A/N: Wow, this was fun! And I would like to thank everyone that I bounced ideas off of, especially Rachel. You are wonderful Rachel!
BTW, *Spaz gets out a trumpet, and tries to play that "dun da da dun!" tune, before Pyro pulls it away from her*
Pyro: Bob will be mad if you use his trumpet without asking!!!
Spaz: But I didn't get to finish making my announcement!
Pyro: Then say it, but no trumpet
Spaz: CHAPTER BY SPAZ!
Pyro: Are you done now?
Spaz: Yes, thank you.

***

Chapter 4:

The bell on the door announced their arrival at the restaurant, but no one paid any attention to the door. Since Tibby's was pretty full, the door kept opening and closing every minute or so. There was a big group of young men near the front of the restaurant, all laughing and joking, but mainly everyone's attention was on a brown haired guy that had a red bandanna tied around his neck, sitting with his back to the door.
Eight noticed him, and a sparkle went into her eyes, and a mischievous grin appeared on her face. As the three of them walked closer to the table, they could hear him proclaim, "Yeah, but I told her off. She won't try messing with me again, I yelled at her pretty good!"
Eight unhooked the hat string from around her neck, pulling the black cowboy hat off of her, and replacing it with her purple one. Then she turned the black hat in her hand, and plopped it onto the guy's head, and announced, "Yeah, he yelled at me good, just like this... AUUUGGGGHHHHHH!" She screamed in a tone that sounded more frightened than angry.

"Then he ran away, leaving his hat behind." Spaz added with a giggle that Pyro joined in on, before the three of them passed by the group of astonished newsies on their way to a table in the corner.
As soon as they sat down, Pyro happened to notice the candle burning in the middle of the table.

"Ohhhhh!" she said in awe, as she started brushing her finger back and forth through the flame.

"Wait until after we order!" Eight instructed as she smacked Pyro's hand down, which put out the flame.

"Awwww!" Pyro pouted, before she pulled a match out of her pocket, and re-lit the candle, staring at it longingly before turning back to the menu.

A middle-aged waiter appeared at their table and asked them, "Are you ready to order?"

"Um. we're gonna need an extra pitcher of water at the table..." Spaz told him.

He raised his eyebrows in question, but jotted it down.

After he was on his way to the kitchen with their order, one of the newsies came sauntering over to the table. He plopped himself down in the empty chair next to Spaz, and nodded at them in a greeting. "Good evening ladies, name's Racetrack."

"...Hey." Spaz said, after she realized that the other two weren't going to speak to him.

"So, uh, what were you'se doin in Medda's place?" He tried to ask casually

"I play the clarinet!" Pyro informed him happily, before looking back down at her own, personal flame.

"Well, smart one, I sold you your ticket this afternoon." Eight smirked at him.

"I'm the new stage hand. Do you have any idea how heavy those curtains are?" she asked him while she rubbed her shoulder to try and ease the stiffness.

"Oh! You'se all work for Medda. But I wanna know why you'se were wakin' cowboy up?" He wanted to know.

"Cowboy?" Eight asked with a giggle, "His name is Cowboy?"

Racetrack confirmed it with a nod, and Eight burst out laughing so hard that she doubled over, and fell off of her chair, and ended up rolling around on the floor, rocking back and forth with laughter.

"He's not a cowboy!… He wouldn't last 10 minutes out west with the real cowboys!" she managed to get out between gasps and giggles. She stops laughing suddenly, takes a deep breath, stands up, brushes herself off, and sits back down, with a serious expression on her face.

"What I wanna know, is why he was in our room." She informed him.

"Dat's your room?" he asked with surprise. "He didn't tell us dat!"

"You really should talk to him about his side of the story." Pyro said, without looking up from her flame, since she was adding little bits of paper to it.

"Yup!" Spaz confirmed with a grin, as he got up and went back to his table.

Spaz took a sip of her water, just as a flaming piece of paper fell off of the candle, and onto the newspaper that Katie was ripping up to feed the flame with.

Spaz quickly spit a stream of water from her mouth, onto the flaming paper, just as the waiter came back with a tray loaded with their food, and pitcher of water.

Their meal passed quickly, with no other major mishaps, except for when they had to try and discourage Pyro from trying to make her leftovers "crispy"

"We have until nine, when the next show starts. We need something to do." Eight told them.

"Ohhh, I wanna go on a treasure hunt!" Spaz enthused before she jumped out of her seat, and started for the door. Looking at each other and shrugging, Eight and Pyro followed.

When she had walked halfway across the restaurant, she spied Kid Blink on the other side of the room. Hurrying over, she tapped him on the shoulder, and asked him, "Are you a pirate?"

Suppressing a laugh, he answered, "Only if you want me to be!"

"Good, good. What's your name?" she asked him.

"Kid Blink" he told her "Or just Blink, dat works too!"

"Alright, Captain Blink, where's your first mate?"

"Dat would be Mush here." He said, clapping the guy to his right on the shoulder.

"Alright, you guys follow me!" she ordered, as she spun on her heel, and started for the door. Before she got there, she randomly grabbed Dutchy, who was watching them with a stunned expression, and pulled him to his feet.

With her eyes shining, she clapped her hands excitedly, and announced, "You can swab the poop deck!" before she linked arms with him, and skipped out the door.

Blink and Mush were oddly intrigued enough to follow her, and when they were joined by Eight and Pyro, Spaz instructed Blink, "Lead us to your buried treasure, you scurvy dog!" She put her arm around Dutchy's shoulders, and threatened, "Or I'll make him walk the plank!"

With a laugh, Blink saluted to her and said, "Aye aye, matey!" and he turned, and marched off down the street.

They made their way down the street, in the direction of central park, and Spaz, looking at Dutchy, slipped her arm in his and told him, "Don't even think of getting away!"

"Don't worry, I wouldn't want you, or your friends chasing after me!" Dutchy said with a mock shudder.

Kid Blink… Or rather, Captain Blink led them down one street after another, until they got to the edge of central park. They all walked in silence for a few minutes, until Blink stopped, and turned around to face them.

"It's very dangerous up ahead" Blink informed them. "Watch where you step, dere's traps."

Spaz patted Dutchy on the arm that was still linked in hers, and told him, "It's ok, I will protect you.

He grinned, but didn't answer her, as he held a branch back for her walk around.

Eight looked at Pyro, her eyebrows raised "Right, like we're gonna fall for…. AAAUUUGGGHHHH!!!"

"Great, she didn't see the lightning sand." Mush said, shaking his head, before he leaned over the place she fell, and reached in. He pulled her out by the arm, and helped brush the sand off of her.

"Come on, lets keep going." Blink instructed, as they carefully walked around the now revealed lightning sand.

They made their way through the underbrush, and reached a small clearing. Suddenly, they heard rustling in the bushes, and a large furry form leaps out of the bushes, and runs at them.

"It's an R.O.U.S.!" Pyro screamed, as they scattered to climb into the low branches of the closest tree.

The giant ball of fur hurled itself at Dutchy, and Spaz, remembering her earlier promise, jumped in front of him, and she took the force of the attack. She was shoved backwards into Dutchy, who fell backwards too, and Spaz, tried to keep the beast off of her, unsuccessfully, since it had knocked Spaz onto her back, and was sitting on her stomach. It's jaws snapped, and then it lunged for her face, and Spaz thought it was the end of her before she realized that it was licking her.

"Ewww, dog breath!" She muttered, pushing the shaggy stray dog off of her, and getting to her feet.

"I thought you were a goner for sure!" Pyro gushed at her.

"We'll never survive!" Eight stated, shaking her head.

"Nonsense!" Blink denied. "What are the three terrors of central park? That was R.O.U.S. Well, Rufus our uber stray. We know what lightning sand looks like, so we can avoid that in the future too!"

"What about the flame spurts?" Eight asked him.

Blink shook his head, "Flame Spurts? I have been all over this park, and I don't think they exist…"

His words were cut off by a loud popping sound and the sight of a large flame appearing right in front of Pyro.

When the flame died away, they all rushed forward to see if she was ok.

"Did you know that spider webs are flammable!" Pyro informed them excitedly, putting her lighter back in her pocket.

"No flame spurts then?" Mush asked with a sigh of relief.

"No, and the treasure is right around that bend!" Blink told them.

They all cheered, and skipped around the corner, and stopped dead in their tracks.

"Ohhhh, pretty!" Eight commented, looking around the little hidden sanctuary in the grove of trees.

There was a curtain from the willow tree branches, almost all the way around this little secluded spot. There was a tree stump, and a fallen log to sit on, and kelly green grass carpeting the floor. On one side, there was a lazy stream that could only be a foot or two deep. The water bubbled over smooth rocks, and gurgled as it went around a tree, and disappeared.

"That's the 'Ragin' Rachel River.' I named it after this girl I know…" Mush said, and sighed, as if he was lost in thought.

"Where's this treasure of yours?" Spaz asked Blink.

"Oh yeah, it's over here." Blink told her, as he walked around to the other side of the tree, and came back out with a polished wooden box that had brass fixtures to make it look like a real treasure. He pulled up the latch of the box, and revealed a stack of books. In there were various classic fairy tales, and a few plays written by Shakespere.

"Ohhhhhhh!" everyone fawned.

Each one of them got a book to read, and settled down in their little oasis to read… at least until Dutchy looked at his watch.

"We better hurry, we gots ta get you girls back to Medda's before the show!" Dutchy said, before grabbing Spaz's hand, and pulled her to her feet. Without bothering to let go of her hand, he pulled her over to the treasure box to put their books away before they started back to the hustle and bustle of the city.