The Only Girl Newsie

Soakin'

The rooftop is calm tonight. It's just Jack, Crutchie, and I. But even with the limited amount of people up here it's still amazing.

Jack is leaning the over of the rooftop on the edge. Crutchie is right beside him, but he's leaning on his crutch instead. I'm just behind them, so I can see the view but not get in the way. I rest my back on the chimney.

I let out a stifled laugh. Apparently they hear me because they turn around to see what I thought was so funny. "What is it?" Jack says.

"It's just that. It's freakin July. And the breeze up here is incredible." I say joining with them on the rail.

"The joys of my penthouse." Jack chuckles out while Crutchie joins with him in their boyish laughter.  Its nice to see them laugh instead of worrying over me.

I situate myself back over by the chimney. I bang my head on it. Real freakin' smooth Stray. "Stray!" Jack says turning around rushing towards me. Crutchie follows but he can't be as fast as Jack. Never the less he gets there."Yous okay?" He says pushing my hair behind my ear. "Yeah yeah, I'm good." I say speedy.

The chimney where I banged my head is different now, the top of it came off revealing a wad of papers. Jack sees me looking at it. He steps in between the papers and me. Crutchie and I both look at each other and then Jack. There's something he's hiding from us.   "Jack what were those?" I ask.

"You don't want ta know." He says pleading with for us not to see it. Crutchie steps in front of me so now  he and Jack are face to face. "Jack you're my best friend. What's going on?"

Jack sighs and pulls the papers out of the dusty old chimney. "Dis is something dat I've never wanted any of you ta see. When Ise was in da refuge....Just look." He stutters around his words. He hands me the roll of this surprisingly thick papers.

I open them up for me and Crutchie to see. I gasp and cover my mouth with my hand. "Its da refuge." Jack mumbles as he hurries over the rail and hangs his head down.

Three to a bed. Kids coughing on each other. You can see their bones. The way Jack drew these you can tell that he was emotional about this. He cares for all of us. He warns us to run from Synder. He doesn't want any of us newsies to be in that hell hole.

"Jack...When you told me, I've never imagined-" I start to say but cut off.

"This is why I tell you to run when Synder comes. No one ever deserves that. There's nothin' anyone could do in this damn  city to deserve that." Jack says trying not to punch anything. I fling the papers into Crutchie's chest and he catches them. I rush over to Jack and hug him from behind. He flinches, but opens up and reaches his arm but to comfort me. "Promise me you two will run when ever you see Synder the spider."

"Promise" Me and Crutchie say at the exact same time almost on cue. Cructhie pats me on my shoulder indicating for me to let go of Jack. I step back and move beside both boys. "We're family. We'll look out for one anuder." Crutchie say pulling out one of his classic smiles. It of course makes me smile. Jack takes Crutchie's hat and ruffles his hair, letting out a few laughs. After what just happened those laughs helped tremendously. 

A/N: THIS IS IMPORTANT. I feel like I've lost readers to this story,  just because I didn't update for a while. I just had a lot on my plate and I didn't know where this story was going. But now I have the whole idea in my head.

And I'm really excited, because I have an idea for a sequel to Stray's story. It will be during the actual Newsies storyline. So that means Davey, Les, and Katherine but I have to wait for a sequel introduce them because of what I am doing with this story.

Question: Whose your favorite Newsie? (Maybe next chapter they'll be featured)