Just One Of The Guys

[Jace's Thread Moving Account]

At the moment, Benjamin began to wonder how the lodging house boys were always the first to get to the square and first in line for their papers. Maybe it was because they woke up earlier? Or maybe it was because they didn't have a mother yelling after them things they might have forgotten. Benjamin's mother was the worst when it came to that. "Do you have your bag?" "You just saw me, Mother, it's right here!" "What about your money?" "Yes, Mother!" "Did you remember your glasses?" "Because I can cross a darn room without them! Mother I have to go, I'll be late..." "Benjamin! Don't you leave! Take a coat with you!" "It's not even cold outside! I'm going to be late, Mother, goodbye..."

Such was his morning, every morning. It was no wonder that the lodging house boys got there so early. They could go whenever they felt like leaving. Lucky boys, Benjamin thought sullenly. He craned his neck and leaned to one side to see the front of the line at the circulation desk. Racetrack was at the window now, and he could hear an argument breaking out between the wise-cracking newsboy and Weasel. It was difficult to hear, over the chatter of several newsies talking at once in many different conversations. Usually, Benjamin talked and joked around with his friends before the gates opened, and then he stood in line in relative silence. He didn't get noticed too much, really. A lot of them time he felt like all he did was add to the crowd. Well, he could always start talking to some of the lodging house boys. They seemed like swell fellows, and he wouldn't mind a change of pace.

The line moved up as Racetrack finally walked to the edge of the platform with his papers under his arm, looking smug. As Benjamin took a step forward, the person behind him jostled into him, causing a chain reaction. The boy in front of him said loudly, "What's the big idea?" Great. When he gets attention, it's the exact kind of attention he doesn't want. He sent a glare behind him to whoever had bumped into him, and was slightly surprised to see who it was...

[Pick]

Yes, today she needed money. Last night hadn't gone as planned, and she only had enough money to do one profitable thing; Sell papers. So thats what she would do. She had often seen kids of all ages running through the streets, selling papers to people, and getting money for it. It was worth a try she had thought, and had sold papers that day. She had found that it was fairly alright income for whenever you were in a pinch, and decided she would make selling papers with the rowdy kids as her backup.

So here she was, standing in line in her plain, fading yellow dress with the small red flower embroidery trimming the edges, and a lovely bruise on her right cheek. It aught to be a tarnished purple color by now. The dress she had "Borrowed" from a very rich looking house up on Broadway thinking they would never miss it, and the bruise she had acquired the night before.

Allie had learned that breaking and entering, and in her case, "Taking and then leaving", was a tricky bit of business, and if messed up a dangerous one. She hardly ever messed up though, so when she did, the blow to her face was rather shocking. The house had appeared empty, but it was, in fact being broken into (quite unprofessionally) by some street beggar, who seemed as surprised to see her as she was to see him and had reacted harshly.

"Would you move up a'ready?" a voice behind her asked naggingly. She whipped her head around and slapped him in the face with her long muddy brown hair (as he was rather short) by accident. Uh-oh. The boy rubbed his stinging eyes, and then snarled. He was short, but he was also quite brawny and rather thick. He grabbed her by the collar of her dress, and wrenched her backwards, practically throwing her into the person in front of her.

She felt the blow in her back as she made contact with the taller figure, and then flailed her arms out to keep from falling over. The boy turned to her after regaining his balance, and looked quite surprised to see her standing there.

"What's the big idea?" Oh great. By the look on the boys face, he was just as confused and scared that he was now the center of attention as she was. She didn't really like people looking at her, and now - almost everyone was. After scanning the line briefly, she noticed there were no other females to back her up. She was alone.

Allie didn't know who to apologize to first, the bully, or the one she nearly knocked over. So, she just stood there - her eyes wide and her mouth in a strange quirky smile that was meant to mean, "I have no idea how that happened so can we please just go back to normal and forget about the little girl in the yellow dress?"

[Jace's Thread Moving Account]

When Benjamin turned, the commotion behind him was nothing like he'd expected: a girl in a yellow dress with a bruised face, and an angry-looking newsboy who was more than likely disgruntled from being so far back in line. Benjamin was never too thrilled about having to wait for so long before buying his papers, but the boys who lived in the lodging house always got up front. Jack Kelly made sure of it, and Benji didn't complain. He always thought that the lodging house patrons were lacking something that he'd always had, namely a home, so he sort of owed them something. He never expressed this view to their face, but accepted it. The boys with homes who sold papers were never really happy about having to wait, but most of them accepted the order for what it was. Apparently, someone wasn't so obliging this morning.

He trained his eyes on the girl who stood behind him in line. She looked to be slightly embarrassed, understandably, and he could judge she hadn't meant to be a wet blanket by pushing. He could hazard that perhaps it was the angry newsboy who had started it, or even the still-more-disgruntled-looking ones behind him. Whoever it was who had started it, Benji quickly decided he didn't care. Anything to avoid conflict. He hated fighting, especially since the strike. He said to the girl in yellow, "Ah...everything, all right?" It was the nicest thing he could say and still mean, "Did you shove into me, or was it one of the brutes behind you?"

His eyes traveled to the newsboys behind her. Since he was more familiar with them, he was slightly more comfortable, despite their unfriendly expressions. "Impatient, boys?" he said with a slight smile, and then wished he hadn't. Some of the newsboys, especially the Irish ones, didn't take too kindly to him for obvious reasons. Quickly he angled himself away from them to signal that the conversation was ending before it could begin. Hopefully no one would say anything to him. He'd gotten quite a few "Put a lid on it, Jewboy"s and he wasn't looking for any more trouble. He almost wished for Yali to be there, just in case. He wasn't afraid to admit, she was much stronger (in mind and spirit) than he was...

[Pick]

"Ah...everything, all right?"

Good lord, he was talking to her. She had to say something back, but her quick wit was failing her. She hadn't trained herself to answer to nice comments like that. She decided to put it into a sarcastic tense. Think of it as sarcasm, and she can say something back. No. She couldn't do it. He looked to nice.

"Impatient, boys?"

He looked behind her and she followed his gaze, half smiling at the boys behind her. This was going to be a very awkward situation and conversation.

"Push girls often?" Allie asked before she even knew what she was saying. Oh dear - that was definitely the wrong thing to say. But who cares? She went on with it; "I guess that makes sense to beat on someone smaller than you so you can look tough to your friends." she motioned behind the short disgruntled newsboy who was now glaring at her.

She suddenly realized just how quiet it had gotten. No one was speaking, and everyone was looking at her and the boy with the glasses. The short one looked like he was about to explode. Judging from the reddish purple color his face was turning, it would happen in three, two, one...

WHAM! He hit her bruised cheek with chubby knuckles. Allie let out a small whimper as the stinging kicked in, and gritted her teeth. She wasn't going to hit back and give him the satisfaction. Obviously, someone else was though. She didn't know who it was, it wasn't the boy with the glasses, but someone had come forward yelling something about hitting a girl, and socked the boy in the face.

Thats when all hell broke loose.

[Jace's Thread Moving Account]

The girl in yellow didn't respond to Benjamin, but when he addressed the newsies behind her, she turned and seemed to follow suit. "Push girls often? I guess that makes sense to beat on someone smaller than you so you can look tough to your friends." Benjamin mashed his mouth into a thin line, suppressing a smile. She had moxie, she did, and he was glad that if he didn't want to speak out all that much, at least she would. He kept quiet, though. This was more her battle than his, even if he'd been dragged into it. The line moved up again as the boy called Crutchy got his papers, but Benjamin didn't notice. He was turned completely around, and it seemed a good thing, too. The fat newsboy looked about ready to hit something, and as Benji watched, he did. He punched the girl in the face, and Benjamin gasped. He put his hands out, wondering if the girl would fall from the blow and prepared to help her if she did, but she took in stride.

Benji rounded on the fat newsboy. "What's the matter with you?" he exclaimed angrily. More of the line ahead of Benjamin was turned around to see what was happening. Some looked slightly concerned, others looked on excitedly. Not many fights broke out in the distribution line (mostly everywhere else, but not in the distribution line) and they were interested to watch what would unfold. But apparently, someone took Benjamin's feelings on the matter and took it step further: none other than the Manhattan leader himself. Jack Kelly had been standing near the gates with his papers, waiting for his friends to buy before heading out, and had stood by passively as the conflict began, knowing these things had a way of solving themselves. But when Woody, the fat newsie with a one-inch fuse, took a swing at the girl stranger, Jack shoved his papers into a surprised Racetrack's arms, and stalked over. "Ya bum," he thundered. "You don't go around hitting girls!" Jack wasted no time in punching Woody in the face.

Suddenly, chaos.

The lodging house boys ran over, cheering for Jack. Woody's friends (who knew such a boy would have such a following!) jumped to his aid. Benji knew that since they weren't homeless, they weren't exactly too afraid of hitting Jack. He recognized most of the boys that rushed to Woody's aid: they had been among the first scabbers during the strike. The boys in front of Benjamin were split: some of them joined the cheering crowd of lodgers, while others jostled past to join Woody. Benji was thrown around considerably by the shoving masses. He was pushed by the crowd heading toward Woody, and someone clipped him in the jaw (accidentally or not, it hurt). He bit his tongue and cried out, trying to duck out of the crowd, looking around at the same time to see fists flying, voices screaming...

[Pick]

"Ya bum," he thundered. "You don't go around hitting girls!"

Two words. Jack. Incredibly. Gorgeous. Kelly. Ok, so that was four words - but who knew how to count nowadays anyhow? Once that bit of sandy hair disappeared into a mass of fists and yelling and chaos, Allie came back to her senses, and was slammed into the boy with the glasses by another body. Someone aimed a punch in her direction (whether they meant to hit her or not) but misjudged her short stature and got the glasses boy in her stead. Whoops.

She turned around sharply, being slammed yet again into the boy with glasses (front on, I might add.) and looked up sheepishly.

"Sorry about that..." she yelled over the shouts of boys. Her voice was easier to distinguish through all the deep voices, thus her being able to be heard. She felt bad about the whole fight, but that didn't mean she wanted to stay in it. After all, she didn't throw the first punch. Or any punch for that matter. She was a gentle spirit - and as such, she was going to do her best to wiggle her way out of the fight (which consisted of about 100 boys by this point) without harming any of them.

She turned away from the boy with glasses, but then, guiltily turned back. She grabbed his wrist and began to pull him through the masses with her. She felt bad about having pushed him, quite literally, into this fight, and intended to get him out of it.

But then, she spotted Jack. She lost her senses once again, just staring in his direction, and didn't even see the skinny body being hurled by someone else in her direction. She was distracted so easily. It was safe to say she was "Blonde".

[Jace's Thread Moving Account]

Benjamin had almost lost sight of the girl in yellow, and had scarcely started to wonder where she was when someone rammed into him, causing him to stumble. He turned to see her, was hit in the jaw, bit his tongue, swore, was hit again by the girl in yellow from someone else pushing and shoving. He met her eyes to see her sheepish expression, and put on an apologetic one of his own. "Sorry about that..." she said, her voice barely audible over the chaos around them. He only nodded in reply, certain that his soft voice couldn't be heard over the roar of the fight. Afterward, she turned away, and Benjamin was about to turn his attention back to what was happening, but then he felt a slender hand on his wrist, tugging him through the crowd. The girl in yellow was pulling him, apparently intent on having them both get out of here (relatively) unscathed.

She stopped suddenly for no reason Benji could see. She was looking into the depths of the fight, where Jack was quite clearly besting Woody and his cronies, with Racetrack and several other lodgers at his side. A tall boy with a head or bright orange hair vied for a spot closer to the action, and pushed Benjamin roughly out of the way. He stumbled, and rammed into the girl in yellow. Automatically, he secured his arms around her torso to keep her from falling as well as regaining his own balance. When he was secure on his own two feet, he quickly released her, his cheeks turning slightly pink. "Sorry..." he muttered, but he was sure she couldn't hear him.

Suddenly, a cheer rose and gained strength as time went on. Benjamin turned to see Woody on the ground, and Jack standing over him, triumphant. But still, Jack had a look in his eye, and held his arms out to either side of him. In a voice that rang with an unignorable authority, he yelled over the chaos for everyone to stop. Slowly, the fists stinted, bodies became still. The silence that followed was tight as everyone waited for Jack's next word. Jack's look was still savage, as if he was still fighting, but he stood as still as a statue, and Benjamin found himself almost gawking at Jack Kelly's profound authority. Jack scanned the crowd, eyes hard, and ordered, "Keep movin'! Buy your papes. Carry the banner!"

Another cheer, one that was echoed half-heartedly by the boys who were now sorry they had supported Woody. The jostling continued as people argued over where they were in line, but no one dared to pick another fight. Benji sighed and touched his aching jaw. He hoped he wouldn't have a bruise; he'd have some time trying to explain that to his parents. He turned back to the girl in yellow. "Are you--"

"You alright?" a voice cut across his. Benji turned to see Jack addressing the girl in yellow. Obliging for them to have whatever conversation they wanted, he averted his eyes and appeared to take interest in the circulation desk.

[Pick]

Allie was pulled out of her "schoolgirl crush" trance when someone was pushed into her, and grabbed her around the waist - which was fairly indecent. She turned her head to see the glasses boy. She had forgotten about him, and her mission of getting out of the fight. Whoops.

"Sorry..."

He let go of her and she smiled encouragingly. "Its alright, really." she replied, not sure whether he could hear her or not. She turned her attention back to the fight when she heard an uproar much louder then the one already. Jack was standing on...The short boy, and he was triumphant. He had such a regal air about him that made him so ruggedly handsome...

"Keep movin'! Buy your papes. Carry the banner!"

Oh, right, buy papers. Need money. Need to eat today. Allie shook her head and turned away. She looked over to the glasses boy to see how he was taking this sudden end to the fighting, but couldn't find him. She jumped when a voice spoke behind her, and swiveled around.

"Are you--"

Glasses boy was cut off by someone else, someone with a distinctly handsome voice, and face.

"You alright?"

Allie turned slowly and looked at him. He was talking to her. Was this really happening or had she been knocked out in the fight and was dreaming this? She quickly decided that it was a dream, and that she could do whatever she wanted. Since it was a dream, it wouldn't matter if she hugged him, right? So she hugged him. Her head came only just under his chest, but she still hugged him.

Pulling back quickly, and realizing that it felt very much so "Not a dream", she turned away quickly and sought out the comforting face and voice of glasses boy. But he had been swallowed by the crowd. She pushed her way through the people, until she finally found him up at the desk about to buy his papers.

"I'm fine, thank you." she said from behind him.

[Jace's Thread Moving Account]

Benjamin looked on, as the girl in yellow suddenly wrapped her arms tightly around Jack Kelly. A boy here whistled, two more there snickered. Benji bit his lip. He couldn't help but feel a bit of some kind of strange jealousy, not because he felt a particular warmth toward the girl, but because he knew that he'd helped her as much as Jack had. But he learned not to let things bother him. He crushed extremely easily, and was almost always shot down. He wasn't the most attractive fellow selling papers, and he knew it. He'd blamed his glasses for a while, but after seeing how girls seemed even to flock to the two lodging house boys with glasses, he didn't have much to go with.

The crowd was starting to head to the distribution window, where Benji could see Weasel was waiting impatiently. He was jostled into a line again and was pleased to see he was very near the front. "Um...thirty, please..."

Jack, meanwhile, was confused. He didn't know who this girl was, other than she'd just gotten into a scrap, and he'd gotten her out of it. He awkwardly patted her back a bit as she hugged him, stunned into silence. When she pulled away, looking duely embarrassed, and looked around before turning into the crowd, leaving Jack to turn to Racetrack, and the two exchanged shrugs.

"I'm fine, thank you."

Benjamin jumped, startled. His stack of papers slid and nearly fell, he scrambled and stooped to catch them before they fell, and his glasses slid down his nose as his hands were full and his one knee was up, supporting his papers as he tried getting a grip on them and behind him he could hear the Delancey boys laughing and in front of him that dumb-looking boy Swifty was laughing with his buddies and why did nothing ever go his way? He gave a nervous little laugh as he finally straightened his stack of papers and pushed his glasses up with the heel of his thumb. "Good," he said breathlessly, to the girl in yellow. "Good...um...that was something, huh? The fight, I mean..."