A/N: insert funny remark on life here

Lizza and Dutchy walked in the front door of the lodging house, and walked into mid-grade chaos. Anlu was sitting at her desk, and there was a line of girls waiting to be signed in, all carrying some sort of luggage or bag with them.

Ink looked up at the sound of the door closing, and waved at Lizza. "I told you I'd find someone to bring with me!" she grinned at Lizza.

With a laugh, Lizza walked over to her. "That you did. I'm Lizza." She introduced, holding her hand out to the girl with short blonde hair next to her.

"Nice to be meeting you! My name is Cèdre." She said warmly.

Putting her arm around her new friend, Ink informed Lizza "Frenchy here's from Brittany, that's a place in France!"

"Lizza, my girl, I'm glad you're back!" Anlu called from her seat. "Can you show these two upstairs? This is Mia and Laney." She informed Lizza, not waiting for her to agree before she went back to signing in Ink and Frenchy.

"Mia?' Asked Lizza, walking over to the two girls.

"Thad be me." Said a girl standing there with a grin that said she was sure of herself. "Mia, or Raven, it don't matter which."

"Raven? Because of your features, right?" Lizza asked her, eyeing her dark auburn hair, almost black eyes, and tan skin.

"Dat's it." Raven said with a smile.

"That would mean you're Laney." Lizza stated to an almost sickly looking thin girl. "You got a nick too?"

"About the only other thing anyone calls me is Pokey." She said, unconsciously trying to smooth down a not so great haircut that made her brown hair stick up all over the place.

"I'm Lizza." She said as they started walking up the stairs. "It's simple, really, downstairs has the kitchen, dining room, Anlu's living space, and I guess what you'd call a lobby. Second floor has all the bedrooms." She said as she opened the door at the top of the stairs, showing a hallway down the middle of the building, with doors on either side of the hallway. "End of the hallway's the washroom for everyone. Every room's pretty much the same… "She said, opening the first door on the right. "Two sets of sturdy bunk beds, a tiny closet, and a huge dresser. I think this was a small hotel way back in the day, or something, but I'm not sure. And the neatest part about this place is the windows!" Lizza said.

"What's with the windows?" Raven asked.

"Whoever built this place was a genius, and made a fire escape style wrap around porch all the way around the building, with a ladder to the ground on both sides of the building."

Both Raven and Pokey rushed over to look out the window, but before they could comment, Ink and Frenchy burst into the room.

"I won!" declared Ink, as she tossed her knapsack on the floor, and danced her own jig around it that looked like a mixture of ballet and clogging, shaking her long, wavy brown hair around as she did so.

"I don't have to share a room with her do I?" Raven whispered to Lizza, as she watched Ink dance around.

Suddenly, Ink stopped dancing, and looked at Raven, "I heard that!" she said, and just as suddenly as she stopped, she continued her funny jig for a few more seconds, stopped abruptly, and curtsied. "I'm done now." She said."

With a smile, Lizza reassured Raven, "Since there are so few girls, and so many rooms, for now, I'll just let everyone pick their own rooms."


Sitting in her favorite alley, Kyla sat with her legs curled under her, leaning on the brick wall. She was bored! Rekka, her "big friend" as she called her, because she was so much older, than her scant five years, was asleep, curled in a ball under their one blanket that they owned together. Shifting her position to try and entertain herself, Kyla ended up lying on her tummy, her chin supported by her hands, swinging her legs in the air.

"Rekka! If you're athleep, and I'm bored, what thould I do?" Kyla asked, sticking her tongue through the gap where her two front teeth used to be.

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Rekka sat up and asked, "Ne?"

"Are you awake?" the bubbly five year old asked hopefully..

"I am now." She yawned, and rubbed her eyes again.

"Why do you alwayth rub your eyeth when you wake up?"

"The same reason you always rub your eyes when you wake up.." Rekka stated.

"Do my eyeth look like yours?" Kyla asked, "Because your eyeth look funny."

With a snicker, Rekka said, "Of course not! My eyes look like this because I'm from Japan, and people in Japan look… well, like me."

"When ith yer birthday?" Kyla asked.

"It's August third. I'm twelve." Recca said, sticking her tongue out at Kyla.

"How did you know I wath gonna athk that nextht?" Kyla asked with a bewildered expression on her face.

"Because you always do, silly!"

"Oh yeah." Kyla snickered. "Rekka, I'm thtill bored…"

Looking around for something to do, Rekka patted her pockets, and found her own favorite toy, a lighter. Being a pyro, she kept it with her at all times.

"Whaddaya doing?" Kyla said, scooting closer to Rekka.

"Playing with fire."

Terror stricken, Kyla scooted away, "Noooooo!"

"Oh, calm down, there's nothing to be afraid of." Rekka said, and with a flick of her wrist, flipped open the lighter, and looking at the flame.

Jumping up with a shriek, Kyla took off running out of the alley.

Looking up and noticing her friend had ran off, Rekka shouted, "Kyla, come back!" before she stood, grabbed the blanket, and chased after her.

Kyla ran as fast as she could, with her eyes closed, down the street, until she hit a barrier. The barrier happened to be Bumlets.

"Whoa, you ok, kid?" he asked her, picking her up from the ground, where she had fallen.

"Rekka'th on fire!" she informed him.

"What's Rekka?" he asked her.

"Japaneethe!" she insisted.

"What?" he asked, as Rekka came flying around the corner.

"Put her down, hentai! Leave her alone." Rekka shouted, trying to pull Kyla from his arms.

"Rekka, thtop! You're hurting my leg!" Kyla shouted

"Calm down!" Bumlets told Rekka. "I was just trying to help her. Who are you?"

"I'm Rekka."

"I don't think Rekka's on fire." Bumlets informed Kyla.

"Oh good." She said, wiggling herself to the ground and grasping Rekka in as big of a hug as her short arms could manage. "I donna want you to burn up and go to heaven like my mommy and daddy did, then I'd have no one to take care of me!"

"Where do you live?" Bumlets asked them.

"In the alley…" Kyla said before Rekka could shush her.

"I know a place where you can stay." Bumlets informed them. "It's a place for newsgirls to live."

"We're not newsgirls though." Rekka told him.

"You can learn, I can teach you." He offered. "Follow me, I'll show you where it is."

Kyla grabbed Rekka's hand, with one hand, and Bumlet's with the other, and they followed him down the street.

After a few minutes of walking, Kyla told Bumlets, "I have a question!"

"Okay, what is it?"

"Will you be my brother? I've always wanted a brother!" she enthused.

"No, that's impossible."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yes it is!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"


Anlu looked up to see a young woman come through the door, and carefully shut it behind her.

"Hello dear!" Anlu beamed at her.

The young woman tucked a loose strand of her chin length brown hair behind her ear, and walked over to the desk. "Hello. I was wondering if you had room for three new boarders?"

"For sure! We got room for 'round thirty-five or so, in fact."

"Thirty-five?" She asked, her jaw dropping.

Ten rooms, up to four to a room, and we've got five or six so far. Of course, we aint been open long, only been open since last night."

"Impressive." She said, clenching her teeth at Anlu's horrid grammar.

"What's yer name, Missy?"

"My name is Lute McDonaghey."

"I aint never heard that name before." Anlu said warmly.

"You mean, 'have not'?" Lute corrected before she could stop herself.

"I say what I mean to say. I aint always proper, but I aint no stupid woman."

With a look of disbelief, Lute said under her breath, "Oh my." Looking around the room, trying not to look at Anlu, so she wouldn't scowl at her.

"Is you thinkin that you'se smarter than me or something?" Anlu asked.

Avoiding her eyes, Lute looked at her feet in annoyance. She needed a place to stay, and the idiot in front of her was getting into a debate over intelligence with her!

"Look at me young lady!" Anlu ordered, and as soon as Lute's eyes met hers, she quietly, yet forcefully ordered, "You will cease your lugubrious behavior right now, young lady. I am certainly not the anile you perceive me to be, so stop your condemning, it is most anserous. Do not belittle the argot of others, it is most unnecessary, not to mention excratable! If this behavior continues, you will indubitably find yourself living elsewhere. Agreed?"

Her eyes widened with shock, and she nodded in agreement, dumbfounded.

A/N: All from my copy of The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate, I did not make those words up. Just so you know:

Lugubrious- dismal, gloomy
Anile-doddering, foolish old woman, imbecilic
Anserous- silly, foolish, stupid
Argot-slang, jargon of a group or class.
Excratable-very bad, abhorrent, detestable, abominable.

Anlu smiled at her, "now that we've both gotten that out of our systems, shall we forget that that ever happened?" When Lute smiled in relief, and nodded, Anlu said, "Good, now how about your friends?"

"I'll introduce you to them later…" she said, hiding her nervousness quite nicely. "They're not here yet."

"Alright, dearie, make yourself at home, rooms are upstairs." Anlu said pointing in the direction of the stairs. "Oh, I will see you at dinner, I have to go prepare it now." She said, turning around and going through one of the two doors behind her desk.

Looking around, and seeing no one anywhere, Lute couldn't believe her luck. Hopefully, her plan would work. Stealthily she crept back towards the front entrance to the building, and opened it. With her whistle, her two friends, eighteen-year-old twins, Casey and Corey crept into the building, each of them holding his own belongings, and Casey clutching a battered trumpet case along with his large bag that matched his brother's.

"What happened, did the lady agree, what's going-" Casey started before Lute cut him off.

"Shhh!" Lute ordered quietly. For once in your whole LIFE, shut up for just a few minutes!" she said, motioning for them to follow her up the stairs. When they got to the top, Lute peeked through the door. Seeing someone walk across the hallway, and disappear into a room, before shutting the door, she waited for a few seconds, before motioning for the boys to stay where they were, and quietly tiptoeing down the hall. Judging by the chatter coming through three closed doors, she figured she should go on down the hall farther. Reaching the last door on the left, she opened it, and sniggered silently as she closed it, thinking that her friends would not want to live in the washroom. Backing up one door, she slowly opened it, showing a very obviously empty room. Motioning to her friends, they crept silently down the hall, and the two boys tossed their things on one of the bunk beds.

"I'll be right back." She said, closing their door, and listening at the door directly across the hall. Hearing nothing, she dropped her stuff next to a bed, and went back over to where her friends were.

"If we can pull this off, and have real beds to sleep in for at least for one night. I doubt they would let you sleep here if they discover you here. So that means you have to be quiet, Casey!"

"What about Corey?" he protested.

"Corey hasn't spoken as many words in his whole life as you have in the last hour!"

Corey grinned, and Casey just nodded, and stated, "That's true." As he opened his mouth again to talk some more, Lute shushed him again, and went back out of the room.


A/N:

-Matchin Laces- Aww, you're sweet! I sure hope it's worth the wait… I kinda forget that I have a story to write sometimes… remind me every once in awhile if I need it.

-Shooter- Good news, I'm gonna try and put EVERYONE in the story! That means you too! throws confetti and dances This is going to be a serious challenge though, because guess how many characters I have now? 31! Seriously! Well, that's counting my two characters, Anlu and Lizza… but still, they are new to me, since I made them up just for the story. Plus you gotta add in there that it's a newsies story, and therefore there will be newsies in it… holy spongecake, no wonder my writers block gets so big!!!

-Racetrack's goil- I love casting calls too! They are so much stinkin' fun! I love them so much that I'm not pulling the plug on this one. If there were in all reality a place like this, they would be teeming with life, and new people and all that good messy fun!

-Ink- :-D I'm glad you like it. I know it's been awhile since the last update, life is insane. (I'm sure that everyone can relate.)

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