Short fic writing trip

Wes a family 9

Who would've thought selling papes would be exhausting.

At first, Siren was more than enthusiastic to start, after learning a quick lesson in stretching the truth. She took a quick glance at all the headlines in today's issue, and found something she could work with. Mustering up her manliest voice, she called out into the crowd.

"Entire town's worth of bodies discovered in sleepy part of Harlem!" She called out. Really it was about a new cemetery being built and all of the bodies from the old plot being dug up and moved, but they could figure that out after they've paid. And paid they did, as three people came up digging through their pockets for a chance at reading the story. Siren made a whole 15 cents as the people dug out nickles instead of pennies in their scramble. Delighted, she turned to Jack with the biggest grin of surprise on her face.

He smiled back with pride in his eyes, "nice work dere, girly. We'll make a newsie outta you yet."

And so the day continued on, with her and Jack coming up with a fun game of who can come up with the most outlandish headline. They had great hits such as 'man found poisoning city water supplies' (a drunk stumbling upon and hurling in a family's well), 'money rains from the sky in Buffalo' (a wallet fell from a window and struck a guy on the head), and 'Central Park contaminated with infectious disease' (a fungal infection in a section of the trees causing them to be cut down). Each story grew in it's absurdity and, for the pair of newsies, hilarity. They both were down to their last papes by the time the afternoon sun started its decent towards the west. In a hurry to get the job done with, Siren took a scan over the pape for what was probably the 100th time, looking for any last scrap of info she could turn into a headline. Unsatisfied, she turned to look for the front page headline to see if she could hark it one last time. However she noticed a little article underneath the fold that had managed to slip her gaze the whole day.

Upcoming This Month; Celebrating the One Year Anniversary of the Newsboys Strike.

"Heya, Jack?"

"Whatcha need, girly?" He called behind him, as he too scanned the pape for a headline.

"When was you gonna tell me you's been on strike?"

Jack paused, and looked over at Siren puzzled. She then pointed to the article and had Jack read it over.

"Oh, dats where ya got it from. Did Kathrine write dat?" He checked again, "well I'll be damned, she's still thinkin a'us, how sweet. We'll have ta go see 'er sometime, she's real busy 'n all wit dat journalin job she's got ova in da Bronx, she'll still send in stuff for the 'hatten papes though. Ain't seen 'er much since the strike, wonda how she's doin."

Siren tilted her head, "who's Kathrine?"

"Oh, she was a big help durin the strike, wrote all the stories fer us and helped print out flyas fer the rallies and she was just real doll helpin us out like she did. Bit of a pain though, but it just made 'er even betta, fit right in wit us newsies. You woulda loved 'er, I'll let ya meet 'er next time she's in town." Jack spoke so highly of her, Siren couldn't help but figure she meant a little more to him than just a strike helper, so she pried a little more.

"Was she ya goil?"

Jack's smile dampened a little, "yea, it was more of a fling. Da rush of d'strike and ev'rythin brought us tageta, but it died out once she started workin more and we didn't have no strike ta fight for. It's a'right though, we broke it off tageta and swore we'd at least stay friends. Worked out pretty well, turns out we make betta friends than lovas."

"Ain't that cute, look at chu, litta lova boy." Siren teased, to which Jack just shoved her lightly and chuckled.

"It's gettin late, we's still gotta meet up wit Davey, let's get des papes sold."