By the time that Liz had gotten out of the train station, it was pouring rain.

Her neighborhood was bustling on good days, but with the nasty weather, everyone was tucked in their blankets at home. It wasn't expected to get better, either. She could hear thunder in the distance, and the people still outside were rushing to get indoors, covering their heads with whatever they had. Liz ducked inside a bodega, feeling the rain starting to dampen her clothes, sighing with temporary relief. She observed the small shop, squinting in the bright yellow lights and shivering from the A/C. She could feel drops of water running down the back of her neck, and her glasses were all foggy and gross. Her sneakers squelched with moisture, and she could hear the ground outside being beaten with rain. It was almost green outside. Panicking, Liz dropped her book bag and opened it, afraid that her stuff had gotten all wet. Fortunately, while the outside of her bag was soaked, the inside remained clean and dry. Breathing a sigh of relief, Liz's attention was caught by something at the other side of the store.

A cat!

Liz had gotten used to this in bodegas and delis, but it was always a pleasant surprise to see them anyways. This one was all black, with one white paw. Stupidly assuming she was alone, Liz started walking towards the cat, exclaiming, "You have a sock! You're so cute!" Disappointingly, the feline friend bolted just as Lizzie got close, and she heard voice somewhere behind her.

"She's very skittish, please don't scare her!"

Liz whirled around, her heart stopping for a solid second. There was a man behind the register that wasn't there when Liz came in, looking just as shocked as she was.

Liz stammered, "Oh, I'm sorry! The rain got really bad, and I don't have an umbrella! I'm waiting for the rain to ease up! I didn't mean to scare the cat!"

The man, relaxed, continued, "It's alright, but I can't have someone stay here unless they buy something. Otherwise, you have to find somewhere else." He added, "It's store policy, I just follow it. I don't want to get in trouble."

"It's okay, thank you anyways!" Liz threw her book bag over her shoulders as she left, feeling the dampness start to soak through her shirt. Fucking gross, she thought, trying her best to stay to the left, under the awnings to protect herself. Once she got to the corner, she had half an avenue to go, to get to her building. Liz booked it and ran, the strong wind whipping her hair in her face, messing up her glasses even more. The thunder was closer now, and she could see lightning in the green clouds. It would have been pretty in Liz hadn't been drenched by the time she got to her building. Once she had finally found her keys in her bag, she opened the door to her building and ran inside, intensely relieved. She wiped her feet on the rug in the cramped lobby, as if that would help, and looked to her left at the mailboxes. There were a few packages, both on top of them, and on the floor beneath them. Liz checked all of them, and saw the names 'Lucas' and 'Kurt'. She scooped up the boxes and continued to her apartment, leaving water all over the stairs. She was huffing by the time she got to the third floor, and with her hands full, she couldn't get to her keys, so she resorted to banging on the door with her foot. Unsurprisingly, she was not met with an open door, but with a familiar voice.

"Who is it?"

Grumbling, Liz shifted the boxes to a more comfortable position. "We have a peephole, use it." A moment of silence passed, and then the voice said, "No one sees the mighty Wizard!"

"Michael!"

"We don't want any soaked Girl Scout cookies."

Liz kicked the door again, this time with more force.

"...Fine. If you insist."

She heard the lock click, and the door swung open to reveal her younger brother, wearing a sweater and a shit-eating grin. Liz shoved the boxes at him, and she closed the door and locked it while he struggled to hold them.

"Fuck you."

They both went into the living room, and Michael set the packages down on one of the armchairs. "Nice to see you, too. How was school?"

"It was okay. Really loud, lots of contracts, Maria bouncing off the walls…"

"Must be a day that ends in Y."

Liz was about to throw herself on the couch when another voice yelled, "No, don't, you're gonna get the couch wet!" Liz's older brother, Lucas, had just come out of the bathroom, holding a towel. He threw it at her, continuing, "You're going to catch a cold, why didn't you bring an umbrella?"

"The weather app said that it was going to be nice today!"

"And you trust weather apps?" Michael said as he sat on the couch himself. She muttered, "Shut up.", as she dried her hair. While her face was covered, she felt something nudging her knees. She removed the towel to see the always happy face of Tracy, their golden retriever. She was eagerly nudging her head into Lizzie's lap, trying to say hi, her tail almost knocking over a plastic cup on the coffee table. Luke promptly moved everything out of the way. Liz laughed, scratching behind Tracy's ears while the dog looked up at her with those big, brown eyes. Once she had dried herself off, Liz headed to her room to change into something more cozy, and looking over at her bed, she saw a big ball of fur near her pillows. She knew that she didn't have any fur pillows, so she sat right next to the mass and began petting it, and it began to purr.

"What's up, big guy? You have a good day?"

The mass untangled itself to become a cat. A tabby, to be specific. He nudged his head into Liz's palm, narrowing his eyes and purring louder.

"Huh? Tracy annoy you today?" The cat looked at her, as if to say, 'You have no idea.`` Fester was a grumpy old lovebug that liked to hang out in Liz's room, unbothered. He was a little chunky, but that was because he had learned to get into his food supply, which was now under lockdown. He also had scars across his nose, from fights that he had gotten into as a kitten on the street. It had taken weeks of leaving out food and building trust for Fester to even get close to being a housecat. And even then, it took quite a bit of convincing.

'Kurt, there's a kitten out back!'

'What?'

``I gave it some food that I got from the corner store, and it seems really friendly!'

'Blaine, we have no idea if that cat has anything wrong with it. What if it's sick? Has diseases? We have two small children, I don't want them getting hurt!'

``I know, but can I still give it food? Maybe it'll warm up to me, and then I can take it to a vet!'

'Sweetheart, I don't think that cat's going to get close to you if you don't have food.'

A few months later, Fester was introduced into the family. He did, indeed, have several things wrong with him, mainly his injuries from street fighting. When he was brought home, he hid in various places for a month, avoiding everyone at all costs. Fester came into the family before Michael did, and the cat took an instant liking to him once the entire family moved back into their apartment. Michael was having a hard time getting used to everyone, too, so he and Fester got along like a house on fire. The only reason that Fester stayed in Liz's room was to get some peace and quiet, her two brothers shared a room, and thus shared more than a few arguments.

Once Liz had finished changing, and let Fester out of her room, she took all the contracts out of her bag, and to her relief, only one was damp. However, looking at this particular contract closer, Liz saw that it was for her dance class, which contained a list of clothing that she had to get.

Girls: Black, salmon, or skin-coloured leotards and tights, and black jazz slippers.

Boys: Shorts you can move around in (i.e., basketball shorts), or professional black dance pants, and black jazz sneakers.

So, girls had to empty out the bank to get a whole new wardrobe, and boys only had to get sneakers? Liz rolled her eyes while she filled out her parts of the contracts, making notes of all the things she had to get. She was signing her name on the last contract when she heard a soft knock on her door.

"Hey, you need help with anything?"

"It's only contracts, and I need to wait for Dad to get home so he can sign them."

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure."

She heard the door opening, and she heard Luke exclaim, "Jesus, Liz! I thought Dad told you to clean on Saturday! Why are your clothes still all over the place?" She turned to see her brother looking comically overwhelmed, and she began to snicker. His face turned pink as he said,

"Not funny! You could trip and hurt yourself!"

"Okay, Mom."

Luke ranted while he left the room, looking personally insulted. "I didn't ask for this! I didn't want to be stuck babysitting two goblins, who don't know how to clean their fucking rooms!" Liz could hear Michael chime in from the living room, "Who are you calling a goblin, asshole?" She then heard a soft thump, which meant that someone had gotten hit with a pillow. Liz smiled to herself, feeling pretty good about how the day had gone, despite getting drenched. Once she had finished checking her papers for anything she might have missed, she went to join her brothers in the living room. Luke was on his laptop, typing furiously, while Michael was on the floor in front of the television, playing a video game. Liz plopped down on the couch with her phone, to see that she had gotten a text from Maria.

'Hey, you get home safe? It was pretty bad when I got out of the subway.'

Lizzie responded, 'I got soaked, but I made it home safe, thanks. You?'

'My umbrella nearly got turned inside out, and my backpack got really wet, but I took pictures of all of my contracts while I was waiting for you, so I'm good.' Maria texted back.

Lizzie continued. 'You have all the stuff for dance?'

Maria replied, 'Yeah, of course. I don't think you do, though?'

'I don't have anything on that list. And we aren't the same size, so I can't borrow things from you.'

Maria, always helpful, texted back, 'You're still going to have to buy the clothes yourself, but Ms. Rollis put a discount code on the contract. That should help.'

As Liz was typing a 'thank you', she heard the apartment door open. She craned her neck to look behind her to see her father, just as drenched as she was when she got home. Luke looked into the hallway from his chair and practically shot up to get a towel, but was quickly dismissed.

"It's okay, bud, I can get it myself." Tracy got up from next to Michael to say hello to Kurt, while Lizzie got up to get him a towel anyways. Michael saved and shut off his game, and Luke returned to typing. Liz opened the closet door and was attacked by something falling on her face, something hard. She yelped and stumbled back, while whatever hit her fell to the floor. Upon further inspection, she saw that it was an air freshener, placed precariously on the top shelf. She angrily grabbed it and tossed it to the back, reaching to get a towel, rubbing her nose. She closed the door, turned to go back to the living room, and almost smacked right into Kurt, who looked concerned.

"You okay? I heard something fall, are you hurt? Is anything broken?" He turned on the hall light and pushed her hair out of her face, and stopped halfway, sighing. "Why is your hair wet?"

"I kind of forgot my umbrella this morning." Lizzie sheepishly handed him the towel. "What about you?"

Kurt raised an eyebrow. "My umbrella turned inside out in Manhattan. Sweetheart, you're going to get sick if you keep forgetting your umbrella."

"I know, I'm sorry, I thought I had it with me!" Liz exclaimed as her father rubbed his hair dry.

"Lizzie, it's okay. Just please don't forget it again." Kurt finished drying his hair, removing the towel and smiling warmly as his daughter. He ruffled Liz's hair while she tried to duck away unsuccessfully. Kurt turned towards the living room.

"Who's doing what tonight?

Lizzie claimed the first chore. "I'll do coffee for tomorrow."

Luke went next. "Dishes."

Michael said, "Garbage."

"Then I'm doing dinner. What do you guys want?" Kurt and Liz walked back into the living room. Liz joined Michael on the couch, while Kurt claimed the armchair not occupied by Luke.

"Pizza."

"Caviar!"

"Chinese food!"

"Something in the house!" Kurt exclaimed, looking exhausted.

A few seconds of silence, then Michael said, "Pasta?"

"That sounds good. Pasta it is, then."