I felt someone roughly shaking me. Barely opening my eyes, I looked up into the withered face of Kloppman. Then I remembered where I was.

"Get up," he said.

Sitting up slowly, I swung my legs over the bunk and gingerly placed my feet onto the cold wooden floor. Looking around, I noticed that there were seven girls counting myself: Twiggy, Monkey, Ribbons, and three others whom I didn't know.

Groggily, I followed them out of the room and down the hall to the washroom. I washed my hair, scrubbed my face with a wet rag, braided my wet hair, and tried to smooth the wrinkles from my work dress.

When I was through, I realized that I was the only one left in the washroom. Upon exiting, a flood of teenage boys ran into the washroom hurriedly. I descended the stairs to stand with the other girls. None of them spoke to me, so I stood alone with my back against the wall.

"Mornin', Hannah."

I looked up to see Snitch standing beside me. "Good morning," I mumbled.

"Hey, whatsa matta?"

"Well, no one will speak to me but you," I said.

"Oh...I's sorry. It's jus' dem, ya know? Fer some reason, it takes 'em a while ta get used ta da new kid. Soon you'll be like fam'ly."

I frowned and shifted my gaze toward the floorboards. "Not at this rate."

The group of us left the lodging house and walked a few blocks away to what I later learned was the distribution center, where we bought our newspapers to sell.

"Seventy papes fer me, and fifty fer my friend, heah," Snitch ordered, casting his coins onto the counter.

An overweight, whiskered, greasy man scooped the coins up. "Seventy, fifty!" he hollered at the two young men working behind him. They shoved two stacks of papers underneath the bar and we picked them up.

"Thank you, Snitch," I told him.

He smiled. "Good luck sellin'."

With that, we went our separate ways. I wandered seven blocks down the street from the distribution center, calling out the headlines.

"Extra, extra! Mayor's Neice Comes For Visit! Read all about it!"

A young boy dressed in a fancy school uniform came up to me, holding a shiny penny.

"Would you like a newspaper?" I asked him.

He nodded happily, his blue eyes shining, and extended his hand with the penny in it. Suddenly, a hand grabbed the boy's arm.

"No, Jim. You're not to be buying papers from the immigrants," a stern man told him.

The boy glanced at me, and then followed his father away. I sat down, discouraged. It had been two hours since I bought my papers, and I had only sold fifteen. How was I ever going to get fifty sold before lunch?

I sighed heavily and closed my eyes. I didn't know that America was like this. I always thought that it was a land of freedom and equality.

"Hey, sorry I didn't talk to ya this mornin'."

I looked up to see Monkey sitting beside me.

"That's all right," I sighed.

"You're not having good luck," she told me.

It was then that I realized she was Irish. "No, I'm not, am I?"

She smiled. I asked her, "Are you an immigrant?"

"Aye," she answered. "From Ireland, when I was young."

"Well, how do you sell so many papers? No one will buy from me."

"Ya have ta be charmin', an' ya have ta know how ta work it just right so that every headline you yell is a seller. Here, watch." She stood up with one of my papers held high.

"Extra, extra! Mayor's neice visits McGann's pub, scandalous details! Read all about it!"

A man immediately bought the paper from Monkey. She handed the penny to me.

"See, the World tries ta have tha most sensational headlines in New York. As ya can tell, they're not doing too well. So, us newsies have ta help 'em along a little. Besides, we pay them so we can sell their papes. There's no use in spending your money on nothing! Ya have ta profit somehow," she explained.

"I see...can I try it your way?"

"Go fer it," she grinned.

I stood, holding a paper in my hand. More confident than I had been before, I yelled, "Extra, extra! President's leg broken in nine places!"

Several people hurriedly bought papers. The actual headline had read, "Leg Of President's Chair Breaks, He Falls". It was a stupid headline in the first place.

"Ah, there ya go. Ya got it, now," Monkey said, smiling. "See, one reason people around here don't take well to immigrants is that too many of us act like scared kittens. We have ta let these people know that we're not helpless, that we can live for ourselves and get an honest job. Lots of us Irish were hired as scabbers in factories where th' workers were striking, but for lower pay. Th' English, too. Now ya see signs all over businesses, 'No Immigrants Need Apply' and such like. No one wants us, but we'll show 'em that we don't need 'em. We can make it fine."

"Well said, Monkey," I grinned.

Within the next hour, I had sold every last pape. Monkey and I met up with Twiggy Townsend and headed to a hot dog stand for lunch. After that, we went back to the distribution center to buy the evening edition to sell.

Later that night, we bought dinner from the same hot dog vendor and headed back to the lodging house.

"Would ya like ta come eat wid me an' Monkey?" Twiggy asked. "Up on the roof."

I nodded. "I'd like to."

The three of us climbed up the fire escape and sat on the roof with our hot dogs.

"This is sort of tradition for me an' Twiggy," Monkey said.

"Oh, that's interesting. I've never eaten my dinner on a roof before," I said, grinning.

"Well, there's a foist time fer everyt'ing," a voice behind me said.

Cheater Molloy, Coaldust McGinty, Ghost Willis, and a boy I didn't recognize stood behind us.

"Hannah, you remember Cheater, Coal, and Ghost, right?" Monkey asked.

I nodded as she pointed out the fourth boy.

"That's Crazy Rogers."

"Heya," he greeted when I said hello. The four boys sat down with us. I noticed that they also had bought dinner from the street vendor.

As Cheater, Ghost, and Crazy talked with Monkey and Twiggy, Coaldust moved over beside me. He had black, wavy hair and peircing, gray eyes with flecks of blue in them; all in all, he was very good looking.

"Hey, Hannah," he said. "I'm Coaldust McGinty. I know Snitch told ya my name but I wanted to say hi meself."

"Hello," I said, not sure what to say next.

He kept the conversation moving right along. "How old are ya?"

"Sixteen. You?"

"Seventeen last week," he grinned. "Ya came from England, den?"

"Yes," I answered. "Horrid place, that."

"Really? I always t'ought England might be nice."

"Maybe to visit, but not for a home. It's too wet and dull."

"I t'ink New Yawk's wet an' dull! Well, maybe I's wrong," he laughed.

We talked together until it was time to go inside. "Kloppman'll lock us out," Twiggy warned.

The seven of us entered the lodging house and separated to go to our bunkrooms. We bid each other good night.

Once back in the girls' room, Twiggy, Monkey, and I talked for a long while. "I think Coal likes ya, Hannah," Monkey grinned.

I laughed, but Twiggy agreed with Monkey. Shrugging it off, I said good night and climbed into my bunk, falling asleep rather quickly.