*Chapter 6*

"Heya,Tip." Racetrack puffed his cigar, "Welcome to da party." He greeted sarcastically as Jack and Chipper watched Bottle Cap stare as if she'd seen a ghost.

"What's da mattah wit' 'er now?" Dragonfly whispered to Race, tightening her grip on his arm.

"Ow! Ya hoitin' me." Race informed her before she loosened her death grip. Tipsy noted that the strange girl was awake and smiled.

"Heya, I'm T..." She began cheerfully, but was cut off.

"Tipsy! Oh my stinkin' word, Jessica! How did you get here?" Bottle Cap exclaimed, excited that her friend had come, too. She was expecting a nice, warm welcome but she received a terrified look instead.

"Do...do I know you?" She asked carefully, studying the girl's brightened face.

"Pro'lly not, Tip." Chipper answered. "She knew perdy much all our names. We just don't know how." That was when it hit her, like a two-ton brick. She had to stop acting like she knew them and start pretending she was in the right universe. She was clearly scaring them, and that wasn't what she'd wanted at all.

"Okay, okay." Bottle Cap frowned suddenly, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "None of ya know me. I just heard ya talkin' when I was layin' there, but I sort of thought I was dreaming." She shrugged. Everyone was silent for a minute. Bottle Cap was beginning to worry, until Blink busted out laughing. Obviously, the laughter was contagious because it spread throughout the room almost instantaneously.

"Dat was great, Caps." Jack announced, "Ya really had us goin'." It was even better than Bottle Cap could have planned! It was as if she'd known them forever, and she had, just in a different...world.

*

"Git up, git up! Sell da papes!" Came the ever-so-familiar wake-up call, wafting into Bottle Cap's ears. She smiled at the sound of it, because it meant she wasn't waking up in 2002, she was waking up in 1899...again. She got out of bed and quickly got ready, trying not to be in anybody's way.

"Dat's my cigar. You'll steal anuddah. Hey bummahs, we got woik ta do." She sang quietly as she waited for Blink.

"Whata ya singin'?" Mush asked as he was passing.

"Um...just a song I like." She smiled sweetly and he returned it before heading down the stairs. It was different than the movie, though. They weren't singing or dancing, they were yawning and tripping over dirty clothes.

"Davey sellin' taday?" Jack asked Tipsy as he tied a red bandana around his neck.

"Yep. Les is sick, though." She placed her dark brown cabbie hat on top of her shiny blonde hair. Bottle Cap smiled, wondering what Jessica was doing back in 2002. Then, she began to wonder what she was doing back in 2002. She hadn't even thought of it until that precise moment.

"You sellin' wit' me?" Her thoughts were put to an end by Kid Blink's question. She could only nod, still in shock that she was actually able to be next to him, in real life. They headed down the stairs and out the door to the Distribution Office, Katie looking around with wide eyes at the scene before her.

"Who's dis, Blink?" A tall girl walked up along side them down the dusty cobblestone street. Her brown hair was beautiful, the way it was so curly, and it was pulled back partially, revealing a scar. Her eyes seemed green in the sunlight but Katie was unsure, seeing how they also held gray and blue shades.

"Dis heah's our newest newsie, BC. Su'prised you ain't hoid 'bout 'er yet." Blink smiled at Katie fondly. "She made quite an entrance."

"Bottle Cap, actually. And you are?" She was absolutely dying to know who this astonishing girl was. For some reason, she felt as though she'd known her forever. The question was, would she know Katie?

"Bottle Cap?" The girl practically shreeked. "Oh my God! Dis ain't funny Blink." She glared at Blink as though he had made it up.

"What ain't?" Blink looked right back, confused. Finally, somebody who knew her, but who? She didn't know yet.