A/NI do not own any of the characters from the movie Newsies. I forgot to do this in my first chapter but this is my first and it took me half an hour to figure out how this thing works so I forgot. I've made up the High School obviously. my chapters are pretty short right now, but they'll get longer.
I stood nervously in front of room 207, after I'd finally mastered the courage to enter Lodging House High School (a strange name for a school, but apparently there used to be a Lodging House for Newsboys here in the 1800s.) I got my room assignment and schedule from the principle. He was a kind old man. Kloppman I think, yeah that was it. I stared at the door as though if I stared long enough a hole would burn thorough for me to walk through. A gray haired woman who looked like a ruler was sitting at the desk apparently taking attendance; she looked around for a name and saw me standing outside. As she came towards the door I froze with nerves, what would the other kids say when I walked in the room? What would she say? "Anna Reed?" I was broken out of the trance to see her standing in the door way looking at me.
"Uh….yeah. How'd you know?" I stuttered. This was just getting weirder and weirder; the teacher knew who I was on the first day of school! She smiled and stepped aside to let me in, "You're the only student missing." Oh, I mentally slapped my forehead, smooth move Anna smooth. I entered the class room and looked at the faces looking at me with interest. "Anna is new to this school, so I expect everybody to make her feel welcome. It's everyone's first day back and I know you're feeling a little slow, but that shouldn't stop you from reaching out a hand to a new student." This made me go a little red, she took it a little too far, several of the boys rolled their eyes at her and grinned at me. I tentatively gave a small smile back when the teacher spun around to face me again, "I'm Mrs. Herbert, Anna. It is a pleasure to meet you. Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?" She sat on the edge of her desk and looked at me expectantly. No, for her information, I would not like to say anything about myself. What I wanted was to sit down and wait for today to be over. Caught up there against my will, I stared at the class. "Um… Hi. I'm Anna. My family just moved here from Connecticut." I didn't know what else to say, I looked at Mrs. Herbert and she smiled, "That's nice Anna. Why don't you go have a seat over there?"
I had just managed to slink into my seat when blasted Mrs. Herbert had to open her bloody mouth again, "Have you seen our school yet Anna?" "No, I just got here." I mumbled hoping I wouldn't have to get a tour. No such luck, "Henry? Would you go show Anna around? Don't bother with the classrooms right now, She shares your schedule, she can just follow you to them." Translation: she already had Henry picked out to show me around, she memorized all our schedules. I looked over at the kid she had called Henry, he was sitting next to me reading a book ignoring Mrs. Herbert. He has slightly curly brown hair and isn't bad looking; maybe this won't be so bad. If only he would respond to her, I was staring to get pretty embarrassed, was I that bad that he didn't want to be seen with me? "HENRY!" she screamed. Still no answer from the boy, he snuck a glance over at me and gave a small secretive smile. Finally Mrs. Herbert stood in front of Henry's desk and brought her hand down on it with a loud 'smack'. He looked up from his book, "yes Ma'am?" "Will you show Miss. Reed around?" He studied me for an instant than, "Be glad to." "So why didn't you answer before?" Henry looked at her blankly. "You asked me?" he said. "Of course I did. I said Henry several times." The boy shook his head and tipped back in his chair, "That'd be it then. My name's not Henry. It's Skittery." Mrs. Herbert closed her eyes and moaned while several of the kids laughed. I looked at Hen-Skittery with interest, his name was Skittery? Or, oh! Hold on a sec, he's being a jackass. Great, just wonderful.
"I told you that I know all about your silly nicknames and that I refuse to call you by them. Regardless of what my colleagues chose to do. Your mother named you Henry, not Skittery." Henry shrugged, "Yeah, but I named me Skittery." Rolling her eyes Mrs. Herbert looked at me. "Henry and several of the other boys," she gestured vaguely around the room and a couple of boys gave mock bows, "Have been calling themselves by names other than their birth names. I do not encourage this and they shall be known only by their Christian names in this classroom." One of the boys shouted out, "What if our name's not Christian?" she silenced him with a glare and turning back to the boy who claimed his name was Skittery said without using either Henry or Skittery, "Please take Anna on a tour." He nodded and getting up went to the door. I followed him not knowing what else to do, what weirdo called himself Skittery by choice?