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The next morning, the first person was up at 5:30, and it was none other than Arg. He had to be the first one up, considering that it was his job to wake everyone else up. He started his usual routine; checking and counting all the names that had signed in, checking which newsies owed him money. He'd make himself a quick breakfast, fi he had time, and by then is was just about six, and he would walk up the creaky stairs to the 2nd floor. He'd go in, waking up all the sleeping newsies, one by one, until they were are all awake. Then he'd trudge up the next flight of stairs to more sleeping newsboys.
"C'mon! Get up, get up!" He brought his broom in with him, to start sweeping the floors, but it was more commonly used to hit the newsies that refused to get up.
Moans started coming from some of the boys in the room, several getting up and heading for the washroom. "Spot!" he walked over to where he was sleeping. "You got guests ta wake up!"
"A'aight, I'se up." Spot sighed, sitting up and looking at Hawk, who was next to him.
"Ya know, I had da weirdest dream las' night." Hawk mumbled.
"Yeah me too …somet'ing like dese goils came an' dey were from da future err somet'ing." Spot finished.
Spot and Hawk turned around at the sound of someone falling out of bed. "Oh crap, it ain't a dream." Hawk fell back into his bed, seeing that the someone who had fallen out was none other than Becca.
Spot, on the other hand, saw that it was Becca, and hurried over to her to make sure she was all right. It was the first time that Spot had felt this way about a girl in a very long time. 'Ever since Bookie an' I…' "Are ya awlright?"
Becca tried to open her eyes, blinking at the bright light. "Huh?" Came her only reply.
"I asked ya if ya were awlright. Ya fell from da top bunk." Spot stated the obvious to a sleepy Becca.
"Oh …forgot I was on the top …ouch." She rubbed her leg as she tried to stand up. But this only made her fall into Spot, because as she was rubbing her leg, it gave out and Spot was there to catch her. "Thanks." She blushed slightly.
"Ya sure ya gonna be fine, now?" Spot doubled checked, helping her to the empty bunk below her.
"Yeah, lucky you were there to catch me, or I would have fallen twice." Becca gazed at Spot, still not fully awake.
Spot just couldn't take his eyes off her, until Hawk walked up to him and waved his hand in front of his face. "Hey, anybody home? Ya gotta get ready!"
"Oh, yeah. T'anks Hawk." Spot got up. "Can ya get da others up?"
"That's not necessary." Janet popped up, and Becca and Spot looked to the girls who were awake and had watched the whole scene from their bunks.
Becca blushed and looked at Spot, who was caught off guard, and just reminded the girls that they had to get up and get dressed in their clothes, their *new* ones.
"Aww, look at the lovebirds, Spot and Becca…" Janet aww'ed as she went by.
"Ouch! That hurt!" Dianna exclaimed as she sat up and rubbed her head. "Stupid bunk bed."
"Did you just hit your head?" Sarah laughed.
"Yeah. Well I've hit it once for today." Dianna smiled happily thinking that she wouldn't hit her head anymore.
"Whatever." Sam climbed off of the top bunk, instead of falling out, which was the way to do it.
Soon everyone was dressed and ready, and the girls were pretty quick about it too. They were the last ones to leave the Lodging House, but it was really fast for them.
"So we're headed to the Distribution Center?" Becca anticipated.
"Yup." Spot walked a little faster, in hopes that he might catch up soon with the other guys. Luckily for him, Hawk had also stayed behind.
"Do ya's awl plannin' on bein' newsies?" Hawk wondered, thinking that there might be some new recruits soon.
"I guess …what else is there?" Janet had no idea what kind of jobs they had now.
"I'm sure there will be some *fast* food place that you can work at." Michele smiled. It was early, but she was awake now.
"Hardy, har, har." Janet smiled at Michele. "Hopefully not McDonalds."
"Well, let's see. Dere are a couple …some jobs ya need more schoolin' far an' others ya don't." Spot thought of a couple examples. "Like bein' a newsie, workin' in a fac'ory, waitressin', shoe shinin' ya don't need schoolin' far, but dey don't bring in a lotta cash. Den ya get jobs like bein' a nanny, or a somet'ing like dat, an' ya get more money, more reliable jobs." Spot paused. "But ya gotta work harder far dem."
"Well, here we are." Hawk nodded to a building with many people, men and boys mostly, but there were girls, scattered here and there.
"It's bigger than the one in Manhattan." Dianna established.
"Yup." Spot confirmed. "So you'se can watch me sell me papes, an' if ya t'ink dat it's somet'in dat ya might like ta do, den tamorraw, well see if you'se can get ya own papes. Wait here." Spot went to go get in line, some of the boys left Spot in front of him, he being their leader and all. After he got his 100 papes, he came back with a friend. "You'se remembah Fish from yestaday, right?"
"Sure do." Sarah waited.
"Well, dis is his goil, Raidah." Spot motioned to a girl with blonde hair beside him.
"Hey Raider." Came pretty much all of the girls voices.
"Ya's new here er sum't'in?" It was pretty obvious to see that they weren't from here.
"Yeah, we stopped by, and were looking for jobs. Not sure how long we'll be here." Becca supplied a logical explanation.
"Ok. Well if ya's lookin' ta be newsies, den I can help ya, if ya need help. But I see ya got Spot here, so ya should be fine." Raider smiled as she pulled her cowboy hat on her head. "Well, I hate ta run, but I got papes ta sell."
"Bye! Nice ta meet ya!" Becca called after her.
"You'll see her at da Lodgin' House tanight." Spot pointed to a group of girls by the gate. "Those are Nightingale, Martini, Bookie an Cane. Dey sell tageddah an' are awl pretty close. Dey stay at da Lodgin' House too." Spot started walking once more. "Well, to da docks so I can sell dese."
"Spot, I'll catch up wit ya at da dock, I'se goin' ta me spot." Hawk had gotten his papes and headed in the opposite direction.
"Okay, see ya then." Spot skimmed the headlines.
The group stumbled along (the girls did, it was SO early) to Spot's selling spot. It was a couple docks from where they saw Wally the shark yesterday, and not far from Spot and his "perch." They watched in awe as customers just came up and bought a paper. Spot had hardly any work to do and in no time at all; all his papes were gone.
"So now we get to go to the docks and do all that fun stuff that we talked about doing last night?" Becca was getting really anxious to beat somebody up.
"Yeah, an' 'round 4 or so, I'se gonna take ya's ta da Goils Lodgin' House." Spot thought of how much fun he was going to have for the next several hours.
"Do I still get to fight someone?" Becca looked right at Spot.
"Yeah, I told ya dat ya'd learn how ta fight." Spot smirked as he thought who was going to be teaching her.
"YAY!" Becca jumped up and down.
"Oh gosh, we're not gonna hear the end of this one…" Janet rolled her eyes.
"Oh shut up." Becca pouted, glaring at Janet.
Spot draped his arm around Becca. "Don't worry, she won't mess wit ya once ya learn how to fight."
Becca was almost dying; Spot had his arm around her!! 'Yes! Finally, mwuhahahahahahaha!!'
"Almost dere …" Spot trailed off, still keeping his arm around her. 'I t'ink I'll ask her ta be me goil, maybe tanight … er tamorraw night.'
"Can we go swimming?" Laura asked, walking up to Spot, forcing him to take his arm off of her.
"Yeah." Spot put his arm back at his side. 'Dang it, why'd she have ta come an' do dat? T'ings were goin' poifect …' Anyway, they were almost to the dock, Sam and Laura tried to guess which dock it was.
"I'm telling you, it's the third one out." Sam insisted.
"No, it's the fourth one." Laura raised her voice, something she loved to do.
"No." Sam yelled.
"YES!" Laura was *never* wrong …she just took the blame a lot for many things. If it was anybody's fault, it was Laura's.
"Ya both wrong, it's da second one." Spot squeezed in, his voice louder than both their voices.
"There already?" Sarah remembered it being longer.
"Yeah." Spot turned onto the dock and everyone kind of stepped aside, making way for their Brooklyn Leader. Some of the boys just sold the evening editions, some sold morning, but most of the newsies sold both. If you could just sell morning editions, you were *rich*, and if you only sold evening editions, you were at the top, the best of the best. That was because mornings sold more than evenings.
"Hey fellas. Listen up," he addressed his boys as he climbed to his *pedestal.* "We got a couple o' newbies, an' dey're gonna stay here far da day." The group of girls all stuck together, until Spot said that they could go and wander. As soon as he said this, they all just went off in little groups, exploring the dock.
"Sarah," Dianna smiled as she ducked her head to keep from hitting it on a beam. "Do you think that there are paddle boats around here?"
"That was so scary! Don't even bring that up again."
Michele who was still in the dark about Sarah and Dianna's adventure jumped down from a ledge saying "What?"
"Oh … well before we got here, we went to the Doss's house to go tubing and jet ski-ing." Sarah began.
"And Sarah saw a paddle boat and made me go on with her." Dianna glared at Sarah, but was only kidding. "Anyway, it was all fine and good, we were going to go see if the Goodwins were out on their dock, but then the boat just stopped working."
Sarah started laughing, which made Dianna laugh so hard that Sarah had to finish the story. "So Ted Tanis was out there, on the motor boat, and he had to pull us in. it was sooo bad." Michele saw what was so funny, and started laughing along. "And as we he was pulling us in, everybody stared at us, it was soo embarrassing."
"That is so funny Sarah." Michele tried not to laugh more, but since Sarah and Dianna were, she figured it was okay.
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"Becca are ya ready ta beat some one up?" Spot smirked as he walked over to Becca and Janet.
"Sure am!" Becca looked around Spot to see who was going to be teaching her. "Who's my teacher?"
Spot's ego went down a bit. Is she really dat oblivious? Naw …look at 'er, no one dat pretty can be dat stupid. "Well, I'se gonna teach ya."
Janet let out a loud laugh, which caused Spot to glare at her. "Sorry Spot." She said in between giggles.
"Why don't ya go ovah dere," Spot pointed to Laura and Sam, who were watching the conversation intently, "an' go swimmin' or somet'in'."
Janet rolled her eyes and made her way over to Laura and Sam, since Dianna was no where to be found. "Have fun. Becca. I know I will."
"Now dat's she's gone, I can teach ya how ta fight, undistoibed." Spot looked at Becca. "Now, come on at me." Spot walked a distance away, waiting for Becca to run at him.
Becca looked at Spot oddly. What the heck? I don't want to hurt him!
"C'mon, pretend like we'se fightin'. Ya won't hoit me, I promise ya." So, without any hesitation, Becca ran at Spot and they started fighting. Spot was surprised on how strong she was, and the shock clearly showed on his face. After a while, he had managed to have her in a head lock, and had blocked a few of her swings. "Now," he showed her, "when ya were like dis …" Spot told her of things to do and things not to do, and all the good punches that he could have thrown at her.
"Oh … I see." Becca nodded as Spot went on. "So when do I really get to beat someone up?"
"As soon as ya can get me pinned." And with no further comments, Becca threw herself at Spot once again.
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"There you are, I've been looking for you." Janet stood up and brushed off the dirt on her pants.
"Uh oh." Dianna started to back away, looking beyond Janet.
"What is it?"
"I think I found the person I hit." Dianna pointed to a shadow behind Janet. Janet spun around, and looked up to see a huge guy, he was like 6 foot something, and had huge muscles. "I'm sorry uhh, what's your name?"
He said nothing, and just came towards Dianna, cracking his knuckles. Hawk came up after Dianna, figuring that she was up here too long. "Oh great! Just what I need." Hawk didn't like the look on this huge guy's face. "Hey Bull, she didn't mean it. I was teachin' her how ta shoot a sling." Hawk offered. He hated Bull, and doubted that he'd take that as a apology.
"Maybe she should practice somewheah else. An' it doesn't help dat you'se is teachin' her." Bull had always hated Spot, and especially Hawk. Now's me chance ta soak him. An' nobody's stoppin' me.
Some other newsies saw what Bull was doing, how he was walking, and figured that there would be a fight. "Fight! Fight!" Some one started, and in no time there was a chant going on.
Spot who was on the other side of the dock, came running at the sound of "fight" and left Becca still trying to fight him. But as she saw Spot running and heard the chant, she followed him, and was soon ahead of Spot and reached the dock before him. She saw this big newsie going for Hawk. Yes! This is my chance! I've taken Spot once, and this will be good practice. So she charged at him, just like Spot had showed her.
Hawk was just about to charge, thinking about how much this was going to hurt in a few hours, when he saw Becca run from behind him and before Hawk could register anything, he felt his fist connecting with Bull's face.
Bull, who was confused at something hitting him from behind, turned around to see some girl trying to soak him. He laughed out loud, he was almost a foot taller than she was. Crack! Something had just connected with his nose. His hand flew to his face, as he backed away, and tried to open his eyes. He looked at his hand first, and saw blood. Then he looked around and saw Hawk. He'll pay far dis, mark me woids. He tackled Hawk, knocking him down.
A large group had quickly gathered around the fight, two newsies pushing their way to the front. "Hey! Break it up!" Caleb shouted, trying to separate Hawk and Bull.
"You stay outta dis, Caleb." Bull grunted as he shoved Caleb out of the way.
"Hey, Bull!" Came Spot's commanding voice, and some of the boys moved aside. Spot quickly glanced around to make sure Becca and her friends were out of the way, and pulled out his cane. With that, he shoved Hawk and Bull apart.
Should I jus' take me chances now wit Spot? Bull considered it for a moment. Ahh, why not. And so he lunged at Spot.
"What da …" was all Spot could manage before he felt the full force of Bull crashing into him. Hawk was up as soon as Bull got off him, and lunged at Bull, who was ready for him. Suddenly Bull felt many bodies on top of him, which as soon as he got up, he saw were some of the other newsies. Even Caleb had started to fight, and he hated fighting. Bull looked at some of his friends, who were now feeling the scene. So much fa dem. Aww, who needs 'em anyways?
By now, Spot had gotten up and started throwing punches at Bull, who wasn't ready to give up. Right now I'se only glad far one t'ing, dat awl me boys are helpin' me.
And helping him they were. There were 4 big boys holding Bull back, while Spot was giving him a couple of shiners. "Now," Spot glared at Bull, "get out, and if you evah come back, you won't see da light o' anudda day." Spot motioned for the boys to let go of Bull, and they did.
Next time, Brooklyn, next time. Were Bull's only thoughts as he got out of there as fast as he could. Dose guys will be so sorry dat dey didn't help me, I coulda been da leadah o' Brooklyn in no time at awl. Bull headed to the usual hangout where he and his *friends* hung out.
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