Prologue

"Come on Sammy, we's almost there," the seven year old boy whispered as he dragged me along behind him, the rain soaking us to the bone.

"Jack wait," I panted. He turned to look at me. "What if they find out, I'm… ya know. A goil?"

"They won't. You're not Samantha Parker anymore ya here me? You're Sam Kelly. My kid brother, and you gots to do everything I says to do alright," He said sternly.

I was only a year younger than him, but there seemed to be a five year age difference. I nodded as we picked up our run again, my ankle throbbing underneath me.

"Jack, I can't run anymore," I whimpered, tears pricking at the corner of my eyes.

"Ya gots to Sam, we're almost there. The lodging house is right there," he said, not looking back. I took a deep breath before continuing the run to the lodging.

As I ran I began seeing spots in my vision and I began to feel numb all over. "Jack," I whispered, before it all went black and I fell into a puddle.

My eyelids flickered open and I saw Jack hovering over me, I was in a bed and blanket covered my body.

"Jack, where am I," I asked in a dazed panic.

"Hey, hey, calm down kid, we's at the lodging house. We's home," he brushed a stray hair back into my cap.

"What happened," I asked.

"You passed out, and you're ankle was all crooked so I carried ya in here. You gots a bad ankle kid, you'll have to watch it when we's out sellin' papes but hey," he leaned in closer to me, "Your ankle not as bad as one of the other boys that's in here. He's got a gimp leg, can't even walk without a crutch."

"Whadaya mean, sellin' papes," I asked.

"We's newsies now kid. We's newsies, and we gots ourselves a family."