3So this is my first-time travel one, hopefully, it's not cliche. Also, I know I posted like today, but I couldn't wait any longer for this one.
September 10, 2019
I woke up the annoying beeping of my alarm clock, I walked over and rubbed my eyes tiredly. After a blurry morning, I was riding the bus to school, I almost accidentally burst out in song while listening to "Defying Gravity" but who can blame me it's a great song. I walked through the WACC hallway then the junior hallway before climbing the stairs to the freshman hallway. I walked down the hall to see Ivy calling my name, I waved hello and walked to my locker. I carefully nudged Mychala's backpack away from my locker, she hurriedly grabbed it
"Sorry, Cecilia."
"It's ok." I opened up my locker and set down my backpack, I felt a tap on the back of my shoulder I turned around to see Ivy standing behind me,
"Hey, Cecilia."
"Hi."
"Are you ready for our Bio test?"
"Ready as I'll ever be." I unpacked my backpack and grabbed my books. As I was walking over to Ivy's locker I was stopped by, Ben
"Cecilia, did you do your homework?"
"What homework?"
"Your youtube homework."
"Ben, I am not watching any more of the creepy videos."
"Oh come on!"
"No, no, and more no." I walked away,
"I'll see you later Ben!" I made it to Ivy's locker,
"What time is it?" she looked down at her phone,
"7:48"
"We've got time." I leaned up against a locker and listened to the noisy freshman, I heard Liam yelling down the hall
"Eli!" I saw Eli's head peek out from the crowd, Liam ran over and put Eli into a headlock, soon Logan walked up next to me
"Cece, you're blocking my locker."
"Sorry." I scooted out of the way,
"So how was your Yeti race?"
"Awful, but I did better than last time. I could walk afterward."
"Good for you Logan." I looked up at the clock on the wall,
"We better get to class." Ivy nodded and we walked down the stairs and I followed her into the English room,
"Mr. Murphy, can I join your class today. I mean you could have me twice today." he smiled and Philip yelled,
"Cecilia! Why are you in here?"
"I don't know why you ask me that, I come in here every A day." I heard the bell ring,
"Shoot, I gotta go."
"Bye Cecilia!" Ivy yelled. I waved and walked into Theology and sat down.
"Cecilia," I turned around to see Oliver sitting down next to me,
"I need help with Bio."
"What part?" he opened up his laptop and began to ask, but then the second bell rang and Oliver was forced to close his laptop. Class began, after a lengthy lecture from Mr. Sanders, he let us start studying for our Biology test. Soon enough I felt prepared and decided to go to the bathroom. I signed out and grabbed a pass, I walked down the hall slowly in the early morning exhaustion. Suddenly in front of the girl's bathroom, I saw a bright light. I ran over to see a swirling portal, it was silver and white and was so bright it was hard to look at. Against my better judgment I reached out and touched it when I tried to pull my hand away but the portal was sucking me in. I tried to yell for help but my cries were muffled as I was quickly pulled into the portal.
September 10, 1899
I was spat out of the portal roughly to the ground, I blinked my eyes and looked around. I stood up and looked around,
"I don't think I'm in Illinois anymore." I then laughed at my own joke but then got serious. I got out of what I thought was a road and got onto what I thought was a sidewalk. I could hear somebody yelling, they were yelling about events,
"Headlines," I whispered I walked more quickly down the street toward the noise, I saw a boy turning the corner, a boy in a blue shirt. After I couldn't find him I actually looked around, everything looked ancient. It looked like I was in New York, except for a very long time ago. I saw a man walking on the street I stopped him,
"Um, excuse me, sir, what year is it?"
"It's 1899."
"Thank you, sir." I walked away breathing out heavily trying to grasp what had happened, I had traveled back in time to New York 1899. I looked down to see an old paper blowing against my legs, I picked it up it read Newsies are Victorious. So it had to be after the strike had happened, I needed to find the square. Someone, there might know how to get me home. I ran down the streets trying to find the World, but I couldn't find it anywhere. For all I knew I was in Brooklyn by now, I finally spotted someone on the street they turned around so I could see their face,
"Albert?" his fiery red hair stuck out from underneath his cap, he turned to look at me and immediately tried to sell me a paper.
"I'm sorry I don't have any money." he went back to yelling headlines,
"Wait, Albert. Could you direct me towards Newsie Square?"
"Take a left then a right then you'll hit it, hang on how do you know my name?"
"Uh, lucky guess." I quickly lied,
"Thank you!" I ran off in the direction of the square, soon I was actually inside the square. I looked around in awe, this is where I had always dreamed of coming here. I saw someone entering the square, it was the boy in the blue shirt from earlier. I couldn't see his face yet, but I was pretty sure it was Jack.
"Jack?" he looked up over at me,
"Who are you?"
"Um, you don't know me but I'm Cecilia."
"Why are your clothes so weird?" I looked down at my uniform,
"Oh yeah, do you know where I can get new clothes?"
"Follow me," I followed Jack out of the square, honestly I was fangirling a little bit. I was actually walking with Jack Kelly, the strike leader Jack Kelly!
"Hey, Cecilia. How did you know my name?"
"Uh, saw it in an old paper on the street."
"Oh." I continued to follow him down the street until he motioned for me to enter the theater. I realized this was Medda's theater,
"Wow," I whispered,
"I said that the first time I saw Medda's theater too." I looked around to see Jack's set painting, I ran up on the stage.
"Wow Jack, I can't believe you actually painted that!"
"Yeah, it took a long… hang on how did you know I painted that." my stomach flipped,
"Uh, you signed your name in the corner?"
"Oh yeah, forgot I did that. Medda!" I saw Ms. Medda walk around the corner,
"Who's your friend Jack?"
"This is Cecilia." I waved trying to look friendly.
"She needs some... new clothes." I wrapped my arms around myself trying to hide my uniform, embarrassed about how different my clothes looked.
"No problem, I have something. Follow me sweetie pie." I followed Ms. Medda into a back room, she went through a rack of clothes. She handed me a purple plaid shirt and a black striped shirt. Then she handed me a pair of capri pants, a pair of suspenders, a cap, then a pair of work boots. She pushed me into a bathroom with my armful of clothing. I pulled a hair tie out of my pocket and pulled my hair into a sloppy bun at the bottom of my head. I changed clothes, and then walked back out to Jack,
"Much better." I smiled, starting to feel more like I fit in.
"Come on Cecilia, let's go back to the square." I nodded and followed him out of the theater,
"How did you get here."
"Walked."
"Where are you from?"
"Illinois."
"Oh, you're from that newer state."
"Yeah."
"How did you walk all the way here?"
"Got lost." I felt bad for lying to Jack, but I couldn't tell him. Oh yeah, I'm from 2019 which is like 120 years from now. Totally from the future, and that's why I look so weird. I needed to find a way to get back to my time period, and fast I'd have to find a way to tell Jack sooner or later.
"Um, do you want to come to sell with me? I still have some work to do."
"Sure." I followed Jack down the streets to his selling spot.
"Cecilia, do you know how to sell papes?"
"Sorta, but could you show me?" He nodded,
"Ok, so how old are you?"
"Fourteen."
"So how are you at making things up?"
"Good, I think. I mean, I write in my free time so I'm pretty creative."
"Ok." He handed me a paper,
"Sell the pape."
"Pulitzer and Hearst get into a crazy fight! Punches were thrown!" A man walked up and handed me a nickel, I gave him the paper. He walked away,
"Wow, kid you're good." I grinned at him, proud of myself for selling my very first paper. Soon I had helped Jack to sell all of his papers and we were on our way back to the square. I was kinda nervous, I was going to be meeting all the newsies for the first time. I had a feeling it was going to be noisy, as we drew closer I could hear the commotion from a block away.
"Are you ready to come into the square?"
"I have a question, will they be ok since I'm a girl?"
"Of course, there are lots of girl newsies. There are more newsies in Brooklyn, but Blu is here. Granted Blu is from Brooklyn, but that doesn't matter."
"Blu is a real newsie?"
"Of course she is, why wouldn't they be?"
"Uh, no reason." I followed him into the square, where it was overwhelming to see all the familiar faces. Faces I had only seen on my TV screen, but I had to stop letting them know I knew their names, I had to keep them from realizing where I was actually from.
"Alright, so question. Do you want to become a newsie?" without even thinking I nodded, I almost corrected myself and said no but then thought I had no way of knowing how long I would be here I needed a way to support myself. He led me over to the paper wagon and told me to climb up it. I obliged and climbed to the top, I watched as he called a blond haired boy over, he had a cigar sticking out of his mouth.
"Race," I whispered, Jack yelled,
"Everyone this is Cecilia, she will be joining us!"
"Let's give it up for Squirt!" the square erupted in cheers, I could see everyone I actually spotted Blu, with a crutch under her arm cheering next to Davey,
"Woah," I breathed, I was actually a newsie, like a real-life newsie. I climbed back down from the paper wagon, after meeting a whole bunch of people all people I knew but I had to pretend I didn't so they wouldn't realize anything was up. Soon Jack was leading her back to the lodging house, he led me down a hallway where I knew that Blu, and Mute all slept. He led me to the last room,
"Ok, this is where you can stay." he led me to a window where there was a fire escape, I recognized it instantly. It was the penthouse,
"This is the penthouse if ya need anything just come get me." I nodded,
"Well, I'll see ya bright and early in the morning Squirt."
"Goodnight Jack." I walked back to my bedroom and laid down in the hammock, I didn't sleep much that night. I couldn't stop thinking about how I was supposed to break it to Jack that I was from the future. I had to figure it out fast because if I didn't tell them soon they might get really angry at me.