SEVEN YEARS LATER

The caretakers' feet padded gently against the wooden floor as he headed towards the bell he used to wake us all up. I was already wide awake, showered, and dressed in a pair of dark brown pants, a light blue plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, grey suspenders, a grey vest, and stripy socks. I was currently lacing up my shoes and continued to do so as the caretaker looked at me and smiled.

"Good morning Crown, how are you?"

One of the newsies, back when I had arrived, had called me a little princess and I had left him with a black eye for three weeks, and they began calling me Crown since it sounded much stronger than princess.

"I'm pretty good. How are you?" I asked, leaning down to tie up my other shoe.

When I was ten, two years after joining the newsies, there was a turf war between Queens, and Brooklyn and Manhattan. There wasn't a clear winner, but Lion, the boy who found me on the streets, and the leader back then, closed the borders, not allowing anybody in. Sure the occasional person got in but ran back shortly after with their tail between their legs.

"I'm doing just wonderful. Thank you for asking."

Then, three years ago, Lion got taken to the refuge for loitering and vagrancy, leaving me, his second, in charge. It wasn't hard to understand how a girl was in charge of Queens, but most people would find it difficult to understand, so I hid it. The only people who knew were the caretaker and all the boys in Queens, and that was it. Nobody else needed to know.

The caretaker continued on his way and went to the bell, grabbing the string inside it and ringing it around, waking up the boys who were sleeping all around me, and filling the room with annoyed groans. I chuckled as Ladders, the boy who slept on the bed beneath me, and my second tried to get up and ended up on the ground.

I nudged him with my foot. "Come on Ladders, rise and shine!"

He growled and glared at me in mock anger from underneath his dark hair. "Not all of us are morning people Crown."

I stuck my tongue out at him and left him sitting on the floor as I walked over to the cupboard where our hats were all kept. I snatched mine off the top and shoved my long blonde hair up into my hat, swapping genders in less than ten seconds. Ladders came walking up behind me, heading into the bathroom and knocked my hat off my head.

I didn't grow to be very tall, settling around a 5'2", it helped with selling papers, since I was so small, people often assumed I was younger than I actually was (15) and paid me more than I needed.

"Hey!" I cried out indignantly. I shoved him forwards as he snickered, continuing on his way. I rolled my eyes and snatched up my hat, repeating the earlier actions.

I turned to head down the stairs but was stopped as a young boy, named Blue, who was ten years old, with big blue eyes. He tugged on my sleeves and I turned, crouching so I was his height.

"What do you need?"

He smiled. "What do you think of this idea?" He proceeded to begin coughing in his elbow and looked up at me. "Buy my last paper Miss?"

I grinned and ruffled his hair. "That's awesome kid. Keep it up."

I continued down the stairs and outside, where I stood, waiting patiently, watching the people pass by on their way to work. Finally, after about ten minutes, the boys came flooding out. Ladders slung an arm around my shoulder as he and the rest of the Queens boys followed us.

I glanced behind me to see that Clothespin and Cheery, who were both sixteen, had picked up Raven, and Blue, and were carrying them on their shoulders.

"Summer stinks." Ladders complained, pushing his sleeves up higher.

Clothespin turned and looked at him. "But winter's freezing."

Cheery laughed. "When you work outdoors."

Blue nodded in agreement. "You start out sweating and end up sneezing."

I chuckled at the conversation that had sparked up. "In between, it pours."

We turned the corner and stopped in front of the gates to The World. The headline was just being put up, and we all watched in anticipation, hoping for a good one.

We were let down, as usual, however, when the headline appeared, and all it said was, 'Trolley Strike Enters Third Week' There was a collective groan as Thomas Delancy walked over and unlocked the gates, opening them for us. We walked in and he glared at us as if he could shame us for being newsies.

"Mousie! You missed me." I smiled at the old man who ran the paper distribution, whose name was actually Mr. Mose, but he was short and round like a mouse, so we had given him the nickname.

I shoved Ladders out of the way as I made my way up the stairs, to the front of the line. He let out an amused sigh.

"How many times I got to tell you kids, the name is Moses." He told me.

I turned to the chuckling boys. "Isn't that what I said?" I turned back to him. "I'll take the usual."

"Hundred papers for shortie here." I gave him a filthy gesture in return as I grabbed my papers and sat down, looking at all the stories.

Clothespin sat down beside me and gestured to a story. "Hey look, a baby born with two heads, must be from Brooklyn."

I laughed. Despite never having been in Brooklyn, or interacted with any of the leaders of the other turfs, it was always fun to make fun of them when we got the chance to.

I glanced around at all of the boys, and once all of them had gotten the papers I stood up.

"Newsies! Hit the streets! The sun is up, and the headline stinks! Let's go!" I shouted. The boys all cheering in response.

I immediately headed downtown, where I had gained the right to sell in after being a newsie for so long.

"Terrified Flight From Burning Inferno!" I shouted, a tall man tossing me a coin and continuing on his way after he had received his paper.

I looked around, noticing an older boy watching me, but I ignored him, instead continuing to sell my papers.

Later that afternoon, I had about ten papers left. I shouted my made up headline again. "Terrified Flight From Burning Inferno."

"You made that up." A voice told me.

I paused and turned, looking at the tall boy that had been watching me all day. "Finally coming out of the shadows are you?"

"You made that up." He repeated. He stepped out of the shadows, and I immediately noticed a newsie bag and hat.

I shook my head. "No, I didn't. I'm exaggerating the truth. Now tell me, kid. What makes you think you can come into my turf, without me knowing, and try to sell papers here?"

I suppose it would have been a rather amusing sight to some. Me, a short girl, hidden as a boy, telling this older boy to leave her turf, but I wasn't here to amuse people.

He held up his hands in defense, something like fear crossing his eyes. "I'm just a bird."

I stepped closer to him, nearly laughing as he stepped away. "You can go tell your leader, little birdie, that the next kid who crosses into my turf, is going to have more to deal with than me. Understand?"

He nodded, and turned, heading towards Brooklyn.

I narrowed my eyes. What was Brooklyn up to now? I shrugged it off. Birds were a common enough occurrence that was easily dealt with. I'd just leave it alone for now.

Later that night, after everyone was done selling papers, they had all crowded into the lodging house to play games and such.

It had been a long evening, and I whistled to get everyone's attention.

"Okay, good job today guys! Now up to bed with you all, unless you want to be zombies in the morning."

There were a couple of laughs as everyone headed up to bed. I walked around the room, quickly locking the door and blowing out the last few candles, before turning and heading upstairs.