Everyone in the room turned to stare at the door where Itey stood with a short blond girl dressed in attire similar to the other girls'. She wore a pair of somewhat tight blue jeans and a dark brown ruffled tank top that showed of her slight tan. This newest girl was oblivious to the others' presence until Jill1 yelled her name. Her eyes widened in disbelief and all that could be heard was a less-than-soft "Damn" from her lips.
"What the Hell are you doing here?" Both girls asked incredulously of the other. Jill1 seethed.
"Y'know, it's one thing to have my best friends here, but another thing entirely when my sister shows up!" she exclaimed. Ivy snorted.
"You think I like it any better?" she asked, moving towards her sister. No one else in the room had moved a muscle since she'd come in the door. That is, until Jill2 and Luna burst into giggles. The sisters glared at them
"I'm sorry you guys," Jill2 gasped out, "but you look so funny!" She was overcome by a fresh bout of giggles. The sisters looked at each other, and started laughing as well. Several newsboys sighed in the obviously released tension. The crowd parted as Ivy made her way back to her sister, dragging along a rather shocked and surprised Itey. As they reached the group, Snitch took his friend off of her hands and turned to watch the proceedings.
**********
Racetrack also leaned back to observe these strange young women. Jill, the first one, the one with the sister, was an interesting girl. Her dark blond hair was as short, if not shorter than some of the boys' and she was obviously dressed in men's clothing. This had shocked him at first, but he took it with a grain of salt, as he did most everything. When she'd started to teach him the new game, Spit, he'd been intrigued. There wasn't a card game around that he didn't know, though good old Poker was his favorite. Except, she'd gotten one up on him. He honestly didn't know that game, and he was puzzled.
Then, those other two girls had come in. Jill and KatieLuna, or something like that. The redhead was a confusing one. Dressed in strange trousers and what looked like a loose men's undershirt, she'd been called Luna by the first Jill, but then they'd said her name was Katie… Race let the matter drop, focusing on the second girl.
This girl was taller than the other two, and she also wore the same kind of trousers the redhead had. Her shirt, however, was slightly smaller and tighter, emphasizing her figure, which was by no means large but also not so thin as the others. She seemed…well-muscled sounded right. And her name! It was slightly unusual for these two friends to have the same name, and such an uncommon one at that.
They'd cheered on the first Jill during Race's first game of Spit. Hell, they'd even cheered on Race. It was nice to have someone actually cheering him on in a game, instead of jabbin' at him for cheating.
They'd been about to teach him another card game, Egyptian Rat Something, when Itey'd walked in. That had caused the most interesting reaction out of his teacher. When she'd yelled about sisters, Race knew his weren't the only eyes to bug out. Those two, sisters?!? It didn't even look possible. Not those two.
The newest girl's name was Ivy. She was shorter than the others by a good several inches. Her hair was really blond, more golden yellow than the second Jill's. She also was wearing the odd looking trousers, and some kind of shirt that showed more skin than half of the hookers in the city did. However, no one really seemed to be noticing it. Except perhaps Itey, but the boy was in shock as it was, so he couldn't be blamed.
Now it seemed as though the siblings were about to have a little chat, and they were coming to sit next to him. He moved a bit to the side so they'd have room.
"Ives, this is Racetrack, Mush, Kid Blink, Boots, and Snitch." Jill pointed to each Newsie accordingly as his name was said. The boys nodded greetings. "Guys, this is my sister Ivy."
"Who's older?" It was Blink who voiced that question. Jill scowled. Ivy beamed.
"Me," Ivy declared, grinning.
"By a lousy minute and a frickin' half," Jill stated, her scowl lightening with humor, as if this were an old joke. Race found himself wondering when they were gonna finish teaching him the game, and voiced his opinion to the crowd.
"Ehy, when ah ya gonna finish teachin me da game?" Jill-the-sister grinned sheepishly.
"Uh, right now?" Ivy, Jill-without-the-sister, and Luna all sighed in unison.
"What ah ya teachin' 'im?" It seemed that Itey had finally returned to the world of the living.
Jill smiled again. "Egyptian Rat Screw," she stated simply.
Ivy's eyes lit up. "Sweet! Can I help?"
"Shoah," Race said, hoping to prevent any further family problems. Ivy joined in the game, and she ended up owning on everyone. Including Racetrack. Especially Racetrack. After the game the subject of the girls' lodging was brought up.
"Well," said Mr. Kloppman, who had been watching the whole evening, "I guess they can stay here. I've got an extra room with room enough for you young ladies." And there was much rejoicing.
***************
That evening, the girls settled down into their room for some 'girl talk.' Jill1 was rather intrigued to hear how her friends had arrived in this time. Big Jill (Jill2) was first.
"Well," she said, "Luna and I arrived at the same place, some street corner somewhere. As soon as we got here, we ran into, quite literally, Jack and Mush. It was odd though. It seemed like we'd been purposely put there to be run into by those guys. And let me tell you, Mush has one fine set of abs." She winked and laughed with the other girls.
"Well, I don't know about you, but that Cowboy would look mighty fine on a horse," Luna quietly declared. This caused even more laughter.
"Something kinda like that happened to me too," Ivy said. "I was heading over with Heather to get the car and then I was here and being run into by Itey. Not that I objected much, mind you, but I still wonder why."
Jill related her own story, and the girls sat in thought for a moment. Then Jill said, "I wish I could check my email. The email, the email, what what, the email." Ivy grinned.
"Welcome to Home Star Runner dot net," she said in a somewhat silly voice. The she whispered, "It's dot com." Back to the silly voice, "Oh, right. Welcome to Home Star Runner dot net. It's dot com!" Big Jill spoke next.
"And the Trogdor comes in the NIGHT!"(1) "Night" was rather high pitched, and it seemed like there was some suspicious thumping from the other side of the door. Little Jill (Jill1) raised her eyebrow at her friends, shifting her eyes significantly toward the closed door. The other girls nodded.
They rose quietly and crept to the door. With a flourish of sorts, Luna flung the door open, sending quite a few newsboys tumbling to the ground. The girls looked on with amusement as Race, Snitch, Mush, Jack, Snipeshooter, Itey, and Dutchy attempted to untangle themselves.
"Whaddya do that foah?" Race exclaimed. Little Jill sighed.
"Let's just suffice it to say that we don't appreciate you boys dropping any eaves on us," she said with a slight roll of her eyes. The boys just looked a bit puzzled.
"Whatcha use so many woids foah?" Snipeshooter asked. Little Jill shrugged.
"Because I can, mostly. I know what they are, and if anyone around me doesn't, well, that's their problem." The other girls rolled their eyes and nodded behind her back, indicating that this was indeed the case.
"Anyway," Ivy said, clearing the somewhat glazed looks from the boys' faces, "what were you doing outside our door at this time of night?" Realizing the implications of her words, most of the boys, Snipes especially, blushed and lowered their eyes to the ground. Racetrack, however, was one of the few who didn't.
"We'se heah to collect yoah rent foah da night," he explained while winking at them. The girls just smiled slightly at his attitude.
"How about you give us a few minutes to organize things a bit here, and tell Kloppman we'll be down to pay the rent," Luna intervened while beginning to shoo the boys out the door. A pleading look from Jack almost stopped her, but she knew she couldn't fall that fast. It just wasn't possible. Not after what happened before.
*************
Mush waited only partially patiently outside of the door to the girls' room. He really wanted to see Jill again, the one he had found. At least, that's how it felt to him. That she was his, because he'd found her.
It was several minutes before the girls emerged from their room. They were still talking in low voices that Mush couldn't hear over the low hum of the rest of the Lodging House. It was almost like something was refraining him from hearing that conversation.
Finally, the girls approached Kloppman and Jill, his Jill, pulled a rather shiny quarter from her pocket and placed it on the desk. Racetrack was immediately over, peering at the coin. Mush walked over as well, to look at the coin as well as to be closer to her. Mush also realize that, internally at least, he was starting to sound like an obsessive stalker, and that wasn't a good thing.
The quarter, once he turned his attention to it, turned out to be rather interesting. For one thing, it was too…new. Too shiny. And the design on it was different, it looked far too crisp. The coin was soon flipped to the "tails" side, and that was really different. There was no way this was a normal quarter. Across the top it read "New York" and beneath that "1788" with stars rounding about half of the rim. A relief of New York state and an over-image of Lady Liberty graced the coin, as well as the words "Gateway to Freedom." The most unnerving thing to Mush, though, was the year at the bottom. 2001…
(1) In order to get this, all you need to do is go to and just look around. Read the Strong Bad emails. Probably the best part of the whole site. ^_^
A/N: Well, here's part 3. Yes, I was staring at a New York state quarter when I wrote that section. This is the fastest I have ever gotten anything out, probably because I have 2 sisters and 2 friend nagging at me to write. -_-;; They're my sounding boards, the people I run these wonderful ideas past before they even make it to the paper. I 3 you guys!
Disclaimer: Okay, this is the last disclaimer I'm posting, unless I get some cute ideas for a disclaimer. ^_^;; I own the ladies, or rather, they own themselves. The boys all belong to Disney. I'm just playing with them for a bit; I'll put them back when I'm done.
Shout outs:
Sami: I'm glad you like this enough to keep reviewing! You get the Most Consistent Reviewer Award! ^_^ Yes, we're an interesting bunch, aren't we? You'll see a lot more of our odd hijinks to come in future chapters.
Luna: Hi honey. I was debating giving you a section here, but then I figured that Sami'd be lonely. ^_^;; You probably won't even read this, because you'll make me read you the next part over the phone too. -_-
