Therapy
"A certain degree of neurosis is of inestimable value as a drive, especially to a psychologist…" – Sigmund Freud
Chapter 1 – The Doctor Will See You Now

Selphie chewed her apple very slowly and looked from one side of the cafeteria to the other suspiciously, as if she were afraid someone was about to jump out and attack her. Seifer looked at her curiously. He had been doing so for a few moments already but had yet to say anything: he was going through his head looking for the best insult to utter to the overly peppy girl.

"Expecting something bad to happen Nostradamus?" he finally said, pleased with his choice of words. Selphie looked up at him quickly and stopped chewing. "Why do you look so nervous?" he asked. Selphie swallowed and looked from one end of the table to the other.

"I look nervous, Seifer, because I am nervous," she said quietly.

"Why?" he asked quickly, annoyed that the girl wouldn't just get to the point. Rinoa and Irvine, who were eating their lunch, stopped to listen to the conversation. Zell, however, could not drag himself away from his hot dog.

"Haven't you heard?" asked Selphie in an even quieter voice, "We have a new therapist in the Garden." Seifer stared blankly at her in response.

"Why does that make you nervous Selph?" asked Rinoa.

"Clearly because she's insane and doesn't want to get taken off to the loony bin," smirked Seifer. He was really on a roll today.

"I heard that Cid is making some people go to see her for like regular psych evaluations or whatever, and then they come back traumatized because the woman is evil," said Selphie widening her eyes and forming a claw with her left hand to emphasize 'evil'.

"That's ridiculous," said Rinoa.

"Yeah Selphie," said Irvine, "I don't think Cid would hire an evil woman to be a therapist. I mean who has even gone to see her? This is the first I've ever heard of this."

"This girl Jane went to see her and apparently after the session, her roommate came back to the dorm and found her with a shaved head and she had made a doll out of the hair," said Selphie nodding. This was really annoying Seifer; Selphie was normally insane, but this was just plain stupid.

"That's terrifying," said Zell who had finished his hot dog and was now listening intently to Selphie's words. Seifer rolled his eyes, of course the Chicken Wuss would believe that load of shit.

"Selphie I rarely say this to people, but you need to fucking relax," said Seifer.

"You always tell me that," said Selphie.

"Tell you what?" asked Seifer.

"To 'fucking relax'," she replied.

"Take your own advice," said Seifer immediately cracking up. He was just so funny today.

"What's with the one liners, are you practicing a stand up routine?" asked Irvine. Seifer stopped laughing. Damn, he had been burned. Way to ruin the streak…

"Squall have you heard anything about this new therapist?" asked Rinoa. Squall hadn't said a word to add to the conversation and he clearly had no intention to. He looked at Rinoa shrugged and turned to look out the window.

"Well I think that you shouldn't be so nervous Selphie. We don't even know if this woman is evil, or if any of us will get appointed sessions," said Rinoa, always one to have a level head about things.

Selphie shrugged and took another bite of her apple. Let her friends be so nonchalant about this. Selphie was going to be prepared for anything. Mostly she was prepared to hide from Cid in case he decided to give her an appointment. She had been dodging his messages all week in case that was the reason for his calls. It made planning next months spirit week with the Garden Committee pretty difficult.

At that moment Quistis walked into the cafeteria looking mad and accidentally knocked into someone who was walking by with a tray in their hands, knocking his food to the floor and ruining her SeeD uniform.

"Watch where you're going!" yelled the student who was clearly new since it was pretty well known you don't yell at instructors. Quistis looked at the boy with her mouth open and her jaw jutted out forward angrily.

"What?" she exclaimed, "Watch where I'm going? What about you fucktard? You got juice all over my uniform!" Quistis took a can of pop from the hands of one of the students who was watching the exchange and poured it slowly over the head of the boy. He looked at her shocked, paralyzed in his place. "Get out!" exclaimed the blonde. The boy quickly ran out of the cafeteria and Quistis stomped off toward the table where her friends were eating lunch.

She took a seat next to Seifer, completely ignoring the fact that everyone in the room was staring at her. Quistis unzipped her wet sweater and draped it over the back of the empty seat behind her. She looked up at her friends who were all staring at her in shock. Except for Squall, whose face held the same emotionless look it always did.

"What?" she asked the table. Then she looked around and saw that everyone in the cafeteria was still looking at her. "WHAT?" she exclaimed to the entire room. Everyone stopped looking at her and pretended to go back to what they were doing before. Quistis looked back to the table and turned to meet Seifer's gaze.

"I have never been so turned on in my entire life," he said breathlessly.

"Quistis are you alright?" asked Rinoa completely ignoring Seifer's remark. "You seem a little… on edge."

"Do I?" asked Quistis, her tone changing from wildly angry to her normal self, "I'm so sorry. Do you think that boy is upset?"

"You poured a can of pop over his head," said Irvine in response.

"I don't know what's gotten into me. I guess I'm still upset about that session I had earlier."

"What session?" asked Rinoa.

"Cid hired a new therapist, Bethany Weeler, and made all the instructors go see her and some of the other staff. She's a little… intense, I guess is how I would describe her," responded Quistis. Selphie glared at Seifer, her eyes screaming 'I told you so'.

"Would you say she is 'evil'?" asked Selphie, still staring at Seifer.

"Oh yeah," responded Quistis taking a cookie off of Zell's plate and biting into it.

"Did she make you cut off all your hair and make a doll out of it?" asked Zell nervously.

"What? No, that makes no sense. That isn't true." Zell looked to Selphie who nodded and mouthed the words 'it's true'.

"Quistis, what did she do to make you so angry?" asked Rinoa.

"And how do I get you to do that?" asked Seifer still staring at Quistis hungrily.

"I don't know… there isn't really one specific thing she did. It was sort of the whole hour I spent with her. She's just so nosy and she makes you feel like you're an idiot. And on top of that she kept interrupting me with snide remarks and I just…" Quistis trailed off and took a deep breath, not wanting to get upset again.

"I told you," said Selphie, "I told you all."

"She can't be that bad," said Rinoa.

"You'll find out soon enough," said Quistis, "Cid told me to tell you that he's scheduled you a meeting tomorrow."

"Why?" asked Rinoa suddenly nervous, "I'm not on staff… sort of." Rinoa worked in the infirmary as an intern. She wasn't getting paid for it so she technically wasn't an official employee of the Garden. "If anything Squall should go in. He's like all quiet and you know the craziest ones are always quiet." Squall looked up at her surprised. "Well you barely talk." He shrugged in response.

"I thought that she 'wasn't that bad'. Are you nervous now?" asked Selphie proudly.

"No… I'm sure it will be fine," said Rinoa, almost believing her own words. If this woman could reduce Quistis to an angry mess what would she do to her? "I'll go to that session tomorrow and I will come back from it and tell you all how perfectly normal it was."

"Uh-huh…?" said Selphie skeptically, "Well I am out of here."

"Why?" asked Quistis, "Did I offend you too?"

"No, it's not that," said Selphie standing up, "If Rinoa has a meeting tomorrow then Cid might be looking for her. I can't take the chance of getting caught around her and being assigned a session too." Selphie walked off, careful to look behind the door before exiting the cafeteria into the hallway.

Zell looked around at his friends for a moment before getting up and leaving himself. Irvine followed soon after offering Rinoa a simple 'sorry'. She looked to Squall who clearly didn't care enough to leave and then at Seifer.

"Aren't you going to run off with the rest of them?" she asked him.

"I can't really uh… get up right now…." he said with a blush still looking at Quistis. Rinoa rolled her eyes. Quistis looked at him with her eyes in slits.

"You're perverted."