A Newsie Story

Chapter 17

I stare at the girl as she quickly puts her hat back on. "What's your real name?"

"Meaghan,"She says staring at Specs and I terrified.

Specs has stepped back in horror mumbling something about how he hit a girl. "Well Meaghan nice to finally meet you. Why are you keepin this from everyone?"

"It's not safe for girls. I look enough like a boy to get by so I'm looking out for myself. Please don't tell anyone,"She says pleading with me.

"Of course I'll keep your secret. We girl newsies gotta stick together,"I say shaking her hand.

Specs just stares at her,"I'll keep ya secret if ya go on a date wit me."

Meaghan grins at him,"I would a done that anyhow."

Finally, one less boy on my radar. I'm glad he's over me now. Crutchie stands right behind me,"Race an Davey say that you'se want me ta teach ya how ta use a crutch."

"I definitely need some help,"I say frowning staring at how easily he moves with his own.

He smiles at me,"Well ya won't be doin tricks at foist but I'll get ya walkin pretty well soon enough."

* * *

The rest of the week Crutchie and I sell together. He teaches me how to move with ease and soon enough I'm moving as well as him.

I start to get to know Meaghan pretty well. We meet every afternoon to talk. She was born an orphan and she escaped the orphanage. I smile whenever she tells me about how well Specs and her are working out.

I don't see the man once all week to my knowledge or better yet I didn't hear him. He might have passed me in the streets a thousand times but I never once heard that voice except in my nightmares.

Davey has to wake me up almost every night from a nightmare. Race usually sleeps through my screams but Davey is a very light sleeper lately. It's like he is prepared to attack whenever needed.

Morris watches me every day. He stays right by my side every day incase the man comes back. Crutchie was terrified of him at first but eventually we talk easily like best friends. Morris and I find that we are alike in our tempers so we fight quite a bit. Not big fights just fighting about small things that don't matter.

Spot and I see eachother only a few times but he is furious when he hears about everything that happened that day. He even went over Queens to soak the leader for making me run so much. Spot came back with a black eye but he assured me that the other guy was much worse.

And then of course there was Dan. He had kind of become my best friend lately. I can tell him things that I just can't tell Morris, Race, or Davey. Dan knows everything. I told him absolutely everything. He knows my feelings for all of those boys and he doesn't judge me for it.

Then before I knew it, it was Sunday. The day Manhattan and Brooklyn are having a picnic over in Brooklyn. They have a nice open space and we have done this since the strike to show our friendship. We were aloud to bring someone and I decided to bring Morris.

*THIS SHOULDN'T EVEN COUNT AS A CHAPTER BUT THE NEXT ONE SHOULD BE LONGER*