HIDDEN

A/N Hi! I'm back and typing on my kindle which proves to be truly hard and confusing!

So let's get started with the newest chapter of Hidden.

-mustache-mustache-mustache-

I woke up sweating, "Mam!"

Jack was asleep in a rocking chair by the side of the bed, Spot was leaning against the side of the bed with his hat covering his face and then Mush was on top of a bunk nearby. It's strange that Jack let a Brooklyn Newsie in the bunk house.

Mush woke up in surprise from the fear in my voice and fell right outta the bed,landing on the floor. "Jesus Chaser, yous trying ta wake up the city?" Exclaimed Mush

"No, I just had a bad dream is all. Maybe you should go see Kloppy bout them ears o yours."

He shot a glare in my direction as I snickered. "Just be happy dat none of da boys say that yous a goil." Muttered Mush

"Oh go write some poetry."

That's how he got his nickname. He was too lovey dovey and wimpy when he first came here, a scraggly boy with curly hair and brown eyes who didn't look like he'd had a proper meal in years. The boy whose mam died from influenza.

"Be happy I don't hit goils." Warned Mush

That's when Jack woke up, "You wouldn't be able to hit a girl if you tried Mush."

"Hot damn yous are noisier than a bunch o school girls." Muttered Spot as he woke up

Uh oh. Spot is as bad as the Delancey Brothers when he is just waking up. Kinda like how me brother used to be. Spot is a lot like me brother... I wonder...

"Hey Spot, what your true name?"

"Patrick. Why you askin?" Stated Spot

"Patrick Steven Conlon, where da Hell have yous been for the last eight years?"

"What? I ran away eight years ago, but how do yous know my real name?"

I looked him, my hazel eyes looking into his blue ones, "You don't even recognize your own sister? Jiminy Patrick, thought you had a brain." No, this couldn't be my brother. Patrick was never stupid enough to forget his own sister.

"Listen here goil, me sister is probably dead. When I went home to collect her and my mam she was gone. I was told da influenza killed her. So shut yer trap and go play damsel in distress somewhere else." Yelled Spot

I glared at him and stood up. Slapping him I grabbed a skirt and blouse that I'd gotten for day I would go to the market and went to the washroom to change. The brown skirt fell to my ankle and felt quite weird, sayin I haven't worn skirts in years. I let my curly hair stay loose in long curls down past my shoulders down to my midback. Lacing my black, worn boots on I grabbed all my remaining money and scribbled down a note:

Patrick and boys,

You're probably all angry that I'm actually a girl and that I never told yous that, but I had a good reason to keep it a secret. Kloppy would've kicked me out. I'm leaving now, I think I'll join another borough or go west. Ask Jack about me past if you want to.

Bye boys. Happy selling.

Yours truly,

Chaser

I pinned the letter to Mush's pillow and ran outside. I'm going to work in a factory. Maybe one of dem pillow factories.

~Mush's POV~

I pinned Spot up to the wall, "Listen here Brooklyn. Chaser's your god damn sister and if you can't realize dat for yourself then yer a fool!"

We had all just read the letter that Chaser left and Jack went up to the roof to avoid killing Spot. "She ain't my sister! My sister is dead!"

"Did you see her grave? Didn't you notice da resemblance veteran you two?"

He shook his head and for the first time, I could see fear in his eyes. Ha, a Brooklyn Newsie scared! That's gotta be newsworthy.

Racetrack peeled me from him, "Ain't worth killing each other over this. We'll just haft to live like we always do. Selling papes."

His friend Flash was by him, "Maybe you should try to find her, Mush. She'll listen to you."

"No. Like Race said, no use."

I sauntered over to the bunk I share with Snipeshooter and buried my face into my pillow. Why was I so angry? She's nuthin but a dumb goil.

A dumb goil I've been crushing on.

-Chaser's POV

It's been over a week since I left, eleven days to be exact. I got a job at a shirt factory. It's decent enough work and pay. Sixty cents a day. That's twenty more cents than the others factories have paid.

My blue skirt swayed as I walked into the factory. A twelve-year-old named Lucy was working at the fabric machine. Her family moved her a few months ago, her brother, Joshua's a Newsie in Queens.

"Hey dere Luce. Hows da family?"

"They're good. Thank you for asking." Answered Lucy quietly

I nodded and went to the thirteenth floor to work. Lucy and the other children, ages twelve and under, work on the first floor. That and the next ten floors are left unlocked. But, they lock floors twelve and thirteen. The top two floors. They say it's because the most important things are up here, but truthfully, if you ask me; it's a death sentence. If there was ever a fire, we would all most likely die.

I could hear Newsie's yell out the headline:

"Five killed in trolley accident!"

"Millionaire leaves money to orphan!"

"Cow gives birth to snake!"

Now, that'd be an article worth reading. Probably Skittery who made it up. Or Dutchy.

Six hours into the job I heard a scream, "FIRE!"

It was coming from the twelfth floor. Their door was wood, making it easy to break down, but the one up here was metal.

Thirty women and twenty men rushed down an old fire escape, but as soon as the last of the fifty were down it broke and fell to the ground. Leaving about one hundred of us to burn. A man wretched the door open with a wrench and we all surged into the stairwell.

I collapsed halfway down the stairs from exhaustion and smoke inhalation.

A few woman had already died, flames licking at their bodies, an empty blank look on their faces. From what I had seen on the twelfth floor, thirty women were dead, maybe twenty men dead as well.

A man picked me up off da ground and started to run. But when he reached the fourth floor a timber collapsed on top of him, killing him instantly. I tried to crawl but my legs and arms were so badly burned that I could hardly move. "CHASER!" I heard my name be called. I looked up in my dizziness and could just make out Cowboys bandanna. I could tell that Mush was next to him because Mush was the one to call out my name.

Mush shouted "CHASER WHERE DA HELL ARE YOU?"

I gasped for air and managed to yell "Ovah here!"

Jack pointed the way and in maybe thirty seconds flat Mush had me in his arms. "Boys," coughing interrupted me "what da hell are yous doing in a burning building!?"

"Being proper gentlemen. Now as Racetrack says, lets put an egg in our shoes and beat it." Answered Jack as they started to run.

I didn't like the thought of the boys being in here, c'mon its a burnin building for cryin out loud!

Orange flames licked at their shoes and sparks fell into their hair as we ran. They must've been promoting the strike before they gots here.

Once outside Mush set me down and then both boys collapsed from lack of oxygen. Doctors and nurses swarmed around us and started to give them oxygen. "I'm fine! No need ta crowd around me like I'm a bucket o' candy that just went on sale for a penny." Protested Jack

His right arm has a white bandage around his wrist. That was maybe the worst he got. Mush was worse though. A bandage had been wrapped over his right eye, another going up to elbow and his shirt was gone and a big white bandage had been wrapped around chest.

"Mush!" I yelled.

The doctor had just finished wrapping up my legs and arms. Though I could, and wasn't supposed to, I hobbled over to Mush. Hugging him tightly I slapped him upside the head "Didn't your mam evah teach ya that goin into a burning building is bad!? Mush you could've died!"

Mush didn't answer. He just looked me in the eyes.

Before I could move, his lips were on mine.

A/N And again sorry for the late update (three months late). I've been sick, school issues, head injuries, computer going down and other things have happpened. (NEVER trust benches in the gym lockers -o-)

So there's the new chapter! Hope y'all like it! Sorry about any grammar mistakes, my computer doesn't have grammar or spellcheck and I used a suckish website to check.

WELL BYE!