6 years later

"ACK!! NO!! IS MY NOSE CROOKED???!!!"

Fluke's brown eyes widened in horror as she examined her nose at all angles in the small hand mirror she held.  True, it had once been broken, but had the break made it crooked as well?   Why had she never noticed it then???

"Alright, here is a question- if your boyfriend has a difficulty with depth perception due to an eyepatch, will he notice a misaligned nose?"  Fluke inquired, panicked.

"I wouldn't think so" said Cabby to comfort the normally laid-back Fluke.  "Besides, it isn't crooked"

****

            Cabby, or Claire as she had once been called, had changed drastically from the plain nine-year old of six years ago.  The once-shy girl had morphed over time into a fearless sort of person, sometimes quiet and pensive, but up for any dare.  Her thick black hair cascaded to just below her shoulders, framing a pretty, angular face with round eyes and soft features.  She was petite, thin and short, with barely any noticeable curves.

Cabby had been in New York for the past six years, searching at first for someone she had known- the only person left that she had in her life.  She never found him and out of money and out of hope, she gave up.  Three years ago, Raven had found her ineptly attempting to pick pockets and took her in, getting her a job dancing with the vaudeville troupe she starred in and vowing to teach her how to pick pockets without getting caught- a skill she had learned from her sister.

Raven was seventeen and absolutely stunning.  She generally seemed pretty tough, but all the other performers knew she cared about them.  She had been running the nightly shows when her best friend and Brooklyn leader Spot Conlon had found a small, empty theater across the street from the lodging house and appointed her to keep it in shape.  She put together a small group of 4 other girls to perform and live there:

Raven herself

Cabby

Shamrock- a tall Irish girl.  She's the most educated out of all of them and Cabby, who never learned to read, looks to her for help in those matters- a secret between the two.  Shamrock seems perpetually nervous- pacing around a lot and wringing her hands.

Ershey- the source of constant laughter, energy and fun around the theater.  She is always trying to make up excuses to drag everyone over to Manhattan- the home of the one and only Mush, Ershey's crush.  Ershey's newest excuse for after tonight's show is to bring Cabby to Manhattan- the only borough she has never been to after six years of living in New York.

Fluke: Cabby's best friend and confidante.  Fluke and Cabby are the two troublemakers- not by any fault of their own, but they often dare each other to do outlandish stunts, which neither of them back down from.  Fluke is of the sort that doesn't get too easily frazzled or emotional and is very easy to trust with everything.  But even through that Cabby has never told her or anyone else about her past, or who she had been searching for before finally giving up.

****

Cabby inspected Fluke's nose, laughing to find absolutely nothing wrong with it. 

"Just keep getting ready you guys!" yelled Raven as she pinned her long auburn hair into place and throwing a pair of stockings to Ershey, who seemed to have lost hers.  Ershey tried to put them on quickly and only succeeded to hop around frantically on one foot, falling over across the open book Shamrock had been reading while applying make-up. 

            Pulling a chair up to the mirror, Cabby watched the scene unfold as she put the finishing touches to her make-up. 

Raven stood up, surveying the chaos of the room.

 "Alright, let's go now" she walked from the dressing room to the wings of the stage, where the other girls followed.

            Despite having done this almost nightly for three years, there was an almost tangible amount of nerves in the air.  They linked hands and murmured the much uttered 'prayer' of theirs:

Please let us remember what to do

Please strengthen the knots of our shoelaces

Please let the audience enjoy this too

Please let us not fall on our faces!

            Thanks for the reviews!! 

If you don't see your character here already, you are probably one of the newsgirls or someone who will appear later on in the story.

I hope I got pretty close to the characters you guys intended.  If I made a mistake, please e-mail me about it or send it in a review.

Love,

*~CABBY~*