December 1898
Shrieks and screams echoed throughout the small park. Snowballs flew through the air and shattered against benches and trees.
"Don't you dare!" yelled Adelaide as she laughed and dove behind a bench as Skittery hauled a snowball twice the size of his head.
"Come on out, Aide…" Skittery said in his most non-threatening voice.
"Not a chance!" She peeked at him through the slats in the bench. He slowly crept towards her. "You gotta give me a head start! You're gonna get me as soon as I get up."
"I'll close my eyes," said Skittery.
"And count to ten."
"I'll count to three."
"Five."
"Fine. One." Adelaide stood up and ran a behind the nearest tree. "Two." She peeked out behind the tree as she gathered all the snow she could into a snowball. "Three. Four." She stood up, patting the snowball down. One more peek around the tree and she saw Skittery was almost upon her. "Five."
Adelaide saw him move and she ran around the tree the opposite way and threw her snowball in his direction. He was too quick, and she missed him by a foot.
"Aide!" she heard a voice from the street.
Adelaide turned toward the street and saw Snipeshooter waving towards them. She opened her mouth to call back when she felt something freezing cold run down her back.
She screamed and turned around to see Skittery doubled over, laughing.
"You…YOU!" She jumped around, trying to shake it out, but the fabric was already wet and freezing and plenty of snow stuck to the inside. She bent down and grabbed snows in both hands, throwing at his haphazardly. "I. Can't. Be-lieve. You!" Each syllable she said was punctuated by a fistful of snow.
Skittery laughed, raising his arms to block the snow. Despite being cold and wet, Adelaide couldn't help but grin at him. Once she was out of snow, Adelaide shook her hands and looked down at her soaked clothes. "I'm drenched," said Adelaide, taking her coat off and shaking the snow out of it.
"Aide!" Snipeshooter called out again.
At the sound of his voice, Adelaide's grin faded and she turned toward him. "What?"
"Tumbler keeps crying and we can't get him to tell us what's wrong," he said.
"Is he hurt?"
"We don't think so."
Adelaide gave him a suspicious look, but she nodded. "I'm comin'." She followed Snipeshooter down the street. Skittery jogged to catch up with them.
"What happened when he started crying?" asked Adelaide, shivering.
Snipeshooter shrugged. "We were just playin' marbles and he started cryin'."
Adelaide squinted unbelievingly, but didn't say anything else.
"It's not that cold out," Skittery said, putting his arm around her.
"Maybe not for those of us who didn't have a giant snowball shoved down their shirt," she smirked up at him.
Skittery laughed as he took off his threadbare coat and draped it around her shoulders. Adelaide grinned up at him and pushed her arms through the sleeves. It wasn't much, but it was still warm from Skittery. She wrapped the front around herself, enjoying the bigness of it.
Adelaide, Snipeshooter, and Skittery got to Greeley Square where Boots was trying to console Tumbler and some of the other younger newsies squatted off to the side, playing marbles.
When Boots saw Adelaide approaching, he put his arm around Tumbler. "Look, there's Aide."
Tumbler snapped his head up and spotted them. He immediately took off, his hat flying off his head. He ran across the square, plowing into Adelaide and buried his face in her stomach.
"It's okay," said Adelaide, sitting down on a bench, rubbing his back. Tumbler sat next to her, sobbing into her shoulder. "Tell me what happened."
Tumbler just sobbed in response.
Adelaide sighed and glanced up at Skittery. Skittery walked over to where the younger newsies were playing marbles.
"What happened?" Skittery asked.
"We were playin' marbles and Tumbler lost all of his," said Boots.
"Who won?" asked Skittery.
No one said anything, but they all glanced at Snipeshooter before looking down. Snipeshooter kept his eyes down.
"You said you didn't know why he was cryin'," said Skittery.
Snipeshooter just shrugged in response.
"Did you tell him you were playin' for keeps?" asked Skittery.
"Yeah," said Snipeshooter.
"And did you explain to him what that meant?" asked Skittery.
Snipeshooter shrugged. "Sort of explains itself, don't it?"
"Snipes, he's eight. You're thirteen. You need to explain the rules to him before he plays. And you and I both know those were brand new marbles."
Snipeshooter sighed and looked over at Adelaide and Tumbler.
"Sweetie, that's how the game of marbles works," said Adelaide, brushing Tumbler's hair out of his eyes and wiping his tears. "Playing for keeps means the winner keeps the marbles."
Tumbler sniffled and wiped his eyes. "But they were still almost brand new! And now Snipes says he gets to keep 'em and I can't play anymore."
Adelaide clenched her jaw. If she had a nickel for every time Snipeshooter took advantage of her little brother, she wouldn't have to work.
"Well maybe Santa will bring you some new ones." Adelaide wiped away his fresh tears and tried to do the math in her head. If she and Tumbler shared dinner a couple nights a week, she could scrounge up enough money in time for Christmas to buy him some new marbles. She wanted to do anything she could to keep his attention away from the fact that they would never go back to their old way of living.
"Yeah. But I'm never playing with them again," he said, throwing a glare to the other boys.
Adelaide hid her grin. Tumbler said that at least twice a week - unfortunately, it never lasted, and he would go back to living in Snipeshooter's shadow, following him around like a puppy. She gathered have her little brother looking up to someone like Boots or Skittery, but a sister can only do so much. In an hour, she was sure they'll be off sword-fighting in the park.
"You want to come with me and Skittery? We're going to get lunch before the afternoon editions comes out."
He sniffed again and nodded.
"Okay." Adelaide gave him a kiss on top of his head and they stood up. They looked up to see Snipeshooter approach, his head bowed, and Skittery behind him.
"I'm sorry we didn't explain the rules to you, Tumbler," said Snipeshooter, his eyes trained on the ground. "Next time we'll play for fair." Skittery nudged him in the back. Snipeshooter held out a small cloth bag. "Here are your marbles back, since you didn't lose them fairly."
Adelaide looked down at Tumbler, who took the cloth bag and looked in, seeing all of his marbles in there. "Thanks, Snipes."
Adelaide clenched her jaw and grinned down at Snipeshooter. "That's very honest and noble of you, Snipeshooter," she said. Snipeshooter glanced up at her, not fooled by her grin.
"We're gonna go build a huge snowman in the park. You wanna come with?"
"Okay!" Tumbler grinned, shoving the bag of marbles into his pocket. "Bye, sis!" he called over his shoulder as he ran off with the other boys.
Skittery stepped over and put his arm around her. Adelaide sighed as they watched the younger ones run off down the street.
"You didn't have to do that, you know," said Adelaide. "It would've been a good lesson for him."
"I know," Skittery shrugged. "But I felt bad for the kid. I remember when I was about his age, Race conned me out of a brand new deck of cards. He still has them."
"Ah, so that's why you refuse to play cards with Race."
"Well, that and he cheats." Adelaide giggled.
"You know that if you want to run uptown and change, I'll pay for your trolley ride."
She grinned at him. "You're sweet, but sitting near the stove in Tibby's should dry me off enough."
"Come on. I'll buy you a cup of coffee."
"Darn right you will."
Skittery put his arm around her and they walked down the street toward Tibby's. Skittery kept their pace slow, wanting to spend as much time alone with her as possible.
Once they were inside the restaurant, he helped her with the coat and hung it on the rack next to the door.
Specs waved at them from across the room, so they weaved in and out of the tables and made our way to the table with him, Bumlets, and Itey.
"You're all wet, Aide!" Specs said. "Have trouble stayin' dry?"
She looked at Skittery. "You wanna take that question, Skitts?"
Skittery just shrugged. "She lost a snowball fight, fair and square."
"She's your girl, Skitts," Itey said. "You're supposed to let her win."
Adelaide raised an eyebrow at Skittery. "See? Itey knows how it's supposed to work."
"Eh." Skittery waved his hand in front of his face.
