A/N: I think I'm going to dedicate this chapter to all the people who lent me their characters, especially the ones who I bugged constantly on how I should make their character.
Disclaimer: Characters that aren't mine- Rooster (belonging to Repeat) Saturday (belonging to…Saturday…duh) Milkshake (belonging to padfootismyhero) Alaska, Hypes, and Mandy (belonging to Matchin' Laces) Braids (belonging to Pyro*Blaze)
Chapter 3.
So after my little conference with Eliza, I got to thinking. I thought for about an hour when I realized I wasn't getting anywhere. So I decided to go to sleep. I was woken up by a rude poke from Mrs. Yeardler the next morning to see all the other girls were grumblingly falling out of their beds and heading towards the washroom. I decided to join them, or else I would never get out of bed. In the washroom, I started to talk to Saturday. She had brown hair that went about three inches past her shoulders, I determined, hazelish eyes, and she was about my height. She was very quirky and funny, and I enjoyed talking to her. She invited me to sell with her, and I agreed. All seventeen or so of us flooded out of the lodging house and to the distribution center. Saturday lent me some money to buy papers, since I had yet to make any money.
"so where do you wanna sell?" she asked after we had bought our papers.
"doesn't matter. As long as its not near Manhattan." I told her.
"Why not Manhattan? You gotta problem with my boys over there?" she asked, with a little bit of laughter in her voice. But then there was always a bit of laughter in her voice.
"well lets just say, one of them doesn't like me too much…" I said as we headed down the street.
"Which one? I bet it was Specs huh? Tall guy with brown hair and glasses?"
"Yeah! How did you know?" I was actually surprised that she knew who I was talking about before I have even started talking about him.
"Oh, he doesn't like anyone. Even Skittery is more friendly then him. Specs is kinda like an over protective puppy I guess…" she trailed off, starting to ramble to herself. A good few minutes later, she finally stopped and asked me what my angle was. I skimmed the headlines and picked one I could embellish. To my surprise, there actually was a fire yesterday, just on Coney Island.
"FIRE ENGULFS CONEY ISLAND!" Saturday called, drawing attention from passersby. My call was similar, and we both sold about equal amounts of papers. I saw Mary on the next corner with Taps, and she waved to me and smiled with a huge white smile.
"HUGE FIRE WIPES OUT CONEY ISLAND! NO SURVIVORS!" that was my headline. Both Saturday and I sold all our papers in record time…well, according to her. I didn't really know what the upholding record was. It was too early for lunch, so we decided to wander the streets for a little while. Saturday was babbling on about something or other…I was paying attention…but she would jump from subject to subject so fast it was hard to follow her sometimes. While I was trying to pay attention to her though, I wasn't paying attention to where I was heading. We found ourselves in the middle of Manhattan. Saturday saw a short, brown-haired boy with a cigar in his mouth and ran over to give him a big hug.
"Nellie! Come here! This is my buddy Race! Come say hi!" Saturday called from across the street. I was hoping that she didn't attract too much attention to me, and that that Specs kid wasn't around. I hurried across the street and met up with her.
"Hi I'm Nellie" I said as I held my hand out for him to shake.
"da name's Race" he said as he shook my hand. I looked around sporadically for Specs.
"Hey Race is Specs around?" Saturday asked randomly.
"Uh yeah. You wanna talk to him? SPECS!" I pulled on Saturday's sleeve and gave her a panicked look, but she just replied with a wide, oblivious smile. Specs came walking over calmly, not seeing me at first.
"Yeah Race?" he asked. Obviously he didn't see Saturday or me in my vain attempts to hide behind her.
"Oh hey Sats!" he finally noticed her. It was only a matter of time before he noticed me, but it would have been a longer time if Saturday didn't introduce me.
"Hey Specs! This is my friend Nellie, she's new. She said that you don't like her. Specs, were you being UNFRIENDLY again?" she was so weird.
"hey! You're the goil who made me look like an idiot!" he cried. I nodded shyly and painfully. Then I found my guts though.
"well, there actually was a fire yesterday. So I didn't really lie. And as I told you, I didn't lie anyway." a smile struck my face as I stared at him. He just made some pathetic gurgling noise. Saturday just shrugged her shoulders and dragged me away with her.
"So what did you say to him exactly?" Saturday asked after we had left the boys-one confused and the other one glaring.
"Well, I was watching him lie about his headlines, so I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. I told him that there was a fire down the street, and he wanted to know if I promised. I said 'Scout's Honor'. but I'm not a Scout. So that doesn't mean anything. He just didn't know that." Saturday was laughing by now. We kept walking and ended up strolling into Mama Nuss's Restaurant. It was close to lunch time anyway. Saturday said that Mama Nuss's is to Queens as Tibby's is to Manhattan. When we got there, we sat down at a table with Striker, Tails, Milkshake, Alaska, Hypes, and Mandy. Alaska, Hypes, and Mandy could very well be sisters. Except for the fact they looked nothing alike. They did everything together and were virtually inseparable. Alaska had light brown hair, almost translucent blue eyes, and was about five foot two. Hypes, on the other hand, was about six feet tall, but still with light brown hair and blue eyes. Mandy was five foot three and had dark brown hair that ended at her shoulders and dark chocolate eyes. The girls had very different personalities as well. You'd think that they would clash, but they just complimented each other (A/N: sounds like they are clothes huh?) Alaska was quiet, Hypes was well…hyper, and Mandy was very loud and outspoken. Tails was Striker's sister. Her twin in fact. Not identical though, so I didn't realize it until they told me. Tails had strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes, and was about 5'4". Striker had red hair, green eyes, and was about 5'7". she looked more like Rooster, who had almost the same description, but Rooster had very green, almost florescent eyes while Striker's were a little duller. Milkshake was Tails' best friend. Milkshake had light brown hair, hazel eyes, and was about two inches shorter than Tails. Both of the girls were quiet, but Milkshake could take any guy and beat the crap out of them any day if she had to. While waiting for our food, we got to talking.
"Hey guys guess who Nellie and I talked to today!" Saturday announced. She then went into detail about our conversation today, and what I had said to Specs the first time I had met him.
"Haha! Our little Scout!" Rooster said, laughing.
~**~
"Hey guys! I just got a great idea!" Striker announced from Tails' bunk.
"Uh oh" Braids grumbled from her bunk. Striker shot her a look telling her to watch her mouth, then preceded to explain her idea.
"Let's go down to Brooklyn Harbor! It's a great night and it's a waste to be stuck inside when you're as hyper as I am right now!"
"I'd love to go!" Milkshake answered enthusiastically.
"Ah, that's just because you wanna see Spot!" Rooster cried as she threw her pillow at her. The two girls continued to argue playfully.
"Who's Spot?" I quietly asked Saturday.
"Da leader of Brooklyn. Datin' Milkshake. She's da only one 'ere who's had more den one newsie boyfriend. She's just a sucker for woikin boys I guess." I laughed a little, then I realized that this was my opportunity to talk to Eliza.
"You comin' Scout?" I didn't realize that Saturday was talking to me.
"Huh?" I asked cluelessly.
"You comin' to Brooklyn with us?" she asked again, though she didn't sound the least bit irritated by my flakiness.
"Uh, I'll meet you there." she shrugged and got up to join the other girls as they left the bunkroom. As soon as they were all gone, I slowly walked over to Eliza's bunk, where she sat staring at the wall.
"Eliza?" no answer. I obviously wasn't expecting an answer, but I still had to try.
"last night you said that I knew you, but you didn't tell me from where." she turned to look at me, and I saw deep into her dull bluish-gray eyes. that's when I realized where I knew her from. I remembered her now.
*flashback*
I was walking down the street, when I saw my father there. He was standing, cornering a young girl with black hair into an alley. I ducked out of sight, but still watching him. He laughed cruelly, and unbuckled his belt. I didn't want to see anymore. I got up and ran, but not before I had caught the eye of the terrified girl. She looked deep into my eyes, pleading for help. I didn't know what to do though. I wasn't myself. I just ran, not thinking about what my father was about to do to her. I ran all the way home, tears streaming down my red face. I always knew my father played around, but I didn't think he would go as far as to rape innocent girls. My father hadn't seen me, and I knew I couldn't tell anyone. He never liked me much, and I was pretty confident that he wouldn't hesitate to dispose of me.
*end flashback*
"Oh my God." that was all I could say. I didn't know what to do again. But she did. She nodded, knowing that I remembered. Then she nodded towards the door, telling me to go to Brooklyn Harbor. So I went. I couldn't think of any words to say to Eliza, and I really could use the long, lonely walk to the docks of Brooklyn to think. I had blocked that day out. I mean, who wouldn't block out the memory of their dad raping some girl? Then a thought hit me. Her baby and I shared a father.
A/N: please! Review! Now! I'll love you forever if you do!!!
Shout-outs:
*Saturday- I hope you approve of how I used you! Lol. I made you a lot like Famous actually…hope you liked it!
*Padfootismyhero- thanks for Milkshake! I hope you are okay with how I perceived her!
*Matchin' Laces- thanks for your characters!
*Blue Boxer- I know you reviewed! I'm such a blonde, I thought Trinny was the only one to review because I didn't see your review alert email when I was typing it up! I went back and looked at my reviews online, and I saw you were one of my two reviews! Very sorry!
*Pyro*Blaze- Thanks for your character!
*Miserylovescompany- I'm sorry I didn't use any of your characters in this chapter. Maybe if I need some later on, I'll ask you for them. So many people applied for it at once I didn't have a chance really to add them all in. sorry!
*Sparks- sorry I didn't use your character…maybe I'll add her in later.
*piratechic- sorry I haven't used your character yet…I shall get around to it. One-liner maybe. Your review was so interesting! I love Pink Floyd! My brother made me listen to it once and after that I stole his CD and refused to return it. Lol.
*Trinny- that's ok! You still haven't sent me the info though!
*Specs-65- thank you for reviewing both of the chapters!
*DodgerMcClure- I may be asking you for the character later on. Thanks for reviewing though!
Wow….I had a lot more reviewers than I thought! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I love you all!!! Thank you again! Much love,
~!~Scouters~!~