Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of the Newsies, the songs, or the plot line in anyway. Anything or anyone that you recognize from the movie belongs to the movie. I am not claiming ownership in any way, shape, or form. I'm just a girl who loves the movie and wants to write about it.
Chapter 2
Rebecca's Point of View
Mrs. Altig, the caretaker of the orphanage was anything but pleased. In fact, I think she was madder than Mrs. Schapelhouman had been. "Rebecca, please go upstairs to the girls room immediately, you will have no dinner and tomorrow you will make yourself useful by cleaning the lobby, by yourself"
"But Mrs. Altig-"
She held up her hand, "whatever protests you may have, I don't want to hear it." With that she stormed off. Just as soon as Nellie and I were in the safety of the girl's dormitory did Nellie give me the "good news."
"Guess what Becca?" she said, grinning from ear to ear.
"What?" I said flopping down on my bed.
"Look what I got from Mrs. Schapelhouman!" I looked up and saw her holding my notebook.
"Oh Nellie!" I cried as she handed it to me, "how did you get her to give it to you?"
She shrugged, "well, it wasn't easy, but I finally persuaded her by sayin' that I would give it back, I never said when I would give it back though."
I hugged her and we then spent the next hour talking about how we would outsmart old Mrs. Grumpy-pants (Schapelhouman) and liberate all children from ever going to school again. Suddenly the door to our dormitory opened and to reveal Miss Kemp standing there. She was an assistant to Mrs. Altig and was a whole lot nicer. "Dinner is in ten minutes, just so you know." She said, and then closed the door again. Oh yeah, dinner I thought, remembering Mrs. Altig's punishment.
Nellie stood up. "I'd better go eat, want me to sneak you anything?"
I shrugged, "as long as you don't get caught."
She grinned, "Alright, I'll see what I can do." With that she hurried out of the room.
I lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Why was it always me? Why was I always the one who got in trouble? Elizabeth never, ever got in trouble! How could she be so perfect all the time? It would drive me crazy living like that, always keeping the rules and obeying everything anyone said without question. But why couldn't I be like Elizabeth? I tried to be good, but it was so hard. Why was it so difficult for me and easy for her? It wasn't fair. I drifted off to sleep with these thoughts running through my head.
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"Becca! Becca! Wake up!" Someone was shaking me, I opened my eyes to see Maria, one of the older girls standing over me, "Becca, come on! Get up!"
"I don't wanna" I said rolling over
"Becca! You have to get up!" Her voice sounded frantic, "NOW!" The other older girls were trying to get the younger ones out of bed, yelling, screaming, and pushing. That wasn't normal, they usually woke us relatively gently, and the air smelled…smoky. Smoky? That can't right. "It's a fire! Get up!"
At those words I jumped up immediately. I could see traces of smoke coming down the hall and heard the shrieks and screams of the smallest children in the nursery. I rushed to Elizabeth's bed where she was still asleep. "Elizabeth! Elizabeth!" I yelled shaking her, "Elizabeth! Get up! There's a fire!" Elizabeth sat bolt upright and looked at me like I was crazy, but then saw the smoke and screamed. I have never heard anyone scream as loud as she did. The smoke was getting thicker, and we knew that we had to get downstairs before it blocked the stairs or else the only way out was the windows.
We ran out the door and pounded down the hall, with every step we took nearer the staircase the smoke got thicker and the air got hotter. It was getting difficult to breathe. We reached the stairs only to see that they were blocked off by the ever growing flames. There had to be a way out! We spun around only to see that somehow the fire had gotten behind us and surrounded us. Elizabeth was in tears by now and I was close. But there had to be a way to escape! We pushed one of the doors open and found ourselves in a spare room, with windows. I ran over to one and tried to force it open but it wouldn't budge.
"Break it!" Screamed Elizabeth, "Break it!"
"With what?" I searched the room for anything that could break a window and that I, as a little six year old, could lift at the same time. There was nothing. Elizabeth came running over with a broom that had a long wooden handle.
"Use this!"
I grabbed the broom and started banging on the window. The heat was getting worse and the smoke made it so that I could barely see. My eyes stung and it hurt to breathe. Then the glass shattered, and fresh air rushed into the room. Elizabeth ran over to the window and looked out. It was a long drop to the ground below, but we would have to jump it. The rug at the other end of the room had caught fire and it was quickly spreading. Elizabeth was near hysterics, and jumped out the window with no further bidding.
I stared out the window. I couldn't see the ground from here because my view was obscured by smoke. I turned back to the room to see the flames had almost reached my end of it. It was now or never. I closed my eyes and jumped. It seemed like I was falling forever and then I hit the ground. Hard. My ankle hurt, it hurt really badly. Around me was a confusion of people, orphans, police, firemen, reporters, you name it. I tried to stand up but I couldn't. I searched the crowd frantically for Elizabeth, but didn't see her anywhere. I tried to crawl as far away as I could away from the building, but didn't get far. Have you ever tried to crawl through a huge crowd? Yeah, it doesn't work.
Soon the flames began to die down and the crowd dispersed. Leaving me. Where was Elizabeth I thought scanning the street for her. Nowhere. Finally I gave up and crawled into an alley and fell asleep behind a box. I would figure it all out in the morning.
Uh-oh! Becca can't find Elizabeth! Remember to feed the muse! Reviews are wonderfully nutritious for my hungry muse…she also feeds on lurking readers if she doesn't get enough reviews
Spinner: Did I update quick enough? I'm glad that you like the idea of this story and for once I actually have some sort of idea of where it's going, for my other two I just kinda wrote randomly but they seemed to turn out okay...I think lol.
Ktkakes: Aw, thank you soooo much! I tried to make Becca and Lizzie realistic and (from what I heard from you) I think I succeeded...maybe. But that's exactly how my sister and I were at that age.
NarniaRulz: Yup, we can always dream. About the way they acted towards eachother near the end versus what I said at the beginning, I though about that too and considered changing it but decided not to for these reasons: 1) They have super different personalities and they manage to get along most of the time but sometimes those different personalites will clash and they argue. 2) No matter how much you love your sister you're going to argue with her once in a while right?
Thanks so much for reviewing! Also all you lurking readers out there (and I know that there are more people than these three reading my story) go and review...please?
