Cold, nearly freezing rain was pouring over the streets of Brooklyn making the sidewalks extra slippery. Even in February New York still hadn't broken out of its winter cold spell. Unfortunately, that didn't prevent Sam from having to walk home. Joe had left school early for a doctor's appointment, and Fred had to stay after school for some reason. Normally Sam wouldn't mind waiting, but that would have meant being around the popular kids which was something that he avoided doing.
Sam sighed as his glasses fogged up for the third time. "At least I remembered to bring an umbrella."
He was almost home when he heard a weird noise coming from the alley. Weird, it almost sounded like… crying. When Sam poked his head inside to check it out, he saw a lone figure crouched by a stack of boxes.
"Fina?" Sam asked in confusion. "What are you doing?"
Fina looked up at the sound of his voice. Her wet curls were plastered all over her face and it was hard to tell with the water on her face was from tears or the rain or both.
"Hey, you can't be out in the rain like this." Sam said rushing over to her. "You could get really sick."
Fina's lips quivered. "But I can't just leave it here. It could get sick too."
"What would?" But then Sam looked down and saw that one of the cardboard boxes held inside a sleeping black kitten, shivering from the cold. "Aww, poor little guy."
"Can you believe someone just left it here?" Fina whimpered. "I can't abandoned it, but I can't take it home with me either."
Sam crouched down and shielded her with the umbrella. She was shivering just as badly as the kitten. "Did you try calling Joe? I think his little sister has a cat. I'm sure she wouldn't mind another one."
"I tried. He's not answering." Fina began to sniffle and her eyes welled up with tears. "I don't know what to do."
There was a clap of thunder making them jump. Sam bit his lip in thought. A list of homework assignments and essays were lined up waiting for him to do, but Fina was right, they couldn't just leave the kitten like that.
"Come on, we can take it to my place and figure it out from there." He said. "Joe's coming over for homework later anyway."
Fina nodded eagerly. She grabbed the kitten, cradled it in her arms, and stood up. Sam held the umbrella over both of them as they walked to his apartment.
"My mom is a freelance journalist and works at home a lot during the day so we have to keep it down." Sam warned in a whisper.
Fina gave him a small smile. "Trust me, quiet is my strong suit."
Sam chuckled and put his umbrella away before leading Fina to his room. She immediately flopped down on the floor and started stroking the kitten to try and warm it up. But the kitten wasn't the only one freezing. Fina's sweatshirt clung to her like a second skin and her hair was still dripping.
"Do you have a towel or something? The poor thing is freezing." She said.
"You look like you need one too." Sam said, shrugging off his rain jacket. "I'll be right back."
He grabbed a couple of towels from the hall closet, one big and one small. The bigger one he draped over Fina and the smaller one she took for the kitten. After a few minutes of rubbing and stroking, the kitten slowly woke up and opened one dark, blue eye. The other eye seemed to be missing or damaged. It yawned and began to roll around in the warmth of the towel.
"Well it seems to be alright." Sam smiled and sat down in front of it. "Hey little guy, that was a close call you had."
The kitten yawned and ignored his outstretched hand to lick itself instead. It did allow Sam to gently pet its head though.
"Thanks for this, Sam." Fina smiled, pulling her towel closer around her. "And not just for towel."
"It's no problem. We're friends now remember?" He smiled.
Fina blushed and occupied herself by playing with the kitten. While she did that, Sam sat at his desk to start on his homework. Every now and again he looked up to see the kitten mewling and nibbling on Fina's fingers.
"I think it might be hungry. Do you think it'll drink some milk?" He asked.
Fina nodded and nuzzled the top of the kitten's head. It mewled again and licked her nose. Sam headed into the kitchen and got out a small bowl and some milk. Lactose free milk of course. He was just putting it away when his cell phone beeped. New text message from Joe.
Hey, I'm at the door, let me up.
Sam rolled his eyes. "Would it kill you guys to buzz in?"
Carrying the bowl of milk in one hand, he went to open the door for Joe.
"Hey, how was your appointment?" Sam asked, letting him inside.
"Long. And pointy." Joe mumbled rubbing the bandage on his arm. He then noticed the milk he was carrying. "Did I interrupt your breakfast or something?"
"No, your girlfriend rescued a kitten." Sam chuckled and rolled his eyes. "I swear she's like the reincarnation of Mother Theresa or something."
"Who?"
"Ugh… never mind. Come on, she's in my room."
Joe followed him back to his room where Fina was still sitting in the floor playing with the kitten. She was smiling more than Sam had even seen her, but her smile grew shy and bashful when she spotted Joe behind him.
"Here's its milk." Sam said setting down the bowl. "I hope it doesn't mind lactose free."
The kitten jumped out of Fina's arms and practically jumped into the bowl, spilling half of it on the floor. Sam cringed but couldn't help but smile at how eagerly it lapped it up.
"It's cute." Joe said, sitting next to Fina. "What's its name?"
"Uh…" Sam and Fina exchanged a look and shrugged. "We don't know. We don't even know what gender it is."
"Looks like a boy to me." Joe smiled and reached a hand out towards it, but it hissed and ran back into Fina's lap.
Fina giggled and stroked its head. "I think he looks like a Marshal. What about Marshal Lee, Sam?"
"Sounds good to me. Now maybe we should get started on our homework?" He said opening up one of his binders. "Do you still need help in math Fina?"
"Yes," Fina sighed and moved closer to Sam.
Over the next hour the three of them did their homework together. Sam helped Fina with her math homework while Joe struggled with English. Every now and again Sam had to gently move Marshal Lee back into Fina's lap when he wandered over to him. It was cute the first few times, but it soon got distracting.
"And then I multiply… here?" Fina asked hesitantly.
"No here." Sam corrected her gently. "Remember, you have to multiply left to right okay?"
"Got it," Fina wrote something down then looked back up at him. "So the answer is… x=37?"
"That's right!" Sam smiled and looked over at Joe. "How are you doing over there, Joe?"
"I'm dying!" Joe groaned dramatically and flopped on the bed. "Finaaaaa!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Fina giggled.
Before Sam could protest she placed Marshal Lee in Sam's lap and bounced over to sit on the bed next to Joe. Sam watched them curiously. Sure they smiled at each other and acted pretty friendly, but Fina was just as friendly towards him, and they weren't even dating. But what did Sam know? It wasn't like he was dating anyone. Still, he was pretty curious…
"So how are you two doing?" Sam asked. "Relationship wise, I mean."
"Fine." They answered without looking up.
Sam raised an eyebrow, but decided to let it go. Just then his phone starting ringing and when he checked the caller id he saw it was Fred.
Sam pressed answer and put the phone to his ear. "Hey, you coming over soon?"
"Sam, you guys got to help me!" Fred said urgently in a tense voice. "I was able to get away for a minute, but she'll coming looking for me at any minute!"
"What's going on? Who's after you?"
"Joleena!" Fred practically yelled. "She's got me trapped here at the school, setting up for some stupid school event. It's taking forever and she's driving me crazy!"
There was some indistinct French yelling in the background and Fred's voice dropped to a whisper, "Sam, please I'm begging you. Bring Joe and Fina before I strangle this woman!"
The French yelling got louder and suddenly the phone hung up. Sam groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. He barely made a dent in his homework, but Fred sounded too desperate to ignore.
"Who was that?" Joe asked.
"Fred," Sam sighed and grabbed his jacket. "Come on, he needs our help at the school. Joleena's driving him crazy setting up for some school event."
"But what about Marshal Lee?" Fina asked. "We can't just leave him here. He'll think he's being abandoned again."
"He'll be fine."
Sam set Marshal Lee down but he immediately started mewling and pawing at Sam's pant leg. He forced himself to ignore it even though its mewling tugged at Sam's heart strings.
"Oh okay," Fina sighed. "I guess we'll pick this up later Joe?"
"Um, yeah sure." Joe sighed as well. "If Fred really needs us, I guess we have no choice do we?"
"And the sooner we help Fred, the sooner we can get back to doing homework."