"Of course it doesn't." She said sarcastically. 'Why couldn't one thing in her life go right. Everything else has gone wrong.' She thought to her self.
Heather was from a nice family in Maryland, and had the perfect life. Until one day, all that changed... She had gotten home from school to find her parents dead on the floor. Killed by some psychopath who took her 6 year old brother. There was a ransom note and she called the police, but after a couple of months they lost all hope of finding him. In the meantime she had been living with her best friend. Three years later her best friend was found beaten to death in a park across the street. So Heather decided she couldn't take it any more, she had to get out of there. She did some odd jobs and got enough money to support her for a while, and buy a train ticket out of there. She had decided to go to New York, a big city, and find a life there. She had also vowed to not get close to any one, it seemed like everyone she loved died, and not reveal her past.
The second train luckily did go to New York so she bought her ticket and left, never looking back. When she arrived in New York it was a lot different from Maryland. First, she needed a place to stay. Her parents had been well off so she got a large amount of money, plus the money she'd earned, and hoped she could find a little hotel or something to stay in until she found a more permanent house. To her surprise there was a sign on a nice house saying "Room Available" so she knocked on the door.
"Yes, can I help you?" A nice looking old lady said, peering out of her door.
"I saw the sign on your door and wondered if I could stay here." She asked, feeling awkward.
"Oh, sorry miss, I forgot to take that down, it is no longer available."
Just her luck, so she went in to the park and found an empty bench. It was cold and wet.
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
"Hey, goyl, you'se betta get off dat bench before da bulls catch ya." A good looking boy, with a dark complexion, and beautiful brown eyes, said.
"Um, thanks." She got up, brushed off her outfit and left.
The good looking boy caught up to her.
"Hey, I'm Mush. Who are you?"
"Heather, do you know where I could find a job?"
"Well, I'm a Newsie, and you'se could woik wid me if ya wanna." Mush said, hoping the beautiful girl would.
"I work better alone," she lied, remembering her "aloneness" vow, "but I just might become a Newsie. Thanks Mush."
"Well, today I could show you da way things woik, and den tomorrow you'se could woik alone."
"All right."
"How bout I take ya ta breakfast, me treat?"
"No, thanks. I just want to get started."
"Okay." Mush said, a little depressed.
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
"Heya Mush. Who's dis lovely goyl ya got here?" A tall boy, with sandy blond hair and an eye patch asked.
"Heya Blink! Dis is Heather. I'se teachin' her to become a Newsie."
"Nice ta meet ya, hope ta see ya again." Blink said with a smile, Mush glared at him. 'Blink always gets the girls, I saw her first, I should get her.' Mush thought to himself.
"Nice to meet you too." Heather said, looking down at her feet. She was so shy and didn't like meeting new people, but she felt she would meet a lot before the day was over.
And boy was she right. Every Newsie they saw was curious about her. Mush introduced her to at least a dozen boys. He also showed her all his tricks and let her sell a couple. Being as shy as she was selling papers was very hard for her. Especially "improving" the headlines. But she learned quickly, and sold about a fourth of his papers.
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
"Um, we usually go to Tibby's for dinner. Wanna go wid me? Well not wid me, like 'a date' wid me, but like, 'can I walk you dere?' wid me." Mush asked, immediately adding a rosy color to his cheeks.
"No, thank you. I should go home." she lied. 'Yeah right, go look for a home, more like it.' she thought. "Thanks though, for helping me out today."
"It was my pleasha, see ya tomorrow?" Mush wanted to lean down and kiss her, but he restrained himself.
"Maybe." She said, already walking away.
"Wait up!" Mush called after her. "Can I walk ya home?"
"Um, no, I can walk myself, thanks anyway." She felt terrible, she had no place to go, and kept turning Mush down.
"You shoa? Dere is some pretty rotten people round hea, it'd be a lot safa if I walked ya home." Mush said, pleading with her.
"I'm sure." As she walked away she wished she would have told him the truth. But the truth hurt so much.
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
"Heya Mush! Where's Heather?" Jack asked, as Mush walked into Tibby's.
"She said she had ta go home. It feels like somethin' ain't right, Jack. I jist don't know what."
"Hey, did ya walk her home?" Blink asked, joining the conversation.
"No, I offered and she said no. I tried to tell her dere were some bad people and it wasn't safe, but she still said no." Mush said, still disappointed from his conversation with her.
"You shoulda. It ain't safe, a gorgeous goyl like dat, walkin' home alone. Da Delancey's could get her." Blink said, disapproving of Mush's decision to let her go home by herself.
"She told me 'No.', what was I supposed ta do? Force her to let me walk her home?" Mush said, angry with Blink.
"I would have." Blink said, and then turned away.
"Woah, guys, knock it off." Jack said, giving the two boys a glare.
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
Meanwhile...
Heather went in search of somewhere to stay. She walked by the Newsies Lodging House, but she couldn't stay there. She kept walking until she ran into two scary looking boys.
"Hey dere pretty goyl. Whadda you doin' out hea by yerself?" The first one asked, grabbing her arm.
"I tink maybe we outta teach you a lesson fer bein' all by yerself." The second one said, grabbing her other arm.
"Get away from me!" Heather screamed. She tried to push them off, but it was hopeless. She remembered them hitting her. Repeatedly, showing no mercy. Then one of them got a stick and hit her hard, right in the head. And that's all she could remember.
She woke up with a terrible headache. Her lip was swollen and her eyes were too, she could barely open them. When she tried to stand she couldn't. All she could remember while they were hitting her were pictures of her parents, dead in her living room. Her friend, beaten in the alley way. She was just glad she was alive. Then a twinge of pain hit her head so hard she slipped back into unconsciousness.
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
Mush was a little worried that morning when he didn't see Heather anywhere getting her papes. But he was a little late, so maybe she'd gotten them earlier. So, he went out and started selling his papers. He walked by the bench he had found her sleeping on the morning before, then it hit him. She didn't have a place, she'd been sleeping on that park bench because she didn't have a home, how could he have forgotten that. A pain of fear went through him. He had to find her.
He found a Jack, Blink, and Snoddy all sellin' together. He told them about Heather, and they all went in search of her. Nobody expected to find her the way Snoddy had.
He walked down the streets, peering in every alley way. Until he saw a person curled up. he ran to the figure and gaped in horror. She had been beaten severely. She was breathing, though, that was a good sign. He carefully picked her up and took her straight to the hospital, carrying her the whole way in his big, muscular arms.
He ran to find Mush, Blink, and Jack. He found all of them and told them where she was. Then all four boys ran to the hospital.
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
"Doc, is she gonna be all right?" Snoddy asked. The other boys were still in too much shock to speak.
"She has regained consciousness, but I don't want more than two at a time to go see her. She has a lot of bruises, and a couple cuts, but other than that she should be fine. A couple more tests, and we'll keep her overnight. But she should be out of here by tomorrow.
Jack decided it would be best not to let Mush and Blink go in together, they might start fighting and upset her. So he told Snoddy and Mush to go ahead, and he and Blink would wait.
When they walked in the room Mush gasped. "Oh man, are you all right? How do you feel? Are you gonna be okay?"
"Cheez Mush, give em to her one at a time!"
"I'm all right, I guess." She said softly, holding back tears. " I just want to go home." she couldn't fight them any more, the tears spilled out.
Mush sat down and put his arm around her, and she snuggled close to him, forgetting her rule of keeping people out.
Snoddy left, seeing that they needed to be alone. He told Jack and Blink to go back and sell papes, because she couldn't handle any visitors. They did so, Jack practically dragging Blink.
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
When she was done crying she just looked up at Mush with so much hurt in her eyes he wanted to cry. He wanted to know why she was so hurt, and why she wanted to shut the world out, but he didn't know how to ask.
"I'm sorry. I don't usually do that." Heather said, feeling embarrassed.
"Don't apologize. You didn't do anythin'. Tomorrow I can take ya home, do ya want me to?" He figured that if she wanted to tell him now she could, without him being nosy.
"No, I mean yes, well I don't know." She could feel the tears burning behind her eyes. "I don't have a home. My mother and father were murdered, and the scum who did that stole my little brother. Then I lived with my best friend and her family and she was found beaten to death in an alley, and I left. I had to. I have no where to go, no one to go to." She did it, the thing she swore she wouldn't do, she just poured out everything. And then sat there, waiting for Mush's response. He was dumbfounded. He hadn't expected anything like that.
"I'm so sorry. I...wow...are you okay?" He didn't know how to even begin to express his feelings of sorrow. His mother had died, but he was a baby and his father was a jerk so he just left. He had never lost anyone he cared about. But he almost had, it hit him then, he loved her.
She just shook, all over, she wasn't all right, she was scared, and all alone.
"Heather, you can come live at the Lodgin' House. It's a good place. You wouldn't be alone. Everybody there cares for everybody, like a family. I know dey'd like ya dere. I know I would." As he said that she looked up, for the first time since she'd told her story, and just stared into his gorgeous eyes.
"I'd like that."
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
Mush had stayed there with her all night. They talked into the wee hours of the morning, and fell asleep, her head on his chest. He took her to the lodging house and found a spare bed for her. She was still really week, and didn't sell for another five days. And as soon as she went out she sold with Mush. She liked him, and felt safe being around him. And she loved being around all the Newsies. They were like big (and little) brothers, and she knew then that her luck had changed, and she wouldn't loose them.
