"Whaddaya mean go to Philly?" Blink asked picking himself up, a look of shock on his face.

"Aww c'mon dere Blinky-boy, don tell me yous nevah though of befoah. If yous has the money, and are still havin the dreams, isn't it obvious what ya havta do?" Mush stated simply.

"Well, I guess dat makes sense."

"A coise it makes sense!" Mush exclaimed proudly. "I thought a it!"

"Right." Blink said rolling his eyes.  "We gotta ask Cap though."

"We can do dat. I mean, he's gotta let us go, right?"

"I don know! When I came here, well, you know what happened." He said uncomfortably, he had become accustomed to the patch over his left eye but he was not yet accustomed to the looks that some people gave him because of it. He felt a sudden fear in his chest. What would Lissy think about it? Would it make her cringe? He sighed once the moment of fear passed. Of course she wouldn't, he thought hopefully.

"Yea, I know. But I mean, he's gotta realize dat you gotta go, or else you mat nevah be getting any sleep." He laughed. Blink laughed half-heartedly.

"Yea, dat's what I'se afraid of."

~*~*~*~

Once they were done selling their papers, the Philadelphia Lodging House girls decided to walk back to what they all now called home. It was still early in the afternoon and had already been walking for a while, mostly in silence, Lashes not talking at all.

"Lashes what's wrong?" Inky finally asked.

"Yea, you haven't said a word since you sold your last pape, what's up?" Singah said. Lashes had a quieter side, but it wasn't usual for her to be quiet for this long.

"Nothing." She replied. Inky and Singah looked at each other, and both rolled their eyes.

"You don't think we know you well enough by now to know when something's wrong?" Inky said.

"And when you are telling a, uh, slight fib?" Singah added. Causing Lashes to give her a warning look. She looked away, sighing. "You know about my brother right?" They nodded. "Well, I've been thinking a lot about him lately." She faltered. "And why he hasn't come back." She looked down. Inky and Singah exchanged glances again, this time concerned. "And I was thinking, since he hasn't come back for me, why can't I go and look for him?"

"Woah there horsie, stop right there. Are you saying that you want to go to New York?" Inky asked wide-eyed.

"I was thinking about it."

"You have to be crazy!" Singah exclaimed. "We got a good thing going here, do you just want to give it up and go to the big city?? And besides, Bottlecap would never let you go! We are only eight you know, he wouldn't dare trust us going alone." She stated simply.

"When did this turn in to an 'us'?" Lashes smiled.

"Well you don't think we would let you go and have all the fun, do ya?" Inky grinned.

"If we could go at all!!" Singah chimed in, trying to be the voice of reason. But it didn't seem that they wanted to be reasoned with, they were already too excited about it. "Fine! Go and ask Bottlecap if ya want to! See what he says, I dare ya." She said noticing that they were both giving her bored looks. Singah giggled, "Ok, ok! I know when to shut up. But I still bet ya."

"I'll take you up on that." Lashes said confidently lifting her chin up. "How much are you willing to lose?"

"A nickel."

"Psh! You are cheeeeap! At least make it worth my time, a dime… at least."

"Alright, ten papes worth a money then, you're on." She said spitting in her hand and holding it out. Lashes followed suit and the shook on it.

~*~*~*~

"Cap?" Blink asked walking up to Manhattan's Lodging Houses leader. "Can I talk to ya for a minute?"

"Sure Kid, what can I do ya for?" He said turning away from the poker game he was playing. "Umm, somewhere else?" Blink asked. Cap looked at him for a moment trying to read his face. "Aight Kid. I will be right back fellas. And don't even be thinking about cheatin." He added with a warning glance at each of the players in turn, his eyes the longest on Race who was known for his gambling and want to win. Once he was done he stood up at walked with Blink to the corner of the Sitting room. "So what's up?"

"I umm…" He started uncomfortably, twisting his hands behind his back. "I was jus wonderin if…"

"Jus spit it out Kid." Cap said.

"I was wonderin if I'se could go back ta Philly and find my sistah." He blurted out, making it all sound like one big word. Cap's eyes widened momentarily, and then he looked like the calm and steady leader again. "Philly eh?"

"Yes, sir." He added the last part on, hoping to curry a little favor with him. Cap frowned. "I don like the sound a that. You an I both know dat New York ain't exactly the safest place in da world. Let alone for a ten year old ta go by himself."

"Well… I wouldn't exactly be goin be my self. Mush said dat he would go wit me too." He gave Cap a hopeful half-smile. Seeing that Cap wasn't being convinced, he knew that he had to tell him. "Look, Cap. I don really wanna take the trip eitha, but I havta. You see, I've been havin these dreams bout home… and I don think dey will go away unless I go back to Philly, and straighten out wat's been botherin me."

"Well what has been bothering you?"

Blink looked at his feet. "I've been havin dreams bout my sistah. I told her I would come back for her, and dat was two yeas ago. I need ta go ta Philly. Please Cap?" He asked looking up.

Cap sighed. He had realized by now that Blink would go whether he had his permission or not, but he figured that the boy would probably prefer to have his permission than not. "Ok, I'll let ya go." Blink grinned broadly. "But." He continued. "Mush is gonna go wit ya, and ya gotta be safe. Don't get bigheaded wit freedom or nuthin like that. If you guys don come back, then I'm out two newsies, and dat's bad for business." That was basically just Cap's way of saying that he didn't want to see them go for good.

"Aight then, we'se can do dat. Thanks Cap." Cap clapped him on the shoulder and Blink turned around to go back up the stairs and pack.

Author's Note: Hey all, thanks for reading, and remember… review!! Hehe, you knew it was coming ;-). Anyways, I am going to be leaving in a few days for a little over a week with no access to a computer, and therefore will not be writing, so sorry in advance for the delay in posting. I will try to get one more chapter up before I leave!! Bye!