Sam tapped her foot impatiently. With her arms crossed she looked around the small room. Everything about it just had this annoyingly cuddly feel to it. Like a child's nursery. The room was muggy, the yellowish-green walls were a complete eyesore, the couch she was on was older than time, and worst of all was the man who sat across from her in an annoyingly large chair with his legs crossed and a clipboard across his knee and a pen in his hand. The only vaguely interesting thing in the room were the photographs on the wall, which were at least somewhat artsy. But Sam's eyes were glued to the clock, which seemed to be ticking backwards. It's little hands like tiny daggers, poking indecently into her with each little tock. So far she'd endured fifteen minutes of silence and it was beginning to drive her absolutely insane. She knew she wouldn't be able to take two hours weekly of this terrible room.

"Are you just going to stare at me?" she asked. Her tone was harsh and out of the blue enough to make the boy across from her, or, sorry, the doctor jump. That was almost enough to make her smile, but she tried not to. Best not to make anyone think she was a sociopath on top of an alcoholic.

"You said you didn't want to talk," the doctor said.

"I don't."

"Well, then," he shrugged and let his eyes drift around them, letting the silence that filled the room answer her that those were her only two options.

Stubborn, Sam turned her head and chewed the inside of her lip for another three minutes and twenty-seven seconds, before turning and remarking, "I don't need to see a psychologist."

"The judge thought otherwise."

"Well he was wrong."

"That's not my decision," the man said.

Sam turned away again. His endlessly tolerant tone was beginning to drive her absolutely up the wall. She watched the clock. Two more minutes ticked by.

"How old are you, like twelve?"

The doctor smirked ruefully. "I'm nineteen."

"I'm twenty-one," Sam said, sneering some.

"Yes, I know."

She shook her head. Another thirty-six seconds.

She mumbled, "This is so stupid."

"Does it bother you?" the doctor asked.

"Does what bother me?" she asked, even though she had a pretty good idea. She just wanted to get him angry. Anger she could handle. Anger she could probably complain to the judge about. But anger wasn't what she got. Instead the doctor answered in a cool and casual voice, "That I'm younger than you."

"Of course it does."

"Why is that?"

"I don't need my head shrunk by some virgin who still lives at home with his mother," she snapped.

He just nodded and wrote some things down on his notebook. God, how she wanted to kill him.

Another five minutes.

"So why don't you tell me why you're here," the doctor said.

"You already know why."

"No," the boy said, shifting which foot was crossed over which. "I know that you wrapped your car around a pole while driving back to your dorm after a night of partying. I know it's not your first DUI. I know you were ordered to attend court mandated therapy. And I know you cut a deal with the judge to get below the minimal time by allowing yourself to be subject to a psychology student instead of a graduated therapist. I know all that. What I don't know is why."

Sam glared. "Isn't it obvious?" she said. He was quiet.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Because I don't feel like spending one hour here twice a week for six months when I could get three instead."

"That's all?"

"Yeah. That's all."

He nodded and wrote something else down. Sam just scoffed.

"Anything else?"

"No. Nothing."

Five more minutes.

Sam wanted to pull her hair out by the roots. If she wasn't insane before, this so-called "therapy" wasn't helping.

"Can you talk to me about-?"

"No. I can't."

The doctor sighed, for the first time seeming slightly annoyed. Good, Sam thought.

"Alright. Then why don't you just talk to me?"

"About what?"

"About anything."

"I don't have anything to say to you."

"And why's that?"

"Why do you think?"

"This isn't about what I think."

"Yes it is," Sam said, bitterly, "I did my research. If when this whole setup is over you don't 'approve' me I'm going to be put right back into the program."

He was quiet.

"Yeah," she continued, "I did my research."

He scribbled on the notepad again.

"So, you don't want to talk to me because you're worried you'll say the wrong thing and have to stay here longer?"

"I didn't say that."

He continued, ignoring her comment, "You aren't comfortable that I have more power than you."

"No," she said, "I don't like having to call a boy who I could babysit 'doctor.'"

He stared for a minute. It wasn't a creepy stare. It was just like he was trying to figure her out. And for some reason that actually made her feel weirder.

"You don't have to call me 'doctor,'" he finally answered. "You could try to think of me as a friend."

"Then what am I supposed to call you?" she asked, sarcastically.

He leaned back and smiled. Slowly, he said, "You can call me Charlie."

"Is that your name?"

Again, he just smiled. He stood. "Well, I think we can call it a day."

She stared. "Seriously?" But she didn't wait for a reply. She stood up and began collecting herself, pulling her coat on and grabbing up her purse.

"Seriously," he said, and opened the door for her.

"Not a very productive first session," she mumbled once she was out the door and it was too late for him to change his mind.

"Well," Charlie said, shrugging slightly, "they say if you make one friend on your first day, you're doing okay."

Sam stared at him, not sure if he was messing with her or not.

He smiled a little. "I'll see you in a few days," he said, and closed the door.

AN: So what do you guys think so far? I'm personally really excited. If you didn't piece together the alternate universe on your own yet, basically Sam has never met Charlie, but still managed to get into college, though hasn't quite learned to get out of the bad spiral she'd in. Charlie never met Sam or Patrick. They didn't go to the same schools. But in this he still met Bill Anderson and was able to get help through high school. His teachers in college realized what a special kid he was and he sped through the programs he wanted, and now he's working to be a psychologist.

I'd love reviews to hear people's initial reactions before I go on.