People seemed to like the last "Guidance" story about Lane working through a situation with Jade, and there were several requests from both sites where I post to do some of Bade and of Cat. Well, those requests got me inspired to do a little series, and this installment has a hint of Bade and lots of Cat. :)

Based on the episode "Robarazzi". Some of the dialogue between Lane and Cat is from the episode, but the rest is from me. Enjoy!

...

Lane had been having a rare slow week at school, and he was enjoying it. No panicked calls from parents, no sobbing students unexpectedly showing up in his office, no Jade meltdowns that ended up with her being sent to his office to be talked down (yes, it happened enough that he considered it as regular as the other two). He did realize that some issues could be upcoming with Robbie's new gossip column. Lane had tried to veto it and mentioned that it was going to cause issues, but the principal had insisted that since it was bringing a lot of traffic to their school website and Lane was not complaining on behalf of any student that had come to him, that his concerns be ignored. Although it was a recognizable future problem, it did not seem to be a today one. Maybe he would even be able to head out early and stop by his goddaughter's lemonade stand. She had requested for Uncle Lane to stop by...

And he was being flagged down by Beck Oliver.

Argh ... what is it this time?

Lane, you're their counsellor. Try to come to your job with a little more enthusiasm than that!

But things were going so smoothly, and I was finally getting a bit of a break.

Deep breath ... two ... three ... and smile, and...

"Hi, Beck. Where's Jade?" Lane asked, resigned, wondering what had set her off this time. Maybe it was that "Robarazzi" feature of Beck, Jade, Tori, and Andre being "caught in a psychotic rampage".

"I don't know, probably class at this point," Beck said, seemingly unconcerned about his girlfriend.

"You're still together?" Lane checked.

Beck looked at him in surprise. "Of course! Why wouldn't we be?"

"You didn't seem all that committed in the last Robarazzi episode," Lane said, only letting enough disapproval slip in that he could communicate to Beck that playing around with Jade like that wasn't cool, while still providing the ever-important psychological support known as "unconditional regard".

Beck looked away guiltily. "Uh, yeah, that ..." His voice faded off and he ran his hand through his hair twice in a row nervously.

"It's important to show respect in relationships," Lane added quietly but firmly.

"Yeah. I guess it's not that funny to make her freak out like that," Beck admitted.

"No, it's not."

Beck nodded, still not making eye contact. "I didn't realize that was such a crappy thing to do to her. I ... I should probably talk to her about it."

"Probably," Lane said.

Beck stayed quiet for a moment, then nodded firmly, as if resolving that he would go apologize to his girlfriend.

"What were you wanting to tell me?" Lane asked, remembering that it wasn't Beck who brought up Jade.

"Oh, I was wanting to ask if maybe you could check on Cat," Beck said.

"Cat Valentine?" Lane confirmed although he was fairly certain there was only one Cat in the school, and with her level of bizarre behaviour, he had become well-acquainted with her over the last year. He was still uncertain exactly what was the primary issue for her, but it was clear that she sometimes had psychological issues. He suspected that was why Beck was bringing her up now. He was well aware that both Jade and Beck were friends with Cat, and that they watched out for the redhead much of the time.

"Yeah," Beck nodded.

"What's going on there?" Lane asked.

"Well, lately she's been buying a bunch of stuff from Sky Store, and Jade and I are a bit concerned that's she's getting too much and spending a ton of money she doesn't really have. She's been borrowing money from other students - tried to get some from me, but I refused - and she's even getting distracted by it in classes. She keeps flipping through the catalogue. She can't seem to understand that it's just a bunch of pricey junk, and she won't listen to us, even though we keep explaining it. Maybe you could?"

Lane recalled having overheard Sikowitz and the history teacher discussing a study borrowing money for some wild shopping spree earlier, and now realized that student must have been Miss Valentine.

"Shopping too much, hmm? I'll go talk to her now," Lane assured Beck. He looked at his watch, then gestured to the classrooms. "You might want to get headed to class. The bell's about to ring."

Beck checked his watch too, grimaced, and took off down the hallway, yelling, "Thanks!" back at Lane.

Lane called back, "Have a good class!" and then headed in search of Cat.

He found her as the second bell rang, happily playing with some new gadget in an empty corner of the Black Box Theater. She was squealing happily, running around it in excitement.

"Cat!"

"Oh, hey, Lane!"

"You know you're supposed to be in your improv class right now," he said briskly.

"Oh, sorry, I just got this new thing from Sky Store and ..."

Lane interrupted, wanting to get to the point quickly. He knew from experience that Cat's stories could be long and twisting, and he needed to get this intervention done quickly and get her back in class with Sikowitz as soon as possible.

"Yeah, you know, some teachers and students here think you're buying too many things from Sky Store. I hear you've been borrowing money from people?" he asked. He tried to keep his tone conversational. Cat shut down quickly if she was accused of anything, so he knew to go with the calmer route in talking to her.

"Not anymore," Cat waved off his concerns with a giggle. "I started using my parents' credit card."

"Okay, but still..."

"You know what this is?"

"No, and I don't have time..."

"It's the ball freshener!" she presented it excitedly.

"Cat, I think we need to talk about this, 'cus..."

"See this filthy, icky tennis ball?" Cat asked, demonstrating. He sighed, giving up on keeping her focused. Best to follow her logic for a second.

"Yeah."

"Look it!" She popped it into the cleaner which whirred for a few seconds. She giggled and then pulled it out. "Fresh as a daisy!" she said with a happy little sniff of her freshly cleaned ball.

Lane looked at her skeptically. "Do you even play tennis?"

"No! But I'm gonna learn ... with the world's thinnest tennis racket," she said, pulling out what he could only assume to be another Sky Store purchase. She presented it with a little impressed gasp, with a surprised face that would put many midnight tv salespeople to shame.

"Cat, does a person really need to have a tennis racket that ... Wow! It's so light!" he said in surprise.

It was not until that night when he was in bed running through the day's script in his head that he realized that not only had he forgotten to finish addressing the issue with Cat, but he had somehow been talked into ordering tennis supplies for himself, but also a set of pink tennis balls for her that she would "totally" pay him back for when they arrived.

Ah, well, if he exercised more his own mental health would likely be better, which would then benefit the kids he worked with and he could end up helping Cat in some other way...

Ah, well, the kids couldn't be perfect all the time, and neither could he.

But he was going to try harder not to fall prey to Sky Store's marketing ... even if they did have a litter box that played classical music, and he had two brand new kittens...

...

I hope you enjoyed!

I've already got a story tickle for one on Bade relationship counselling, but we'll see. :)

Is there anything that you guys can imagine Trina, Tori, Andre, or Robbie going to Lane for? Not sure if I'll go beyond the three, but if I get inspired it might continue. :) Lane's fun to write!

Anyway, keep reading!