Hey everyone! Sorry, I've just been so busy, I'm back on the writing schedule now though and I should be posting sort of regularly from now on until the end of the story. Thanks for all the great reviews and keep reading and reviewing:) Oh, one note!

newsieschic: I wanted Mush to seem a little more illiterate than he probably really was in Newsies, though you never know, he could be that illiterate. Not much is known about Mush that's why I knew I could make him illiterate because not as much is known about him as Jack, Davey, or even Crutchy and Racetrack. There is a purpose to this though, keep reading, it's coming up soon. After this chapter it's going to pick up a lot and things will start happening very fast.

Chapter 14

"Come on, Mom, you need some fresh air anyway," Jenna begged on her hands and knees before her mother in her rocking chair.

"Oh, Jenna, like the air in our neighborhood could even be considered air," her mother retorted.

"Mom, you just need to get out of this house," she cried. "Plus, the air over in Davey's area is much better." Her mother gave her a skeptical look. "Please, Mom, Mrs. Jacobs is counting on you coming, I know you'd love it, you haven't been out of the house in months."

"It's because I'm weak, Jenna," she argued.

"I know, Mom, and that's why you need to do this before you get too weak to go anywhere," Jenna said.

"Oh, all right," she sighed finally as Jenna rose to help her mother out of the rocking chair. She was shaky and feeble, more so than Jenna had realized. She was now fully aware of how close her mother really was to death. She couldn't concentrate on that though. Mrs. Jacobs had been coming to the house everyday since they had met and the two women would knit and sew and all the kind of things Jenna found deathly boring. Now she had asked her to join them for supper and Jenna had finally convinced her.

"Welcome, welcome!" Mrs. Jacobs cried happily, opening the door to their apartment wide. "Mayer, this is Harriet Thomas, Jenna's mother." Mr. Jacobs walked up and shook her hand with his free one.

"Pleased to have you for dinner," he said with a smile. "Why don't you come on in and meet the family?" Mrs. Thomas stepped humbly into the home to find herself greeted by four unfamiliar faces.

"Mom, this is Jack Kelly, the most famous newsie of all time," Jenna said, pointing to Jack.

"Pleased ta meet ya," he mumbled, nodding.

"And these are the Jacobs, Sarah, Davey, and Les," she said, motioning toward the other three.

"You're Toothpick's mother who's gonna die?" Les asked after a period of silence.

"Les!" Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs and Sarah both cried shockingly in unison.

"Yes, Les," Jenna's mother said softly. "Wait, what? Toothpick?"

The meal went wonderfully. Everyone took an immediate liking to Mrs. Thomas and found that she was jus like the rest of them. She laughed and enjoyed life just as any normal human being would. She wasn't scared of death, just of what would happen to Jenna after she was gone. Jenna was too stubborn and crafty to stay in an orphanage. Maybe the Jacobs would take her in. The discussion took many twists and turns until finally Mrs. Thomas asked Sarah what she did.

"I work in a sewing factory with many other girls. It's just a few blocks away. I usually just sew at home unless I'm needed there. It's pretty good work," Sarah explained. "Ya know, Jenna, maybe you'd like to come and see the place sometime." She turned to Jenna seated between Jack and Les.

"I ain't workin' there," Jenna said immediately.

"I know, I know, you're too stubborn-" she started

"And she's too good of a newsie," Les added as everyone chuckled.

"You might like to see it through, you could meet my friends," Sarah suggested. Jenna knew her mother would kill her for being so rude and not taking the offer so she agreed.

"So this is the factory," Sarah announced as she and Jenna marched through the door of the large factory filled with huge machines belching smoke into the air outside.

"You work here?" Jenna cried over the roar of the machines.

"Yeah!" she shouted back. "Only occasionally, mostly I come in to give them the things I've sewn and get yarn and new sewing assignments, what's on demand and stuff. I work here packaging when some girls are sick."

"I didn't think the shops was like this," Jenna admitted.

"It depends on where you work," she replied. "Plus, we're all girls here." Jenna nodded.

"Sarah!" came a loud cry from across the room. Suddenly a little body was in the girl's arms. It was a much younger girl, about nine or ten, with light brown tresses and two silk ribbons streaming behind her. They were light green to match her eyes.

"Hey, I've missed you," Sarah said as the girl pulled away to look into Sarah's eyes.

"You could come around more often, you know," the girl replied.

"I know, I know. Hey, I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine," Sarah said, turning to Jenna. "This is Jenna Thomas, the first girl newsie." The girl turned to her and smiled.

"Hi, Jenna, I'm Connie," she said.

Connie? I've heard that name before.

"Connie…?" she asked.

"Connie Conlon," the girl replied.

Connie Conlon! Spot's sister!