Chapter One.
Shine and I weren't so attached to Queens that we ached to have it back again, but coming to Manhattan made us cringe slightly. Suddenly, we were to be put up with all these newsboys, as if we fit in more with them than anyone else. Well, me anyway. Shine doesn't have any of the "problems" that Loops has – that's what the girls said at the house in Queens – Why is she going with Loops, anyway?
I was lucky to have Shine as a real friend, that's why.
"Ay, you girls the one's from Queens?" We nodded, and Jack Kelly introduced himself, and then looked at each of us. "So, uh, who's who? Which is Kid?" he wondered.
Angrily, I told him, "I'm Loops – that's Shine." I shook hands with Jack, and he nodded, taking us in. "Shine really doesn't talk hardly ever," I said.
"Ah, that's why she came here with you?"
Shine shook her head. I said for her, "She came here 'cause she's my friend, that's why." Crossing my arms, I let him know that I was well aware of what people were thinking, and that I didn't care.
Jack shook his head. "We don't let regular girls stay here, as much as we want 'em here, so you..."
"Ay Jacky-boy, what's goin' on?" A girl popped her head out of a window from the lodging house in front of us. She had a really crisp lisp, a little more obvious than Jack's. As Jack flipped around, she opened her eyes wide and threw her hands out in confusion, a little over-dramatic.
"Spats, come down here!" Jack screeched.
The girl growled, "I ain't Spats! I tell you, call me Cinch!"
Looking at Shine, she was squinting up at the girl in amazement, unsure of what to think about her. "Weird," I whispered to her, and she chuckled.
Spats was quick to come down the stairs. "Call me Cinch. These stupid boys call me that 'cause of my lisp, but Jack's got one too, and nobody calls him Spitty or Spit's, nothin' like that!" This girl was seriously spitting all over the place, and it was only seconds before she would use another s in there, it seemed. She also didn't sound very intelligent.
"Spats is here the same reason as you, so hey, maybe you can have somethin' in common." Jack had ignored her request to call her Cinch, so I decided to not call her by anything.
I shook her hand and nodded. "Sure."
We were taken upstairs and introduced to all of the other newsies - all the rest were boys. Jack called out, "This is Loops and Shine!" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him casually point at me, letting them know who the un-regular one was.
Spats smiled at everyone, clearly the gesture of an idiot in the way that she did it. "So who's gonna sleep where's, huh?" she wondered.
Racetrack wiped his sleeve, looking up at Spats, who was sitting on the bed above him. "Ay! Stop spattin' all over the place, Spats!" he groaned.
"I ain't spattin' over nothin'! Talk to Jacky, he's talkin' more then I is!" she retorted, adding a "humph".
Jack shook his head. He looked around. "Uh, we got 2 beds by the window."
A few boys sniggered. Jack was giving us the 2 worst beds, not realizing that we knew what to fear upon sleeping there. Spats piped in, "If you hear any shots, then you yell at us and jump on the floor!"
"We know the drill." I rolled my eyes at Shine, who was grimacing. I really appreciated her following me here to Manhattan, instead of staying in Queens with our old friends. We used to do the same thing with new members. Put them all near the windows, so they would be kept up all night, while we all slept just fine.
"Gotta worry 'bout birds too!" Kid Blink inserted. "They hit the window, an' I think it's on purpose."
"Oh, this is gonna be a joy," I mumbled.