Justin didn't do much over the summer despite his mother's best protests. He occasionally met up with other robotics club kids to play video games but most of his time was spent coding in his room. He wanted to make a video game of his own someday and needed the practice.
His bedroom door flung open. "Justin! We're going out!"
His mother's hands were on her hips. He knew that stance. She wasn't going to back down until he agreed to do what she wanted.
"Where?" he asked dully. He was in the middle of coding and didn't want to lose his place.
"The community pool and out to eat. Your cousins are in town for the day."
His cousins were his mother's sister's kids and they lived about two hours away. Occasionally, they would drive down to visit for the day or vice versa and Justin always dreaded it.
All of his cousins were way younger than him. And girls. They had nothing to talk about!
"Mooooooom," he whined. "Do I have to?"
"Yes, you do, so get dressed," she said firmly.
An hour later, Justin found himself unwillingly listening to his ten-year-old cousin Samantha go on about a TV show she liked about magical ponies as everyone ate ice cream cones by the poolside.
His ears perked up when he heard a familiar voice coming from the sidewalk on the other side of the gate surrounding the pool. "Look, you guys!!"
Three girls were crouched down in front of a bush, clearly looking at something.
"Awww!" a girl Justin didn't recognize who was wearing sunglasses cooed. "It's so cute!"
"What an adorable little kitty," another girl agreed.
"I want to take it home so bad!" Emily squealed.
Sunglasses Girl rolled her eyes. "Em, you already have three cats at home. Your parents would kill you. Didn't you already have to make a deal with your dad just to keep the third one?"
Emily pouted. "Don't remind me. I'll never pay that off." She turned back toward the bush. "It's so little though, how can I just leave it on its own?"
"It'll be fine," the third girl said. "It's a cat. Cats are used to living outside."
"That doesn't mean it's safe," Emily said, biting her lip. "I've lost cats to coyotes and hawks before. Not to mention, it could starve or get hit by a car."
Sunglasses Girl shook her head. "You really are a crazy cat lady."
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Can we just go?" the third girl interrupted. "The movie is supposed to start soon."
Emily gave one last longing look at the bush before letting her friends lead her across the street. Curious, Justin stuffed the remainder of his ice cream in his mouth and walked outside the gate.
His mother and aunt were too engrossed in conversation to notice but Samantha did. "Hey! Where are you going?"
"I want to see something," Justin said. "Wait there."
"Justin!" Samantha protested. "Wait for me!"
She scrambled after him but Justin still reached the bush first. A small black and white kitten peered up at him and meowed.
Panting, she caught up to her cousin and gushed over how cute the kitten was. Justin didn't know much about cats, as he had never had one.
He turned to his cousin. "How do you pick it up?"
Samantha looked at him like he was an idiot. "Seriously? Just watch."
She deftly scooped the kitten up, supporting its feet with one hand and wrapped the other around its body, securing it to her chest. The kitten purred at the contact and rubbed its head against Samantha's shoulder.
Justin circled his cousin curiously. "What's it doing?"
"Are you stupid? It's purring. It means it's happy being held." She looked at him encouragingly. "Try to pet it!"
He reached a tentative hand out to touch the kitten's head. The purring got louder.
"It likes it!" he said delightedly.
The rest of the cousins had noticed the kitten through the gate and came over to investigate. When the three- and five-year-olds left, the moms finally noticed and came over as well.
"What a cute kitten!" Aunt Rhonda exclaimed. "Where did you find it?"
"In the bush, Mommy," little Kaitlyn said. "I wanna keep it!" Her sisters echoed this in a chorus. "Please? Please, Mom?"
"We can't bring it all the way home," she said gently. "It's too far."
"I can keep it," Justin spoke up.
Everyone stared at him in shock. He had never expressed any interest in animals before. Or anything that wasn't related to computers.
"If it's okay with you, Mom."
His mother looked at him thoughtfully. Having something to get the boy off his computer once in a while would be a good thing.
"It's okay with me. But now we have to go get things for it."
Everyone happily clambered into their respective cars and headed towards the nearest pet store. A few hours later, the kitten (dubbed Cookie) was happily exploring the living room as everyone else watched.
Justin watched the cat with interest. Some of the things it did were kind of funny. Was this why Emily liked cats so much?
After his cousins left, he took Cookie back to his room and decided to look Emily up on social media. He found her InstaFace account pretty easily. Half of the pictures were with friends or siblings and the other half were of her three cats.
He didn't have an account but decided he may as well so he could follow her. He made his username _cookie_ and took a picture of the kitten to be his profile photo before following em.is.a.gem. His name wasn't linked to the account so she wouldn't know it was him.
The cat meowed at him. He took another picture. Fifteen minutes later, he saw that em.is.a.gem had followed him back and liked the picture of Cookie that he posted.
He smiled and patted the cat on the head. Good kitty.