Everyone in the lodging house woke up to the sound of me screaming. My wakeup call, however, was much... colder. Spot looked down on me, smirking, "I sure did miss wakin' ya up."

I rolled my eyes and rolled out of bed. I decided to look on the bright side, I didn't have to take a shower now. I must have forgotten my extra pair of clothes at Rose's, stupid me, so I managed to get a hold of Spot's extra pants, Book's extra shirt, and Dodger's extra suspenders and hat. I changed into them and hung the soggy ones out to dry. "Chrys! Come on! I wan' ya ta meet our new goil newsie." I rolled my eyes. Why would I want to meet this girl, she stole my damn bunk! I laughed, what am I doing? Getting all bent out of shape because of a bunk? I shook my head, I figured I could at least I could be nice to the girl. I didn't need someone I couldn't stand in Brooklyn as well as Manhattan.

I walked outside to see the back of a young girl, thirteen maybe, and Spot waving furiously at me. "Chrys dis is Julie, Julie this is Chrys." I couldn't be Julie. She had run away. Far, far away. Then it hit me, of course she would go to New York. The girl started to turn towards me to say hi, but I took off at a run back to the lodging house.

"Shit, just what I need, someone here to hate me. This is even worse than the whole Race thing, cause she's IN Brooklyn, not Manhattan... Okay, calm down... Now you go out there, say hi, and then apologize." I said to myself. I counted from ten to one, took a deep breath and walked back out.

Spot stood where I left him, but Julie was gone. He looked angry, "I told her dat you prolly just forgot somthin' in der and went to get it but she didn't by it. She thinks ya hate her cause she took ya bunk."

I didn't. "I don't hate her, I mean, why would she sleep on the floor or something when there's a perfectly good empty bunk? And you guys had no idea whether I'd be back or not." I think I said this more to myself than Spot, but he nodded and grabbed my arm.

"Well, I'se glad you don't hate her. She's prolly still at da D.O., so we'll go talk to her there. She don't like Race either for some reason, so you two should get along fine." I laughed. After a quick walk to the distribution office, we found Julie skimming the headlines. "Heya Julie!" Spot called out. Julie looked up to him, then to me. Her eyes widened and jaw dropped. We continued toward her.

"J..Jo..Joanne?"

Spot looked confused, "Who da hell is Joanne? Dis is Chrys."

I gave Julie a quick smile. "Yea, it's me Julie. Look I just wanted to say..."

But she cut me off, "I know. Your sorry. It's okay, I understa..."

Now it was Spot's turn, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You two know each odder?" We nodded. Spot just shook his head in disbelief, "Right..."

Julie looked at me, "I'm sorry too. For the things I said, and for taking..."

This time I cut her off, "I'm not mad about the bed."

She shook her head, laughed, and pointed down to her clothes. Wait, my clothes. That son of a bitch. I just shook my head and laughed. "I want dose back. You can wear dis," I said pointing to my outfit, "It'll prolly fit you better anyway. You'se wanna sell wid me today?"

"I was supposed to sell with Spot. But since he's left, I don't see why not."

"Den let's get goin' goil!" Julie didn't move, she just stared at me funny.

"Why do you have a New York accent? You didn't have one in Santa Fe." I laughed.

"I can intimidate just 'bout any accent, and bein' in New York and all, it just fells right to have da accent." She laughed. "So I hear you don' like Race too much."

"Well, I haven't exactly heard good things about him," she explained.

"Have you even met him?"

"...No." I laughed.

"Well you probably should before you tell people you don't like him. But I guess you could just not meet him and save yourself the trip. Have you met any of Manhattan?" She shook her head, "Well then let's sell dese papes and go over dere."

"What about Race?"

"Don' worry 'bout him." She shot me a 'I'm not worried about him, I'm worried about you' look. We sold our papers at a surprisingly fast speed. Julie really good for 'improving da truth'.

"So what's your name?" she asked me as I handed an old man my last pape.

"What? Ohhh... Well I usually use a different name everywhere I go, but my real name is Crystal. Crystal Green."

"Why didn't you tell me your real name?"

"Because Rose already knew me as Joanne, and I couldn't just say I had lied to her and my real name was Chrys."

"Oh."

"Why didn't you tell Rose you were coming here?"

"I didn't want her to come and bring me home."

I laughed, I guess she didn't know as much about her grandmother as I thought. "She wouldn't have brought you home. She may have come and made sure you were alright from time to time, but never take you back if you didn't wanna go."

"How do you know?"

"Cause when she was your age, she took off too. She used to travel wherever the wind took her. Just like me."

"But not anymore... right?"

I smiled at her, "Yea, not anymore." We walked into Tibby's and were greeted by all the boys. Race was the first person I noticed, then I saw Jack in his usual booth. I laughed to myself at the thought of how much I used to hate him. Come to think of it, before I was good friends with Race and hated Jack, now it was just the opposite. I don't think I would've ever expected that. "Heya Jack! Dis is Julie." Julie and Jack said their hellos and then I left Jack to introduce the rest of the boys. To tell you the truth I still didn't know all the boy's names. I was getting there, but I wasn't there just yet. Julie was talking to Blink and Jack, when Race walked up to me.

"Heya Chrys. Can I talk ta ya."

"Um, shoa. But I need to say something to ya foist." He nodded and we walked to a empty booth, as far as we could get from everyone. "Okay, look. I don' care what happened dat night, da past is da past. I can't promise dat we'll be friends, but I think we should be civil, alright?"

"I can handle dat."

"Now whad you have ta say ta me?"

He looked at the table, too ashamed to look me in the eye. "Well, I just wanted ta say dat even though I know it don' make up for what I did, I'se sorry. You don' have ta worry about any lame explanation, cause what I did was stupid and wrong and inexcusable...Thanks...for well sorta forgiving me."

"I don't forgive you. I jist wanna be civil so I don' got everyone worryin' 'bout me killin ya," I stated harshly.

"Oh..." With that I got up and left to join Julie and the boys. After about an hour of talking, we decided to go back to the lodging house and play some poker.

We had played 3 games and the group had grown. Julie, Jack, Crutchy, Blink, Mush, Jake, Race, Snoddy, and I sat in a circle, poker faces on. Even though Julie had quickly grasped the art of 'improving da truth', she had yet to grasp anything about poker.

"All red," she said smiling. Some of us laughed and the others groaned.

"Julie, all red don' mean nuttin!" Blink explained, "If you have all hearts or diamonds is one thing. But all red don' mean shit!"

Whoever wasn't laughing before, now was because of Blink's sudden impatience. "Ohh..." Julie said blushing. We went around the circle and showed our cards, Jack won.

We decided to play one more game before going to bed. After about half and hour the stakes were conciderably high. The only people still in the game were Race, Snoddy, and myself. Snoddy soon dropped out and it was Race's turn. "I raise ya 2 bits."

"I see your 2 two bits and I raise ya ten cents."

Race looked in his pockets and found he only had ten cents, and couldn't raise anymore. "I see your ten cents, and I'll make ya a deal. If I win, you'se gotta listen to my side of da story dat night. And if you win. I'll nevah bother you about it again."

"Why would I take that? You aint bothering me now."

Race thought a momemnt. "Well den, whatda ya want if ya win."

"You'se gotta do whatever I want for a week." There was no way he was going to my four of a kind, ace high.

"Deal."

"Okay, show 'em," Jack said, annoyed the game was lasting this long.

Race layed down a straight flush as I layed down my four of a kind. He smiled, "I'll meet ya up on da roof in a minute. Foist I gotta get me winings together."

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A/N: Alright, next chapter we hear what Race has to say. Maybe if you guys send lots of reviews, I can think of what on earth he could use as a good excuse faster! So please review!

And for all of you who reviewed in the past, Joe and I thank you. We were going to bake cookies or something nice for ya, but I don't have time to cuz me and Race are trying to find a good excuse, maybe I'll buy you guys a cake when I'm done with the chapter!

Chrys: You might as well bake your cookies, there's no good excuse.

Race: There's a good reason! You'll see! I bet Merp's has already got plenty of ideas!

::whispers to Race:: Race, I have no idea what you could possibly say to win her back.

Race: ..

Anyways! While me and Race are doing that, Joe is going to teach Julie poker. Wish him luck!

Julie: Hey! I heard that!

Chrys: Good luck Joe!!!

Julie ::glares at Chrys::

Chrys:: What?! He needs it! Did you not see your card skills this chapter?

Julie:..

Race: Enough of this! You! ::points at reader:: Review now! I need Merp to get some ideas! And soon!