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You'se Gotta Be Ambastards

I woke up to Kloppmann shaking me awake.

"Wake up, Thalia, wake up!" he says. 

I turn away from him. The sun was just peeking up over the horizon. "Go away. Wanna...go...back...to..."

"Thalia, wake up." he says in a more firm voice. "I know it's early, but I thought you'd like to get some privacy in the bathroom. The boys are a little...."

I laugh, sitting up. "Yeah, okay. Thanks, Mista Kloppmann."

He smiles back at me and disappeared back into the house. I get up and go to the bathroom.

A half hour later, I'm finished and head downstairs. I hear the boys wake up and scramble around upstairs, their feet pounding the ground. It's surprising that this building was able to hold them for so long. 

Quicksilver whimpered at my side, and I scratched behind her ears. "I know you'se hungry, girl. But we don't got much ta eat. Besides, taday's a special day. Da boys are plannin' on goin' on strike!"

The boys came storming down the stairs, with Blink in the front, looking around for me. When he saw me, his face brightened.

"Is dat da goil ya were yammerin' about last night?" Specs asked Blink, nudging him.

Blink whacked his arm. "Yeah, dat's da goil." he confirmed. "Now, she don't like boys like you'se, tryin' ta......ya know...."

I smirked. "Let me do da explainin' Blink." I told him, stepping forward. "Me name's Thalia, but ya can call me Arrow." I take a deep breath. "Now, dis may sound weird, but I's from da future."

I held my breath, waiting for their reaction. Jack was the first to speak.

"Well, Arrow, welcome ta da 'Hattan Newsies." he said, smiling warmly. Then, his expression turned grave. "Dat wolf ain't gonna...uh...eat us or anythin', right?"

I laughed. "Course not! She hates human meat. I made sure of that when I trained her."

The newsies laughed with me, until Mr. Kloppmann came in.

"Alright, alright. Move along. You can do introductions later. Papers won't sell themselves." he called out, shooing the newsies out of the Lodging House.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An uproar went up when we reached the distribution center. The newsies at the front of the crowd relayed the information to the newsies behind them and so on, until the news made its way to the back.

I pushed my way to the front, and I saw that Blink was already up there. How did he get there so fast?

"They jacked up the price! Ya hear dat Jack? Arrow? Ten cents a hundred!" he yelled. "Ya know, it's hard enough dat we gotta eat what we don't sell, now dey jack up da price! Can ya believe dat?"

Skittery added his bit. "This'll bust me, I'm barely making a living right now!"

"I'll be back sleeping on the streets!" Boots included.

"It don't make sense." Mush said, shaking his head. "I mean, all da money Pulitzer's makin', why would he gouge us?"

"Because he's a tightwad, dat's why!" Race answered him. 

"Pipe down, it's just a gag." Jack ordered us. He went up to the distribution desk. "So, why da jack up, Weasel?"

"Why not?" Weasel replied. "It's a nice day. Why don'tcha ask Mr. Pulitzer?"