A Girl Newsie

The Cold Shoulder

"Up an' at 'em Feisty, them papes ain't gonna sell themselves!" Jack yelled at the door before going back to wake up the others. It was weird hearing Jack's voice instead of Wolf's, but then again everything was messed up, but she was too tired to care.

She grumbled and then rolled out of bed; as usual, she pulled on her suspenders, buttoned up her shirt, grabbed her vest, put on and laced up her boots, then quickly did her signature braids and tucked it under her cap.

After she was done she headed out of her room, and as usual the mayhem never stopped, which is one of the things she loved most about early mornings at the Lodge. Sure, it was the same old same old, but that's what she loved about her boys.

It was the same thing every morning, but it was done in a different way. She stood in the doorway of her room, which was just an old storage closet that Kloppman made into a room when she was ten since she was a growing girl in a place full of boys and needed her space.

"Heya Feisty," a familiar voice said. She turned around, crossed her arms and walked off to the sink to wash her face.

"The cold shoulder," Buttons said as he walking past Mush.

"Harsh," Sniper added.

"Good luck kid, yer gonna need it." Romeo finished. As if having his best friend giving him the cold shoulder, then the youngest boy in the Lodge called him 'kid', Mush didn't know what else could go wrong....until Jack came up from behind, grabbed him by the collar and started asking questions. "What took ya so long ta get back. Ya had us all worried sick." Jack narrowed his eyes at Mush

"Out on a date, not laying in the gutter dead." Mush pulled away from Jack's grip. He saw that everyone in the bunk room was staring, but he didn't care. Instead he went up to Feister, who just turned her back and walked away. Mush knew he messed up, and big time; when Feister got red hot steaming mad there was no way she was going to forgive and forget that easily.

Since Feister is, well...feisty, and a hot head and short tempered, the boys made up a scale on how angry she was so whenever she did get angry they would know how to deal with it. The scale went from bubbling water, bond fire, over 100 degrees and erupting volcano. And at the moment she was somewhere in between bubbling water and bond fire.

Which wasn't too bad....yet. After getting ready for the morning the newsies headed off to the Distribution Center. They stopped by the cart where the Nuns were giving away free bread and coffee before heading over to the Distribution center.

The whole walk there the boys could feel the tension between Mush and Feister. Usually this would never happen. Ok, so the first time Mush and Feister met was a little well...let's just say things were said, and the next morning they were best friends. They were pretty much a package deal, or like two peas in a pod. You never saw one without the other, and now? Now it was just weird and just wrong.

After getting to the gate the headline was put up; which was bad, as per usual. The gate was unlocked and as usual they all lined up to get the papers. Some jokes were cracked at Weasel, who wasn't impressed, but found it annoying if anything.

The newsies loved picking on Mr. Wiesel, or Weasel as they call him because Weasel cheats them out of their money, or doesn't give them all the papers they bought.

There were also his nephews, Oscar and Morris Delancey. Bullies who like to pick on the newsies. Usually the Delanceys would pick on the youngers or the smaller ones, but they mostly went after Crutchie, Feister, and Romeo. With Crutchie being a gimp, Feister being a girl, and Romeo being the youngest it made sense in their sick twisted minds.

"Feisty..." Mush tapped her on the shoulder. Feister turned around, crossed her arms and looked him dead in the eyes."Whaddya want Mush brains?!" she snapped.