"Hi, good afternoon Ms. Summers, thank you for coming by my office. I'm Robin Wood the school counselor. Most of the students here call me Mr. Wood," he said flashing a bright smile. He appeared to be in his early thirties with dark mocha skin and a shaved head. Buffy admired his overall fashion, not many could pull off a shaved head and make it look good. He stood up from his desk and offered his hand to Buffy and she took it settling into the cushy chair opposite of the counselor's desk.

"Not a problem, Mr. Wood. I understand that you wanted to go through my schedule for next semester?"

"Yes, and no, actually. Buffy, it's been brought to my attention, by some negligence on my part, that this is your first semester at this school. You transferred from," Mr. Wood looked down at Buffy's file finding her transcript, "Tennessee?"

Buffy shifted uncomfortably in the big cushioned chair, "That's correct, sir, yes."

"I apologize that I didn't do this before, but normally when a student under my care transfers, I like to see them in my office for a least one session to ensure the transfer between schools is going well. Some people can find transferring schools to be an adjustment. Depending on their response, I normally set up a follow-up session if I feel that it's necessary. Do you mind if I ask why you transferred from the East coast?" he replied.

Buffy cleared her throat. Here we go, she thought defensively, "You can. My Godfather, Rupert Giles lives here. I moved here because he is now my legal guardian."

"Your Godfather? I never had one of those, you must feel incredibly fortunate to have him in your life?" Mr. Wood asked warmly.

"Yes, I do actually. It was incredibly sudden, having to move here I mean, and he's been very supportive and I haven't felt like I've been an intrusion into his life which I was worried about at first." Buffy responded.

"What does he do? As a profession, I mean?" Mr. Wood asked.

"He's in business. I don't exactly understand all the technicalities, but he's out of town quite a lot because of work which I understand. He's back and forth to San Diego quite a bit." Buffy fiddled with the fabric on the chair as she said this.

"What do you think about him being so absent all the time? Do you mind?" he asked.

"No, I mean he's got to do what he's got to for work. I understand that. Again, I'm just very thankful he has been willing to take me in. He already has a daughter, Dawn Giles, I'm sure you've heard of her, she goes here, and Spike, his adopted son, he's at the local community college."

Mr. Wood shrugged and replied, "The name rings a bell, but I can't say that I've ever seen Dawn. This a big school as I'm sure you've noticed. Sounds like you've got a full house? Do you have siblings?"

"No, actually. I was an only child. My parents liked our dynamic so much, they were always afraid that it would change if they had another child. It's a bit of a change, having other people around that are the same age as you. Expecting you to spend time with them constantly. All three of our personalities are so different. It's definitely taken some getting used to." Buffy answered.

"If you don't mind me asking, what was the dynamic of you and your parents? What were they so afraid of losing exactly?" he asked curiously.

"Well, from what my mom told me, my parents tried to have a child for a long while. Then I came along without them even planning to have me. We did everything together. We would plan these trips on the weekends when I was kid to random places just to get away. They would create these little puzzles to help me figure out where we were going. Then when I got older I started participating in a lot of sports at school. When I was in middle school I tried out for cheerleading, much to my parent's surprise. I was always flying around the house, doing somersaults on my bed, and I just wanted the opportunity to put all that energy into something cool. I'm not really sure what they saw me doing in terms of hobbies, but I don't think it was cheerleading. I was bit with the competitive cheerleading bug from the time I made my middle school's team until…until I moved here. My parents were incredibly supportive and attended all the football games, competitions, and sometimes even the practices."

"Sounds like that really meant a lot to you."

"Yes, absolutely." Buffy replied softly.

"So, you said that you aren't doing cheerleading here. What are you doing? I noticed that almost all of your classes are Advanced Placement this semester. That means you must be interested in a four-year college somewhere. Just so you're aware, it takes more than just AP courses to get the attention of a university now days. You're going to need extracurriculars on your college applications."

Buffy let out a frustrated sigh, "Somehow I figured you would say that."

"I'm not here to lecture you, Buffy. But I am here to keep you informed and to help you. I would hate to see you put all this work into classes and then not get accepted to where you wanted."

"Well, that's the problem, Mr. Wood. I don't know where I want to go."

"I'm lost. Forgive me, but your parents sound like the kind of people who had a plan for their daughter who was about to start her senior year of high school." He offered.

"Yes, well, um, originally. Before I moved here, I…kind of planned on attending the University of Tennessee. I was offered a scholarship my junior year of high school. My parents and I spent a lot of time making highlight videos and meeting with the cheerleading coach at UT. They were very enthusiastic about having me on the team and I was excited about attending UT. But, Mr. Wood, I'm not doing cheerleading anymore and it's not like I've got much going for me outside of that. I don't have a savings plan for college and the thought of taking out loans makes me uncomfortable. Honestly, recently, I've been wavering towards attending the local community college. A degree, is a degree. And if I can pay for it myself, or perhaps do well on my AP exams, then that would exempt me from a lot of those freshman year classes. I figured it would save me money."

"That's a very well flushed out back up plan for sure Buffy, but- " Mr. Wood began but she ignored him.

"Do you know what UT said when I told them I wasn't interested in competitive cheerleading anymore, Mr. Wood?"

"I would imagine they were shell shocked after you spent all of your years honing your craft to just walk away from something that quickly."

"You would think that wouldn't you? But actually, you're wrong. They replaced me. Easily. They found another girl to take my scholarship. Actually, they already had someone in mind, they told me as much before I got off the phone with them. And do you know what's funny? It didn't bother me. It actually made me realize that the only reason I liked cheerleading was because of my parents. It was something we did together. And now that…well, obviously that part of my life is in the past, my back up plan is my plan, Mr. Wood."

Mr. Wood was silent. Finally, he smiled and said, "Okay, Buffy. Listen, I think we should end here for today, but I would like to see you again, next week if that's ok?"

Buffy smarted and responded in a cynical tone, "What…have you determined I'm one of those 'can't handle transferring schools' students?"

"No, I think you've handled that quite nicely, better than most I would venture. But, I sense an uneasiness with you under the surface. There are a few things I would like to unpack. Besides, I would like the opportunity to get to know one of our newest students. If that's okay with you?"

"So, I'm a psychology experiment for you. You want to open me up, inspect my insides, and patch me back up." She accused.

"No, Ms. Summers. Let me be very clear. The students that I see at this school attend our sessions because they want to be here. You are free to talk about whatever you want with me. I'm not going to push you to talk about something you don't want to or are not ready to open up about. But, I will be honest with you and it is inevitable that I will get very frustrated with you. At the end of the day, it's your life. I say all of this with the caveat that just because I'm asking to see you again doesn't mean that's what you want. Just think about it and get back to me." Mr. Wood pulled out his notepad where he wrote his excuses for students who missed class. He wrote something quick and pulled the paper free from the pad. He handed it to Buffy with a small smile and rolled his chair over to his computer sending the signal that their session was over.

Buffy took the note and looked down at the excuse he provided for the hour she missed of gym class. She grabbed her things, exited his office and headed for AP Literature. Why couldn't this get her out of Lit class instead of her gym period?

** This chapter went through several iterations. I'm still not completely happy with it. But I have an overall vision of where I would like this story to go and I believe that chapter gets me a step closer towards that goal.