A/N: Summer is finally here! I can't wait to spend time outside and get started on my endless TBR list :)
Also, Ribs is my own character.
~ July 19, 1899 ~
Ollie tossed and turned in her sleep, a nightmare plaguing what was supposed to be a dream.
The dream had started out with Ollie selling on the docks in Brooklyn with Spot at her side. They had one paper left to sell when Spot disappeared and was replaced with Sliver. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into an alleyway, his pocketknife in his hand. Ollie screamed for help and she tried to run, but before she could get away, she jolted awake and sat up in the bunk.
She was breathing heavily, and she looked around, making sure everyone else in the Manhattan lodging house was still asleep. She sighed in relief when she saw that they were.
Her heart was racing, but she kept her breath quiet. She hadn't had that dream for years. When she was younger, it entered her head nearly every night for a long while. She knew how that dream ended though. After all, it had happened to her in real life.
Ollie brushed her thumb across the scar on her chin, and felt a chill when her mind flashed back to the day she got it.
She was seven at the time. Her and Spot had only been newsies for a couple of months, and she was slowly starting to get a hang of hawking the headlines. One day, she had been selling her papers by the docks, a little ways from Spot when she felt rough hands grab her shoulders. She tried to scream, but their hand covered her mouth, muffling the sound.
"Shut it." The voice said and the figure pulled her into an alley, before throwing her to the ground. When Ollie had looked up she gasped and started backing away from them. "Sliver? What are you doing?"
Sliver just glared at her. "You don't know what youse gettin' into. Bein' a Brooklyn newsie is a lot of work. Your brodda fits in jus' fine, but some of the fellas an' I are wonderin' how long it's gonna take ya to run when it starts ta get rough."
Ollie glared up at him, her heart racing. "I don't run from no fight." Yet all she wanted to do was get away from him.
Sliver smirked, sensing her reluctance. "Oh, really?" Then he pulled out his pocketknife and flicked it open, light glinting off of the shiny blade.
Ollie breath was caught in her throat. Sliver stalked towards her. Ollie backed up against the wall. Quick as a flash, Sliver flicked his wrist and the knife cut her skin just below her left eye, and he dragged it down the side of her face, pressing the blade in deeper the closer he got to her chin. Ollie clenched her teeth to hide her cry, but a small whimper escaped her lips. She was seven after all, and hadn't totally gotten used to the rough life on the streets yet. She reached up and felt the cut, the warm blood coating her thumb.
Sliver raised the knife again, and pressed it against her collar bone. Thinking quickly, Ollie grabbed his wrist, and pushed it away from her throat which caused him to drop the knife. Ollie dove for it and stood quickly, ready to strike back. She reached up to his chin and gave him a matching wound. Ollie couldn't remember much else, other than Spot had showed up a few minutes later and even though he was stiil young, he had given Sliver a soaking he sure wouldn't forget.
The only reason Sliver wasn't kicked out was that his older cousin was head of Brooklyn at the time. Even though Spot was the king of Brooklyn now, he couldn't just kick him out because of something that happened in the past because there wasn't enough evidence to prove it was actually Sliver, but Spot kept watching him, and his brother Skinner too, for any slip-ups so he could have an excuse to get rid of them.
Ollie shook the memory and focused on getting ready for the day.
Since she had woken before everyone else, she silently slipped out of her bed, and headed over to the sinks to get ready. She used a small shaving mirror to help her braid her hair again, and when she finished that, she washed her face and pulled her cap over her head, gasping quietly when she felt how stiff her shoulder was.
She had just finished scrubbing the dirt off her fingers when a few newsies came into the room. Ollie recognized Race and Checkers, but the one behind them, she couldn't remember seeing the night before. Race noticed her staring, and nodded to boy behind him. "This here's Ribs. Stay on his good side, he's good at pranks." Ribs smirked as he walked over to the sinks, not denying Races statement.
Ollie finished washing up and walked back to her bunk to wait while everyone woke up. Her shirt was slightly wrinkled, so she ran her hands down it a couple of times, but it didn't do much. Her clothes had wrinkles in them most of the time anyways, so she stopped and watched the boys wake up.
Snipeshooter and Mush were arguing over who's cap was who's only to be told off by Jack who shoved the correct hats on the correct heads. Race was searching the room for his cigar, and Suds jumped off the bunk above Ollie, landing on the ground with a thud. He immediately ran off to join another smaller newsie at the sinks. Jack wandered over to the sinks as well and looked for his razor.
All in all, it wasn't very different than mornings in the Brooklyn lodging house.
As Ollie kept watching, she notice the door that she had seen yesterday open, and three newsies wander out of it. She stared for a few seconds, wondering what could possibly be behind that door that had to be kept a secret, but ultimately shrugged it off and went back to focus on the boys in the room.
Jack has now rallied most of the boys towards the stairs and Ollie got off the bunk to go join them.
"Mornin' Bird," Mush said when Ollie walked up to the group.
"Mornin'." She replied, walking down the stairs, trying not to get trampled by the boys running down the stairs behind her. This was why she usually used the fire escape back in Brooklyn.
Outside, the morning sun shone down bright on her face, and as Ollie followed the crowd of newsboys through the streets of Manhattan, she was interested to see if the newsies would keep up the strike, or flake at the fist sign of trouble, like Spot had said.
On the streets, the crowd of newsies began to space out, some running to get to the distribution center, while others held back and walked with their friends. Ollie found herself in the middle of the crowd.
When she reached the statue in front of the distribution center, she found Jack, Racetrack, Mush, Blink and Checkers deep in conversation.
"Well what are we going to do without Brooklyn?" Blink was asking as Ollie walked up. She perked up at the mention of her home. This would be good chance for her to see what they were planning to do.
"We'll still do it." Jack said, though he looked a little unsure.
"But without Brooklyn, theres not enough of us." Argued Race.
Mush nodded. "Maybe we but this off a little bit." Ollie turned her head towards the group. Were they going to back down? The boys in the group started raising their voices trying to talk over everyone and make their opinion known.
Ollie sighed and looked away from them. They wouldn't ever get Spot's help if they held off on the strike.
"Open the gates and seize the day." She heard, and she looked over and saw the kid from the docks yesterday, Davey, trying to convince a group of younger newsies to not back down. "Don't be afraid and don't delay."
Ollie nodded approvingly to herself. Funny how a kid so scared the day before could speak to all these kids. She walked over to listen to what else he was saying.
"Nothing can break us," he declared. "No one can make us give our rights away!"
Jack and the rest of the group stopped arguing momentarily to listen in as well. The crowd around Davey was starting to grow as he kept talking. He was louder now, rallying everyone together. "Now is the time to seize the day!"
The crowd echoed it back.
"Send out the call and join the fray!"
"Send out the call and join the fray!" Ollie found herself shouting it out with the other newsies, and she smiled in spite of herself. If only Spot could see her now…
Davey looked around at the crowd. "Wrongs will be righted, if we're united-"
"Let us seize the day!" Everyone shouted.
All the newsies seemed to be riled up now, excited at the prospect of the strike, even though they were on their own.
"Friends of a friends will seize the day! Raise up the torch and light the way."
"Proud and defiant, we'll slay the giant, let us seize the day."
"One for all and all for one!"
Looking around at the crowd surrounding her, Ollie saw that each boy had a smile on their face. Race was playing his harmonica, newsies were leaping all over the place, and there was a small kid on top of the Horace Greely statue.
Ollie pushed her way through the crowd until she was near where Jack and Davey were.
Jack's eyes lit up when he saw her. "Bird!" He said. "Didn't see ya this mornin'. Thought you ran out in the night."
Ollie shook her head. "Nah, I ain't gonna leave just yet." She turned to Davey, feigning confusion. "Who's this? He don't look like a newsie."
Davey stuck his hands in his pockets as Jack clapped him on the back. "This here's Davey, 'im and is little brother Les joined the newsies a coupl'a days ago." He pointed towards the kid with the wooden sword on top of the statue.
Ollie nodded to Davey as the circulation rang, causing all of them to look over at the distribution center.
"Anybody hear that?" Jack yelled to the crowd.
"No!" Came the deafening reply.
"And what are we gonna do about it?" He shouted.
"Soak 'em!"
And with that, the crowd surged forward and into the distribution center, following the scared-looking newsies who had chosen to buy papers. Ollie noticed that they were looking like they regretted their decision now.
The newsies crowded around the window where they usually got their papers and watched the other newsies get their own. Ollie noticed that the boys who had fought her the night before were behind the window.
A few newsies followed the scabbers up the ramp, while the rest huddled in front of the window.
Jack, Race, and Davey were at the front of the crowd staring down the newsies who had bought papers. The first few scabs took one look at Jacks intimidating stare and tossed their papers to the ground. They were greeted with slaps on the back when they joined the ranks of the strikers. Some of the scabs didn't even buy papers and joined the crowd with their hands raised.
The next newsie hopped to the ground in front of Jack and tried to push past him, but he was forced back. He tried again but he got the same result. He tried to turn around, but Blink and Checkers blocked his way. He turned back to face Jack.
Jack locked eyes with the scab and slapped the papers out of his hand. Ollie could practically hear Davey's sigh from her spot in the middle of the crowd. Jack looked over at Race, who was beside him, but unfortunately, that allowed for the scab to have time to pick up his papers and barrel into Jack, knocking him backwards into the crowd.
All hell broke loose.
All the newsies who hadn't gotten their papers yet bolted to the gate and out into the street, away from the 'excitement' inside the centre. The kid who had run into Jack was being pushed around, and his papers we're getting shredded by the hands of the many newsies that had rallied with Cowboy. The kid was eventually chased out of the distribution centre as papers began flying.
Ollie found herself cheering and shredding papers with the rest of the newsies, smiling brighter than she had done in a while.
Papers were flying, the wagon was knocked over, and Ollie noticed that the Delancey Brothers were fleeing the scene as they were pelted with pieces of fruit and balled up newspapers.
The ground was covered in so much ripped-up-newspaper that it looked like snow. In the distance, Ollie could hear the sound of police whistles.
"Jack!" Davey yelled. At first Jack didn't notice, but the his eyes widened. He heard the whistles too.
"Hey! Cheeze-it!" He yelled. "Cheeze-It! It's the bulls!"
All at once, the newsies began running towards the gates as police got closer to them. They pushed past the police and out into the streets, but the cops didn't pay them any attention, too focused on the courtyard that was covered in papers.
"Crutchy!" Race yelled as he ran. Ollie turned back, and saw Crutchy still in the sea of newspapers, throwing them around in glee.
Ollie turned away from him, not wanting to get caught by the bulls, and followed Jack, Race, Davey and his brother away from the distribution center into an alleyway a few streets over.
Ollie looked back behind her to make sure they weren't being followed, but when she turned back around, she crashed into Davey and tumbled to the ground.
"Sorry," she said, sitting back up, trying to catch her breath.
"It's okay." Davey said, dusting himself off.
Ollie looked over at Les, who was staring at her with wide eyes, and his mouth slightly agape. "What?" She asked, a little confused.
"You're a girl?"
A/N: Duh, duh, duhhhh! :)
As always, reviews are welcomed and appreciated. I'd love to know what you're thinking so far!
Until next time!
~ Cori