A/N: I don't own anything in this story but Cassie Anderson and her relatives. Also, I'd like to give a shoutout to the lovely Percie Jean, who has helped inspire me to write this story! This first chapter is dedicated to you :)

Word Count: 1856

Chapter One: In Which We Meet Our Protagonists in a Movie-Style Flashback

Manhattan, 1894

Books were so much easier to handle than reality, which was one of the many reasons ten-year-old Cassandra loved them.

She'd started at a relatively young age, and now read all the time, mostly Shakespeare. A recent obsession of hers was Romeo and Juliet. Sure, it ended in tragedy, but then, so many things in real life did - she'd learned that much firsthand. In any case, it was a beautiful story, and she read it now on the long train to Manhattan, New York.

She was riding with Mrs. Johnson from the market, who had been a close friend of her mother's. When she and some others learned of her mother's death, they'd all rallied to help Cassie find another relative to live with. The whole thing was very sweet of course, but Cassie had never actually met this Aunt Quinn of hers, and she sort of feared what she would be like.

Her life, up until this point, had for the most part been one of routine, and she wasn't so sure she was ready to change just yet.

As she began to turn the page, she realized that she hadn't really paid much attention to anything on that page, lost in her thoughts.

"Mrs. Johnson?" she asked, looking up.

"Oh, Cassandra, I've told you that you can call me Mildred."

"Mrs. Mildred?"

Mrs. Johnson smiled warmly. "Yes, dear?"

"Do you think my aunt will be nice?"

"Oh yes, I'm sure she will be. Your mother spoke of her quite often, and fondly, too. I expect she'll be very kind, especially with the…situation."

Cassie considered this for a moment, then looked back down at her book. "Mrs. Mildred?"

"Yes?"

"When I'm gone, can you please return my book to the library?"

"Of course, dear." Mrs. Johnson's eyes seemed to shine with sympathy. "Which reminds me…my husband and I got you something. Like a going-away present." She reached into her bag and pulled out a thick, rectangular object wrapped in newspapers.

"What is it?"

"Why don't you open it up and see?"

Cassie took the gift and started to tear off the paper. It was a book. "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare," she read aloud.

"Your mom always said you were a fan."

"I am." She grinned. "Thank you." Gingerly, she opened the book. The first story was All's Well That Ends Well.

"Oh, don't mention it." Mrs. Johnson waved a dismissive hand.

Cassie smiled and resumed her reading.

When they arrived at her Aunt Quinn's home, it took a whole four minutes for her to come to the door.

She must be really old, Cassie thought at first, or deaf. It turned out she was deliberately ignoring them. After the second minute had passed and Mrs. Johnson had knocked again, a shout echoed from inside the house.

"Would whoever it is please leave? I am not coming to the door!"

The third minute went by, and by the fourth, when they were still there knocking, Quinn stomped to the door and opened it, wearing her night clothes and a filmy white robe. She couldn't have been much older than twenty-two. Her eyes were ablaze with what looked like anger.

"Ms. Anderson?"

"What do you want?" Her words were clipped, like someone who was trying desperately not to yell.

"This is Cassandra, your niece."

Quinn's eyes softened immediately as she gazed down at Cassie. "Of course. And I'm sure you are grieving just as I?"

Cassie nodded.

"Well, I apologize for my display. It was a horrible thing to hear of her passing. I can't imagine your heartbreak."

"Yes, well, I should be getting back. Good luck, Cassandra. I hope to see you again soon." Mrs. Johnson ruffled Cassie's curls and left for the train station.

"Come in," Quinn said. Cassie did so. No sooner than she had stepped inside however, did Quinn whip around to face her, the anger having returned to her eyes. She was horribly intimidating. "Listen. I don't really want you here, but as long as you do what I say and leave me alone, we should be fine."

Cassie furrowed her brows and clutched her new book to her chest. "But out there you said-"

"I happen to be a fantastic actress. Now, you can sleep in my younger step-brother's old room. I don't have any clothes for you, so you'll just have to wear his."

"Okay, but - "

"Go outside and do something. I'm meeting someone today." And with that, Cassie was pushed back out the door.

She was in too great a state of shock to even begin to comprehend what had just happened. Her grieving aunt had kicked her out of the house for no reason-that was, assuming her Quinn even was grieving and not lying about that like everything else. Then again, Cassie considered, grief makes people do crazy things. She stood up and paced down the sidewalk. After a short back-and-forth with herself about whether Quinn was guilty or not, Cassie elected to forgive her. After all, the opposite of love, she figured, was apathy,and it seemed as if Quinn cared to some degree, right?

As Cassie further contemplated this, she continued walking down the sidewalk until she bumped into someone. Stumbling backwards a few steps, she looked up to see a boy with curly brown hair and blue eyes. He looked older than her. "Hiya," he said cheerily, "I'm Nick."

Cassie smiled awkwardly in response. "Uh, I'm Cassie. Sorry for bumping into you…"

"That's alright." Nick grinned. "I like meetin' people." He paused. "You new here? I ain't never seen ya before, and I seen all the kids in 'Hattan."

"All of them?" Cassie asked skeptically.

"Probably. Course, I ain't counted, but…at least most of' em."

"I doubt you've met most of the kids in Manhattan." Cassie said in a rather matter-of-fact way. "I've never even been here before and I know that it's impossible."

Nick raised an eyebrow, a small smile still on his face. "Really? I think anything's possible." He paused again and looked Cassie up and down. "How old are you?"

"Ten."

"Yeah? Well, I'se twelve, so I think I know a little bit more about the impossible than you do."

"Like what?"

"Like that it ain't impossible to know most of the kids in Manhattan." Nick smirked.

"And…what else?" Cassie asked, trying not to let her voice betray interest. Of course, she hardly believed that this boy knew anything about the impossible, but if he did, well…it might be worth knowing.

"Oh, so now ya believe me?"

"No," Cassie said quickly. She'd never been a particularly good liar and hoped he couldn't tell.

Nick looked around. "You got anywhere to be, Cassie?"

She shook her head no, thinking of how rude Quinn had been to her.

Nick extended his hand and smiled. "Then come with me."

Cassie and Nick became fast friends over the months, and though her suspicions were confirmed (Nick didn't know much about the impossible after all), he made good company seeing as she didn't really have anyone else.

She'd gone to school back in Albany, but since she had moved to Manhattan, she'd been putting her studies off.

Before her untimely death, Cassie's mother had always made her go to school. Education, to her, was one of the most important things in life, no matter how you got it. Cassie of course, kept up with her reading. Shakespeare was all she had now, but she wasn't complaining. In fact, she always had her book on her, even when she was with Nick (though that was in part because she didn't completely trust Quinn).

She and Nick now lay on the grass under the stars and staring up. She had her book on her chest.

"You really like readin', huh? You've had that book on you every time I've seen ya." Nick commented , looking at her.

"By words the mind is winged," she shrugged.

"What, was that the first Shakespeare you ever read or somethin'?"

Cassie laughed. "Nope it's a quote by another dead playwright - Aristophanes."

"Ari-who?"

"Aristophanes. Basically it's just a fancier version of the saying, 'knowledge is power.'"

"Oh."

They sat in silence for a bit, staring at the stars again.

"Nick?"

"Hm?"

"Are you sure you wanna become a newsie? I mean, you could come live with me or something, and get food and stuff there."

"Aw." He ruffled her curly hair. "Ya know I'd love that, but you also know your aunt don't want me there. And I'd feel intrusive."

"But you wouldn't be!"

"Yeah, but I'd feel that way, and that's the important thing, ain't it?"

Cassie sighed. "I guess. Will you at least come to visit me?"

"Course! Ya don't even have to ask."

Cassie smiled, but she still felt sad. Her expression must have displayed this, because Nick grinned at her and said, "Hey, wanna point out all the constellations and make me feel stupid 'cause I can't see 'em?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

The next day, Nick visited Cassie reading in the front yard. "Cassie!"

"Nick!" She looked up and noticed two figures standing with him. "Who are these?"

"Oh, this is Romeo," Nick said, gesturing to a boy that looked about her age on the left, "and Racetrack." He gestured to the boy on the right, who had an unlit cigar between his lips.

"Enchanté, mademoiselle," Romeo said, grinning cheekily and kissing her right hand.

Nick rolled his eyes, but Cassie smirked. She found it endearing. "Parlez-vous Français?"

"Just the romantic sounding things," He admitted.

"So your name is Romeo? Like from the Shakespeare play?"

"That's me. I guess you can see where I got the nickname from."

She nodded. She wanted to ask what his real name was then, but felt it wasn't her place. "And so your name is Racetrack?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out." He smiled and extended his hand. "Mostly, though, they call me Race."

Cassie shook it. "And I suppose that's a nickname too?"

"Technically, yeah."

"Do all the newsies have nicknames?"

"Pretty much."

"What's yours, Nick?"

"I don't really have one yet. They said they have to figure out my personality first."

He exaggerated his accent on the word personality, so that it sounded like "poysonality." Cassie giggled. "Alright then."

"And while we've got your attention, Miss," Romeo asked, pulling out a newspaper from his bag, "would ya be interested in buying a paper?"

She smirked. "Indeed, I would, good sir," she said, and handed him a dime. She could see his face light up, which made her smile.

"Alright, well, we oughta be goin'," Nick began. "Papers to sell, ya know? But I'll see ya soon, Cassie."

"Bye, Nick! Race, Romeo!"

They all gave their own goodbyes and ambled into the distance, leaving Cassie back to her book and her thoughts, wondering if she could ever become a newsie one day.

"Cassandra!" Quinn's sharp, shrill voice jolted her out of her thoughts. "Come inside and clean the kitchen!"

"But I just - "

"Now!"

Cassie sighed and headed back into the house. Yeah, she was definitely becoming a newsie one day.

A/N: Hello! I know Switch was supposed to be updated by now if you're keeping up with that, but I've been having a bit of difficulty in starting the chapter, so that might be on hold for a little bit. I have a few things to say:

I'm using stage!Mush's appearance. I considered Mush from the movie, but I don't feel like it would make much sense, especially since everything else takes place the way the musical does.

I don't know Mush's real name for sure. I've heard Michael, and I've heard Nick. I decided to look it up, and more sources said Nick than Michael, so that's what I went with. Please don't be mad uwu

I know it's kinda weird for me to start with a flashback, and I worried that it might seem a bit exposition-y, but literally every other way I tried didn't turn out quite right, so this is what I went with. The rest of the story takes place in 1899.

Thanks for reading! It would be greatly appreciated if you could review and let my know what you liked (or didn't like)!

-mouse :)