A/N – I'm so glad to see some of my old readers reading this story.
Welcome guys! *waves* Oh yeah, I'm curious. How do you make your writing
bold or italic on FFnet? I tried to bold it but it never works. Is there
something special you have to do? –A/N
Shout Outs!
Brooklyn Myst – Yay I hope you do stick with this till the end. I don't know if it will be as long as my next one, but here's hoping it's as good. Don't worry, Kid's tough.
Kid Blink: *flexes*
See? ;D
My dog ate my penname – How rude of Spot to say that...*slaps Spot upside the head*
Spot: Ooo. I like it when you're all tough. *winks*
*rolls eyes* I just don't know anymore...
Spot: I still love ya too Spitball...*holds out a handful of wilted flowers*
Awwwwwwwwwwww....I got your profile and yes you can be in both if you so desire!
Thank you so much girlie, I'm glad you like my stories.
Just Duck -- *bows back* Oh my goodness!! *waves hands frantically in front of face to stop the tears*
I'd just like to thank Kid Blink, the newsies, all the horrible things that have happened to them in my imagination, the people who made newsies, the hotness of the newsies...
Spot: Oh boy, here we go. *crosses arms and listens to Misery babble*
And last but not least, my mentor, Spot Conlon.
Spot: What?! I have something in my eye....*pretends not to cry*
Hehehe....I love doing that. By the way, we can post our story under your name or my name it's no biggie to me.
Jamie Bell – Thank you dear! Hah, I thought that line was a very 'Mush' thing to say. Anybody who is that happy waking up is just insane. (From the movie). I don't know how I do it either, but as long as people like it that's good enough for me.
Nada Zimri – No, no keep acting spastic. I love spastic people. Yep everyone voted for this story first so I figured, what the hay? Actually, yes I did have Gangs of New York on the brain, hah.
BrkLnLady – Thank you I'm glad you liked it! Nice to see your name again.
When Jacob woke up the next morning, he was glad to see that Mush wasn't there. As much as he liked Mush, he just wanted to be alone. The searing pain in his eye bothered him, and he let himself cry for a while, soaking the side of his face and pillow with hot tears. A nurse came in, dressed in white, young and still passionate about her job. She rubbed his back and gave him some medicine that made him feel like he was floating. He slept more, and the next time he woke up he wasn't alone.
A nun and a priest sat by his bedside. Jacob shook his shaggy hair out of his dirty face and looked at them in confusion. The nun wore the black and white habit of her profession and had steely gray eyes but a face with laugh lines at the corners of her eyes.
The priest was overweight and wore a plain black suit. He had spectacles that he kept pushing up the bridge of his large nose and he looked rather bored, and impatient. Jacob pushed himself up into a sitting position and waited. He didn't feel good; his stomach was lurching too and fro. He was rather afraid that he was going to throw up on his visitors. Then he would go to Hell for sure.
"Are ye Jacob Needham?" The Irish burr in the woman's voice comforted Jacob. He nodded and she smiled gently at him, the act softening her face completely.
"I'm Sister Mary Catherine of Saint George's. This is Father Declan. We've been notified of your father's arrest and that you have no other family here in the City." Jacob knew where this was going. No father, meant orphan. Orphan meant one of the crowded, lifeless orphanages.
"When you're healed, the city has given custody of you over to us at Saint George's. One of our staff will be by to collect you when you're ready to come stay with us." Jacob frowned and crossed his arms over his skinny chest.
"Don't wanna," he said lower lip jutting out, brows furrowed. Sister Mary Catherine laughed a rippling, light sound that reminded him of music. He looked at her curiously.
"Dear boy, I know you don't want to come, but the fact remains that you're far too young to take care of yourself." Jacob shrugged.
"Been doin' it myself so far," he said matter-of-factly. The nun looked startled and she blinked once or twice before rising, the priest swiftly following her example.
"Well you'll like it at St. George's. Until you're well, lad." And with that, the pair disappeared. Jacob cursed under his breath and plucked at the woolen blanket despondently. He had to find a way to get out of the hospital before they came back for him.
Mush came back a few days later, bringing with him some candy and a crudely drawn card from Nora. Jacob was surprised, he didn't think Mush knew about her, but apparently he did.
"She would have come to see ya but her aunt and uncle don't let her out for walks so much anymore." Jacob felt a wave of loneliness hit him. He suddenly missed her a lot and wanted nothing more than to have her chase him and tease him. When Mush stopped rattling on about nothing, Jacob explained to him about the visit from the nun and priest. Mush whistled, shaking his head.
"I'm lucky; one of my dad's girls took me in. She says I can't stay for that long, but I'm thinkin' about joinin' the newsies on Duane Street, you know Flick's group." Jacob nodded that he knew who Mush was talking about and he suddenly knew what he could do.
"Mush we have to get me out of here so I can go with you. If I'm a newsie, I don't have to live in an orphanage. I can live at the lodging house." Mush looked doubtful.
"How do you expect me to get you out of here?" Jacob thought hard and shrugged. Mush suddenly brightened up and Jacob could have sworn a light bulb appeared over his head.
"I know, we can just walk out!" Jacob snorted and shook his head.
"No really, this place is so full and so busy that nobody will pay attention."
And wouldn't you know that hare-brained idea of Mush's actually worked?
As they rounded the corner, a few blocks away from the hospital, Mush burst out laughing, slapping his knee and holding his sides.
"Told ya!" he crowed triumphantly. Jacob rolled his eye and shook his head again. He had been in the hospital long enough that his wound had scabbed over so he had taken to wearing the eye patch. He knew he still had to take care of his eye or else it would be bad and he'd have to go back to the hospital. One of the nurses had sat and drilled it into his head that he needed to keep where his eye had been very, very, clean.
Feeling happier for the first time in a week, Jacob and Mush strolled down the sidewalk until they came to Duane Street. It was lunch time, a fact which had escaped neither of the boys' attention since their stomachs were rumbling loudly. Mush rubbed his and giggled at a particularly loud growl.
"We can go to Alice's and eat later. She's home during the day she don't work till night." Jacob nodded sagely. Alice was one of the women who walked around at night wearing hardly anything. He didn't know what else she did, but she must have the easiest job in the world.
They passed by two little boys sword-fighting with old, sawed off broomsticks. One of them raised a hand in greeting and the two boys stopped. The boy bounced over, his shiny black hair framing his tanned face and his smile bright.
"Hey Bumlets!" Mush grinned back at the boy who leaned on his broomstick. The other boy who was around their age, eight or seven joined them. He had brown hair and a disgruntled look on his face. Bumlets jerked his finger at him and half-smiled in apology.
"Don't worry about Skitts, he's always like this. Don't know what happened to him." The other boy frowned even more and gave Bumlets a baleful stare.
"It's Skittery, and yer mudda, Bumlets." Bumlets just laughed and looked at the other pair curiously.
"Whaddya doin' down here? Thought you fellas usually stayed in the Bowery." Jacob nodded and raised his hands.
"That's the thing, we was wonderin' if Flick is around. We both need a place to stay, and we want to be newsies." Bumlets' face brightened and he nodded. Even Skittery looked slightly happier. New newsies meant more friends, and more people to watch your back on the streets. They led Mush and Jacob to a small restaurant with the name 'Tibby's' painted in gold and white on the front window.
When they walked into the restaurant, Skittery and Bumlets herded the boys towards a booth in the back. Jacob could see the familiar faces of Flick and the other older newsboys sitting around, eating and laughing. Flick was a hard-faced fellow, with red hair and blue, blue eyes. He swallowed a piece of his hot dog and looked down when Bumlets tugged on his gray colored sleeve.
"D'you want, Runt?" He took some of the sting out of his greeting with a smile and by ruffling Bumlets' hair. Bumlets pointed at Jacob and Mush with a dirty finger. Flick widened his smile to include them, not being unfamiliar with the pair.
Popping the last bite of hot dog into his mouth, he noticed the two were almost drooling all over themselves at the food. The other newsies laughed and picking up the two boys, made room for them in the booth, giving them what little they had left to eat. Bumlets and Skittery had disappeared, going back to whatever game it was they had been playing.
Flick lit a cigarette and leaned back in the booth looking at Mush and Jacob with an appraising eye. He could tell something was wrong with Jacob, and he was frankly disturbed to see the eye patch on the little boy. Something awful had happened to him, but he didn't want to pry. Jacob looked up and saw the leader's watchful eyes and sighed.
"Got jumped by Brannigan's boys, I lost me eye." Flick exhaled slowly, letting a low whistle. Jacob scrunched down in the seat across from him, trying to become one with the wooden bench. The other older boys were silent as well until one of them, a pudgy boy named Chowder put a hand on Jacob's shoulder and patted it silently.
Flick, so named because he was always smoking and therefore flicking ash away from him, did so and lifted his chin slightly, his hard eyes softening a tad. He had always liked Jacob's spirit, and it bothered him to see him so down.
"What can I do for ya then Kid?" Jacob shrugged slightly, but Mush had no such set-backs. Propping himself up on the table, stuffing the remains of a sandwich into his mouth, he piped up in his boyish voice.
"We wanna be newsies, Flick!" Flick grinned, showing a space where one of his front teeth had been knocked out in a fight and blew a smoke ring.
"Is that right Mushy?" Mush nodded enthusiastically and the boys laughed. It wasn't mocking, or mean, just...laughter. Jacob waited with bated breath for Flick's verdict. If the lodging house was full, they would have to go elsewhere, and he wasn't about to try to join up with Sneak's boys over in Brooklyn. That boy had a few screws loose and was dangerous to boot.
"Just so happens we have a few bunks empty. If you would do us the honor," here he made his accent falsely British and tried to look haughty; "we would love to have your company."
Jacob finally smiled for the first time it seemed in a week. He let out a relieved breath and Chowder slapped his shoulder, a grin splitting his wide face. And so it was that Jacob, re-named Kid Blink for the lack of his eye, and Mush joined the Manhattan Newsboys.
Kid Blink's first night in the lodging house was sleepless. He wasn't used to sleeping in a room full of so many boys. Their night noises were almost as loud as they were awake. Snoring, coughing, and talking in their sleep, even farting. Kid Blink had to stop himself from busting out laughing when a sleeping Chowder passed gas near him.
The next morning, an affectionately gruff Kloppman woke up all the boys with cuffs and hollers. Blink woke without any difficulty, he hadn't slept anyway. Trudging to the Distribution Center with the rest of the boys, he met a tiny boy who wore a black cowboy hat and had unruly brown hair named Jack Kelly, whom everyone called Cowboy. He also met a cripple which made him feel better about his situation named Crutchy.
"And then my parents said they'd come get me when they found a home out in Santa Fe," Jack was saying, his ridiculously large hat flopping into his eyes. Crutchy gave him a sad smile and nodded.
"Sure Jack, sure." Blink began to understand that Jack wasn't telling the truth, but that everyone else humored his dreams. An eight year old boy wearing a cabby hat darted through the crowd and skidded to a stop near Jack, panting. Blink hadn't seen him at the lodging house, but he was apparently known, for Jack slung an arm around the obviously Italian boy's shoulders.
"Heya Racetrack, how's it shakin'?" Racetrack shrugged and gave an impish grin, showing off crooked teeth.
"Could be worse, could be worse. My fadda tried to strap me for stealin' his change but I got away." Jacob couldn't help but laugh at the kid's spunk. Jack introduced them and Racetrack spat into his hand and offered it to Blink, who shook it. Race then shook Mush's hand and continued prattling on until an older boy named Torch told him to shut up.
Not one to be shut up so easily, Racetrack told him off in fluent Italian. Torch seemed to be waiting for it though, for he lunged at the smaller boy. Racetrack taunted him and darted away. Blink joined the rest of the young boys when they began to shout encouragement to Race.
Kid Blink felt amazingly comfortable with these boys. It was almost like this was where he was supposed to be all along. Grinning at Mush, he didn't even mind when he reached the lodging house later that afternoon, feet sore and pocket's meagerly filled with change.
As he sat on the front stoop with some of the boys he had met that day, Jack, Racetrack, Crutchy, two other boys named Specs and Dutchy, both blonde haired although Specs wore glasses, and Mush were all laughing and telling jokes. He heard an amazed sound and was almost thrown off of the steps when a small whirlwind launched itself at him.
"Where have you beeeeeen?!" He immediately recognized the voice and felt his heart lift. Finally, it was Nora. He'd unconsciously been keeping an eye out for her the whole day. He wondered how she had gotten away from her governess. The other boys dropped silent as he extricated himself from her arms and held her away from him.
She covered her mouth with a tiny hand at the sight of his eye, and he felt the smile leave his face instantly. She was going to find him gross and not want to be around him anymore, he just knew it. She hesitantly reached out a grubby hand and touched the side of his face near his lost eye.
"Poor Jacob, what happened?" Kid ripped his head away and shrugged his shoulders sullenly. Nora stood up, her arms akimbo and glared at him before hauling off and kicking him on the shins. Sucking in his breath in pain, he shot to his feet, furious.
"What's the big idea?" he screamed. Nora tilted her head back and gave him a victorious grin.
"You're a jerk that's the big idea." Racetrack snickered and Kid Blink saw grins on the faces of all the other boys. Flopping back down onto the stairs, he gave her a disinterested look
"Whatever, you're just a dumb girl." Nora snorted in laughter and kicked at him again, which he dodged before turning to leave. Looking over her shoulder at him, she stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes.
"You idiot, you don't know nothin'. I'll see you tomorrow."
"No you won't," Kid Blink shot back determined not to let her get the best of him in front of the guys. She just walked away and laughed and somehow he knew that he WOULD see her tomorrow. She would make good on her threat, or promise, which he wasn't sure of quite yet. The guys fell over laughing at him when she was gone from sight.
"Blink has a giiiirl---friiiiiiend," Racetrack chanted in a sing-song voice. Kid Blink punched his shoulder and the Italian rubbed his arm and made an obscene gesture at him which made Blink laugh.
"Shaddup, do not." The other boys continued to taunt him until darkness began to fall. Then Flick was outside, telling them to get their asses into the house before Kloppman locked them out.
Tomorrow was another day of walking, selling, maybe going hungry. Yet Kid Blink couldn't wait. He was one of the first into bed; eyes squeezed shut as if that would bring sleep quicker. He heard quiet laughter from Flick as he made his way to his own bunk later that night before he finally drifted off into a deep sleep.
Shout Outs!
Brooklyn Myst – Yay I hope you do stick with this till the end. I don't know if it will be as long as my next one, but here's hoping it's as good. Don't worry, Kid's tough.
Kid Blink: *flexes*
See? ;D
My dog ate my penname – How rude of Spot to say that...*slaps Spot upside the head*
Spot: Ooo. I like it when you're all tough. *winks*
*rolls eyes* I just don't know anymore...
Spot: I still love ya too Spitball...*holds out a handful of wilted flowers*
Awwwwwwwwwwww....I got your profile and yes you can be in both if you so desire!
Thank you so much girlie, I'm glad you like my stories.
Just Duck -- *bows back* Oh my goodness!! *waves hands frantically in front of face to stop the tears*
I'd just like to thank Kid Blink, the newsies, all the horrible things that have happened to them in my imagination, the people who made newsies, the hotness of the newsies...
Spot: Oh boy, here we go. *crosses arms and listens to Misery babble*
And last but not least, my mentor, Spot Conlon.
Spot: What?! I have something in my eye....*pretends not to cry*
Hehehe....I love doing that. By the way, we can post our story under your name or my name it's no biggie to me.
Jamie Bell – Thank you dear! Hah, I thought that line was a very 'Mush' thing to say. Anybody who is that happy waking up is just insane. (From the movie). I don't know how I do it either, but as long as people like it that's good enough for me.
Nada Zimri – No, no keep acting spastic. I love spastic people. Yep everyone voted for this story first so I figured, what the hay? Actually, yes I did have Gangs of New York on the brain, hah.
BrkLnLady – Thank you I'm glad you liked it! Nice to see your name again.
When Jacob woke up the next morning, he was glad to see that Mush wasn't there. As much as he liked Mush, he just wanted to be alone. The searing pain in his eye bothered him, and he let himself cry for a while, soaking the side of his face and pillow with hot tears. A nurse came in, dressed in white, young and still passionate about her job. She rubbed his back and gave him some medicine that made him feel like he was floating. He slept more, and the next time he woke up he wasn't alone.
A nun and a priest sat by his bedside. Jacob shook his shaggy hair out of his dirty face and looked at them in confusion. The nun wore the black and white habit of her profession and had steely gray eyes but a face with laugh lines at the corners of her eyes.
The priest was overweight and wore a plain black suit. He had spectacles that he kept pushing up the bridge of his large nose and he looked rather bored, and impatient. Jacob pushed himself up into a sitting position and waited. He didn't feel good; his stomach was lurching too and fro. He was rather afraid that he was going to throw up on his visitors. Then he would go to Hell for sure.
"Are ye Jacob Needham?" The Irish burr in the woman's voice comforted Jacob. He nodded and she smiled gently at him, the act softening her face completely.
"I'm Sister Mary Catherine of Saint George's. This is Father Declan. We've been notified of your father's arrest and that you have no other family here in the City." Jacob knew where this was going. No father, meant orphan. Orphan meant one of the crowded, lifeless orphanages.
"When you're healed, the city has given custody of you over to us at Saint George's. One of our staff will be by to collect you when you're ready to come stay with us." Jacob frowned and crossed his arms over his skinny chest.
"Don't wanna," he said lower lip jutting out, brows furrowed. Sister Mary Catherine laughed a rippling, light sound that reminded him of music. He looked at her curiously.
"Dear boy, I know you don't want to come, but the fact remains that you're far too young to take care of yourself." Jacob shrugged.
"Been doin' it myself so far," he said matter-of-factly. The nun looked startled and she blinked once or twice before rising, the priest swiftly following her example.
"Well you'll like it at St. George's. Until you're well, lad." And with that, the pair disappeared. Jacob cursed under his breath and plucked at the woolen blanket despondently. He had to find a way to get out of the hospital before they came back for him.
Mush came back a few days later, bringing with him some candy and a crudely drawn card from Nora. Jacob was surprised, he didn't think Mush knew about her, but apparently he did.
"She would have come to see ya but her aunt and uncle don't let her out for walks so much anymore." Jacob felt a wave of loneliness hit him. He suddenly missed her a lot and wanted nothing more than to have her chase him and tease him. When Mush stopped rattling on about nothing, Jacob explained to him about the visit from the nun and priest. Mush whistled, shaking his head.
"I'm lucky; one of my dad's girls took me in. She says I can't stay for that long, but I'm thinkin' about joinin' the newsies on Duane Street, you know Flick's group." Jacob nodded that he knew who Mush was talking about and he suddenly knew what he could do.
"Mush we have to get me out of here so I can go with you. If I'm a newsie, I don't have to live in an orphanage. I can live at the lodging house." Mush looked doubtful.
"How do you expect me to get you out of here?" Jacob thought hard and shrugged. Mush suddenly brightened up and Jacob could have sworn a light bulb appeared over his head.
"I know, we can just walk out!" Jacob snorted and shook his head.
"No really, this place is so full and so busy that nobody will pay attention."
And wouldn't you know that hare-brained idea of Mush's actually worked?
As they rounded the corner, a few blocks away from the hospital, Mush burst out laughing, slapping his knee and holding his sides.
"Told ya!" he crowed triumphantly. Jacob rolled his eye and shook his head again. He had been in the hospital long enough that his wound had scabbed over so he had taken to wearing the eye patch. He knew he still had to take care of his eye or else it would be bad and he'd have to go back to the hospital. One of the nurses had sat and drilled it into his head that he needed to keep where his eye had been very, very, clean.
Feeling happier for the first time in a week, Jacob and Mush strolled down the sidewalk until they came to Duane Street. It was lunch time, a fact which had escaped neither of the boys' attention since their stomachs were rumbling loudly. Mush rubbed his and giggled at a particularly loud growl.
"We can go to Alice's and eat later. She's home during the day she don't work till night." Jacob nodded sagely. Alice was one of the women who walked around at night wearing hardly anything. He didn't know what else she did, but she must have the easiest job in the world.
They passed by two little boys sword-fighting with old, sawed off broomsticks. One of them raised a hand in greeting and the two boys stopped. The boy bounced over, his shiny black hair framing his tanned face and his smile bright.
"Hey Bumlets!" Mush grinned back at the boy who leaned on his broomstick. The other boy who was around their age, eight or seven joined them. He had brown hair and a disgruntled look on his face. Bumlets jerked his finger at him and half-smiled in apology.
"Don't worry about Skitts, he's always like this. Don't know what happened to him." The other boy frowned even more and gave Bumlets a baleful stare.
"It's Skittery, and yer mudda, Bumlets." Bumlets just laughed and looked at the other pair curiously.
"Whaddya doin' down here? Thought you fellas usually stayed in the Bowery." Jacob nodded and raised his hands.
"That's the thing, we was wonderin' if Flick is around. We both need a place to stay, and we want to be newsies." Bumlets' face brightened and he nodded. Even Skittery looked slightly happier. New newsies meant more friends, and more people to watch your back on the streets. They led Mush and Jacob to a small restaurant with the name 'Tibby's' painted in gold and white on the front window.
When they walked into the restaurant, Skittery and Bumlets herded the boys towards a booth in the back. Jacob could see the familiar faces of Flick and the other older newsboys sitting around, eating and laughing. Flick was a hard-faced fellow, with red hair and blue, blue eyes. He swallowed a piece of his hot dog and looked down when Bumlets tugged on his gray colored sleeve.
"D'you want, Runt?" He took some of the sting out of his greeting with a smile and by ruffling Bumlets' hair. Bumlets pointed at Jacob and Mush with a dirty finger. Flick widened his smile to include them, not being unfamiliar with the pair.
Popping the last bite of hot dog into his mouth, he noticed the two were almost drooling all over themselves at the food. The other newsies laughed and picking up the two boys, made room for them in the booth, giving them what little they had left to eat. Bumlets and Skittery had disappeared, going back to whatever game it was they had been playing.
Flick lit a cigarette and leaned back in the booth looking at Mush and Jacob with an appraising eye. He could tell something was wrong with Jacob, and he was frankly disturbed to see the eye patch on the little boy. Something awful had happened to him, but he didn't want to pry. Jacob looked up and saw the leader's watchful eyes and sighed.
"Got jumped by Brannigan's boys, I lost me eye." Flick exhaled slowly, letting a low whistle. Jacob scrunched down in the seat across from him, trying to become one with the wooden bench. The other older boys were silent as well until one of them, a pudgy boy named Chowder put a hand on Jacob's shoulder and patted it silently.
Flick, so named because he was always smoking and therefore flicking ash away from him, did so and lifted his chin slightly, his hard eyes softening a tad. He had always liked Jacob's spirit, and it bothered him to see him so down.
"What can I do for ya then Kid?" Jacob shrugged slightly, but Mush had no such set-backs. Propping himself up on the table, stuffing the remains of a sandwich into his mouth, he piped up in his boyish voice.
"We wanna be newsies, Flick!" Flick grinned, showing a space where one of his front teeth had been knocked out in a fight and blew a smoke ring.
"Is that right Mushy?" Mush nodded enthusiastically and the boys laughed. It wasn't mocking, or mean, just...laughter. Jacob waited with bated breath for Flick's verdict. If the lodging house was full, they would have to go elsewhere, and he wasn't about to try to join up with Sneak's boys over in Brooklyn. That boy had a few screws loose and was dangerous to boot.
"Just so happens we have a few bunks empty. If you would do us the honor," here he made his accent falsely British and tried to look haughty; "we would love to have your company."
Jacob finally smiled for the first time it seemed in a week. He let out a relieved breath and Chowder slapped his shoulder, a grin splitting his wide face. And so it was that Jacob, re-named Kid Blink for the lack of his eye, and Mush joined the Manhattan Newsboys.
Kid Blink's first night in the lodging house was sleepless. He wasn't used to sleeping in a room full of so many boys. Their night noises were almost as loud as they were awake. Snoring, coughing, and talking in their sleep, even farting. Kid Blink had to stop himself from busting out laughing when a sleeping Chowder passed gas near him.
The next morning, an affectionately gruff Kloppman woke up all the boys with cuffs and hollers. Blink woke without any difficulty, he hadn't slept anyway. Trudging to the Distribution Center with the rest of the boys, he met a tiny boy who wore a black cowboy hat and had unruly brown hair named Jack Kelly, whom everyone called Cowboy. He also met a cripple which made him feel better about his situation named Crutchy.
"And then my parents said they'd come get me when they found a home out in Santa Fe," Jack was saying, his ridiculously large hat flopping into his eyes. Crutchy gave him a sad smile and nodded.
"Sure Jack, sure." Blink began to understand that Jack wasn't telling the truth, but that everyone else humored his dreams. An eight year old boy wearing a cabby hat darted through the crowd and skidded to a stop near Jack, panting. Blink hadn't seen him at the lodging house, but he was apparently known, for Jack slung an arm around the obviously Italian boy's shoulders.
"Heya Racetrack, how's it shakin'?" Racetrack shrugged and gave an impish grin, showing off crooked teeth.
"Could be worse, could be worse. My fadda tried to strap me for stealin' his change but I got away." Jacob couldn't help but laugh at the kid's spunk. Jack introduced them and Racetrack spat into his hand and offered it to Blink, who shook it. Race then shook Mush's hand and continued prattling on until an older boy named Torch told him to shut up.
Not one to be shut up so easily, Racetrack told him off in fluent Italian. Torch seemed to be waiting for it though, for he lunged at the smaller boy. Racetrack taunted him and darted away. Blink joined the rest of the young boys when they began to shout encouragement to Race.
Kid Blink felt amazingly comfortable with these boys. It was almost like this was where he was supposed to be all along. Grinning at Mush, he didn't even mind when he reached the lodging house later that afternoon, feet sore and pocket's meagerly filled with change.
As he sat on the front stoop with some of the boys he had met that day, Jack, Racetrack, Crutchy, two other boys named Specs and Dutchy, both blonde haired although Specs wore glasses, and Mush were all laughing and telling jokes. He heard an amazed sound and was almost thrown off of the steps when a small whirlwind launched itself at him.
"Where have you beeeeeen?!" He immediately recognized the voice and felt his heart lift. Finally, it was Nora. He'd unconsciously been keeping an eye out for her the whole day. He wondered how she had gotten away from her governess. The other boys dropped silent as he extricated himself from her arms and held her away from him.
She covered her mouth with a tiny hand at the sight of his eye, and he felt the smile leave his face instantly. She was going to find him gross and not want to be around him anymore, he just knew it. She hesitantly reached out a grubby hand and touched the side of his face near his lost eye.
"Poor Jacob, what happened?" Kid ripped his head away and shrugged his shoulders sullenly. Nora stood up, her arms akimbo and glared at him before hauling off and kicking him on the shins. Sucking in his breath in pain, he shot to his feet, furious.
"What's the big idea?" he screamed. Nora tilted her head back and gave him a victorious grin.
"You're a jerk that's the big idea." Racetrack snickered and Kid Blink saw grins on the faces of all the other boys. Flopping back down onto the stairs, he gave her a disinterested look
"Whatever, you're just a dumb girl." Nora snorted in laughter and kicked at him again, which he dodged before turning to leave. Looking over her shoulder at him, she stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes.
"You idiot, you don't know nothin'. I'll see you tomorrow."
"No you won't," Kid Blink shot back determined not to let her get the best of him in front of the guys. She just walked away and laughed and somehow he knew that he WOULD see her tomorrow. She would make good on her threat, or promise, which he wasn't sure of quite yet. The guys fell over laughing at him when she was gone from sight.
"Blink has a giiiirl---friiiiiiend," Racetrack chanted in a sing-song voice. Kid Blink punched his shoulder and the Italian rubbed his arm and made an obscene gesture at him which made Blink laugh.
"Shaddup, do not." The other boys continued to taunt him until darkness began to fall. Then Flick was outside, telling them to get their asses into the house before Kloppman locked them out.
Tomorrow was another day of walking, selling, maybe going hungry. Yet Kid Blink couldn't wait. He was one of the first into bed; eyes squeezed shut as if that would bring sleep quicker. He heard quiet laughter from Flick as he made his way to his own bunk later that night before he finally drifted off into a deep sleep.