Fanfic / Queen Of New York

Queen of New York is a work of Fan Fiction based in the Newsies universe, It's basically a mashup of the 1992 and musical version of Newsies, but told from Crutchie's perspective. Notably, Crutchie is female. It's created by disabled female author IrishBelle and was completed on July 26, 2022. Can be read here.

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Tropes Used Include:

• Abusive Parents: One of the newsies, Henry, is said to have an abusive father.
• Action Girl: Crutchie becomes this over time. Bridge is this full stop.
• A Day in the Limelight: The story is this for Crutchie. It’s basically the strike and surrounding events told from her perspective.
• Adults Are Useless: Subverted more here than in the original. Discussed among the newsies though, since most adults won't be keen to support them in the strike.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Mrs. Martinelli calls the newsies bambinos (male Italian for "baby"), Crutchie bambina, (female of the same), and the younger newsies cucciolos (Italian for "little puppies, little cubs.") She also calls Crutchie mia bambina preciosa ("my precious girl/precious baby girl") and troppolina (female, "little mouse.")
  • Crutchie's dad called her "principessa" (Italian for "princess.")
  • Jack has to explain that "Crutchie" is in fact this, because Katherine assumes he calls her that to be cruel. At the end, she does revert to using her real name, as part of her character arc.
• Alpha Bitch: Original character Nancy Tomlinson, a Manhattan newsgirl who blackmails Crutchie out of earnings, food, etc., on pain of revealing her whereabouts to Snyder.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Jamie Sullivan, AKA Pepper, one of the little newsies Crutchie takes care of. At six, he's the youngest of five younger newsies, and he clings to Crutchie as if she actually is his mother or big sister. This is pretty much his defining characteristic.
• Berserk Button: Crutchie can get plenty angry in the wrong circumstances, like if somebody treats her as Inspirationally Disadvantaged (see below). But the one thing that truly infuriates her? Hurting one of the younger newsies. She'll tangle with anybody who dares, including the cops.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Crutchie is generally a kind, optimistic, easygoing girl. That said, it is not a good idea to get her angry.
• Big Brother Instinct: Jack to everyone, but Crutchie in particular. Davey to Les.
• Book Worm: Crutchie is written this way. May be a slight subversion in that she can’t afford books of her own, so saves enough to take one out of the library when possible.
• Braids of Action: Crutchie wears her hair in a long, single braid, usually tucked under a newsboy cap. She has worn Boyish Short Hair before, and cuts her hair early in the story. However, she eventually leaves her hair long and tucked under. It's implied she can do this after moving in with Jack and the others because she's not on her own anymore; they have her back should the cops or Snyder spot her and try to get her back to the Refuge.
• Crutch Fu During the attack on the distribution center, Crutchie spots a couple cops menacing Jack. She rushes over (as well as she can, anyway), trips the smaller cop with her crutch, and nails his instep as he goes down, distracting the bigger one and allowing Jack and herself to get away although she's found and arrested a few minutes later.
• Character Development:
  • Crutchie gets a lot of this, as do several other characters. For example:
  • Jack becomes less oblivious to Crutchie’s struggles over time, and less oblivious to the situations and dreams of his other fellow newsies.
  • More time is spent on Davey’s heritage and family, as well as his intelligence and acumen.
  • Sarah Jacobs shows up, not as Jack’s love interest, but as a friend to Crutchie and a big supporter of the newsies.
  • Katherine looks down on Jack much less, and develops her relationship with him more slowly. She also develops a friendship with Crutchie.
• Christianity is Catholic: Crutchie is a semi-practicing Catholic in this story, praying fairly often and respecting tradition, though her job and fear of Snyder finding out her whereabouts mean she can’t attend church. It’s mentioned some other characters are Protestant, but we don’t see them practicing. The nuns also appear.
• Composite Character:
  • Mr. Denton, originally the reporter who supported the strike in the 1992 film, is the owner of Jack’s lodging house here. He’s also a Team Dad to the newsies.
  • Mr. Kloppman is now the owner of the Brooklyn lodging house, a role he shares with an original character, a wife.
• Cool Big Sis: Crutchie was this to her little brother, Joey until he was unfortunately killed by a drunk driver.
• Cool Old Lady: Mrs. Martinelli, the lodging house’s “chief cook and bottle washer,” and Team Mom to the newsies, Crutchie in particular.
  • Mrs. Kloppman, co-owner of the Brooklyn lodging house.
  • Elizabeth Campbell, or Aunt Lizzie, an original character who’s a godmother to Katherine. She opens her home to Katherine and Crutchie when the latter needs a place to convalesce after the strike.
• Covered in Gunge: Jack touches off a mud fight in the pouring rain which leaves the newsies in this state.
  • In a more serious example, Jack finds Crutchie like this in the Refuge. It's partly because the place is a filthy dump, and partly because Snyder has taken hygiene privileges to humiliate her.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: This story gives Crutchie parents, an Irish mother and Irish-Italian father. She remembers them fondly. In fact, she dropped out of school and became a newsie to help make ends meet after her mother became ill and her father was fired for participating in a strike.
• Denied Food as Punishment: As in the original, this is a common occurrence in the Refuge. Here, Snyder takes it further, denying offenders food, hygiene privileges, blankets, even water.
• Disabled Snarker: Crutchie is much more this than in the original.
• Dissension Remorse: Crutchie and Jack both experience this after a big fight regarding the latter's role in the strike. Katherine and Specs, respectively, get them to see each other's points of view, which helps them to come back together. In fact, they bump into each other as they're each on their way to apologize.
• Does Not Like Spam: Crutchie mentions she hates egg salad.
  • Race hates all vegetables. Mrs. Martinelli straight up makes him eat them. If Crutchie is helping cook, she hides them in things like spaghetti sauce.
• Don't Split Us Up: Two of the newsies Crutchie takes care of are biological brothers, who worry this will happen when the strike hits. She assures them it won’t, and it doesn’t.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!:
  • Crutchie isn’t angry or vocal about it, but she will correct any newsie, especially Jack, who feels sorry for her. As in the 1992 film, she objects to being carried around unless the situation is dire.
  • Initially, Crutchie believes pity is why Katherine wants to be friends, having been set up before, courtesy of a reporter wanting to make her out to be Inspirationally Disadvantaged. Once Katherine reveals her true intentions, they become friends for real.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As in the original, Pulitzer with Katherine. Also, specific to this story, Snyder has a niece—Nancy Tomlinson, who had gone undercover to try to corner Crutchie and get her back into the Refuge and his clutches.
• Evil Orphanage Lady: Original character Matron Huxley, supervisor of the Refuge’s Girls’ Annex.
• Faux Affably Evil: Snyder is written this way.
• Friend to All Children: Crutchie is this, especially toward the younger newsies at the lodging house, where she moves seeking sanctuary from blackmailing, bullying newsgirls. Mr. Denton can’t let her stay in the same quarters as teenage guys, so she becomes a house mother to a group of five prepubescent newsies. The kids take to her immediately.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Crutchie’s mom used to use this on her when things got serious—“Carlotta Monica Murphy!”
• Gender Flip: Crutchie gets this treatment. Jo-Jo also gets a Gender Flip and becomes a Brooklyn newsie. As in some productions, Sniper and Smalls are also female.
• Good Is Not Soft: Bridge is a somewhat subverted version. She quickly becomes Crutchie's best friend (besides Jack, of course). They bond over several commonalities, including the fact that both have survived polio. But while Crutchie is one to let being treated as Inspirationally Disadvantaged, or outright discriminated against, slide, Bridge is not. Bridge makes it her mission to teach Crutchie how to accept herself, and she's often blunt and pushy about it.
• Good Shepherd: Crutchie's former priest and confessor, Father Mc Gill. She calls him "one of the good ones," in contrast to church authorities such as Monsignor Halloran and Sister Mary Christine AKA Sadie Neeley, the latter of whom is a Nun Too Holy type who was instrumental in getting Crutchie thrown into the Refuge. Later on, Crutchie is presumably able to attend church again, and Father Mc Gill helps her work through some Refuge-based trauma.
• Handicapped Badass: Original character Bridge, head of the Brooklyn newsgirls. She had polio like Crutchie did, and is not one to let ableism or ignorance of her needs slide. She teaches Crutchie to become more secure in her identity, express herself, and expect respect.
• Hot Drink Cure: Mrs. Martinelli often offers Crutchie this in the form of hot tea laced with medicinal herbs, usually for intense leg pain.
• I Am What I Am: Crutchie goes through a version of this arc. She accepts her disability for the most part, but struggles because other people are less likely to do so. Interestingly, she copes better with outright ableist people, like Snyder and the Delancey brothers, than well-meaning people like Jack and the other newsies who treat her as Inspirationally Disadvantaged. At one point, she gives Jack a pointed speech about how he thinks her crutch holds her back, but he's dead wrong. It actually gives her freedom, it's not a toy, it's not something that she can discard or erase, and it's not his to "borrow" or move without asking. Still, it's not until Crutchie gets arrested and sent back to the Refuge during the strike, that she completes the arc and accepts herself fully. It's also not until then that Jack and Crutchie's fellow newsies complete their arc, realizing that yes, she is what she is—including the crutch, not in spite of it.
• Ill Girl: It’s clarified in story that Crutchie became disabled due to polio. She struggles with the after-effects, namely a compromised immune system. But she’s not at all an Ill Girl in personality or action.
• Improvised Lock Pick: Bridge mentions she knows how to pick locks and has used that skill to ditch her Orphanage of Fear. She later does it with a hairpin when helping rescue Crutchie from the Refuge.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Subverted. Crutchie doesn’t die from it, but she knows a cough often means trouble. In fact, following the strike and a second stint in the Refuge, she goes upstate with Katherine to recover.
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged: The other male newsies, especially Jack, tend to treat Crutchie like this. At first she doesn’t realize it, or how to respond. Even after she becomes more secure in herself, she isn’t sure how to respond. One, she wouldn’t name their behavior as ableism in 1899 or arguably recognize it as such. Two, she fears her “brothers” would hate and desert her for calling them out. However, she does learn to stick up for herself, and they in turn learn she is in every way their equal.
• Insult Backfire: Snyder calls Crutchie a "stupid girl" for not obeying his order to tell him where Jack is or what his strike plans are, and for being involved in the strike in the first place, thus getting herself sent back to the Refuge over tenths of pennies for papers. Crutchie, however, counters that yes, she is a stupid girl—for letting fear of him rule her life and giving him more power over her than he actually had—which, she tells him, is basically squat.
• It's All My Fault: This is how Crutchie seems to feel about her role in the newsies' lives. To wit, she feels that being disabled, a girl, or both makes her an automatic scapegoat. Jack eventually uncovers the root of this mindset: Crutchie believes she caused her parents' and little brother's deaths, because her mom allegedly caught her polio, her dad got stressed enough to go to the mob for help, and she was at school on a day she could've stayed home to watch little bro, meaning he wouldn't have gotten away from a sick mom and hit by the drunk driver of a butcher's wagon. She gets better, though.
• It's Personal: The strike is personal for Crutchie because her own dad participated in a strike, was fired for it, and indirectly died because of events following. She’s also seen kids maimed and crippled because of terrible working conditions, and knows firsthand the hardships they’ll suffer because of disability and poverty in 1899.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Crutchie gives off fairly deep shades of this. If asked, she's emphatic that she and Jack are just friends. She's also emphatic that she's not interested in "anyone," because of the way disabilities are viewed in her era and because polio is still incurable and considered a dangerous disease dirty people get. (Read: Crutchie still has the virus in her system and in the absence of modern treatment, has a small but present chance of passing on the germ to a partner or a baby.) All this said though, there are several scenes where Crutchie seems to want more than friendship from Jack and forces herself to bury her feelings. Thus, she pushes him toward Katherine and pushes Katherine toward him even harder.
• Jewish and Nerdy: Davey. It’s outright stated he’s Jewish, and more time is given to his scholarly pursuits.
• Jewish Mother: Mrs. Jacobs is implied to be one of these.
• Lethal Chef: Mr. Denton. He hires Mrs. Martinelli to cook after his food costs Elmer and Albert a day of selling papers, thanks to food poisoning. About the only thing he can't mess up is eggs.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Les tells Crutchie he and the other younger newsies planned to do this to get her out of the Refuge if Jack and the older kids hadn't managed to do it. He and the rest of Crutchie's "boys" regale her with plans that would've involved everything from sneaking into the building dressed in girls' clothes, to attacking the staff with kitchen implements, to straight kicking Snyder in the kneecaps. Crutchie says she's glad they didn't go through with anything, but appreciates the thought very much.
• Like Brother and Sister: What Jack and Crutchie have been for years, down to Crutchie signing her letter from the Refuge, “Your sister.” During her climactic rescue from the Refuge, Davey tells Jack to, “Go find our sister.”
• Mama Bear: Crutchie is this toward the younger newsies. She hesitates to participate in the strike at first partially because she's worried about what will happen to them. The mere thought of Snyder getting hold of them has her immediately determined to keep them safe all by herself, even if that means stashing them under the Brooklyn Bridge and taking the worst and most menial jobs in the city.
• The Medic: Two. Here, Medda comes from New Orleans and seems to be an herbalist, mixing up homemade ointments, which she gives to newsies who’ve done time in the Refuge. Later on, Crutchie meets a girl named Claire whose nickname is Red, as in “Red Cross,” and treats any Refuge inmate in need of patching up.
• Modesty Screen Crutchie uses one of these. She lives in the same room as a group of prepubescent male newsies, and dresses and bathes behind a screen. The guys know they'll get it from Denton, Mrs. Martinelli, and Jack if they try to sneak peeks.
• Mouthy Kid: Les, still. Also, Oliver, AKA “Dodge” or “Dodger,” one of Crutchie’s younger newsies. He means well but has no filter. Jack gets on his case once for calling Crutchie a “darn crip.”
• New Friend Envy: Jack denies it, and Crutchie says she doesn't believe it of him because it's too "stupid," but it's clear Jack immediately envies Crutchie's close friendship with Bridge. He gets over it fairly quickly, though.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Refuge, so very much. Jack also mentions Crutchie has nightmares about being institutionalized on the basis of disability, and that they're so intense she wakes the others up, screaming.
• No Holds Barred Beat Down: As in the original, Snyder beats Crutchie black and blue with her own crutch. He later goes after her again when she won’t reveal Jack’s strike plans or location.
• No Periods, Period: Averted. When one of her "brood" of younger newsies wets the bed and doesn't want anybody to know, Crutchie volunteers to have Jack grab an extra set of sheets, telling him they're for her because of "a girl thing." Later, Bridge references the fact that periods are one reason male newsies, and the rest of New York, tend not to take newsgirls seriously.
  • After a scorching and intense strike day, Crutchie actually does get hers. Coupled with the heat, this actually makes her ill, prompting worry from her fellow newsies and fussing from Mrs. Martinelli.
• Not in Front of the Kid: Crutchie strongly objects to Jack and the older newsies smoking, swearing, or telling dirty jokes in front of the younger kids. She herself won't even say something as mild as "kiss my butt" in front of them. The older newsies get a real kick out of it the one time she slips up.
• No Such Thing as Dehydration: Subverted. In the Refuge, Snyder not only refuses to give Crutchie food, but also denies her water. So, by the time the two interact one-on-one, her voice should be pretty shot. Yet, she's able to speak to him in complete sentences—and dress him down, no less. However, it's noted she's coughing and finding it more and more difficult to talk the longer the scene progresses. It's also noted Jack had managed to sneak in and see her before that scene, and he had a flask of water on him, which he gave her, so that may have helped.
• One-Note Cook: Denton. As noted, he can't mess up eggs.
• One of the Boys: Crutchie makes clear she prefers being treated as this; for example, she tells the male newsies they don't have to censor their language, spitting, or other "stereotypical" behavior around her. And while she doesn't engage in some of the less savory examples—e.g., smoking, swearing, drinking—she plays a respectable hand of poker, doesn't hesitate to spit to seal deals, will participate in good-natured roughhousing, and more than makes up for her limitations in that last area with plenty of pointed snark.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The newsies, of course. We also have a cadre of original characters, including:
  • Several female newsies from Brooklyn:
    • Bridge, AKA Shannon Sofia Daly, so named because Spot found her under the Brooklyn Bridge.
    • Mouse, a tall newsie with a squeaky voice.
    • Tick-Tock, a younger newsie, AKA Tess Kavanaugh, initials T.K.
    • Diamond, AKA Emma Dellinger.
  • Crutchie’s “boys,” or brood of younger newsies:
    • Oliver, AKA Dodge or Dodger
    • Alexander Hamilton Brown, AKA Little Man
    • Jamie Sullivan, AKA Pepper, because “Jamie is a girl's name!”
    • In a subversion, Kurt and Freddy, biological brothers whose nicknames aren’t given.
  • Some of the girls Crutchie meets in the Refuge, including:
    • Head girl Gwen, AKA Queenie
    • Claire, AKA Red, The Medic whose nickname indicates "Red Cross"
    • Mary Margaret, AKA Midnight
• Orphanage of Fear: Bridge, head of the Brooklyn newsgirls, has been in one of these, Mrs. Merkle’s (“it’s a miracle if you get out of there.”) Miss Hannigan’s is mentioned, implying Newsies and Annie share a universe, if not a time period. The Refuge functions as both a jail and this.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket:
  • Subverted. Crutchie has her mother’s emerald green cameo, but doesn’t wear it because a newsgirl wearing jewelry is asking to get robbed. She gives it to Nancy to stave off blackmail. Later, Snyder obtains it from Nancy, knowing it’s a clue to the location of Crutchie’s family money. The cameo doesn’t come back to its rightful owner until the last chapter, when the police are able to use it to restore the fortune to Crutchie.
  • Crutchie actually owns a couple others, her mom’s shawl and her dad’s pocket watch. Both of these end up as other clues to the family fortune, but neither are in her possession for most of the story.
• Papa Wolf: Jack is something of a junior version toward Crutchie. Do not mess with her and let him hear about it.
• Plucky Girl: Crutchie is all over this trope. She even gets to stand up to Snyder!
• Potty Failure: One of the younger newsies Crutchie takes care of wets the bed, a direct result of a nightmare about the Refuge. He's especially embarrassed because he's the oldest of the little kids at age nine. Crutchie keeps the secret, blaming the need for clean sheets on her period.
• Race Lift: Both Medda and Specs are Black in this story.
• Rags to Riches: Crutchie, at the end.
• Secret Legacy: It turns out Crutchie’s mom came from Irish gentry, and was thus the rightful heiress to family money, but was disowned when she married Crutchie’s dad. After a family quarrel and the events of the story, Crutchie becomes the heiress.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Crutchie, twice. The first time, the Brooklyn newsgirls have encouraged her to embrace her femininity by wearing skirts and hair ribbons. The second time, she’s dressed up and fixed her hair for the rally at Medda’s. Jack doesn’t react well the first time; he’s not used to seeing his best friend look like such a girl. The second time, he’s much more respectful, and notably more appreciative.
• She Is All Grown Up: After Jack and Crutchie have a big fight over the latter’s role in the strike, Katherine tells her Jack might be noticing this, and worrying his little sister might be moving on without him. They’re able to make up, but near the end of the story, there are hints Jack is indeed noticing—and feeling more positive about it, if more conflicted.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Jack initially raises this protest when Crutchie asks how he feels about Katherine, but almost instantly says he wants that to change. So Crutchie tells him to quit acting like a cocky newsie, be himself, and ask her out. Crutchie has a similar He Is Not My Boyfriend conversation with Katherine and Sarah.
• Shipper on Deck: Crutchie is this for Jack and Katherine. Interestingly, Katherine is initially this for Crutchie and Jack, asking if Crutchie is sure it’s okay for her to make a move. After all, she notes, there’s only a two-year age difference, and Crutchie, despite what she says, is a perfectly capable, smart, intrepid Nice Girl. Crutchie pushes Katherine toward Jack, although it’s implied she might regret it.
• Shout-Out: Several:
  • Miss Hannigan's is mentioned, as an orphanage in Brooklyn, implying Newsies takes place in the same universe as Annie. Interestingly, Miss Hannigan's is seen as one of the least awful orphanages or charity homes in NYC.
  • The story is peppered with references to other musicals. For instance:
    • Two of Crutchie's younger newsies are named Kurt and Freddy, as in Kurt and Frederick von Trapp from The Sound of Music. As a bonus, they're biological brothers.
    • After a fight with Jack, Crutchie has a conversation with Katherine reminiscent of one Princess Winifred and Lady Larken have during Once Upon a Mattress.
    • Newsies references itself; lyrics from "Santa Fe," "Carrying the Banner," and "Letter from the Refuge" appear in dialogue, though they don't rhyme.
  • Crutchie being a Book Worm, several books are referenced, including Jane Eyre, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Prince and the Pauper, and ''Peter Pan,'' which the author acknowledges is outside the time frame, but that she used because of the connection between Crutchie, her brood of newsies, and the Lost Boys.
  • At one point, Davey jokingly asks Crutchie if the Brooklyn newsgirls, who have taught her how to spar, are hosting female fight club. She refuses to tell him.
• The Smart Girl Crutchie is very much this, though not of the Genius Cripple variety. Dropping out of school to help her family was a huge sacrifice. She's able to get the 1899 equivalent of a GED and go on to college at the end.
• The Smart Guy: Davey, as in the original. This story gives Specs development as this, noting he taught himself to read and is also a math whiz. Notably, he did this as a Black kid in 1899, with no family or support to speak of.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Crutchie. She usually talks like your average newsie (see the film and musical). However, her mom insisted on proper grammar when she was alive, and Crutchie was an ace English student. She's still a very capable "code-switcher" when the situation calls for it.
• Spit Shake: As in the original, how newsies seal deals, clarifying it's business when someone calls it "disgusting." At first, Crutchie hesitates to do it because when she first became a newsgirl, her mom made her promise to dress feminine and continue to act like a lady. But having lost her parents, spent months at the Refuge, and been driven out of a newsgirl lodging house at the story's outset, she quickly figures worrying about what her deceased mother would think will no longer do her any good.
• Spirited Young Lady: Crutchie fits this trope to a T. In fact, Governor Roosevelt calls her this when the two meet. It's implied Katherine's godmother, Aunt Lizzie, was this in her youth.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Jack implies Crutchie should do a version of this—read, stay close to the lodging house, babysit the younger newsies, do the easy jobs of the strike—rather than actually participate. She takes this about as well as you'd expect.
• Stepford Smiler: Crutchie comes across as this. She’s still a Plucky Girl, but here, it’s clear she does struggle, especially with the fact that she can’t let the other newsies in. She’s terrified that if she can’t be strong, can’t live up to her reputation as the girl with the unfailing smile, her “brothers” will turn their backs on her. Her arc, then, involves learning to open up.
• Supreme Chef: Mrs. Martinelli, as well as Davey and Les' mom. The latter's kugel is said to bring every newsie in New York City to their knees in pure reverence.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Crutchie does this early in the story, because she has no support from her fellow newsgirls (thus must sell on her own), and because if the wrong person were to see not only a newsgirl, but a disabled one who could quickly be confirmed as an orphan, selling papers, she could be sent back to the Refuge. Later on, she dresses more as a boy because it's easier to move around that way, considering her disabled leg, but will admit she's a girl if she trusts the persons approaching or around her. She also uses this trope to her advantage, like when she goes to Brooklyn with Jack and Davey as a Manhattan newsie representative and lets Spot Conlon think she's a guy. The element of surprise convinces him to let her talk to his band of newsgirls to try to win their support, while Jack and Davey work to convince the boys.
• Teacher's Pet: Crutchie used to be this, both at school and at church.
• Team Mom: Crutchie is this to the younger newsies. She lovingly calls them her “brood” or “my boys.” The other newsies accept this so quickly, even they start calling her Mom.
• Terms of Endangerment: Snyder is all over this with Crutchie, calling her things like “my twisted pet” or “my filthy, twisted pet.”
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Crutchie. She has no problem being treated as One of the Boys around the other newsies, and as noted, she's more than a fair hand at activities considered "boyish" in 1899. That said, she enjoys dressing up and wearing more elaborate hairstyles, wears scented oils when they're available, and consumes just as many books with plots geared toward female readers as those geared toward males.
  • Bridge also seems to be this; in fact, she takes a lot of pride in that girly streak and is passionate about the newsgirls under her learning to keep and embrace femininity. To that end, most of the Brooklyn newsgirls we meet are also this. Many of them consistently wear skirts or dresses, at least one wears earrings, and they are said to enjoy pursuits like singing and piano.
• Took a Level in Badass: Crutchie. Boy, did she ever. Her friendship with Bridge and the Brooklyn newsgirls involves them teaching her to capitalize on her physical and emotional strengths, whereas before, she'd been respected for her selling skills but rather hesitant about sticking up for herself. By story's second half, she's defending the little newsies, tripping and distracting a cop, and even giving Snyder a The Reason You Suck speech!
• Trademark Favorite Food: Crutchie enjoys cinnamon, particularly on a bagel and in her hot chocolate. In a variant, she also uses cinnamon oil where other girls use floral perfumes.
• Training from Hell: Bridge puts Crutchie through a version to increase her self-confidence and prepare her to be a newsgirl leader. It includes tough physical obstacles and a verbal/emotional challenge wherein Crutchie must respond directly to the voicing of her own self-doubt, plus abusive things she's heard from others or herself, and the voicing of her fears (such as the other newsies ending up in the Refuge and blaming her because helping her get away put them in danger). It's a subversion though, because Crutchie is allowed to tap out if any challenge is too much, and Bridge insists on her telling the truth about any physical or emotional pain she's feeling.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: We get one after an intense strike day and an inconvenient period lead to Crutchie experiencing nausea and heat exhaustion. Later on, she muses how much she'd enjoy puking on Snyder's carpet.
• Would Hit a Girl: As in the original, Snyder beats Crutchie with her own crutch. He later beats her again and slices her arm with a letter opener.
  • Also the Delancey brothers. Morris beats Crutchie up early in the story, partially with her crutch. Oscar is not seen doing this, but it's mentioned he has participated.
• Would Not Hit a Girl: Jack. In fact, after he and Crutchie fight over her role in the strike, he muses that he wishes she were a boy because if yes, they could just duke out their differences and shake hands. As it is, Crutchie stews at him and worries herself sick over the fight.
• Would Hurt a Child: Snyder again, naturally. Also one of the cops who breaks up the Newsies' Square demonstration. He kicks littlest newsie Pepper like a soccer ball. Crutchie doesn't take this well.