wouldn't you like to know

- 5 -

"hey, Levi!" Jojo whispered. "Levi!"

The 8 year old opened her eyes to see Jojo hovering above her. "Jojo?" She sat up, resulting in a wide eyed Jojo. "what?"

Jojo pointed at her head, which Lilliana felt, still confused on what Jojo was so shocked at. Lilliana fully woke up when she realized that her hair tie must have came off or broke. She looked around her pillow area to find it. When she couldn't, she gave up and snatched another one from the nightstand beside the bunk bed.

"you're a girl?" He asked.

Lilliana sighed. "yes, I am." She confessed, looking down.

"why are you pretendin' ta be a boy?"

"Jack told me Cosmo will send me to the orphanage, so he cut my hair and gave me his cap so I'll look like a boy and I can be a newsie."

"but your hair's long."

"now it is." Lilliana replied. "I tie it and shove it in my cap before everyone wakes up."

"I don't think Cosmo will send ya to the orphanage. I won't let him." The nine year old stated, puffing out his chest.

Lilliana smiled. "thanks, Jojo."

"hey, then what's your real name?"

"Lilliana,"

"I like that name way better than Levi."

"thank you. But you can't tell anyone I'm a girl, okay? You have to keep calling me Levi."

Jojo nodded and spit in his hand, putting it out for Lilliana to shake. "got it."

Lilliana spit in her hand and shook Jojo's.

✧༝┉˚*❋ ❋*˚┉༝✧

Lilliana was selling with Race by the Brooklyn Bridge. She had become really good friends with all the newsies, especially Race and Jojo. Race often got jealous of how fast Lilliana could sell her papers. He didn't know how she was so good at it. As she was selling her next paper, he watched her from across the street.

"buy a pape, ma'am?" Lilliana asked, looking up at the tall, well dressed woman in front of her. Her big brown eyes glimmered in the sun as she looked up at the woman.

"oh, you dear thing, of course I'll buy one." The woman replied and pulled a dime out of her pocket. "is this enough?"

With a smile, Lilliana nodded. "thank you, miss!" She thanked, in which the woman nodded and walked away. And that's all it took. It seemed that Lilliana didn't even have to do anything!

With a huff, Race walked up to her. "ay Levi, how do ya do that?"

"do what?" Lilliana asked innocently, shoving the dime in her pocket.

"sell a pape so easy! It's like everyone you's ask, they buy one from ya."

"maybe it's 'cause I'm cute and charming." Lilliana teased with a grin.

"try again." Race deadpanned.

Lilliana sighed. "I choose who I ask." She said, resulting in a confused Race. "look, what I learned is that you can't just ask anyone. You gotta ask people who look like they're nice people. And don't ask people who look like they in a rush."