Well, everyone, here's chappie 10. :)

Chapter 10

"Whatcha got there?" Crutchy asked Jenna as she rushed up to him from the other side of the street. The rest of the newsies crowded around her to see what she had in her hands. It was a book with a picture of a beautiful castle on the front, the sky behind it sprinkled with clouds. They leaned over the book, over her shoulders, anywhere to catch a glimpse of the gorgeous picture, well, at least that's what she thought. In actuality they were looking at the words written on the cover.

"What do them woids mean?" Snipeshooter asked, pointing at the words sparkling in gold, the sun reflecting off of them whenever she turned the book. Jenna smiled gently.

"It says 'Classic Fairytales'," she read sweetly.

"What'd ya get dat for?" Boots asked.

"You can read?" Kid Blink questioned.

"Yes, I can read, and I bought it because it has all of my favorite fairytales in it," she said, looking from Kid Blink to Boots and then to the rest of the newsies. All Mush could do was stare at her. She amazed him even more everyday and he didn't even know how it was possible since she already seemed like the most amazing person he had ever met. Now he knew that she could read which was something he had wanted to learn. Maybe he could use that to get closer to her.

Over the next few days Jenna would meet Les and Snipeshooter in the square and read them a fairytale, or as much as she could before dinnertime, then she would leave them hanging until the next afternoon. More of the newsies gathered everyday; she felt like Wendy in Peter Pan, and the newsies were the Lost Boys who had asked her to be their mother.

"'And they lived happily ever after, the end'," Jenna read, raising her eyes over the horn of the book to see a crowd of newsies all staring at her intently. She lowered the book slowly onto her lap, closing it just as slowly.

"It's over?" Les questioned as she turned to look at the boy who was seated on her right side.

"Yes, Les, they lived happily ever after," she quoted.

"But what about the evil stepmother and stepsisters, what happened ta dem?" Snipeshooter questioned from her left.

"Well, Snipe, what do you think happened to them?" she asked with a grin.

"I think da king exiled dem to da desert where they died of starvation," he replied.

"Ah, come on, Snipe, that ain't bad enough!" Skittery yelled, and then the newsies all started shouting out all the ways the stepmother and stepsisters should have been tortured or killed. This always happened after every story, the boys would feel like more needed to be said, and it was true. The thing about fairytales was that they always left you room to use your own imagination, the story never just ended without anything more to be said.

"All right, I gotta go," Jenna said as she left the newsies to discuss how the king was going to fit the stepsisters in a pot of boiling water.

"Toothpick, wait!" a voice cried as she turned to see Mush running after her.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Well, I been noticin' how good ya read and I was wonderin' if, well, you'd teach me how," Mush said sheepishly, lowering his eyes.

"'Course I will, it's gonna take some time, dough," she replied.

"That's fine," she said, his head popping up to meet her eyes. "Just so long as I knows how ta read."

"All right, Mush, meet me every night at seven here at dis bench," she said, pointing to the bench right beside them. He nodded. "We'll start tomorrow."