Chapter 4

Shasta paced through the Brooklyn warehouse agitated. "Seddle down Shasta and tell me again." Shamrock O'Malley, chief of the Brooklyn news girls asked calmly. She was darning a sock of Spots that had a hole in it. She HATED sewing, but Spot had asked so nicely, and they were the only pair of socks he had, and it was the middle of winter.

"I just don't feel right about it ya know? Jake came home, with the lipstick of the girl still on his lips... why wouldn't he have wiped it off? Why wouldn't Ice have wiped it off. She was with him." Shamrock didn't look up from her mending as she said, "Maybe Ice felt it was her duty to make Raven aware of Jake's... infidelities..." Shamrock said discreetly.

"Nah... Ice and Raven are good friend alright, but Ise know d'at Ice's main loyalty is ta Jake. She idolizes 'im or somet'ing... Ise mean she didn't do nuttin' when Raven and Jake got inta d'ere huge fight. She just sat there looking at the ground. A course when Raven ran down the stairs an' inta the street... Ice followed, but Raven still didn't understand what had happened when she got back."

Shasta continued to pace slamming her hands into her legs, "Raven, is real understandin'... and I know d'at she would believe Jake didn't do nuttin ta da't goil, if Ice, had told 'er d'en she woulda checked with Jake, and she woulda being happy wit d'at explanation. I know it!" Shasta said vehemently.

"How does ya know d'at Jake didna kiss the doxie bird on purpose?" Shamrock asked. She too had her doubts about the situation as Shasta was laying it out. But she wanted to check all avenue's before she made judgement.

Shasta frowned, "If ya'd been there ya woulda seen it. There's a difference between, kissing someone and being kissed. Jake didn't embrace the goil... he didn't do nuttin wit' 'is hands. In fact d'ey was clenched by 'is side, and Firefly wasn't looking but when I looked back, Jake didn't seem to mind leavin' the goil alone. Even though Ice stayed behind ta tawk to her."

"Besides all d'at. You know Jake as well as Ise does... he wouldn't 'ave done nuttin' ta hoirt Raven. He's plum crazy 'bout her. An he jest isn't d'a cheating type. I don't trust d'ey way Ice keeps sending comments between Jake and Raven neiddah... they always seem ta end up maddah d'en before after Ice gives 'em a message. Maybe Ise overreacting, but I don't trust Ice as far as Ise could throw 'er... neiddah does Jack fer d'at mattah. D'e only reason she's in d'a lodging house is 'cause of Jake, Raven and Goosey."

Shamrock had laid her mending down and she was standing with a frown marring her creamy pale face. "Yer right Shasta it jest doesna seem ta add up. I t'ink I'll go 'ave a tawk ta Ice... and see what's really going on wit' 'er. Ise purdy good at readin' people. Tell Spot ta get someone else ta finish 'is mending." Shamrock said the last with relish she didn't like sewing anyway.

---

Ice waltzed happily into the lodging house. She was alone today... all the newsies were out selling and Kloppman had said something about going shopping with Phoenix. Cherish spun in a circle her arms rising in the air. She was the happiest she had been in ages.

Jake and Raven were still fighting, she had heard both of them say that it was over between them. Of course it had come after she had told them both the other wanted to end the relationship. Everything was working out exactly as planned.

Well almost everything. Ice was still spending an awful lot of time with Raven, comforting her and following through with her own ruthless plains. Not that she didn't like the girl, in fact it was quiet the opposite, she was liking her much to much.

She had started the whole plan to get herself and Jake as far away from her as possible. Now she was having to spend time with her. Large amounts... she had to do something to discredit Raven so much so that to have her and Ice spend time together would be impossible. But she had to do it without

indicating herself in the whole sordid affair.

Smelling a sweet soft lilting fragrance sailing through the air Ice followed it only to stop deathly still and stare shocked at the arrangement of poppy's on the table, and beside them, a young girl with dark red hair and pale complexions and a smatter of freckles.

Ice coughed twice and the girl looked up startled, "Ohh.. hello you must be Cherish LaRusso... Ice?" The girl asked cautiously. Ice moved forward her eyes still on the poppies that were identical to the flowers her sister had brought at the markets the morning she had died.

Ice's stomach dropped and her face blanched even paler then usual. Gripping the edge of a lounge chair Ice whispered, "who are you?" the girl looked sharply at Ice as if wondering whether she was alright. "I'm Shamrock O'Malley... leader of the Brooklyn Girls."

Ice closed her eyes a moment and tried to compose herself. With a jerking of her emotional strings she had come so close to letting her feelings run rampant. Reining in most of her havoc wrecking emotions Ice let a strong bitter sense of anger pervade from her.

How dare this stranger come into her safe haven, this place she called home and bring those dreadful flowers, the ones that her sister loved. How dare she just show up here, and almost make Ice reveal her true feelings. How dare she! "What are you doing here?" Cherish asked absolutely freezingly.

"Shasta told me what she thought you were doing. Is she right?" the red head leader of Brooklyn, Shamrock O'Malley questioned straight to the point. Cherish lifted her cold eyes and said with the dignity of her proud Northern Italian/Gypsy heritage, "why is you askin' me? Why don't you ask Shasta?"

"I guess I'm what's called d'e go-between." Shamrock said evenly her hands by her side. Cherish pulled her lips into a sneer, "Youse good at it ain't ya. I'se bet fer sure you'se d'e go between fer Spot and his male lover." Cherish was aiming to hurt.

Shamrock's greens eyes grew wide with shock and outrage. She had heard of the Ice Princess, she knew she was rumoured to be hard and unfeeling. But they had only just met, and the girl was seeming to enjoy her outrage.

Shamrock blinked trying to figure out why this girl was trying to unbalance her after only just meeting her. It may have been a defense technique but Shamrock was picking up that she meant to hurt her, she wanted her to be angry.

"You don't know Spot. Take it back!" Shamrock gritted trying to hold her temper long enough to figure out the girls reasoning. "I knows d'at he's looking fer anyone d'at will sleep wit' 'im since you won't give it up!" Cherish taunted as crudely as she could.

That's when Shamrocks hand flew up of it own violation and slapped Cherish soundly on her pale cheek. Cherish's eyes leapt before she covered them with ice again. She raised a somewhat mechanical hand to her cheek. Shamrock got the uneasy feeling the girl had expected it.

"GET OUT!" She hissed her voice lacking the anger Shamrock had expected. She just seemed resigned. "I shouldna have hit you." Shamrock gritted immediately. She knew it was true she shouldn't have but she'd be damned if she was going to apologise to the wench. She was a conniving two face liar, Shamrock could feel it.

"Get out," she said again softly. It was a bleak order, with no conviction in it. Shamrock turned proudly and held her head high as she walked out of the Manhattan lodging house She was still trying to understand how the girl had riled her so quickly with in seconds. It was scary.