Heya, 'tis me and my sister again! We returnth to continued this tale. You know the disclaimer so we shall just keep going, on ward!

The fallowing morning

Tessa had been cooking hotdogs and serving drinks since seven that morning and know what? She. Was. Tired. She had never been stuck in one place long enough to get an actual jab and she didn't like it one bit. She had to deal with obnoxious customers all day and don't even get me started on that guy who whistled at her, gave him the old one, two she did. It was about 11:43 Am so it was almost time for the newsies to burst through the door and she was ready for'em. She sat in silence with her note pad and pensile, waiting, watching and then she got bored. She was about to go talk to the cook, Edna, a grandmotherly lady who had taken a liking to her, when all the boys rushed in as one big group. Oh boy. That's all I'm gonna say. People were shouting orders over each other making it near impossible to figure out what went to whom.

"We're in the weeds!" She yelled in to the kitchen, letting Edna know that we were in for a lot of orders.

"I'm on it, hun (the best part of working in a diner or waffle house is that you get to call every one "Hun")," she called back.

As Tessa finished serving food she saw the kid who had made up the headline the day before.

"Hey, why'd you lie about the headline last night?" She asked, with a slightly irate look on her face. "I was going to by a paper anyways."

"He didn't lie," Jack said, with a kinda cocky smile. "He just improved the truth a little. If a newsie doesn't improve the truth a little now and then, we'd go broke."

Tessa simply shook her head, as if trying to rid herself of this odd logic.

"I'm sorry I said that the white house burned down," the little boy said, with a truly apologetic look on his face that Tessa just couldn't resist.

"It's okay," she said messing up his hair up a little. "You gotta do what you gotta do."

"I -we that is," he said, indicating himself and his friends. "Got some questions for you."

"Um…well okay, go ahead," she said looking slightly confused.

"Can you throw a tomahawk?" Boots started out, looking completely serious.

"What?" She looked at him as if he was speaking French. "Of course I can't! Who on earth told you that?"

"Cowboy," he said pointing at Jack, who was suddenly very interested with his scrambled eggs.

"Mmhm," she said looking at Jack with one of those "you're a dead man" glares.

After she answered that she was bombarded with tons of questions at once.

"ONE AT A TIME!" She yelled really loud, which got the attention of pretty much all the newsies. "If you have a question, raise your hand and I will get to you."

Snipeshooter was the first to put his hand up.

"Yes, Snipes," she said in a some what relived voice.

"Can you shoot a deer from one hundred yards?"

"Not in New York, but maybe in Ohio…" she trailed off thinking about it.

Tumbler raised his hand.

"Shoot," she said.

"Do you bury people in ant hills?"

"No…why would I?"

"Well Cowboy said-" he began.

"Why am I not surprised?" She asked herself, in an irritated way.

Blink now raised his hand.

"What do you want Blink?"

"Can I have some more water?"

"No I've - uh, wait….yeah one sec."

When she came back with a cup for Blink, the questions continued.

"Does your name mean "Cranky Bear"?" Boots asked.

Tessa scowled to herself then reached across the table and smacked Jack upside the head.

"Hey!" He said, rubbing the red spot that was starting to appear . "You don't even know if I told him that one!"

"Well did you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"….umm..Yeah," he muttered.

"Any more questions?" She asked in a barley holding on to my patient kind of voice.

"Can you make it rain when you dance?"

"Yes actually," she said. "And if the greenhorn tells you any more of these stories I'll cause the sky gods to strike him down with thunder and lightning!"

"Really," Mush asked, sounding convinced.

"Of course not!" She shouted, exasperated. "Now is that all the questions?"

"Actually," Racetrack said, raising two fingers, like he was sort of raising his hand. "You said that your people were in Oklahoma, well how did you get from there to here with out your parents?"

"Well actually," she began, relieved to get a serious question. "I was born in Illinois, and then when I twelve we moved to Ohio, were they died. So I when I left, I only had to travel through Ohio, Pennsylvania and most of New York to get here."

"Well how did you do that?" Blink asked, after all, we're talking about one girl traveling through three states on her own, it's a big deal.

"Well, first I barrowed this guys horse, and the-"

"How did you get it back to him?" Specs asked, ever observant.

"Well….you see I secretly barrowed it."

"YOU STOLE A HORSE?!?" Jack exclaimed, shocked.

"Not steeling secret borrowing."

"Well," said Jack, "round here its called steel in'.

Tessa gave him a defiant look and said "You "improve the truth" I secretly barrow horses."

"Fine," he said glaring at her as the clock chimed. "But we're talking about this later."

"Whatever you say Greenhorn," she replied grinning, she knew that the name bugged him. Mostly because he still didn't know what it meant.

With one last glare Jack and the newsies left.

Tessa noticed two men messing with one of the younger boys after he left the restaurant. She was about to go help when she saw Jack walk straight over to the Two men and knocked ones hat off his head (a REALLY big insult back then), and proceed to punch the other in the mouth.

"Who are they?" She asked her uncle as Jack dodged a punch and laugh.

"Those are the Delancey Brothers," her uncle said, looking up from his note pad. "Now Tessa I think we can close up shop, I don't think anyone is going to be coming by this time in the afternoon."

"Okay, uncle," she answered, still looking out the window, watching Jack defend his troops and, when one of the Delancies looked like he was going to jump on Jack, his boys defended him.

Tessa knew that she might not like Jack but she had always admired the bond that a leader and his troops shared.

'Even if the leader is an arrogant jerk like Jack Kelly,' she thought with a smile as she began to clean off the table that the boys had sat at.

Yeah! Another one bites the dust! Like it? Hate it? Want leftover turkey? ALL WHO REVIEW GET FREE LEFTOVER THANKSGIVING TURKEY! Make sure you say hi to K.t.G in the review she needs encouragement! The cook, Edna, was inspired by our Granny YOU ROCK GRANNY, WOO!

Bravo Yankee Echo, Nori and Katrinka.