Queens of New York

Chapter 6

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Spot threw an arm around Genie as they walked down further along the harbour. Kitty was flushing with jealousy. Ringer was darting her eyes here and there in slight paranoia.

"What's so important that you needed to summon me rather than just send me a letter?" She questioned with a teasing tone in avoice. She didn't know the gravity of the situation. How could she when Jack decided to be a petty little shit and not tell her or the other girls? He stared at the ground for a bit before looking up at his best friend.

"Jack hasn't told you, eh?" Now all three girls fixed their attention on him.
"Told us what exactly?" Kitty asked while Genie and Ringer watched him with raised eyebrows.
"The Newsies are goin' on strike and he wanted Brooklyn to join in. I didn't know if they were serious so I told him no." As Ringer and Kitty's eyes widened at the idea of a strike and were slowly processing this, Genie stuck out her hand immediately and tugged on Spot's ear. Painfully. His hand immediately went to nurse his ear while trying to get out of her death pinch.

"YOU SAID NO? AND A STRIKE?? THIS FUCKING JACK KELLY. WHY I OUGHTA..." Spot produced a piece of hard boiled candy from his pocket and handed it over to her.

"Calm down, Gene. You're scaring the kids." He gestured to the other two girls who were staring at her in disbelief. No one had seen Genie that angry. Well except Spot Conlon, he knew things about Genie that no one else knew. We will get to that later.

She sucked on the candy as he recounted what Jack told him about the strike. It was lime-flavoured candy which was her favourite and she was touched Spot remembered. He told her how Pulitzer had raised prices and the boys started a strike over that. She visibly calmed down at his soothing voice but was still sulking while her mind raced a mile an hour. How could Jack do this? What if the girls were caught in a crossfire of one of their acts of defiance and had no idea what was going on?

"I'm gonna murder that petty bastard." She muttered angrily. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning to Spot.

"Spotty you gotta join them. Despite Jack being an ass for keeping the girls in the dark, I know he's serious about this. They are going to need you more than ever. If that Cowboy will allow it, I'll even rally my girls." She advised him. While she said all this, there was a nagging feeling in her mind that her father might follow Pulitzer's suit and raise his prices for the girls as well. He considered this and looked to her, reading the worries from her face. He was about to ask for some privacy when Kitty interrupted. She was wearing an annoyed expression.

"How do you two know each other?" She was especially directing a mean glare that Genie missed. Spot knew exactly what was going on with Kitty, he had already kept so many secrets for other people, why not one more. Ringer and Kitty watched on as Genie and Spot shared a nostalgic expression.

It was hate at first sight. Well more like she hated him for the first thing that came out of his mouth. Their first meeting took a month after she had been kicked out of Hearst Manor.

Genie was at her first Medda show with the girls. This was their way of fully accepting her as one of Lizzie's girls. So far she was enjoying herself. Medda was simply amazing in every sense of the word. She was a brilliant singer and dancer and when Genie spoke to her for the first time, she viewed Medda as a motherly figure.

On the other side of the theatre sat one Spot Conlon, famous leader of the Brooklyn Newsies. They were both oblivious of each other's presence and were blindsided as to what was going to come next.