Later that day, Frances, Georges, and Philip decide to talk a walk as Frances ranted about what happened with Alfred, Susan, and the sketchbook; of course, taking her time to say how bitchy Mary always was; and her encounter with Todd.
"Wait, Todd is back?!" Philip asks and Frances hums in agreement. She notices how he doesn't say anything else about it and seems quite uneasy, she then cocks an eyebrow.
"What's it?"
"Huh, nothing." He hesitates.
"I know you, spill."
Philip sighs before saying, "He ain't no good, Fran. I've heard he was convicted of shooting incidents, disruption of the peace, assaults... He even went to jail for a while and Madison had to bail him out."
"Uhm... Probably the reason why he moved so many times." Georges concludes.
"Exactly." Philip stops walking and touches Frances' shoulder, making her stop as well, "I am serious Fran, you should try to avoid him as much as you can unless you want big trouble."
Frances hesitates and glances at Georges, who seemed to be saying "Yeeeeah, I kind of agree" with his expression.
"But then why would he return to New York? He probably wants a fresh start. We used to be friends, perhaps that's all he needs."
"Yeah, when we were 12." Philip rolls his eyes and gets back on staring at her eyes. "People change, Fran."
She doesn't respond, in fact divided between doing what her friends were saying and what she thought that felt for the sunflower boy. Something caught her eye in the distance that made her attention be dragged away. Georges notices it and follows her gaze, finding the whole soccer team gathered around a tree just chilling out. She groans in annoyance by their presence before eyeing something else that made her grin maliciously.
"Hey, wanna see something fun?" She asks cocking an eyebrow. Before any of them could say anything, Frances knelt down and grabbed a rock, aiming and then throwing it towards a beehive hanging right above the team's head.
She missed.
Philip crossed his arms in amusement as she bent down to grab a second rock. "I bet five bucks you won't hit it."
"Deal" She replies already aiming and throws the rock.
Misses again.
"COME ON!" She groans.
"Wanna make it double?" Philip smirks.
"DEAL!" She answers once again, getting irritated.
She grabs a third rock and this one finally hits the beehive. It fell and crashed when hit the ground, starling the boys around it as the bees began to spread out furiously and chase them as the trio burst out laughing and high-fived, laughing even harder when the team had to jump into the lake to escape from the bees.
Some spilled water out of their mouths and coughed while others still looked around in fright for the bees. One by one, they tried to stand up by leaning against each without slipping and falling into the lake again, which some failed in after the bees flew away. Jason notices the trio laughing and nudges Alfred, who just had slipped into the water with an annoyed hiss.
Alfred stands up once again pointing at the two still completely dry on the other side of the lake when he shouted, "YOU DID THAT, LAURENS?!"
"WHAT?! Can't take some payback, flower boy?!" She replied sarcastically leaning over Georges, who wheezed and whipped away a tear.
"URGH, let's go get them!" Jason shouts and the team agrees as they try to walk out of the lake still as clumsily as before, and the trio starts running.
"Ok, now what's the plan?!" Georges question as they run out of the park still laughing as they heard the team loudly and messily running after them.
"No idea, just keep running!" Frances replies and they run for a while more, dodging the people who complained at them but not as much as at the soaking wet boys who had to apologize every two seconds to some old lady.
"Great plan! It made me 10 dollars poorer and a life threat!" Philip complained.
"Shut up, the bet was your idea!" Frances replied.
"Pip, take left! Fran, go straight! I take right!" Georges quickly think as soon as he notices a bifurcation and each of them takes their different directions.
Georges ran around the block and by the moment Frances passed by the alley he was hiding in, he grabbed her arm and pulled in, then crouching down behind some boxes and an old carriage. They stood in silence, covering their mouths to avoid breathing too loud, seconds before they saw the team run by them without noticing anything.
They looked at each other and had to stiff in their laughs as the last boys passed by, something suddenly falling over Georges' belly and taking all the air out of his lungs before he looked down, finding a tiny creature, which even being extremely dirty, still could be noticed how it was a pure white kitten with different eye colors, one blue and another green. It meowed at him and Georges cooed before starting to hug it, "Fran it is so cute!"
"I know it is, now leave it here, we gotta go before they come back," Frances says standing up.
"Leave it here?! What?! Are you insane, woman?! You have no heart!" He brings the kitty close to his chest as if to avoid her to take the animal away from him.
"And what are you supposed to do? You can't take another pet home unless you want your father to completely lose it. And don't look at me!" She raises her hands, "I already have Judy and she had a tough adaptation when you gave Mack to Stephan. I still don't know how she didn't eat that cat..."
"Yeah, but what about... Uh, Philip?"
"Already has Will," She crosses her arms as she says the gray cat's name. "And you remember how his father was tough to convince."
"Angie?"
"Same thing. Also she has Cookie. Again, all thanks to you." He thinks for a second after reminding about the tiny curly furred dog that looked more like a stuffed animal than anything else that he gave to Angelica on her 16th birthday.
"Theo?"
"Are you kidding? Aaron hates animals. She only has Spirit because her mother gave it to her. And he also never stays inside the house."
"Of course he doesn't, he is a horse. Ahm, Mary?!" He shouts in a last hope.
"Are you serious?" She asks emotionlessly as if the answer was obvious and Georges huffed sulkily.
"Look Georges, I know you wanna help those animals but you can't help every single one of them! Come on, all the squad already has at least one because of you, you should already feel accomplished by that."
He pouted, slightly looking up at her through his eyelashes, "Yeah but..."
"Nah ah ah! Don't look at me like that!" She says looking away from his puppy eyes and stretching her hands to cover his face from her vision, "Not gonna work this time!"
He huffs again, "Fine." They stood up and the kitty meowed again when was placed on the ground, "Sorry, kitty... But you heard her." It meowed again and Georges hummed, trying to contain his ill to grab it again.
"Georges..." Frances calls him sternly and the kitty meows again, the big guy running to get it back into his arms again "Georges!"
"I WILL THINK IN SOMETHING, OK?!"
Frances sighs, "Ok, you do you. Now let's go."
...
After they found Philip, already safe in his house, Georges accompanied Frances to her house before heading to his own place, still carrying the small kitten in his hand. He took a sit on a bench along the way with a low sigh, petting the kitten's head. "What am I going to do with you, uh?" It meowed in response, closing its eyes in pleasure and making Georges chuckle.
"Oh, hey there Georges." Violetta greets with a soft smile, "What are you doing here?"
"This won't allow me to go home." He points at the cat and Violetta awed, leaning down to pet it as well.
"What's your name, cutie?" She says in a pitched voice.
"Still doesn't have any. I just found it a few blocks away in an alley, didn't seem to have anyone around so I am trying to figure out where to take it..."
"Why don't you keep it?" Violetta suggests, crouching down to continue to pet the cat in a more comfortable way.
"I caaaan't," He groans in frustration, leaning his head back, "My father told me that after the tenth pet he wouldn't let me bring any other home. And besides, Maria is pregnant so..."
"Ten?" She squeals in surprise.
"Yep, six dogs and four cats."
"Ah- Wow," Violetta is at a loss of words, "But isn't there many fights? I mean... Dogs and cats under the same roof?"
"Nothing can be worse than Mary, Frances, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton under the same roof." He joked and the girl giggled, "But no. They weird out when a new one gets to the house but none of them got into fights... Except for Pesto. That cat is such a snob... He thinks that owns the world!" That made Violetta giggle again and the kitty purred with Violetta's touch at a new place under their chin, placing their small paw at her hand to prevent it from moving away.
Georges grinned at the sight, "Seems like he liked you."
"It does, right?" Violetta chuckles awkwardly.
"Why don't you keep it?"
"Wha-What?!" She looked up at him with wide eyes.
"Yeah! I mean, both of you seemed to have liked each other, so why not?"
"Because my parents don't allow us to have pets." She says sorrowfully "I can't bring it home even if I wanted to."
"Why don't you give it a try? Maybe when they see this cute little fellow they let you keep it?" Georges caresses the kitten's head and Violetta hesitates as they stare at each other, making the girl blush like crazy for standing so close to him and looked away bashfully, "O-Ok, I will try..."
"YES! Thank you, Vi, you're the best!" Georges shouts in glee, giving her a kiss on the cheek and she blushed harder.
...
Violetta arrived at home more nervous than she ever felt before with the kitten in her arms. She sneaked her head inside to see if there was anyone at home and then finds her entire family setting the table for dinner.
"Hey, Vi! Good afternoon!" She was greeted by her younger sister Mary.
"He-hey!" Violetta replies with a nervous smile, still not stepping inside the house.
"Are you ok?" Her sister asks, "Why won't you come inside?"
Violetta sighs in defeat and walks in. Her sister screeched when saw the little kitten and ran to pet it. In a matter of seconds, Violetta was bombarded with questions as her little brother, Edward, also ran to pet the kitten while 12 years-old Samuel scratched its ear with a tiny smile as Abigail, their oldest sister, awed standing behind her other brothers, taking in the kitten's adorableness from a distance. The cat quickly felt trapped and jumped at Violetta's shoulder, hiding under her long blonde hair.
"What's all of this commotion, uh?" Their father asks walking into the room and all the children fell quiet.
Violetta tries her best to not stutters, but fails, "I-I-It's a cat."
"I can see it's a cat, but what is it doing here?" Samuel says crossing his arms with a soft expression, speaking in his usual serious but careful tone.
"M-My friend found it a-and he couldn't keep it so he asked if I could... Please papa, let it stay. It has no home and is really calm and sweet and won't cause any trouble I promise!" She says begging with her hands united in front of her body, to which her siblings copied in an attempt to convince their father as they also made their pleads.
Samuel stood in silence thinking about the matter, "Who gave it to you again, Vi?"
Violetta blushed at the memory of standing close to Georges and murmured, "... Georges de... Lafayette..." The thought of lying didn't even cross her mind. Her family fell quiet seconds before Samuel grabbed the cat and placed him on the outside, giving a soft kick to its butt to made it go away. "PAPA!" Violetta shouted, trying to reach for the cat but he closed the door before she could.
"No revolutionary trash in this house!"
"But that poor kitty has nothing to do with them, and-"
"Violetta," He interrupted her and she stopped talking right away with a low sigh, "I think we must have a talk later about why you should not get involved with that people."
She looked down at her feet in embarrassment and sadness, holding her hands tightly together in front of her body, "Yes, papa..."
"Now, may we have dinner?" Violetta's mother said walking out of the dining room with a kind smile, trying to light up the mood, to which the family nodded before following her to the table. The dinner went silent and Violetta was the first one to finish. She washed her dishes slowly before heading to her room upstairs.
She sighed deeply as she sat at the couch by the window. She loved her father; he was a role model and taught her everything she knew, but she always thought it was foolish of him to be so afraid of things related to those men. Surely, their family had already received some threats for Samuel being a representative from England, but now they lived in America. They couldn't be scared of talking to people just because of that. Violetta remembered of the many times Alfred was the reason people never harassed her about it, once his father was an important war man in the past, even with his flaws.
Violetta started to drift away by resting her head against the glass and slowly closing her eyes, when there was a soft tap at the window and she jolted awake, seeing the kitten on the other side. It meowed at her and she opened the window with a smile "What are you still doing here?"
The cat made itself comfortable in her lap before stretching out and yawning, "Oh, tired are we?" She giggles softly, "Yea, I am too... I think you can stay for the night but only if you promise to be quiet, heard me?"
She ended up falling asleep at the window couch, with the cat calmly purring at her chest.
...
The girl woke up to the sound of her mother knocking at her door and Violetta rushed the cat out the window gently, which it obligated without hesitation. She went through her morning routine faster than usual before stepping out of her house and finding the kitten sitting at the white fence, waiting for her. She gasped in glee and surprise before she giggled and approached the cat, "Aw you waited for me?" It mewed at her in response, making her giggle once again. "Come on, let's go." Violetta tilts her head with a smile and the kitten jumped to the street when she started to walk, walking side by side with her.
During all day long the cat followed her around, earning awes and pets from many people, but never leaving Violetta's side for long. It waited for her right outside her every classroom until they were over and then could follow her again.
"Oown Vi, it is so cute." Susan awed while petting the kitten's head, the tiny white body resting on Violetta's lap once again, "What's his name?"
"Uhm..." Violetta thought for a second, "Simon."
"Simon?"
"Yes, he was one of the twelve Apostles and I must admit I always found that name cute" Violeta giggles.
"Well, I find it lovely. And it suits him. I guess he liked it, didn't you Simon?" Susan asks scratching the cat's chin before it meowed and the girls cooed at it.