𝚂𝙴𝙸𝚉𝙴 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙳𝙰𝚈 - 𝙽𝚎𝚠𝚜𝚒𝚎𝚜

𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙽𝚎𝚠𝚜𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚜.

Word Count: 1107

MUSH
_______

Henry was in the mood for a really good prank. So obviously, his target was his first-grade teacher. When he was six years old, Mr Browurt was the teacher for the little kids at the public schoolhouse, and boy, was he mean. If you stepped out of line in any way, it was the birch switch to the knuckles for you. Henry tended to step out of line a lot, and as a result, he still had scarred knuckles. He hated Mr Browurt.

"Could I buy two pennies worth of oatmeal please?" Mush smiled widely at the sour-faced cook who worked in the local kitchen. "You got a bucket?" She sighed, turning around to the huge cauldron of mush behind her.

Mush hoisted his tin bucket onto the counter and she slopped some thick yellowish-brown oatmeal into it. "Thanks." He tried to breathe through his mouth so he wouldn't smell it.

When he got out the door, he let out a gagging noise and held the bucket at arm's length. He climbed up a ladder on the side of his old school building, waiting for the teacher to come out with the pail of smelly oats being held at the ready. Mr Browurt strode out of the building and Henry tipped the bucket over. It dumped its smelly yellow-brown contents all over Mr Browurt's head. Henry pulled away from the edge of the roof so he wouldn't be seen, and laughed quietly to himself when the angry fellow shouted "MUSH!" at the top of his lungs.

SPOT
_______

Sean Conlon was a very short boy, and so most of the Brooklyn newsies viewed him as one of the younger children. In fact, he was actually older than most of them, at fourteen and a half. "Hey, Seanny." Ace, the oldest boy in Brooklyn (though not the leader, he was second-in-command and very happy with that position.) ruffled Sean's thick dark brown hair. "Don't call me that, Ace."

"You need a proper newsie name then. How about... Shortstack?" Sean shoved him hard at that little joke at his expense.

"No. Now I need ta go sell, Ace. Shove off."

Ace left, laughing a little, to sell his own papers. Sean scowled deeply (his resting face) and walked off to his regular selling spot. Someone else was there, selling their papes like they owned the place. Which they most certainly didn't.

"Hey!" Sean shouted, crossing the street to get in the boy's face. "What do you want, shortstack?" The boy sighed.

"I want my selling spot back."

"Now listen here, buddy." The boy's smile was gone, replaced with a menacing smirk. "This spot is mine now."

Sean had a long history of taking no crap from anyone. So he promptly punched the boy in the face. The boy tackled him to the ground, yelling about how it was his spot now and swinging badly-aimed punches at Sean's face. Sean kicked him really hard in the stomach, rolling away from the boy, but not before he punched him in the eye again.

"Whoa, you can punch real good." The boy laughed, his voice thick from a bloody nose. "You lasted longer than I thought you would."

Sean responded by punching him again, taking the boy to the ground. They rolled around on the pavement, the gravel leaving bloody scratches on their faces and knees. At the end of the fight, it was very clear that Sean had won. They both looked incredibly beaten up, but the other boy much more so.

"Congratulations." The boy growled, snatching his papers off the ground. "You've got your selling spot back. You've earned a new name, buddy."

"What?"

The boy pulled his newsie hat off, revealing his face. Sean took a step back, eyes wide. "No, nope, this is not happening."

"Sorry kid, already did."

It was the King of Brooklyn. Rylan.

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●               

"You beat up the King of Brooklyn?" Ace was incredulous.

"To be fair, he stole my selling spot."

"Spot." Ace's smirk grew.

"What?"

"Your new name. Spot. It's fitting, considering you're now in charge of all of Brooklyn."

"What? "

"You beat up Rylan fair and square, now you'se the King."

"Spot Conlon, King of Brooklyn. That has a nice ring to it." Spot's wicked smile spread as he remembered the power being in charge of Brooklyn held.

KID BLINK
_______

Louis Ballatt was known to have an incredibly surly attitude. Most of the newsboys were kinda scared of him. With a low, gravelly voice and a constantly angry look, he was already scary enough, but his eyepatch really topped off the look. Sometimes he forgoed the eyepatch if he was really in the mood to freak some people out. Louis had been blind in one eye since an accident when he was a toddler, and it was a milky white that scared the bejeezus out of everyone.

Louis was wearing his eyepatch the day he got his newsie name. He was playing with the younger kids in the street, teaching them in a roundabout way how to fake headlines that would sell better than the boring ones the writers came up with. "What's the headline today?" Louis asked one of the boys.
"Trash fire near immigration building scares seagulls." He read solemnly from the front page of The Sun.

"That won't sell." Rosie -Tommy Boy's little sister- sneered. "I'se seen betta' headlines from Da Trib."

"Yeah, so make up a betta' one." Louis scowled. Rosie scurried a little farther away from Louis, not wanting to be the target of sarcastic threats.

"Ellis Island in flames, terrified flight from burnin' inferno! Thousands flee in panic!" Alexei (A little boy with an innocent face an curly black hair) shouted, chugging the rest of his frozen sugar-water. This earned a slow clap from Louis.

"Terrified flight from burnin' inferno, you heard the story right 'ere!" Jack called from across the street, winking at Louis to make sure he knew Jack wasn't making a run for his money by using Alexei's headline.

Louis tried to wink back, but kinda failed, because it was exactly the same as his blink.

"Louis did ya wink or blink at Jackie ova' there?" Rosie asked.

"Didja wink or blink?" Alexei asked when he didn't respond.

"Can you blink?"

"Blink! Blink! Blink!" Rosie changed, taken up by the rest of the children. A man walked by on the street, one of Louis' frequent buyers, and called out a friendly greeting. "Hey, kid, blink!" 

The littles misheard this statement and immediately looked at each other. "KID BLINK KID BLINK!" The new chant started. It caught on quickly.