Fiz's first appearance was as a troubled sixteen-year-old fostered by Roy (David Neilson) and Hayley Cropper (Julie Hesmondhalgh). Her boisterous attitude clashes with the pair and Roy gets angry with her when she starts a small fire in the flat while cooking chips. Fiz claims Roy hit her; the claim is quickly dismissed and Fiz is sent to another foster family. Fiz reappears a few months later, having dropped out of school, and gets a job as a machinist at Mike Baldwin's (Johnny Briggs) factory. She is initially dismissive of Roy and Hayley, but when Hayley is held on remand for kidnapping Wayne Hayes (Gary Damer), a boy the Croppers were trying to save from his abusive stepfather, she changes her mind, recognising the Croppers are the only parental figures who truly cared for her, and takes it upon herself to look after Roy in Hayley's absence.