A/N: I'm sorry about the wait guys, just been busy with school and everything. Then I got stuck on it but its up, and it's long, well longer then any other one I have written! This chapter is kinda to build more suspense and also to describe the characters more. And I am trying to focus on what they look so I started in this chapter and I will be doing that more. I really hope you all like it! oh just to let you know the italics are either a flashback or them thinking, you'll know when you read it. so on to the story...
Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies. Skyler, Lucky, Artemis, and Dakota belong to xLittlexItalyx (Thank you very much for them) and Match and Hawk eye Betchya O' Connor, Spades belongs to my friend Britt (xXhoity toityXx-and if you don't already you should read her story!) and the rest belong to me.
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Rambler and Gambler returned to the lodge in a much better mood then they had both been in a few short minutes ago on the docks. As they walked into the bunk room everyone got silent and all eyes turned to the two boys just watching them walking to their seats.
After a few more hours of sitting around and talking Gambler decided that it was a good time to get going. It wasn't so late that they would be too tired when they got there, but it wasn't early enough to be bright out. They didn't want to be seen before they actually got to the lodge house, if they did who knows what would happen to them.
If they got caught and they weren't in the lodge it was considered trespassing on another boroughs territory and that didn't go well in the world of newsies. You either had to announce that you where coming, or get there without getting seen. As the group was preparing to leave others where silently hoping that they would get there and back without any problems. The boys finished getting ready, said their goodbyes, and went of on their way.
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As they started out, on their walk to Queens, everyone was silent. Each boy deep in their own thoughts, wondering what was going to happen when they arrived. With every passing minute the boys got more and more tense and little conversations began to break out.
"So man," Shadow whispered to Spot as he rubbed his short sandy colored hair. "You scared yet?"
"Scared?" Spot replied. "Nah I'm not…I'm not scared." He let out a deep sigh shifted his eyes to Shadow to see his reaction. But there was none, he just stared straight ahead with no emotion showing in his ocean blue eyes. His tan muscular arms crossed over his chest, and his lips formed into a straight line. "You scared?"
"No." Shadow said trying to sound confident. "No, I'm not scared, not scared at all." He whispered to himself trying to convince himself his word where true.
The two boys had known each other their whole life, and well enough to know that the other was lying. Truth was both of them where scared to death. It was the first time they had ever done something like this, and they didn't know what to expect. But of course neither would actually tell the other that because they had too much pride. But neither of the boys knew that too much pride can't always be good.
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Hustler sighed reaching his tan muscular arms over his head to stretch. "I still don't get the point of this." He stated dropping his arms to his side.
"Yeah I'm with you. There is no need to be going to Queens." Blades replied.
Moving his fluffy, wavy, light brown hair out of his face, Hustler looked behind him at the younger boys that where coming along. "Hope nothing goes wrong. I mean if something does what are we gonna do with the others." He said pointing his thumb over his shoulder towards the boys.
"I'm sure they'll be fine." Blades replied. "They all know how to fight." His voice sounded confident but his blue eyes showed fear.
Please make everything go alright tonight. Hustler thought. His chocolate brown eyes that normally glowed brightly now showed the same fear as Blades. Gambler better be telling us all we need to know about tonight! I Know Blades, Rambler, Gambler, and me can all take care of ourselves, and the others do know how to fight, but we still need to be prepared. Everything will be alright. He said trying to convince himself that there was really no other reason that they where going to Queens, and that everyone would be okay. But they have never been in a fight! Shit! I got a bad feeling about this.
"You alright there man." Shadow said as him and Spot walked up next to the two older boys. "Ya looked like ya just seen a ghost or something." He laughed patting Hustler on the back.
"Yeah I'm alright" His eyes wandered to his feet. "Everything is gonna be alright." He whispered so low the others could barely hear.
Spot, Shadow, and Blades exchanged worried glances. If Hustler, one of the Brooklyn boys, and one of the toughest newsies in all of New York, was worried then they knew the rest of them should be worried too.
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Jack walked with Hawk Eye in back of all the other boys. So far they had been silent, both in their own thoughts.
"So," Jack said trying to break the silence, "Nice night out tonight ain't it."
Hawk eye laughed brushing his shaggy blonde hair out of his sapphire eyes. "Random much?"
Jack laughed, his brown eyes glowing with happiness. "Just trying to start conversation. All this silence makes me nervous. Especially when others are talking and you can't hear their conversation. Cause you really want to know what they are saying and you can't, it just gets me nervous wondering what they are talking about"
Hawk Eye shook his head in agreement. "What do you think about tonight? Scared?"
"Nah," He shook his head letting his brown hair fall into his eyes, "Excited." He raised his eyebrows at the other and smirked.
"Yeah me too. I'm kinda hoping that something is gonna happen. It would be more interesting then just standing around talking."
"Yeah." Jack replied.
Silence grew between the two boys once again. Hawk Eye reached up to his left ear and started to play with his earring. A smile grew on his lips as he thought back to the day he had been dared to pierce his ear. It was Jack's idea and Hawk Eye knew that he couldn't back down or else he wouldn't be accepted by the other boys, they would always think of his as too scared to do anything. So he pierced his ear and decided he liked it so kept it in. Now whenever he got nervous he twirled it in his ear and it reminded him that he would always have his friends to back him up.
Jack started tugging on his red bandana that was tied around his neck. His mom had given it to him before she died, and it was the only thing he had left to remind him of how his life had been before his father went to jail and his mother died. He also, like Hawk Eye with his earring, found comfort in this item.
To anyone else these two items may have been pointless or just something else in your pocket, but to Jack and Hawk Eye they where happiness. It reminded them of what they once had, and what they had found over the years.
The two boys looked at each other a smile on both of their lips. Jack patted his friend on the back and they continued their walk in silence, knowing that they had someone to look out for them.
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The rest of the boys, Race, West, Sway, Skittery, Cash, Mush, Snitch, Blink, and Bandit, where all together in a group all talking and laughing.
Race pulled out a cigar from his pocket and shoved it in his mouth, without lighting it, just letting it hang there. "Who wants to play me in a game of poker when we get back?" He smirked smoothing back his already greased up hair with his hand.
"I'll take you up on that." Cash replied with a laugh. Cash was what the newsies considered the "Race" of Brooklyn. He had come to them not too long ago and all the boys seemed to think him and Race where so much alike. They both Gambled, Played poker, smoked cigars, and just fooled around. That's why they are such good friends.
"Ya sure you wanna do that?" Race said in a warning tone. "Last time we played I beat your ass!"
"No you didn't!" Cash shot back at him his green eyes becoming hard. "Last time I beat you!"
"Oh yeah." Races smirked and all the boys laughed. Cash just smiled at him his black hair blowing over his eyes in the wind.
"I'm so fucking tired." Bandit said. "I can't wait to get this stupid trip over with and get home."
"I'm with you there buddy." Skittery replied as he let out a big yawn and stretched his arms behind his back.
Snitch was walking behind them staring at his feet and looking very sad. "Hey Snitch why so glum looking." Mush asked always being the friendliest one.
"Oh nothing," Snitch replied. "Spades just told me that she was scared that I would get hurt."
"So you scared?" Blink asked
"No, just worried about her." Snitch replied looking up from the ground. His brown hair falling into his face, and his bright light blue eyes going even softer then normal, making him look even sadder. "I hope she is gonna be alright, you don't know how upset she was that I was going tonight."
"Don't worry man," Blink sad patting him on the back with a big smile on his face. "We'll make sure we get you back home to your girl."
"Yeah it's gonna be alright." Mush added trying to get him to cheer up. "She's with all the girls back home, they'll make sure she is okay while you're gone."
"Yeah I guess your right." Snitch replied with a small smile.
Sway was slapping his hands, to some random beat, on his thighs as he walked. He was always the most outgoing newsies anyone had ever met. He and West had been friends a long time and both of them where so much a like, so as Sway made the beat West started to make up a song to go with it.
After a few minutes of joking around and getting some weird looks from the rest of the boys they burst out into laughter and walked silently swaying back and fourth to their tune they had just sung.
"Man this is one long fucking trip." Sway said seeming a little annoyed at how long they had been walking for. He could never stick to doing one thing for more then a little while, and that's why the called him sway. He always seemed to be "swaying" from one thing to another.
"Yeah I know." West added in. "Does anyone know how much longer till we get there?" He yelled looking around at everyone. Everyone just gave him looks that screamed out shut-the-fuck-up, so he shrugged and turned back to Sway. "Happy bunch aren't they?" He smiled his green eyes lighting up, and his red hair falling into his face.
"Oh yeah," Sway looked around at all the others. "They seem so excited." He smoothed out his brown hair that had been messed up by the gust of wind that just went by, and let out a little laugh.
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Gambler and Rambler walked close in front of the group of younger boys. Rambler mumbled to himself as though he was trying to decide on what to do. Gambler walked in silence waiting for what the other was going to decide.
"Okay," Rambler started as he switched his gaze to the other, "I got it."
"So…" Gambler replied anxiously waiting to hear what he had to say.
"You and me," He said pointing towards the two of them. "Just you and me are gonna go and talk to Switchblade. We don't have to get no one else involved." Reaching up to ruffle his blonde hair he sighed and looked at Gambler, "Well at least not yet."
Nodding his head in agreement Gambler smirked at his friend. "I think your right."
Silence fell over the boys again and they heard the laughter of the group behind them. Shaking his head and laughing Rambler looked behind him at the group. "What are we gonna do with them."
"I have no clue." Gambler replied also laughing.
The two leaders where a lot more relaxed now that they had a plan and knew what was going to go down when they got to Queens. They didn't have to be worried about them starting a fight because all of the boys where tough, and all of them knew how to fight.
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The girls all sat around a few tables in the lodge eagerly awaiting the return of the boys. They all tried to make it seem like they where okay, but you could tell they where all scared.
Spades was talking about how upset she was that Snitch had to be dragged into this mess.
"We're all upset they got dragged into this," Artemis said rolling her eyes, "it's not just your man going out there tonight!"
Spades looked down at the table and began to pick away at the wood. "I'm just worried about him." She said softly.
"And so am I but you don't see me…"
"Artemis!" Skyler warned. "Just leave her alone. She's allowed to be upset."
Blush sat in silence looking out of the window that was across the room. She had still been the only one to know notice the tension that was between Hustler and Gambler. Her mind wandered back to what Hustler had said to her right before they left.
As everyone was saying their good byes and whishing the boy's good luck on their trip Hustler pulled Blush aside making sure they where alone. "Ya gotta listen to me Blush." He said sounding worried and glancing around making sure that no one would hear. "I'm not to sure why we are going to Queens tonight, but I still have a feeling that it might be something big. Bigger then we would be able to handle on our own."
Blush's blue/gray eyes grew wide with worry. "What do you mean to big for you to handle? Is everything going to be okay? What's gonna ha…"
She was interrupted by Hustler pulling her into a big hug. "I don't know baby. I just have a bad feeling about this, but I need you stay strong, you gotta listen very carefully to what I'm gonna tell you!"
Blush nodded her head trying to hold back the rest of the tears that threatened to fall. All this talk was starting to get her worried. Hustler reached out and wiped her tears away with his thumb. "Go on," Blush said.
She quickly wiped away the tears that had started to stain her face, in hopes that no one would see her crying. She didn't want to have to worry them with what Hustler had told her, at least not yet.
Tweak decided to start up a game of poker to get their minds off the boys. All the girls joined in and started to relax more. After a few minutes they where talking, laughing, and had almost forgotten about the boys that had left. Everything was going great except for that voice in the back of all their heads that kept reminding them about the danger of tonight.
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Gambler made his way to the front of the group with Rambler right at his side. "Okay guys we gotta be quite now, we're starting to go through Queens. Lodge house isn't that far away. But stay close and keep an eye out." Gambler warned them all as they crossed over the border into a totally different world.
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A/N: Hmmmm…what did Hustler tell Blush, What's going to happen in Queens? Leave me a review and tell me if you like it!