"Come in," the warm voice from inside the small office called out in response to the hesitant knock.

The door slowly opened to reveal the apprehensive teenage girl, her eyes darting around the room before settling on the desk, the shining desk label reading "Guidance Counsellor". Lifting her head, she nervously looked into the sparkling, compassionate eyes of the high school's revered guidance counsellor, Ms. Martinez. The brunette woman, newly turned thirty, always wore her hair in a side ponytail. Some of the students mocked this particular quirk behind her back: a fact she was well aware of, but that never bothered her. Even the school's most diabolical bullies would never dare openly mock the level-headed Latina, whose presence radiated an aura of compliance.

"Ah, Candice! What can I do for you, Miss LeRae?" the benevolent woman greeted warmly, gesturing to the adjacent couch.

The distressed teenager took a seat and began to explain her situation. Bayley Martinez listened eagerly and attentively, as she always did.

Bayley Martinez was the resident guidance counsellor at the San Jose High School. All of her life, even as a child, she'd wanted to help fix other people's problems. Throughout her adolescence and into adulthood, she always stepped in to mediate any conflict that arose in her vicinity, whether she was asked to or not. If someone she knew had a problem in their life, she'd do whatever it took to come up with a solution. Many people mistook her bubbly personality and affable demeanour for weakness; a target to pick on. Those who made that mistake seldom did so again. Despite Bayley's tendency to see the good in everyone, she had no qualms about defending herself if push came to shove, though she'd always try to calm the situation before it came to that.

Bayley saw puberty as a particularly vulnerable time in anyone's life. It was for this reason that she applied her talents for helping others to high school. She'd certainly have a much easier job if she had taken a job at a kindergarten level. But easy was not the path which Bayley Martinez tread. She revelled in the pure satisfaction of knowing she had guided others towards whatever they needed. Especially young minds, who were often innocent and sorely in need of help, whether it be guidance in regards to their future, academic success, or even disciplinary measures in the case of bullying. That last one tended to be the most unpleasant for Bayley to deal with. She knew from her own experiences how painfully misguided teenagers could lash out, particularly at those most vulnerable.

Unfortunately, today was one of those situations. Candice finished describing her altercation with the school's resident bully, Shayna Baszler. Bayley had already had similar conversations with more than a couple of girls targeted by the troubled teen. None of them seemed to have dared to take her advice and stand up to her. She was determined to advise Candice to make a difference. Especially given that Candice shared a similarly amicable personality, and at the minute was showing no traces of her usual demeanour, just like the others. Poor Io, the foreign exchange student, had reacted to Shayna's bullying by beginning to lash out at others. She couldn't allow Shayna to take Candice's happiness away from her.

"Candice, do you know why Shayna picks on you?" the guidance counsellor asked, eager to reveal the answer to the question put forth.

"Because I'm an easy target?" the despondent teen answered matter-of-factly with crossed arms, without an iota of mirth.

Bayley's heart cracked at the clear effect the bully had had on poor Candice, turning her neutral expression into a frown. "That may be, but that's because you didn't stand up for yourself."

"Miss Martinez, I know what you're asking me to do, but I can't-" Candice began to protest, before silencing herself at the sight of Bayley holding the palm of her hand up.

"Shayna targets those who she doesn't think have a chance of fighting back." Candice began to open her mouth to protest once again, but Bayley quickly spoke in answer to the non-verbalised response. "No, I don't mean physically. Not necessarily, at least. I mean, she gets pleasure from feeling power, which you gave her by not standing up to her."

The teenager opened her mouth in shock. "Are you saying it's my fault I got picked on?"

"God no, Candice, that's not what I'm saying." Bayley pinched the bridge of her nose, realising her poor choice of words, internally cursing herself for mishandling the situation. "What I'm saying is that Shayna wants to upset you, and she'll say anything to make it happen. So don't give her the satisfaction." Bayley curved her lips into a slight smile, in an attempt to reassure the hesitant teen, who she saw began to relax her posture at the advice. The smile faded as she opened her mouth to speak again, needing to deliver a serious tone with her next piece of advice. "No matter how much her words might hurt, or how threatening she might sound, don't ever let her see you rattled." Leaving her words to sink in for a few seconds, Bayley leaned forward with a mischievous grin on her face. "And if that doesn't work, sometimes you've just gotta fight fire with fire."

Bayley's mischievous attempt to reassure the blonde girl clearly did not have the desired effect. The seemingly permanent frown etched on her face showed no signs of fading as she grumpily said "Easy for you to say."

Bayley sucked in air as she gasped quietly at the teenager's resistance. The same teenager who regularly confided in Bayley and listened to her advice on any given topic. Bayley leaned back and settled her face back into a compassionate expression, having realised where she had been going wrong.

"You're right, it is easy for me to say. But I only know how to handle it because I've been exactly where you are now."

The teen raised her eyebrow and cocked her head to the side in disbelief. "Really?"

"Yeah, of course I have," Bayley chucked, relived to finally be getting through to the girl. "I would never be able to accurately count the amount of confrontations I got into when I was your age. And those are just the ones that directly concerned me. It would be impossible to even begin to compile a list of girls who saw me as an easy target." Bayley paused to gather her thoughts, and allow time for the young impressionable girl to take the information in. "I've had a lot of deeply hurtful things said to me over the course of my life. And yeah, there were times I let them get to me. But I never let it show." Bayley shrugged her shoulders. "And if they were intent on physically harming me, I just had to fight back. Win or lose, at least I knew that I didn't back down."

"Aren't school staff supposed to discourage us from getting into fights?" Candice asked with an impish hint of a grin on her face, her mood lifted from the perpetual despair that had plagued her all afternoon long.

Bayley returned the grin with glee, her eyes shining with mischief. "Of course. But sometimes there's no other choice. By all means, try anything to avoid it if you can. But if you can't reason with them, there's no shame in defending yourself. The point is Candice LeRae: never back down." The brunette emphasised her last point, shaking her finger vertically, her fingertip pointed towards the ceiling, each shake punctuating each word.

Bayley didn't know if her words had really spoke to Candice, or whether she had taken humour in the adult's absurd hand gestures, but the teen's normally radiant smile finally returned. The girl giggled before uncrossing her arms and leaning forward to wrap her arms around the guidance counsellor in a warm hug. While to some this behaviour might be seen as odd, Bayley was more than just a guidance counsellor; many of the young girls saw her as a parental figure, thanks in large part to the brunette's genuine interest and investment in their lives and their futures.

Bayley couldn't wipe the beaming smile off her face even if she wanted to. She was genuinely overjoyed at the overwhelmingly positive effect she'd had on the young student. Not to mention the fact that she was usually the one to give out hugs; it was a nice refreshing change of pace to be the receiver. It was at that moment that the school bell rung.

"Well, it's time you got going. Good luck, and just remember what I said," Bayley said to Candice, an understanding expression on her face.

Candice picked up her backpack and shrugged it on her shoulders before turning to face the guidance counsellor, a smile still on her face. The smile that Bayley had come to expect from the high-spirited girl, who's happiness seemed to have been restored. "I will. Thank you Miss Martinez."

Bayley watched the girl leave, before turning around with a joyous chuckle. Glancing at the clock and seeing that the school day had come to an end, the brunette began to gather her things. Distracted by this task, she did not notice the electric blue vortex of light shine down through the ceiling, wrapping itself around her body. Bayley blinked, and when she opened her eyes a millisecond later, she'd soon discover that she was no longer in her office; in fact she would no longer be on earth.