The Distribution Center -- Crates

[Administrator]

Take a seat and see if there are any good headlines!

[Mitzi]

((NEW DAY: For Jewel/Whomever))

As Mitzi wandered along on a Saturday afternoon she found herself curiously wandering into Manhattan. It wasn't like her to go so far from home, however, since she had managed to survive life for the most part so far, her parents were giving her a little more leeway on where she goes. As if they had a choice. Now that she was feeling more comfortable with what she was doing, she was bound to go out and explore other parts of the city. This was how she happened upon the crates at the Manhattan distribution center. She examined them very closely mostly looking at the grain of the wood. Then with a small smile she reached towards the waist of her skirt, and produced two crudely made drum sticks. She tapped one crate with one stick getting sort of a hollow sound out of it. She would tape another crate and get a different sound. And another and another. She moved the crates around her into a sort of circle of all varying sizes, levels of fullness, and thicknesses of wood. Then slowly started creating a rhythm.

With an African back beat and an Irish tempo the girl slowly closed her eyes and began to sway to her own make-shift music. She loved this sort of thing. Most people thought it was just noise, but she thought it was pretty. And she had enough skill to really make it sound as though she weren't just beating upon things for something to do, it sounded as though the sounds and such were all planned.

Usually a stunt like this would get a girl in trouble, but on a Saturday afternoon when no one was home, she was quite contented to make all the noise and music that she'd like so long as she didn't disturb the neighbor hood, which she was beginning to do. But she didn't notice, nor did she care. She smiled broadly with her eyes open once again as she kept the steady tempo as though she had a built in metronome and even started adding in some of her father's african chants into the beats creating all sorts of loud noises now! She hadn't had a drum set this good in a long while.

[jewelkent]

Jewel decided that it would be a good idea to travel to Manhattan...she was eager to be back there. She liked it there a little better right now. It made her feel safe.

She had no idea what to do lately. Jacob was never coming back, Lydia was possibly dead by now...if she wasn't somewhere in New York.

Jewel hated her life at the moment *Was there anything that could improve this day?* she thought to herself.

Just then, as she walked on the path leading to the Distribution center, she heard some music coming from that direction. It was beautiful, and very different from what she was used to.

She noticed a young red-headed girl sitting in a circle of crates, and she was drumming out a very lovely sounding beat. Curious to see what was going on. She approached the girl closer.

"Wow, that's beautiful." Jewel sighed.

[Mitzi]

Mitzi was a very unobservant girl. She hadn't noticed that anyone had come up to her drum circle, she hadn't noticed that she was being watched. She didn't notice anything until Jewel said something and then suddenly Mitzi hit a crate that was near Jewel very loudly with both sticks and then pointed them directly at Jewel as though the sticks would attack her.

Mitzi's eyes were a little wide upon meeting someone new yet again. After so long of only meeting kids she had gone to school with getting to know a whole new group of people wasn't her favorite experience. She was a delight once you got to know her in the mean time she was a little harsh and a little stand-offish. Only out of a protective nature, but she didn't want to scare the girl off so slowly she cocked her head slightly to one side and brought her sticks back down. However, the sticks themselves were like weapons in her hands with the way she could wield them. She could easily do some damage with just some drum sticks, but she found that a little silly and after all, that was not what they were for. She was not going to misuse her instrument.

She blinked a few times in quite rapid succession as she just stared at Jewel. The young girl was her height and even had her same hair color. How interesting to her. "Hello," she said as she stood straight upright in the middle of her drum circle, the only crooked part of her being her head still off to one side staring at the girl. And even when she said hello, the H in the word was very pronounced. "Who are you?" she asked speaking each word clearly and practically over emphasizing the consonants a touch. She was nervous and a little scared to be meeting someone else new, so she was in a bit of a fight of flight mode, as she often was meeting new people she was unfamiliar with.

[jewelkent]

Jewel nearly jumped out of her skin when the girl pointed the sticks at her. She had had enough of being attacked, and she hoped that attacking her was not this girl's intention.

"Whoa! Sorry I scared ya there, girl. Just take it easy. I ain't here ta hurt ya." Jewel told the girl.

She noticed that her and this girl had something in common...they were both red-heads. It was something that made Jewel smile a bit. She didn't meet a lot of girls with the same hair color as her. Even some of the other Irish girls in the area were Brunettes or Blondes.

She then noticed the girl lowering the sticks, and exhaled a long sigh of relief. "Hi there." she said to the girl.

Jewel smiled sweetly to the girl. She then held out her hand to the girl "My name is Julianne, but my fellow newsies call me 'Jewel'. I'm just your typical 15 year old Irish girl from Brooklyn. But I work as a newsie in 'da Bronx." she said.

She made sure she had the girl's attention. "So, who are you there, sweetie?" Jewel asked, still smiling.

[Mitzi]

There was a rather confused look on the girl's face as Jewel rattled off facts about herself. Mitzi found it almost too much information to take in at once. Boy this Jewel person was really eager to make friends wasn't she? In one sentence Jewel told her her real name, her nick name, how old she was, what her heritage was, where she was born and where she lived now.

Mitzi was shocked. "You are weird..." she said right off the bat. Mitzi didn't have very good social skills, and she found it extremely odd that the first thing someone was going to do was ramble off a bunch of facts about themselves when all Mitzi had wanted to know was her name. It was overwhelming. Her consonants were still very harsh and rough making sure that her diction was clear as a bell so that Jewel wouldn't be needing her to repeat herself. All the same, Mitzi hadn't meant it as an insult, just a normal statement, or an observation.

Mitzi wasn't sure that she wanted this girl to know who she was right off the bat. She had only just ran into her, and she wasn't sure she trusted her fully yet. Plus Jewel seemed far too eager to share information, something Mitzi found as suspicious. Rather than answering her question about who she was she said, "Sorry... did I bother you with the noise?" Without waiting for an answer Mitzi sort of looked up at the sky and her mind started drifting elsewhere as she looked at all the clouds in sort of an amazed manner. There were so many of them

[jewelkent]

Jewel smiled at the girl. She had been called some pretty odd things by people before. But 'weird'? Even that was anew one for her. No one had ever accused her of being weird before.

Just then, it struck her. She had kinda thrown this girl off a little bit. She had been talking too fast for this girl, and she could just tell that by the confused look the girl was giving her at the moment.

She decided to slow down a bit "Weird, huh? Never been called that before." Jewel told the girl.

Jewel chuckled "Bother me? No, sweetie. The noise was not bothering me at all. Sorry, I kinda threw you off." she said.

"By the way, that beat you were drumming out was beautiful. What is it exactly?" Jewel asked slowly.

Jewel suddenly remembered that she still did not have this girl's name "So, I didn't catch your name, girl. What is it?" she asked.

She then smirked as she noticed the girl looking up. She followed the girl's gaze upwards, and smiled again. "What ya lookin' at up there?" she asked.

[Mitzi]

All these questions! Great goodness! Mitzi's drifting mind could only handle one at a time, so she would only answer the one she heard last, which was 'what ya lookin' at up there?' And the answer was quite simple. "Bunny." She said in a very pronounced tone as though there were always bunnies in the sky. She then started moving her head from left to right looking at one cloud and then the other, "Bunny, bunny, bunny, bunny, bunny, all bunnies." She said as she smiled a little bit. "The clouds are multiplying like bunnies..." though it was true all the same they were all white like rabbits not all of the clouds were in the shape of bunnies, but that wasn't what Mitzi was thinking about.

The girl had very odd thought processes. Things would occur to her randomly and that would be the only thing she could focus on for a moment, so then she would focus on it very intently. That is until her mind drifted to somewhere else and she was able to focus on that. The pattern continued on and on until something or someone was able to hold her attention on a certain subject long enough to actually get an understandable conversation out of her. She was an odd duck.

"The clouds," she said clear as a bell with impeccable English diction. However, Jewel's presence wasn't much of a threat to her, so the harsh tone that had been in her earlier sentences was fading slightly so she was able to talk almost normal. All the same every consonant was clear as day and words never ran together. "The clouds are multiplying," she explained to Jewel as though it was as obvious as the nose on her face. "Like bunnies. I think it is going to rain soon. Do you?" Her eyes then went back to Jewel and stared at her intently, and they would continue to do so until she got an answer.

[jewelkent]

Jewel wanted to completely die laughing at this point as she heard this girl say she saw Bunnies in the clouds. She looked up with this girl and nodded "Okay...bunnies it is." she said.

"You really like bunnies, don't ya little one?" Jewel asked the girl.

Jewel finally noticed the way this girl spoke. She had an odd way of pronouncing things. It kinda reminded her of the 'educated' way that her and Lydia used to speak when they were children. Perfect pronunciation and all. "You have a very nice way of speaking." she told the girl with a smile.

Just then Jewel bit her lip as the girl as the girl asked her if it was going to rain "Rain? Hmmm...maybe. By the way those big bunnies are making little bunnies, there could be rain at any time today." she said, trying not to laugh at this girl.

Jewel then nodded "Ya know, maybe I should call ya "Bunny", since ya seem ta like 'em so much. How's that?" she asked the girl.

[Mitzi]

She shook her head no, that that would not do. "No, my name is Mitzi," she said as she started to nod her head. "I am not like a bunny at all, so it would be silly to call me bunny." She seemed to think this was an obvious fact and that calling a person by an animal's name would be an odd or silly thing to do. However, she did like bunnies, they were cute and small and soft. And she did not think she was any of these things, at least not by what she defined cute and soft and small.

Speaking of small. "And I am not little," she added in a defensive tone. "I am almost exactly as tall as you!" She suddenly ran forward and leaped over the crates using one hand to do so, both drum sticks still in her hands. However as she jumped she let them go so that they would sit on the crate she was using to get to Jewel. Once over the crates she came around to the back of the girl and stood directly up against her. "See!" She put her hand on top of their heads to demonstrate the fact that they were indeed, the same height. "I told you, sweetie." Mitzi had already picked up on the fact that Jewel seemed to use that word a lot, so in an effort to make the girl like her she started doing it right back and would hope for positive results. Mitzi couldn't help but mimic those around her, it was an old habit she didn't want to kick.

She then walked away from Jewel once again and went to pick up her drum sticks. She put them both in one hand and then sat down on the small lower crate that they had been sitting on. She started tapping the corner of the create in a perfect metronome beat as she looked at Jewel again just staring at her. She thought she looked very interesting. However, Mitzi was actually a year older than Jewel.

[jewelkent]

Jewel chuckled. She knew that little rouse would get this girl to tell Jewel her name. She smiled to herself *Bunny...that was hilarious.* she thought to herself.

Jewel then nodded at the girl "Well, that's a very pretty name. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mitzi. I knew I'd get you to tell me your name somehow...and it's beautiful." she said.

Jewel cringed a bit when Mitzi said she wasn't little. Jewel didn't exactly mean to imply that the girl was short or anything. But before Jewel could protest, Mitzi was over the crates, ad comparing their heights.

Jewel looked up at the Mitzi's hand "Well, I'll be damned. Whaddya know? A perfect equal Five Feet Four Inches tall. Well, isn't that special?" she said, rhetorically.

She then heard the girl use the word 'sweetie' in her sentence "Okay, so you're pickin' up on how I talk. 'Dat has got ta be 'de most strangest thing I've ever seen. A girl who speaks with perfect pronunciation at first, and then slides right into a prefect NEw York accent. Are ya sure you and I ain't related, chere?" she asked.

Jewel then looked at this girl go back to her drumming. She loved listening to this girl play so far. It was quite lovely. Kinda like listening to the fiddle players on the street corners, but only a little louder.

"So what do ya do for a living?" Jewel asked the girl.


(OOC: *chere= Sweetheart or dear in French.)

[Mitzi]

Mitzi hadn't quite slid into the New York accent quite yet. She didn't like to mock people and the way they talked. She found more people thought she was being offensive rather than she was just mimicking them. As she continued to gently tap the crate she was sitting on just keeping the steady beat that was playing in her head going she sort of got lost in thought and didn't wake up until Jewel asked what she did for a living. What did she do for a living? Well that wasn't a simple answer at all!

In fact Mitzi's answer to that question was going to be quite complicated indeed. She thought about what she did for a living... "I eat, drink and everything else that a normal person does to live I suppose. You do these things too, right?" she asked. Mitzi couldn't imagine what else a person could do for a living. The truth of the matter was she just didn't understand the turn of phrase. She hadn't herd it very much, and didn't much care for it as a question or a sentence, or anything at all really.

Her mind instantly began to wonder just as soon as she had asked the question and then started looking down the streets just watching the people who were walking by. She wondered what it would be like to be one of those ladies with the large hats and the big bustles on their dresses. She wondered how they sat comfortably, and if they ever rode a bicycle in those, or if they could. However, when Jewel spoke to answer her question Mitzi paid attention again to allow the girl to answer the question. She wasn't rude after all, just unfocused and unobservant.

[jewelkent]

Jewel bit her lip to keep from laughing. She wasn't so sure that Mitzi understood when she asked her what she did for a living. She took off her cap for a split second to run her fingers through her long red hair, and sigh heavily.

She looked over at Mitzi, and forced a smile "Ummmm...yeah. I do all those things to live as well. But what I meant to ask you was what kind of job do you have? Are you a newsie? Are you a waitress? C'mon, Mitz...help me out here. I want to get to know you better, but I can't do that if you don't answer my questions clearly, sweetie" She asked her.

She sighed heavily again, and wrapped her brown jacket around herself. The air was starting to become colder, but at least she had someone to talk to keep her mind off the wind.

Mitzi mentioned rain earlier. Jewel looked up in the sky. Maybe she was right about that.

[Mitzi]

So, Mitzi was in the wrong? Hardly! She didn't see how she had answered that question incorrectly at all. She had asked what she did for a living... and for a living that was what she did! It was totally justified in her mind. She became a little offended when Jewel was upset that she hadn't answered her question clearly. "I did that! My answer was very clear," she said speaking precisely making sure, subconsciously, that each word was pronounced correctly and and with the right emphasis. "It was your question that was confusing." And she full heatedly believed this to be true.

As usual Mitzi now couldn't remember the other questions that the girl had asked, meaning that she was not going to be telling Jewel any time soon that she was a newsie, or that she worked at all, unless she asked again. Mitzi was better at thinking and conversing when she was focused, but right now she didn't need to be too focused, so she wasn't. If she was learning something new and important then she would probably be alright. However, at the time, this wasn't an important conversation, it wouldn't change her life, and she probably wouldn't remember it tomorrow, so what did she care if she was focused?

She looked at Jewel and followed her eyes back up to the skies. "Bunnies," she said again. "The clouds are multiplying like bunnies... I think it might rain." Once again, repeating herself. She did remember saying it once already, but she wanted to restate the fact that she thought it might rain, because the clouds were getting darker now and a bit more ominous. She didn't mind rain, she just figured that she would rather not walk in it than arrive home with her clothes all wet.

[jewelkent]

Jewel almost had a trauma with this girl. She was driving her crazy. But at the same time, she realized that she must have massively confused this girl. All she tried to do was ask her some questions so that she could get to know her better.

"Okay. What I meant to ask you was... Are you a newsie?" Jewel asked Mitzi, slowly repeating her last question.

"Look, I'm sorry if I confused you. I have literally never met a girl like you before. Perfect speech and everything. Look, I'll be honest, you and I are pretty similar in that department. I used to speak properly like that until I joined the newsies, and then I just sort of picked up the whole Brooklyn accent." she explained.

Jewel raised an eyebrow at Mitzi again as she saw her look up at the clouds again and mention the possibility of rain. She smiled at the girl. She almost laughed when Mitzi mentioned the bunnies again.

"Oh yeah... The clouds are making baby bunnies, so I guess it's gonna rain any minute now...and that sky is getting darker." Jewel told Mitzi, a worried look crossing her face.