"I'll Cover You"
By Lemony Apple
Chapter 1- Live in My House
"Only the educated are free."
--Epictetus
I couldn't stop feeling my newly cropped hair in a sort of shocked disbelief that I was actually doing this. My hair, the hair I was so proud of, was cut off and sold to a wigmaker, and now that I had wrapped my chest and was dressed in men's clothes…
I was a boy now. Joanna Rourke was no more, at least for now. At the end of the month, when I had gathered enough money to pay for my rent, I would let my hair grow back and disappear from the newsies world, and continue my dream of becoming an actress on a real, legitimate stage.
I had to make a name for myself. I would call myself Jonathan. If they asked for my surname, I would simply say that I never had one. I would say I was an orphan (which was true) and that Jesse was my constant companion (which was also true). Anything else I would keep my mouth shut about, or would lie.
I reviewed this plan I went to go join the newsies collecting their daily papes. Jesse trailed behind me, in his mouth the cap I had bought last night.
"All right, Jess," I said, kneeling down to him. "Lemme have it." Jesse dropped the hat into my hands and I put it on quickly.
I was eager to get my money and leave, to get this intolerable situation finished as soon as possible.
I had been eager that I had arrived at least a half an hour before the gates opened, yet there was a large group of boys at the gates, energetic and ready to go.
Jesse started into the crowd first, wagging his tail and sniffing the air, as if trying to find something he liked.
"Jess!" I tried to call him back, but he ignored me and ran head first into the group of boys. "Jesse!" I fruitlessly called again, and chased after him.
This was not how I was planning to make my entrance.
"Dear me!" A rather short, goofy-looking boy cried just in the range of my hearing. "What is that unpleasant aroma? I fear the sewer may have backed up in the night." He slapped the face of a very handsome boy with an eye patch next to him, good-naturedly.
Were they talking about me? How inexcusably rude of them. I didn't smell like the sewer at all.
"Nah, it's too rotten to be the sewer." A smaller boy interjected, holding back laughter. The newsies all around them were all laughing freely, especially the newsie with the eye patch. He looked so familiar.
Was this how they treated green newsies? God, I wanted a cigarette.
A boy in the backwith a crutch in the back piped up. "Yeah! It must be the Delancey brothas!"
Delancey? Who? I looked behind me to see two of the most disagreeable young men I had ever the displeasure to behold.
Their faces etched in ugly, intimidating frowns, like they had never smiled their entire lives. The brothers loomed over the newsies like a cocky overseer amongst slaves.
The taller one grabbed the littlest newsie. "In the back, you lousy little shrimp," and pushed him away from the gate so hard the poor child fell flat on his face.
Jesse came barreling down to my side, wagging his tail as if he had finally found home in Newsies Square.
The boywith a cowboy hat helped the smallest newsie up.
He was so handsome; he even made the boy who had the patch over his eye pale in comparison. Patch Boy's handsome was more passionate, while the defender was dreamier-like… it was hard to describe.
"You shouldn't be callin' people lousy little shrimps, Oscar, unless you're referrin' to the family resemblance here."
I snickered despite myself.
"It's an insult… well, then again…" The defender moseyed on over to the Delanceys?
Yeah, that sounded right. Delanceys.
"Then again, so is this."
He took the brother's hat and ran for it…
And right at me!
I gasped as the cowboy-hat-wearing-boy dodged me at the last moment, but the Delancey brothers knocked me down flat.
"Out of the way, Skinny!" they growled, pushing past me like I was nothing more than a leaf.
Jesse growled at them, and gave a rather ferocious bark at the brothers for knocking me down.
Newsies swarmed all around me, totally ignoring me. Well, at least my pretending to be a boy worked out all right.
"You alright, Skinny?" I looked up and squinted in the bright sun. Was that person talking to me? It was Patch Boy. Well, I guess he was talking to me. He was looking down at me.
"Me? Yeah."
He extended his hand and I took it. He practically threw me up on and onto my feet. "Who were those jerks?"
"Oscar and Morris Delancey. The scum of the earth."
"And the kid their chasin'?" I asked, while shaking off the dirt on my cap.
"HIM?" The boy stared at me like I had just told him I was Martha Washington. "That's Jack Kelly, the most famous newsie in New York. How could you not know about Jack Kelly?"
There were celebrity newsies? This guy must hero-worship Jack Kelly if he made such a big deal about me not knowing who he was.
Oh. And then I remembered.
That was the newsie that conned me into buying a paper by assuring me that there was an article teaching people how to read in that issue.
I didn't understand I had been conned until I had arrived home. I went out onto the fire escape and I chain smoked for about an hour and a half.
"Oh," I said, slightly a bit more interested. If I stayed with Jack, my purse would surely be full in no time.
"You couldn't be a newsie for long and not know about Jack Kelly." Patch-Kid said, still looking at me oddly. "What's your name?" He said that slowly.
"Joann—I mean, Jonathan." I said, almost breaking character. "You?"
"Kid Blink." His face exploded into passionate delight. "Are you new?" I don't recognize you. I'll show you the ropes if you'd like."
I opened my mouth to reply, but before I could utter a word of either accent or of refusal, Jack came barreling out of nowhere and almost knocked me down again.
Kid Blink ignored me this time, and bounded off to go and cheer on Jack.
"YOU GOT EM, COWBOY!"
I was pushed away as boys once again frolicked to greet Jack Kelly in his moment of triumph. He was on top of the factory gates of The World.
It reminded me of a prince looking down at his subjects.
Jack smiled down at the crowd as they chanted his name. The crowd loved him.
The gate opened suddenly and the Newsies spilled into the factory.
Somehow Kid Blink found Jesse and I in the crowd and I fell into line behind him.
Kid was explaining how to buy 'papes' from the factory, but I was secretly panicking inside.
Oh, God, why didn't I think of it before? I had forgotten…
I couldn't read.
I felt like I was gunna heave.
AN- Heyyy guys! Thanks for your reviews so far. They mean a lot to me… so please, keep 'em coming!