I woke the next morning to Kloppman's wake up call. Otherwise known as
pounding on my door, I groaned and rolled over trying not to squash Mimic
as I did. He was still asleep, I had a feeling that a nuke could be
dropped on his head and he wouldn't notice. Wait I doubt any of us would
have the time to notice. Bad analogy, but I'm sure by now you get the
point so I'll stop.
"Mimic," I said softly shaking him. "Mimic."
He rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head. I caught the smile on his lips before he did telling me he was awake, and just being ornery.
"Mimic, you get your butt up right now or you're going to get wet, very wet." I threatened. He just muffled a giggle and didn't move. He didn't believe me, well then I was going to have to show him I meant what I said. It was too warm yet to need the extra blanket provided to me, so I grabbed it from where it lay across the foot of my bed. The boys watched me warily as I limped into the washroom trying not to hiss in pain at my bruised and stiff muscles. I felt like someone had beaten me with a rolling pin, a marble rolling pin at that.
"Damn it Jack." I heard Skittery yell as he stepped from the stalls against the wall with next to nothing on I am assuming. I didn't even look up as I shuffled to the sink and grabbed a tin cup and filled it with water. "she ain't allowed in here."
"No one stated any rules saying I couldn't come in here." I responded groggily noting his lack of dress and smiling ruefully. He blushed even though he had a towel wrapped around all the important parts.
"If ya wanna use the washroom ya gotta do it before or after we do." Jack grumbled sleepily batting off Mush's punches in their morning ritual.
"Funny, you weren't too worried about it when you all came charging up here yesterday to catch a peep at me." I replied.
"That's different," Mush cried as he grabbed the soap from the shelf above the sink.
"How?" I asked turning in the doorway of the washroom.
"It just is." Blink growled as he slammed the door shut. I shrugged too tired and sore to do much other than take the tin cup, pull the pillow away from Mimic and splash it in his face.
"Cameo." He spluttered as he came flying up. I couldn't help laughing at his scowl. His usual curls flattened by the water that was now streaming into his face from his thick hair.
"Mimic, get ready." I responded in a tone that mocked his, he glared at me and scrambled off to do as I told him. I slammed my door shut and set about changing into my only clean set of clothes left. I moved slowly trying as best I could to stretch out the muscles that were currently on strike.
"Cameo." I heard Jack's voice through the door as I finished fastening my pants and tucking in my shirt. "Ya decent?"
"Yeah." I sighed. Were the hell had my hat gotten off to this time? I braided my hair as I looked for it and heard the door creak open.
"Maybe you should stay here today." He said looking me up and down "Ya took a good beatin yesterday."
"Would you stay here?" I snapped when he shook his head I continued "Would you let any of the others stay?"
"No," He replied reluctantly knowing what I was going to say next. I had never once asked for special treatment, I didn't want special treatment. I asked that I be treated the same as anyone else and I tried to carry my share
"Then why are you telling me to stay?" I asked the irritation in my voice rising as I couldn't find my hat.
"Oh never mind." Jack growled as he turned way.
"Jack I appreciate your concern, but if I was stupid enough to get myself beaten up last night I shouldn't be allowed extra privileges." I sighed hating the irritated look on his face. I hadn't meant to start an argument this early in the morning. He nodded and headed to his bunk for his hat. I watched him for a moment and shrugged, well, I had tried to smooth things over. Mimic bounced over wearing my hat, I gave a tired chuckle and pulled it down over his eyes. He giggled as I tickled him, squirming and pushing my hat from his head. I scooped it up and followed the boys who were streaming out the door. I didn't pay much attention as I let Mimic lead the way to the distribution center. What I wouldn't give for a latte or mocha instead of the black coffee without sugar or milk that sat in my stomach like battery acid.
"How ya feelin?" Mush asked as he took the money I handed him for my share of the papers. "Ya look like hell."
"Thanks." I said wryly, Crutchy smiled at me and I gave him a wan smile in return. "I feel fine."
"I'll talk to you at lunch." Crutchy said as he started off in the direction of his selling spot. I didn't respond, I didn't need to, he knew I would be there. I followed Mush and Blink who were both talking animatedly with Race about the fight. I didn't want to remember. I didn't want to think about it, though with every step I remembered. Mush was making me sound like some sappy heroine. I rolled my eyes and smiled as I watched Mimic, well, mimic me. My day passed as others had before it, I sold my papers, giving some to Mush since I wasn't feeling up my usual par. He looked at me worriedly when I handed them to him, but he split them between Mimic and Blink. Crutchy had our usual booth at Tibby's saved and I sat down grateful to be off my feet. I listened as they talked answering when I had to. Lunch ended and I wasn't ready to get up.
"Cameo, why don't ya stay here for a little while with me." Crutchy said as Mush and Blink stood. "My leg's hurtin a little and I think I want to rest it a little longer."
"Okay." I said fingering the gold ID bracelet that had been my mothers. Vivian Maria Giovanni, it had been a present from her father for her sixteenth birthday. I smiled softly as I remembered fingering it on her wrist as she told me stories or sang to me. Her soft brown hair brushing my arm, the smell of her lavender soap filled my nose and I could almost picture her there beside me. I could almost hear her singing, her beautiful voice rich and golden like harp. My mother had never taken the bracelet off until the day she died, she placed it in my hand and told me she loved me.
"Briar are you okay?" I heard Crutchy say. I pulled myself from my thoughts and gave him my attention. I was thankful he had, I didn't want to remember that day. My father had told me once in one of our arguments that I had died that day with her. The only thing that seemed to have brought life into me was the Renaissance Festival and he couldn't begin to understand that.
"I'm fine." I said shakily blinking back the tears from my eyes. It had been five years long past the time to get over it and move on. She wouldn't want me to continue to mourn her, she would want me to live. Unfortunately until I came here I hadn't felt alive, the Renaissance Festival was like a momentary fix. It lasted for a eight weekends then it was over taking with it one of the few joys in my life.
"Who was Vivian?" He asked glancing at the bracelet I fiddled with.
"My mother." I whispered as I fought to get myself under control. Crutchy smiled sympathetically I let him take my wrist and look at the bracelet, my mind still wandering.
"Briar Rose Fitgerald, that's you?" Crutchy looked up at me, I nodded listlessly.
"I named you Briar Rose because when the doctor put you into my arms for the first time you stopped crying and looked at me. You had such beautiful eyes and such black hair you reminded me of a picture I had seen in a fairy tale book I had owned as a child. There was the most beautiful picture of her in her cradle and you looked just like her." I heard her whisper in my mind just as she had so many times when I was a small child. Only a mother would look at a newborn and find her incredibly beautiful. She had given me a soft feminine name, but had raised me to be a strong woman. We had a bond unlike most mother's and daughters. We never went through that bickering stage. She had understood me unlike anyone else I had ever known. Unlike anyone ever would I doubted. She had been wonderful. A woman who was ready to go backpacking in the wilderness for a week or attend a high class dinner party and pull it off with class. She had been one of a kind and I had loved her so very much.
"What are the dates for?" Crutchy asked his voice sounding confused. I wasn't paying attention my mind was still in the past so I answered him truthfully.
"Her birth and death date, my birth date." I told him.
"That's not possible." Crutchy cried. I felt fear slam into me as I realized what I had done , my guts churned, my adrenaline pumping. "The jeweler must have bungled, it says June 28, 1961."
I reached for my masks trying to shrug it off and look shocked, but I could see by his look he didn't buy it. I wasn't quick enough, I could see him struggle with the idea, ready to toss it into the recesses of his mind, because it couldn't be possible, could it? Accepting things was Crutchy's gift and it took him only a moment before he turned to me.
"Tell me the truth Briar." He said softly with a tone that I had never heard. It was stern, it told me he would weed out the truth whether I liked it or not. I panicked I tried to get up from the booth, but Crutchy's leaned across the table and grabbed me first. His hands gripped my arms in a steely grip that shocked me. This wasn't the goofy Cruchy I knew, this was a man, a man with a gaze that saw right through you. So many of the newsies were boys on the brink of manhood, but to see the man in them sometimes made you do a double take. "Ya lie to me and I'm going to question our friendship. I have been honest with you now you be honest with me. The jeweler didn't ruin this did he?"
I shook my head unable to do anything else. He took that in for a moment then nodded a look of disbelief still in his eyes.
"What year were ya born?"
"1983." I whispered compelled to answer truthfully by his force of will. I wanted to lie I tried to lie. I felt the words come to my lips and die there. I couldn't do it. I couldn't lie to him; it bothered me I had always been able to lie on a moments notice. It had become a self- preservation mechanism, a way to keep people from coming too close, to know the real me.
"I don't know whether to believe you or send you packing for the crazy house." He told me releasing my arms and sitting back. "Though it would explain why ya so odd."
We looked at each other for a few minutes, Crutchy gazing into my eyes searching for the truth, me not sure of what to do. He glanced around and saw the other patrons of Tibby's odd looks, sighing he stood and threw a few coins down on the table.
"Let's get outta here." He said starting off as he expected me to follow him. Follow him I did, I didn't have anywhere else to go. My mind raced with a way to make him believe that it was a mistake that I had been born here. I knew that he would see the lie in my eyes. I found myself in following him up the steps of the lodging house and into the bunkroom. Kloppman never noticed we had come back. He sat with difficult then gestured for me to sit with him.
"So ya from the future," he said, he still didn't quite believe it, but as I sat he continued.
"Yes." I whispered simply not elaborating, but at least answering.
"How did ya get here?" he questioned, his face telling me what he was thinking. This should be good was what was going through his mind. If it wasn't for the bond we had formed since I had come here I was sure he would have written me off as loony right now. It was only our friendship that kept him from walking away.
"A gypsy gave me an amulet." I replied softly clutching the offending piece of jewelry. "Then I don't know. I woke up here."
"Ya woke up here?" he repeated making it a question instead of a statement. I nodded mutely unable to say anything else. Unwilling to hope he would understand, I sighed. I could tell by his eyes he wanted to believe me as my friend he wanted to believe anything I told him.
" How do you think I felt? I woke up here with no knowledge of how I got here. I didn't want to come here and I don't know how to get home." He looked out the window his eyes unfocusing a bit as he did. I waited not knowing what else to do. Finally he just nodded his eyes betrayed his disbelief.
"Alright, I guess I've read harder to believe stories in the World." He said gently. I wished there was some way I could prove it to him. "So what's the future like?"
"You wouldn't like it." I whispered looking away. " A cold place where I do means a year if you're lucky. Where children grow up with parents who marry over and over leaving them lost and confused. Where evil people murder thousands in one foul swoop. Love is dying, happiness is fading, honesty is over rated, and integrity is a thing of the past. Where there are damn few happily ever afters, those that are lucky enough for one usually take it for granted and loose it all. "
" All people can't be that way." Crutchy cried, he had looked at me hopefully.
"No not all are, but those people are becoming a dying breed. We will have comforts that are unimaginable to you, but socially loose so much of what is important." I replied bitterly. "Sometimes I wonder what we all are living for."
"For a chance, a way to find what we want most in our hearts." Crutchy told me with shining eyes that brought hope even into my cynical heart. " We keep hoping that one day the good will bring down the evil."
"Humanity has been fighting itself for centuries, it isn't going to stop in the future." I said as I stood. " I think we both need to think about things." Crutchy nodded and turned toward his bunk to lie down. There wasn't enough time to sell any more papers so I went out onto the fire escape to watch the city below. The day grew later and the boys made their way home, the bunkroom rang with their enthusiasm for life. They looked out at me curiously from time to time, but my expression must have kept them at bay because they never ventured out. I stayed there until the sun had set and the moon was beginning to make its decline down the sky.
"Jack how did you find Briar?" Crutchy's voice floated on the wind toward me. I tuned in wondering if Jack would give him information that would prove my outrageous statements.
"I don't know Snipeshooter stumbled over her. One minute she wasn't there the next she was. We all thought she glowin or somthin, thought maybe she was a ghost. Then it went away, must have been some trick of the street lamp." Jack told from my spot I could see him run a hand through is hair.
"Jack there ain't no streetlamps in the alley way next to Meddas." Crutchy said his voice excited.
"I don't know we must have been seein things." Jack said throwing his cards at Race as he folded.
"I don't know the other night on the way to Brooklyn she did some odd glowing thing." Mush said as he threw a few coins into the pile. "Scared the hell out of us."
I watched as that sunk into Crutchy's mind and the other boys shrugged it off. They returned to their game and Crutchy just thought. Eventually they went to bed, I sat there for a few minutes after lights out then I made my way to my own bed, Mimic asleep there already. I prayed that Crutchy wouldn't treat me any differently as I drifted off to sleep, I prayed that he would accept me as he had all along. I prayed it wouldn't ruin our friendship, I hoped he'd keep this to himself.
JP: THANK YOU for putting up with me until 3 in the morning and helping me with this chapter. Sorry if I've been keeping you up late. Thanks again I hope you enjoy.
Falco: You are the greatest thank you for your reviews! I'm glad you like my story and relate to my characters! Can't wait for your next review.
Chleci: Let me know if Glimmer isn't doing what she should. I'm trying to write her as I saw her from the info you sent me. I want to keep you happy so let me know if I'm doing okay. I'm glad you liked it. I know that part was an Ever After quote ( I don't own Ever After either don't sue.) It just seemed so right. Thank you for all your reviews!
Morning Dew: I'm glad you have liked it so far let me know what you think of the other chapters!
Ali: I'm glad you like it. I have really tried to stay away from the usual in this fic. I wanted something a little different and something you could actually relate to. I hope I am succeeding. Thank you for your review.
Jessica: Thank you as well (I'm beginning to feel like I'm writing in peoples year books. You eventually write the same thing to them all. Sorry trying to refrain.) I hope you like this next chapter as well.
"Mimic," I said softly shaking him. "Mimic."
He rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head. I caught the smile on his lips before he did telling me he was awake, and just being ornery.
"Mimic, you get your butt up right now or you're going to get wet, very wet." I threatened. He just muffled a giggle and didn't move. He didn't believe me, well then I was going to have to show him I meant what I said. It was too warm yet to need the extra blanket provided to me, so I grabbed it from where it lay across the foot of my bed. The boys watched me warily as I limped into the washroom trying not to hiss in pain at my bruised and stiff muscles. I felt like someone had beaten me with a rolling pin, a marble rolling pin at that.
"Damn it Jack." I heard Skittery yell as he stepped from the stalls against the wall with next to nothing on I am assuming. I didn't even look up as I shuffled to the sink and grabbed a tin cup and filled it with water. "she ain't allowed in here."
"No one stated any rules saying I couldn't come in here." I responded groggily noting his lack of dress and smiling ruefully. He blushed even though he had a towel wrapped around all the important parts.
"If ya wanna use the washroom ya gotta do it before or after we do." Jack grumbled sleepily batting off Mush's punches in their morning ritual.
"Funny, you weren't too worried about it when you all came charging up here yesterday to catch a peep at me." I replied.
"That's different," Mush cried as he grabbed the soap from the shelf above the sink.
"How?" I asked turning in the doorway of the washroom.
"It just is." Blink growled as he slammed the door shut. I shrugged too tired and sore to do much other than take the tin cup, pull the pillow away from Mimic and splash it in his face.
"Cameo." He spluttered as he came flying up. I couldn't help laughing at his scowl. His usual curls flattened by the water that was now streaming into his face from his thick hair.
"Mimic, get ready." I responded in a tone that mocked his, he glared at me and scrambled off to do as I told him. I slammed my door shut and set about changing into my only clean set of clothes left. I moved slowly trying as best I could to stretch out the muscles that were currently on strike.
"Cameo." I heard Jack's voice through the door as I finished fastening my pants and tucking in my shirt. "Ya decent?"
"Yeah." I sighed. Were the hell had my hat gotten off to this time? I braided my hair as I looked for it and heard the door creak open.
"Maybe you should stay here today." He said looking me up and down "Ya took a good beatin yesterday."
"Would you stay here?" I snapped when he shook his head I continued "Would you let any of the others stay?"
"No," He replied reluctantly knowing what I was going to say next. I had never once asked for special treatment, I didn't want special treatment. I asked that I be treated the same as anyone else and I tried to carry my share
"Then why are you telling me to stay?" I asked the irritation in my voice rising as I couldn't find my hat.
"Oh never mind." Jack growled as he turned way.
"Jack I appreciate your concern, but if I was stupid enough to get myself beaten up last night I shouldn't be allowed extra privileges." I sighed hating the irritated look on his face. I hadn't meant to start an argument this early in the morning. He nodded and headed to his bunk for his hat. I watched him for a moment and shrugged, well, I had tried to smooth things over. Mimic bounced over wearing my hat, I gave a tired chuckle and pulled it down over his eyes. He giggled as I tickled him, squirming and pushing my hat from his head. I scooped it up and followed the boys who were streaming out the door. I didn't pay much attention as I let Mimic lead the way to the distribution center. What I wouldn't give for a latte or mocha instead of the black coffee without sugar or milk that sat in my stomach like battery acid.
"How ya feelin?" Mush asked as he took the money I handed him for my share of the papers. "Ya look like hell."
"Thanks." I said wryly, Crutchy smiled at me and I gave him a wan smile in return. "I feel fine."
"I'll talk to you at lunch." Crutchy said as he started off in the direction of his selling spot. I didn't respond, I didn't need to, he knew I would be there. I followed Mush and Blink who were both talking animatedly with Race about the fight. I didn't want to remember. I didn't want to think about it, though with every step I remembered. Mush was making me sound like some sappy heroine. I rolled my eyes and smiled as I watched Mimic, well, mimic me. My day passed as others had before it, I sold my papers, giving some to Mush since I wasn't feeling up my usual par. He looked at me worriedly when I handed them to him, but he split them between Mimic and Blink. Crutchy had our usual booth at Tibby's saved and I sat down grateful to be off my feet. I listened as they talked answering when I had to. Lunch ended and I wasn't ready to get up.
"Cameo, why don't ya stay here for a little while with me." Crutchy said as Mush and Blink stood. "My leg's hurtin a little and I think I want to rest it a little longer."
"Okay." I said fingering the gold ID bracelet that had been my mothers. Vivian Maria Giovanni, it had been a present from her father for her sixteenth birthday. I smiled softly as I remembered fingering it on her wrist as she told me stories or sang to me. Her soft brown hair brushing my arm, the smell of her lavender soap filled my nose and I could almost picture her there beside me. I could almost hear her singing, her beautiful voice rich and golden like harp. My mother had never taken the bracelet off until the day she died, she placed it in my hand and told me she loved me.
"Briar are you okay?" I heard Crutchy say. I pulled myself from my thoughts and gave him my attention. I was thankful he had, I didn't want to remember that day. My father had told me once in one of our arguments that I had died that day with her. The only thing that seemed to have brought life into me was the Renaissance Festival and he couldn't begin to understand that.
"I'm fine." I said shakily blinking back the tears from my eyes. It had been five years long past the time to get over it and move on. She wouldn't want me to continue to mourn her, she would want me to live. Unfortunately until I came here I hadn't felt alive, the Renaissance Festival was like a momentary fix. It lasted for a eight weekends then it was over taking with it one of the few joys in my life.
"Who was Vivian?" He asked glancing at the bracelet I fiddled with.
"My mother." I whispered as I fought to get myself under control. Crutchy smiled sympathetically I let him take my wrist and look at the bracelet, my mind still wandering.
"Briar Rose Fitgerald, that's you?" Crutchy looked up at me, I nodded listlessly.
"I named you Briar Rose because when the doctor put you into my arms for the first time you stopped crying and looked at me. You had such beautiful eyes and such black hair you reminded me of a picture I had seen in a fairy tale book I had owned as a child. There was the most beautiful picture of her in her cradle and you looked just like her." I heard her whisper in my mind just as she had so many times when I was a small child. Only a mother would look at a newborn and find her incredibly beautiful. She had given me a soft feminine name, but had raised me to be a strong woman. We had a bond unlike most mother's and daughters. We never went through that bickering stage. She had understood me unlike anyone else I had ever known. Unlike anyone ever would I doubted. She had been wonderful. A woman who was ready to go backpacking in the wilderness for a week or attend a high class dinner party and pull it off with class. She had been one of a kind and I had loved her so very much.
"What are the dates for?" Crutchy asked his voice sounding confused. I wasn't paying attention my mind was still in the past so I answered him truthfully.
"Her birth and death date, my birth date." I told him.
"That's not possible." Crutchy cried. I felt fear slam into me as I realized what I had done , my guts churned, my adrenaline pumping. "The jeweler must have bungled, it says June 28, 1961."
I reached for my masks trying to shrug it off and look shocked, but I could see by his look he didn't buy it. I wasn't quick enough, I could see him struggle with the idea, ready to toss it into the recesses of his mind, because it couldn't be possible, could it? Accepting things was Crutchy's gift and it took him only a moment before he turned to me.
"Tell me the truth Briar." He said softly with a tone that I had never heard. It was stern, it told me he would weed out the truth whether I liked it or not. I panicked I tried to get up from the booth, but Crutchy's leaned across the table and grabbed me first. His hands gripped my arms in a steely grip that shocked me. This wasn't the goofy Cruchy I knew, this was a man, a man with a gaze that saw right through you. So many of the newsies were boys on the brink of manhood, but to see the man in them sometimes made you do a double take. "Ya lie to me and I'm going to question our friendship. I have been honest with you now you be honest with me. The jeweler didn't ruin this did he?"
I shook my head unable to do anything else. He took that in for a moment then nodded a look of disbelief still in his eyes.
"What year were ya born?"
"1983." I whispered compelled to answer truthfully by his force of will. I wanted to lie I tried to lie. I felt the words come to my lips and die there. I couldn't do it. I couldn't lie to him; it bothered me I had always been able to lie on a moments notice. It had become a self- preservation mechanism, a way to keep people from coming too close, to know the real me.
"I don't know whether to believe you or send you packing for the crazy house." He told me releasing my arms and sitting back. "Though it would explain why ya so odd."
We looked at each other for a few minutes, Crutchy gazing into my eyes searching for the truth, me not sure of what to do. He glanced around and saw the other patrons of Tibby's odd looks, sighing he stood and threw a few coins down on the table.
"Let's get outta here." He said starting off as he expected me to follow him. Follow him I did, I didn't have anywhere else to go. My mind raced with a way to make him believe that it was a mistake that I had been born here. I knew that he would see the lie in my eyes. I found myself in following him up the steps of the lodging house and into the bunkroom. Kloppman never noticed we had come back. He sat with difficult then gestured for me to sit with him.
"So ya from the future," he said, he still didn't quite believe it, but as I sat he continued.
"Yes." I whispered simply not elaborating, but at least answering.
"How did ya get here?" he questioned, his face telling me what he was thinking. This should be good was what was going through his mind. If it wasn't for the bond we had formed since I had come here I was sure he would have written me off as loony right now. It was only our friendship that kept him from walking away.
"A gypsy gave me an amulet." I replied softly clutching the offending piece of jewelry. "Then I don't know. I woke up here."
"Ya woke up here?" he repeated making it a question instead of a statement. I nodded mutely unable to say anything else. Unwilling to hope he would understand, I sighed. I could tell by his eyes he wanted to believe me as my friend he wanted to believe anything I told him.
" How do you think I felt? I woke up here with no knowledge of how I got here. I didn't want to come here and I don't know how to get home." He looked out the window his eyes unfocusing a bit as he did. I waited not knowing what else to do. Finally he just nodded his eyes betrayed his disbelief.
"Alright, I guess I've read harder to believe stories in the World." He said gently. I wished there was some way I could prove it to him. "So what's the future like?"
"You wouldn't like it." I whispered looking away. " A cold place where I do means a year if you're lucky. Where children grow up with parents who marry over and over leaving them lost and confused. Where evil people murder thousands in one foul swoop. Love is dying, happiness is fading, honesty is over rated, and integrity is a thing of the past. Where there are damn few happily ever afters, those that are lucky enough for one usually take it for granted and loose it all. "
" All people can't be that way." Crutchy cried, he had looked at me hopefully.
"No not all are, but those people are becoming a dying breed. We will have comforts that are unimaginable to you, but socially loose so much of what is important." I replied bitterly. "Sometimes I wonder what we all are living for."
"For a chance, a way to find what we want most in our hearts." Crutchy told me with shining eyes that brought hope even into my cynical heart. " We keep hoping that one day the good will bring down the evil."
"Humanity has been fighting itself for centuries, it isn't going to stop in the future." I said as I stood. " I think we both need to think about things." Crutchy nodded and turned toward his bunk to lie down. There wasn't enough time to sell any more papers so I went out onto the fire escape to watch the city below. The day grew later and the boys made their way home, the bunkroom rang with their enthusiasm for life. They looked out at me curiously from time to time, but my expression must have kept them at bay because they never ventured out. I stayed there until the sun had set and the moon was beginning to make its decline down the sky.
"Jack how did you find Briar?" Crutchy's voice floated on the wind toward me. I tuned in wondering if Jack would give him information that would prove my outrageous statements.
"I don't know Snipeshooter stumbled over her. One minute she wasn't there the next she was. We all thought she glowin or somthin, thought maybe she was a ghost. Then it went away, must have been some trick of the street lamp." Jack told from my spot I could see him run a hand through is hair.
"Jack there ain't no streetlamps in the alley way next to Meddas." Crutchy said his voice excited.
"I don't know we must have been seein things." Jack said throwing his cards at Race as he folded.
"I don't know the other night on the way to Brooklyn she did some odd glowing thing." Mush said as he threw a few coins into the pile. "Scared the hell out of us."
I watched as that sunk into Crutchy's mind and the other boys shrugged it off. They returned to their game and Crutchy just thought. Eventually they went to bed, I sat there for a few minutes after lights out then I made my way to my own bed, Mimic asleep there already. I prayed that Crutchy wouldn't treat me any differently as I drifted off to sleep, I prayed that he would accept me as he had all along. I prayed it wouldn't ruin our friendship, I hoped he'd keep this to himself.
JP: THANK YOU for putting up with me until 3 in the morning and helping me with this chapter. Sorry if I've been keeping you up late. Thanks again I hope you enjoy.
Falco: You are the greatest thank you for your reviews! I'm glad you like my story and relate to my characters! Can't wait for your next review.
Chleci: Let me know if Glimmer isn't doing what she should. I'm trying to write her as I saw her from the info you sent me. I want to keep you happy so let me know if I'm doing okay. I'm glad you liked it. I know that part was an Ever After quote ( I don't own Ever After either don't sue.) It just seemed so right. Thank you for all your reviews!
Morning Dew: I'm glad you have liked it so far let me know what you think of the other chapters!
Ali: I'm glad you like it. I have really tried to stay away from the usual in this fic. I wanted something a little different and something you could actually relate to. I hope I am succeeding. Thank you for your review.
Jessica: Thank you as well (I'm beginning to feel like I'm writing in peoples year books. You eventually write the same thing to them all. Sorry trying to refrain.) I hope you like this next chapter as well.