Dancing Through Life

6 - Birthday?

July 1893 Manhattan

"Happy birthday Elms" Crispy whispered in Elmer's ear one sunny morning.

The whole lodging house was still asleep, but Crispy wanted to be the first one to wish her best friend a happy birthday. Elmer's eyes slowly opened and he saw Crispy right in front of him. Jumping out of bed the two walked down the creaky hallway as quietly as possible. Once outside Crispy screamed and jumped on Elmer

"YOU'RE FINALLY 9!!! THAT'S SO EXCITING!!!!" She exclaimed

"Ahhhh I know!" He screamed back.

"I GOT YOU A PRESENT!"

"YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO!"

"YEAH BUT I DID ANYWAYS"

Suddenly Flex poked his head out his window "OI! SHUT UP! ITS ONLY 6am!" Crispy and Elmer laughed and silently went back inside.

In the main room, where the torn up chairs were, on the ground was a box. It wasn't small but it wasn't big. Crispy motioned for him to get it

"So I know how much you love music, so I got you this"

Elmer open the box and in it he saw a blue painted ukulele, four extra strings, and two picks. His face was priceless. His jaw was on the ground and his eyes were welling with tears. Despite the fact that these had been invented nearly twenty years ago, the pricing was still insanely high.

"Crisp. I can't take this!" Elmer said putting it back in its case.

Crispy's face fell. "What do you mean?"

"You can't give this to me. Do you know how much these things cost?! That is almost worth a meal a day for two months!! How did you get this?! You have to sell it. Or take it back and beg a refund. I- I, I can't" he ranted

Crispy placed a hand in his arm "You can take it and you will. I wasn't the only one who paid for it anyways" Flex, Tick, Ghost, Race, Spot, Jack and Crutchie all popped into the room. "We all scraped together enough money. Keep it. Please" she replied

Elmer gabbed her in a hug and the two stayed like that for a couple seconds before Ghost came over and joined. Soon the whole group was hugging together. Flex was the first to pull away and he told the newsies to go get ready for a days work.

༄ ✯ ⁂ ༄

"Race!" Spot called over to the blond haired boy while they were selling "tell me I'm seeing things"

Race followed Spots eyes to a small alley across the street. A small boy with red hair sat against the wall, dressed in a dirty, ripped T-shirt and a battered pair of trousers, no shoes, no hat, no suspenders, nothing else.

"Let's go talk to him" Race suggested and Spot agreed. The boys walked over to the other boy and kneeled in front of him

"Hey little mate. What's your name?" Race asked

"Albert. DaSilva" he responded, eyes wide and shining

"Do you got any folks?" Albert shook his head

"Ha, neither do we" Spot gave a sarcastic laugh

"Wanna be newsies with us?" Race asked. Albert's head perked up and he nodded excitedly

"Yeah! Can my friend be one too? He got no folks either"

Race and Spot both liked the idea and Albert walked to the end and opened up a box, revealing a brown haired, brown eyed boy. The boy popped out of the box and walk over to where Race and Spot stood.