Penny Lost by L.M. Poplin

Author:L.M. Poplin [Poplin, L.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Published: 2019-05-29T23:00:00+00:00

. . . . .

It took a while, but Penn soon adapted to her new schedule, if collapsing onto her bed every night with her clothes still on and not moving until her alarm sounded early the next morning counts as adapting. She hadn’t made a single friend in the club; even Little Frank was avoiding her now, but she was too tired to care. She really only needed the club for her shower, which she took first thing in the morning when everyone else was asleep, and her evening meal, which she ate alone in her room.

By the end of her third week as a newsboy, Penn was feeling rather satisfied with herself, almost confident, until she walked into Joe’s basement one morning and saw Jimmy warming up. All six feet of him.

“Today you’re going to fight an unknown quantity,” Joe explained.

Penn tried to keep the anxiety churning in her gut from boiling over. Her face was a mask of indifference. “Couldn’t you have chosen a smaller quantity?” she asked, glancing again at Jimmy and making Joe laugh even though she had been completely serious. Hearing the surprisingly deep timbre of his laughter, Penn realized it had been a long time since she had seen Joe laugh, which felt like a small victory, and probably her only one considering all the rumors she had heard about Jimmy.

“Hi, Penn,” Jimmy said. “Long time.”

“Not that long.”

Jimmy took off his shirt, revealing a stomach full of taught muscle marred by purple scarring so violent, Penn had to deliberately slow her breathing to keep calm. Unconsciously, she reached up to touch her own scar. She wondered what Joe would say if he saw her scar. She doubted anyone in 1915 even had open-heart surgery, let alone survived.

Penn rolled up her sleeves, trying not to stare at Jimmy’s chest, which rippled as powerfully as a hero’s in a comic book or on the cover of a romance novel. The kind of chest most girls at her school would be attracted to even with the purple scarring. But Penn was too terrified of Jimmy to be attracted to him.

“Next time you start a secret club, I want in,” he said casually, as though they were back at Joe’s eating oatmeal.

“I didn’t start anything.”

“Like hell you didn’t.” Jimmy moved onto the patch of stone floor that had become their sparring mat.

Penn stepped in front of him, nodding to signal that their match had begun. She expected Jimmy to fight like Fin and circle her a few times before striking, but Jimmy simply struck out with his fist. Once she realized what was happening, she tried to move out of his way, but she was too slow, and Jimmy caught her in the jaw, snapping her head to the left. The right side of her face felt like it was on fire. If she hadn’t moved at all, he might have knocked her unconscious.

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