𝚂𝙴𝙸𝚉𝙴 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙳𝙰𝚈 - 𝙽𝚎𝚠𝚜𝚒𝚎𝚜

𝚆𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚕'𝚜 𝙺𝚒𝚍

Word Count: 440

The thirty or so boys stood around in front of the depositing depot, waiting for the bell to ring. It finally did, and the Delancey brothers came stomping out of the doors, carrying a large stack of papers each. They looked especially surly today, and all the newsies seemed to notice. All of them were hesitant to be the first to step up and purchase the newspapers.

Then, a girl in a lavender dress skipped out the doors, setting another thick stack of papers on the selling booth. She smiled cheekily at the Delancey brothers and started handing out papers to the boys when they'd set down their money.

"Where's Weasel?" Jack asked as he set down two quarters. Handing him a stack of 100 papers, the girl answered evasively "He's... out. You're sure ambitious, buying one hundred papers. You sure you'll be able to sell that?"

"Yeah," Jack dismissed. "You sure you don't know where Weasel is? I owe him a soaking." The girl's smile grew slowly wider and wider until she burst out laughing. "He doesn't need any further punishment." She giggled. "I'm his niece, I live with him, and I wasn't very happy when he wouldn't give me my allowance. So, I set up a tripwire outside his office, so when he walked in, it'd dump a whole bucket of trash water on his head, then lock the office door after him. Now he's stuck in his office covered in rotting potatoes and smelly water."

Jack doubled over in laughter, and soon all the boys were standing around him as he rolled on the floor laughing. "What happened, Jack?" Race asked, trying to take a puff from his unlit cigar. "What'd tha' little girl say ta' youse?"

"She soaked Weasel!" Jack laughed. "With a bucket o' mouldy potatoes and trash water. Best part about it: She's Weasel's kid!"

The girl watched in amusement as the thirty or so boys laughed their heads off. Race even dropped his cigar, and Crutchie was curled in a ball on the dirty pavement, almost crying of laughter. Sure, she'd pranked her uncle, but she didn't see what was that funny about it. She shrugged and walked back inside, blowing a sarcastic kiss to Oscar and Morris Delancey as they each flipped her off in turn for pranking their boss. When she got into the building, she sat down on the overturned empty bucket she'd dumped on her uncle' head and silently congratulated herself: She'd used Morris' lunch pail and Oscar's slingshot wire to set up the trap, so when her father managed to unlock the door, boy were those Delanceys going to get a soaking!