Hey!
I know I just posted one of these, but they are short and I'd
hate to keep the natives waiting. I would like to thank you all for
replying! I would go back to my replies thingy and see who all that
was...but I am KINDA lazy at the moment. I will thank you all later!
Maybe with chapter 4!! THANK YOU GUYS SOOOO MUCH FOR REVIEWING!!!
You made Stretch very happy!

On to Chapter 3!
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He came in with a small bag draped over his shoulder and a faded
brown patch over his left eye. A prop, we all were sure of it. His
blond hair lay matted on his forehead, which I found odd,
considering it was the middle of winter. New Year's, to be exact. He
had been running from something, whether it be enemy newsies, the
bulls, or relatives he was escaping, I will never know.

"A second chance," was all he said to me. He was apparently a newsie
before he came to us. Blind Diamond they called him, but he later
confessed to me his name was Lewis. The "Diamond" part always
confused me, but I never pried. He wanted a new name though, his old
nickname had too much emotional baggage with it and he had always
despised "Lewis". So, for the longest time, none of us knew what to
call him. We would just say, "Hey, kid," if we needed him for
something. Eventually, like all nicknames do, it stuck. Within a few
months the "Blink" part was added, some joke one of the newsies made
about his eye patch.

"He ain't blind, he's just too lazy to blink with that eye," one of
the older boys said one day. Kid simply bowed in a sarcastic and
arrogant way, and soon we had a complete name for the kid. Well, Kid
Blink. He was always joking, and whether or not it was funny to
anyone else didn't matter. We never really knew about his past, what
was really going on with that eye of his, or even what he was
thinking sometimes. One thing was sure though, despite it all he
always had a smile on his face the size of Brooklyn.

He had to smile. What else was there for him to do? He couldn't
think of what had happened to him. He couldn't dwell on the past.
Letting his mind drift back to the days of orphanages and harsh
guardians would have been the end of him. Blink wouldn't be the
happy-go-lucky kid we knew, he'd be a shadow of a human being. Just
drifting by, existing, with his head so full of depressing memories
that the sight of others would make him flinch.

I remember the scars. Most of them had them all over their bodies.
The only times I remember seeing that lost, depressed look in his
eye was when I saw him look at them. Rubbing his dirty hands over
them, as if they still burned angrily on his skin. From the
orphanages, no doubt. Why no one ever shut those damn places down is
beyond me.

Blink was never one to stick around forever. Whether it be a girl, a
group a friends, even a place to stay, he was always changing.
Sooner or later, he longed to see what was beyond the Manhattan
Boy's Lodging House, and past the life of a New York newsboy. The
last thing I asked him was about his first nickname, Blind Diamond.
It had been in the back of my mind for years and if he was leaving,
I might as well ask him before it drove me insane. Kid simply smiled
broadly, lifted the faded brown eye patch to reveal a glazed over,
white-blue left eye.

"They said it looked like a diamond was shoved in my eye. Been like
that since I was born," he said plainly. With one last smile, he
trotted out, once again with the small bag draped over his shoulder,
and still with the faded brown eye patch over his eye.

Another new beginning for Kid Blink. New beginnings mean you cut
ties with the things you've left behind. In Kid's case, it was us.
Needless to say, I never heard from him again. He probably has a new
nickname. I wonder what it is this time. No matter what they call
him now, I am sure of one thing: despite it all, he still has that
smile the size of Brooklyn.
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That's chapter 3!!! I know its been a short time since my last post, but I decided that while I had the day off I would post about Blink. Hope you liked it!!!

Stretch