Newsies 2004?

Chapter 1

AN: The awaited chapter one is finally heah! ((cheers))

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Newsies or anything associated with it. I only own Jordan ((obviously because I am Jordan)) and Kayla. Everyone else owns themselves. . .let's hope so at least, haha.

The three of us entered the school and were greeted with a blast of shouts, shrieks, and noises that no one should have to deal with this early in the morning. I grabbed my best friends and dragged them into the, also annoyingly noisy, cafeteria.

"I'm going to get some coffee. Be back in a sec." I shouted over my shoulder to Jordan and Erin. I walked through the lunchroom, darting around people and out of place chairs. I spotted Eric over in a corner of the room talking with his best friend Chris. Ugh. . .Chris. The bastard. . .No, no we'll get to that later. Must focus on the caffeine.

I had to push my way through just to get to the damn line, which only had one occupant.

"Yoda! My little Star Wars obsessed girly! What's going on?" I asked a girl, a little shorter than me with brown hair that decided to be straight today and hazel eyes. She turned and smiled at me. Her real name isn't Yoda it's Mikhala, but ever since I found out she worships Star Wars I've called her that. Plus she's short and wise. . .Kinda fits, don't you think? Only. . .she doesn't have the whole green skin thing going on.

"Not much. Did you finish your homework for H yet?" She asked. Mr. H is our World History teacher. Yeah I know, World History is a class that sophomores take but I had a good excuse! So does Yoda I think but it's not really my business so we won't go there. I was taking the class during my actual sophomore year, but in the middle of the second semester I got in a really bad car accident. I was a mess: My right arm was broken, my back was crushed (though not so crushed as to leave me handicapped) and I obtained many cuts and bruises, not to mention a slight concussion. It was so bad that I couldn't finish the rest of the year. In order for me to get credit for my required classes, I took night school during my junior year, three classes a week. I almost didn't pass my junior year, having to keep up with night class homework and regular homework. I completed all of my night school classes, except World History, when the damn teacher goes and gets herself fired. With no other options left, the school made me take World History ALL OVER AGAIN this year.

Now do you see why I hate this school so much?

ANYWAY, back to Yoda. . .

"Yeah, barely. I stayed up until one last night finishing it. It's only been a month of school and already we have a paper due! Injustice, I tell you!" I shouted, shaking my fist. Yoda laughed.

"Why the hell are you so hyper this morning? Isn't that my job?" She asked, paying for her coffee. I shrugged and ordered a coffee myself and paid for it. We walked back toward Erin and Jordan together.

"I haven't had my coffee yet so I'm not awake." I said. Believe it or not, coffee actually calms me down. It wakes me up, but it makes me calm and focused. We made our way to our usual table and I spotted Ariana or Miracle or preferably Jinx as we all call her, walk up to us and slam her bag down on the table. She's a senior like us and she's pretty tall, around Erin's height. She has short black and red hair that she says is naturally colored, but I secretly think it's dyed. I've never known what kind of color eyes she has because she can make them change at will. They mostly stay at a dark hazel, but today they looked about a shade to match her hair.

"What's wrong, Jinx?" Erin asked, stealing a sip of my coffee. I swatted at her hand and she stuck her tongue out at me. Jinx sighed angrily and pulled out a chair roughly and plopped down into it. She banged her head on the table.

"They took away my goddamn wallet! Just because it had a fucking chain on it! Can you believe that?" Jinx fumed. We all nodded.

"Dude, this school is totally screwed up." Jordan agreed.

"When did this happen, Jinx?" Yoda asked. At that moment, Erin threw her backpack on the table and pulled out a video camera. She immediately switched it on and pointed it directly at Jinx. Jinx took her forehead up from the table and put her hand on her cheek and her elbow on the table and leaned into her hand, oblivious to the camera.

"Just now. One of the Hall Nazi's got me. She saw the chain and ordered me to empty out my pocket. I asked why and she told me to do it so I did and apparently she got pissed and took it." Jinx muttered.

"You gonna get it back?" I asked, taking a careful sip of my coffee so as to not burn my tongue. The last time I did that, I paid the price. I think I still have some taste buds missing. I glanced at Erin and rolled my eyes.

"I damn well better! That's my wallet and it has my money and my credit cards and my driver's license in it!" Jinx said. She sighed angrily again and reached for her backpack and pulled out her CD player. She slapped in her earphones and turned up the volume on her player. I could hear Nirvana from the other side, even with all the noise in the cafeteria. I took this opportunity to turn to Erin, whose camera was still going.

"Do you have to have that thing out at every opportunity?" I asked, pointing to the camera. Erin nodded, now turning it on me.

"Of course. How do you expect me to make my award winning film? I need to start somewhere." Erin said. I rolled my eyes again and turned to talk to Jordan and Yoda, keeping my distance from Erin as she filmed the crowd of kids around us.

Jinx sulked for the rest of the morning, which wasn't long because ten minutes later the bell rang for first period.

"Shit, where is it? Oh my God I'm screwed!" Jordan cried throwing papers and books aside in her backpack. I looked over.

"What's up?" I asked, sipping on my caffeine. I'm surprised I wasn't told to throw it away when we were in the hallway. A few teachers like to patrol the halls through Passing Period, we call them the Hall Nazi's. If they spot one soda bottle or chip bag or even the smallest bag of candy possible, they pounce on you like a predator to its prey. You get an extreme tongue-lashing, not to mention your prized possession that you've just spent half of your lunch money taken up and thrown away. And it's not just food, it's anything that they think is not appropriate in school, for example, Jinx's chain. I must have been pressed between a huge crowd or something because that's practically the only way to avoid the Hall Nazi's if you have something to hide.

Yoda had finished her coffee way before the bell rang, but I find that I like to savor my morning jumpstart.

"I can't find my paper for H! I stayed up until three at Granny's house writing it!" Jordan exclaimed, now starting to throw things out of her backpack.

"Well that's your own damn fault isn't it, Hollywood?" A voice said from above her. Jordan looked up at the mention of her nickname. The nickname that I gave Jordan and one that suits her well, since she wants to become an actress. That shouldn't be very hard of achieving.

"Granny! Thank God you're here! Do you know if I left my paper at your house last night?" Jordan asked hopefully. Granny nodded and unzipped her backpack, reached into it and took out two pieces of paper that were stapled together. Jordan jumped up and leaped over her desk and took Granny into a huge hug. "Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! You are my hero!" Jordan shouted grabbing the papers and jumping back in to her own desk. Granny stumbled backwards and smiled and laughed.

Granny. . .Now there's an interesting nickname. Her real name is Megan but Jordan gave her the nickname Granny because. . .well she acts like a granny! She spoils people way too much, she loves to make people laugh and she's ALWAYS smiling. Sometimes I want to punch her for her perkiness. Even on the gloomiest of days she still manages to be happy. But then again she makes people laugh and everyone feels better but STILL! She has long wavy light brown hair, with electric blue highlights, which would look weird on someone else but I find it to be very cool on her. She has big brown-yellow eyes, like cat eyes, which are also pretty cool. Let's face it, Granny's just a cool person. She's fifteen, a sophomore meaning that me, Jordan, Erin and Yoda are the only seniors in the class. Granny is pretty awesome for being a sophomore.

"Hollywood, you're so forgetful! I'm not bringing anything to you the next time you forget it." Granny scolded, trying to put on a serious face. I knew she couldn't hold it in because she laughed. Suddenly a loud ringing sounded from above us, signaling the start of class. A man walked into the classroom and closed the door. None of us paid attention to him, he just started writing things on the board, and one by one we each scrambled to our seats.

"I hope everyone finished their papers on the Civil War. I'm not going to give you any more time to make any extra changes, I want them turned in after we do our preview," Mr. H. said, writing our preview on the board. "And I also want that camera turned off now please, Erin." She grinned, doing as he instructed, earning silent giggles from Jordan, Yoda and I.

We have to do this thing every morning where he writes a question about what we're studying and we have to write down our opinion in a notebook ((AN-1)). It's pretty stupid, but whatever. The question was: Imagine yourself as a newsboy or a newsgirl in 1899. What do you think you would have to do in order to sell a paper? How would you live your life? I frowned at this question. Why does it matter? It's 2004 and I'm not a newsgirl. But I wrote down my opinion anyway, a load of bullshit, and closed my notebook. Once Mr. H was done writing everything else on the board he set down the chalk and turned to us. "So, does anyone have any answers?"

The room was silent. I looked over at Yoda and rolled my eyes. She covered her mouth to keep her laughter from escaping. "No one has anything at all?" He asked again. Jordan's hand went up. "Yes, Jordan?"

"Well, the newsies back then didn't really have a lot of fine living. They mostly slept on the streets and if they could they would pay for nights at a lodging house. Most were homeless or runaways or some had families that couldn't work anymore so they depended on the oldest to bring in the money." Jordan explained. Mr. H was positively beaming.

"Excellent answer, Jordan! Excellent! She's right, most boys, and they mostly were boys as only a handful were girls, were homeless. Now what exactly is a 'newsie'?" Jordan's hand shot up again. She was becoming a regular Hermione.

"A newsie is someone who sells newspapers. They existed before the machines we have today where you just stick your money in." Jordan said.

"Right again, Jordan. Everyone hand in your papers and then open your book to page two-oh-two, read the article and answer the questions that follow. If we have time we'll discuss the questions, if not and you don't finish they are for homework and I expect them handed in the next time we meet." Mr. H said and everyone groaned, I among them. We got homework every day from Mr. H. Amidst the crowd, I hid myself and slipped down into my seat and took a sip of my coffee then slid it behind my backpack. I stood up and went to the side of the room to turn in my paper.

Mr. H walked past me to get to his desk and when he did he leaned over and muttered,

"Oh and Kayla, after you turn that in, make sure to throw away that coffee mug that is so discreetly hiding behind your backpack." He said it with amusement. I scowled after him but grinned. Damn he was good.

AN: I hope you guys enjoyed chaptah one! I know I said everyone would be introduced, but heh, I lied. I thought I was going to do that, but I couldn't after I wrote the chaptah. Sorry! ((dodges shoes and rotten fruit)) I know you guys who weren't mentioned in this one will be in the second one. The boys are coming up soon, don't worry. PLEASE REVIEW! Thanks!

DreamlessMermaid