*Chapter 14*

"So, you know Spot?" Blink asked as they crossed the bridge, breaking the barrier of silence. Bottle Cap glanced over at him, just now realizing that he didn't know that she was Spot's sister.

"Yeah, I've known him forever." She smiled, her blue eyes studying the handsome boy's face.

"So, yous from Brooklyn, den?" He wandered, still facing forward with his hands stuffed into his pockets.

"No, don't think I've ever been here, actually." She answered, trying to think if she had been there in her fanfic. "Oh, yeah. Once, but that was a long, long time ago." She remembered, only able to hope she was thinking of the right fiction, seeing as how she had started many.

"Oh." Blink responded as they neared the pier where tall, muscular newsboys swam and lounged. "Dese guys can be rough, jus' ignore dem an' go straight ta Spot." Blink instructed softly as curious eyes studied the strange young girl.

"What a ya got deah, Blink?" A dark blonde haired boy asked as Bottle Cap glanced around cautiously. His tan, muscular body glistened in the sunlight as he pulled himself out of the water. His dark blue eyes locked with Bottle Cap's in an instant.

"Bottle Cap, she's da new newsie." Blink spit shook with the tall character. "You know wheah Spot is?"

"His perch, wheah else?" The boy smiled as he let them by. He winked at the blushing girl as they passed by, watching her lips form a shy smile.

"How's it rollin', Blink?" Spot inquired as he hopped down, not seeing his sister behind his friend.

"Fine, just brought ya a visitah." Blink carried out the routine greeting as Bottle Cap took in her surroundings. She was actually there, in Brooklyn! It was so captivating to just watch the boys swim and laugh, just like in the movie.

"Caps, what a ya doin' heah?" Spot smiled at his preoccupied guest.

"Hmm?" She faced him, hearing her name. "Oh! I just need to talk to you for a minute."

"Awright." He shrugged, waving Blink away nonchalantly. Blink faded into the crowd, starting a conversation with the boy they had just spoken to.

"Why does Spin hate me?" Bottle Cap asked right away, not even thinking about the words tumbling out of her mouth. Spot grinned.

"Spin hates ya?" He mused, "Join da club."

"I'm serious." Bottle Cap put her hand on her hip, suddenly feeling as though she was in the right century with the right people and had never heard of 2002.

"Well, she's ya sistah fa one thing." Spot shrugged, studying his slingshot.

"What are you talking about? We don't have a sister." Bottle Cap made a skeptical face. Her character did NOT have a sister, that much she remembered.

"Yeah, she's ya twin. Aftah she was boin, pop sent 'er away." Spot avoided eye contact. "We didn't tawk 'bout 'er evah. I hate 'er an' so should you."

"Why? She couldn't have done anything that horrible, Spot. She was just a baby." Bottle Cap scoured her mind for some explanation for all these unexpected twists in the story.

"She killed ma." He said flatly, now making certain that the girl's eyes were focused on his, "If she weren't boin, Ma'd still be alive an' pop wouldn't a gone crazy."

"But..." Bottle Cap's mouth went dry, "How? How did she? It doesn't make any..." Her sentence's flowed out in fragments. At least now she had more ideas for the story she had been writing, but she didn't know if she'd ever get a chance to finish it anyway.

"It was a difficult boith, pop said. She came out easy but somethin' went wrong. She came out upside down or somethin'. I don't remembah." He finished, aiming his slingshot at a hanging lamp on a boat. He shot and hit the target, causing the worker to curse loudly.

"Well, she hates me." Bottle Cap said again, then became animated, "Why does she hate me? She doesn't even know me."

"Because she didn't know you existed eithah. I tol' 'er, an' anything I say, she hates. It's da way it is." Spot glared over Bottle Cap's shoulder at the boys staring at Bottle Cap, laughing.

"I'm gonna talk to her." Bottle Cap determined.

"Good luck." Spot smirked, "Blink, Dibs, come ovah heah." He called. Bottle Cap's eyes went wide. Dibs? It was her own made up character! This whole thing was just getting better and better!