Less than three weeks after his initial phone call with Peter, Scott arrived at Mount Horizon. He had always meant to come back to visit Peter, Sophie and the grounds but had been so caught up in all the non-stop business of life that he never managed to get around to it. He and Peter had kept in touch, however, mostly through email and phone calls. That was probably one of his favorite things about leaving Horizon – it had managed to follow him along his journey.
As he walked toward the main administration building, he noticed one large change the school had made right away. There was now a horse stable off near some of the trees and a large corral was stationed beside it. He noticed different groups of teens wandering the grounds but was not surprised that he did not recognize too many faces around campus.
Just as he reached the bottom steps of the building where Peter's office was located, Sophie stepped through the front door. Scott recognized her immediately and made a pretty accurate assumption that the little girl holding Sophie's hand was her daughter.
"Scott!" Sophie screamed when she realized he had arrived. She hurried down the steps and gave him a warm hug. "It's so good to finally see you again," she said once they had embraced.
"It's great to see you too! I know I'm a little early but once I got into town I couldn't wait to get back up here." He smiled at Sophie and then at the little girl. "You must be Cara," he said as he extended his hand for her to shake.
"Yes," she said shyly as she softly gripped his hand. Sophie put her hand on Cara's shoulder and squeezed it in excitement.
"Should we go get daddy?" Sophie asked her daughter. The little girl looked up at her mother and smiled, nodding her head in agreement. "I'm sure you remember where Peter's office is, right Scott?" Sophie asked him with a wink.
"Oh, yeah," Scott replied with a chuckle, quickly thinking back to all the times he had dreaded walking into Peter's office. They walked down the hallway and as they got closer to the office doors, Cara raced ahead to be the first one inside.
There was another hug as Peter greeted Scott, followed by a series of introductions as Peter and Sophie proudly talked about the three children that were also in the office. Jack barely sat still for a minute before he started running in circles around the office. Cara still seemed a little shy and stayed close to Sophie. Brian made himself quite comfortable in Scott's arms as the three adults talked and got reacquainted in person again.
After a while, Sophie glanced down at her watch and quickly stood up. "Oh, I didn't realize what time it is," she said. "I have group starting in just a few minutes." She started walking towards the door but stopped and looked back at Peter and Scott. "Scott," she started; "this is going to be your group. Do you want to meet them?"
"Sure," Scott quickly answered. He stood and took a few steps towards the door.
"Wait," they both heard Peter say from behind them. They turned to see him also standing. "Can I introduce him to the group?" Peter asked, hoping Sophie would not mind.
Sophie knew she could not deny her husband the opportunity to introduce one of his students with whom he had remained close with after all those years since he graduated. "Of course," she said with a smile. She stepped aside and let the two men hurry off to group and she made her way back to the couch to play with her children.
"So did you see the stable out front?" Peter asked as the two walked to where group was being held.
"Yeah," Scott replied. "That's pretty impressive. How many horses?"
"Oh, about a dozen. Some of the kids get a lot out of therapy with the horses and we also have it set up with the town where we give riding lessons and trail guides now."
Scott could not help but smile at how passionate Peter still was towards Horizon. He was thankful he had not only gotten the chance to be a part of the school years ago as a student but also again as a counselor.
As they stepped into the lodge where a group of teens were gathered in chairs, Scott was hit with the memories. Memories of hating the whole concept behind group therapy and also memories of growing as a person and also as a family as a result of group therapy.
"Hey, Cliffhangers," Peter called out with excitement; "you all know how we talked about Sophie leaving and a new counselor stepping in to take her place? Well, this is Scott Barringer."
Scott offered a welcoming wave at the five teens that sat in a semi-circle before him. He noticed a couple of eye rolls and some blank stares, but he also spotted two of the girls smile at each other and he assumed they appreciated the fact that he was a young male counselor.
"You guys have too much energy," Peter said sarcastically. "Why doesn't everyone take a turn introducing themselves and saying why they are here."
Scott was not at all surprised when no one volunteered to go first. Peter finally placed a hand on the teen sitting closest to him. "Mike?"
The boy sighed and sat up in his seat. He had short dark hair and strong, intense eyes. His arms remained crossed as he spoke up. "I'm Mike," he said monotonously; "I'm seventeen; I have anger management issues; got kicked out of military school last semester…" He let his voice drift off and did not bother to look up at either Peter or Scott to communicate that he was done.
"Thanks, Mike," Peter said. "Let's just go around the circle." He motioned for the girl who sat beside Mike to go next.
"I'm Ally," she said softly, also not looking away from the floor and her short blonde hair falling over her face. "I'm fifteen; I'm here because I kept running away from home." She slowly looked up at Peter, who
nodded for her to say a bit more. "And I kept running away because my brothers beat me while my mom was at work everyday."
"Thanks Ally," Peter said, nodding to show his appreciation. Even though Ally had not looked directly at Scott, he could still see there was pain and fear in her eyes. He noticed her leaning away from Mike, probably an unconscious natural tendency.
"I'm Jenna," the next girl said. She had carrot-red hair that reached below her shoulders. "I'm sixteen, and honestly, I still don't think I really need to be here." She stated this somewhat defiantly a looked directly at Peter.
"Jenna, we talked about this," Peter told her.
"I know we talked about this. We talk about this every freaking day and I still don't understand what everyone is trying to say." She tightly clenched the chair in both hands and bounced her knee in a nervous habit.
"Jenna has been struggling with severe depression for a few years. I'm close friends with both her parents and we worked it out so she could come here instead of a hospital." Peter explained to Scott. Scott nodded and tried to offer a friendly smile at Jenna.
"They weren't really going to send me to a freaking hospital, Peter," Jenna argued. "They just threatened me with that so I would choose to come here instead."
"Why do you think they would threaten you with that?" Peter asked.
"Peter," she started again, "I already introduced myself. Move on." She sat back in her seat and looked to her right as the next girl went on to introduce herself.
"Hi, I'm Becca," she said with a slight smile. She wore glasses and a dark baseball hat. She also looked up at Scott as she spoke, something none of the others had done. "I'm fifteen; I uh…had some problems with my neighbor…then tried to kill myself…then spent some time in the psych ward – not exactly fun," she glanced over at Jenna; "then I transferred here."
"Thanks, Becca," Peter said. "Maybe later you can go into more details with Scott?"
Becca sighed and looked away. "Whenever she's ready," Scott told Peter but intended more for Becca to hear.
"Hey, I'm Eli," the final boy said as he leaned forward in his chair. He wore a hooded sweatshirt and a pair of basketball shorts. "I'm sixteen and I'm here because I'm a recovering alcoholic. My parents kicked me out a few months ago before they sent me here because I trashed the house when they went through my room and took all my liquor."
"Thanks, Eli," Peter said as he clapped his hands together. "And these are the Cliffhangers," he turned to face Scott. "Do you want to say anything?"
"Uh, yeah," Scott said. "I don't really know where to start. Why don't you guys just ask me anything?" No one in the room wants to cooperate without some force, so Scott adds, "Okay, before we leave, everyone has to ask me at least one question. Mike?"
Mike groaned and sat up again. "Fine…Sophie mentioned you used to go here too? What were you here for?"
"Well," Scott started off slowly. "I had some problems with my step-mom…um, she used to rape me, and I turned to drugs for relief. When I got kicked off the football team, my dad sent me here. I was actually in the Cliffhanger group and Sophie was my counselor."
Mike nods, content with Scott's answer and satisfied that he is finished. Ally is next.
"Um," she starts softly. "Why did you decide to come back now?"
"Well, I was getting ready to start my final year of graduate school when Peter called me up. I've been studying psychology but decided to take some time off to come here and help out wherever I can." He smiled at the shy girl and then turned his attention to Jenna.
"How old are you?" She asked without hesitation.
"I'm twenty-three. My birthday isn't for a while but I like chocolate cake, so take note." He chuckles at his own joke and notices most of the group smiles at his attempt of humor. "Next question?"
Becca takes her time thinking. "Do you like horseback riding?"
Scott laughs to himself before answering. "That's a good question. I haven't really been on a horse in about ten years, so it'll take me a few times to get my bearings but I'd like to think that I will enjoy it, yeah."
Becca smiles and then looks to Eli for the final question before they are all dismissed. "Okay, let's see," Eli said. "Um, you said you played football. Do you like any other sports?"
"I love just about every sport. Especially basketball, so if any of you ever want to shoot some hoops, I'm totally there."
All five teens began moving in their chairs when their questioning session was over and Peter knew he needed to say something fast before they tuned him out completely. "Okay, well I appreciate everyone participating today. Scott's a great guy and I know you're all going to warm up to him sooner or later." He winks at Scott as the group stands and shuffles out of the room. "See you all later," Peter says as they walk away.
"I like them," Scott tells Peter as they stand in the room alone. "They all seem interesting."
"Oh," Peter smiled as he patted Scott on the back. "It's all going to be interesting."