Growing up in Manhattan isn't easy; especially at 16, and I should know. My life isn't exactly what you would call easy. My mother is dead, and my father is a drunk. Yay me. Having no brothers or sisters, I have to fend for myself. My father, the most irresponsible person on the planet, doesn't do anything. I have to shop, I have to cook, and I have to do everything. I don't go to school either. I know it's a little old fashioned for 2002, but I can't go, I just can't. When I'm not doing school on the internet, I'm working, to pay for our house, because, like I said, my father doesn't do jack shit. Needless to say, my life is very difficult.
My best friend, Stephanie and I are both extremely obsessed with Newsies. (If anyone doesn't know what Newsies are, then why the hell are you reading this?) Newsies is my escape. Everything about it is just fabulous, and Stephanie and I only regret, we weren't there when it was being made. Unfortunately, we have the dismal result of living here. More so me than her. Her life isn't that bad; two parents, one brother…semi rich you could say. Our favorite thing to do together was watch Newsies. We'd dream about being there, yearning to be next to the ones we love so dearly. We each have a Newsie name…of course, (what kind of fan are you if you don't have one right?) I dubbed myself Charity, and she had become Doll face.
Now, my story begins one night when Stephanie was sleeping at my house. (I wasn't allowed to sleep at others houses…my dads rules not mine! Trust me I would have much rather been there.) It was raining outside, almost hail like, hey you know New York. We were in the process of watching newsies. (Can you believe dat? He he, like blink) any who, I was getting really tired, because I had already watched it once that same day. Stephanie and I decided to go into my bed and talk for a while. Obviously, we discussed Newsies. (If you can't already tell, our life revolved around them.) She was babbling on and on about how she loved Racetrack so much, and I kind of zoned her out. She did that a lot. I was thinking about what life really would be like there. It's the same location, just a little less modern. I needed to be there, I didn't belong here. My thoughts wandered to how different things would be. No modern technology… what on earth was I going to do without my newsies soundtrack?
"Ali, guess what?" Stephanie asked me as I snapped out of my daze.
"Huh? Oh yeah, what?" I replied.
"I was on the net today (big surprise) and I was on a newsies site (another big surprise) and I saw something that showed you how to go back in time." She finished.
"And it showed you how to go back in time" I mocked. "Come on Steph, you don't actually believe that load of shit do ya?" I asked. I thought though, that it would be really nice if it did work.
"Well, it said it only works when it's storming out, and at 10:30 pm." She started. "And, it's stormy out tonight, and its 10:27. What do ya say?" She said. I felt weird talking to her about this, because actually traveling back in time didn't come up too often. It was always dreaming of traveling back in time. I decided to humor myself.
"Alright, let's give it a whirl. What do we do?" I asked.
"Well, we hold hands, and when the clock reads 10:30, we say '1899, Manhattan, newsies' and then boom, we should be there." She said. I gave a small chuckle.
"Ok, what time is it?" I asked. She looked over at the clock.
"10:29. One minute." She said with anxiety in her voice. I wasn't as thrilled, because there was no notion in my head that this would actually work. (Boy was I wrong!)
"Holy mother of god!" I screamed. I was wet, outside, and in pajamas. (pajamas consisted of really short shorts, and a tank top.)
"I told you." Stephanie said standing up, and wiping the mud off her hands.
"Oh my god, it worked?" I said still in disbelief. I reviewed my surroundings. I saw Tibby's, and couldn't believe it. My apartment is right where Tibby's was! Knowing that the lodging house was close to the restaurant, and idea came to my mind.
"Steph, I'm cold how bout you?" I asked. She didn't answer, but considering, she was standing there in about the same thing as me, with her teeth chattering, I knew her answer. "Let's see if this is real, and look for the lodging house." I finished. She nodded her head in agreement.
"Wow, I hope I get to see race, I hope he likes me, I hope he likes me as much as I like him and I hope – "
"Stephanie, enough. We've heard." I said cutting her off. My thoughts trailed off to Skittery, and Blink. (My 2 favorites, it's so hard to choose one of 'em.) If this was real, and it sure seemed it, then I was one lucky person. Sure enough, after walking for a few minutes, we came to a sign that said 'Newsboys Lodging House.' It was obviously 10:30 at least, so we gave a loud bang on the door. (Our goal was to wake EVERYBODY up.)
To my surprise, it wasn't Kloppman that answered the door, but Boots.
"Um, Hi, we're lost, cold and wet. Any chance we might be able to stay here for tonight?" I said. (Stephanie was more the shy type. You could say I was the Jack and she was the Davy.) Boots stared at us for a few moments.. obviously he had never seen girls in so little clothing before.
"Um, hello. Are you alive?" I asked waving a hand in front of his eyes.
"Oh, yeah, stupid me, come in." Boots said helping us in. We were climbing the stairs, and my stomach flipped. I was in the lodging house; Boots was walking in front of me.
"We didn't wake anyone up did we?" I asked innocently.
"Only the whole place. But don't worry, Kloppman won't bite." Boots said. (Not that I expected him to bite.) We approached the 'dorm room' if you will, to all of the newsies (and I mean all of them) sitting on their bunks. Race had even started a game of Poker.
When we entered the room, it went silent. Most of them eyed us, just like Boots had done downstairs, but Itey and Jake just rolled over. (Well, see if I'm nice to them.)
"Wadda ya got there Boots?" Jack said from his bunk… obviously a little agitated from being awoken. Boots gave us another glance, this time it was MUCH shorter.
"I didn't catch their name… but they need a place to sleep tonight." Boots said. Skittery hopped down off his bunk. I was happy to see he still had on those same old pink long johns. He walked towards us. (Needless to say I was thrilled.)
"What are your names?" Skittery asked. Stephanie and I looked at each other, and mouthed 'newsie names.'
"I'm Charity, and this is Doll face." I said motioning to each of us. Skittery nodded.
"I'm Skittery." He said. I did everything in my power not to pounce on him right then. "You goils look cold… want some cloths?" He asked. (Skittery's cloths? DUH of course I want them!)
"Sure." I replied casually. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see someone else walking over. Skittery went over to his bunk, and took his shirt off the post.
"Here, see if ya can bum another off one of da other guys." He said handing me his shirt. By the time I had received Skittery's shirt, that person out of the corner of my eye was clear. Wow, Racetrack was walking this way. Steph would be thrilled. I could tell she saw him coming, because she wasn't breathing very much.
"Hey, who are ya goils?" He asked.
"Oh, I'm Charity, and this here is Doll face." I said again. Race handed Steph a shirt, (his I'm assuming) and turned to face all the other Newsies.
"Hey fellas, dis here is Charity and Doll face." Race announced to the entire lodging house.
"Is there a place where we can get cleaned up?" I asked. (Steph still had yet to say something; I think she was still stunned.)
"Oh yeah, the washroom right ova there." Race pointed to the washroom.
"Thanks." I said. I dragged Steph with me, because I was scared she might not move. While we were in there, we could hear small chatter. I even think our names came up once or twice. When we came out of the washroom, everyone went dead silent and looked directly at us.
"What's everyone starring at?" I asked sort of nonchalantly. I could see Skittery's mouth hanging open. We had brushed our hair, and washed up.
"Wow, you're beautiful." I could hear one of the newsies mumble. Then like a roar of thunder, about half of the newsies came over to us.