Newsies 2004

Chapter 9

AN: Woot! I am having a good day. I FINALLY finished The Saturday Night He'll Never Forget story AND I just received my hundredth review for Peter Pan: The Next Generation. So, needless to say, I am VERY happy. ((Dances))

Newsies- ((cheer and clap and smile))

Have your faces healed from the BOTOX yet?

Skittery- Yup. FINALLY! I told Dutchy that that commercial was a fluke

Dutchy- Hey! What was I supposed to do?

Spot- How about change the channel?

Dutchy- But she was so. . .informative. Your lucky I didn't order the special package, that I placed the order before I saw it

Newsies- ((roll eyes))

Whelp, now that the boys are all better ((huggles newsies)) here's chapter 9!

It was a miracle that we got to school on time that day. It was amazing we even got to school AT ALL. It took the guys twenty minutes to change and get downstairs, this time in the required material I may add. They fought over the food in the kitchen, deciding which looked better or what they wanted to take. Jordan and I made them Pop-Tarts and Toaster Strudel while they looked over our shoulders at the toaster. We gave the Pop-Tarts to them raw, meaning we just got it out of the box but we toasted the Toaster Strudel, hence the name. They watched in awe as we took the Strudels out of the toaster and put our own designs on them with the icing. Most of them were squiggles like on the commercials but Jordan made hers with happy faces.

We split the guys up again in two separate cars and, Jordan yelling at Bumlets and Specs to be careful with their icing and to not get it all over her seats, we were off. By this time it was seven fifteen and almost speeding through the city. Luckily none of us came to red lights and so we sped on. I looked longingly at a Starbucks and was tempted to pull over but knew that Jordan would scold me, so I didn't. We finally reached the school five minutes later, parked side by side, jumped out and ran to meet each other.

"Think we can still make it?" Jordan asked. I shrugged.

"Only one way to find out. Come on!" Jordan and I linked arms and pulled the guys along with us. Some of the other people were looking at us strangely and we must look like a sight. Six guys being pulled along by two girls. Now there's something you don't normally see everyday. It would have been even stranger if the guys hadn't changed out of the regular clothing. We passed Granny and Smarty in the hallway and they were on the verge of saying hi.

"Can't talk. Gotta go. Bye!" Jordan called back. Granny and Smarty looked at each other and decided to chase after us. We also passed up Floaty and Jinx who saw us leading the guys who saw Granny and Smarty and decided to chase us too. Once ALL of us skidded to a halt, we were out of breath as we opened the doors to the main office. We crammed inside and found Erin and the rest of the guys at the front desk. She turned and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw us enter.

"I TOLD you there were more of them," Erin said to the secretary who sniffed and pushed up her glasses on the bridge of her nose. Erin walked over to the rest of us, said a pleasant hello to Jinx, Smarty, Granny, and Floaty and muttered to me and Jordan, "Where have you guys been? I've been here since seven!"

"Long story, we'll tell you later." I muttered back and led the other guys up to the front desk. After a complicated two minutes (I swear that secretary is so freaking nosy! She has to know EVERYTHING! I don't give a damn if it's her job, she has no right!) we got the guys sorted into their classes. Most of them had the same class periods as we did so that meant World History was first and Jack, Blink, and Bumlets were with us. Race, Jinx (I told OUR Jinx, after I introduced her, that we would have to start calling her Miracle from now on so we wouldn't get confused), Pie Eater and David were with us in Chemistry while Jack, Mush and Dutchy were with me and Erin in Speech. Finally my last class was Gym and Race and Skittery were with me in that one.

Shit.

Race, seeing me, in black mini shorts and a baggy shirt. Damn, I KNOW that some wrong things are going to go through his mind as well as Skittery's. Race better not say anything because if he does I'm gonna kick him from here all the way back to his own time! Oh well, I'll worry about it later. Right now I have to drag some drooling girls away from the guys.

Erin, Jordan, and I took Jack, Blink and Bumlets with us while Granny walked next to Bumlets. She kept asking him where he was from and how old he was and what he liked to do and Bumlets kept glancing over at me for help. He would give her short answers but was scared off when he noticed Granny staring at his eyes. I couldn't help but snigger, Granny falls over herself for cute boys and Bumlets is pretty cute if I do say so myself. We came upon Eric and Chris in the hallway, Chris sending glares our way, Erin almost falling over because she was looking at his eyes. She LOVES that feature about him, like she usually goes on about it forever. I could smack her sometimes. Jordan and Eric stopped and hugged and gave each other a quick kiss and I saw Blink make a disgusted face and narrow his eyes at Eric.

"Hey, sorry about the other day. I didn't-" Eric started to apologize but Jordan silenced him with a kiss.

"It's okay, I'm over it. It was stupid." Jordan said and Eric took a strand of Jordan's hair, which was down and wavy today, in his fingers and began to play with it.

"I know Chris can be an ass sometimes, but he really isn't that bad. I've told him to be nicer to you girls but he's too stubborn." They really are a cute couple and it was a cute scene. They were both staring into each other's eyes as they talked, not breaking contact for a minute. You could tell they had a lot of chemistry sparking between them but Jordan was practically flirting with Blink yesterday. Does that make it cheating? I wouldn't know but I do know that Blink wasn't looking too happy with the present situation and neither was Chris. Bumlets was starting to SLOWLY warm up to Granny as they stood by themselves and chatted and Erin and Jack were talking about music and movies, Erin having to explain in an undertone what movies were.

"Dude, Eric, come on we're gonna be late." Chris said, sounding irritable. He was right, the two minute warning bell had sounded and this made Eric and Jordan part, but not before giving another kiss and promising to see each other after school. When they were out of earshot Jordan sighed dreamily and gushed on and on about how much she loved Eric. I thought that this was rather shallow, seeing as how Blink looked a little hurt because he OBVIOUSLY had a small thing developing for her. Jordan's usually oblivious when it comes to guys, even before she and Eric met.

We walked to World History and the bell rang just as we stepped through the door. I decided that I didn't want the guys to be Italian here, but just their regular selves. The Italian thing works more at home and these guys definitely DO NOT look Italian. Which makes me wonder how our dad's bought it in the first place. Anyway, Mr. H introduced them to the class after he saw their schedules and let them sit anywhere they wanted. Yoda waved to us and the three of us sat in our normal places while Bumlets chose an empty seat next to Granny and Blink and Jack sat behind Erin and Jordan. Erin had her video camera out and had it pointed on herself.

"First period, World History. The guys have survived so far and the possible couple count had increased by six. Bookworm and Specs, Yoda and Spot, Floaty and Pie Eater, Jinx and the now renamed Jinx, Miracle, Smarty and David and Bumlets and Granny. And that's only half," Erin whispered as quietly as she could while Mr. H had his back turned. Jack made faces over her shoulder at the camera lens while the rest of the class watched with interest. "And Jack if you don't stop I'm going to hurt you." She turned and Jack stopped and played innocent. Then Erin had to put her camera away because class was starting.

First period was. . .interesting to say the least. We were still on the topic of the Industrial Revolution and the newsboys strike. What was interesting about it was that Jack, Blink and Bumlets, mostly Jack, kept interrupting Mr. H and correcting him. They would add things that Mr. H missed or tell him that it actually happened another way. Now when someone does that, correct a teacher, you would expect them to be pissed right? Not Mr. H, who's smile kept growing with every fact or correction he received. I could tell he was a little irked because he was being interrupted but he loved it when one of them corrected him. After class, Mr. H wanted to know how they knew so much about this topic.

"Well, wes from-" Blink was about to say but I kicked him in the leg to cut him off.

"They live in the city and they have some family members who were newsboys." I said.

"We do?" Bumlets asked, puzzled.

"Yes, Bumlets. You do." I said, emphasizing the last two words. I was glad they were quick to pick up on this and they elaborated. Hey, they make up headlines for a living! If they can do that they can sure as hell do this. Mr. H seemed to buy it and the bell rang and we left to go to Chemistry. Yoda and Granny asked us what was REALLY going on and I said we would explain everything at lunch. They turned a corner and we bid goodbye to Blink, Jack and Bumlets as we walked down the Chemistry hallway and met up with David, Race, Jinx and Pie Eater.

"Hey, guys. How was your first period?" Jordan asked, ruffling David's hair. He frowned at her.

"Pre-cal was fascinatin'. Ise nevah knew so many numbahs could be used ta solve for X and Y." Jinx said sarcastically. A-1

"I'm with you on that one, Jinx. I HATE math with a passion. I don't understand why I have to take it since we're only required to have three years of math." Jordan complained. This was understandable, seeing as how Jordan for her freshman and sophomore years wasn't able to go to district in swimming. Last year she got as much help as she could and passed that six weeks with a very high C, something that she was grateful for. Erin and I love math to put it simply. It's so easy to us that we could do it in our sleep. Okay maybe not THAT easy because I'd rather be sleeping than doing homework. Anyway, as we all walked into the room we found Miracle, Smarty, Floaty, and Bookworm already sitting in their regular seats.

Class soon started and we had to take a crap load of notes. Yeah, MY version of taking notes was passing them to my friends. We've always been pretty sneaky about it and haven't gotten caught. Yet.

I crumpled up a piece of paper, put it on the edge of my desk and carelessly pushed it off the edge. Bending over to my backpack to pretend to be looking for something, I kicked the crumpled ball of paper behind me to Bookworm. She "accidentally" dropped her pen, bent down to pick it up while also picking up the piece of paper. Trying not to make so much noise, she opened it and I knew her and Floaty were huddled over it. I heard one of them snort, write something down, and use the same mechanism to push it back to me.

Hey, Bookworm. So what's up with you and Specs? Was my question.

Nothing, I don't think. Should there be anything? She replied.

Well you know I just happened to notice you flirting profusely with him yesterday. Come on, don't tell me he doesn't spark your interest just a tiny bit. I heard her sigh and reply back.

Damn you're too good. Yes, I am interested in him but that doesn't mean it will turn into anything.

Hey, you never know. It could happen.

Yeah. Right, I'll believe it when I see it.

That was all we could say because then we had to do a little worksheet. David drew his notes close to his face and bent over his paper. While the rest of us just talked, David worked and was the first one done. He probably got all of them right. Psh, overachiever. About ten minutes later the bell rang and I told the boys that now we were headed off to lunch.

Oh boy, this was going to be interesting. There are twenty-four of us and we're all trying to sit at ONE table. Well as you know it's a handle just trying to fit the fifteen of us, plus there were Eric and Chris. But twenty-four? So as soon as Eric showed up he pulled another empty table so it lined up with the other one. We each took chairs from all around the cafeteria and picked an available spot. Then after everyone was at the table, Erin, Jordan and I went over introductions AGAIN for the billionth time that day, but this time we explained why they were here. The guys occasionally filled in some missing blanks but we all pretty much told the gist of it. Needless to say, everyone was shocked and I couldn't much blame them. They had the same expressions on their faces as we had and I must admit, it was pretty funny.

"So, you guys are from like, a TOTALLY different century?" Mich asked. The guys nodded slowly. "Wicked!"

"What! Wicked! They're lost and all you can say is wicked?" Rebel asked in shock. Mich stared at her and shrugged.

"Sure, why not? It's not everyday that twelve hot guys fall from the sky and through your roof." Mich said, sneaking glances at Dutchy.

"I second that." Ershey said beaming at Mush who smiled back. Lunch sadly came to a close and everyone split up except for me, Erin, Jack, Ershey, Dutchy and Mich. We all slung our backpacks over our shoulders (with the exception of Mush and Dutchy of course) and trudged up some stairs and traveled to Speech.

That is one of THE MOST easiest classes in the world. On the first day of school, all we had to do was write an paragraph about ourselves, read it outloud to the class and turn it in. So far we've never actually had to do any projects. Or if we did then they would most likely be in groups and have them turned in instead of presenting them, thank God. I hate talking in front of people, it gives me the shakes. My voice gets all tight and I start to stutter and. . .well, it's not a pretty picture from there.

Mrs. Estes was the greatest teacher I've ever had so far for an elective course teacher. She's so nice to everyone and doesn't have favorite students and she's easy to joke around with. She makes you feel comfortable, but the only thing is that she doesn't accept late work. Psh, what work? We never have homework, it's great! She secretly told us that the only reason she mentioned it is because of school policy. Can you tell why I love her now?

"E! How's it goin'?" Erin asked when we walked into the classroom. Just before we went inside, she had whipped out her camera and was currently filming.

"Erin, you know I love you but please put that thing away. Or at least don't point it at me." Mrs. Estes said, putting a hand over the lens. Erin laughed.

"Sorry, Mrs. E," Erin said, pausing the tape and putting the camera down. She turned to the guys. "E, these are new students. This is Dutchy," Dutchy gave a sheepish grin. "That's Mush," Mush smiled brightly and gave a little wave. "And this is Jack." He gave a little nod to Mrs. Estes. She looked startled and motioned to Mush and Dutchy.

"Are those nicknames or were your parents hippies?" She asked.

"Erm-" Dutchy started.

"Nicknames. Their real names are Ivan-" Mich said, pointing to Dutchy.

"-And Miguel. But they only liked to be called by their nicknames." Ershey said, picking a random name. I knew her and Mich were just bullshitting their way through this and I mentally applauded them.

"All right. Just take a seat wherever." Mrs. Estes said.

"What are we gonna do today?" Erin asked, setting her stuff down in a nearby desk. Jack sat behind her (again) and I sat across from her. Mich and Ershey sat in the row over from us and Mush sat behind Ershey and Dutchy sat in front of Mich.

"Not much. Probably nothing but we have to do something so Jack, Mush, Dutchy. I'm going to ask you to write a paragraph about yourself and read it to the class and turn it in." Mrs. Estes said.

"That should be easy. Come on, guys. Get cracking." I ushered and the guys took out a sheet of paper and started to write, in very sloppy handwriting, a paragraph. While they were doing that, the other girls and I and the rest of the class just goofed off. Some listened to CD players, or did extra homework or read and the rest just talked. About twenty minutes later, the guys finished and Mrs. Estes called on Dutchy to go first. He stood up slowly and walked to the front of the class.

"Hi. My name is, uhm," Dutchy started, trying to remember his "name". "Ise Ivan but I go by Dutchy. I lives in tha Newsboys Lodgin' House wit Jack an' Mush an' tha rest o' tha guys. Ise sixteen an' me parents died when I was eight so Ise been on me own evah since. An' uh. . .yeah." Dutchy said, reading from his paper.

"Is that all?" Mrs. Estes asked from her desk. Dutchy looked up at her.

"Do I gotta say any moah?" He asked, almost pleaded. Mrs. Estes grinned and shook her head. Dutchy breathed a sigh of relief and set the paper on her desk before sitting back down.

"Uh, Mush, you can go next." Mrs. Estes said and Mush nodded and stood up. He walked confidently up to the front.

"Hi. Ise Miguel, but youse can jus' call me Mush. Like Dutchy said, I also live in tha Newsboys Lodgin' House. Ise seventeen and I ran away from home when I was ten. I likes ta go ta Irving Hall ta see Medda on tha weekends and Kid Blink is me best friend." Mush said. He was apparently done because he nodded and walked over to Mrs. Estes and handed her his paper.

I turned to Erin, Mich and Ershey and mouthed "Oh. My. GOD!" I could NOT BELIEVE that they were telling this! I mean sure it was true but it's not like anyone would believe that! I mean, who's ever heard of a Newboys Lodging House? Seriously! I could shoot myself in the foot. Erin was loving it because she's been filming the guys.

Jack, seeing as how there were three of them and two already went, got up and walked to the front of the classroom. He didn't have his paper with him but had a hand in his pocket and when he stood at full attention, he pushed back a strand of his wavy auburn hair. He looked like a model from a shampoo commercial. I could have SWORN I heard all the girls swoon. Yes, EVEN ERIN! First Chris now Jack? When will it end!

"Hey. Ise Jack but some people call me Cowboy. I also live at the Lodgin' House-"

"What is that, some kind of orphanage?" A smartass preppy girl said sarcastically. Erin grabbed Jack's paper that he left on the desk, crumpled it up, and threw it at the back of the girl's head. All of us snickered as the girl turned and glared at Erin. Erin just rolled her eyes and muttered 'Sophomores' and the girl turned back around to face the front. Jack continued.

"Right. Anyways, me mudda died when I was nine and me fadda's in jail. I don' really have any hobbies, I just sell papes for tha' Woild an'. . .yeah. 'Dat's it." Jack said and I hit my head on the desk. This was not going well.

AN: Heya guys! Oh my God I am SO sorry that I haven't updated in FOREVER! School started on the 17th and I've had writer's cube and I've been stuck. But it's mostly because of school.

Spot- I KNEW school was evil!

David- School's not evil! You just have to have the patience

Jack- Which is something that NONE of us have except you, Davey

Newsies- ((nod in agreement))

Dabid- So-rry that I'm not like you. At least I can probably get a decent job

Jack- Are you sayin' I can't get a real job?

David- ((haughtily)) Maybe

Jack- Yes or no, Dave! This isn't a maybe situation!

Uh- hey look! Clouds and uh- SOMETHING SHINY! Let's all look! ((grabs newsies and turns them to look at the fluffy white clouds and the something shiny)) ((Jack and David forget about their fight and I creep away from them)) Whew. Glad that's over. But seriously, guys. I might not be able to update as much because my parents have the "Homework Before Computer" policy or else they'll unplug it. So yeah. I hope everyone was satisfied with this chapter! Lemme know in a REVIEW! Heh.

A-1- I'm not taking pre-cal ((THANK GOD! I would seriously DIE in that class)) so for anyone who is and is laughing at my mistake. . .bite me. LoL just kidding. I was just taking a wild guess, but again I'm not taking it so I don't know what they study.

Dreamless-Mermaid

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE:

September 15, 2004

I'M BACK! MWAHAHAHA! FEAR ME! ((lightning strikes in background and evil music plays)) I got this deleted so I am re-updating it. HOORAY!