Queens of New York

Chapter 5

Ringer was lounging on one of the couches in the lodging house. She was sitting opposite of North, who was knitting a hat. Ringer had taken it upon herself to make paper airplanes from newspapers, since she had nothing better to do. The headline was terrible and so she called it a day after selling around twenty papes. Most of he other girls had the same idea, because they weren't stupid enough to try and sell something that no one wanted. Sometimes you just couldn't improve the headlines enough.

Ringer was occasionally distracted from folding the paper by throbbing pain in her left eye. Yesterday after the events of the theater, she had joined a quick round of street fighting to get rid of the nervous energy she had. It was normal for there to be friendly banter between the newsies, but Jack Kelly was seriously pissed. She could see where he was coming from, but in her opinion, he needed to lay off a bit. Sure, the Delancey's weren't the nicest to the boys, but they were respectful to the girls. Not everything revolved around him.

Ringer liked organized street fights because there were no hard feelings at the end of the day. As long as you fought fair you didn't have a reason to need to watch your back all the time. Clean fighting for those who wanted a little thrill. Or a cool down. In Ringer's case it was the latter, but she had been distracted thinking about what transpired at the theater, and somehow managed to let her opponent hit her straight in the socket.

"You sure you don't want ice? It'll make you feel better," Hatter called from across the room, playing a round of cards with Sunny.

"I'll be fine," she responded, letting another paper plane sail across the room. She watched it as someone rounded the corner and got smacked in the face with it. Ringer busted out laughing, but soon stopped abruptly. It was a newsie, but not one of their's. And it was a boy.

"Which one of yous is Genie?" the boy asked, arms crossed over his chest. The relaxed atmosphere in the room changed drastically as everyone noticed him to one full of nervousness. He was a pretty big guy, and that probably made the girls even more uneasy.

"Hey," Sunny said, standing up from her seat at the table. "I know you. You're from Brooklyn. Name's Birdie, isn't it?"

The boy nodded curtly. "Nice ta see ya again, Sunny. You ever plannin on coming back to sell in Brooklyn?"

Before their conversation continued, Genie appeared from another room, looking concerned. "What's he here for?"

"Spot Conlon wants ta talk t'ya," he replied gruffly. Seeing the look of confusion spread across Genie's face, he added, "Dunno why. I'm just the messenger. He expects ya soon." And with that, he was already fleeing down the stairs. Ringer realized that he was probably just as comfortable being in a room full of girls as they girls were with him being there. Guess those Brooklyn boys weren't all as tough as they make out to be.

"Okay, who picked a fight with Brooklyn?" Sunny asked accusingly in her mom voice, eyes sweeping the crowd.

"Don't worry about it, Suns. No one got involved with anyone over there. I'm a friend of Spot's." Genie said, getting ready to leave. "Rings, you wanna tag along? I can't seduce my way out of every fight."

Ringer had been watching the exchange silently, feeling her stomach turn uneasily. For her, Brooklyn was never good news. When she was asked to come, she blanched, but she knew she just couldn't say no; people would wonder why, and if there was one thing she hated, it was people trying to pry into her backstory.

"Uh, yeah. Better bring Kitty along too. Just because, um, we might need extra protection." Kitty could hold her own in a fight. And let's face it, if it came to a fight, Ringer wasn't sure if she would be able to protect her friends.