This chapter was written by Jessie. This is her character's story. We will be switching back and forth throughout the story. Each chapter marks a new POV.

Nine was a hard age for me to be.
We had just moved away from the only home I had really ever known. I was one in a million in my huge public school. I was the chubby girl with glasses that you read about in the stories, the one that had things thrown at her like sticks, rocks, pencils, and insults. No friends, my siblings had long since moved away, and my parents were fighting constantly.
Nine was hard.
Then, as it turned out, Nine helped me out.
I rode my bike a lot. We lived in a little neighborhood, which was nice right where we lived, but 200 feet on the road to the right, it got nasty quick. I wasn't allowed to go there. Sometimes I did anyway, but I always rode back. I never stayed long. At the end of my street, there was a wide, deep ditch. It was hard to get across. One kid tried to jump it the year before I moved there, and had broken his leg when he fell in. So no one tried to cross any more.
After the ditch there was what looked like a construction site waiting to happen. There was dirt bulldozed around and pushed into what we thought looked like mountains. big stones had been overturned, and a large patch in the middle had been leveled for a building.
But no one was ever there. Nothing changed. No one came and built anything, no one brought machines to work, no one ever stepped foot on all the overturned red dirt and clay. A mysterious, abandoned construction site. I used to sit on the edge of that ditch and stare at the makeshift mountains and puzzle over why they were there. I could never come up with an answer that seemed to work.
Until I met him.
I was riding my bike again. It was all I really had to do. I was headed back to my house; it was getting dark, and all the other kids, the normal kids, with friends, would already be home, washing up for dinner.
And that's when I heard it. This crazy sound. I stopped my bike and looked behind me. There was this sound, an almost intoxicating one, emanating from that construction site.
I hopped off my bike and lifted it on the side of the road. There was no time to pedal back up that hill- this was a major development. I ran to the ditch and craned my neck to be able to see what it was.
It was a box. Just a big, blue box. There was a light bulb on top, windows and doors. It was just sitting there, right in the middle. There were no marks for it to have been dragged there, and it hadn't been there half an hour ago.
I looked down at the ditch, then back at the box. I had to get across. I had to be able to see what it was- and I sure as hell couldn't do that here. I took a deep breath and readied to jump.
Hey, at least if I broke my leg I would get some attention from my parents.
I jumped farther than I thought I would. I managed to grab a hold of the other side, and hold on, but the walls were steep and I couldn't climb up. There was water flowing at the bottom. I wouldn't break my leg at this point, but if I came home sopping wet, I would be in a whole world of trouble. I struggled to climb up, and pretty much just succeeded in making myself sort of muddy. I was giving up all hope. "Save me, " I thought desperately.
Thats when someone took my hands. I looked up as I was pulled out of the ditch and set safely on the side of the site. It was a man, tall, with short black hair and a sort of noteworthy nose. He smiled at me, patting my shoulder gently. "Alright?" he asked. His accent was funny.
I wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, much less male ones, but how had he gotten there, where was he from, his accent, and... and that kind look on his face. I knew instantly he wasn't going to hurt me. "Yeah," I said quietly. "I'm okay."
"Ooh, American," he said once he heard my voice, straightening up. "We're in America then."
I frowned. How could he not know that. "Yeah."
"Tell me-" He paused, waiting for my name.
I supplied it awkwardly. "Jessie."
"Tell me, Jessie," He went on without missing a beat, "What is this place. Looks pretty torn up."
I looked over at the construction site. There was a girl leaning against the box now, bright blonde hair and a flag on her t-shirt. She waved. Where had she come from? "Nobody knows," I told him. "It's always just been here. No one touches it."
He looked at me. "So why are you here?"
I looked back up at him. "I want to figure it out."
He looked almost proud of me for saying that. He looked at me a long time, and the proud look fell off his face. He frowned- he looked puzzled. He reached into his pocket and brought out what looked like a checkbook, looking inside, then looked back at me. "Are you alright?" he asked again.
I frowned back, just as confused as he was, and he showed me the checkbook. It had SAVE ME scrawled on the inside in what looked like my handwriting. I looked up at him agape. "That's my handwriting," I told him. "I thought that when I was going to fall."
He went back to smiling, but something like wariness, or suspicion lurked behind his eyes. "That's a very powerful mind you've got, sending a message to my psychic paper." He looked down at it. "I've gotten it before. Was that you?"
I must have looked confused, because he straightened up and pocketed the checkbook. "Anyway, you'd best be getting home," he told me. "It's late. Your parents will be worried."
I nodded. He helped me back across the ditch and walked me safely to my bike, then turned to go.
"Wait," I called after him. " Who are you? Whats that box?"
He turned back around and smiled at me. "I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor who?"
"Just the Doctor. Listen, Jessie," he told me, "if you ever need help, real help, just think of it and think of me. I have a feeling you'll be able to reach me somehow."
And then he walked off and was gone.
I went home, got yelled at a little for being muddy, had dinner, and went to bed. I didn't sleep much.
The next morning, the construction site as I knew it was gone. In its place was a building, what looked like a doctors office, over half finished. Workers, machines, everything was there. Everyone went about their lives as if they always had been there. Only I knew they hadn't been before. Maybe they were supposed to be, and weren't, and that man, the Doctor, had brought them back somehow. I wasn't sure.
But I never forgot him. I never thought in a million years that I would see or hear of him again, no matter how much I hoped I would.
Just goes to show how wrong I can be.