The following day dawned bright and clear, with the scent of spring in the air. Chloe crept out of the abandoned building where she and Amelia had been living recently and stretched. She had barely slept at all, lying huddled against the wall, listening to the sounds of the rats rustling in the darkness. Now, in the light of morning, she felt completely ridiculous about the night before. Chloe Cavanaugh was no coward; she was just used to having her sister take care of everything for her. All right, maybe she was a bit of a coward, she admitted to herself as she made her way back towards the Lodging House. Only a bit, and a girl alone on the streets had to be at least cautious. Ok maybe not *that* cautious, but better safe than sorry, as her mother used to say.

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She made her way through lower Manhattan to the New York World Distribution Center. She had decided she was just going to march right up to one of the newsies there and ask for Cowboy. Easy as pie, right?

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Wrong.

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The sight of so many noisy, boisterous people scared the nerve right out of Chloe as she peered around the edge of the gates into the Center. There was so many of them, and from their words last night, less than friendly-minded towards her sister. This so-called Cowboy would probably laugh in her face if she asked him for help. Chloe slouched against the gates and watched the group begin to trickle out. Every age from five to twenty, girls and boys, all had piles of newspapers grasped in grimy hands. There was a great deal of laughter and shouting, spirits were plainly high that morning. Just as she was feeling completely morose and helpless, Chloe caught sight of something that seemed promising: a tall handsome boy who wore a red bandanna around his neck and a black Stetson hat resting on his back. If that wasn't Cowboy, she'd eat her own hat.

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The group began to break up as everyone went off to their own selling spots. Chloe followed the boy with the bandanna at a safe distance, waiting to catch him alone. He was with three other people, another boy his own age, a child of about ten, and a small, slim girl in boy's clothing. Catching him alone was going to be harder than she had reckoned.

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Finally, the other three went off to sell elsewhere, and the tall boy stopped on a corner to open and look inside one of the newspapers he carried. Taking her opportunity, Chloe slipped out of the shadows and approached him.

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"You Cowboy?" she asked. She was right in front of him before he even noticed she was there, and he jumped at the sound of her voice.

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"Yeah, what's it to ya?" he looked her over curiously, but his question was friendly, not belligerent.

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"Me sistuh said to find you," Chloe replied.

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"Who's ya sistuh?" he asked, pausing to effortlessly sell a paper to a passing businessman.

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"Flip Cavanaugh," she answered, poised for flight if he so much as batted a hostile eyelash.

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Cowboy looked at her calmly. "Flip's ya sistuh, huh? She in jail?"

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"Yeah, three months at da State Home, she said you'd help get 'er out."

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"Did she?" Cowboy grinned. He seemed quite amused. "Why'd she say dat?"

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"She said you owes 'er one," Chloe replied, and the boy shrugged.

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"Yeah, I guess I do. What's yer name kid?" he asked, again selling another paper without turning his attention away from their conversation.

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"Chloe," she said, and his eyebrows shot up.

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"No kiddin'," he whistled softly, taking a better look at her face. "Youse a goil."

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"'A course I's a goil, whatdja expect?" Chloe muttered.

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Cowboy shrugged again. "All right, ya know here da Lodging house is?" he asked. Chloe nodded. "Come dere tonight, and we'll get ya sistuh out of da State Home, ok?"

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Chloe nodded, relief making her knees weak.

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"All right."

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* * * * *

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"Do you really think this is a good idea, Jack?" one of the other newsies, a dark-haired boy named David, was saying in a quiet voice as they made their way to the State Home for Girls late that night. Chloe had shown up at the Lodging House an hour earlier, scaring the socks off of one newsboy named Skittery when she'd popped up unexpectedly beside the front door as he was heading inside. Jack had recruited several more of the boys and they had all set off for the jailbreak.

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"I mean, you just got out of trouble with the police, if you get back in�." the boy named David was going on, and Chloe's hand itched to smack him.

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"Don't worry about it, Dave," Cowboy, whose real name, Chloe discovered, was Jack, replied, shifting the rope he was carrying over one arm. "Dis is da easiest t'ing you ever did, trust me."

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"That's what I'm afraid of," David sighed as they hid in the shadows against the huge old building. Chloe flattened herself along the wall and glanced around. There were six of them altogether: herself, Jack, David, two other newsboys named Mush and Blink, and a newsgirl, Sunshine, whose presence didn't seem necessary, but she had insisted on joining them anyway.

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"'Sides, I owe Flip dis much," Jack muttered as they waited for a chance to slip inside the gates. Chloe glanced at him, curious despite the terror that gripped her.

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"What'd she do for ya?" the one called Blink asked. He had blonde hair and a patch over one eye that was probably the source of his name. Jack shrugged.

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"Long story, I'll tell ya about it sometime," he said, then the gates swung open to let out a carriage, obviously one of the guards returning home from duty. "Now!" Jack hissed into the darkness, and the group slipped quickly through the open gate and onto the grounds.

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Several minutes later, they were on the roof.

"Is this gonna work?" David asked as Jack tied a rope around his midsection.

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"A' course it's gonna woik, done it a million times," came the reply. Chloe, kneeling by the roof's edge, heard her sister's own cocksure attitude in his voice and almost smiled. The plan was this: apparently the bars on the Home's windows were quite easily removed from the outside, so two of the boys, Jack and Blink, would be lowered by two separate ropes over the edge of the roof to the window. Jack would remove the bars, using Blink to hold whatever he couldn't while he worked until he got the window open so that Amelia could climb out. Another rope would help her climb to the roof.

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"I still think this is a bad idea," David muttered as they got to work lowering the two boys over the edge. Neither of them weighed too much, so the task wasn't as difficult as expected, also the ropes were tied securely to chimneys so even if someone lost their grip they wouldn't fall.

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"Would you shut up?" Sunshine hissed, smacking David lightly on the back of his head. "This is gonna woik."

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It seemed like a long time before the bars were off, and below them, Jack knocked lightly on glass. There was the scratch of a window opening, and a female voice said "Heyah Cowboy, you here for Flip?"

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"You bet," Jack answered. "She around?"

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"Course, she knew you was comin' for 'er."

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"Well, it's about bloody time, Cowboy, whadja do, stop for a nap on da way?"

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Chloe felt faint with relief. Her sister's voice was filled with its usual arrogance and not a bit of humility.

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"Stop yer bawlin' and get out here, Flip," Jack replied. More scratching noises, and a short, agonizing while later, Amelia's red/blonde head appeared over the edge of the roof. Chloe rushed to her and helped her over the ledge.

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"Heyah, kid," Amelia smiled and hugged her sister as she got to her feet. "Good goin'."

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Blink and Jack both made it back to the roof and the group slipped quietly away into the night.

"Hey, t'anks a lot, Cowboy," Amelia stopped at Horace Greeley Square and nodded in the opposite direction of where the newsies were going. "We gots ta go dat way."

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"Yeah, thank you very much," Chloe added in a soft voice. Jack frowned slightly.

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"Why don't you two come on back to da Lodging House wit' us?" he suggested. Amelia's eyebrows shot up.

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"And do what?" she demanded. "Sell papes wit'chu?"

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"Why not? It's a good idea," he replied and Amelia began to laugh.

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"No, t'anks, Cowboy, I ain't no good at hawkin' headlines," she said.

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"How do you know? You ain't never tried it," the girl, Sunshine, muttered. Amelia's smile faded.

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"So what? I'm good at what I does."

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"Can't be that good, you got arrested, didn't you?" David commented, and Chloe had to grab her sister's hand to keep her from hitting him.

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"But if you sell papes, you don't gotta steal no more," Mush pointed out.

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"Yeah, den ya wouldn't have ta worry 'bout endin' up in jail again," Blink put in. Amelia rolled her eyes.

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"Oh, gimme a break," she sighed.

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"You oughtta t'ink about ya sistuh," Jack added. "What if she went ta jail? She wouldn't be able to handle jail." Chloe bristled in indignation at this, although deep down she knew he was right.

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"Oh, look, Jacky-boy won his liddle strike so now he t'inks he can save da woild," Amelia snorted. "Listen Cowboy, I 'ppreciate what you done for me, but I didn't ask for your approval, I don't need it, and I coytainly don't want it! T'anks for helpin' me, now we's even." She turned away, grabbing Chloe's arm. "Les' go home, Chloe."

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With that, the two of them headed off into the night. Chloe nearly had to run to keep up with hr sister's long, fast strides.

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"Amy, why are you so mad?" she finally asked as they turned into the alley that hid the entrance to the abandoned building where they made their home.

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"I ain't mad," Amelia snapped as she led the younger girl inside.

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"Yes, you are, you're real mad," Chloe took her hat off and sat down on the dirt floor. "What's so bad about bein' a newsie anyway?"

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Amelia sighed heavily.

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"It means ya lose your freedom, ya gotta be at a coytain place at a coytain time, and ya work ya butt off for only a liddle money. It ain't for me. Besides," she added. "It means ya gotta look at da Delancey Bruddas every single day, and dat's enough to make me not wanna be a newsie. Now go ta sleep."