Author's Note: I'm updating!! WOO HOO! "It's a Christmas miracle!" (Yes, I quoted Liams Kitten. So shoot me, I love her.)
Disclaimer: I own Adrienne, Lia, Gino, Angelo, Mama, Papa, Spot's mom, and Krypto. I don't own any of the Newsies, nor do I own any of the song lyrics. :-)
Dedication: A very late dedication to Liams Kitten 'cause it was her birthday about a month ago!! WOO HOO! ((hands out party hats))
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"Hello hello hello!" said Lia happily, opening the door and genuflecting. "Welcome, good sir, to our humble home!"
Gino pushed her aside. "Sorry 'bout that, she's a bit off the wall tonight..." he muttered. I grinned and he let me in, closing the door behind him. "Tony's in his room," he added.
"Thanks," I said and headed down the hall towards Race's room.
The door was ajar and I let myself in, knocking gently. Race was sitting up in bed, his nose rather pink, his bed piled with Vicks Vapo Rub, some sort of cough medicine, a hot water bottle, and about a hundred crumpled tissues. "Heya Spot," he said in a very congested voice.
"Heya Racey-baby," I answered seriously.
He managed to pull off a half-assed smile and kicked some of the stuff off his bed. "Spot, I'm dying," he said.
If he had grabbed my heart, ripped it out of my chest, and kicked it across the floor, it could not possibly have hurt more than what he had just said. My mouth went dry and I found myself at a loss for words. Race couldn't be ... Just the other day he had been perfectly fine...
"Spot?"
I found my voice. "No. This isn't possible. No, you can't do this to me, Race. You can't go dying on me, I need you, I love—"
"JESUS CHRIST, SPOT, I WAS EXAGGERATING!" he yelled.
"What?" I said slowly, my jaw dropping.
He groaned and put his face in his hands. "I'm not seriously dying, dumbass. I just feel like complete shit 'cause Lia sneezed on me and gave me the flu, and I need to ask you a favor. All right?"
Oh. I knew that.
I put my hands in my pockets and looked embarrassedly at the floor. "Sure, anything," I mumbled.
"Well, uh..." He cleared his throat, choked, spit into a tissue, and went into a coughing fit. I waited patiently, drumming my fingertips against my leg and listening to Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment by the Ramones playing in my head. "Sorry about that," he said after a minute.
"No problem. Lovely background music."
"Why thank you." He grinned. "So anyway, you know how I'm in the band with Blink, Mush, Itey, and Skittery, right? The Jaywalkers?"
"You are?"
"YES! God, Spot, I tell you this like every day and you always have THE SAME REACTION."
"No I don't!" I said defensively, crossing my arms over my chest.
"AUGH! Anyway, we've been invited to the Jamnesty hosted by Amnesty International."
"I'm Nasty Inter-wha?"
"Spot, were you and Krypto sniffing glue before you came here? You seem a little out of it today..."
Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!! That's another Ramones song!! NOW I WANNA SNIFF SOME GLUE! ... Something about something new ... ALL THE KIDS WANNA SNIFF SOME GLUE!! Then I remembered that Race was looking at me and waiting for an answer to his question. What had he asked me again? Oh yeah. I blinked. "...Why would I sniff glue with my dog?"
He groaned and sort of sank down into his pillows, burying his face in his hands again. "SPOT. LISTEN TO ME," he said very slowly and clearly. "I CANNOT GO TO THE CONCERT TOMORROW BECAUSE I AM SICK. I NEED YOU TO FILL IN FOR ME."
It took a minute for the words to really sink in. "Whoa," I said after a second of silence. "You want me to play guitar? In your band? In front of PEOPLE??"
"Yep."
"AHH!"
I kind of fell over and ended up sitting on his floor with the doorknob caught on my shirt. He looked at me with interest. "Are you really this afraid of performing in front of people?" he asked curiously. "You're an awesome guitarist, you know that, right? You'll be fine."
"Well aren't you Mr. Reassuring," I said brilliantly as I tried to get the back of my shirt off the doorknob.
"You'll get to play U2 songs," said Race, grinning at me.
"I don't care," I lied angrily.
"...You can play your baby, if you want to."
My fingers slipped and the edge of my shirt tore. I looked up at Racetrack, careful to keep my face clear of expression before I could see whether he was joking or not. He looked completely serious. "Are you ... kidding me?" I said slowly.
His grin broadened. "No."
"Are you sure you're not kidding me??"
"YES."
I leapt up, pranced over to him, and tackled him in a hug. "Ohh thank you thank you thank you I'd love to play for you in your band I've always wanted to play that guitar and now I can and it's so incredibly exciting and I love you ahh!!" And I buried my face in his shoulder, sobbing hysterically and ignoring his muffled yells of "GEDDOFF ME, CONLON" and "YOU'RE GONNA GET THE FLU, YOU MORON".
Krypto started barking impatiently outside (I had left him there when Race called from the window during our walk) and I hopped across the room in what I admit was an extremely feminine manner. "It's tonight, then?" I said happily.
"I'll E-mail you a link to the site," said Race, and he blew his nose.
I struck a pose. "Tonight — I shall be a star!!" I sang, and spontaneously blowing a kiss to him, I sort of sashayed from the room.
"You definitely have been sniffing glue!" Race yelled after me.
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"I CAN'T BELIEVE THE NEWS TODAY!! OH I CAN'T CLOSE MY EYES AND MAKE IT GO AWAY! HOW LONG, HOW LONG MUST WE SING THIS SONG? HOW LONG, HOW LOOOOOONG?"
"I feel so 80's!!" said Adrienne happily. She bent down over my stereo and turned up the volume so that we could actually feel the vibrations in the floor.
"Since when is U2 80's?" Specs demanded, raising an eyebrow.
She scowled at him — or at least tried to. "For your information, War officially came out in 1983," she said with as much attitude as Adrienne James can pull off.
"Well sor-ry!"
"Yeah, you'd better be, girlfriend!"
I watched them amusedly, the only thought running through my mind being, If I've been sniffing glue, these guys were definitely there sniffing with me.
"All I need now is a baggy t-shirt and tight pants," said Adrienne thoughtfully as she flung open the doors of my closet. "Got any of those leggings from seventh grade, Spotty?"
I scowled at her. "You know, we almost went a year without mentioning that..."
"You wore LEGGINGS in seventh grade??" Dutchy cackled, leaning against Specs and looking at my legs.
"NO I DIDN'T!" I lied unconvincingly and tucked my legs under my covers.
Adrienne, meanwhile, had found my baggiest sweatshirt and tightest old leggings and had pulled them on. (Yes, she changed in front of us. Dude, who would have thought National Geographic underpants existed?) She then bent over and pulled her dark hair into a ponytail at the top of her head. "Now I match Bono!" she said excitedly.
"Bono never dressed like that..." said Specs, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.
"No, but Spot did," said Adrienne.
"Guyyyyyys!" I moaned.
"I wanna dress like Spot too!" exclaimed Dutchy.
Specs leapt up and raised his hand in the air. "ME THREE, ME THREE!"
"This is HUMILIATING!" I yelled, running out of the room and pretending to burst into tears. I could still hear the music all the way down the hall, combined with their laughter, and caught myself thinking anxiously that Mom would be up any minute to yell at me to turn it down. Then I remembered she was out with some friends for the afternoon. "Sheesh, even when she's not home, I'm completely paranoid..." I muttered, pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes and leaning against the wall.
Little stars danced across my vision. Ohh, that one's pretty... Looks kind of like Krypto's nose. And that one looks like a spotlight!! A big yellow spotlight shining directly onto me! Maybe I should start to play the guitar! That's what I'm going to have to do tonight, anyway...
I opened my eyes suddenly, feeling like my stomach had turned to lead.
I was playing the guitar tonight.
In front of an audience.
I started to hyperventilate. I was not the kind of person who did well in front of crowds; my hands got slimy and my mouth went dry and sometimes I got a strange convulsive twitching in my abdominal muscles. Ahh I could NOT do this!!
I reached over and grabbed the phone, dialing Racetrack's number. It rang twice before someone picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, can I talk to Tony?"
"Who are you?"
"You can just call me Spot, all right? And who are you?"
"You have a really weird name."
"Yeah, I know."
"My name's Angelo, but you can call me Dot. Now we match!"
"That made my day. Really."
"Dot dot dot..."
"How old are you, kid?"
"I'm six."
"Well I'm sixteen."
"Really?? You're old. Almost as old as Gino. He's really REALLY old, but he doesn't act it. Neither does Lia. They're weird."
"Yep. So is Racetrack around?"
"Who's ... Racetrack?"
"Aah sorry, Tony."
"Why are you calling him if you don't even know his name?"
"It's a long story..."
"I don't trust you any more than I can throw you. HAHA!"
"Where did you learn a phrase like that?"
"Lia. She made me watch 'Ferris Wheel's Day Off' yesterday."
"I'm assuming you mean Ferris Bueller..."
"Tony's sick. Lia gave him the flu, and now he's sleeping."
"I know. Between you and me, I think it's a major turn-on."
"What?"
"AAH nothing!!"
"You're weird..."
"Yeah, I know. Well can you wake Ra—Tony up?"
"No."
"And why, pray tell, not?"
"'Cause his whole room smells like Vicks Vapo Rub. It's really gross."
"Ah. Right."
"But you can talk to me until he wakes up!"
"...I actually have to go."
"Aw really? That sucks."
"Hey, watch your mouth, kid."
"You sound like Mama, except you're a boy."
"Well I would hope so."
"I'm glad you're a boy. There's this girl who's always calling for Tony. It's soo annoying. She always says 'Hi, it's Bambi, let me talk to Racey-baby!'"
"And what do you do?"
"I say no and hang up. She's annoying."
"Yeah, she is pretty annoying."
"Do you know her?"
"Vaguely."
"Eww. Are you guys FRIENDS??"
"NO!"
"Good. Girl friends are gross."
"Hey, my best friend is a girl and she's not gross."
"Are you guys like ... going out?"
"NO! I think she's gay, really ... actually, scratch that, she has no sexual inclination whatsoever ... actually, scratch that too, she's in love with Itey. So we're NOT going out!"
"I think Tony's gay."
My mouth opened slightly. What the hell?
"He talks about this guy called Gabriel all the time, the way Gino talks about his girlfriend Julie. It's totally GROSS!" Angelo (Dot) continued happily.
"What is?"
"Gino's girlfriend. She looks like a math teacher."
"...Do you really think Tony's gay?"
"I don't know. He's weird."
"Cheers to that."
"...What?"
"Never mind. Well anyway, tell Tony that I called."
"Who are you?"
"Spot, remember?"
"And I'm Dot!! HAHAHAHA! ...Why did you call, anyway?"
I ran a hand through my hair, wondering how much I should tell this kid. For all I knew it was just Racetrack messing with my mind. "I just wanted to talk to him 'cause I'm nervous."
"Why?"
"'Cause I have to play guitar in front of a billion people tonight and I don't want to anymore."
"Why are you doing that if you don't want to, then? That's stupid."
"'Cause I promised Race I would. He's too sick to play, so I'm playing for him tonight. It's his band performing, y'know?"
"Oh..." The kid seemed to consider for a minute before speaking again. "Well you should still do it, 'cause you promised. One time I broke a promise to my friend Hayden, and he tried to hit me on the head with his bicycle."
"I swear I wasn't that insane when I was six..."
"If you break your promise to Tony, he'll be real mad."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. He's grumpy that way. Besides, you're a good guitar-player."
I raised my eyebrows, very confused. "Wha — how the hell would you know that?"
"'Cause you're Gabriel. Aren't you? I know you are, Tony talks about you all the time and you sound exactly like him. And he'll be really sad if you don't keep your promise and go tonight."
My jaw had now dropped so far that it was in danger of becoming unhinged. I quickly closed my mouth and tried to sound casual. "Look, I really gotta go."
"Should I tell Tony that you called?"
"...No. Nah, don't mention it to him. This'll be our little secret, all right?"
"Sure, Spot. GABRIEL."
"Aw, shut up, kid."
"Goodbye!"
He hung up and so did I, leaning back against the wall and thinking hard. A smile flickered across my face as I came to my conclusion.
I'd go to the Jamnesty tonight if it killed me.
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Shoutouts!!!
uninvisible: HAHAHA! Thank you for your detailed analysis of why your family doesn't use your dishwasher ... and thanks for the review, I love ya!!
Clover6776: Aww thank you so much!! :-D ((grins like an idiot))
Alexandra Paige: Have I mentioned how much I love your reviews? You're hysterical, and I must admit that I'm completely star-struck (I love your work, lol). How old is Omni? (I'm assuming you mean Omniscience Bookseller...) She's amazing, her stuff just kind of leaves you speechless — a very difficult thing to do to me. Thanks for reviewing, I love ya!
splashey: Honestly? I'd rather not swallow a Popsicle stick. :-) Miracle is an AWESOME movie, and The Cricket in Times Square is an AWESOME book so ... HA, I suppose. Lol, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!
nani at 12 o'clock: I FORGOT YOUR SHOUTOUT?!? ACK, I'm sorry!! ((shuts ears in oven)) And I'm sorry you don't have a dishwasher — "roach and rat epidemic"?? Surely not! That's awful! Anyway, thanks for reviewing!!
Strawberri Shake: You now officially have the yummiest penname ever. Dude, every time I see your name I get an intense craving for strawberry ice cream ... Anyway, thanks for reviewing!
Aelia O'Hession: Serious medieval torture? Sweet!! "Take them to the Iron Maiden." "Excellent!" "Execute them." "Bogus..." Aw man, Bill and Ted, my two gods. Ohh, how I love them so! Lol, thanks for reviewing!
Coin: I want to read "Animal Farm". Is it good?
mydracomalfoy: I finally got my act together and saw HP3, and I was completely in denial throughout the entire movie because I had to admit that Draco looked MAD SEXY!! :-D In any case, thank so much for reviewing, I love ya!
singin'-newsies-goil: I love you. Have I told you that? Thanks so much for reviewing!
Shadowlands: Yes. A sneeze. :-)
Madison Square: "guitar guitar guitar guitar mom MOM shit." LMAO! Omg I like fell over, I love you!! Thanks for reviewing! :-D
Glimmer: HAHAHA! You crack me up. :-D Thanks so much for the review, I love ya! (Note: re-stylized — according to my spell-check, it is not a word. Glimm: WELL IT IS NOW!)
studentnumber24601: Aah, thank you!! I changed the summary, and now I feel safe again, lol. Thanks for reviewing, I love ya!
SpotLover421: Oh yeah. YOU MUST UPDATE TJORH NOW OR ELSE I SHALL BE VERY VERY UPSET!! (Wow, that was very intimidating...) lol, thanks so much for reviewing!!
Sapphy: I hope you know that half my reviewers want me dead because I've kind of made you Racetrack's unofficial girlfriend in "The Island". (So, technically, Race's family is yours thought marriage, lol.) WOO HOO AEROSMITH!! Thanks for reviewing, I love ya!
Liams Kitten: IT'S (it was) YOU'RE BIRTHDAY?!? AAH! You know, I'm going right now to dedicate this chapter to you. WOO HOO! ((throws confetti)) All right, I did it, now my conscience is cleared. YOU ARE A NUT. Thanks SO MUCH for reviewing, I love ya!
i-nv-u50: Whoa. Dude. Not to say that my "foreshadowing", if you can call it that, wasn't blatantly obvious, but you got it all into one sentence! You, my dear, are good. ((gives you a muffin)) Thanks so much for the review!!
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Author's Note: Not the best update ... but it was fun. I just came back from a sort of field trip at Canobie Lake Park, and I had so much sugar, you have NO IDEA. I was seriously bouncing around the parking lot singing Moulin Rouge with Fishead. Half the people there — nah, make it 75% — looked ready to kill us. :-D Anyway, thanks to all reviewers, I love you all to death!!
-Saturday