A/N: Wow… it's really been ten months since I updated. I'm sorry? Yhea I know that just doesn't cut it. You guys were all awesome reviewers. Made me happy. But in all honesty, I wrote most of this story a really long time ago… back in my freshman year or so and now I just finished being a Junior and I feel really off base with it. So I don't particularly like it right now, but until I find some drastic way to change it I guess I'm going to keep on posting it.
The next afternoon I woke lazily to the sound of Mush yelling the headlines as usual. "Baby Born with Multiple Heads." He yelled loudly. I turned over, surprised that his yelping hadn't woken me sooner.
I yawned lazily and listened for more. I got all my news, however much exaggerated from Mush's headlines so I wanted to hear more. "Fire on Ellis Island" He continued.
I raised my eyebrow. Now certainly if that had been true I would have heard about that by now. I rolled out of bed landing on the floor on my face dragging all of the sheets with me. I sighed, breathing in their clean scent.
"Teddy Roosevelt Commits bloody suicide!" He yelled. Now that most certainly got me up. There was no way that there could be any truth in that whatsoever. I ran to the window and threw it open all the way.
"You've got to be kidding me." I shouted down to him sleepily. He turned around looking startled and slightly unnerved. He looked really tired and hungry and as if he didn't want the conversation that he anticipated was coming, but when he saw me he relaxed.
"I'm sorry miss." He said. "I thought no one was around or I wouldn't have shouted that one. Business is slow today and I was bored so I decided to make the headlines interesting."
"There's a difference between making them interesting and outright slander." I yelled back, laughing slightly.
"Oh I yell out random things lots of times." He replied. He closed his eyes to shield out the sunlight. "Normally no one hears me."
"Oh I always do." I said lowering my voice. "It just wasn't till after last night that I got up the courage to yell out and ask you about them."
"Why's that—"he started and then stopped and squinted at me carefully, shielding his eyes from the sun. "Colleen?" he asked slowly.
"Yhea?" I said smiling.
He grinned brightly at me and I giggled a little to myself. "Why didn't you tell me it was you?" He asked.
"I thought you could see me." I yelled back.
"No I mean last night, I mean well…" he broke off and looked around as if he had just now only noticed that we were yelling to each other in the middle of a quiet upper class street. He looked up at me curiously. I just pointed towards the door and closed the window.
She had been the last person he had expected to see on the warm July morning. 'You ever been in the papes?' was that the stupidest question he had ever asked in his life? He was quite glad she seemed not to care about all of the stupid things he'd asked the night before, including the bite question, even thought it had turned out amusingly, it was something he should have been polite enough not to ask about, especially now that he knew just how rich she was.
Of course he'd bragged to all the guys this morning about how he'd met a girl last night any way, even though he hadn't expected anything to come of it, or for him to ever see her again. He'd been so surprised this morning when he'd seen Trixie walk past them this morning. He'd almost called out to her to ask her about Colleen but Skittery had distracted him, and he'd thought all of his chances were gone forever.
He walked up to the front door of the gigantic house. He paused with his hand hovering above the doorbell and just looked up at it, not believing that after standing in front of the house for every single day for nine years he was finally going to be allowed to enter it. He rang the bell and a maid opened the door in a matter of seconds. "Can I uh, can I please see Miss Colleen, please." He stammered out.
The maid smiled back at him warmly, putting him at ease. "Of course you can," She replied opening the door and gesturing in. "She will be down shortly," the maid continued as she ascended the monstrous staircase.
Mush turned and looked around him in awe. He had never in his life seen such as grand a place as this, everywhere he turned there were beautiful paintings and antique vases. He looked down guiltily at his muddy footprints. The maid came back down the stairs and Mush spoke.
"Should I take off my shoes?" He asked worriedly. "I don't want to track in mud."
The maid smiled kindly at him understanding that he wasn't used to this kind of atmosphere. "If you wish too." She replied politely.
Mush didn't know what to say. He didn't think anyone had ever told him that in his life. "Yes." He said and took off his shoes. She took them from him and then disappeared with them.
The second the doorbell rang I thought my heart stopped beating. Then promptly it started again because, after all, why should it have stopped in the first place? I frantically rushed to get dressed and it took my maid and I record timing. To her protests I made her leave my hair down, insisting that I didn't have time for her to do it.
I walked slowly down the stairs pondering what to say to him. When I finally came into view he was facing the other direction staring up at the ornate ceiling in awe. I couldn't help but smile. "Hello Mush." I said. He turned abruptly and smiled back at me nervously, taking off his hat.
I went down the last few steps and automatically curtsied and offered him my hand. He took it awkwardly and gave me a slightly puzzled look and I realized that he had no idea why I had offered him my hand. I pushed it a little forward and I could see the understanding dawn on him. He gently kissed my hand and I could barely keep myself from blushing.
Once again we smiled shyly at each other not quite sure what to say. I glanced down and happened to notice that he wasn't wearing any shoes. I couldn't help but laugh. "What on earth happened to your shoes?" I asked him.
"Oh." He said smiling. "I didn't want to track in the mud so I gave them to the maid."
"I think you're the first person coming into this house that has ever done that." I said smiling back at him.
"Was it wrong?" he asked anxiously.
"No, of course not." I reassured him. "It was extremely thoughtful. Most people just don't care if they make more work for the maids and some even enjoy giving them a hard time. I've heard Mary Lou complain about it many times. She must be so pleased." I beamed at him. "Do you want something to eat?" I asked. "You look pretty hungry."
"Yes thank you." He said as I led the way into the kitchen.
"Hello Cook." I said to the cheery woman who was sitting at the table stirring something. "This is my friend Mush."
She smiled back at us brightly. "And you want something to eat do you lad?" she asked in her Scottish accent.
"Yes please." He answered her, taking off his hat to her as well.
She beamed at him. "What would you like? I can make anything."
"Anything?" Mush repeated astounded. He paused thoughtfully. "Can I have some mashed potatoes with gravy?"
The cook laughed. "Certainly you can." She replied. "You two run along and I'll have them ready soon."
I nodded and we departed. "I'll give you a tour of the house." I said, thinking about how he kept looking around him at everything and running into the furniture. He nodded and we ascended the staircase.
"So why didn't you tell me who you were?" He asked when we were half way up the flight.
"I thought you could see me." I replied avoiding the true question.
"No I mean last night, why didn't you tell me that you were the girl who…"
"It doesn't matter." I said quickly cutting him off. "Let's just forget it." I briefly met his brown eyes and then looked away. "C'mon." I said, hurrying up the stairs.
When we got to my door I told him be quiet. "My grandmother's sleeping." I explained. I opened my door and peaked in, looking about for the squirrel that I had let loose in my room. Trixie had miraculously managed to train it so it only did its business in the cage and so I had decided to let it roam free: what a mistake. The squirrel shot out of my room when I opened it and tore down the hall.
"What was that?" Mush asked staring at me wide eyed.
"My pet squirrel." I said cringing slightly at the sound of a crash at the end of the hall. "You have to help me find it." I said as I tore after it.
I chased it into a corner and I was just about to lunge at it when it went back in the other direction. Mush also lunged at it and missed. We both got up and ran after it down the hall as I watched it scamper down the stairs. At the bottom it turned around and went back up again but I had gained too much momentum and when I tried to stop I slammed into Mush and we both began to tumble down the stairs.
He helped me up when we got to the bottom. "Are you okay?" he asked concerned. I nodded and ran back up the stairs with him close behind me. It turned out it had gone back in my room to go to it's cage. I closed the door behind us and collapsed on the floor laughing. Mush did the same. "I'm not even going to bother asking why you have a squirrel loose in your room." He said finally. He got up and began to look around.
"It was a present from Trixie." I said. "She gave it to me just two days ago for my birthday and with so many adults over and then going to the show for my birthday I haven't had time to try training it to stay here." I added, still breathless.
"Your birthday was yesterday?" he said. "You should have told us, we Newsies would have done something special for you." He went back to looking around. "This Trixie of yours seems to be a real character." He said, running his fingers over all of my books. "She seems like the kind of girl Blink would like."
"Which one was that?" I asked him curiously, hoping maybe I could get Trixie satisfied with him rather than Fish boy.
"Oh the one between your two friends, the one with the eye patch." He replied. Of course.
I sighed. "He seemed too preoccupied with the fact that my other friend Gabbie was the mayor's daughter to notice her." I said.
"Yhea, he's like that." Mush agreed. "But he'll get over it. He's my best bud."
I nodded glad that I hadn't mentioned anything about how we were calling him Fish.
"Have you really read all of these books?" Mush finally asked. I nodded. "I can't read all that well." He continued. "Just enough to get the gist of an article so I can yell out the headlines. My mum tried to send me to school. But it didn't work; I'd have to stay home to take care of things when my pop got drunk. That's why I ran away."
I stared at him in shock suddenly realizing how stupid I was showing off my house to him. Why he even bothered talking to a rich brat like me who knows? Yet what shocked me even more was the fact that he could write off his family in two sentences, but before I could say anything he was off looking at something else in the room.
He stopped in front of the lone painting on the wall, a watercolor of a sunset. "That's really pretty." He said.
"I thought so too." I answered. "That's why I painted it."
"Wow, you painted that?" He said. I nodded. He looked around some more.
When his curiosity had finally been satisfied we moved on to another room. Eventually the smell of mashed potatoes drifted up to us and we went back downstairs. When we entered the kitchen there was a huge bowl of mashed potatoes sitting there and we sat silently as he ate them with a little help from me.
When he was done he got up and looked out the window at the darkening sky. "I should be going." He said regretfully. I walked with him to the door where his shoes stood brightly polished. "I guess I'll see you around." He said sullenly as he put them on. He looked up suddenly, biting his lip nervously. "That is unless…well." He paused and I could almost my heart beating louder. "That is unless you wouldn't mind if I came to see you again." He paused again. "Tomorrow even."
I nodded smiling again. "I would be delighted." I replied. "And you're welcome to come around anytime." I added.
He smiled back just as happy as I was. "Okay then." He said. "Tomorrow it is." And with that he tipped his hat at me and then walked down the steps and slowly walked off into the distance whistling the national anthem, just slightly off-key.