Pure- Newsies/ Female OC

9. Explore

Hola mi amors. I have a shout out! Well, I have three.

1. To my amazing editor who is writing a story of her own. You should go check it out, her user is Hello_its_me_143.

2. To my amazing friend, who is also making a story, it's called "the road to Harlem." Go check them out! My editor's story is part of a different fandom but is still really good. My friend's story is a Newsie's fanfic. Read both. Love you all and thanks for reading.

I can't let Lucky know. He can't leave me. Now that I've finally found the people that I'm safe around, I can't lose them. My thoughts were interrupted by a hand on my shoulder. I jumped and hit whoever's hand was on my shoulder whilst turning around. The hand belonged to Spot. I guess he was back from wherever he was.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya," Spot smiled. I smiled lightly back. Lucky and Skittery walked up next to me.

"Hey Spot, Skittery got your papes," Spot nodded and tossed Skittery a coin. Skittery handed Spot a stack of papers. "Hey Birdie, what do you think of the story today?" Lucky pointed to the second page of the paper. I opened it, and attempted to read. The words became jumbled and I began to panic. They can't know.

"I-its... It's pretty good. I guess-" I stuttered. Lucky and all the other Newsies who heard me looked over confused. Lucky scratched the back of his neck.

"Uh, are you sure you're looking at the right page?" Lucky laughed awkwardly and read the paragraph out loud. "Ten killed after a small shooting at a nearby pub," he looked back at me. My eyes went and I looked back at the jumbled letters. Some words I could read, but others it seemed impossible.

"O-oh- yeah, sorry, guess I was looking at the wrong thing." I joined Lucky in the awkward laughter. He must have noticed something was off because he grabbed my hand.

"Ya want me to sell with ya today?" he smiled widely, "Ya know, show ya the ropes," Lucky made a surfing motion with his hands and we both started laughing, non-awkwardly this time.

"Sure!" The other Newsies giggled as we skipped off towards the direction of Lucky and Skiterys selling spot.

"Don't go too far Lucky, remember what happened last time!" Skittery yelled from behind us. Lucky rolled his eyes and held up a thumbs-up. (A/N Flash is what happened last time)

Once me and Lucky got to his selling spot, he sat down against the wall of a brick building, and patted the ground next to him. I sat down. Lucky sighed and looked at me.

"What's wrong?" Lucky placed his hand back in mine. The panic grew and I started breathing heavier. I opened my mouth, but when nothing came out, I closed it again. "I didn't want to say this in front of the guys," Lucky stopped making eye contact with me. "But-" I cut Lucky off.

"Okay, I'm different. I know, and I'm sorry that I didn't tell you. It's just that everyone I cared about left because of it, and I don't want to lose you too," I took Lucky's hand in both of mine and pushed for eye contact. He gave, but didn't say a word. The silence grew and I became more nervous. I didn't know what else to do, so I rambled on. "Y-you mean a lot to me, a-and I-I don't-"

I was cut off by Lucky pulling me into a hug.

"Well I was just gonna ask if you don't know how to read, I would never leave you," He pulled away from the hug and smiled, "you're my sista now and we have to stick together." I smiled and nodded back. "But why couldn't you read the page?" Lucky began to laugh nervously. I mentally facepalmed.

"I'm Dyslexic," I stopped making eye contact. Lucky nodded slowly.

"Oh... What's that?" I was surprised. I didn't know what to say.

"Sometimes words get mixed up and it makes it hard to read. Mine gets triggered when I get nervous," I explained to Lucky the best way I could. He made an "O" shape with his mouth and nodded. We both were feeling awkwardness and didn't say anything for what felt like forever.

"This is awkward." Lucky stood up and brushed off his trousers. "Alrighty, so what have we learned," Lucky began taking papers out of his bag. "You can't read very well when ya nervous, and ya don't want anybody else to know." I nodded slowly. "Ok, I can't promise anything about anyone else not knowing. But I can try my best to make sure you're not nervous!" The sweet and bouncy Lucky I was used to came flooding back.

Suddenly he stopped smiling and straightened out the color of his button-up. He pretended to take something out of his pocket and put it over his eye, sort of like a spectacle. I was confused. Lucky cleared his throat and looked at me, "Young lady, I think you would make a fine selling partner, You shall sell with me." He made his voice sound deeper and more "Refined". Me and Lucky both doubled over laughing. It took us at least 10 minutes and many weird looks from strangers to stop. Lucky stood up, still snickering, and moved his hand towards me. "Well?" He wasn't pretending anymore. I stood up. Moving my hand to his but he quickly pulled it away. "Wait, wait I've always wanted to do this!" Lucky spat in his hand and stuck it out to me once more. I spat in my hand, assuming that's what to do, and we shook. We were both smiling as wide as can be.

Me and Lucky had both sold the majority of our papers. Some with the help from Skittery but overall we were doing well. Since we were doing so well Skittery said that we could go "Explore". To be clear he did not say that. He said that we could go for a quick walk not too far away. But for both me and Lucky, that translated to Explore. Lucky was showing me all his favorite places in Brooklyn. He showed me shops, and grocery markets. Finally he took me to the Sheepshead Races. Lucky stared at the large building in awe.

"I'm gonna go in thea someday" Lucky took off his hat and continued staring at the building. I sighed. It was cold outside, and now I was bored. I looked around. A few yards away from us I saw a Newsie. He didn't look like any Brooklyn Newsie I recognised. I walked a bit closer. When he noticed me a huge smile appeared on his face. Now I knew who it was.

"Race!" I grabbed Lucky and dragged him along with me. Race hugged me and smiled. Still selling his papers.

"Hey Birdie, oh and Lucky." Race nodded at Lucky who nodded back. How did they know each other?

"Hi Race. Do you sell in Brooklyn?" Race nodded in answer to my question and again, continued selling papers. Once Race was done with the transaction he sighed and squatted down to our level.

"Alright, I'm done for the day. Hey, how bout I introduce you to the 'Hattan Newsies?" Me and Lucky looked at each other and smiled. Completely forgetting about SKitterys rules.

"Yes!" Me and Lucky exclaimed at the same exact time.