"But Clara is a horrible name!" Gianna protested, not realizing how infantile she was acting.
"Clara's a lovely name!" The Doctor said, throwing his hands in the air. "There's nothing wrong with that name. You're being immature, Clara."
"My name is Gia, or Gigi, or-"
"See? You can't even decide what you want your name to be!" The Doctor turned to her. "Now, I'm not going to force you to accept that your name really is Clara. If you want to believe your name is Gianna, then go ahead. But I'm letting you know ahead of time that you will be addressed as Clara by me as long as you are traveling with me. Understand?"
"I think what's more important are the things I don't understand." Gianna said after a slight hesitation, evading his question.
"Alright then." The Doctor leaned against the console. "What questions do you have for me?"
Gianna paused for a moment, now unsure of what to ask. "This box, thing, this TURDIS or-"
"TARDIS." The Doctor corrected.
"Yes, this TARDIS thing." Gianna continued. "How exactly is it bigger on the inside than it is on the outside? The outside's just a blue box."
"Ah, but you see, it is dimensionally transcendental. What you're standing in is basically a different dimension than what you were standing in before."
Gianna shook her head, unsure of what to think. "How did you get into my mind?"
"Oh, Time Lords have powerful mental abilities; it was fairly easy to get in there from behind a curtain or something."
"And, this friend, how does she know that you needed to come take me from that hospital?"
"She's from my future. We meet at different points in time. It's all a bit complicated, but she told me when I last visited her that I would need to find you, and get you to, um, change, and then we can go do whatever she needs me to do."
"Change? Change what?"
The Doctor sighed. "I need to get you used to living in this world, because you aren't going back to that other one."
"And how are you going to do that?" Gianna asked.
"With a few trips, of course!" The Doctor spun around and pressed a few more buttons on the console before turning back to Gianna. "So, where would you like to go?"
Gianna stared at the Doctor for a moment, before finally asking, "Why?"
"What do you mean, why?"
"You told me that I'm so messed up, because I got everything I ever wanted for the past ten years. Why are you letting choose where to go?"
"It's what I ask a lot of my first-time passengers." The Doctor walked around the console to her. "And who knows? Maybe there will be a little… lesson you can learn?
Gianna sighed, becoming annoyed at the Doctor. "Fine. You get to 'teach me a lesson' by taking me wherever I want to go. Fine. Because that'll definitely teach me something by getting my way once again." Her voice dripped with bitter sarcasm. She still didn't fully understand the situation she was trapped in, and she already wanted to go back to her old life, even if it was a figment of her imagination.
"You're right!" The Doctor gave her a small grin. "You're catching on quickly."
"Ugh!" Gianna yelled, throwing her hands in the air. "I want off of this thing NOW!"
The Doctor could tell she was getting annoyed. He clapped his hands and said, "Well, before we can go anywhere, you need to change. Your clothes, I mean." He pointed to her hospital attire: a thin, ugly green hospital gown and orange identification bracelets.
"Alright. I'll change." Gianna said quietly, her anger beginning to get under wraps. "Where do I go to do so?"
"The TARDIS'll lead you. She should have a room set up for you with some clothes in the wardrobe. If nothing in there fits your fancy, then the rest of the TARDIS wardrobe isn't far from the bedrooms."
Gianna started walking quickly down from the console to the corridor. She followed it until she reached the end, branching off into two more corridors. As she debated which direction she should go, she felt a voice breathe "left" into her ear. She shook slightly at the odd sensation, and looked over her shoulder to see nobody there.
As she followed the left corridor, she wondered how the machine could possibly be doing that. The Doctor had to have been right; there was nobody else on the ship but him, the voice was definitely that of a woman's, and Gianna never believed in ghosts. Must be a pretty advanced machine, Gianna thought.
After walking what felt like miles, she finally reached a set of doors. One of them opened for her, and she walked in. She gasped at what she saw inside.
It was exactly identical to her old bedroom. Same carpet, same furniture, same comforter, same posters. Her room even smelled the same, like that of her vanilla perfume, and the weird deodorizing spray her mother used around the house.
Oh my word, my parents, she thought. She'd never see them again. But they weren't technically real in the first place, unless they were modeled after her real parents. Her real parents, though, had been dead most of her life; her adoptive parents didn't even care enough to keep her, so they sacrificed her for a government project.
Gianna found herself in tears. She quickly wiped them from her face and began looking in her closet. Unlike the rest of the room, the clothes were unlike that of the ones in her mind. She wondered about this as she selected her outfit, a dark purple blouse with gray jeans and black flats.
Curious to see how identical this room was to her previous, she knelt down and crawled on the floor, and felt against the wall. Yes, the secret door was still there. But where would it lead this time?
She pulled the door down and squeezed herself into the hole. This had provided plenty of room for her as a child, but now a 5'9, almost 16-year-old girl, it would fare more difficult to make it through. Nonetheless, Gianna managed to push herself through the small space to the other end, about ten feet from her room.
She pushed hard against the door, and it fell open. She pulled herself through the opening, onto the cold floor. She stood up and brushed herself off, and found that she had ended up at the end of the corridor nearest the console.
"Oh, hello!" The Doctor said cheerfully from the console. "It looks as though you're finally finished."
"Yes, it appears so." Gianna mumbled.
"So where would you like to go?"
"Um, I don't know yet."
"Well," the Doctor flipped a switch, "you were given a basic history program, weren't you? Who were known for flying the first airplane?"
"The Wright Brothers." Gianna answered.
"Good. Would you like to go see them?"
"Not really." Gianna walked up the console steps. "Planes aren't that interesting."
"Hmm. Maybe some other day." The Doctor pulled something on the console. "What kind of things are you interested in, then?"
Gianna shrugged her shoulders.
"What sort of music do you like?"
"Uh, Doris Andrews, Karter Macdonald, The Street Kids,"
"So obviously people created in your mind." The Doctor interrupted. "A brilliant one at that, creating all of these things to outlast the lousy program they gave you. Um, what about The Beatles?"
"The who?"
The Doctor's jaw dropped. "It's only early 23rd century Earth! You should all still know who The Beatles were!"
"Um, the name sort of rings a bell, but,"
"Oh, you know," The Doctor started, "how yesterday... um, that bloke Jojo picked up rice... on that lane... with the strawberries, and, um,"
Gianna giggled. "Yes, I remember who they are now."
The Doctor smiled, too. "Oh, look who just made Miss Fussy-pants laugh." He poked her nose, and she quickly pushed his hand away.
"I was laughing at the fact that you were stupid enough to mess up all their lyrics." Gianna said rudely. "I listened to them when I was younger, but I grew out of them. I'm not much into classical music anymore."
The Doctor rolled his eyes, and mumbled, "You can't grow out of The Beatles."
"I think I know where I want to go, Doctor." Gianna said as he finished his mumbling.
The Doctor reverted back to his original spot behind the console, ready to navigate the TARDIS. "Where would you like to go?"
"New York Fashion Week in autumn, 2156." Gianna said, growing excited at the thought. "There was this designer, Alexandra Tutrelli, whose entire set was absolutely beautiful and inspired my own wardrobe back at home. It was the only year she contributed designs, and I really admire her abilities, so I'd love to be able to at least see her work on stage at that Fashion Week."
"Ah, Fashion Week." The Doctor began pressing buttons on the console. "I went to one once; I think the year was 2019." He smiled. "I remember it well; a very lovely designer told me that I had a nice bowtie."
"Your bowtie is weird." Gianna said, leaning against the railing.
He straightened it. "My bowtie is cool."
AN: Sorry if this chapter was a bit boring. I promise I'll make things more interesting next time.. whenever that may be. It should be soon, though; hopefully within the next week. Until then, leave a review! Maybe, please... I do love getting those. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter; I'll have a new one up as soon as I can.