Charlotte Ocompo was a normal 21st century teenager from Queens, hopeful for a kickass summer ahead of her. However, nothing could have prepared her for when she stumbles into a portal that sends her back in time to the Manhattan newsies lodging hou...
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David left Sheepshead Bay Races with a cocky smirk and a swagger in his step. Kit wanted to simultaneously wipe the smirk off his face and commend him in order to keep his ego up. She knew the newsies picked on David too much, he was an easy target, so it was nice to see him hold himself tall for a change. Plus, she respected his poise for not verbally gloating in Race's face that he was right.
David was more confident and loose after his successful gamble and Kit used that to her advantage. She convinced them to continue selling the rest of their newspapers in Brooklyn. She argued they might as well stay since they went through all the effort of getting their newspapers across the bridge.
Kit had hoped they could catch the attention of the crowd exiting the races, but Race had yanked her shirt collar when she had opened her mouth to yell her headline. He also pulled David close to him and dragged them out the congested exit with the rest of the crowd.
"You'se don't wanna mess with da newsies who claim this spot aftah each race." he muttered into their ears to make sure they could hear him over the buzz of the racetrack crowd.
Kit took the moment to look around and noticed that several Brooklyn newsies were hawking headlines right by the exit. She vaguely recognized some of their faces from seeing them in passing at the Brooklyn lodging house.
Race gave a nod to the closest newsie who had short brown hair and hard set green eyes. He had high cheekbones that held ink stains and he held his large stature tall. The newsie gave a wordless nod back to Race, then made eye contact with Kit. His eyes raked her over from head to toe before he threw her an impressed glance and a nod of respect.
Kit was taken aback by his reaction, but made sure not to show it. She returned his nod and peeled her eyes away to look in front of her. The look he was giving her wasn't flirtatious, and she was almost positive that he wasn't checking her out.
Two other newsies, a younger one with freckles and missing front tooth and another with deep brown skin and shining hazel eyes, also paid her the same respect. She looked over at Race and Dave next to her to see if they had noticed, but they weren't looking. Kit was confused why they treated her like that, but shook it off.
Race led them a few blocks away. He was uncharacteristically quiet, and Kit chalked up his mood to losing the bet or indignation that David was right. Race gave them the go ahead that they could start selling.
Kit quickly learned that the Brooklyn crowd and vibe was much different than Manhattan. The people passing them by were the no nonsense type of folks that didn't seem to care about the headlines she was hawking. They were mostly blue collar and trade workers who didn't have the money or time to spare. David was also struggling since so much his method included starting a dialogue, and no one seemed interested. Race, though, seemed to know just the right things to say to get people interested.
Kit found herself having to use different tactics than she was used to. She noticed that sport updates, especially baseball, would pique their interests. She rarely read the sports sections in full, but today there were more reports on brawls on the baseball diamond than actual sport related news. David, too, seemed to adjust and find good one liners to reel customers in.
