~*~

POV: Sapphy

Day: December 25, 1900

Time: 8:05 PM

~*~

Argh. Christmas Eve. And what am I doing? Filling out paperwork for Kloppman. I know, I love Kloppman and all, but being in the situation that I'm in - there's nothing else for me to do.

Here, I shall explain my lovely dilemma to you. To every kid in the whole wide world, Christmas is practically the best day out of the year. You get presents, you get to eat a lot, and you get to spend time with your family. But do I like Christmas? I guess you can say that I'm no longer in the Christmas spirit. It feels like. more of a chore, y'know?

Cranky. That's what I am right now. And the shouting back and forth between Duck and the others aren't exactly helping. Sure, it amused me for a while, better than looking at these stupid old.

BAM.

What the.? Sounds like someone came in the lodging house. with a much even crankier mood than me. But that wouldn't make sense if that just came from the other side of the wall. weird.

"WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE?!"

"Shut your mouth and I'll swear you'll see my fist up your ass!"

I knew that voice.

Strangely enough, when I walked out of Kloppman's office, it seemed like hell was about to break loose. For one thing, Race and Swifty were holding back some guy to the wall, both looking angry as ever. Then, there was Mush and Blink, holding up a beaten up Jack.

"Why are y'all fighting in here?!" shouted Sapphy, running out of Kloppman's office. "If you got to fight, take it outside!"

"Tell me again why you brought a Queens newsie all the way over here." said Stretch uncertainly.

A Queens newsie? Great job, Sapphy. Kloppman leaves you in charge for five freakin' minutes and the lodgers all run loose.

"Race. Swifty, what the hell is going on?!"

I told you. Cranky.

"These two chimps here." started the Queens newsie.

Race glared at him, pulling the newsie apart the wall and slamming him back against it once again. "You heard what I said! If you didn't-."

"Fist - up - ass. I got it," groaned the newsie from pain as he connected with the wall.

"Here, I'll carry him." said Itey, grunting as Mush and Blink handed Jack over to him. The next thing I knew, Itey, Brownie, and Jack were already upstairs. That takes care of one.

As for this one.

"Unless the two of you have any reason to hold him back, then I ain't helping neither of you-."

"That. that guy! What's his name, Jack! He practically barreled me over, for goodness sakes!" shouted the Queen newsie behind gritted teeth. His dark brown, almost black, curly hair was ruffled beyond belief and his matching dark brown eyes stared back at the Manhattan lodgers heatedly.

"You--!"

"RACE!"

"What?"

"Had too much cigars lately?"

"Not enough to stuff this boy with---."

Nope. Didn't work.

"The name's Michael, okay?!" exclaimed the Queens newsie. "And I really don't think that I have any reason to be here since I didn't do nothin'!"

"Nothing?!" said Mush, eyeing Michael with distaste. "The two of you were rolling on the mud ready to kill each other!"

"I was defending myself, for crying out loud!"

Okay. That's enough. Just goes to show how great Christmas day can get.

"Hey Sapphy! Merry. Christmas?" said Ershey, as she walked down the stairs, greeted by the unpleasant scene. It sure is merry. "What happened.?"

"This guy fought Jack and now Jack's unconscious," Swifty.

"WHAT?!"

Great. Now we have an angry Ershey on our hands.

"Okay, let's try and get this settled." Hah, this better get settled. "Race, Swifty - let go of Michael, please."

Now, I know you're thinking - what the hell is she doing?! But it's the only way to settle this right now. More bashing from Race and Swifty towards Michael can practically injure him. Not that I'm saying Michael shouldn't be injured from what he did to Jack, but you still have to hear him out, don't you?

"Sapphy, are you sure? He might--."

"Let loose a pack of animals, sure," I said, rolling my eyes. "He already did anyway."

"HEY! Why's everyone blaming on me? I said I didn't do anything!"

"Yeah? Then, why are you in here with two guys holding you up against the wall?" muttered Blink.

"Ershey," I said, calling her over.

"Yeah?"

"You take Michael into Kloppman's office and hold him there for a while."

"Huh? Hold him there? What do you want me to do? Put him to sleep?" said Ershey sarcastically, walking up next to me.

"Yeah, and sing him a lullaby while you're at it," joked Mush from his position on the couch.

I gave Ershey a knowing look before she could even blush and start to stutter. We've done this so many times and she just had to blank out today. Selling papes can be a risky task sometimes, especially when nobody's buying your papes. Now, that's when we have to rely on our acting skills. The fact that Ershey and I supposedly persuaded enough guys to buy our papes shows that girls can use their talent when they wanted to.

"Alright, fine," said Ershey, sighing and walking over to the trio. "Race. Swifty. let go of him."

"But Ershey, you're going to be all alone with this--."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Ershey, rolling her eyes and dragging Michael beneath Race and Swifty's grasp as she headed for Kloppman's office and closed the door with a bang.

"You think that was a smart move, Sapphy?" asked Blink.

Stretch scoffed. "Hah, well, you obviously don't know her like we do."

"You know, I really can't believe that happened 'cause--." came a voice as the door suddenly opened, a cold breeze coming in the lodging house. "Wait, something weird is goin' on."

Sage, Emu, and Ears walked into the lodging house, looking even colder than ever from the weather, but also confused. I couldn't blame them. Even I was confused.

"Ears!" said Mush, jumping up from the couch and walking over to her to give her a kiss on the cheek. "It's Christmas Day!"

"Yes." said Ears uncertainly.

Is it just me or is she acting a bit. weird around Mush? The girl hangs on to him like a kid with candy!

"You haven't been doing any. fighting, have you?" asked Ears.

"You mean Jack? Blink and I were just helping him out."

"Jack?!" asked Sage from behind Ears. "What happened to him?"

"Got knocked out. No idea why. the boys STILL have to tell me what happened."

Insert glare here.

"We'se tired Sapphy! And it's Christmas! Give us a break!" retorted Blink.

"That's not a good enough excuse."

"I'm going upstairs." mumbled Sage, brushing by past me and running up the stairs.

"Me too." said Ears, for once, looking a bit shy as she broke from Mush's grip and ran after Sage. "I'll talk to you later."

"But." said Mush, a stunned look on your face.

"Aw, poor Mushy," said Emu, patting his cheek playfully as she sat on the couch. "I'm sure she'll come running back to you."

"Right," nodded Snooza. "Time for me to leave. got to make a quick stop before Kloppman comes back." She stood up from her spot on the couch, opened the door, and walked out of the lodging house.

Right then, I saw Swifty conveniently place himself next to Emu on the coach, a sort of cheesy smile plastered on his face. Aw, how sweet! In. a stalker-ish sort of way.

"Hey, Stretch, weren't you going to show me this book you were readin' yesterday night? Y'know, the one with the words that you couldn't understand?" said Emu.

Aw, poor Swifty.

"I had a book yesterday?"

"YES!" said Emu, her eyes popping wide open as she stood up and dragged Stretch alongside with her towards the girls' bunkroom.

"And that's TWO!" said Race, holding up two fingers. "First, Mush. Then, Swifty. Who, shall I wonder, will be next?"

"Stick a fork in it, Higgins," said Swifty angrily as he stood up from his seat and ran up the stairs towards the boys' bunkroom.

"I'm goin'." muttered Blink. "It's suddenly feeling a bit cold in here." Exiting through the door leading outside into the freezing snow.

"I doubt it if it's going to be warmer out there, Blink!"

Dammit. Boy couldn't hear me.

"Umm. Mush. you still awake?"

"Huh?"

I swear, it looked like he was so interested in that little spot on the floor.

"You going to go leave now?"

"Yeah," said Mush, already halfway up the stairs.

"Knew it," mumbled Race. "So the two of us again, eh?"

I'm supposed to hate Christmas, right? Then why do I feel so happy right now?

"Looks like it. but would you be willing to tell me what happened?"

Why did we have to talk about THAT? Grr. Whaaatt? I panicked!

"You mean Jack?"

"Yeah, Brownie's brother squirrel," I said, taking a sweat next to him on the couch. Heh, yay!

"Really? The boy probably came from a different gene pool," said Race, smirking.

Ooh, smirk!

"Race!"

"Okay. okay. As usual, we were just selling our papes - and we see Jack and that guy. Michael, fighting like hell broke loose."

"Hold on, where?"

"Somewhere near the Bronx."

"The Bronx?" That's weird. "What's a Queens newsie doing in the Bronx?"

"Shush! Story first, question later!" said Race, putting his hand over my mouth.

As much as I like that right now, I didn't really think that hands full of ink and sweat over. never mind.

"Go ahead, Mr. Higgins," I said, as he put his hand down and gave me a smile.

"We know that Jack can take care of himself - everybody knows that. But Michael was just beating the hell outta him, so we obviously had to help. We dragged them along with us, both of them. Ah-ah, question later! Anyways, Michael seemed so keen to have a talk with Jack. Just imagine what would happen if the two of them met up again."

"Geez."

"I know, but I'm not finished."

"There's more?"

"Don't you just love story time!" said Race sarcastically. "Don't worry, I'm halfway there. So, Jack just falls on us, unconscious, I mean. We tried making Michael talk, but he wouldn't budge. He just kept on mumblin' about a kid called Sam."

"Sam?"

Nope. Doesn't ring a bell.

"Yeah, I never heard of him either."

"So what are you planning to do? Keep the guy hostage until Jack wakes up?"

Race shrugged. "Seems like it. Does it make sense now that I didn't want Ershey in there?"

Since when did guys get so stubborn? I mean--

CRASH.

"Hey, stop - ow!" came a shout from Kloppman's office.

"See?" said Race, arching his eyebrow at me, and then standing up from the couch. "We should go check."

"For the hundredth time, she'll be fine," I said, grabbing his wrist and dragging him back down on the couch with a plop. Besides, the voice sounded like a guy's.

I swear I was about to squeal about how he looked so cute when he gave me that weird look after I made him sit down. But that's besides the point.

Is it just me or is it too quiet in here? It's good and all that whatever happened in Kloppman's office already stopped but-

"So how's your Christmas going?" said Race unexpectedly.

"Just like any other day." I said, shrugging. It really does feel like it.

"Well, I did something this Christmas."

"What's that?"

"I came out of the closet."

Erm. okay?

"What closet?"

"That's a good question." said Race, scrunching up his face as he reached into his pocket to look for something. He pulled out a worn-out deck of cards and started shuffling them expertly.

"So. were you with anybody in the closet?"

Weird, I know. But I'm trying to make conversation here!

"The rats."

"You must have been bored."

"Well, they're the only friends I got."

Race and the rats? I don't think so.

"Aw, don't say that. What about me?" I said, teasingly.

"Looking for Snipeshooter that night was actually pretty fun," said Race chuckling. "I never have seen anybody talk like that to Spot before."

Hahahah. Oh yeah.

"Oh." I said, laughing. "Yeah, well, hearing him say va va voom was somethin' you just don't forget."

"Seeing as how you almost hugged him to death and forced him to say it."

"What can I say? I can get very persuasive sometimes."

"Don't remind me," said Race laughing. "You were very persuasive when we found Snipeshooter right outside Tibby's."

Why are we talking about me?

"What?" Am I whining? 'Cause it. "I couldn't just let him pass by leaving bugs in my bed! Besides, it was a good work out for him. running around for at least an hour."

"And then finding out that it wasn't him." mumbled Race behind his smirk.

"Hey! It was dark! Even YOU were having trouble seeing things!" I said, poking him square on the chest.

"Me?!"

"You thought Tibby's said Flioby's!"

"It was dark!"

"Ha!"

"Um. Sapphy, you consider me as a friend, right?"

"Aren't I? That hurts, Race, it does." I said sarcastically.

After a few minutes, Race looked at the doorway then back at me. "Is it just me or does the mistletoe look like it's rotting to you?"

He's trying to change the subject!

"You don't really think that mistletoe has power, do you?"

"Aw, have some Christmas spirit, Sapphy!"

"It's lettuce!"

"Okay," said Race uncertainly. "Well, what do you feel about Christmas then?"

"I don't know, Race, I don't feel anything about Christmas."

"Come, stand up." said Race as he held out his hand and stood up from his seat, a smirk placed on his face.

"Alright." I said, uncertainly, taking his hand. If standing up's going to make me have more Christmas spirit I don't know what the hell will.

"You see that snow?" said Race, leading her over to the window and pointing outside.

"Yeah."

You know, I actually like snow.

"You feel cold when you touch it, right?"

"Race, what's your point? We started talking about closets, Tibby's, and now you got me all confused!"

But all Race could do was smirk. Gah.

"Even though if you don't need to touch it, you still feel something, right?"

"I ain't inhuman, Race. I can feel. but maybe not about Christmas."

Alright, I'm getting a little annoyed.

"Yeah? I bet you two cents that you'll absolutely feel something tonight."

"Yeah, I'll be feeling annoyed by your questions and if you keep at it, you'll feel something--."

"Oh yeah?" said Race, arching his eyebrow.

"Yeah!"

The next thing I knew, he was dragging me over to the doorway, placed his hands on my shoulder. and hey! Why's his face getting closer and closer and.

Ooh.

Race pulled back, a smirk on his face. Really, can't this guy stop smirking?! But I guess if I was guy and I just kissed. wait. he kissed me! Under the mistletoe!

"Now, don't tell me that you didn't feel that," said Race as he turned his back at me and started walking away.

He kissed me under the mistletoe!!!

"AND YOU OWE ME TWO CENTS!" shouted Race from the top of the stairs.

Under. mistletoe.!

"Hey, Sapphy, did you feel that?" came a shout from the stairs.

"Huh?"

"I was just asking if somebody left a window open in here," said Ears, trudging down the steps. "'Cause it seems cold."

"Oh, erm, I don't know."

"Anyways, See you later!" shouted Ears as she closed the door behind her. "Merry Christmas!"

For once, I ain't arguing that Christmas sure is merry!

~*~

Shout-outs

Frenchygoil: yesh, she didn't do anything - but don't worry! hahah! there's more chapters to come that'll clear that up. *nod* i know, poor jack. :( hahah, don't worry, i won't forget this ff! :P

Sagey: *glomp* y'know, i just realized that i haven't talked to you online for SO LONG! ack, valentines' ball is comin' up soon! hahah! *bounces* hmm... i hope this chapter clears up "part" of what happened to jack! there's more to come! ^^

Sapphy: ACK! you can get really scary sometimes, y'know? *hides* but i still wuff you! *glomp* hahahah, and glad to see that you liked what i have! so what do YOU think now, eh?! *poke*

Justduck: hahahha, i hoped this chapter answered some of your questions. ^^ all will be revealed in time... dun dun dun... hmm, i have a feeling that calling jack a big ugly squirrel will stick around for a while. hahah. i think the skitts part was a bit confusing for you. that was when he went upstairs and changed to meet YOU to go to Maria Teresa to meet Spot. dya get it? this is all happening at the same time so it may get a bit confusing - that's why i have the time up there.