Hayley awoke feeling more refreshed than she had in weeks. She looked around the room and saw that Melody had once again woken up before her. The other girl was just coming out of the washroom, toweling off her wet hair.
"I figured this was the only time I'd have that bath to myself, so I took advantage of it," Melody said. "There's probably time before the boys get back if you wanna wash up."
Hayley noticed the sky outside the window was streaked with pink. Once the sun set, the boys probably would be home, like Mel said. Hayley nodded and climbed out of bed.
"Don't worry," Melody grinned. "I'll make sure no one comes in."
Melody was true to her word, and Hayley was able to enjoy her fairly cold, brief bath. She finally felt cleansed of the tragedy she had witnessed the day before. Hayley couldn't believe that hardly 24 hours had elapsed since she left her home in Hoboken--so much had happened since then. As she was slipping back into her brother's clothes, Melody called out that she heard the boys coming into the lobby. Hayley quickly wiped the floor of any water she had spilled then joined Melody in the adjoining bunkroom.
"Well, well, well, look who's still here. It's a good thing I didn't put a wager on that bet this morning," the short Italian was back. "Have you ladies decided to stick with the newsies?"
"For the time being," Mel replied.
"Yeah I just talked to Kloppman," the tall brown-haired boy addressed them. "He says I'll be showing you the ropes tomorrow."
"Ya learn from Jack, ya learn from the best," the kid with the crutch chimed in and several of the boys nodded.
"Well it looks like most of the boys are home, so we'll introduce you all. Hey listen fellas!" Jack yelled out. Everyone went silent and turned their attention to him. "This here's Melody and Hail. They's gonna be newsies--"
"Actually it's Hayley," she spoke up.
"Ah but ya descended on us in that lovely hail storm last night," Jack said sarcastically. "'Sides most everyone has a nickname here. I'm Cowboy and they's Racetrack, Mush, Kid Blink, Crutchy, Boots…" Jack proceeded to list everyone in the room. Hayley tried to remember them all, but she guessed it would take awhile before she got them all down.
"So what brings you girls here?" inquired one boy. Hayley was fairly sure he was called Bumlets, whatever that was supposed to mean.
"I ran away from my family, well mostly just my father. He's a cop so he-" Melody's last statement caused a mild uproar.
"Woah, now wait a minute," a tall kid named Skittery jumped up. "Yer pop's a bull! He ain't comin' around here is he?"
"No, we lived in Philadelphia. He wouldn't come all the way up here for me. Anyway, he demanded so much control over the household that I basically had no freedom, and that just wasn't right for me," Mel finished up her story.
"How 'bout you, Hail? You a runaway too?" asked Kid Blink.
"Yeah," she began hesitantly. "My family fell on some hard times, and there wasn't enough money to go around. There was nothing really to stay for, so I hopped the first train I could find to New York. That's where I met Melody." Hail, who had finally accepted the nickname, glanced nervously at Mel to judge her reaction. She looked a little perplexed, probably wondering why her friend had omitted the part about her father being mayor. Melody figured she had a good reason for not wanting to talk about it and instead just shrugged it off.
Hail did indeed have her own reasons for not giving the details of her past. She had hoped that by catching that train out of New Jersey she could leave her past behind and become another anonymous face. Connecting herself to her father's scandal (which had, undoubtedly, helped these newsies sell many a paper) would prevent her from fading into the background and starting anew.
"Jesus Christ!" a yelp came from the next room over.
"Christ is in our washroom?" Racetrack smirked and glanced over to where the voice had emanated from.
"NO!" Dutchy's blond head poked around the corner. "It's clean!" Every guy in the room leapt up and stampeded over to check on this new development. There was silence for a moment before Specs asked what everyone was thinking.
"What the heck happened?"
"We did it," Hail spoke up.
"Yeah it was to pay back Mr. Kloppman for letting us stay here," Melody said, shooting her friend a nasty look. The guys stared at the girls, wide-eyed, then turned back to the washroom in a flurry of disbelief.
"I've never seen it this clean!"
"Hardly smells or anything!"
"So that's what the floor looks like…"
"Noise, noise, noise! What's going on up here? Actually, I don't wanna know. Everyone, lights out," Kloppman had ascended to the bunkroom, bothered by all the shouting. "Don't even give me that look Itey! All of you, get to sleep. You know you'll be tired in the morning and it'll be me that has to drag your sleepy asses out of bed. Now, let's go—lights out in five minutes!"
Kloppman went back downstairs, shaking his head and the newsies began to change for bed. A bit uncomfortable about all the stripping going on, Hail discovered stalls in the washroom where she could change in private. Melody followed suit and soon the girls were climbing into their bunks, like Kloppman had instructed.
A/N; I just wanted to thank everyone who has reviewed so far. Your comments are what keeps me writing :)