Chapter 3: Familiar Faces

I yawned. I was way too tired to be walking around Manhattan at 10:30. I remembered hearing one of the Newsies talk about a place they had stayed at, the Lodging House? So I set off to find it.

Ten minutes later I was there and putting 5 cents down on the table. I walked in and sat on the first bed I saw, then I fell asleep.

"Hey! Get outta me bed!" I heard a voice yell to me. I sat up and looked at a boy with a cowboy hat on. I stared at him.

"What do you think your doing?" I asked him.

"Me? That's my bed! What are ya doing I my bed?"

I put my head down. "I was sleeping…" I mumbled. He picked me up around my back and under my legs and dropped me on the floor.

"HEY!" I screamed as I got up. I jumped back on the bed and kicked him off. There was laughter from the newsies as he glared at me but snapped his fingers, motioning for a smaller newsies to get off of the top bunk.

I smiled triumphantly. "Don't I know you?" came another voice. I looked up to see a taller boy with an eye patch on staring down on me.

"Bet ya wish ya did." I said winking. 

He laughed.  "How about selling papes wit me tomorrow?"

"Ok, I'm Flare." I told him. "I'se kid Blink." He spit in his hand and held it out to me; I did the same then once again fell asleep.

*~*In the Morning*~*

I woke up earlier than the guys and got changed, putting my hair in pigtails. I went up to Blink so that I was eye level with him and tapped him on the shoulder. He woke up.

"Huh? Whaddya want?" He mumbled. When I didn't answer he looked at me.

"Wow. You have a nice eye." I told him, nodding my head slightly. He smiled and went to the washroom. I went downstairs to grab and apple as I turned the corner I ran into someone.

"Hey! Watch where ya goin!" I heard a boy yell at me. He looked down, and realizing I was a girl helped me up.

"I'se Spot Conlon." He introduced himself.

"I don't care." I said, pulling my hand away and continuing toward the kitchen. He followed me.

"Ya don't even know me." He stated. "I don't care too." I said, walking by him again.

"You do." He said knowingly. "Prove it jackass."

"Your talkin to me aren't ya?" I rolled my eyes and walked back into the bunkroom.

"Spot leave hoir alone ya aint gonna snag hoir!" A guy with dark brown curly hair yelled to him. He ignored her and walked on.

I turned around quickly so I was face to face with him. "You need to stop following me."

"Your da only one ta complain about me following ya." He told me.

"And I wont be the last."

He stopped walking as a girl came up to me. She had straight brown hair and illuminating hazel eyes.

"Your like me, I don't like him either." She said winking. I smiled at her and took a bite into my apple.

"So, your Flare?" She asked me. I nodded. "Weird, I'm Flame." I laughed.

"Ya can sell wit me taday." She said.

"Oh, I cant. I promised Blink I'd sell wit him."

"Den ya can meet up wit me at Tibby's." I nodded yes and she went to meet up with a boy with a cigar in him mouth. I stared at him for a minute, he looked young.

"Snipes! Gimmie me cigar!" Another Italian looking boy said, hitting the younger one on the back of the head and taking the cigar right out of his mouth.

I laughed and he looked over at me. I quickly averted my eyes and went off to find Blink. I met him by the door and he led me over to the Distribution Office and I bought 50 papes.

As he was about to turn and explain things to me, I was gone.

"Flare? Flare?" He called.

"PULITZER GONE BANKRUPT READ ALL ABOUT IT!" I said, lying for my headline.

He walked over to me as an older man bought my pape.

"Good." He told me, I smiled and moved on. In and hour and half I was done and I met up with Blink in Central Park.

He stared at me. "I really feel like I know ya." I smiled. "Lets jist go ta Tibby's." I said sighing.

When we walked in I sat next to Flame and across from Spot.

"So where'd ya come from?" Jack asked me.

"When I was about 5 I was adopted from dis Orphanage, and I was brought to dis mans home. He was like 41 and got drunk all da time. By the time I was 11 I knew he was horrible and that I couldn't stay dere long. But when I was 13 he started beating me, not much, but enough to make me leave. So I'd walk around Manhattan and da Bronx, sometimes Brooklyn, and come home late at might. But I'd wake up wit bruises. So I left." I explained.

"Huh." Blink thought. "What Orphanage?" The boy with the cigar asked. I looked at him strangely.

"I'm Racetrack." He introduced. "Flare." I spat in my hand and he did the same. "So what Orphanage did ya say?" he asked again.

"Da 'We care for Kids'. Why?"

He stared at me, and Blink was quiet too. "I used ta go dere."

"Me too." Blink said, still staring.

"Shut up!" I said laughing. "Did you really?"

"Yea…" He gasped. "Em?" Race said, eyes getting wide. I nodded and took a sip of my drink.

"Your Emily!" Blink screamed.

"Ya I think she knows dat." Flame said.

"Trey?" I asked him. He nodded. "Ey don't forget me! Its…Patrick." He mumbled. I smiled.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" The rest of the newsies looked confused. "We used to go to the Orphanage together, until I got adopted." I explained.

"How'd you guys get out?"

"We ran away tagetha, but ended up splitting up. We met again at the Refuge for stealing. So we broke outta dere and became Newsies." He told me.

"So ya know each other?" Spot asked. I rolled my eyes and nodded. After we ordered Race decided to play poker. I sat it out and watched as Race sneakily cheated. Flame had decided to play and Spot decided to sit next to me. I pushed him of the end of the boot and he fell to the ground.

"What was dat for?" he asked.

"I told ya ta stay away form me…" He looked at me but was dealt into the game. It turned out the Flame won with a Flush, and she got 5 dollars.

I went for a walk but ended up on the roof of the lodging house.

"Ya ok?" Blink asked me sitting down. "Yea. I jist don't like Spot."

"Why not? I mean, sure he's a womanizer, a jerk, a player…what was my point?" He asked me. I laughed and shook my head.

"I'll see ya in dere." He told me, going back to the bunkroom. I nodded and he left. I stayed there until I felt someone lightly shaking me.

"Huh?" I mumbled. "Ya fell asleep out here." Spot told me quietly.

I grumbled a few words. He looked at me and picked me up, bringing me back through the window, setting me down on my bed as I fell asleep.

*~*WHOO! Chapter 3 done! lol. LISTEN: Chewy and I are gonna write a fanfiction together, Check the REVIEWS for THIS CHAPTER and we'll tell u in MY review what our joint name is ok? =) *~*