It was late. Crutchy's selling didn't go as quickly as he would have liked it to, but he had finished and he was glad to be getting home. He had gone to Tibby's for some dinner, seeing has he had missed lunch due to his meeting and helping Artist.

Artist.

His mind had been on her all day. 'Why?' he thought. 'I just met her. I don't know anything about her. What keeps causing me to think of her? What's going on?'

Thoughts continued to race around his mind has he walked on to the Lodging House. He entered swiftly, eager to get in to bed after a long, hard day's work. He said goodnight to Kloppman, who nodded in return, and began to climb the stairs. He opened the door, expecting to see newsies getting ready for bed, maybe a poker game between a couple of them, but overall a quiet room with a bunch of tired boys. What he did not expect to see was a bunch of newsies all sitting together at a table playing cards and talking loudly and happily to each other in a circle (if you could call it that), in which the middle of sat Racetrack, along with-

"Artist!" said Crutchy, bewildered to see her in the Lodging House.

"Hey Crutchy!" shouted Jack's voice from somewhere in the bunch. He stood up to talk to Crutchy over all the noise. "Where ya been?" he asked, once they were far enough from all the noise.

"I was out eatin'," Crutchy explained. "I missed lunch. Anyway, what's goin' on here?"

Jack laughed. "Artist turned up lookin' for Race at Tibby's an' came home wit' us. Race started a poker game an' Artist joined in an' well, she beat him. O'course, he put in all his money soes he's dere tryin' to win it all back, in anot'er few games. I hope he gets his money, but boy, it feel's good ta watch Race get beat fa' once."

Crutchy laughed and walked over to his bed to put his money in to the jar that he kept under his bed. He sat down after he made sure the jar was safely, back under his bed. He moaned softly, rubbing his aching leg. He was so tired. He really just wanted to go to sleep, but he knew the other newsies would think he was trying to get out of something and he didn't want them questioning him about it tomorrow.

He got back up slowly and limped across the room to where the others were watching Race and Artist.

"She's going to beat you again, Racetrack," said Chaos, a Hispanic looking girl with a slight Spanish accent who stayed in the girl's quarters of the Lodging House.

"I don't know," said Bookworm, another of the newsies girls.

"Artist is gonna' pound Race!" said Trolley excitedly. Trolley also stayed in the Lodging House.

Sure enough, Artist beat Racetrack for the seventh time that night. There were cheers and catcalls as Artist stood up to go and talk with the rest of the girls. Crutchy watched her as she joined the giggling group of females.

"Hey," he said suddenly, noticing for the first time. "Where's Pinch?"

"She went to bed early," answered Chaos.

"She said she was tired after watching Race and Artist," piped up Bookworm. "I think she's jealous of Artist. For being with Race, I mean. I heard she was Race's goil before he came here."

"I think there a cute couple," added Trolley, watching them dreamily with misty eyes. "He still flirts with her even."

Crutchy left the girls' to continue gossiping about Race's love life while he headed over to his bed. He had stopped listening after Chaos had spoken. If Pinch had gone to bed early, that meant he could too. He slid on to his bed, not even bothering to change his clothes. He put his head on to the wonderfully soft pillow and closed his eyes, wondering whether or not Artist would still be around tomorrow, part of him hoping that she would.