"Kris!!!!!! We're not in your room!! Kris!!!" yelled Rachel as she looked around the room. She saw a group of boys standing over her. "Ooh hello there!" Damn, he's cute! Ok, what was I saying earlier?
Kris ran over to Rachel. "Rach, I can explain… well you see Mush is a…" Oh no… I hate it when Rachel gets all boy-crazy. Kris suddenly had a flashback of Emily. Emily was like that too…boy-crazy…
"Well explain all these cute guys," Rachel whispered to Kris. Oh I like that one and ohh! Hey, these guys look familiar!
"Kris? Is that you? You're back with Mush… In his arms…" said the boy with the eye-patch.
"Blink! Hi… It's not what you think… um… you see…" Kris tried to explain. She turned around finding the rest of the newsies looking at her in amazement. "Hiya boys, long time no see. How's the track, Race?" She casually waved at Race who was looking very stunned seeing her there.
"Kid Blink? Race? Kris… you're not telling me something… these guys look like the guys from…" Rachel tried to remember where they were from. Slowly, the room started to get blurry and her vision didn't become clear.
"Rach… Rach… stop fooling around! You dork!" Kris said laughing. She's doing it again. Always pretending she's hurt to get the guy's attention.
"Uh... Kris... I don't think she's faking it." Jack came over and felt Rachel's forehead. "She's feeling a little hot…"
Rachel's eyes rolled up and she went back to sleep. Her head fell on the pillows and she started snoring. All of the newsies had gathered around to see what had happened. Jack was crouching near Rachel, looking very concerned. Race was sitting on the edge of his bed still staring at Kris. Blink, however, was trying to wake up Mush. Right then, Kloppman came walking in the room, unaware of what happened.
"Alright boys! Time to wake up… or it looks like you don't need waking up today. What's going on?" Kloppman walked around to see that almost all of the newsies were gathered around a single bunk, which had a girl. But that wasn't what caught his eye; it was a tall girl standing across the bed. "Kris? Is that you?"
"I've been getting that a lot today… " Kris smiled and hugged Kloppman. "It's so great to finally see you again!"
"Hey! How come I don't get a hug?" It was Race. "I can't believe my eyes… you're here!" Race walked over to Kris as they hugged each other. For a moment, everything was cheerful until Kris realized that her friend was lying in a bed, hot with fever. Kris let go of Race and looked at Rachel.
"Kris… its glad to see you again, but who's she?" Blink walked up to her and pointed at Rachel. "Is she your friend?"
But before Kris could say anything, she felt two arms come around her and wrap around her waist. "Hey." Mush smiled. I'm so glad you're here… He finally realized that everyone was awake, not only that, but Rachel didn't look very good. "What happened to Rachel?"
"You know her?" Kid Blink eyed Mush suspiciously. "What happened last night?"
The other newsies finally lost interest. They were either dressing up or walking to the bathroom. Mush, Blink, Jack, and Race stayed where they are.
Kloppman walked over to Jack and whispered, "Can you take care of things here right now? I gotta go downstairs and take care of things." Jack nodded as Kloppman headed downstairs.
"So Krissie… it's been a while… what brings you here?" Kris heard Crutchy come towards her. He looked the same, except for the big grin on his face.
"Um… do you guys still believe that I'm from the future?" asked Kris. She looked at each newsie to see if they were listening to her.
"Oh, so you're still sticking to that story?" Jack chuckled.
"Um… I…" Help me out here Mush!
"She's telling the truth!" Mush shouted. "You see, I couldn't sleep yesterday night so I went outside and took a walk. Then, there was this building I never saw before so I decided to go inside. Before I knew it, I wasn't in New York anymore. So I asked her… Rachel… where I was and she took me to Kris' house. Then…" Mush looked at Kris. Ah, I'll just skip that part… "I woke up here!"
"And that's what really happened!" Kris chirped in.
"So her name's Rachel?" Blink asked.
"Yah… she's been my friend since…" Kris suddenly stopped talking. Why do you want to know if what Rach's name is? She suddenly heard a loud banging and shouting from outside. Everyone ran towards the window to see what the commotion was all about.
"It's Spot!" Jack shouted. He quickly ran downstairs to open the door for him. Boots, Specs, and Skittery ran down with Jack to see what was happening.
"What's all the Brooklyn newsies doing here?" asked Race. "It looks like they're gonna have a parade or something… and they all look… dirtier than usual…"
Kris looked outside and saw a group of angry boys standing behind Spot and Jack who seemed to be discussing something. Even though the newsies always looked dirty, there was something different. Their clothes were covered with ash and dust.
"I wonder what happened… I'm going downstairs to see, any of you wanna come?" Crutchy asked. He was halfway through the room while Race and Blink went to catch up with Crutchy.
"I'll stay here… I'll meet you guys later," said Mush. He turned towards Kris and looked at her eyes. She looks so damn beautiful…just like I remember her… Mush looked at Kris, as if asking for permission, he leaned to kiss her, but before he could reach her lips, Kris pulled away and sat down. "Don't start nothing here, Mush!" she laughed.
"I'm not starting anything!" He chuckled, "It's just that I've always dreamt you'd be here… and you are!"
"Sure she is! You blind or something?" Mush turned around to see a boy walking through the door, wearing plaid shirt, brown pants with suspenders, and holding what seemed to be a walking stick. He looked just like himself, except that he was covered with dirt. Half his face was smudged with ash.
"Hey Spot! What happened? You look all dirty…" Mush walked over to Spot and shook his hand.
"You got that right. Dirty. Somebody burned down our lodging house! Who would've think? There we were sleeping in our beds, when we suddenly smell fire. All we could do was run out the fire escape. Half the building was gone by then. Now we got no place to go!" shouted Spot. He looked angrier than ever. His face was firm and his eyes pierced through whatever he was looking.
"Maybe some of your boys can stay here for a while 'till you find a place?" Jack answered. He was standing by the doorway right after Spot walked in.
"That'd be great, Kelly! Just as long as your boys don't start anything!"
Geez! Who does he think he is?! Stupid, arrogant, dirty… " 'Course they won't start anything? What'd you think we are?" Kris shouted. Mush and Jack looked taken aback with what Kris had just said. Nobody talked to Spot like that!
"Well, what do we have here? A girl?" Spot walked towards where Kris was sitting.
"Yah, I'm a girl. A girl with a name. Kris." Gosh I hate it when people call me girl, I have a name you know! How'd you like it if I called you boy all the time? Oh well…its Spot I'll get over it…She stood up, which was very interesting since Spot was shorter than Kris.
"A TALL girl… wait, so you're Kris?" Spot's eyes widened. He took a step back and looked at her from head to toe. "You're that girl Mush keeps on talking about!"
Mush ran towards Kris and stood in between Kris and Spot. "Sorry Spot, this here's Kris."
"Well, it looks like I finally met the famous Kris! You're the one who sang and danced at Medda's party weren't you? That was great!" Spot smiled and looked at Kris. Mush looked at Kris. She looked very uncomfortable. She was looking down on the ground and was hiding behind Mush. Mush coughed and eyed Spot giving him a look saying don't you dare…
"So who's this?" Spot moved towards the bed where Rachel was sleeping. She was still sleeping soundly.
"That's Rachel. Kris' friend," answered Jack. Kris looked at Spot who was carefully studying Rachel. "Look, we gotta sell papes today… you coming Mush? Kris? Spot?"
Kris walked over to Jack and whispered, "But what about Rachel? I can't leave her alone! What if she wakes up?"
"I'll stay here with her. I need to rest anyways…" Spot answered.
Sure, listen in on our conversation… "But-" Jack nudged Kris to stop her from talking.
"Sure, Spot. You're in charge of Rachel for today."
"Are you sure about that?" Kris whispered even quieter so that Spot wouldn't hear her. Spot better be a good boy…No touchy touchy! I'd kill you if you did anything to my friend…
"Listen Kris, I know Spot when it comes to girls. He won't let anything happen to her, don't worry." Jack patted Kris on the shoulder. "Now let's sell some papes alrite?" Mush and Kris nodded.
***
Wow… she looks so beautiful… Sure, I've met a lot of girls, but she's different… I can feel it… Spot was sitting on a different bunk bed, which was right next to Rachel's. He had finally cleaned up. There wasn't a bit of ash or dust on him. Spot looked at Rachel who was sleeping peacefully. Suddenly, her eyes started to move until it was open. She was finally wide-awake. She looked around the room and saw Spot.
"Who are you?! Where's everybody? Where's Kris? KRIS!!!" Rachel shouted. She started panicking and looked like she was going to cry.
Spot was alarmed and quickly ran over to her bed. He quickly put his hand over her mouth so she would stop screaming. "Stop! All of New York's gonna hear you! Don't worry about Kris… I… I'm Spot."