- M -
Great job tonight Maya, your work sold like crazy!" a man said handing Maya an envelope. "Thanks Seth! Let me know when you guys are gonna do another pop up, I'd love to participate again!" Maya said taking the envelope from him and opening it. "Will do." he said before turning around and walking back to his office.
As Maya stepped out of the Brooks Art Studio, she took a peak at her check, NICE, she thought as she saw she made a good 3 grand on 5 paintings. She's gotten a lot better than when she first started attending pop ups. When she finished college, she had attended every pop up she could find, trying to sell any piece she could. Sometimes she didn't sell anything, and other times she got lucky and sold one or two pieces, but didn't make more than a couple hundred. Now she has people in bidding wars over her paintings. She's pretty well known in the art world now. A lot of people notice her on the streets and some people even have her paintings hanging in their shops.
Brooks Art Studio isn't far from Maya's apartment, just a few blocks through the city and she makes it to her place. Maya lives in a two bedroom apartment, and it's actually quite big. Maya's step dad, Shawn, decided as an early graduation present to her and Riley, he'd buy the girls an apartment. Riley is Maya's best friend in the entire world, next to Farkle of course. Riley and Maya have been best friends since kindergarten, inseparable since. They had been attending NYU together and even got lucky enough to be roommates in the dorms.
Shawn actually got too excited and bought the apartment for them during their junior year in college, so they lived there since. They lived together for 5 years before Riley announced to Maya that she was moving out; her reasoning, Charlie proposed!
Charlie and Riley had been dating for about two years before he popped the question. Maya was excited for Riley, but she was extremely sad when she found out that her best friend was no longer going to be living with her. It wasn't completely terrible. Charlie's apartment was about 3 blocks away from Maya's. So they are in walking distance of each other whenever they need to see each other. Soon after all of Riley's things were out of the apartment, she snuck back in while Maya was out and created the most beautiful art studio in her old bedroom as a thank you for everything Maya has done to help her through her life.
As Maya turned the corner she noticed something moving on the side of the road. It was around 7pm, the streets were crowded with people rushing and cars speeding by to get home from work on this Friday night. At first, she thought it was a street rat, there's many here in New York. Rats usually move fast out here and this thing was moving extremely slow. Maya quickly got through everyone before getting to the curb. She looked down by the manhole and noticed a small black kitten dragging it's back legs trying to get off the road. Maya assumed it had recently gotten hit by a car passing by. She took her scarf off and picked up the kitten and wrapped it in the scarf. It was a cold night, and usually Maya would rush to her apartment to take a hot shower, but she knew she couldn't leave this poor kitten out in the cold to die because of it's injuries.
She pulled out her phone and googled the nearest vet office that was still open. Most vets are closed by 5pm around here, and to no surprise, there were no vets open at this time. She found the closest one and noticed that they have an emergency vet on site at this hour. She found the address and realized it wasn't far from where she was.
She held the kitten close to her, trying very hard not to hurt it, pulled up her thigh high boots, and took a quick jog down the street. The vet's office was a few blocks in the opposite direction from her apartment, and the weather was getting worse by the second. She was across the street from the vet when the rain started coming down. When the light changed for people to cross the street, the rain came down harder. Maya covered the kitten with her arm and ran as fast as she could without slipping. She made it across the street and ran straight for the door to the vet's office only to find it locked.
- L -
"Okay Leo, no more trying to jumping, you need to rest that leg of yours. I don't want to have to perform anymore surgeries on you mister." Lucas said to the staffy that's in his kennel. "Thank you for not fighting me while I gave you your meds." he said before turning the lights off in the kennel room. He closed the door behind him and went into the examination room to take a look at Leo's x-rays.
The night shift isn't the best, but Lucas doesn't always have to work this shift, and when he does, he usually gets Zay as his vet tech. Zay and Lucas were best friends, ever since elementary school back in Texas. They grew up together, went to the same high school, played baseball together, and even went to college together out in Texas. Lucas was glad he decided to join this profession with him. He could have continued to play baseball in college but after his break up with his long time girlfriend Vanessa, he wanted a change of scenery. So he applied to vet tech school online while Lucas went to vet school here in New York City. Right after they both graduated, they were offered a position in a vet office in New York that they couldn't pass up.
As Lucas walked down the hall he heard a loud bang. Zay popped out of one of the examination rooms and looked to see if it was Lucas making the noise. The banging continued; "I'll check that, it's probably a homeless person trying to get out of the rain." he said before walking around the corner to the front office. Lucas continued to the examination room to check on the x-rays. This injury is very similar to his last injury, just on the opposite leg.
Lucas heard the door behind him open, "Zay can you pull out Leo's old x-rays, I wanna compare this injury to his last one." he asked not turning around. When Zay didn't answer Lucas turned to see that it wasn't Zay but a short girl in front of him. "Oh, I'm so sorry ma'am, I thought you were someone else. Is there anything I can help you with?" he asked. She just stood there staring at him. Lucas heard a faint meow come from her scarf and she focused again, "This kitten, I found it on the side of the road. I'm almost certain it got hit by a car." she said as she took the scarf apart to reveal a small black kitten crying.
Lucas took the kitten from her arms and turned it to see if it was a boy or girl. When he found that it was a girl, he placed her on the examination table to see what was hurting her. The kitten picked herself up with her front two paws and started to crawl, not being able to use her two back legs. Lucas quickly picked her up noticing that she was in pain.
"Zay! I need you in here now!" Lucas yelled out the door. He came quickly, "I need x-rays on this kitten done now so I can see exactly what's wrong with her." he said. "On it." Zay said as he took the kitten from Lucas and made his way out the door.
"Don't worry ma'am, we'll help your kitten. She's in good hands here." Lucas reassured her. He noticed that she was shaking a little. He took a good look at her and realized that she was dripping wet from the rain. "Oh you must be freezing! Hold on." he say before quickly running out of the room to our staff room across the hall. He pulled out a couple of towels for her and made his way back to the room. "Here's some clean towels, usually used for people and not pets." Lucas said trying to lighten the mood a bit. She thanked him and took the towels, slowly taking her jacket off and drying herself off. Lucas felt a little awkward watching her dry off. Don't get him wrong, a beautiful girl starting to strip down in front of him is something he'd never pass up to see. But this was one of his customers and it just felt wrong, so he opted to check on Zay and the kitten. He walked out and around the corner to see if Zay had finished with the x-rays. He showed him exactly where she was hurt and told him we should put her under now.
- M -
"Ok, prep her for surgery." Maya heard the man say from down the hall. She poked her head out of the doorway and saw the vet making his way toward Maya. "Your kitten will have to go to surgery now. She has a broken leg and a fractured rib. I don't think she got hit by a car, I think someone probably threw her out of a moving car. She looks about 5 or 6 months old and very underfed. I'll be keeping a close eye on her tonight. I have Zay the vet tech prepping her for surgery right now. I just have a couple of questions for you." He said gesturing for Maya to go to the front office. She quickly grabbed her jacket and made her way to the
"So if I heard correctly, you found this kitten right?" The vet asked. "Yes" Maya said.
"Do you plan on keeping her ma'am?" he asked her. "Please stop calling me ma'am, I feel like an old lady when you say that. I'm Maya, and if she makes it, I'd like to keep her." she replied a little shocked that she said she'd keep the cat. Maya has never owned any pets, she could barely keep plants alive. That was Riley's thing. Riley used to grow plants in pots around the apartment, and Maya knew for a fact that if Riley was still living with Maya, she'd be the one to love and spoil this cat way more than Maya could. But Maya had been feeling a little lonely in the apartment since her best friend moved out a few months ago. Once the words left her mouth, she was determined to make sure this kitten had the best life she could ever have.
"I'd also like to get her spayed while she is under. It'd be a lot easier to just get everything done at one time, so she doesn't have a lot of surgeries to go through, if that's okay with you." he asked Maya, "Spayed?" she asked him. "Spayed. Basically she'd be getting fixed so she can't have babies, in case she runs into a male cat that jumps her, you don't have to worry about her having kittens of her own." he said, Maya laughed a little, "Sure." she said. "Perfect." he said.
The vet handed Maya a clipboard with some paper on it. "If I could have you fill this out, it's just your information and some info on your kitten so that we can contact you when she's out of surgery and to give you further instructions on how to care for her injuries. You can have a seat over there and fill those out." he said before his phone started ringing, "I'll be right back." he said before answering it and walking down the hall.
Maya sat on the chairs in the lobby and started filling out her information. She turned the page and read that it asked for the kitten's name. She knows for sure that the cat is a girl, the vet kept saying her when referring to the kitten so she had to pick a girl name. She thought hard and the first thing that popped into her mind was Olive. Maya thought of a small little black olive and giggled to herself before writing Olive on the line. She wrote out the rest of the information that she knew and stood up, making her way down the hall to where she assumed the doctor would be.
Before she turned the corner she could hear the vet on the phone. "I'm at work, I don't have time to be discussing this with you." he said sounding very frustrated. "You're gonna have to wait until tomorrow, I'm about to do a surgery." he said. "Well too bad!" he shouted before hanging up. He looked completely pissed. Maya's head was peaking around the corner when he looked up and locked eyes with her. She gasped and quickly hid behind the corner. She closed her eyes and hoped that she didn't just get caught eavesdropping.
Within seconds she heard footsteps coming around the corner and was met with the vet standing right in front of her. "Oh hi, here's your papers sir." she said feeling super guilty that she had just overheard his conversation. He took the clipboard from her and sighed, "Please don't call me sir, it makes me feel like an old man when you say that." he mimicked Maya. She let out a soft giggle and loosened up a bit. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, I walked in at the wrong time." she said. "It's fine, it's just been a long day." he said sighing.
He quickly looked over the papers, "Well Ms. Hart," he paused, "Maya, I will be in contact with you. If you'd like to stop by tomorrow to check on her you are more than welcome. She should be done with her surgery by tomorrow and will be ready for recovery after that. I request that we keep her here tomorrow night as well so we can keep an eye on her reaction to the surgery. After that she should be good to go home with you. I have a list of things that you should have in your house to prepare for her arrival on Sunday." He said as they walked down the hall to the front office. He went behind the front desk and pulled out a sheet of paper. He handed it to Maya. She took it from him and quickly read over it, a litter box, litter, cat food with suggestions on good brands to buy for kittens and older cats, toy, etc. "Thank you." she said before folding it up and stuffing it in her purse.
She picked up her leather jacket and threw it on before turning to the vet. "So I'll see you tomorrow when you come to check on your cat yes? We open at 8am tomorrow." the vet said smiling. She smiled back to him, "I'll be here. Thanks Doctor…." she said and stopped realizing she didn't even know the guy's name. "Lucas" he replied sticking his hand out. Maya took his hand and shook it, "Thank you Doctor Lucas." she said before dropping his hand and leaving the office. She closed the door behind her, braced herself, and started to speed walk her way to her apartment.