"So, ah…what is tibbys anyway?" royal asked quizzically once they had exited the park.
"aw its nuthin' much, alittle dinner the newsies go to for lunch…sometimes supper too. Its cheap so…don't dig into yours pockets… Ya know what I mean?" she nodded only before realizing he meant it retoriclly.
"So…ah, tell me alittle bout you. I've already said everythin' there is ta know bout me."
He looked at her exspectantly, his arm still wrapped around her shoulder.
"well…my mother died In childbirth and my father died in a factory when I was 7. I was never really told how he died; all I know is that under Reason Of Death on the police report, the police wrote Factory Mishap and left it at that. The goveremnt put me in an orphanage after that and well that's where I have been for the last 10 years." she concluded, looking up at Skittery who was about half a foot taller then her and reached an estamated height of 6 feet.
Realizing royal was done speaking he urged her to talk more, "Tell me a little about the orphanage… as I said before I ain't never been to one but I have always been curious."
She nodded, and contimplated for a moment, thinking about what to say and how to describe her exspiriences. Skittery waited for her to go on.
"well… it was awful, I can say that much already... Ok picture this… you have 10 girls shoved into a room built for one, I mean they were litterally 10 feet long and 5 feet wide. The bunks were up against each other and if you were lucky enough to have a bunk in the back, you had to climb over other girls bunks to get there. Some rooms though had some floor space but those rooms were on the 4th and 5th floors and the little kids usually got them. Sometimes, when the orphanage had an odd number of boys and girls in a centain age group they would put one of the boys in the girls bunk cause they didn't have the fundings to get him his own bunk with the guys." Royals voice started to rise as her passionate hate for the orphange surfased.
" and he would have to stay with the girls until another boy of that age group was brought into the orphange which could take months or years and only then would the orphanage buy another bunk. But of course nothing ever happened between the boys and the girls… oh no, the jockers would have skinned you alive if you were caught sleeping with a gi…"
Skittery interupted her. "Jockers?"
royal blushed realizing she had used a term from the orphanage.
"a jocker is a man who travels the road with an underage boy. Its orginally a word used by rail riders but I guess orphans adopted it some where down the line. Its what we called the heads and the warden, Mrs. Muller."
Skittery nodded maturly, "I see, go on…"
"if they were to catch you with a girl past hours you would be dead by morning. Though they don't mind us socializing during the day. I guess they figuered the more we talked with each other, the less we would complain to them or try to make small talk with them… Aw but the nights were horrible, it smelled so bad at night you could hardly breath. Some rare rooms had windows but the younger children usually got those."
As she finished Skittery glanced at her though kept walking, shuffling his feet on the cobble stone.
"so, ah…what did ya do all day?"
"nothin' really. We had our lessons which were dull and useless and once a week we went to central park for exsersise. See the orphange doesnt have enough money to keep up a yard of their own so all other days of the week we go on the roof for an hour of fresh air." She chuckled slightly to her self. "On the roof the older kids always used to disappear and go make out in a corner somewhere while the youger kids would try to spit on people as they passed on the street below or would sword fight with cardboard… kinda like the younger newsies do. The roof was freedom and it was the highlight of everyones day. They didn't keep any jockers posted on the roof; we always joked that the warden was just hoping that one of us would throw ourselves or fall, giving them one less kid to deal with."
Skittery didn't look amused though she was not exspecting him to.
"I ain't never goin' in an orphanage. They can do all they want to me but I'd rather die then stay there."
He stared, ahead lost in thought though at the sight of a small building, turned to her once more.
"Is dat tibbys?" royal asked pointing to the building ahead. He removed his arm from around her and adusted the small stack of papers on his shoulder.
"Yep. it doesn't look like the other guys are there yet but it don't matter, we can order ahead of them."
Royal nodded though suddenly feeling a sharp pain in her shoulder, added
"wait can we finish sellin' first, my shoulder is kinda starting to ache."
"yeah sure."
Royal began to bark one of the headline, walking towards a croud of people buying fruit from a street vendor. She finished selling her remaining 8 papers fairly quickly and slowly walked to where she and Skittery had been standing moments before. He returned to the spot as well, also free of papers.
"that was fast!" he remarked, looking at her empty hands and the small bulk of change in her coat pocket.
"yep, I had less than you though cause I only bought 20 and you bought 50." She reminded him.
He nodded, "Tomorrow you should try 30 since you seamed to have breased through 20 already… that is if you are sellin' tomorrow…" his words had mass amounts of hopefullness in them.
Royal smiled as he opened the door to tibbys for her entry,
"Of course I'll sell tomorrow, ya wanna sell with me?"
"wouldn't have it any othah' way."
Royal slid into the back booth across from Skittery. Not before long, a waiter migrated over to their table and handed them each menus, passing them out hastily before leaving to tend to another hungry table.
"So what will ya be havin' little miss?" Skittery asked mockingly.
Royal lifted her eyes off the menu and exchanged eye contact with Skittery before lowering them once more.
"Ah…what would you suggest?" she asked sincerely, flipping the cardboard sheet over to check the back.
"Me and da guys usually jus get fries and a coffee but if that doesn't do it for ya I would recommend a hamburger; plain and simple."
she chuckled at his frank tone. "Im sure fries and coffee will be just fine." She responed flirtingly.
He grinned eagarly at her before placing their orders to the nomatic waiter.
Suddenly shouts could be heard out side and a clear distict voice was yelling "talk ta me when we get in side! Not right now."
Royal looked outside the window to her left and saw that the speaker was jack and the person he was speaking to was kid blink. Jack swung open the door to tibbys grandly and royal heard skittery moan slightly in agrivation.
Jack and blink made their way to the table where skittery and royal were sitting and skittery quickly moved into the seat next to royal to make room for the new company. Blink roughly slid into the seat across from them still argueing with jack who sat next to him heavily.
A few moments later, race and mush entered, more peacefully then jack and blink had, followed by several other newsies. Race and mush each pulled a chair up to skittery and royals booth while jack and blink ordered.
"fries and a coffee..."
"ill have the same!" jack called after the waiter.
"Don't mind us; we'll be mooching off you." Race said sarcasticlly, nodding his head towards those sitting at the booth.
"You guys sold fast, how long ya been here."
"bout 10 minutes." Skittery answered calmly, finally speaking.
Soon his and royal's coffees and fries arived, followed by jack and blink's. Royal sipped her coffee slowly, listening attentivly to the argument jack and blink were having.
Mush, finally fed up with being left in the dark by the two of them, interupted their harsh battle of words, "Would ya guys mind fillin' us in!"
"Actually I think that would be a good idea!" blink said, still looking at jack though his words were direted to mush.
"See, jack here is pannin' on leavin' us for a couple of months. Just gettin' up and leavin'. Why? I don't know! He wont tell me! All he says to me is 'hey, blink… don't exspect to be seein' me around much. Im gonna be livin' in Okey for 'bout a year!" royal assumed when blink said Okey he meant oklahoma but did not bother to ask.
Race looked between blink and jack,
"jack, would ya mind?" he said more civilized though anger was still clearly visible in his tone along with confusion.
"yeah whats this jack?" skittery added in, in the same tone as race.
"I was gonna tell ya real soon. I myself only found out today when davie pulled me ovah this mornin'. You know that huge prison they got down in oklahoma… well that's where they've been holdin my old man. And… well… hes gettin' out sometime next week so… he wanted me ta come down and visit him."
The table stared at jack incredulously.
Mush finally spoke, "so that's it? Your just gonna leave. Just like that?"
jack nodded, staring down at his fries. "Well, yeah. Davie is getting' me a train ticket this afternoon. Last time I had talked to my pop, I told him ta send all me mail to the Jacobs cause Kloppman don't have no real mailing address. That's why Dave had ta talk ta me this morning. Listen you guys, this ain't a matter of…" he was interrupted by blink.
"Jack… you can't just leave! I mean… you're the leader of the Manhattan newsies! You gots your priorities in New York, wid us!"
"Well I got priorities down there too! If you want, I can get spot ta look out for ya but I would think you could take care of ya selves!"
"We don't need spot ta take care of us! And we don't need you either but you can't just leave! None of us have ever left before!" racetrack blurted out,
"So what do you want me to do!" jack yelled angrily, slamming his fists on the table and causing the cups of coffees to spill slightly.
"C'mon you guys lay off a him." Skittery said calmly, "if jack wants ta go off to Okey and see his criminal pop… he can go. Ain't none of our business."
Jack gave Skittery a grateful look.
"Fine." Race said throwing his hands up in surrender.
Mush reached across the table and took a handful of jacks fries, shaking his closed fist in front of jacks face to show him that his fries were being reduced considerably. Jack nodded mush his approval though proceeded to stare at the plate of food.
Royal took a few fries and fed them to herself, watching the group of boys intently.
Jack straightened his posture suddenly and pronounced he had to go find Dave. The group nodded and race moved his chair aside so that jack could exit the booth. Once jack had left, mush moved into the seat next to blink and race pushed away mush's discarded chair.
Skittery grasped royal's hand underneath the table so the other boys wouldn't be able to see.
"Ya wanna go?" he whispered, lowering his mouth to her ear so that only she could hear his suggestion.
She nodded and Skittery began to slide out of the booth followed by royal. The boys stared at them quizzically.
"Uh…listen we're full so… help your self"
Skittery let go of Royal's hand once they both were standing up. He pushed the half eaten plates of fries towards mush and blink. They shrugged and pulled the plates closer to them.
Skittery paid the waiter on their way out of Tibby's and opened the door for royal.
In back of her, royal could hear blink calling over a couple other newsies to share the meal they had just obtained. Once they were outside Skittery took royals hand once more.
"At least we got one thing out of that whole situation." royal said, finally breaking the silence. "I know now that we are both shy around the other boys."
Skittery turned to look at her. "I came off as shy round dem?"
"Well not shy, you just didn't say much." she offered, turning from his gaze.
He nodded, "sometimes they're jus to loud fah me. If im jus talking ta one of dem I don't hold back but when its 4of dem all talking at once... I jus dunno what ta say I guess."
"Oh I get that too," She put in reassuringly,
"I just feel like I have nothing to say and then when the group leaves…well I think 'huh, I could have said so much right there and have looked really smart to boot.' And then I kick my self for not saying it."
Skittery chuckled, swinging their entwined hands back and forth slightly with his gait.
"At foist I wouldn't have thought it but… we are a lot alike… me and you."
Royal gave him a dubious glance.
"No, no! Not in our backgrounds or our history or nuttin like that… I mean the ways we think. I always thought I wasn't cut out ta be a newsie cause I'm not all that outgoing and it always seamed like I said the wrong things at the wrong ti…"
"you mean you didn't think you were charming?" royal interrupted.
Skittery shrugged, looking down at the ground at his walked.
Royal gave a short laugh, "You need charms to get a girl don't you… and well here I am! You managed to get me."
She watched as Skittery registered what she was saying and realized her deeper meaning.
He blushed; "ya mean you were thinkin' that too…"
royal quickly lifted her head up and placed a small kiss on his cheek. He turned an even darker shade of red. He removed his hand from her grasp and placed his arm around her waist, his hand curled around her hip.
Royal had never done anything like this before. She had known Skittery for less then 24 hours and yet she was already his girl. At the orphanage she had not so much as flirted with guys though Skittery and her seemed have this connection. She hadn't been worried about how he would react to her kiss because she felt that she was on the same scale of socialism that he was on. In fact, his lack of allure gave her more confidence.
