Fearless~Hardzello

one

joe's pov

for 5 cents a paper, you'd think someone would buy it. 'ma'am care to buy a paper?' ignored. 'sir paper!' brushed off like a fly on your arm. it's impossible. sometimes you even have to make up stories to get people to buy the papers. but even after a hard day of selling little to no papers, i still have my friends around me. we're like family and some of us even don't have families. in the East Side division, one of the larger newsboy divisions, we have a tight knit bond and newcomers can rarely penetrate it.
"joey! how's your paper selling going?" one of my best friends, rami calls from across the street. he moved here a bit ago from California and his family's having a hard time starting up so he's selling papers in the meantime.
"not good! how's yours?" i call back. he scoffs.
"even worse! man, you're lucky you can sell one!" he says making me feel better. i laugh and wave him off. he rolls his eyes and goes back to trying to sell his papers. suddenly someone runs into me.
"jeez! watch where you're going!" my cap falling in front of my eyes.
"woah! sorry i hit you there... joey?" my eyes meet gwilym's. he moved here recently from England and similar to rami's story, he has to make some extra cash for his family. i smile thankful it wasn't a stranger.
"gosh you scared me. why are you running?" i say as i dust myself off.
"i'm late for something quite important.."
"well whatever it is i hope i'm not keeping you from it!" he smiles and runs off.
"see ya, joey!" he yells as he nears the subway station. i roll my eyes. boys. as the day ends, i sell some more papers and head back to our station with rami. he babbles on and on about this girl gwilym was going on a date with.. which is what he was late for. makes sense. i hope it works out for him. girls here usually don't date foreigners but i guess they can make an exception for the british.
"i hear we're getting a new guy in the division. he's from england too. gwilym and him are probably gonna be good friends" rami says. my ears perk up. new guy?
"isn't it too early for a new guy? it's not even newcomer season yet" i say. he shrugs. new guys usually come around september and it's late july.
"it doesn't matter, we'll still have a new friend and i like teaching the new guys" rami smiles proudly.
"teaching them how not to sell papers?" i ask. rami hits my shoulder.
"shut up" rami says. we laugh. i hope this kid's nice. i'd like knowing someone new for once. i guess we'll have to wait and see.