Thunder sounded in the distance as the rain continued to hammer me. What a terrible end to a terrible Monday. It wasn’t supposed to rain until later tonight, so I’d let mum take our only umbrella today since she got off late.

“Which would have been fine if the sky hadn’t decided to open up on me!” I shouted to nobody in particular. I silently cursed my inability to make friends and borrow an umbrella from them. In fairness, I could kind of understand where everyone was coming from. Who wanted to be friends with the awkward poor kid with no hobbies? Hell, even I wouldn’t want to be friends with me. As I continued looking for a spot to wait out the rain, I booked it over one of those old stone bridges that crossed a small river.

Wait. Duh! I spun on my heel, sliding and stumbling a bit as I booked it down the riverside slope and under the bridge.

Annoyingly for me, somebody decided that my would-be shelter was a good place to dump all sorts of trash and empty cardboard boxes. Like, can’t you be considerate of the unfortunate high school guys who get caught in the rain on their way home?! Not to mention that all this litter was gonna be washed downstream in a few days if this rain kept up.

Not one to be discouraged, I grabbed a few of the boxes and flipped them over on their sides, covering some of the debris on the ground. There, some non-trashy mud to stand on, and a clean(ish) impromptu seat to wait out the rain. Good job, Haru! Now to assess the damage.

Fortunately, I’d at least been mindful enough to wear my blazer today, which saved my white button-down and royal blue tie from getting soaked through. My khaki-colored pants got the worst of it, soaked all the way up to my calves. I hated that feeling, and the squelching of my black shoes and white socks underneath didn’t help me feel any better, but there wasn’t much I could do about it at the moment. At least Kincade High didn’t cheap out on the uniforms.

An (admittedly) cute little sneeze startled me as I fussed over my soaked clothes. I jerked upwards and looked around, losing my balance and just barely saving myself from an impromptu dip in the creek. There still wasn’t anyone here, though. Just me, a bunch of trash, and a couple of boxes. One of which sneezed again. Oh. 

Against my better judgment, I crept towards the small cardboard box and cracked open the lid, utterly unprepared for my heart to be broken twenty times over. 

Inside the box was a tiny white kitten on a bed of dirty old rags. The poor thing was shivering and shuddering terribly, and its fur was all matted and dirty. The kitten looked somewhat scrawny too, like it hadn’t eaten in days. It was curled up, trying to preserve the remainder of its body heat.

I bit my lower lip, thinking. Mum could barely pay the rent, let alone put food on our plates. Even if I actually got the part-time job I applied for, taking care of this cat would probably cost more than I could anticipate. But… I couldn’t just leave the kitten here to die in the rain, right? 

The kitten sneezed again.

I tussled my hair in frustration. “Uuuuuuu…! Fine!” I exclaimed. “I’ll… I’ll figure something out.”

Taking care not to disturb the sleeping kitty, I closed the box back up, then took off my blazer and wrapped it around the box, tying the arms together. Bam! Makeshift cat carrier.

Of course, mother nature decided now would be a good time to crack her whip of thunder and start pouring even harder. I really needed to get moving before my hiding spot got flooded. Or I froze to death.

I stared at the box in my hands again, taking a deep breath. “You owe me for this one, little kitty!”

I took off from under the bridge at full speed, holding the box in both hands so I wouldn’t jostle my new friend too bad. My house wasn’t that far away, I reasoned. Only like a couple of blocks… maybe I’d have some good luck and like, dodge the biggest raindrops, or something. I’d probably have to run back out for pet supplies later, and try to explain all this to mum… tonight was going to be a long night.