Rewrite the Stars - A Spot Conlon Fan fiction

Chapter 1 - Another Day, Another Sell

Manhattan
1899

I woke up in the middle of the night to someone crying. This wasn't unusual, many of us were runaways looking to escape from dangerous, hellish situations while the rest of them were orphans, so it wasn't unusual for us to have nightmares. Tonight it was Annie. Her curly red hair was unkempt and tears were streaming down her face. I walked as quietly as I could to her bunk and sat down as she crawled into my lap.

Annie was one of our newer girls — and also one of the youngest at seven. She grabbed at my shirt tightly as I stroked her hair gently. I started softly humming a nursery rhyme in her ear, trying to calm her down. "Speedy," she whispered in a shaky voice, "Am I gonna be okay here?" I gulped, how could I promise her that? "Yes, you're gonna be okay." I felt like such a liar. New York City was rough, I was just a few years older than Annie when I became a Newsie, when Spot and Jack saved my life. All we had was each other. How could I ever promise anyone that their life as a Newsie will ever be okay?

When Annie fell back asleep, I tucked her back in under the covers and made my way back to mine.
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The next time I woke up it was to Miss Castellan, the landlord to the girls' lodging house, yelling, "Up, girls! Time to sell your papers!"

"Alright, girls," I said, "You heard Miss Castellan! Get up! Those papes ain't gonna sell themselves!" My trusty second in command, Mints, was still asleep in her bed. I smirked as I pushed her off the bed and onto the floor. As soon as she hit the floor, she groaned, stood up and gave me a pointed look. "There are better and nicer ways to wake a girl up." She crossed her arms across her chest as she glared at me.

I wasn't bothered the least. "Where's the fun in that?" I kept smirking at her as I made my way over to the younger girls to help them.

"Hey, Little Red," I said to Annie, "You feeling better?" She nodded shyly and Bear came over and put her arm around Annie's shoulders. "You're like their mother," Mints commented, grabbing her bag of buttermints and popping one in her mouth.

"Did Race steal that for you?" I teased her and she shoved me playfully. Everyone knew that Race was sweet on her. Racetrack Higgins was one of Jack's Newsies and my usual selling partner. When Mints didn't make enough to buy her favorite buttermints, Race was always willing to use his five finger discount to get some for her. Me and Jack teased them a lot about it, making them both blush. "C'mon," she said, "We're gonna be late." "Hope the headline's good," I commented, "It took me and Race forever to sell our last pape yesterday, and you know how Race gets when the sun goes down before he can steal his cigars."

She chuckled, no doubt picturing it in her head. "Let's go ladies!" Mints then yelled at the top of her lungs. We ran out of the lodging house down the block towards the boys' lodging house. Some of us partnered with other Newsies like me selling with Race or Mints selling with Mush, but there were some that sold by themselves like Specs or Kid Blink from the boys lodging house.

"C'mon boys!" I yelled, walking in uninvited with Mints in tow behind me "You're as slow as molasses. We're here and we're waiting on you."

"You know Speedy, there's a reason there are separate lodging houses for girls and boys," Race said, wiping his face on a towel, obviously talking about me just barging in. "And maybe you could try to be nicer," Skittery said.

"There's a reason I'm leader, Skittery," I said, "No one has gotten far by being nice." He gave me a look and I sent a wink Jack's way. "Let's go boys!" The landlord, Kloppman, said, "Morning Bell rang ten minutes ago. Go. Go. Go."

The boys rolled their eyes and made their way outside. Race sat on his bunk and lit his cigar. "Sheepshead or the Pier," he asked me, blowing out the smoke. "The Sheepshead," I replied, "Got a ciggy?"