The Conlon Twins

Chapter 1: Boredom

It was a sweltering hot Friday afternoon. Jess Conlon was aimlessly wandering the streets of Brooklyn. Her brother was Spot Conlon, the most feared and respected Newsie in New York, and he was busy being the king.

Jess had decided not to sell papers today because she had made good money during the rest of the week. Well, at least what a Newsie could consider good money.

Before she knew it, Jess found herself in front of the Brooklyn Bridge. A brilliant idea had popped into her head, and she couldn't stop smirking. Jess was Spot's best spy and hadn't had a spying job in a while.

"Might as well do somthin' useful wit' my time!" she chuckled to herself. "Let's see what da 'Hattan Newsies are up to!" At this she held back a laugh; Manhattan Newsies always seemed to be doing something stupid and getting into trouble.

Jess stayed to the right side of the bridge, the side that was cast in shadows, and sneaked her way past her friends, some Brooklyn Newsies, and some Manhattan Newsies.

She grinned to herself after stepping off the bridge and onto the streets of Manhattan.

Sometimes boys can be so stupid! She thought.

Nothing seemed to be happening in Manhattan; nothing worth telling Spot about, anyway. Jess turned around and walked to Newsie Square in hope that her mission wasn't completely pointless.

After arriving in Newsie Square, she crouched down in a nearby bush. There was no one in the square, so having nothing to do, she started fiddling with her hair.

Jess scowled at the leaves on the bush as if she wanted to murder them. She didn't want to go back to Brooklyn quite yet. If she did, then she would be swallowed up by the dirty, smelly, idiotic, rowdy boys she had for friends.

Not that she was any different. Except for the idiotic part, she was definitely the most brilliant Newsie in Brooklyn, and probably in the rest of New York too. Her brother being the second smartest. She just didn't want to be in the center of the chaos just yet.

Jess's head snapped up as she heard a boy's yelp of fear and pain. She had been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't noticed two big guys, that she recognized as the DeLancy brothers, drag a boy with a crutch out into the middle of the square.

She leaped from the bush and ran over to the boy.

"Hey, DeLancys! Why don'tcha pick on someone your own size!" she yelled.

Crutchy gratefully looked over at the person who had yelled in his defense. He was a bit surprised to see that she was a girl.

She looked important. He didn't know how, she just did. She walked- well, ran- with pride and dignity.

She was wearing brown trousers, a dirty white shirt, blood red suspenders, and a grey Newsies hat. The only thing that indicated her feminism was the long, dirt-blonde hair that fell just past her shoulders.

"Are ya deaf? Get outta Heah! Scram!" She shouted at the DeLancys again.

"Oh yeah? Why don'tcha make us?" Oscar taunted her with a smirk.

"I think I will!" Jess said, finally reaching the three boys.

"Is that a threat? Hey, Morris! Get 'dis, we's bein' threatened by a girl!" Oscar burst into laughter.

The girl launched herself at the brothers before anyone could do anything. She quickly took out Morris, him being the dumber of the two. She whirled to face Oscar as Morris hit the ground with a thud. She shot Oscar an evil grin. Crutchie watched from where he was laying on the ground, dumbfounded.