Over the Rainbow (Sunshine/Mike)

[Sunshine]

Even though she was twenty years old, Sunshine didn't look like it. She looked more like she was sixteen, and sometimes she acted like it, so messing around with the kids made more sense than hanging around the older newsies. But this particular afternoon saw hot weather, selling papers and an exhausted-and-easily-irritated Sunshine -- instead of the girl who woke up early most mornings with an attitude too cheery for anyone's good. How she managed to be a morning person, her father said, was because of all his hardworking days as a young kid and rising before the sun even did. It traveled in the genes and went to her, his youngest. This often made Sunshine's mother just shake her head in amusement, while the older siblings didn't pay much attention.

Sunshine wore dark-colored pants, starting out her selling shift wearing them long and finishing her shift with the bottoms rolled up to her knees, thanks to the heat. The same occurred with her button up shirt: it started out with long sleeves and ended with them rolled up onto her biceps. She liked white shirts, but she only had two of them, and today she was able to wear one- something she was excited about this morning but ended up, frankly, not giving a damn by the time the day was beginning to end. Sunshine sighed loudly and plopped on the grass in the park, groaning and leaning back, propping herself up with her hands. Her brown, knit newsboy hat pulled onto her messy hair, keeping it off the back of her neck, with bright blonde strands hanging out and wisping around by the barely there wind.

Her stack of remaining papers, about ten, lay at her feet. She hadn't sold all of them- again. She always bought about forty, and tried her hardest to sell them all, but she wasn't the best newsie in the world. But that didn't get her down too badly, because she always got up the next day to try again. Sunshine said nothing, having no one there to talk to, so instead she closed her eyes and sat quiet for a moment- trying to maybe imagine this heat away. No, it wasn't working... maybe wish away the pain in her feet and legs and throat? No, that didn't work either, though sitting her bum down on the ground like this was helping. Rolling the sleeves up on her shirt and rolling her pant legs up was helping, too. Food would be nice, but... all newsies knew how that one went.

[Mike D. Greaser]

This is awful! Mike thought. This is so bloody awful! The sun was barring down with no mercy. Merciless sun! Glaring at it, Mike cursed loudly. Bloody sun. So, a bad mood plus a very hot son does not equal a happy Mike. Today was not his day. Mike seemed to be having a bunch of those lately.

His day had gone from bad to worse in a matter of hours. First, he'd woken up in a cold sweat. Lately, Mike had found himself missing his parents a lot lately. That made him have nightmares. It was so unlike Mike to dream, but to have nightmares? It was freaking him out, to say the least. But after that, things got worse. He'd broken two glasses making breakfast, leaving him with nothing to drink from. When he left his house in a huff, he found yet another eviction notice. At first, he didn't look twice. But this one was different. It was more threatening and Mike knew his landlord meant business. He had one week. One week to find the money for two months. He had a job, but his job was slowly falling through. He was stressed, very stressed.

So here he was, huffing and puffing, cursing at the sun and at life in general. He felt like shaking a fist at the sun. He found himself doing that. People stared at the strange man cursing the sun. But Mike continued to walk, head toward the heavens, anger clearly displayed on his face. Suddenly, Mike fell face first on the soft grass. He groaned and pushed himself up so he was on his hands and knees. Looking around madly, Mike searched for the cause of his fall. There! There was a girl sitting leisurely on the ground, as if nothing had happened. Mike growled. "What is wrong with you?!" He yelled.

[Sunshine]

Her eyes closed, Sunshine sat in, well... the sunshine. Her nickname was not running equal with its meaning at this particular moment- she was not sunny right now, nor was she full of sunshine, or loving it, or exuding its joy or brightness. The only thing it was equal to at this point was her hair- that bright blonde, fair hair. She let out a heavy, loud sigh, not noticing Mike heading right in her direction. The sun beat down and seemed to bore down onto her eyelids, her face, all exposed skin; she could feel unexposed areas turn into an oven instantly. Sunshine needed some shade, fast, or else she was going to pass out on this grass in the park and get trampled and found dead two days later and --

"Oh!" She yelled loudly from down in her stomach, suddenly rammed into by a much bigger, stronger, faster body- a body on a mission. Her eyes flew open as her jaw dropped in angry surprise, looking around for the guilty party before her eyes landed on Mike. "What is wrong with you?!" He growled, while Sunshine scoffed and reached over to smack him on the arm. "Me?! What in the hell are you tryin' to do?! Kill me?!" Pain throbbed from her right leg, presumably from when Mike's foot came in contact with her knee just before he tripped and fell? Is that what --?

"I can't believe you! Don't you have a pair of eyes, you idiot?!" She scrambled up and grabbed one of her papers as she shouted, folding it and using it to whack Mike's back with it, several times- groaning loudly. "Or are you-" Whack. "-just blind-" Whack. "-to cute girls sitting out on the grass-" Whack. "-right in front of you?!" Whack whack. With a final frustrated groan, she slammed the paper on the grass, staring at Mike with furious eyes and a scowl on her mouth- now sitting up on her knees, even though one was a little sore, getting grassblade imprints in her skin and possible grass stains.