Chapter Two
"Who doya tink dey are?" someone said.
"Does it look like I's a mind readah ta yous?" someone else replied. Windy and Clatter stirred, shifting slightly as they awoke. They opened their eyes and found several boys huddled over them.
"AHHHHH!!!" the girl's screamed, sitting up quickly.
"AHHHHH!!!" the boys screamed back, jumping away from them. Both girl's looked around, remembering the messenger's words.
"Windy, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Clatter grinned. She had always wanted to say that. Windy looked at her and burst out laughing.
"Yous frum Kansas?" Jack Kelly asked.
"No." Windy said climbing to her feet. The boys looked slightly confused due to the previous statement.
"Are yous two newsies?" Mush asked. Windy and Clatter finally realized who these boys were!
"Yes we are!" Clatter stated proudly. Windy smacked her arm and glared. "Oww, what?!"
"Excuse me while I talk to my friend." Windy told the boys and then pulled Clatter away from the group's earshot.
"Hey, watch it!" Clatter yelped as she was pulled five feet by the collar, "God, I coulda walked ovah here by myself..." she said as she looked back at the boys
"Why'd you go and tell them that we're newsies?! Cause if you didn't realize it, we're not!" Windy cried out in a hushed tone, making sure the boys didn't hear them.
"Oh come on Windy, lighten up a bit!" Clatter said throwing her hands in the air and letting out a loud sigh "Look around you! We're in...uh, hey guys…" she called over to the group of huddled newsboys "What year is it?" she asked rather shyly, she must sound like a fool to be asking such a stupid question
Racetrack looked around at the other boys. Was this girl serious? "1900" he called out.
Clatter laughed "Thanks Race" she called over her shoulder as she let him wonder about how she knew his name. She went on to continued her sentence from before "As I was sayin', look around you, we're in 1900, live a little, have some fun. I mean, we've been wanting this to happen since..." she trailed off in excitement "forever!!"
"But you don't understand…this isn't supposed to exist. It was only a movie. Unless Disney got something accurate for once!" Windy exclaimed.
Clatter scratched her head in puzzlement, "Uh...yer right, I'm gonna have ta think about that one for a sec...oh what's the use, we should make what we can of it while we're still here, I mean, this is every Newsies fans' dream!!"
"Okay, ok, you're right." Windy admitted. In reality, she too was excited that they had landed in this time. "But let's think back to what that chick said. Something has gone wrong here which we hafta fix. Now whadaya think it could be?"
Clatter racked her brain for a couple of seconds "That's a good question, I don't remember, did she even finish tellin' us before we came heah?"
"I don't think so. Maybe we're not supposed to know? But if we're not supposed to know, how are we supposed to know what to fix?"
"I don't know, maybe we're supposed to find out along the way?" Clatter asked, just as confused as Windy. "Oh God, what if we don't figure it out and it's something really important?!" Clatter asked frantically "We could royally screw up time!"
"They wouldn't send us back here then, would they? If there was a risk?" Windy asked trying to calm herself as well as Clatter.
"Oh God, I hope not. We's not the most responsible people..." she said laughing to herself. "Come on, the sooner we find out what the problem is the sooner we can fix it and set things straight…" she said grabbing her friend's hand and pulling her back over towards the boys
"Hi." Windy smiled as they stood in front of the boys once again. "We haven't been properly introduced. My name's Windy."
"And I's Clatter" Clatter said slipping into her well known New York accent she had acquired after many endless nights of watching the movie. She spit in her hand and held it out to the person she knew as Jack.
"Da name's Jack Kelly but da boy's 'ere call me Cowboy." Jack said shaking Clatter's hand with a grin. "An' dis here's Racetrack, Blink, Mush, Skittery..." Jack listed off all the boys that had gathered.
As Jack said their names, each boy did something special. Race tilted his half smoked cigar, Blink gave his famous smile, Mush, well Mush just stood there as always, looking so cute and lovable.
Windy could feel her cheeks turning red as she realized how cute all these boys were. She always blushed slightly when she was the center of attention, unless she was mad. Then all fury rang loose.
"So where yous goyls frum?" Race asked as he took his cigar out of his mouth and wiped his sweaty forehead.
"Uh..." Clatter said looking over at Windy not sure of what to tell them.
"We're from Chicago." Windy stated. Hey, it was the truth. They never asked what year though.
Clatter gave Windy a "God I'm so stupid" look and smiled back at the boys. She observed each and every one of them and made a note to learn all the unnamed newsie's names to tell all the listees when she got back "So where're yous fellahs off ta?"
"We'se was goin ta sell our papes, but den we'se found yous two on da ground heah." Blink stated.
Clatter laughed "Yeah, sorry 'bout dat, we's a liddle outa it...yous must be wonderin what we's was doin out here on da ground..." she trailed off looking at all their confused faces.
"Well actually, now dat ya mentioned it, we's was a liddle curious." Racetrack spoke up. Windy grimaced wondering what lie Clatter had come up with
Clatter flashed a mischievous smirk at Windy and then turned back to Race "Well, we's was on da streets cause we's ran away frum home. Well, not dat yous could really call it a home, but anywyas, we's didn' wanna sleep in no alley. So we's jist slept here" she said shrugging her shoulders and hoping that the boys would get the hint that they needed somewhere to stay.
Windy had to bite her lip to hide her grin, Clatter always came out on top when it came to thinking up lies on the spot. "Well, if its okay wid da boys, I's don't see no reason why yous can't be newsies an stay wid us." Jack suggested
Clatter bit her lip to hide her smile and tried to look uneasy. "I, I don't know..." she said slowly, acting as if she was pondering the newly acquired information. "Wha...what if we didn't really know howda be a newsie?" she asked hoping to be brought on a field trip with them for the day.
"Well dat's easy den. Cowboy here's da best dere is. I's bet he'sd show yous two da ropes, eh Jackie boy?" Mush grinned, nudging Jack in the side.
Jack gave Mush a grin and then turned back to the two girls "Sure I's can show ya da ropes...wait a minute...I's t'ought dat yous goyls said dat yous was newsies..." he said giving them a questioning look.
"Well, Clatter here's done it once but I's nevah was a newsie before." Windy spoke up, covering Clatter's slip up.
Clatter said a thank you with her eyes and then continued "Yeah, I's done it once before with me bruddah..."she said trailing off for dramatic affect as she lowered her gaze to look at the ground "but I's was nevah dat good."
"Well den I's guess I's can show ya da ropes." Jack shrugged. He turned to Racetrack. "Ya wanna come wit us taday, Race?"
"Shoa" he said eyeing the two girls. They looked interesting and full of life. He definitely wanted to get to know them better. "But foist I's tink dey's gotta buy some papes" he said motioning to their empty hands.
"Uh....we don't have any money." Windy admitted, patting her empty pockets.
"Yeah, dat could be a small problem..." Clatter agreed.
"Well...yous can borrow some a mine an' pay me back latah" Kid said reaching into his pocket and pulling out some money. He pressed it into both the girls' hands.
"Thank you so much!" Windy smiled softly.
"Yer welcome" Kid said while flashing her his famous smile. Clatter almost melted as she stared at him and then snapped out of it "Yeah, thanks…" she said while walking up to the counter to face Weasel. She looked him square in the eyes "30 papes," she growled as she firmly placing the money down on the table just like she watched them do a hundred times in the movie.
Windy laughed softly but copied Clatter's actions as they both received their bundle of papers and walked back over to the boys.