Roxanne was an absolute joy living in my house for as long as she did and I liked that she enjoyed staying as much as I enjoyed her company. I never asked her to do this, but she cleaned my house, weeded my garden and cooked my tea, when I was busy at Spoonerville College getting all the sports terms and events ready for the academic year of 2005 – 06. She told me she was doing these jobs at my place for two reasons. The first one was to show her appreciation for letting her join me and my family at that Mouseton Vacation and the second one was because doing them helped her take her mind off her terrible life in San Siesta, so I let her do them and, whatever she did and whenever she did it, she always did a great job and I always appreciated it.

And sometimes when we weren't busy, I would take her out. We went shopping – as Roxanne need more clothes than just the ones Sylvia gave her – we would eat out, we would go to the movie theatre and we would go to have picnics at Spoonerville Park and Spoonerville Beach. So, yeah, life with Roxanne back in my life was just as good as it was during our high school relationship.

There was one problem, though – she kept waking up from during the night. I kept running into her bedroom and checking she was okay and she kept telling me that she was still having the same nightmare and she kept apologizing to me for waking me up. Then one night, I suggested that she tried sleeping with me in my bedroom to see if that would help her, but sadly it didn't and she had the same nightmare.

"I'm so sorry I keep putting you through this, Max," Roxanne sobbed. "Maybe I should just leave you, so I won't be a burden to you."

I gently grabbed her beautiful hands and held them to comfort her. "Listen to me, Roxanne. You are the complete opposite of a burden. You are an absolute joy to be with and that's why I enjoy you staying in my house and I will help you the best way I can."

"Thank you, Max," Roxanne said, hugging me as she continued to sob. "Thank you so much."

"I've been thinking for a while, Roxanne," I said. "I know a psychologist. Do you want me to try and book an appointment for you?"

"Won't it cost a lot of money?"

"Because you're my friend and I really want to help you, it would be worth every cent and you deserve the help."

"Okay, Max, I'll give it a try. Thank you."

Then we went back to sleep and she didn't wake up from her nightmare again for the rest of the night.

I managed to get Roxanne an appointment with the psychologist two days later. It was Spoonerville's best psychologist, who was a female raccoon called Dr. Yasmin Faist. She was a student that studied psychology at Spoonerville College and, as you know, she had gone on to become one of the world's most successful psychologists ever and has written a lot of psychologist books – both fiction and non-fiction. Before the session with Roxanne began, she immediately recognized me and we greeted each other very quickly before the session began. I stayed with Roxanne and Dr. Faist during the entire session so I could learn the best way how to help Roxanne, which – as Dr. Faist said in her own words – was very admirable and helpful of me.

Dr. Faist started the session by asking Roxanne how she felt. She said that she didn't feel good about herself and never really did. She started to feel that way when she learned that her mother wasn't living with her and her dad because her mother was died when she was only three. And also losing her identical twin sister Emma, which Roxanne never knew she existed until she was eighteen years old.

Then Roxanne explained to Dr. Faist about she felt about her relationship with her own father. She had mixed feelings about him. Despite being the only living family member she ever had in her life, she felt that she never really bonded with him. They were just too different from each other. All her dad did was watch TV, drink beer and overprotect her from all the dangers in the world. Even though she knew why he was this way – because he was devastated over losing Roxanne's mother and Emma and never recovered from it – she just couldn't view him as a role model, even when she was very young. She thought maybe she took more after her mom than she did after her dad. When she was asked at school what her dad did for a living, she kept telling them that he was still looking for a job, so she wouldn't hear stuff from other students like, 'Roxanne's dad's a loser' or 'Here come the daughter of an alcoholic'.

Then Roxanne told Dr. Faist her story of San Siesta and how that made her feel. She said that it was the worse eight years of her entire life and all the terrible stuff she had to go through and how she felt that she struggled with it for no reason and none of it had taught her how to grow and be smarter or tougher or any of that stuff and how she was still upset about her dad for causing their house in Spoonerville to burn down, which was how it got started in the first place. She always loved him and she always knew deep down that he was looking out for her the very best way he could and she missed him a lot, but because he was always way too overprotective of her and never taught her how to prepare for the real world, she still was struggling to forgive him for that and kept wondering what her life would have been like if he was still alive. Would she have met me again and would her dad try to keep me away from her like he did ever since I first met him?

As for her friends, before she met me, Roxanne felt that the only two reasons that she was popular was because she was the best friend of Stacey, who was always more popular than she ever was and had more friends than she ever did ever since they met in day care, and also because of her beautiful looks. Apart from Stacey, she felt that she never had any true friends. There were some guys who wanted to take her out, like Chad from Spoonerville High School being the best example, but she just wasn't into these handsome and strong guys, because she knew they were arrogant and narcissistic and weren't smart. That was part of the reason why she gave me a chance to be her boyfriend and that was one decision she never regretted in her life. She became happier when she and I started our high school relationship in Summer 1995. In her own words, she said I always treated her the way boyfriends should treat their girlfriends. I treated her like she mattered, I supported her the best way I could, I look her on the best dates and I paid with everything I could afford with my earnings from my afterschool job. When she had to leave for San Siesta with her dad, the worse thing was that she had to leave me and she never recovered from it, but now that she was back with me, she started to feel happier again.

And another reason that she didn't feel good about herself was the fact that she had to start high school all over again when she was in San Siesta. She had to retake the Ninth Grade at the age when most students her age would be taking the Twelfth Grade and no matter her hard she worked and no matter how many good grades she got, she couldn't skip any grades and she had to go through four years of it and graduate four years later than most students, so she didn't feel smart at all and she didn't think that she should bother going to college or get a job. And at that school, she didn't have any friends at all. She was a complete and utter pariah there.

Then Dr. Faist asked me how I felt about Roxanne being back in my life and I replied by saying my life has become better too, especially ever since Mona's betrayal more than two years ago, and I would do anything to help her the best way I could.

The session ended with Dr. Faist telling Roxanne to try new things and try to find hobbies to enjoy and try not to live in the past, no matter how hard it is.

The next day, after work, I arrived back home and Roxanne surprised me with a homemade lasagne and garlic bread that she made from scratch. And everything about it was delicious.

"Hey, Roxanne," I said. "If you could go to college, would you like to?"

"Yeah, Max," she replied. "I would if I could. Why?"

"Because there's a few spaces for new students at Spoonerville College," I replied. "I can use my power to get you in if you like."

"That's very nice of you, Max," Roxanne said. "And I haven't forgotten about Dr. Faist's advice about trying new things, but I – I – I just don't know."

"Well, how about you come with to the college tomorrow?" I suggested. "That way, I can give you a tour and you can see what you can study there and then you can make a decision."

Roxanne thought about it and then she smiled. "Okay, Max. I'll go with you for the tour of the college tomorrow."

"Great," I said.

Then we finished eating the delicious dinner that Roxanne made all on her own.