Christina

"Are you alright, Chris?" Jack asked while taking a cigarette out of his pocket.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Uh, can I have one?" I gestured to his cigarette.

He chuckled and dug his hand into his pocket again. "Sure, kid. Here ya go." He also handed me a match.

"Thanks." I said, bending down to light the match on the ground. It almost immediately caught on fire. I brought the burning match to the tip of the cigarette. I waited patiently for the cigarette to light and chucked the match when I was done. I could feel Jack's eyes on me the whole time.

"So. How come you were in Brooklyn?" I took a long drag on my cigarette.

It looked as if something sparked inside of Jack.

"Oh, well," he awkwardly wiped his mouth with his forearm. "I was worried about you. I mean, it's you first day on the job, and I knew something no good was bound to happen."

Jack expression looked like he was about to throw up. His face turned as white as a sheet and I could see small beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"Are you alright, Jack?" I stopped walking and examined his pale face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's nothing," He didn't make eye contact with me but he instead looked at the ground. "Let's just get back home before it gets too late."

***

Jack and I stepped into the main area of the orphanage. Surprisingly, the rest of the newsie boys were hanging around, talking. They all turned and glared at me. I felt my cheeks get hot.

"What happened to the boy?" somebody said. Stupidly, I had forgotten that I I just had the snot beat out of me. I tried to wipe the blood from my nose.

Jack stepped up a little bit. "Well, she-"

He was interrupted by a different boy. "She? She's a girl?" I noticed that the boy had an eyepatch over his eye. I wondered why.

Jack turned to me and said, "Sorry about Blink. He's a little slow to understand things."

And then I remembered somebody very important.

"Where's Crutchie at?" I asked nobody in particular.

The first person I saw was Racetrack, the kid I met earlier that day. He still had a cigar in his mouth.

"Crutchie's upstairs restin'," he walked over to me. "And yes, she is a girl. And the fairest of them all." He took my hand and kissed it lightly. I smiled at him, flattered. The boys groaned in annoyance.

Jack wasn't having any of it either. He rolled his eyes and shooed away Race. "Anyways, Chris wants to join the Newsies."

There was unpleasant chatter across the boys in the room.

My smile dwindled as fast as it was created.

Some different kid jumped down from the steps. He had dark, medium-length hair. "Jackie, you're forgetting the golden rule: 'Never allow a girl to join a band of Newsies'."

Jack put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "C'mon, Bumlets. She can fight and she has a brain to her too."

"How are we's supposed to know dat? We haven't seen her fight." A voice rang out above the talking boys. It belonged to Mush, the naked boy I saw earlier. I shook my head to get the image out of my brain.

"Well, she did just get inta a fight with Spot Conlon." Jack added. The room fell silent.

"You got into a fight with Spot Conlon? You mean the Spot Conlon from Brooklyn?" Racetrack looked at me in awe. "Are you trying to get yourself murdered?"

"I ain't afraid of Spot." I crossed my arms over my chest, knowing the in the back of my mind that that was a lie.

All the boys including Jack gave me a condescending look.

"Are you gonna let me join or not?" I changed the subject back.

"I say," Mush fixed the hat on his head. "we let her join. We could use all the help we can get against the Delancey brothers' gang, ya know."

I gave him a 'thank you' look before Jack spoke up again.

"You all should listen to Mush. Now he's got a brain." Jack pointed out.

The boys didn't seem convinced. Most of them were just gazing down at the dusty floor.

"C'mon you lousy bums! I bet you that all of you are too afraid to fight Spot Conlon." Jack raised his voice.

"Just let her join." Race puffed out a small cloud of smoke. I wondered why he was suddenly being nice to me.

"If Jack says she's good, then she's gotta be good." Bumlets brushed his fingers through his dirty hair.

Some of the boys murmured 'fine' and some of them didn't say anything at all. But I didn't really care, as long as they were letting me into the group.

I grinned and turned to Jack, who was smiling too, bearing his big teeth.

"So, Chris, you're officially a Newsie now," Race stepped towards me. "Welcome." He offered me one of his cigars, and I took it gladly.

"Thanks." Joy overcame my body then. I wrapped my arm around Race and the whole group chuckled.

Suddenly, something happened that I did not expect. Race turned towards me and slammed his lips onto mine before I had the chance to put the cigar in my mouth. Obviously, I was taken by surprise. I didn't know that Race liked me that way.

I pushed him away. "Race? What was that?" I wiped my lips off.

"Oh I'm sorry, Chrissy. Did I hurt you?"

"No, I was just-" I realized all the boys were looking at me and some were covering their mouths in laughter. I immediately felt embarrassed.

The next thing I knew, I was pushing through a crowd of newsies trying to get up the stairs.

I didn't stop running till I made it to my room and I stayed there till morning.

Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to update. Anyways, the picture above is of most of the newsies.

There's a huge turn of events and I can't wait to write more. But sadly, I have been really busy with school starting up again, so it might take me a while to update.

Thanks for reading!! ;)