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Wilson opened the door to the counselor's office promptly at 10:30. He was unsure as to why he had received a slip in his homeroom stating that he had an appointment at that time, but knew better than to skip out on the meeting, too. That practice only worked on his afternoon classes.
A short man, about four inches shorter than he was, was sitting at a wooden desk. He wore a light brown dress shirt with a dark brown vest over it. Wilson looked at him confused. He was summoned to the guidance office, and this man certainly was not his guidance counselor.
"Wilson West?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Have a seat please." He gestured to the chairs in front of him and Wilson sat.
"I'm sorry, but you're not my guidance counselor," Wilson started to second guess himself, "are you?"
"No, no. I'm Dr. Zapata, the school psychologist."
"I didn't make an appointment to see you."
"I know. I made one to see you. It came to my attention that, while you were present in school on Friday, you did not show up in your sixth, seventh, or eighth period classes." Wilson nodded. He didn't see any point in hiding it, especially since he already knew. "When someone cuts a class, it is my job to speak with them before their punishment is dealt. There's always a reason why you skip, usually a complex one that could benefit from some help."
"And?"
Dr. Zapata smiled. "And I'm the mediator between you and the dean and am in favor of lightening your sentence, as long as I see probably cause."
"I see. So you want to know why I skipped?" Wilson asked.
"In a nutshell."
Wilson sighed. "Look, you seem like a really nice guy, so I'm going to level with you. It's complicated and I'm not really up for telling someone so I'll just take the year of detention or suspension and be on my way."
"No."
"No? What do you mean 'no'? It doesn't bother me. I know what I did was wrong, and I promise I won't do it again unless it's necessary."
"Was it necessary this time?"
"Not really. Kind of."
"Can I ask you where you went?"
"CGP."
"California Girls Prep?" He nodded. "Oh, so this is about a girl."
"Among other things." Wilson looked down at his watch. "I have lunch in fifteen minutes, can I please get going?"
"I want to know what's going on. Then you can leave." Wilson didn't speak. "You know that whatever you say in here is privileged information. Unless I find that you are a danger to yourself or others, I cannot and will not share what you say to me with anyone else, not even members of the faculty here. It's strictly between me and you."
"Really?"
Dr. Zapata smiled; he knew he was breaking Wilson down. "Yes."
Wilson sighed again. He didn't know why he was doing this. "I went to go see…this girl."
"Is she your girlfriend?"
"Not exactly, no."
"Did you date her? Have you been on a date?"
"No, never. Maybe I should try that. Maybe I should ask her out on a date. Oh, but I can't. Her sister's coming into town today."
"And what would you hope to accomplish with asking her out?"
"I hope that would entice her to be a little nicer to me." Wilson bit her tongue. "Really, sir, I don't want to discuss this. It's complicated and I don't really need anyone else involved."
"Fine, but I am just here to help."
"If I give you the short version, can I leave without you asking any questions?"
"Probably. Depends on what you tell me."
Wilson was getting frustrated. "I won't leave anything out then. I met this girl in September, and she was dating this jerk of a guy. Richie Santonio, the captain of the swim team."
"I heard you were the swim prodigy. Congratulations on-"
"Yeah. Well, she gave me her number and asked me to call her, so I did, and then one day we slept together. Then again and again. And then a week or so ago she came and told me she was pregnant. Now I'm trying to get her to marry me, because that's the right thing to do and her home life isn't so great right now, but she's being very standoffish and is barely talking to me since I asked her about it. That's why I left yesterday. I walked to her school so I would be there when she got out, that way she had to talk to me. I'm sorry that I left and I knew that I shouldn't have done it, but she wasn't returning my phone calls and her father is nuts so I didn't want to show up at her house." Wilson took a deep breath and let it our slowly as the bell rang to end fourth period. "Can I go to lunch now?"
"Yes," Wilson stood, "but I want to see you back after lunch."
"Please, no. Those are the classes I missed and I'm a bit behind since I wasn't there."
"OK, but if you come back later today to make an appointment to see me for tomorrow I'll get you out of detention."
"Thanks. In that case, I'll be back."
He smiled. "That's usually the clincher."
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Becca flopped down on the king sized bed of Stephanie's hotel room. She closed her eyes and sighed. Today would have been perfect if she and Steph were still as close as they used to be. Now that there was all this literal and figurative distance between them, it was almost bittersweet. None of that really mattered, though. Becca asked Stephanie to come back to GlenOak so that she could help her. This visit was more about the baby than their relationship, or lack thereof.
"So…" Becca said while staring at the ceiling. "Are we going to just ignore the fact that I'm with child?"
Stephanie giggled. "No, I guess not."
Becca sat up. "Good, because that was the reason I asked you here to begin with, kind of."
"Wait- what do you mean kind of?"
"Well," she looked down at her hands, "because I'm pregnant, Wilson asked me to marry him. And, to be completely honest, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I can't come up with a good reason not to say yes."
"You're sixteen, that's a good reason to me. It's kind of illegal."
"Yeah, but besides that. I'm always alone and Mom and Dad bite as parents."
"But that doesn't mean you should get married."
"It's better for the baby."
"Yeah, but-"
"I just- I want your honest opinion on this. I don't know what to do."
Stephanie threw up her hands. "I don't know what to tell you. I have to think about this for a little bit."
"OK, let's change the subject then." Becca smiled, trying to put on a brave face. "What are you majoring in?"
"Global studies, and I'm minoring in French."
Becca gasped. "I forgot you took French!" She went into her purse and grabbed her keys. "My French books are in my car. You're going to help me before I fail that class and have to take it over next year."
Stephanie laughed and agreed as she watched Becca dash out of the room. After a few seconds passed by, she stood and went over to Becca's stuff. She rummaged through her purse until she found what she was looking for- Wilson's number. She had to meet this guy who wanted to marry her baby sister. Only then could she give Becca a complete and honest answer.
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A/N: Well, we still didn't get to the better Stephanie part, but we saw her a little bit more. But we did meet Dr. Zapata, modeled after my school's drug counselor and named after a kid in fifth grade who signed a contract saying he would give me Pokémon cards. …I think he moved to Florida. Anyway, that's beside the point. Dr. Zapata is going to play a decent sized part in this whole thing.
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French tutor. Score! Review.
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