That afternoon, I smoked cigars and drank pints of beer with a select handful of Jets. Riff handed me a frothing mug of pale ale and we all sat down.

"Drink slowly, it's kind of bitter." He said as he passed a matchbox around so the guys could light their cigars.

"I'm a little worried." Mouthpiece said, looking at me with doubt clouding his blue eyes. "Ain't girls supposed to be lightweights?"

"I'm from Ireland." I said. "I've been drinking since I was born."

"Damn," he said, turning back to his beer and taking a quick blow from his cigar. "I forgot."

"So, Liza, what's his deal?" A-Rod asked with a hefty swig from from beer.

"Who's?"

"That Clanner kid." He said. His hair looked as though it would have been impressively glossy if it were regularly washed. Rather, it looked to be covered with a film of dust and soot. "He's been hanging over here since your ship landed. We've been soaking him since he got here and he just won't take a hint."

"He's overconfident." I said with a shrug.

"Has he always been like that?" Mouthpiece asked.

"I don't know, I've only known him for a year."

"You didn't know him before you left?" Riff asked, turning his gaze toward me for a moment.

"No, some kid told Nettie that a couple orphans and impoverished kids would be going onto some old cargo ship to America." I said. "We were also told that we would be rich as soon as we got here."

"That's rough." A-Rod said before taking a sip from his mug of beer.

When the sun had long since set, Riff and I slunk through the dark alleyways between the Jet terf and the abandoned apartment buildings.

"Ronan said that he would be back to kick our asses." Riff said with a mocking smile in his voice. "You should go with him. Spice it up. You know?"

"I'll do what I can." I said, picking my way through the darkness. the only illumination was the moonlight bouncing off of the puddles that hadn't quite evaporated since the recent rains.

"I'll see you there, then." Riff said, stopping when we reached the alley beside the apartments. He couldn't go any further without running the risk of being seen by a Celt and thus blowing the secret we had only just obtained.

"I'll see you soon." I said before stepping out of the alley and climbing up my fire escape. Nettie, much to my relief, was fast asleep with her cheek smushed against her window sill as though she had been waiting for me for quite awhile, which she likely had been doing.

I tip-toed past my sleeping sister and climbed into my room. Instead of going to sleep, I left my room and went into Nessie's room with the hopes of moving her to her bed without waking her up. I was relatively successful in this; she didn't remain totally unconscious, but she didn't recognize that he was me moving her. I went to sleep after I did this. The next morning came in a flash and Nettie was in my room at the crack of dawn.

"You're back!" She said in a shrill voice.

"Yeah, I came back as soon as the Jets left that area." I said as I sat up in my bed.

"Why were you even over there?" Nettie demanded.

"I saw Clanner head over there and I followed him." I fibbed, standing up and combing through my auburn hair.

"He said that he's the one that followed you." She said. My little sister has just the right shade of red in her hair to make her locks look like completely different colors. She has auburn hair, but in the lighting of my room, her short hair was more of a russet brown than it was red. Since my hair was a lighter auburn than hers, mine just stayed red in most circumstances.

"No, I was on my way to the racetrack and I saw him sneak into a closed off alleyway." I said, shamefully unbothered at the fact that I could lie to my sister with such ease and without an ounce of remorse.

"So Clanner lied?" Nettie said, brows furrowing in thought. "Why would he lie?"

"I'm not sure." I said with a shake of my head. "Maybe he was going over there to meet a girl."

"That's a thought." She said. She had pinned her hair partially back with a wooded clip that Clanner himself had found for her about six months prior, which was the item he used as a prop to tell her that he had feelings for her. Luckily, she did not reciprocate. "Maybe."

"We could go out later today and follow him." I suggested.

"Isn't how they kidnapped you yesterday?" She asked, looking at me pointedly.

"I was not kidnapped." I said with a shake of my head. Nettie rolled her eyes and used my hairbrush. It bothered me that I did not have a second thought about lying to my sister so quickly.