Newsgirl of New York

Chapter 1 [Backstory]

My name is Liliana Barker. I'm 16, 5'3, and live at Hamson's Newsboy Lodge in Trenton, NJ 1899. I also work as the Lodge's laundress. Both a chance of luck and a curse. Imagine having an indent on your nose all summer because of the clip you have to use while working. It's either that, or black out from the stench of sweaty boy shirts, pants, socks, and whatever else I have to wash for these slobs. Don't get me wrong, they are like brothers to me. But sometimes washing their clothes makes me question if it's too late to go back to the Orphanage.

Yes I had to live in an orphanage when I was younger. It was where I first learned to take care of myself. You see the Owner, Miss Agnes, didn't exactly care for the 'orphan' part of an Orphanage. Just the state funding that came with it. And Miss Agnes never really got the concept of 'understaffed.' Which means that the Orphanage basically turned into a Workhouse, staffed by the children that she legally didn't have to pay. The only real workers were the cooks. I guess in her mind she thought child labor = worker. Take a guess what work I was unwillingly tasked with for four years of my life. That's right, a laundress. Yaaaaay meeeee...

Eventually I realized escaping was an option. Give credit to the 14 year old boy that discovered a bathroom window had loose hinges. A month later I gained the courage to follow in his footsteps by crawling under Miss Agnes's carriage during the night. I waited for morning 'till she finally decided to ride to church. Turns out, it's pretty easy to go unnoticed once you're out in the open. I dashed off into a random alley and never looked back. Without realizing it, I became a runaway at 6 years old. I didn't think through the whole food part however. So for a whole year I was a homeless, hungry thief and the reason bakeries locked their doors at night. But I never once thought about going back. I always new that one day I'd go far away from here and make a name for myself somehow. I could endure a few months on the street for that dream.

__________

One freezing November night, a few months after my escape, I was walking down a random street when I heard a woman singing. "Oh cra..." I cursed to myself, as I ran and hid on the side of a building. You see, around here the only women who sang publicly were nuns. Let's just say the nuns new my face very well because of their assistance at the Orphanage. I've nearly been nabbed and dragged back there by the nuns several times.

But as I reared my head around the corner I noticed it was a mother kneeling in front of her son. The boy looked no older than 4 and he was silently crying as his mother buttoned his shirt and continued singing. I recognized the song immediately. It was the song 'Soon' (from the movie Thumbelina. If you know, you know. If you don't, then don't judge me for it pls. Just listen to the video at the top.) I silently started to sing along. The mother also started to cry as she finished the song. She told her son something I couldn't understand, hugged him tightly, and instructed him to sit down on the steps of the building before she hurried off in the other direction.

This is when I finally looked at the sign hanging from the pole above me. 'Hamson's Newsboy Lodge.' "Oh no..." I said to myself. It's plain obvious when a parent drops their kid off at a doorstep all alone that they're not going to return. At least that's what happened to me.

I started to tear up. I ran up the fire escape of the Lodge and hopped onto the roof. I was in rage, "How could she! How could a mother abandon her own son on a random doorstep like that!" I whisper-yelled. My mind returned to the song and I sat down on the cold roof floor.

"I know there's someone.
Somewhere, someone.
Who's sure to find me soon."

"After the rain goes,
there are rainbows.
I'll find my rainbow soon."

"Soon it won't be just pretend.
Soon a happy ending.
Love can you hear me.
If you're near me."

"Sing your song.
Sure and strong and
Soon..."

~~~~~~~~~~

I was sharply woken up by a wet rag slapping me in the face. I angrily bald it up and look for the person to aim at. He was casually leaning against the clothing line pole, his arms crossed, and staring with amusement. He looked to be around 12 with a pale complexion, and stood maybe a foot higher than my 4'2 height at the time. He had straight blonde, ear length hair. The boy wore a loose worn-out grey shirt and oversized pants with black boots.

"Don't know if you've noticed. But youse 'ere sleeping on our roof!" The boy said jokingly in a half mocking way.

I scoffed at him and saw that the sun was already rising above the rooftops. "I didn't know sleeping was a crime!" I sneered back.

He just laughed, walking over to me and stretching out his hand. "It's too cold bein' outside this early." He said.

I grabbed his hand and allowed him to pull me up and take me inside the Lodge. Suddenly I remembered, "There was a boy outside on the steps last night."

"I know, we brought 'im inside this mornin.'" He answered casually, leading me down the staircase to a living area on the first floor. My body was thanking me for the sudden warmth and I sat myself down on one of the couches. There were about three moth-eaten couches that sat against the walls. In the center of the room was a lopsided coffee table that appears to have been indented a lot over the years. A lamp hung from the ceiling that lit the whole room and had small cobwebs hanging on it.

"So what's yer name miss?" The boy asked suddenly, sitting on a couch across from me.

"L-Liliana Barker. But call me Lily." I answered shyly. I didn't trust people with my name that easily when I was 7.

"I'm Edmund Fletcher. But Ise called Teddy 'round the others!" Teddy smiled towards me and I couldn't help but smile back.

__________

From that day forward I barely ever left the Lodge. Mr. Hamson was reluctant at letting me stay but gave in when Teddy promised to watch over me. Mr. Hamson really is a big soft ball and probably would have let me stay regardless though. It's really my fault I'm the boy's laundress. I wanted to pull my own weight around here and offer to do the laundry in the basement. How I wish sometimes I could go back a slap myself for that.

Like right now as I loaded two baskets of socks into the soapy tub, in the middle of June, on a steaming hot roof, dreaming of a life in the big city...

••••••••••••
Ahhhhhh!
Omg I was so skeptical about starting my first fanfic. But I decided to finally go for it. What better way to start than with Newsies!

Sorry that we had to start here in the story but exposition is important lol.

My updates will be random but I will try to finish this story to the very end.

I may edit this in the future if I come back to it.

Thanks for reading :)