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It was a dark and gloomy Wednesday night in Destiny City, made all the more gloomy by the chill in the air and the steady fall of rain. It had been raining since the night before, leaving the courtyards of Hillworth a treacherous wasteland of mud and rocks. At first, the administration tried to force those on landscape duty to work anyway, but after a freshman boy was nearly struck by lightning, they called it off, forcing the boys to scrub the bathrooms instead. It took half the time that normal landscape duty did, and in a odd turn of good luck, that gave Parker a night to himself. For a moment, he thought of calling Dani, but he still wasn't certain of what to do with her. The crush was problematic; it made him care about how she saw him. That meant he had to censor himself, which was incredibly difficult for a boy who seldom saw a reason to change his ways for the benefit of others. Of course, he wasn't really changing anything, just controlling his mouth a bit better. It was probably too late anyway, almost 8:00pm. How would her dad feel about a Hillworth boy calling to make plans this late on a school night?

Shrugging off the thought, Parker retreated to his bed with a stack of books -- all Shakespeare. His brief flirtation with Dani had unconsciously changed his reading preferences, and for the past few weeks, Parker found himself divulging more in philosophical poetry than prose. He hid the books from his roommate Jaimie during the day, but the boy wasn't there that night. Probably sneaking out or something. Parker didn't mind. He liked his solitude and had gotten quite good at reattaching the iron bars that were secured to each Hillworth window. Like a prison.

Parker read for a bit, some of the sonnets. When that got old, he switched to some of the plays. The library had a fat compilation of all of Shakespeare's works, and Parker thumbed through it, searching the pages for the play that called most to him. As his fingers traced the page, he became slowly aware of the dead air in the room. He set his book aside and crossed quickly to the window, cracking it no more than two inches wide. It brought in a gust of chill air, but Parker's bed was far enough to make it a cool breeze and he was wearing a dark gray hoodie.

Satisfied, he retreated back to his bed and his book. The steady pounding of the rain provided white noise, and Parker closed his eyes from time to time to take in the sound. It was the perfect night for a nerd.

Clean fingertips lingered over the title of the closest play. A tragedy -- King Lear. Not exactly the kind of mood Parker was in, for once. He began to turn the page when he heard a noise outside his window. A... meow? He glanced to the window for a moment, figuring it to be a passing alley cat. Sometimes, late at night, Parker would hear them fighting, their hisses ricocheting across the streets surrounding Hillworth. He paused for a moment and then returned to the book in front of him.

Then it came again.

Parker glanced back to the window. The heavy slush of rain brought in a cool chill. A frown crossed his face. His own cat had been taken from him, and truth be told, Parker had a soft spot for kittens. A giant soft spot. Really, it was more of a gaping hole in his chest. He secretly bookmarked icanhascheezburger and cuteoverload, and he liked to spend part of his time on Youtube looking up videos of cats being cute.

Whatever precious creature was outside of his window, the second meow told Parker it was waiting for something. Jaimie wasn't home and probably wouldn't be until late. Hopping off of his bed, Parker lifted the window all the way open, immediately drawing back as a whip of wet, cool air slapped him in the face. "Damn," he said, pulling the neck of his hoodie up over his chin. The bars of the window stood about ten inches from the window, enough for Parker to jut his head forward and peek down. "Hello," he said, a bit quietly. From that angle, he couldn't see a cat anywhere. "...kitty?" The words sounded dumb when they came out, but Parker continued to lean, looking for a furry face in need.