CHAPTER 5:

The next morning, Alyssa was awake before the sun came up. She had a restless night, with little sleep. She thought for hours about what she could do about this situation. She could go give him hell and start an argument with him. He'd probably kick her out, and she had no where to go. She could just leave, but again: a place to go was an obstacle. She could apologize to him.

Not gonna happen. Ever.

In the end, she decided she would show him how tough she is. She made a deal with her self to tough it out here for at least another week. Maybe he would change, or she would find a better job around here. If not, Mush and Kid Blink and Jack had told her that she could come to them if she needed. But maybe she wouldn't need to. Besides, she had been on her own practically since she was 13. There was no way Alyssa couldn't handle someone like Spot Conlon. After all, Jack had practically begged for him to let her stay. Why let a favor go to waste? So it was decided.

One week.

For Jack's sake.

He found her sitting on the corner outside the building around six o'clock.

"You're up early." His eyes looked different. Tired. Maybe he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep either.

"What are we doing today?" She tried to show him that she had moved on from yesterday's issue.

"Come on, I'll show you the ropes of being a newsie. If you can follow and catch on quick enough."

"I'll try to keep up, your highness." She had to force back a slight smile.

He took her first to buy her papers.

"Okay, DeCardo, first thing you gotta know: headlines don't sell papes. Newsies sell papes. Got it? So let's just start you off with 30 papes for today."

"No, let's get 50. I know I can do this and if you're as good as you say you are, I'll be selling in no time." Flattering him would make this week a little less painless.

"If you think you can handle that many…"

"I can."

They bought the papers, and he took her to a bench to sit down and look through the stories for that day. They found a few good ones: Death of a lawyer, big wedding celebration, a new tailors store opening, a small fire at a bakery.

After that, he stood up and motioned for her to stay.

"Let me show you how a professional get's it done."

"Should I take notes, professor, or is this a monkey-see, monkey-do lesson?" She was on top of her witty remarks that day. She didn't want to push him, but she wanted it to be clear that her face had recovered and she didn't care about his stupid temper.

"Just sit here and watch, DeCardo." He smirked, ready to show off his skill.

He took a group of papers and walked over by a group of men and began to yell,

"City lawyer, dead and big mysteries left behind! Was he really who he said he was?" The men looked interested and motioned for him to come over to them. She watched as all but one of the men bought papers from him. Alyssa was amazed as Spot proceeded to step towards the man and say cheerfully,

"The inside story is a real shocker, it's gonna be the talk of the town. You look like a man who knows everything important around here. You don't want to miss this."

He was smiling, falsely, but his eyes are what made the man chuckle and pull some money out of his pocket. Spot had locked eye contact with him, and his stare seemed to force the man to buy one of the papers, but created the illusion that he had chose to do so on his own. Alyssa wondered if when that stare was on her, Spot knew he was doing it. Like now, he was fully aware of the fact that his eyes could control someone's thought. But when he was looking at her, it seemed like he was struggling to figure her out. But he was Spot, and he was always trying to overpower someone, so she just dropped the thought.

Spot returned to the bench and smiled proudly and conceitedly.

"And that is why I'm the king of the Brooklyn newsies. They worship me."

"Oh, really? I like your style, Mr. Conlon. But I'd like to try my own technique."

"Well, I'd like to see that, DeCardo. Don't feel bad when you come running back to me, crying because no one will take you seriously enough to buy your papes."

They exchanged quick sarcastic smiles and then she walked over to a younger group of men. She stuck out her chest, and walked sexily over to them, with a big smile, and said,

"Hey, there boys. I'm just starting as a newsie and I was just wondering if you would be interested in buying one of my papers, whoops, I dropped one! Silly me."

She bent down slowly and seductively to pick the paper up. Spot watched and couldn't help but laugh, since he knew she was doing this to mock him. Although he knew this was a one time only thing (he already had her pegged as a girl who would work hard and never sell herself like that) her technique worked. As soon as she stood up and said,

"So! Would you boys like to help me out?" the boys practically fell over themselves to buy a paper from her. She walked back over and gave him a big smile.

"Well? How'd I do?"

"You're crazy DeCardo." They both laughed a little, but he quickly said,

"Come on, we have a lot more to sell. You need to pull your shirt up, or you'll have more to worry about than selling all your papes. You gotta show me you really mean business."

They spent the day walking around different parts of the town. Spot showed her the right types of people to sell to, and how to make a headline sound interesting, without fully lying.

Although she hated to admit it, it was almost pleasant to sell with him. He was…nice. Well at least he wasn't yelling at her all the time. If she didn't already think he was a jerk, she would say that they even got along! Well, they tolerated each other. It was different. All morning he helped her out and taught her everything she would need to know and hadn't made fun of her or bossed her around once. Maybe she was right about the possibility of him changing…

When all 50 papers were sold, they went back to a bench to count the money and make sure it was all accounted for. They worked on counting all the coins together, and it was a bit confusing.

"You'll learn how to count it quickly after a while. It's another technique you have to get a hold of." He was telling her.

"Well, I think I proved today that I'm a fast learner." She looked at him, and he gave a small nod of his approval.

"Look's like you can even go on your own tomorrow, like one of the big boys." They both laughed a little, then there was an awkward silence as they continued to count. Suddenly Spot broke the silence and said,

"Look, DeCardo, I didn't mean to hit you yesterday."

She didn't know what to say to this. She certainly hadn't been expecting it. It hit her hard and she didn't know if he was serious or not.

"What I mean is…I'm sorry okay?" He said it almost pained and she could tell he never does this. Would accepting his apology make her look weak in his eyes? Speaking of his eyes, when she looked at his now, they looked sincerely apologetic. Completely different from how she was used to seeing them. It made her speechless for a moment.

"Can you say something, DeCardo?"

"Yeah…I mean, whatever. Let's not talk about it."

"Don't expect this ever again…this is a one time only thing. You caught me in a good mood, so I don't even know if I mean this apology okay?" He didn't want to look as though she had some power over him. But did she?

"Look, forget it. Let's just move on and forget it," She said.

"Fine by me."

"Good."

Alyssa wondered if maybe this meant her and Spot were okay. Maybe even…friends? She was beginning to think maybe she should give him a second chance. His smile was actually really nice, and she didn't mind a bit of his arrogance. It was who he was.

"Hey, it's late. You wanna go get something to eat before we head in?" he asked.

"Spot, we're no where near the lodging house. We're halfway towards Manhattan!"

"Yea, well there's a little place about 5 minutes away. We might as well."

"Okay."

They walked to a small place called Franks Frankfurters. They both got hot dogs and were waiting for them to be ready, when the bell above the front door rang and Alyssa heard,

"Well, look who it is!"

They both turned around and saw Jack and the Manhattan newsies coming in.

"Heya, Spot. Good evening, Alyssa." Jack came over and gave her a hug.

"So, Spot, how is she doing? Didn't I tell you how great she is? Now you see that you needed her around here don't ya? She really is something isn't she?"

Needing her? Saying she's great? Alyssa looked at Spot, in time to see the once sorry and sweet eyes changed drastically.

"Yea she is something…some kind of pain in the ass." The words stung, Alyssa, but she didn't let it show. "I'm only doing this for you Jack, if she was just some other girl, I would have thrown her crazy ass out two days ago. I didn't need any more newsies, so next time keep 'em to yourself. We're even now."

She knew she couldn't just take this.

"Hey Jack. It's good to see you. Mr. Cocky-Son-of-a-Bitch has been great to work with." She glanced at him and gave him a taste of one of his own stares. She couldn't believe she thought he'd changed. She couldn't believe she thought they were friends, thought he was decent, thought he had a nice smile…

"Hey, Alyssa, are you coming to Medda's on Saturday?" said Mush.

"Yeah, I'll be there." She told him.

"You know, Kid Blink hasn't shut up about you."

"Oh, really? Well actually, he's my date for that night." She shot a look at Spot, who glared at her and shook his head.

"You know what, Mush," he said. "I don't know if we're gonna be able to make it anymore. You might have to send that news down to Blink for DeCardo. We got some business to take care of, and that might run into our plans."

"You gotta go though! Everyone wants to see yah, not just Blink!"

"We'll see if we can settle that business by then." Spot said with a cold stare.

In one moment he went back to the old Spot and she knew that would never change. He had too much pride to ever be nice to girl he couldn't sleep with. Alyssa couldn't believe she had almost let her guard down. One thing was for sure:

That would never happen again.

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It was longer than the others, but I hope you like it. Keep reviewing...it's really helping with the story. Any idea you got, send 'em on down!

-Spunkyy7