The World Will Know (Newsies)

9: In It To Stay

Rebecca hardly slept at all that night, worried for her sister's sake. Katherine had walked her home, and she had kept a straight face, pretended that she was okay while Katherine was around. She had managed to slip an easy lie to her parents when she arrived home without her sister, telling them that Elizabeth was staying the night at Katherine's to learn about journalism. Her parents were a little angered at the prospect of their daughter wanting to pursue a career, but it offered enough of an explanation that would keep her parents from questioning Elizabeth's absence further.

But that night, she laid in her bed, staring up at the ceiling, and she finally let her pain come through when she was alone. Her mind was full of images of what her sister could possibly be going through, and each one brought tears to her green eyes. They were so horrible that she desperately wanted to push the images out of her mind. As she laid there with salty tears rolling down her cheeks, she managed to keep herself from crying loudly, not wanting to bring attention to herself while she wished for the safe return of her sister. At three a.m., she finally cried herself to sleep.

The next morning, she was awoken by a knock on her bedroom door. The voice of her mother accompanied the knock, and her words rang through the large wooden door. "Rebecca, darling, Katherine is here to see you. Are you decent?"

Rebecca sat up in her bed, her dark hair knotted up slightly and her face tear-streaked. She attempted to sound as confident as possible as she replied, "Yes, Mother. Would you send her up, please?"

Within thirty seconds of her mother's quick reply, Katherine Pulitzer came through the door with a grin on her face and a newspaper in hand. "Look at this," she started as she unfolded the newspaper, then immediately noticed the condition her friend was in. "Oh, Becky..."

Rebecca turned away, shaking her head. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. What happened?" she asked her friend, trying to get the conversation away from her.

Katherine frowned and sat down on the bed beside her, then laid the newspaper out on the blankets. She knew Rebecca liked to hide her feelings the best she could, and she would often refuse to talk about them, even if it was blatantly obvious to everyone around her. So, even if she tried to talk to her, she likely wouldn't get any answers. But, maybe she could get some clues through a little game of give and take. "Well, the story made it to print. And here you are with the newsies, on the front page of the paper." She pointed to Rebecca's likeness, blending in perfectly in the group of boys. Elizabeth was there too, but all that really could be seen was her face, so it wasn't as identifiable as a young woman thanks to the image quality. If the twins' parents had stopped them and looked at the paper, they would never have noticed the two girls. Yet, there they were!

Rebecca scanned the photo and her eyes lit up just slightly, a sure sign of her feeling even a tiny bit better. She looked at her friend and commented, "Congratulations. I'm so proud of you, Kath." She leaned back in her bed and reached for a hairbrush that was residing on her bedside table just out of her reach. "I assume you want to go show this to the newsies, right?"

Katherine grabbed the hairbrush and handed it to her friend. "Well, of course I do," she started, "but not without you. You're as much of a part of this as I am, so you should be there too."

Rebecca scoffed, taking the hairbrush from Katherine. With an eye roll, she said, "That's a lie. Eliza and I...well, we're not a part of writing the story, getting the story out there. They probably want to see you and the story you wrote."

"Rebecca Josephine, take some credit and come along, please?" Katherine pleaded as Rebecca brushed her hair. "Please, just get dressed and come with me to the deli. The newsies are bound to be there."

The dark-haired girl thought about this for a moment, then kept brushing her hair. "Grab me a dress and I'll come. I just need to fix my hair," she replied after a minute of silence. Katherine nodded and stood, going to where Rebecca stored her clothes, but she was then stopped by another comment coming from the bed. "No, not from there."