"Come on Bliss, this way dear." Medda prompted, leading her around a corner. They stopped walking right under a sign that read "Manhattan Lodging house".
"Don't be afraid here, they're good friends of mine. If they mess with you, they'll have to deal with me, and you tell them that, ok." Medda told her as she reached out, tucking one of Bliss' loose curls behind Bliss' ear.
They walked in, and Medda talked to Mr. Kloppman while Bliss walked around the room, taking in her surroundings. There were a pair of shoes under a chair, a sock hanging over the back of a couch, a shirt laying in a pile in the middle of the room, and a hat sticking up out from in between the cushions of the couch.
Kloppman stopped talking mid-sentence and watched Bliss as she walked around the room, gathering the clothes and straightening the cushions someone had used to build a fort. She put all the clothes in a pile on the couch, and went around the room again, this time getting the garbage. There was a couple of ripped pieces of newspaper lying about, along with a crust of bread. She walked over to Kloppman's desk and asked him, "Where's your garbage can, Sir?"
He motioned that it was around the corner, and when she had come back, he had the sign in notebook all ready for her.
"You can sign here, Miss." he said, handing her a pen.
Medda said her goodbyes and Kloppman showed Bliss up to the bunkroom. When he opened the door, she shook her head at the mess that unfolded before her. Every bunk had a pile on it and around it.
"You can take this bunk, there's no one in either one beside yours." Kloppman told her. "Make yourself at home, Bliss, the boys will start filing in at about 5:00. It's only about 11:30, so you just make yourself at home, and if you need anything, just ask." He said as he went out the door and down the stairs.
At about 4:45, Jack came wandering in.
"Kloppman, what's new?" He asked.
"We have a new boarder." He told Jack.
Looking around, Jack asked "Upstairs?"
After a nod from Kloppman, Jack started up the stairs.
"That girl is gonna stir things up around here!" Kloppman said quietly to himself.
Jack opened the door to the bunkroom, and almost fell over in surprise. The bunks were clean! They all had their beds made, and judging by the smell in the air, the blankets, and everything else was washed too. He looked over and was even more surprised to see a girl sitting on a bunk, sewing a button on snipe's shirt. She hadn't seen him yet, so she was just sitting there, sewing and singing softly. He looked past her and noticed that the bunk on the other side of her was filled with nicely folded clothes.
"Who are you?" He demanded.
She glanced up at him and answered, "I'm Bliss, who are you?"
He didn't answer at first, he was too busy pacing the rows and muttering to himself. So she put down her sewing, which was finished anyway, and walked right up to him, and looked him in the eye. "I said, who are you?" she said more slowly this time.
He opened his mouth again to ask her another question, but as soon as he saw the look in her eyes, he stopped and answered "Jack. Jack Kelley. Or Cowboy. Whatever you want to call me....Your a girl!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, I knew that already, but what does that have to do with anything?"
Without answering, he shook his head and walked back out of the room.
Sighing, she went back over to her bunk and grabbed the shirt she had finished mending, folded it, and put it with the pile of already clean and folded laundry.
Jack reached Kloppman's desk just as Dutchy and Racetrack did.
"Kloppman!" he exclaimed, "That's a girl!" He stood there looking at Race and Dutchy to say something, but they were confused as to what they were talking about.
Kloppman filled them in. "We have a new boarder, her name is Bliss."
Before he could finish the sentence, Race and Dutchy charged up the stairs, followed by Jack. They stopped suddenly, Race and Dutchy had the same reaction as Jack's was earlier. They all walked across the room as Bliss stood up to greet them.
Racetrack looked at her and said, "You're a girl!"
With a smile, she said "I know, Jack was kind enough to tell me that already. Who are you guys?"
Dutchy shook his head at Jack and Race before saying "Name's Dutchy, you are.....?"
"Bliss." she finished.
Dutchy spit in his hand and extended it out to her. She raised her eyebrows in question before spitting into her own hand, and shaking his hand. At that
Race and Jack's jaws dropped.
"She spitshakes? Girls don't do that! Do they?" Racetrack asked Jack.
"Apparently they do.... or at least this one does." he said
After getting over his initial shock, Race told her, "Racetrack, I'm Racetrack."
Just as the words were out of his mouth, a group of newsies came into the room and ran to their bunks.
"Somebody stole my clothes!" exclaimed Itey.
"Mine are gone too!" added Snipeshooter.
Everyone scurried around the room, blaming each other for their missing things. Before they could completely thrash the room, Bliss told Race and Dutchy "Excuse me." as she walked in between them. She stood on the other side of them and shouted "Hey!"
All of the boys that were rushing around the room stopped still, and stood there staring at the girl that they hadn't noticed before. There had never seen a girl in the lodging house, let alone in the bunk room!
Bliss, with her hands on her hips said, "You will stop messing up my hard work and come over here, right now."
Without hesitation, they all gathered in front of her.
Smiling, she told them all, "Hello, my name is Bliss. I have just spent all morning washing your blankets and clothes, and I even did some mending. All your clothes are over there." she told them. They all started to run over and grab their clothes, but she said in an athorative voice, "Wait!"
They all stopped and looked at her.
"Slow down. Don't mess up my folds, and put them away nicely where they go."
Snipeshooter raised his hand and waved it around.
Bliss smiled and asked him, "What's your name?"
"Snipeshooter... What if you don't got no place for your clothes to go?" he said with a worried expression on his face.
With a grin, Bliss answered, "Then put them in a nice stack under your bed."
"Ohhh!" they all echoed back to her.
"Now you can go." she prompted, and all the boys walked over and grabbed their clothes, all the while watching her to see what she was going to do next.
Jack, Race and Dutchy were still standing off to the side just staring, trying to figure it all out.
Bliss looked at them, "I guess that means that you have no clothes to put away, any of you?" she asked.
Their answer was a series of "I, uh, no, he, yes, um..." coming from all three of them before they stopped trying to explain, and just grabbed their stuff to put away.
After everything had quieted down a bit, Mush, followed by David came into the room. While Mush introduced himself to Bliss, David walked around asking everyone "Ya seen Les? I can't find him. Mom's gonna kill me!"
Just as David got all the way around the room to ask Jack, the sound of someone yelling filled the air. After that came the sound of someone chasing someone else up the stairs. Les shot through the door, followed by Morris Delancey. Morris dived for Les, missing him just barely. Les ran right by Bliss to go hide behind David. Jack stepped out to defend the little boy, but before Morris got to him, he tried to run past Bliss. She latched onto a handful of his hair, causing him to almost fall over backwards with a scream. He looked at Bliss, surprised that a girl dared do anything to him. Almost every other guy in the room tensed up, ready to lash out if he tried to hurt her, but amazingly enough, he didn't try to hurt her. The expression on her face showed that she was infuriated by him. Through clenched teeth, still holding onto his hair, she asked him "What do you think your doing?"
He put up his hands in defense and said "The brat-" he cringed as she tightened the hold on his hair. "I mean, the boy, ran into me."
With a look of impatience, she said to him, "Get a life!" as she half dragged him to the door and shoved him out. As she walked down the stairs, she called to him, "Don't mess with smaller kids, if I hear about it, I'll soak you for it!" before she slammed the door.
Racetrack muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear, "After this, nothin should surprise me!"
At this, everyone nodded, openmouthed.
"Wow, thanks!" Exclaimed Les.
"Ah, that was nothin'." she told him.
"No, that was something." corrected David.
"Yeah, it would have taken at least three of us to get him out of here as fast as you did." Mush told her.
"Who are you?" Asked Les.
"Name's Bliss." She told him, "Who are you?"
"I'm Les, and this is my brother David."
"Well, nice to meet you both." She said with a smile.
"You don't look like Sarah." Stated Les with a shake of his head.
"I don't? Well, who's Sarah?" She asked.
"My sister, she's older than David. She's waiting for us at home. Her hair is darker, and aint made of springs like yours is." he said solemnly.
Her face breaking into a grin, she leaned forward, pulling some of her hair out from behind her ear, she told him, "It's not springs, see, feel this. It's just curly hair. Like David's is curly, only his is shorter."
Davis put his hand on Les' shoulder and said "It was nice to meet you Bliss, but it's time for me to get Les home. See you guys later." He called across the room before leading Les out the door and down the stairs.
Bliss looked at Race in question.
Race told her, "Oh, they're part of the group, they just have a family waiting for them. The rest of us, we made our own family. I nevah woulda thought that we'd have a girl in ours.
Bliss told them, "Some family this is, I don't even know who you all are!" she said laughing.
One of the nameless newsies jumped up from his place on the floor and said to her, "Hi, uh, I'm called Kid Blink, this is Specs, Snoddy, and over dere's Jake..."
"And I'm Crutchy." a boy said as he hobbled into the doorway. "Nice to meetcha. Now who are you?" he added with a big happy grin.
Jack said, "Crutchy, ya just gotta love him!"
A voice called out from across the room, "Hey, don't forget Boots, Skittery, and of course Pie Eater and Swifty. They'll be back anytime. And I'm Bumlets." He added.
Dutchy said "Yeah, thanks Bums, I think that's it, now why not you tell us why your here?" he asked, pointing at Bliss.
Everyone got settled as Bliss sat down and started her story.
"Are you wanting me to start from yesterday when I met Medda, or from the beginning?" When no one answered her, she said, "Yesterday, I was looking for work, and this guy grabbed me and searched me for money, and he got really mad when I didn't have any, and he was about to hit me when Medda came out and yelled at him, I spent the night at her place and then she brought me here. Oh yeah, she told me to let you guys know that I'm a friend of hers, and if anyone messes with me, they will have to deal with her."
"That's a good enough reason for any of us to be nice to you!" Said Mush. "But now start from the beginning, please."
"I don't know anything about my parents other than that they left me on the steps of an orphanage when I was just born. As soon as I got hungry, I screamed until I woke someone up, and they brought me in and fed me. I don't remember much about that place, it closed down when I was 4. They shipped us all off to a different place that was so crowded that we slept four to a bed. There wasn't enough room to run, so we fought. We would divide into teams and just soak each other for fun. Well, most of the girls didn't, but I couldn't see the fun in weaving grass into jewelry. You know, I've had more black eyes than hours in the day! I got sick of having nothing to do but fight, so I got some of my buddies to bust out with me. Pepper got caught, but Short Spot, Potato, and I got out. But we got separated and I haven't seen them since that night. I have just been wandering ever since. "
"Hold on a sec." Said Race. "Short Spot?"
"Yeah" she answered, "Ya know him?"
Race continued, "Short guy, big blue eyes, with a big attitude to match, carries a slingshot and a walking stick?"
Bliss got all excited, "That's him! Where is he? I haven't seen him in ages!"
The rest of the boys were looking at Race like he was crazy.
Racetrack told her, "He dropped the Short, now it's Spot, Spot Conlon."
"Ohhh!" Echoed the rest of the group in surprise.
Jack asked her "Did you ever soak him?"
"I soaked the tar outta him many times! He got me good sometimes too though." She answered.
In surprise, Jack told her, "Either you are a better fighter than we think, Spot's gotten better than he was, or we're thinkin of different people."
Bliss asked "Why's that?"
"He's the leader of Brooklyn!" Exclaimed Bumlets.
"That's the toughest gang in all of Manhattan!" Added Kid Blink.
With a chuckle Bliss said "Doesn't surprise me!"
"Listen." Jack said "Tomorrow, I'll teach you how to sell, then we'll go see spot, he's a good buddy of mine. How does that sound?"
"Sounds great. Um, where are we supposed to get our food?" she asked.
Mush said, "Sometimes we get dinner from a vendor, other times we go to Tibby's... I vote for Tibby's tonight."
Everyone nodded in agreement and scurried around to get ready. They all went downstairs, meeting Swifty, Pie Eater, Boots and Skittery coming up. Kloppman looked out from his office, watching the group go by. Bliss was walking with her arm across Itey's small shoulders, and Snipeshooter was walking close, but trying to beat the impulse of holding her hand. He was trying to be big and tough.
Kloppman smiled at them as they walked out. "By golly, she's already won over the little ones!" he whispered to himself.