at all in our random responses Natalie!" Moni told her, exasperated.
"We have a name for those?" Eronn asked. "Cool!"
Spot laughed. "You four are the strangest girls I have ever met!"
"Thanks."
"We know."
"And we're proud of it."
"Damn proud of it!"
Spot laughed again, shaking his head. "What time do you have to get back?"
"Oh, we should really get going soon guys," Liz told them. "We told the boys we'd be back by dinner."
"Yeah, guess we'd better head out then," Natalie told him.
They all stood up and began walking off the dock, onto dry land. "Well thanks so much Spot!" Moni told him.
"It was no big deal," he told them. "Oh, and for the record, you guys are welcome in Brooklyn anytime you like."
"Really? Thanks Spot!" Eronn said, as they walked off.
"Anytime we like, huh?" Moni asked the girls, a mischevious inflection in her voice. "Anytime as in crack of dawn time? As in middle of the night time? As in…"
"Calm down Moni," Natalie told her. "He obviously meant any time."
The other girls looked at her with blank looks on their faces. "As in any time we get bored and want to annoy someone, any time we want to be entertained – do you get what I'm saying?"
"So you're saying that we should annoy the heck out of them until we overstay our welcome?" Liz asked slowly. She considered that. "Sounds fun. I'm in."
"Oh no!" Eronn said. "You three are not ruining this for me!"
"What, you think Spot's going to stop liking you because we annoy him?" Natalie asked.
"That's exactly what I mean!"
"Eronn, Spot's not going to stop liking you for some stupid reason like that," Moni told her sensibly. "Plus," she added under her breath, "no one said we had to bring you."
"I heard that!" Eronn said as they crossed into Manhattan, and they continued arguing about it until they reached the Lodging House, whereupon the argument stopped, never to be brought up again.
*********************************************
Hours later, it was dark out and the girls were back at the Lodging House playing poker with the rest of the newsies when Race and Jack walked in, both looking like they had had a really long day.
"Why so quiet Jacky-boy?" Moni asked him. 'Feeling sorry for yourself, huh?" She nodded knowingly. "Well, you certainly have enough to feel bad about, y'know, being such a terrible person and all," she said with a bright smile.
Jack merely muttered a "shut up" and moved outside to the fire escape. "What's wrong with him?" Moni asked, baffled that for once he took her ribbing seriously.
"Um, 'Santa Fe' ring any bells?" Eronn asked her, which only served to confuse the rest of the newsies.
Moni got it, however. "Oh, you mean he's feeling all sorry for himself because he doesn't have a family so perfect that it makes you sick, like David's?"
"Huh?" came out of all the newsies mouths.
"Pretty much," Liz said. "But don't mention that name around me. You know how I feel about that person."
"Oh, you mean the fact that you're secretly in love with him, only hiding you passion, and that he'd follow you around like a little lost puppy if you asked him to?" Eronn asked, grinning.
"Sounds like an accurate assessment to me," Natalie conceded.
"Shut up."
"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Mush interrupted.
"Stuff that you guys don't know about yet," Moni told him.
"It's complicated," Liz told him.
"So you guys know why Jack's so down tonight?" Race asked, skeptical.
The girls nodded. "And I know just the way to cheer him up, too," Moni said, with an expression that greatly resembled that of the Grinch's (as in the one who stole Christmas).
"Moni, what are you going to do?" Natalie asked.
"Just wait and see," she told them. "You'll know it when it happens."
TBC…
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