A/N: thanks to everyone who reviewed. We apologize for our bad New York accents, we ain't from dere! SBM

Chapter 3

The boys awoke to the heavy drumming of a rain outside. They groaned as they got ready for the day.

"I don't feel like sellin' t'day," Skittery mumbled, throwing water on his face.

Specs tapped him on the shoulder causing Skittery to jump. Specs chortled, and then said, "quit bein' in a bad mood."

"Well, can ya blame 'im?" Dutchy asked, joining the conversation. "Dis weadda (A/N :Weather) ain't good foah sellin'."

"Stop complainin'," Jack ordered, waltzing into the room and claiming the largest sink for himself. "And, Skittery, smile once in a while, huh," he added.

Skittery made a face at him. Turning back around, he gasped. "Whoa! What happened to youse?" He asked as Mush entered the room, his right eye, puffy, swollen and black.

Blink entered a moment later, and the washroom was silent. All eyes inspected his various cuts and bruises, his bloody swollen lip and his one good eye, just like Mush's, swollen, and bruised.

"Charlie and his boys woiked dem ovah last night," explained Jack, lowering his voice so that Charlie wouldn't hear from the adjacent room, where he was, hopefully, still asleep.

Racetrack began pressing them for more details and Mush found himself relaying the tale from the first moment to the last. Blink made sure to fill in parts that Mush was skimpy on.

"All I knows is," said Blink, when the story was finished, "dat punk had bettah watch 'is back, 'cause next time he gets in my way, I'll kill him."

His statement caused nervous laughter amongst the newsies, who went back to their morning routines.

"How many papes t'day, Mush?" Blink asked. His swollen mouth barely moved as he spoke the words. He pulled on his boots and then waited while Mush did the same.

"I just wants it to go by fast. I say, thoity," Mush yawned.

Blink was just pulling on a shirt when Charlie walked by, and knocked him backward onto the nearest bed which belonged to Snoddy. Unfortunately for Snoddy, he was still in the bed, and when Blink landed on top of him, he groaned and sat up, smacking his head on the bottom of Skittery's bed above him.

Charlie's maniacal laughter rang through the room. Mush made a face at Charlie's back, and then hurried to help Blink to his feet. Blink muttered an apology to Snoddy, who was rubbing his reddening forehead.

"Just ignore him," Mush mumbled, holding his aching jaw.

"Let's get outta heah," Blink said, throwing an arm around Mush's shoulders.

It was very wet outside, especially as the newsies stood in line for their papers. The rain fell onto them in sheets and they were drenched within a few seconds.

Skittery and Snoddy arrived later than usual. Blink heard Skittery yelling at Snoddy as they stepped into the end of the line. "If you would have just woken up when youse supposed ta, we wouldn't hafta be in da back."

Snoddy looked shamefully at his feet.

Blink laughed at the two boys, and made sure to utter a cheerful greeting to them as he passed. Skittery grumbled some reply, his eyes boring holes into Snoddy's back, and Snoddy continued to stare at the ground.

"Poah Snoddy," Mush observed, putting the last fold into his paper hat which he stuck on his head, proudly.

"Dat looks good on ya, Mushie," complimented Blink with a smirk.

"T'anks! I'se hopin' maybe to catch me a lady or two t'day."

"Won't be a problem for you, Mushie boy," Jack grinned walking by with his large stack of papers tucked into his vest for protection from the rain.

Mush rolled his eyes. "Come on. Da soonah we sell dese, da soonah wese can get dry."

They made very sure to steer clear of Charlie's territory. Blink's bruises throbbed as the rain pelted his face. There weren't many people in the streets today and hadn't even sold half of their papers by late afternoon.

Mush left arm in arm with another lady, still wearing his paper hat which by now was soaked so thoroughly it only looked like a mushy pile of wet newspapers plastered to his head.

Blink splashed back to the lodging house, managing to sell four more papers on the way. When he entered, most of the other boys had already returned as well. Racetrack had a few of the younger boys sitting around a table and was explaining the rules of poker to them.

"Heya Blink," greeted Snoddy, on his way out the door.

"Hey, Snoddy. Where's Skittery?"

Snoddy nodded to the stairs. "He's up dere, poutin'."

Blink grinned and then settled on the stairs to observe the game. It wasn't really much of a game though. Basically, the younger boys kept putting their money on the table, and Race kept taking it.

When it was over, the boys sauntered up to the bunkroom, their pockets much lighter, while Race greedily counted and then pocketed his money.

"So how much did ya win?" Blink asked when Race stood up to leave.

Race stared at him for a moment and then replied, "Three dollars. Dat's close to a weeks woik." He continued to stare at Blink as though wanting to ask him something.

Finally Race asked, "So what's wrong wit yoah eye?"

"Huh?" The question had come out of no where and Blink had hoped that it would be a while before he had to answer questions about it.

"I mean, are ya fakin' or what?"

"No, I ain't fakin'. It's just a bum eye, dat's all."

Racetrack considered his answer as a few of the other boys crowded closer. Blink remembered the smallest one, was Snipeshooter, and the really tall one was Snitch.

"I don't believe ya. Why don't ya take dat t'ing off and show us?"

"Ya just gotta trust me." Blink was on his feet, prepared to leave.

"We won't trust ya till ya shows us."

"Den don't trust me. Like I care."

Blink wasn't fast enough. In a second, Racetrack had him pinned to the floor. Snitch sat on Blink's legs, while Snipeshooter held down his flailing arms. The few other boys in the room cheered Race on.

"Stop!" Blink shouted, alerting the boys upstairs that something wasn't right. "Come on, just show us, den we'll leave youse alone."

Blink tried to yank himself free from the boys but they held firm. Racetrack reached for Blink's patch.

"Stop, please!" Blink pleaded.

Suddenly the patch was off and Blink slammed his eyes shut as tightly as he could, while Race tried to see exactly what was wrong with Blink's eye.

"What's da big idea?" a voice shouted from the stairs. The three boys immediately let Blink up. Blink ran from the room, not even acknowledging the person that had come to his rescue. He held a hand over his eye and hurried into the alley beside the lodging house.

The rain had stopped but the ground was still wet when he sat down with his back against the wall, and buried his face in his hands. His knees were drawn up to his chest. That wasn't the way he had wanted them to find out.

"Heah ya go, Kid."

Blink looked up, his hand still over his eye, at the boy, Skittery, who was holding out his eye patch.

"T'anks," Blink said quietly, keeping his bad eye closed tight. Skittery sat down beside him.

"So, da guys, dey uh, told me what happened. Dey said dey ain't seen nothin' wrong wit yoah eye and dey have ya figgered foah a fake."

"I ain't a fake," Blink snapped defensively. He tightened the string that held his patch in place.

"I nevah said ya was a fake."

Blink looked up at Skittery. "I'se got two eyes," he explained. "One just don't woik so well."

"What's wrong wit it?"

Blink hesitated for a moment. It was about time he showed someone, he decided. He reached up and yanked the patch off, revealing his bad eye which looked perfectly normal except that it twitched uncontrollably. It was hard for him to see out of that eye as well.

"Can ya see out of it?" Skittery asked, waving his fingers in front of the eye. "Not really," Blink answered pulling the patch back in place.

The two boys sat in profound silence for a moment. "Hey Blink, dat ain't so bad. See dis heah?" he gestured to his right ear. "I can't heah so well outta dis one. No one knows 'cept Snoddy, and now you."

Blink looked up at him again. "How did dat happen?" he asked.

"Once when me and Snoddy was young, he bein' da show off and all decided he was gonna swim across da rivah to impress a bunch a goils on da docks." Skittery laughed at the memory. "Stupid punk forgot dat he couldn't swim so great. So I had ta go in dere meself ta save 'im. But da water was freezin' cold and I lost me hearin' on dis side."

"Sorry about dat," Blink said sympathetically, feeling slightly guilty about complaining about his eye.

"Dat's how I got me nickname. Da guys is always sneakin' up on me and I'se can't heah dem comin' so I gets a little jumpy. Don't let dem get ta ya." Skittery stood up and began walking away. "If you'll excuse me, I'se got ta see a goil about a dog." Then he was gone.

Blink headed to Central Park, and found an unoccupied bench. He sat there late into the night. He might have been getting over the whole eye thing, but he still wasn't ready to face the boys.

He had started to doze off when a familiar duo of voices approached. He looked in the direction of the voices and saw Snoddy once again, half carrying, half dragging a drunken Skittery, who was singing loudly some song that he had obviously made up on the spot. "Sing wit me, Snoddy!" He shouted, laughing.

Snoddy sighed. "I don't know dis one, Skitts."

"Dat's okay pal! Neit'ah do I!" He laughed harder. "Walk fastah Snoddy! Youse fallin' behind!"

Blink watched them pass by oblivious to his presence, Skittery's shouts fading into the distance.

Blink sat in the silence for a while longer and then retraced his path back to lodging house, pulling his skimpy jacket tighly around him as a bitter wind pierced the air.

Mush woke up to the sound of a very drunk Skittery stumbling in to the bunk room. "Leave me alone, Snoddy. I can find me own bed."

"Shhh. Skitts you'll wake da uddahs."

"Who cares about da uddahs. Dey don't wanna be waked, dey shouldn't be sleepin'."

"Come on Skitts," Snoddy whispered. "You take dis bed."

"Ain't mine."

"Just take it."

Skittery refused. He stood with his arms folded and his head pointed up, swaying slightly.

"Tell ya what, Skitts. I'll let ya have yoah own pillow and yoah own blanket."

"I just wants me own bed."

"Okay," Snoddy tried to make his whisper sound defeated. "You win. Sleep heah."

"Okay." Skittery climbed into the bed Snoddy had been trying to get him into, and fell asleep just as his head hit the pillow.

"He get dumped again?" Mush whispered into the darkness.

"How'd ya guess?" Snoddy climbed into the top bunk and settled himself in.

There was silence for a moment and then Skittery's groggy voice, "Snoddy?"

"What?"

"I want me squayah (A/N:square)."

Snoddy threw down the small blanket and Skittery mumbled his thanks.

A/N: We love our Skittery! He's so moody! Please review! For us?