Chapter 4
After the Strike?
Seagull's Point of View
"So the foist thing you gotta learn is that headline's don't sell papes"
"Newsies sell papes," I interrupted.
"Hey! How'd you know that? Jack said that you was beginners," asked Race.
"Eh, don't ask" I said grinning, there were some advantages to seeing the movie previous to being pulled into New York, advantages that Nanners, Celena, and Paloosh didn't have. "So, what would you do if the World raised the price of the papers?" Of course I knew that the World was going to raise the price of the papes and all that but I wanted to know what Race's ideas were, before the strike.
"Probably go on strike, we beat 'em once we can beat 'em again. Besides they wouldn't be stupid enough to raise the prices again would they? I mean Pulitzer ain't the brightest man in New York but he ain't dumb either." I stopped dead in my tracks, so the strike had already happened? That didn't make any sense.
"So, you've already had a strike?"
He rolled his eyes "honestly, where have you been goil? All of New York knew about it."
"Um, I used to live in Chicago and my family just moved here" I lied.
"Oh, well then, as long as you have a good excuse" he answered jokingly.
"Um, so, I was wondering, could you possibly direct me towards Brooklyn? I mean, that's the area that really interests me and-"
"The area? Or the newsies?" he asked grinning "listen, I ain't takin' you to Brooklyn; it's a dangerous part of the city, especially for a goil who doesn't know her way around."
"Please Racetrack?" I gave him my biggest puppy dog eyes.
"Hey, I'm sorry buy I ain't takin' you to Brooklyn and that's my final answer, like I said before, it's a dangerous area."
As we were walking he had been selling papers, and I could tell that he had also learned how to "improve the truth". He had said that several kids had been saved from drowning when it was actually some puppies and had said that there had been a huge robbery uptown somewhere, when it had actually just been a few things taken from a house. I dropped back to talk to Nanners.
"So, what do you think?" I asked grinning evilly.
"I don't know, it's kinda a shock getting pulled into 1900 or whenever this is through your computer screen, you know? Though I'm glad that you Trig, Raven, and Folly know what this is."
I snorted "I don't know much more than you do, because apparently this is after the movie took place."
"Well at least you seem to know the people," said Nanners quietly, "I'm friends with everyone back home, here I don't know anyone, not even you or Paloosh, or Celena, 'cause that was just through the internet."
"Hey, relax," I said grinning "if the newsies are anything like they are in the movie then you will fit in perfectly, they are very nice you know."
Nanners smiled, "thanks Sea, by the way what did you say that kid's name was again?"
"Racetrack?"
"Yeah, him, he's pretty cute"
I giggled
"What's so funny?" she asked, giving me a suspicious look.
"Oh nothin' just the fact that everyone is falling for the newsies is all. The look that Celena was giving Jack earlier this morning, wow, it was hilarious," I said laughing even harder.
"Hey goils, can you walk any slower?" called Race from up ahead.
"We're coming!" I called as we ran to catch up. After walking about fifteen minutes more we began to hear the sound of cheering and shouting and of hoofs beating. I should have known Race would take us to the Racetrack. We went through the gates and up the bleachers to a large area where people could stand. Race continued selling papers and soon he had sold his last one.
"Come on, let's find ourselves some seats" he called to us. We followed him and sat down. One advantage was that both Nanners and I owned our own horses and Race was extremely interested in that. Horses had always interested him he said. He didn't say that gambling was also something that had always interested him. "So Nanners, how did you get your name?" he asked.
"Um, what do you mea-" I interrupted her.
"How did she get it? Um, I don't rightly remember it was so long ago," I said giving her a look that was meant to say, be careful what you say.
"Well then what about you Seagull?"
"Well, I always loved water and was always splashing in puddles and stuff when I was younger so they considered naming me after some sort of fish, I think it was flounder, but before it was set in stone I was caught trying to jump of the lodging house room. My excuse was that I wanted to fly so I was landed with the name Seagull because seagulls like water and they fly." It was a convincing lie, I had been trying to think up a way to as how I had gotten my name ever since we ended up here and finally came up with that, and it seemed to work. Race chuckled.
"So how old were you then? When you thought that you could fly off the lodging house roof?"
"Eh, probably five or six, my parents died when I was real young, not sure when, one of the older newsgirls found me and took me to the lodging house." Jeez, where were all these lies coming from? I kept expecting my nose to grow a couple inches, though at this rate it should have grown at least three feet. But Race seemed to be falling for it which was good.
"Sad, yeah you've probably guessed where my name came from," he said nodding to the track, with the horses racing around it.
Nanners seemed to finally get the idea that we were talking about name origins from before New York. "Oh, I remember now," she said jumping up.
"Remember what?" I asked giving her a warning glance.
"I remember where my name came from," she turned to Race "it was so long ago that sometimes I forget, anyway, I lived in the same lodging house as Seagull here, but I came there when I was waaaaaaaay younger, it was my older sister that brought me there, I was three at the time, she was nine. Anyway, being a three year old I never quite got my brain around the fact that my parents were dead so I was always walking around going 'Nana? Papa?' so they decided my name would be Nanners because I wouldn't stop looking for my Nana." She gave a little sad sigh, "of course later on I learned what had really happened and it devastated me but I had my older sister." Wow, Nanners was good at lying, better than me, if I hadn't known better I would have thought it was true.
Racetrack shook his head "depressing" he muttered then he turned back to the track.
Thanks for reading, please give reviews! Also I still need more characters, information is at the bottom of chapter two.
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