Snitch appeared at the landing. "Skittery's in the john...what's all the yellin' for, Race?"
"I'll tell ya what it's for! He owes me two bits! 'I gave it to ya,' he says. 'In your pockets,' he says. An' then runs away like the little...SKITTERY!"
Kid Blink ran over to Racetrack and grabbed his shoulders. "Race! For God's sake, will ya calm down!? Geez, all this for two bits?"
"Yeah, all this for two bits! Cause dose were my two bits and if Skittery doesn't pull 'em out of his ear I'll pull 'em outta his—"
"WHOA!" David exclaimed. "Race! If in your blind rage you didn't notice the lady here…" David pointed at Cathy. "Let me introduce you. Racetrack, meet Cathy. Cathy, meet Racetrack and his temper."
Racetrack glared at Dave. "You got some mouth on ya…" he spat. He looked at Cathy. "I'll take the time to say my hellos later. Right now I gotta soak Skittery till he coughs up my two bits…"
Racetrack broke from Kid Blink's grasp and barreled up the stairs. Cathy looked back at the boys, who shrugged. "He's not always like that," Jake insisted.
"Usually worse," Itey mumbled so only Crutchy heard.
Cathy shifted in her seat. "Do all newsboys have such…odd vocabularies?"
"It's something you pick up," Dave said. "You'll get used to it eventually."
Cathy nodded and excused herself for the bedroom. She hoped she would get used to everything here, she thought as she closed the door behind her and her smile vanished. So far she had seen rough language, loud boys who were anything but the gentlemen her grandfather had told them to be, and a general rowdiness that she never thought she would see in one place, especially by people who considered themselves friends. It would take a lot of getting used to. And she wasn't at all sure she could do it before she went back home…
"You're all a buncha no-good street rats!" Kloppman hissed at the boys an hour later. They sat on their bunks, trying not to look too uneasy or upset. Kloppman never seriously yelled at them, and now they were getting a lecture. "I tell yeh to behave in fronta my gran'daughta, and whadda I get? Ya throw around yer foul mouths more'n usual! What must she thinka yeh, huh?"
The guilty boys shifted uncomfortably. Kloppman left them where they were with a few parting words: "Clean up yer act, boys…"
Kid Blink looked out from his bunk. "I didn't think we were all that bad…"
"Well it wasn't what Kloppman was looking for…" Racetrack said.
"Were youse caps on?" Snitch asked. The newsies who had been downstairs with Cathy nodded. Snitch shook his head. "The hat comes off. That's what Kloppman keeps tellin' me…"
"Yeah, boys…" Blink said. "And ya know we was throwin' those dirty words around…"
There was a slight pause, and Mush took advantage of it to ask a question. "Hey fellas? You think she's pretty at all?"
Laughter spread around the bunk. "You'd be the one to ask, wouldn't ya, Mush?" Specs chortled. "Is dat all ya ever think about?"
"Just thinkin'. You fellas think so?" Mush asked again, undeterred by the laughter.
The general answer was a slight "Eh…" from most of the boys. Jack took the liberty of verbalizing the general opinion. "She's no Gibson girl…but she ain't so bad…"
"Nah, she ain't so bad. Why?" Kid Blink turned an accusing eye on Mush.
Mush shrugged. "No reason. Just askin'."
"Nothin' doin'!" Racetrack exclaimed. "You're carryin' the torch, Mush!"
"No, no, no!" Mush insisted.
"Wouldn't know ya felt that way by how ya said hello…" Jack said with a wry grin.
"Kloppman saw red…" Skittery muttered with a grin.
A slight commotion broke out. Jake quieted them and addressed them all. "A'right, a'right. It don't matter what Mush thinks of 'er, or if she's pretty or not. Kloppman asked up special t'treat her as good as we'd treat a lady. So that's what we gonna do. You'se with me?"
A chorus of "Yes," went through the bunk room, and Jack nodded affirmatively. A few minutes later Kloppman pounded on the door, announcing lights-out. The boys obliged and went to bed.
Two of the boys didn't fall asleep easy, their minds racing and keeping them up well into the night.