Rating:
T
Summary: (You all know by now)
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters!
A/N: The pictures described in this office are pictures I have actually seen, and I swear- THEY DON'T MAKE YOU FEEL HAPPY. Also, there is a cat in the building, and I thought I could work the idea into the story for a nice addition to the background.
November 7, 1984- Happy Campers Counseling CenterSara sat in the waiting room looking at the floor. She didn't want to be here, she didn't need to be here. The only reason she went was to please Nancy.
She sighed deeply as the ticking of the clock on the wall became increasingly annoying. The building was called Happy Campers Counseling Center. Sara didn't see anything happy about the building. The walls were white, and plastered on them were the most depressing pictures Sara had seen in her life.
One of the pictures was of a little girl holding her baby doll tightly to her chest. It was drawn in a blue pen, and then charcoal effects and shadowing were later added. Sara tilted her head to get a better look at it- the little girl looked like her mother and father had just died and she was all alone, as if she let go of that tiny doll her whole world would fall apart.
Another picture, positioned just to the right of the other, was of a little boy, again in the blue pen and charcoal. He was sitting on the ground staring at what was in front of him with his legs crossed Indian-style. His chin was rested on his right arm, and he had a defeated, sad expression on his face.
There was a small wooden table with pamphlets in small holders about children going through their parent's divorce and another talking about how this building was supposed to provide a safe outlet for the children who went there- a place where they could talk and let everything out and have someone to listen to them.
Sara didn't want to talk to anyone about what happened on September 16, 1984 at the Sidle residence, thank you very much.
Sara looked around the rest of the building- behind the glass windows lay the receptionist's office, and inside was a fat white cat lying on one of the desks. He looked so spoiled; he turned and looked at Sara and hissed. If no one else was in the room Sara would've hissed back at the cat, but she refrained from doing so since there was another group of people sitting on the ugly leather couches with her.
She looked at the clock on the wall again- her appointment was supposed to start about twenty minutes before. She debated on leaving the building- this seemed like a very appetizing idea at the moment. Still, something told her to stay. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that Josh told her that this may help or the fact that Nancy really wanted her to go.
After fumbling with her shoelaces on her sneakers for about fifteen minutes, the thick white door leading to the rooms where the sessions were held flew open. A woman about 5'6" stepped out of the room tucking some of her black hair behind her ear. She smiled kindly at Sara- Sara could only guess that this was to try and lighten the mood of the overly depressing atmosphere- and she motioned with her finger for Sara to follow her.
Sara got up sighing and walked over to the door. The woman's small figure disappeared from the doorway and she walked down a long hallway covered in ugly wallpaper. She opened the door to her office and Sara stepped inside.
"Take a seat, hon."
Sara rolled her eyes (of course when she was out of the woman's sight), and took a seat on the couch at the far end of the room. She sat with her legs pressed tightly to her chest and she wrapped her arms around her knees. She didn't know what it was, but there was something about this whole thing- something about the room maybe- that was giving her an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
The woman sat down in her office chair across from Sara with her clipboard in hand. She slipped on some thin glasses and grabbed a blue pen from a drawer before clearing her throat.
"Alright Sara, my name is Renee, and I want you to know that you can talk about anything in here, I'm only here to listen, I'm not here to judge you."
That was a first.
"Alright, so…your mother, Nancy-"
"She's not my mother."
Sara didn't mean for it to slip out, it just did. The woman nodded a little. "I'm sorry- foster mother- said something happened to you that put you into foster care."
"Doesn't something generally happen to people who have to go to foster care?" Sara shot back rolling her eyes.
"I suppose so." The woman wrote something down on the piece of paper clipped on her clipboard before continuing. "She said it might be best to talk about it."
"I don't want to."
She nodded and leaned forward a bit. "You know Sara- a lot of people have to deal with things. Divorced parents, bullies at school, abusive relationships- and we all have to just move on."
"Okay, then let's move on."
The woman shook her head slowly and continued. "But they can't move on alone, they need someone to listen to them, to help them get through it. You, Sara, are not invincible. You can't go through this alone. You're only 12-years-old."
Sara looked at the woman from under the dark locks of hair that were now in her eyes, camouflaging the somewhat angry expression on Sara's face.
"Please, can you talk to me about it?"
Sara lowered her head and sighed, slowly rocking herself back-and-forth as she thought.
"Why do you do that?"
Sara raised her head up to look at the woman who was staring at her. "Why do I do what?" Sara asked.
"Why do you rock yourself back-and-forth hugging your knees?"
"Why does it matter?"
"It matters to me, I'm curious."
"It's a habit."
"How did you form this habit?"
"I know what you're doing and I don't like it."
The woman was taken-aback by Sara's statement. She suddenly found beads of sweat dripping down her face and she was fumbling with her papers trying to find out what to do or say next.
Sara was glaring at the woman with her small brown orbs covered with her thick brown hair. She wasn't letting up one second- she didn't want to talk about it and this woman wasn't going to do or say anything that would make her change her mind.
"I…" the woman stuttered trying to find the right words. She turned around and went through the folders and papers on her desk, as if some small piece of paper held her answer. Behind her, Sara sat with her head buried in her knees sighing deeply as yet again another person was trying to figure out the mystery that was Sara Sidle.
The woman continued looking through her desk and even considered looking on her computer for the answer of what to do next, when the door opened and Sara walked out of the room leaving the woman behind, her glasses sliding off of her face and her make-up smeared from sweating so much.
Sara walked out of the building. After hearing the satisfying slam of the heavy door to the building, she nodded and walked off with her hands in her pockets. She remembered her last glance of the clock on the wall before she left the building and knew that it was dinnertime. She continued walking until she saw the familiar outline of her home in the distance and walked through the entryway after opening the door.
Sara had been hoping to sneak by Nancy undetected, but she was not victorious.
"Sara! How'd it go?" Nancy asked walking over to her as one of her arms was stretched behind her stirring what Sara suspected to be dinner.
"You really want to know?"
"Yes, tell me!" Nancy said nodding.
"The shrink sucked."
And with that, Sara left Nancy standing in the kitchen stunned. Sara walked over to her room and opened her door, slamming it shut behind her and collapsing onto her bed, welcoming the darkness that had been threatening to consume her exhausted form.