The vet, and gifts.

Mom did find a vet that was open on Sundays. We got lucky and our new kitten was seen almost immediately. Alice and Noelle didn’t come with us, but said they’d be back soon.

The kitten was female, around three weeks old, said the vet. Clearly malnourished, but thankfully not in critical condition. The vet said she must’ve been abandoned at most a week ago. We were given advice on how to take care of her. We purchased the formula and wet kitten food, along with a bottle of shampoo and a carrier. Well, mom purchased it. She stopped me when I was about to bring out my wallet.

Mom paid for the vet and everything else, even though she tried very hard to drive the point across that keeping a pet was costly. It was something that I would understand as time went by. Mom never really expected us to cover all of the cat’s expenses, but wanted us to believe we would have to so that we wouldn’t make irresponsible decisions.

We went back home with our new family member. Isabelle kept the carrier on her lap all the way back, smiling from ear to ear.

“You’re going to give her a bath as soon as we’re home,” mom said. “I was afraid giving her one before the vet saw her would be dangerous.” Was that directed to Isabelle, me, or both? She didn’t say more, so we assumed it was meant for both of us.

Did I ever tell you we had a backyard? It was small, and with nothing of note but an old grill we never used and not very well cared-for grass. Isabelle got a shallow plastic container and set it outside while I boiled some water and mixed it with more room-temperature water.

The kitten meowed in complaint as loud as it could, trying to struggle in my hands as I lowered it to the warm water. The struggling of a kitten as big as my hands wasn’t much of a struggle at all.

“Someone doesn’t like baths,” Isabelle said, grinning, kneeling across from me and looking into the improvised cat bath.

“She hasn’t even tried it yet,” I told her.

The moment the cat was in the water, she calmed down. She started pouncing around, splashing and rolling on her back.

I grinned. “You were saying?”

The clear water began to turn muddy from all the dirt on the cat. Isabelle poured some cat shampoo on my hands and I carefully started scrubbing the little thing.

I kept a straight face, focusing on my task and not on how adorable the cat was.

“So… What are we gonna name her?” Isabelle asked.

Oh. Right. A name.

“...How about Missy?” I suggested.

“There must be a million cats named Missy out there. How about Miranda?”

“That sounds awful.”

“How so? What’s wrong with Miranda?”

“Doesn’t roll off the tongue.” I looked down at the kitten in my hands, now cleaner and covered in soap and foam, with patches of orange but mostly white fur. “How about Cake?”

“Cake?” Isabelle repeated as if trying out the name. “Cake. Mmm. You know… I kinda like it. Cake.” She giggled. “Okay, let’s go with Cake!”

Cake meowed at us in approval. Or I took it as approval, at least. I don’t speak cat.

Isabelle took care of drying duty. She took Cake and wrapped her in a small towel while I dried my own hands with another.

“...What are we going to do tomorrow? When we need to go to school, I mean,” she asked me.

I sighed. “Leave her in a closed room with food, water and something to play with?”

“Yes, that’s probably what we’ll have to do,” mom said, walking out of the house to check how we were doing. “I’ll ask our neighbor to check on her once or twice.”

“Mom, look at Cake!” Isabelle said, holding Cake towards mom. “She’s even cuter now that she’s clean!”

Mom started laughing. “Cake? Seriously? That’s what you named her?”

“What? I like it,” Isabelle pouted.

“No, no. It’s a good name. Just… goes to show your tastes.”

“Oliver came up with it.”

“Same thing.”

Thirty minutes later, Alice and Noelle came back, and they did so with a huge bag full of gifts for the cat which they set down in the living room.

“Oh my god!” Isabelle gasped. “You didn’t have to!”

There was a litter box, sand, a bed, some blankets, toys, treats, a collar, a retractable leash, and even a scratching post.

“We said we’d help,” Alice said. “We pushed this on you, so it’s the least we can do. How did it go at the vet?”

Isabelle began to fill her friends in on the details while I looked through the things they bought, crouching next to the bag. There was a bowl for food and water with an electronic dispenser so you could set a timer for when you wanted the food and water to be, well, dispensed.

Noelle kneeled next to me, maybe a bit too close. “We figured you’d need this one in particular, since you’ll be at school most of the day. Oh, and this is a mouse that runs on battery, so it can chase it around all day if it wants to.”

I smiled wryly. “Thank you, Noelle, but… This is too much. It must’ve cost a lot.”

The redhead shook her head. “Not that much, really. Don’t worry about it. You were right when you said it’s a big responsibility, and I felt bad for asking you to take the cat in out of nowhere. This really is the least we could do.”

“I didn’t… I didn’t say that to make you feel bad,” I told her.

“I know.” She giggled. “Doesn’t make you less right. Thank you for agreeing, Oliver.”

My heart skipped a beat again. It was a familiar feeling, the one I got when she looked at me with that smile, one that I hurried to push away.

I stood up, looking at the kitten already loving the scratching pole, even if it was about ten times her size. “We named her Cake, by the way.”

“Oh my God! That’s perfect!” she beamed and went to play with Cake.

I sighed tiredly and turned away. It was a good thing I could speak to other people now, but it was still exhausting. Just because I could bring myself to do it didn’t erase the fear of screwing up. Not completely.

I looked towards my sister, who was sitting at the couch with Alice, talking. The council president caught my gaze and… smiled at me, making me turn away in embarrassment.

That had been a smile I couldn't quite understand. It could have been a thankful smile, but to me it looked more like… she was proud or something.

No use thinking about it.

I went back to my room and left the girls alone with Cake.