The Queen of the Bronx

Chapter 1

    I wake up to the sound of the early birds chirping, time to start selling today's paper. I'm Cricket, I'm the only girl newsie that I know of, I'm also the leader of the Bronx newsies. "Tom, Bullseye, Sunny, Pip, Rocky get up, there's papes to sell." I yell to my fellow newsies. "Skip, Cheat, Scooter, Chip, come on get a move on." They all groan and get up to start getting ready for the day.
   
   I go into my dressing room, well it's more of a closet, and start getting dressed. Since I'm the only girl I change in that little closet so I have at least some privacy. All of our bunks are still in the same room, and other then that I am treated like all the other newsies. It wasn't always like that though, I worked my ass off for the respect of my fellow newsies. I've been selling papes since I was 9, I'm 16, almost 17 now.
   
    I've had a hell of a time with being the only girl newsie. When I first started I was looked down upon, they thought there was no way I'd be any good at selling papers since I was a girl. So I showed them I could be. I sold as much papes as I  could, and when I was picked on I stood up for myself. I wasn't afraid to get into fights, I stood my ground. I'd soak anyone who made fun of me for being a girl newsie. Eventually the Bronx newsies respected me. I was tough, I sold papers left and right, and I helped anyone who needed it. I worked my way up and when the leader of the Bronx newsies recruited me as their second, the respect the other newsies had for me only grew. His name was Ace, he was like a big brother to me. I was his second for 2 years, then he got really sick and passed away. We were devastated. I didn't even believe I could fill his shoes, but when all the other newsies turned to me for guidance and comfort I knew I had to take his place and make him proud. I became the queen of the Bronx newsies.
 
    I start getting dressed, I put on my pants and suspenders, then I button up my over shirt. I tie my shoes and put on my newsboy cap. Last but not least I grab my pimp cane, and slid it through one of my belt loops. I carry it as a weapon. I stole it from Mrs. Brown's husband. They were awful people that owned an orphanage were they mistreated all of the kids. I eventually escaped this dreadful place, but not without stealing Mr. Browns pimp cane first. Now I use it if I need to defend myself. "Are you guys ready yet" I say to Skip and Cheat. "Yea Crick, were ready" Cheat says as he puts on his cap.

   We left the Bronx newsboys lodging house and made our way to buy our papes for the day as I see a horrible sight. Spot Conolon, my arch nemesis, on MY turf. "Conolon", "Gibson" we exchange. "Ain't ya a bit far from Brooklyn, whaddya doing on my turf?" I ask. " Well I came to return one of your rats" he says as his goons push forward a young kid. I sigh, "Speckles, again?" The boy looked guilty as he stared at the ground not making eye contact with me. I pulled him behind me. "Yea, again, that's the third time this week. Next time he's over on my turf stealing, I'll soak him. Understood? Control your wild animals Cricket." Spot spat. "Well its not my fault, wild animals are usually attracted to trash." I spat back, venom behind my words. Spot jumped at me, standing only a foot from my face, but I didn't flinch. "What did you just say?" Spot asked. I looked up to him, since he is a little taller then me. I walk closer to him closing the space between us more, leaving only a few inches between our faces. "You heard me, Conolon" I say, arms crossed. "You need to watch your mouth, miss." He says, adding the miss at the end only because he knew it'd piss me off. "Really? Because I don't really think I need too." I say back. We stood glaring at each other  for a few more seconds, then he backed down. "Just keep your animals on your turf or else." He says as him and his goons walk away. I look to Speckles, waiting for an explanation. "I'm sorry Crick, it won't happen again." The smaller boy said to me. "It better not, those boys ain't playin Speck, they'll hoyt ya." I say as I ruffle his hair and give him a hug. "Alright boys, let's go get our papes." I say as we walk to buy our newspapers.

Word Count- 767

Wow, the first chapter is finished. I know its a bit short but they'll get longer as I go. I hope y'all liked it!

Mae<3