A/N Disclaimer! I don't own! Sorry, I have forgotten disclaimers! (cut me some slack I'm new!)But, yeah, I do not own Newsies, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Spot (though who doesn't' wish they did), pretty much everything you don't recognize. However, Aoife, Ryder, Starlight, and anyone whose name is new, I do own. The chapter title comes from another wonderful masterpiece of James Horner from the film Titanic. (which I do not own also =) ). Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 3

A Life So Changed

As Liam- or "Spot" as he instructed her to call him in front of his "newsies" led Aoife down the docks to the Brooklyn Boys warehouse a million things still raced through her mind. She had yet to learn what a newsie was and why Liam was the king of them. She also made a mental not to ask him where on earth the ridiculous name "Spot" came from anyway and why she must call him it. After stepping through the large wooden door of the warehouse that Spot held open for her, Aoife instantly regretted it. About twelve pairs of eyes all shot up and starred at her at first and as the room grew more quite, more eyes stopped to look at the mysterious girl who had walked into their home. The space was big, a big wide open room with a few make-shift tables and chairs that Aoife half expected to have been found on the street- and a few crates pushed together to create tables. To the right of her was a large staircase which led to two more stories of rooms, and to her left a short narrow hallway that led to a small kitchen. The floor was dirty and had a few holes in it as well as some missing hardwood panels. The wooden support beams on the side and middle of the building seemed to be run down and damaged. The whole place smelled of duct, musk, and ocean spray. She heard the sounds of whispers as Spot gently took her elbow and ushered her inside from the chilly night air.

"Alright all of youse! Listen up!" Spot said banging his cane on the floor a few times to get all the boys attentions and Aoife noticed more heads shoot up at the voice of their "king" and even more eyes fixed on her . "This here is Aoife. She just came here from Ireland and she's not had a very good welcome to New York, so I expect you all to treat her with respect. She's going to stay here until she finds another place to stay so if I hear anything dat I don't wanna hear." Here he paused for effect, "You'll anser ta me." He once again gingerly took Aoife's arm in the hand that did not occupy the cane, and led here further into the room. "There are some people I want you to meet." He told her.

Once they got to the back of the room Aoife and Spot came across a table that was leaning a bit due to part of a leg missing and 4 people gathered around it.

"Hey, listen up youse bums." Spot said and everyone around the table looked at him. "Dis is Aoife an-an old friend. I want yous guys to take extra special care of her." And then Spot proceeded to introduce his "employees". First was a boy of medium height. Although he had a brown bowler hat on his head, Aoife could see blond curls with hints of red highlight in it. His sin was fair and he had golden hazel eyes. His real name was Dillon but just like Spot, went by a false nickname- which was Ryder. Spot explained that the second in command took over the kings duties when he wasn't around. It surprised Aoife when the boy approached her took her hand in his and gently kissed her knuckles talking in their native language.

"Dillon is ainm dom. Tá sé go deas bualadh leat." My name is Dillon. It's nice to meet you.

" Duitse freisin" You too Aoife answered. She liked this boy and found she had a certain level of trust, even for just meeting him. Maybe it has something to do with him being Irish. Aoife thought to herself.

The second boy to be introduced to her was a boy who went by the name of Hawk, who was "One of my best boids" as Spot explained. Aoife made a mental note to as what a "bird" meant. Hawk was tall with dark brown hair under a grey cabby hat and crystal blue eyes. Spot explained his namesake was because he had the best eyes in Brooklyn and could spot just about anything, like a hawk. The third person that Aoife was introduced to was a boy that looked about a year or two older than her. He had light blond hair and brown eyes. His name was Archer. But the last person that Aoife met was the biggest surprise. The young boy (who up to this point was leaning over the table, their back to Aoife) kept his chin lowered and would not look at Aoife until Spot said it was okay to reveal themselves. Aoife was confused until the young boy raised his head and took off his cat. His face was much younger than the other boys and his features were softer. His cheekbones and chin were rounder and his light hazel eyes were not as deeply set. But it wasn't the softness of this boy's face that shocked Aoife, but the brown curly hair that came cascading down his shoulders when he- or should Aoife say "she" removed her hat. The young woman who stood before Aoife looked so familiar, but Aoife could not put her finger on it.

"Aoife, is that you?" the soft yet strong voice of the girl asked. When no answer came, Spot walked over to the young girl and placed an arm over her shoulder.

"Come on Aoif, don't tell me you don't remember-" and that is when it hit her. Before Spot could finish his sentence, Aoife pushed him out of the way and wraped her arms around th girl who returned the hug.

"Nuala!" she exclaimed. "Forgive me, I hardly recognized you at first. My, have you grown!"

And she had. Spots younger sister Nuala had always been a frail creature skinny and fragile. But now, Aoife could tell she was strong. Her arm muscles were tone and Aoife could only predict so was the rest of her body. By now both girls were squealing and jumping up and down in each other's embrace.

"I'll let yous twos catch up." Spot said. Then he turned to his boys. "Now back to business" was the last thing Aoife heard him said for Nuala dragged her into the main room and down the hall into the small kitchen.

"So when did you get here?" she asked stirring a boiling bowl of stew over an old cast ironed stove.

"Just today actually." Aoife answered. "Liam found me on the street and offered to take me in until I found a decent job."

"Yeah, bein a newsie aint all its cracked up ta be most of da time."

"Speaking of that." Aoife stated, "What on Earth is a newsie?"

"A person who sells newspapers." Nuala explained "It's one of the only ways a kid can make a living on the streets."

"How did you and Liam become newsies?" Aoife asked. Ever since she and Liam had met those short 2 hours ago, she had been curious of what it was like when they got to the foreign land of New York.

"Well 5 years ago when Liam and I left Ireland and came here, it wasn't easy. We spent the first 3 months livin on da streets. In dat time we taught ourselves ho to pickpocket and steal."

Aoife was shocked. She could not believe that Liam and sweet little Nuala would commit to stealing. As if reading her thoughts Nuala explained:

"Life on da streets is no day in the park. A persons gotta eat Aoife, and if that means stealing…and it's not like I wanted to, but Liam was tough on me. He knew in order to survive we had to do things we would never do back at home. And let me be honest with you Aoife, I was scared. I mean, I was thousands of miles away from the only place I knew, away from the only people I knew. I didn't know how to live on my own. I was only 10 when we left. Sure I had Liam, but he wasn't that much older. I mean even now, when we have jobs its hard. And now since Liam is the leader he has more that me to take care of. He has all those boys you saw out there, plus more upstairs. The little ones really break my heart. The youngest we have is a 5 year old named Shy. I mean sometimes there isn't enough food to go around and even still when we add 3 or 4 cups of water to it. Liam sometimes gives his up so someone else can eat. But back then, neither of knew what we were gonna do."

"How old are you now?"

"I just turned 15 last week. Anyway like I said, life on the streets was hard for just the two of us that is until we met Ace. Just like you we came to Brooklyn, and the newsie leader at the time saved us from the coppers. You see I had been caught stealing so we were on the run, but Ace hid us in this very warehouse. That very same day he made us newsies. You now all those boys you met and their crazy names? Well I have one too, its Starlight because Ace said I had a twinkle in my eye that reminded him of a star."

"How did Liam get his name?" Aoife asked.

Nuala produced a small grin. "You'll have to ask him about that one. Anyway, after that day Ace showed us the ropes of paper selling. It wasn't that hard, but it did take some time to adjust too. One of the things that was hard was pretending to be a boy. That's why I wouldn't look at you back there. Ace and Liam had both agreed that I would be safer if other thought I was a boy. Ace had told us that the streets were no place for a girl. After Ace fell and Spot took control over Brooklyn, I started to tell people I was a girl and word got out. But I still like to dress as a boy, you should try it sometime. "

"Nuala, can I as you something?" Aoife asked.

"Anything."

"This might seem like a really dumb question, but why is Liam a king of Brooklyn? And what are birdies and I heard Liam mention some sort of business. What is all this about?"

"Well for starters Liam isn't really a king. He is a leader, but he just likes the title of "king" to make himself seem more powerful. But basically he's the Brooklyn newsies leader, all the brogues of New York newsies has a leader. Ace left the newsies because he had found a girl who wanted to get married, and you can't really support a family when you're a newsie, sometimes you can't even support yourself, so Ace made spot the new leader. But being a leader was hard for Liam. There are certain standards a leader must live up to, a certain reputation of you would. He had to become respected, and a lot of people in Brooklyn and eve n other places thought Liam was either not ready to be a leader, or even too small or not tough enough. But he showed them all wrong and became one of the best leaders New York has to offer and he proved it last year during the newsie strike."

"What was that?" Aoife asked.

"Well basically, da big rich hoity-toity newspaper giants of New York apparently weren't getting enough money so they raided the price of papers to 60 cents per hundred. Da newsies down in Manhattan were not happy. In fact, they were so unhappy that they organized a strike. No newsie sold any papers, but they needed help so they asked all of the boroughs to join, but none of them would, so they went to Liam to try to convince the others. After some persuasion Brooklyn joined and after some fights, a few arrests, days on an empty stomach and some good laughs, the newsies finally won and got the papers price back down."

"Wow, I wish I had been there for that."

"Well if it helps, I didn't get to see much action. Liam kept me locked in my room most of the tie for fear I wouldn't get hurt, or in trouble or something. But after that he taught me how to fight along with Dillon's help. The streets have toughened me up. I'm no longer the little girl you knew Aoife. Now as for the business part of what you heard. Well, let's just say this part isn't so pretty. You remember when I said that some people didn't think it was right for Liam to be the leader?"

Aoife nodded.

"Well one of those boys was Ace's second in command Kieran, but everybody balls him Blade. So he thinks that the Brooklyn throne belongs to him. He plans to overthrow Liam, but is kicked out of Brooklyn. Few months later we find out that he is the new leader of Queens, a neighboring borough to Brooklyn. For the past couple months, some of our boys have been coming home bloodied and beaten and say it was the work of Blade's boys. Now when one boroughs newsies are beatin up another's, things start to get personal, so Liam has been trying to form alliances with other boroughs in case anything happens. And Manhattan still owes us for a favor because we helped them in the strike, so they will most likely be on our side. I think Liam is planning a visit to Manhattan soon, maybe he would take you."

After a few more minutes of idle chatter the watery stew was ready and Nuala called all the boys down to eat. About 30-35 boys came from the main room or upstairs each found a bowl and Nuala poured a ladle full in each of the bowls. Liam was last and there was no more than a couple tablespoons of broth left that he left for Nuala.

"Hey Spot?" Nuala called as he began to walk away.

"Yeah Star? He said turning around.

"Thanks." Liam grinned, nodded and turned to walk to wherever he was going.

After Aoife and Nuala had finished their measly portions Nuala lead her upstairs to her own private bunkroom.

"You can sleep in here. I don't want you to have to share a bunk with a bunch of smelly idiotic boys, and besides, I do get lonely."

Nuala went into the corner of the room and reached into a dresser to retrieve two large white shirts. She gave one to Aoife and explained that some of the older boys gave her their old shirts that she used for nightshirts. Once changed and under the thin covers of the springy beds, the two girls said their goodnights, and Aoife instantly fell asleep.

A/N Okay guys that was chapter 3! Not my best, and this was kind of a filler chapter, but I hope you'll forgive me. Oh and for a visual reference, I modeled Dillon/Ryder after my favorite character in Titanic, Tommy Ryan. Special thanks again to Emador for following/reviewing. Please do the same! And remember to please review, I would love to know if I'm doing a good job so far (mostly just because I'm paranoid). So the next chapter will have more of a point and will actually be relevant to the plot of this story (unlike this one really), but you did get to meet Nuala (which by the way is pronounced noo-la if you didn't know.)I've always liked the idea of Spot having a little sister, you there you go. And she too is going to be rather important to the plot. I have the whole story planned out; my only problem is just finding the time to write. I probably won't get any done tomorrow (due to an extra rehearsal for a dance show =( ) So yeah, review, follow, favorite, all that stuff. Thanks for reading!