When Piper entered Sally's office on Monday after school she kept in mind to take off her ratty, old shoes first before relaxing on the couch. She had a new found respect for the older woman and no amount of annoyance or resentment towards her father could tarnish that.

She had been in a good mood that day. School had went relatively well for once. Her English teacher, Miss Caprice, had been out sick that day with the flu and was unable to assign them the writing assignment that had originally been due that Friday. Now Piper would have a whole weekend to work on it. Also, she had received her French test back during seventh period and was more than a little smug to see she had been the only one in the class to score higher than a 95. She had gotten a 99, only missing a point for not conjugating a word in the proper tense, just a simple, stupid mistake.

In fact, her good mood was so uplifting to her normal negativity that she even contemplated apologizing to Sally for the previous meeting. Though she wasn't sure if her stubbornness would allow it since that would practically be admitting defeat and she had been in the wrong and her tantrum had been for nothing. Which was all true, but that didn't mean it had to be said.

Today Sally was at her desk. The same desk that was barely functional with one thin drawer and a tower of papers and folders on top to keep up the look of the place. Piper began to grow a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't Sally herself that designed the office. Sally was practical and nurturing. She would've rather had a working desk than a cool looking desk that made filing one hundred times more difficult. At least that was the groove Piper was getting.

Sally looked up from whatever paperwork she had been doing, gray glasses framing her face. She gave a tired smile towards Piper and held up her petite pointer finger to indicate she'd be a moment. Piper hadn't notice it last session, but Sally looked older. Wrinkles etched her forehead, her eyes drooped a bit at the corners, dark rims of purplish black left their faint trace beneath her eyes. She wasn't sure why she was so surprised, but to Piper Sally had seemed like one of those timeless people that never actually looked or acted older. She just assumed Sally was a bit ethereal in the few hours she had known her.

After a few moments of only the sound of the scratching of graphite against paper, Sally heaved a sigh, stood from her desk chair, and strode over to the seating area where Piper had already made herself lavishly comfortable. She sighed much more pleasurably as she eased herself in to the soft cushions of her ebony colored chair. Tension released itself almost instantaneously from her shoulders like a sky clearing away its gray, gloomy clouds only to expose a bright, blooming sun.

Sally told herself she needed a vacation and soon. The Bahamas were sounding more than nice at that time of year.

"Hello, Piper. How are you doing?" Sally asked, her voice obviously portraying how overworked she truly was. Yet, she still sounded sincere and interested in how Piper was actually doing. Whenever her father asked her that, well, if he asked her, it was more automatic and mandatory rather than genuine curiosity and concern.

It took a bit for Piper to response. She teetered on the prospect of again not saying anything because the silence was just so pleasant to her mind and ego; it was her safety net that never failed for her to fall back on. Nothing wrong could be said with silence.

But no... that wasn't exactly fair. And hadn't Piper wound up in this situation from trying to be proactive on receiving fairness? She might've been stubborn, but she sure as hell was not a hypocrite. At least she tried not to be.

"I'm doing... Well." Piper tested out the words on her tongue. The situation was slightly unfamiliar. It felt odd to have someone care. She felt a little giddy from it, if she wanted to tell the truth.

Sally nodded, her long, brown hair shifting along with her head's movement.

"And how was school?"

"It was well, too. I got a good grade on my French test." Piper said. Despite the joy Sally's caring brought it also made Piper a little awkward. She felt herself starting to close in as if she were a turtle tucking into its shell. Despite Piper feeling like she exuberated confidence she was really quite shy in new situations. People getting too close to her set off a panic button inside her head.

It's only her job, she reminded herself. She wasn't sure if she fully believed herself.

"Piper, that's great!" A huge grin spread on Sally's face, her excitement was contagious and Piper began feeling her own smile begin to perk up, but it failed to fully form.

"Yea, I guess it's pretty good." Piper pulled a nonchalant shrug.

"It really is." She was still sincere, but unsaid words hung at the end of the sentence like a shadow lingering on a person or the breath of wind that one was never really sure they had felt it on the back of their neck.

The realization hit Piper like a freight train going 200 mph. Of course Sally was being nice to her, of course she was acting as though she cared about Piper. Was she ever even excited over Piper's French test? Probably not.

This was Sally's job. Piper's father was paying her to... fix her?... punish her? Piper wasn't exactly sure, but she definitely knew that Sally was only trying to befriend her in order to get the story out of her. She wanted to worm her way into Piper's brain and learn how she stole a BMW and make her feel sorry for it and draw up some kind of plan that would make Piper normal. That would make her recognize her kleptomania all so she could receive a big fat pay check. She wasn't having any of it.

Piper had heard the phrase "killing with kindness" on multiple occasions, but never had it hit home so much. She had felt that maybe she could've actually trusted Sally sometime in the future, but now that was absolutely impossible. She should've known from the beginning when Sally offered that hot chocolate to her that it was all just a scam in some twisted scheme. She didn't care about Piper, she cared about pleasing her father. Just like every other soul walking that wretched earth.

"Piper? Are you okay?" Sally asked in what Piper assumed was feigned concern.

Piper hadn't realized she'd been unresponsive to Sally for a few minutes as her thoughts traveled deeper and deeper into the wonderland of her mind.

"Oh, like you care." Piper spit acid with her words. Her drastic change from somewhat nervous and trying to be open to overly hostile struck Sally with significant surprise. Just minutes ago she thought she had been making some progress with Piper even if it was only menial.

"Piper, I'm sorry, did I say something to offend you?" Her eyebrows furrowed in worry. A nagging feeling began to tug at Piper's gut like an incessant grub that called attention to the point that maybe her assumption had been wrong. But no, wouldn't that be exactly what Sally would want her to think?

"Why don't we stop beating around the fucking bush." She gritted her words through her teeth, her breath growing hot from steely ire. So much exploded inside Piper all at once. She felt catastrophic. Armageddon had come for her early and left her delirious insides a desolate and unhinged place.

"The only reason that I'm here is because my asshole of a father decided I needed help or whatever because stealing BMWs isn't a normal thing for a sixteen-year-old to do on a Saturday night, I guess. And now you," She pointed her slender finger at Sally, whose face remained placid through the ordeal, with a tremendous force of snark. "Well you act like I'm someone I can trust. You act as though you're my friend and you act like you don't care about what brought me here. But you do.

"You play your little games by giving me hot chocolate and acting excited for me, but you're not. You just want me to trust you for your own benefit. You want me to tell you about all the things I've stolen even though you already know. You want to know so you can give me some falsity or the next that'll supposedly help me not to steal. But the most important thing is the only reason you're doing this is for my father. You want his money. You just want your paychecks. And the quicker you fix me the more you'll receive."

By the time Piper was done with her harangue she was standing on her bare feet, the shaggy, white carpet tickling her toes. She was mere inches from where Sally sat, her body was visibly trembling from the fury that shook all the way within. Her hands balled into tight fists, so tight that not even air could be let into a crevice of skin. Her knuckles streamed with white. She panted heavily like a madmen having sprinted a mile.

Sally merely quirked an eyebrow up and asked, "Do you honestly believe you're broken?"

Her voice somehow seemed stronger than before the outburst, more resilient and secure like she was prepared to fight this battle with Piper and even more prepared to win. A gleam of armor shone beneath her suddenly icy blue eyes.

Piper felt a screech rise and rise in her throat until it was vanquished into the moist air of her mouth. Her anger flowed itself out of her body through a big flop back onto the couch. She pressed her lips together until they were so thin that they could barely be seen. Heat rose to her face, inflaming every ounce of her being.

She released a burning breath.

In a deadly cool voice she asked, "When did I ever once say I was broken?"

Sally shrugged casually as if this was a day to day conversation with a perfectly calm person.

"You had said your father brought you here to, ah, 'fix you' which indicates you are broken. Now, I may be wrong, but that was your word choice not mine nor his. So, do you honestly believe you're broken?"

Piper looked frustrated, it was evident in the way her eyebrows knitted together and jaw locked into place as if she were a stone statue. Instead of answering the question directly she chose to deviate from the topic.

"Are you not even going to address what I said about you?" She sounded more like an annoyed child than an opportune arguer, but still, something in her voice seemed to sway with the power of persuasion. It was the way she delivered the words, Sally decided.

Sally folded her small hands in her lap.

"If I truly thought you meant the words you said, then yes Piper, I would address you saying those hurtful things, but I know that you can't even fool yourself and fooling oneself is perhaps one of the easiest things to do albeit being the hardest. Do you think I am here to trick you or to receive a grand amount of money? Do you think I am that kind of person? Because if you really do, I will be more hurt than you may think."

Piper slumped a little. Did she really think that Sally was that kind of person? She supposed the answer was no. She hadn't originally detected malice when Sally had offered her hot chocolate. She hadn't seen signs of forgery in the smile Sally wore when Piper announced her well doing in school. Perhaps, she thought, that the wickedness in each action had been formed in an after thought. Perhaps Piper had pushed her panic button and formed the delusions in each of her memories. Perhaps Sally was right.

A painful silence passed. It wasn't like the other moments of quietness from the Saturday meeting. No, this one held more potential of destruction. It was a loaded gun and Piper had her hand on the trigger.

"I see." Sally said in a stiller voice than before, a slight nod of the head going along with the words.

"Should we talk about your speech that you so eloquently put together?" Sally asked Piper after yet more silence transpire between the two.

Piper huffed a little, but managed to mumble an almost indecipherable "I guess" for the sake of being at least somewhat gracious after her cacophony of a rant.

"Piper, I'd like to establish something with you before we move on. Yes, your father is paying me, but he is paying me to help you, not to fix you or to deceive you. You didn't want me to beat around the bush, so I won't. You've had some mishaps in the last couple years that have been getting increasingly dramatic and your father hasn't pretended not to notice. You've been caught shoplifting on multiple occasions, you've nearly been suspended from school, and now you have stolen a BMW.

"Your father didn't bring you here on malevolent grounds, he brought you here because he was concerned like any other parent would be. He may have brought you here for that reason, but that is not why I am here. That is not why I didn't discuss the BMW on your first visit here. Piper, I want to help you help yourself. You're clearly very unhappy at the moment and I want to help you get to a place where you don't feel the need to go off on a tangent or steal a tube of lip gloss.

"It's evident you don't trust me enough to confide in me and that's okay. I didn't want to start off talking about stealing the BMW right off the bat because I did not want you to think that that was all I cared about. I care about you, Piper. I wanted to show you that your actions aren't what are important here, it's your well being that is. I need to earn your trust Piper and I wanted to do it on friendly grounds.

"I made you hot chocolate when you first came here and played board games with you because you deserved to be at peace and be comfortable. I wanted to help you recognize that this is a safe place. I never meant to offend you by doing so or to think that I was conspiring with your father

"I want to help you Piper, in the sincerest way. I hope you let me do that." Sally finished. Her words had been kind and soft.

Piper had felt as though a blanket were being wrapped around her shoulders on a winter's night when snowflakes fell and the wind howled a chilly song. She felt herself relax little by little with each word spoken from Sally.

She turned her words over and over in her mind trying to comprehend all that was said. She felt a barrier come down inside herself and open her to new possibilities. For a while the pair sat in silence, an anxious and tedious and thoughtful silence.

Piper was unsure what to do with the mess of words swarming through her head. She wasn't sure to believe Sally or not to. She wasn't really sure of much at the moment.

She tried to think of a motive besides the gain of wealth that Sally might've had, but conjured up none. She tossed the syllables back and forth working through their byzantine meaning.

Should she trust Sally?

Yes. But only in time.

Piper gave a nod to Sally.

"Okay." She said, her voice coiling in the swirling air around them.

Piper was surprised not to feel more than just a shred of dignity lost and the cause of it's losing wasn't from Sally.

Sally also nodded; they had come to a mutual understanding.

A gnaw of guilt rubbed at Piper's conscience, she tried to shove it deeper into her, but it kept springing back up again. Fine, she'd have to deal with the repercussions.

"Piper," Sally began, carefully mulling over the way she'd string her next line together.

Piper looked at her with kaleidoscope eyes, just as ever changing as their host was.

"I think I'd like to assign you some homework if that's alright with you. It seems that in both of our best interests that it'd be preferable for you to give me a list of things you'd like to see happen in these sessions. Is that okay?" Sally asked gently, careful not to push Piper's boundaries.

"That's... that's okay."