Part 1:

Poison yawned as she heard all the other girls in the room getting up. She rolled over and looked at the line for the bathroom & sighed flopping back. "Cheese it…" she muttered. She climbed down from her top bunk, stepping on Acid.

"Sorry," Poison muttered, yawning again.

"Since when did I become your human stepping stool?" Acid asked irritably, grabbing the ankle that belonged to the foot that had just recently stepped on her. Poison went down with a thud.

"Ow…" she muttered getting up rubbing her butt but making no other comment. She knew whatever comment she made would spark an argument. They didn't need to be fighting right now. Poison had that feeling that

they were going to get some business today.

"I'm thinking of going over to the Brooklyn Lodging House this morning, you interested?" Poison asked Acid. Hades stuck her head out from her blanket a few rows down and answered Poison's question,

"I'll go," she glanced at Poison and smirked a little, "Though I'd suggest you get dressed Poison, I'm sure Spot wouldn't mind, but he might mind his girlfriend being stared at."

Poison glared at her then stole Acid's pillow to throw at Hades.

"Hey!" Acid said sitting up quickly and hitting her head, "Shit, that hurt." She muttered rubbing her head watching as her pillow sailed through the air and smacked Hades. The look on Hades face was precious…for the ten seconds she stayed in bed. After that she was just scary. Poison grinned and after grabbing her clothes off the bed, she headed towards the line of girls waiting for the bathroom. She weaved through the girls and waited outside the doorway for a few moments. She pulled her clothes on before she looked back in the room puzzled. Her heart almost stopped at the site. Hades and Acid were sitting primly on Acid's bed, they were both dressed now…but they had Poison's newspaper bag between them. Poison took a deep breath watching the bag and re-entered the room.

"Put me bag down!" Poison demanded. No one and I mean no one touched her bag, it had all the equipment she needed for distributing poisons.

"You stepped on me * and * you took my pillow," Acid said.

"And you tripped me," Poison retorted.

Acid nodded her affirmative.

"What do you want me ta do ta get me bag back?" She asked sighing slightly and leaning on the doorway. They had things for her to do to get something of specific importance, most of the time she just nicked back. But she wasn't going to take a chance with the bag and they knew it.

"What should we make her do Hades?" Acid asked her eyes sparkling mischievously.

~*~

Poison was * not * happy…in order to get her bag back she had to "break up" with Spot. She was going to get them back, most definitely…though as Poison thought about it some of the things she had made Hades or Acid do had been worse. Poison sighed a little annoyed. Her two shadows Hades and Acid followed making sure she would do what she was supposed to. She was supposed to do it in front of an audience too! Gah! Poison stopped and leaned against a wall taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly trying to think of a way to do this without actually damaging either Spot or her reputation. If she could control the audience…that might work…then she seriously thought about it and sighed. That would never work, not unless they were across the bridge in Queens or Manhattan…though she'd rather the audience be in Queens. She started up walking again towards the lodging house Spot and the others were staying in. She walked into the lobby and leaned on the counter looking to see if she recognized anyone who she could ask if Spot was still here. She glanced behind her and saw Acid was

starting to get impatient. Ah, well… she thought to herself as she headed for the stairs. She was glad that it was late enough that the boys were probably already dressed if not have left. She walked down the hallway till she came to the last door in the back and

knocked.

"Hey guys, is Spot still here?" she asked through the door hoping that he wasn't. Her luck didn't hold as Spot himself opened the door. He smiled when he saw who it was, then kissed her on the cheek.

"I've missed you," he said.

Poison smiled back at him then pushed him a little more into the room and said softly,

"React to what I say but don't believe the words…" She then backed away a little hoping he had heard and understood…well here went nothing…

"Spot…we need to talk," she said slowly hating herself for caring more about her bag then him. But it was half her livelihood.

Spot looked at her curiously unsure of what was going on. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye. That was most assuredly * not * any of the boys lodging here. Either Poison had a tail or they were the reason why he was supposed to react but not think she meant it. This would certainly be interesting. He waited impatiently for her to continue,

"Well?" he finally asked.

Poison closed her eyes took a deep breath and said,

"Ithinkweshouldseeotherpeople"

Spot blinked for a second trying to understand what she had just said and then it hit him.

"What!?! Why?" he asked, obviously angry, "If we were having a problem don't you think you should have said something???" he continued. He saw Poison wince just slightly, She doesn't realize I heard her…poor Poison, wait a minute, it's her own fault…partly…. I mean I'm known as the best liar in all of Brooklyn. I would have thought she would remember that. Apparently not or it was just a little * too * real for her. Spot thought to himself continuing to keep up the act of being confused and angry.

Poison winced just a little, but was glad he was too angry to wave his walking stick around, sometimes when he was ranting he'd poke people with it, that wasn't the most enjoyable sensation. She swallowed, she really hated this…but she had invested so much of her money into her poisons; she had to do this.

"There wasn't a problem exactly…this just isn't working out…" she said proud of herself that she covered her tracks well. She didn't sound upset or anything just like she was having a hard time breaking up with the leader of the Brooklyn newsies. She stiffened her back as if she was gathering her resolve and turned around walking back down the hall leaving Spot staring after her looking none too thrilled to be the one to be walked away from.

"Come back here! We're not through talking about this yet!" he called after her sounding frustrated and angry. Not a good combo…Poison hastened her pace just slightly reaching the stairs and went down a couple steps to where Acid and Hades were waiting.

"My bag," was all she said holding her hand out. Acid and Hades grinned at each other, they loved coming up with challenges for Poison, they were going to have fun seeing her try and repair the damage she had done. Acid passed Poison's bag to her. Poison sat down and

looked through the bag to see if anything was missing or broken. When she was certain they hadn't done anything to it she stood up and swung her bag over her shoulder.

"I'll see you guys after distribution, I need to do some damage control," she said frowning slightly. She watched as Acid and Hades walked downstairs together talking. Then she sighed and sat back down. How * was * she going to do damage control?