A/N: Earlier in the story I had Riley ask Julie if she was from Arizona and I found out today that Arizona wasn't a state yet in 1899 so now it says Cali because that was a state then. Sorry about the mix up.

Shout Outs:

Sapphy: She didn't recognize Spot because it wasn't Gabriel Damon it was the real Spot Conlon. If you got that and I'm just repeating myself (and probably making a foul of myself) ignore me. The reason behind the evil smile will be revealed later on in the story.

Linda (Mom): It feels weird giving a shout out to my mom but she reviewed so: Thanks for reading and reviewing. I'm glad you liked it.

Chapter 5

            I stepped out onto the fire escape from headed down it. The street was on bustling with people now and I found it hard to navigate. I seriously doubted my ability to find my way back to the LH.

Eventually, well okay it was like several hours, I found a school it wasn't a very big one but it was worth a try. I stepped into the school and realized that it wasn't a one room school house. I had always thought that one room school houses were still being used in this time (I'd stopped a newsies and found out that it was the fall 1899). Right there in front of me was a multiple room school. I learned later that one room school houses were only being used in the rural areas of the US.

"Can I help you?" asked a women passing by me.

"Yeah I'm looking for a job as a teacher." I replied.

"You'd like to teach?" she didn't seem to grasp it the first time I had said it.

"Yes, I would."

"Well what do you teach?"

"Whatever's needed," I replied hoping that my 8th grade education would be able to cover whatever it was that they needed.

"Well what do you know?"

"A lot," I replied vaguely.

"Aren't you a little young to be a teacher?"

"Listen lady," I replied in my 'I'm-talking-to-an-adult-and-they're-treating-me-like-a-child-and-they're-going-to-regret-it' voice. "I don't care how young I am; I need a job and you could be the one to hire a bright young teacher or you feel sorry later for not hiring me."

She stared at me for a minute not sure how to take in the reply I had given her. She seemed to be processing what I had said and thinking it over. I figure though she was trying to figure out if I was bluffing about the 'bright young teacher' part or the 'you'll be sorry' part. I'll never really know which,

"Well we do need an advanced mathematics teacher for the pupils who have mastered our regular courses. You would probably be younger than any of them but I need to know if you could handle it, and if you can teach the material."

"What kind of material?"

"Beginning Algebra," she replied.

"Algebra……..hmmm," I said pretending to think it over. Algebra would be easy. Seeing that I was going into the sophomore level math as a freshman, and beginning algebra is what the 8th grades did. I could teach it right? I figured I should ask more questions to make me seem more professional "How old is the oldest and youngest boy?"

"The oldest is eighteen and the youngest is sixteen," she replied after a moment of thought. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen," I lied in reply it wasn't like they could do a back round check on me or anything.

"You don't look nineteen," she replied not sure whether to believe me or not.

"I've always looked young for my age," I replied casually like we were just two members of the faculty.

"Ah," she replied. "Well we'll have to go and speak with the headmaster."

"Alright," I replied following her down a hall to personal office with an old man leaning over a fine oak desk.

"Sir," the women said to get his attention.

"Yes," he didn't even look up at her.

"I've got someone who wants to fill the empty mathematics position," she informed him.

"Already have one," he replied keeping his attention on the paper in front of him.

"What?" I gasped. I need this job didn't they understand this. I apparently just earned the man's attention because he looked up at me.

"Who are you?" he asked staring me in the eye.

"A well educated girl who desperately needs a job. Who's willing to do anything. I can grade assignments, heck I'll manual labor if I get money for it." I replied desperate but calmly.

"A name would have done," he responded going back to his desk.

"Julie,"

"Is there a last name that goes along with that Julie?"

"O'Carroll," I'd always wanted to be able to pretend that was my last name in reality. I did it online all the time but that wasn't the same.

"Alright miss O'Carroll I think we have a job for you."

"You do!" this was an exciting thing as you can tell.

"Yes, we've needed someone who can do whatever is needed. You can start today; the lunch hall is in dire need of cleaning."

"Alright, how much will I get paid?" after babysitting for a while I've learned that this is an important thing to establish up front.

"Hmm about 75 cents a day," he said now scribbling things down.

"Alright," I replied thinking through my knowledge of the 'newsies era' and figured that was reasonable. The project I had to do last year on the great depression, where I had to virtually support a family of four also helped me in making that decision.

"Ms. Rutherford will show you where the cleaning materials are," at that we were dismissed.

I followed Rutherford to a small closet where things were being kept. The cleaning products consisted of a rag some soap and a bucket. I sighed; this was not going to be fun. Then I followed Rutherford to the lunch hall.

It was fairly clean so it wouldn't take long. I still didn't want to do it but money was necessary for living. Living is an essential for a successful future. I was going to have a successful future.

Rutherford left me to my cleaning. I wasn't completely sure what needed to be done so I just kind of cleaned what ever was dirty. There wasn't a kitchen like in modern schools' lunch rooms. This just merely had a room for eating. I had to assume everyone brought a lunch.

It took me about an hour to clean that thing spotless, and it wasn't an easy task. Never the less it was clean and that meant I was closer to having money for things important—like food.

I returned the rag and stuff to the closet and found Ms. Rutherford at a desk not far from it. She was writing something down on a scrap piece of paper when I approached the desk.

"I'm done," I announced my presence after a moment of standing there.

"Oh, that's nice. Can you take this to room four." she said handing a scrap to me and smiling.

I started walking down the hallway in an attempt to find classroom four. You'd think it would be near classroom three but no. Classroom three was the end of the hallway. This produced a problem to me. I had to find classroom five which would probably be next to classroom four. I say probably because look at classroom three.

Going back the way I came I found another hallway that started with classroom four. I sighed having found it. I pushed the door open and walked in. I caught the teacher's attention and he approached.

"You a new student?" he asked before a shoved the note into his hand. I made a snort like noise, it isn't really a snort. I still haven't figured out how to snort.

"No, Jill-of-all-trades" I replied. Couldn't call myself a Jack-of-all-trades; Jack is a boys name. So I settled on Jill. He nodded.

"So you're an assistant then?" he asked walking over to his desk and scribbling something down on a new scrap of paper.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Can teachers recruit you?" he asked handing the new scrap to me. "Ms. Rutherford."

"I don't know," I replied heading back out the door.

After delivering the message back to Rutherford (which took me a lot less time) there was temporarily nothing for me to do. I sat and watched as the other teens poured out of their classrooms towards the lunch hall. My newly cleaned lunch hall……they had better not mess it up again. I was not going to clean it a second time that same day.

Then I realized that I hadn't eaten since the afternoon before (I forget to eat dinner sometimes) and was getting quite hungry. Ugh; hunger plus Julie does not equal happiness. Luckily the nausea hadn't sunk in but it would soon. Ms. Rutherford pulled out a small lunch pale and began to eat. Oh my mouth watered at the little sandwich with turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, and probably mayonnaise. Now I'm not a tomatoes fan but anything was better than hunger at the moment. Except pork products, the allergic reaction I get from eating pork is worse.

"Are you hungry miss Jill-of-all-trades?" I looked up to see a young man about sixteen with blue eyes and curly brown hair looking at me.

"Yes," I replied. There was no point in hiding it the boy could probably hear my stomach growling.

He handed me a biscuit and an apple. I thanked him politely for his kindness before inhaling them. It wasn't much but enough to keep me going till I had money to go buy something to eat. He laughed at my eating style.

"You eat like a kid from the streets who hasn't eaten in a few days," he said but not really a rude comment, more of an observation.

"David Jacobs," he said introducing himself. I nearly choked on a bite of the apple.