Joy sighed, rolling over restlessly in her bunk. Behind her, Jack half mumbled something, still asleep. Ignoring him, she shuffled further away from him to sit up.
The boy groaned, looking up at her with bleary eyes, "Whats a matta?"
She just shook her head, "Go back to your own bunk Jack."
Reluctantly, he nodded, slipping quietly out of the bunk, and moving back through the maze of sleeping kids, still wrapped in his blanket.
Running a hand through her hair, Joy sighed again, unable to help but wonder why the hell the dye she had used this time hadn't fully set. Maybe she shouldn't have trusted the vendor who'd said it'd last four months.
Shifting again, she sat up fully against the headboard, eyes straying over to where Spot seemed to be getting an equally shitty night's sleep.
The clock on the wall read nearly 5:30 am, only an hour or so until Kopplman would be up, and then another half of an hour until he would be waking the boys up. Slowly, she settled back into laying down, turning to watch the sun just starting to peak above the buildings through the window.
The sky slowly brightened, and the city began to come to life, until all at once it seemed that the newsies were beginning to wake. Sitting up, Joy slid off of her bunk, quickly grabbing her clothes and elbowing her way to the bath to change out of her nightshirt.
By the time she had finished getting dressed and washing her face the bathroom was being swept up into the usual comotion that came with the morning scramble. Ducking around Specs she headed back out into the bunk room, rubbing at her forehead with a sigh.
Knocking on the side of Skippy's bunk, Joy leaned down, "Get up kid."
"Uhn uhn, we don't got no woik to go to, so I should be able ta stay in bed." The girl groaned.
"Fine I guess I won't getcha breakfast den." Joy shrugged, straightening up and starting to turn away.
Skippy sat straight up in her bunk, "Breakfast?"
She chuckled, "Yeah, I was thinking we could go to that bakery we found on ya birthday after we went to see Miss Medda."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but I told Medda I'd be other there at 9:30, so you betta get a move on."
Skippy quickly shoved her blanket back and hopped out of bed, rushing to get her stuff and get to the bathroom. Joy laughed to herself, flinching slightly when Sniper appeared at her side, "You bribed her wit breakfast?"
"Yeah," She shrugged, turning to tug at the end of one of Snipers braids, "Like you wouldn't do the same so you wouldn't have to go alone."
Sniper laughed, playfully shoving her hand away, "You gots me dere."
Forcing a smile, Joy nodded, moving to grab her last quarter from the tin resting on her dresser as Skippy came bounding back, "Right, you ready Skip?"
The young girl nodded, and they head down toward the stairs, only pausing for Joy to tell Jack she'd be talking to Medda about getting the theater.
Spot watched as they went, frowning. The similarities between Joy, and his Juliette seemed to grow everyday he was around her.
"Why you always lookin at Joy like dat?" Race asked, leaning his elbow on Spot's shoulder.
He shrugged Race's arm off, "Reminds me of a goil I knew."
"A goil?" race asked, raising his eyebrows.
Spot shoved him, "Oh shut ap! Not like dat- not really!"
YOU ARE READING
A Way Home
Fanfiction"A newsie? You were a newsie mama? Tell me about it? Please?" ---------------------------------------- Sean and Juliette had been friends since there first meeting, and even ran away from their horrible lives together before getting separated. Wha...
