-1Disclaimer: If you seriously don't know by now you are an idiot

WARNING: THIS CHAPTER IS GONNA SWEAR MORE THAN I USUALLY DO, SO BE PREPARED

I wanna say thanks to all my loyal readers (aka Sweets and Chill lol) for stickin with me on this one. I have some very strange ideas in my head, ideas that just might work.

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"Fuck!" Rhythm screamed, throwing the empty bottle of Whiskey against the side of the lodging house

"Jesus Christ!" Sprockets yelled, ducking just in time to miss being beamed in the head "What the hell Rhythm?"

"Leave me alone" Rhythm spat his words at Sprockets as if they were poison.

"No, Talk now." Sprockets shot back.

"Just..shu...lea…." Rhythms words became slurred together and he began to slip of the crate he was sitting on. Sprockets ran to catch him

"Damn Kaden, how many of these have you had?" Sprockets asked, looking at the empty bottles littered around his crate.

"4 or 5 maybe" Rhythm answered, ashamed of himself already

Sprockets laughed a little at his friends stupidity

"Well think of the bright side…you will be so hung over tomorrow you wont be able to sell." He said finally with a shrug

"What the hell, if I don't sell that means I don't eat!' Rhythm yelled, letting his anger get the best of him

"Ah Yes," Sprockets said nodding, "But if you don't eat, you wont get fat. See there is a still a bright side to every thing!" Sprockets said, clapping him on the back.

"What's the bright side about finden the goyl youse think you love in bed with anudder guy?"

"Uh….. Damn" Was all Sprockets could think of to say.

They sat together in silence till the sun went down

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Shay made it to the hospital and was treated. She had a severe infection, and was given antibiotics to help her get better. They also made her sleep. She was in the hospital for a few days, just to make sure every thing went alright. When she was finally released from the hospital, she was still on the anti biotic and a little out of it. But not out enough to see what she saw in the alley way on her way home.

She was strong enough now to walk on her own, even though she occasionally stumbled due to the drugs. Shane and Parker however remained right at her side every step of the way, just to make sure their sister was safe. About halfway back to the Lodging house is when they saw it. Actually they heard it first.

"PLEASE! HELP!" A girl yelled from up the alley they were passing by. Shane, who was walking on the inside of the street quickly ran to help her. Spinning her attacker around, Shane laid one punch straight to the face. The boy hit the ground hard, holding his nose to stop the bleeding that had already begun.

"Are you okay?" Parker asked Shay, as she stood in shock halfway up the alley.

"I'll kill him." Shay said, her eyes concentrated on the fallen body. "I'll kill him." Shay took a few steps towards him. Parker grab her arm but she quickly pulled out of his grasp and shot him a look that told him to stay out. As Shane comforted the girl in the back of the alley, Shay stealthily made her way towards the boy.

"You lying piece of shit." Shay said, kicking him as hard as she could in the ribs. The boys hands moved to his stomach, which was when he first saw her face.

"Shay please, this isn't what it looks like" Oscar pleaded, managing to get to his knees and crawl toward her. Big mistake.

Shay placed one strategically placed kick right in the groin and Oscar was immediately doubled over, face down in the dirt again.

"Were through" Shay said, before she spat on his face.

Shay walked past Parker, barely even noticing him. Shane stayed with the girl who was in pretty bad state emotionally.

It wasn't until about a block from the Lodging house that Shay finally broke down.

"GOD DAMMIT!" She screamed as she punched a wall

"Shay its okay!" Parker said to comfort her

"How can you say that?" She screamed at him "How can you say that Parker!" she screamed again. When he didn't answer her she started pounding her fists on his chest. She didn't want to hurt hi, she was just angry. Slowly the pounding of the fists, turned into balling, and before long she was falling into his arms, and crying in his shoulder.

He just hugged her back and tried his best to comfort her. It started to rain but still Shay wouldn't move. Parker had no choice but to carry her the rest of the way.

4 MONTHS LATER

It was Christmas Eve, and all was quiet in the Lodging House. Shay had decided to live there full time, in the Storage Closet Klopman had cleaned out for her. Shane, Peter, Matty, and Donny stayed as well. For the first few weeks, Donny was in bad shape, because he was going through alcohol withdrawals. Klopman made him stay in his room downstairs for almost two weeks, trying to cure him. It worked well, and Donny was back to his normal self faster than anyone expected.

Matty and Blink started selling together a few weeks into their stay. Blink was maturing, and old enough to pass for Matty's father, especially due to the fact Matty was as tiny as he was. He looked more like he was 6 than almost 9. So he followed Blink around, and when a big group of people would walk by, the magic began.

"Daddy" Matty asked looking up at Blink with his big brown eyes as he softly tugged at Blinks pants leg.

"What is it buddy, daddy's gotta sell." Blink would answer.

"Daddy, why cant I go to school like I used to."

"Because son, Daddy's factory closed, and Ise has to be a Newsie now. We don't have enough money to send you to school."

"Oh" Matty would answer looking at the ground.

Sometimes that was enough to get them to buy a paper, but other times it took a little more

"Daddy…" Matty would continue

"What is it son?" Blink would answer, barely paying attention to his "son"

"Why did they take mommy away?" Matty asked biting his lip.

"They had to take her son, she had problems."

"What kind of problems Daddy?" Matty would ask

"She tried to help us, by stealing food, but she ended up getting caught son"

That always roped them in. Sometimes, if the group was real hoity-toityish (I so just made a new word! AIR FIVE!), Matty and Blink would have some fun with them

"Daddy why doesn't mommy come home till two in the morning" Matty would ask innocently

"Because son…." Blink would start "Your mamma is a whore."

Matty would slowly nod his head and say "Oh, that's why I look like the other kids"

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Donny, having spent all that time with Klopman, never became a Newsie. Instead he stayed behind with Shay and Klopman, washing clothes, cleaning up the House, things like that.

Shane and the girl from the alley became very attached, and it wasn't very often anyone saw the two of them. In fact they didn't even know the goyls name.

Peter started selling right away. He sold with Dutchy and Specs, which he loved. It was nice to be around someone who actually understood what he was talking about.

Shay kept to herself more the usual. Breaking up with Oscar the way she did, hurt her pretty bad. What made it worse was Rhythms absence. They had become best friends in those few short days, and now it had been nearly 5 months since she had last seen him. Parker would not let her go to Brooklyn. He still blamed Rhythm for what happened to Shay. A few times some of the Brooklyn boys came over for poker, or to see one of Meadow's shows, but Rhythm never came. One time she finally got enough nerve to come up to Sprockets and ask where he was.

"Hey Sprockets." Shay said sweetly, walking up behind him

"Uh…. Do I know you?" Sprockets asked, utterly confused.

"Yah we meet once, my names Shay." Shay stuck out her hand to shake.

Sprockets face went pale

"Oh" he said quietly "Nice to meet you Shay" he said quickly and then walked away.

Shay found his behavior weird, but thought nothing of it, after all he was from Brooklyn (okay, I have no idea what that has to do with anything either, just work with me people!)

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Okay sorry I got a little side tracked there, So, its Christmas Eve in the Lodging House, and no one but Donny, Klopman and Shay are home yet. Donny is sweeping up the lobby, Klopman is snoring behind his desk, and Shay is getting ready to leave. She still had a lot of money left over from her job before she came, somewhere near 40 dollars. The boys had all been so good to her, she wanted to get them Christmas presents.

Over the last four months, Shay had become increasingly closer with Blink, as well as Racetrack. Both of them were always fighting and would never fail to make her smile. It was like she had 7 brothers instead of 5.

As she made her way into the cold December day, snow lightly began to fall on the bustling streets of Manhattan. Mothers dragged there little children around, desperately trying to get some last minute shopping done. Fathers steeped into store to admire jewelry for their wives. Little girls stood in packs chatting and gossiping about who know what, and the Newsies stood in their spots, shouting their "improved" headlines. Shay tried to avoid them as much as she could, so not to be seen with arm full of presents. After about 4 hours of shopping, Shay had all her boys something.

A new pair of glasses for Peter

A new Vest for Donny

A new deck of cards for Race

A new hat for Skittery Shane and Blink

A new bandanna for Jack

A new shirt for Shane

Books for Dutchy and Specs.

And candy for the rest of the boys.

All in all she spent almost all of her money, but she really didn't care. She spent it on people she loved at that was all that mattered. She went back to the lodging house to try and hide her presents, but there was something she couldn't stop thinking about. Something that had been on her mind for four months. Something she couldn't avoid any longer. She sat on her bed rubbing her temples (a nervous habit she picked up from Parker) trying to decide what to do.

She came to a decision the same time that she heard the door open in close in the lobby below. She quickly exited her room to see who it was. It was Blink, Mush and Race.

Shay ran down the stairs giving each of them a hug "Merry Christmas" she said to each of them

Her motherly like instincts kicking in she began brushing the snow out of Race's hair

"Hey Hey watch it!" He said quickly pulling away from her. They all laughed and Mush excused himself to go upstairs and change, singing Christmas Carols as her went.

"Blink, Race" Shay said suddenly serious.

"Yah" they both answered at the same time

"I need you to take me to Brooklyn."

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That's all for now hope you enjoyed it! Reviews are nice, they make me happy.