The Story of a News Girl

Lesson Learned

August 1890

"And this is how you spell your name."

Feister watched as Kloppman wrote out her name right before her eyes. Whenever there wasn't much going on, Kloppman would sit down with a few newsies and teach them the basic knowledge they would need later in life. Nothing too extra, just simple reading, writing and arithmetic. Today's lesson happened to be writing. Now Feister knew the alphabet and how to spell out simple words from when her mother taught her. But that was a long time ago. The young girl's memory wasn't exactly the best in the world. But hopefully that would all change. To say the least she grew more and more excited as Kloppman slowly wrote out her name. He told her which letters were which as a little refresher. A few of the boys, and herself were all gathered in Kloppman's office. They were mostly doing their copy work in the softly light room. There wasn't much to the small office, a dark wooden desk that had an assortment of things on top. A pen stood in it's holder next to the inkwell while pencils sat in a tin cup. An oil lamp was off to the side, waiting to be set aflame once more. A shelf sood behind the desk and held books of all kinds. There were a few pictures on the walls, a sofa pushed in the far corner, and a carpet laid right in the center of the room.

"Just like the first e, you do exactly the same thing. One straight line, arch up, around and do a little loop. And done." Kloppman handed her the piece of paper and pencil. "Now you try. It doesn't have to be perfect, you'll get better as you get older."

Feister gently took the items with a smile. She set the paper down and held the pencil in her right hand the way Kloppman had shown her. "It kinda hurts my hand," she said as she loosened her grip, but then it felt like the pencil would fall out of her hand. She tighten her grip a little and she kept adjusting her fingers until it felt comfortable in her hand.

"You'll get it Feisty. It took me awhile ta get comfortable holdin' that thing," Elmer encouraged brightly before going back to his copy work.

Feister sent a quick smile to the older boy before turning all her attention to the paper. She rested her arm on the table and slowly began to write down the first letter of her name. One straight line down, and then two going across. One line under the other. As she went from one letter to the next all lines were a little squiggly, or even lopped sided in some way or another. She was about halfway though she started to speed up to get it over with, for her hand started to bug her. The last few letters ended up being a little bigger than the others and sloppier. Almost unreadable to a certain extent. She released her grip on the pencil and began to rub her wrist with her left hand. "That hurt," was all she had to say.

"Your muscles aren't used to writing yet," Kloppman said kindly. He had seen this happen so many times that he was used to it by now. "It'll grow stronger with time and practice." he picked up the paper and carefully looked over the young girl's writing. There was definitely a long way to go, no doubt about that. But for the most part it looked good for her first try. "Alright, Mush, how bout you give it a go."

"Umm...ok," the boy nervously looked over Kloppman's shoulder. Listening carefully as the gentleman wrote down and explained how the lettering worked. Mush was then handed the paper and pencil so he could get the feel of writing out his own name. Biting his lip as he kept all attention on the way the pencil moved. The lines were sharply thick, or dropped down just a little deeper than it should've been. Curving the letters up and down and all around was another challenge for the young boy. But he managed. "Done," Mush announced happily. Feeling rather proud of himself for doing a good job.

"Ya got the easy name. Four letters," Feister huffed. "I's got stuck with..." she looked at the paper and slowly counted each letter in her own name, while keeping track on her fingers before saying, "Seven! That's-" she used her fingers to count up from four. "Three more than you!"

"At least yer good at acrobat."

"Albert, the word you're lookin' for is arithmetic," Kloppman corrected.

"Tomato, tomorrow," the redhead waved off. "An' why does humpty dumpty keep sittin' back on the wall if he's just gonna keep fallin' over and over again? It don't make any sense!"

"Well the way you'se read it of course it ain't makin' any sense!" Race exclaimed. "It's threescore, not three scones ya dummy!" he said while slapping Albert upside the head. Of course this led to the two boys to brawl it out like always whenever they disagreed on something. It took a few minutes for Kloppman to calm down the two boys before order was restored. The two boys were separated from each other and were both told to finish their copy work quietly.

"Alright you two, your signature is gonna be the most important thing you'll ever learn to write. Practice a few times an' I'll come back in a few, ok?"

"Ok!" Mush beamed. Feister on the other hand wasn't so thrilled with her response. They both grabbed a pencil and leaned over the desk and began to slowly practice signing their name.

Feister tried her best to keep her letters small and straight, but her little wrist kept cramping while her fingers felt like they were going to fall off to the point it became one squiggly unreadable mess. She dropped the pencil and groaned a bit as she once again rubbed her aching wrist. As she was doing that her eyes shifted to see how her writing looked. The letters that were scribbled on the paper seemed to become worse and worse the longer she'd copy her name down. Big, sloppy, and were either up high or dropped down at an odd angle. On her very last signature there was no spacing on the pencil marks. Instead it was all messily connected.

"Turn that frown upside down," Mush beamed brightly when he noticed the grumpy look on Feister's face. He smiled and playfully nudged her shoulder in hopes to cheer her up. But it only seemed to make her mood worse.

"How bout I's turn you'se upside down," Feister replied as she held up her fist. Instantly making Mush scoot a few inches away from her, and avoided any eye contact at all costs. "That's what I thought," she said firmly.

As time went by, Kloppman would encourage Feister to sign her name in the ledger each night when she came back after a long day's work. Her letters were usually different sizes and spilled out of the thinly lined paper. But slowly it began to improve little by little. First she managed to stay within the lines, then the sizing became the same and straighter no doubt. Her wrist still hurt, but nevertheless she was slowly getting better.

When Kloppman had other things to attend too, Wolf or Jumps would step in and help with her lessons. But that didn't mean it still wasn't a struggle. For adding and subtracting numbers hurt her little mind and reading was a hassle. Yet, just like writing, she improved with time. Of course, the older boys would step in to lend a hand, and the rest Feister always had Mush by her side. Though if you were to ask the news girl how good of a study partner he was, she would say that Mush is more of a distraction than any real help. One time Mush called Feister a cry baby because she got upset over not being able to add simple numbers together. That was the first, and very last time Mush Meyers dare call Feister a "cry baby" for the girl had socked him right in the eye as payback. Feister got in a lot of trouble that day, but she didn't regret it. The boy had it coming after all. And maybe, just maybe the other newsies all made a mental note to NEVER get on Feister's bad side. EVER. They just might be the next victim of her surprisingly strong right hook.

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Author's note

I really shouldn't be laughing at the fact that it's mentioned Feister punched Mush for calling her a cry baby, but here I am. If you really think about it though, something had to happen early on in their friendship to make Mush think twice before getting on Feister's bad side. (But we all know later in life he'll purposely get her mad for the heck of it). I always liked the idea of Kloppman being a father figure to the newsies and teaching them things when he had time to spare. I also enjoyed the little Race and Albert moment. Any chance I get to write the nightmare twins I do it. Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!