"And I know that he knows I'm

Unfaithful and it kills him inside

To know that I am happy with some other guy,

I can see him dying"

It has been two weeks to the day since our father…well…since we left home, and its taking some time for me to adjust to newsie life, unlike my sister. It's been tough for me not to get any time to myself anymore. I like to be alone at times, which creates conflict between me and…well, the newsies. Sam seems to get along with everyone. She says I am just too quite, I say I have a lack of interest of direct attention. Two COMPLETELY different things. Jack is now determined to change my "lack of interest of direct attention".

"WAKE UP!" Jack yelled in my ear while jumping on the end of my bed. He says he's establishing himself as my older brother. He acts like that is a good thing. He has been watching out for me the last few days and…well I have been keeping a closer eye on Sam for him. Looking closer at her interests, mainly in who she likes.

"Ok…Evy…tonight we are having a poker game." He said as he sold another pape to a passing woman, "And where will you be?" He gave me that we talked about this before look. We had often talked about it on my way to work. I work at The American Museum of Natural History, just like my father. He is…I mean…was a highly acclaimed curator. Ever since I can remember, I was around historical artifacts. I started working there when I was 10. Now, the head of the museum found me fit to handle the articles myself. It doesn't pay much but it's a great place.

"I," I shot back at him with the same smug tone "will be finishing the book, which you didn't let me finish last night because you wanted me to talk to whats his name…Racetrack." He looked at me with an exasperated look on his face, and then promptly started poking me in the sides sending me into fits of uncontrollable giggles.

"The poker game," I said as I tried to get him to stop, "STOP IT!" He gave me one last poke in the ribs and continued walking. We were walking to drop me off at work. It was about 6 blocks away, not too far.

"The poker game will be in da lodgin house at 9, and you'll be dar…with your nose OUT of a book." He tried to do an I am a very stern father face. HELL, he is so bad at it, I couldn't help but laugh.

"So when do you want me to come pick you up?" I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Why do I need to be picked up? Shouldn't you be with Sam? You know…making out…firting…or for God sakes TELLING HER HOW YOU FEEL?"

Jack turned red. "She doesn't like me Evelyn! I'v seen the way she lookes at all the other boys" He looked down and out.

"And you should see the way she looks at you." I smiled at him as I stepped onto the threshold of the museum, "I'll be home at 9 Jack and I'll walk by myself," I held up a hand, "I'll be fine…hey whose commin tonight?"

"Brooklyn" He stated as if I knew what he was talking about.

"O good, I can't wait to share a drink with the bridge!"

"I mean, da Brooklyn newsies, Spot Conlon's boys." He turned to leave.

"HEY JACK? Who's Spot Conlon?" Jack looked over his sholder.

"Brooklyn." He threw his hands in the air and smiled at my frustation. I moved to open the door when it hit me…I was back at square one. "JACK!" I called to him but he was to far away. "URGH!" I opened the door to the museum. "The sooner I get out of here," I said to myself, "The sooner I can find out who this Spot is."

Work seemed to drag on forever. I couldn't think about what I was doing. I was thinking about what this "Spot Conlon" would be like. I tend to image people's personalites the way I want them to be. I pictured him, or is it a her? Well, anyways, I pictured "it" tall, brown-eyed, curly-haired, and maybe even gay. All these things were going through my mind as I was organizing scrolls.

"Evelyn, you with us today?" my boss, Akil asked me. I looked at him as he pulled me back to reality.

"It's 9 o'clock. You should get going. See you tomorrow." he smiled and waved as I walked out the door. As I walked home I saw a bunch of newsies. I had never seen them before, but then, I don't know many newsies. They were shouting out things at me like "hey sweetheart, are you lost?". It was embarrassing and annoying. They kept following me. So, I decided to go to Davids.

I had met David last week, and we ended up being good friends. He was into reading, writing, and not so much singing, but I understood that. We would talk about books that we had read, and one day I went over to borrow a book. I met his family. Les, Sarah, and his parents. Les is a cutie! He's so funny too! Sarah, well, she is…moving on. His parents are nice people. They said that whenever I need a place to stay, I'm always welcome there.

"Hey, Les. Is David home?" I asked standing outside their front door. Les smiled and told me he was getting ready for the poker game.

"I can't go. David says I'm to young. I'm near ten!" I just looked at Les and started laughing. Just then, Sarah walked into the room. I don't hate her, or love her for that matter. She is fat and ugly, and well, I don't like the way she treats her brothers. I just smiled as she walked into the room, she just stood there, yelling at Les for not picking up his dirty socks.

"Don't go so hard on him, Sarah. It's not the end of the world. One pair of socks." David said trying to defend Les. Sarah just glared at him, and stormed off to her room.

"Touchy, touchy." Les said when she left the room. I wanted to go now. It was getting boring there. Plus, I wanted to see the gay Spot Conlon.

"You almost ready, Davey?" I asked, starting to get impatient. He grabbed his jacket, told his parents we were leaving, and walked me out. There was almost no silence between us that night. We talked about Phantom of the Opera.

"Thank God, we're here." I said laughing. He just looked at me and opened the door for me.

"Thank you." I said smiling at him. We walked up the stairs and the boys were already playing poker. THEY WERE THERE! The ones I had seen on my way home. They were better looking in the light. I sat down on my bed trying to avoid the cold stares from all of them. One of them came over to me, Mush, I think. He told me I should play just one game. Blink came over and begged me. I had to say yes. But there was just one thing, I don't know how to play poker. So I'm here, asking all these questions, accidently showing my hand to the other guys. Sam was really mad at me for stealing the spotlight. I just looked up at her and smiled. There was this one boy who was especially mean.

"Jack, why is she here. She doesn't belong. She ain't that pretty, so you ain't with her or nothing." Jack stared at him, wanted to say something, then started laughing.

"I mean, Sam here, she talks. She knows what she is doing. And not to mention, she's pretty. And she uses SMALLER WORDS! I mean I'm not stupid or nothing, but she's a fucking dictionary on legs?" he was really mad. I don't even know who he was!

"What's wrong with being a dictionary on legs?" David asked, offended by this comment.

"Shut up, Mouth." the stupid ass said to David. At this, I stood up, threw my cards in the mystery boy's face, grabbed my book, and left. I went up onto the roof to sit and read. I knew Jack would be mad at me for doing this, but this kid was intolerable!

"Oh, beautiful performance! Now she left!" Jack said. I could hear him all the way from on the roof. I just opened my book to where I had left off. I heard footsteps coming towards me. I just kept to my reading, I had decided I hated that boy.