Saint Joseph School

Valorie Atwoods sat cross legged on the floor of her office, a sketch pad neatly placed on her lap as her hand worked its charcoal magic across the page.
An increased number of students were finding thier way into Dr. Conrads office and her own as of late and she found herself wondering what was going on to cause this.

Tiffany sat across from the counsler. She also sat cross legged on the floor. She had requested they sit here rather than in the chairs and Miss Atwoods had humored her by agreeing.
" Would you like your own paper and pencil as well Tiffany?" she had asked.

To her surprise and curiosity ,Tiffany had said yes , and so Valorie had accomodated the young girl.
Now both sat watching thier paper and chatting in a more non-formal setting.

"I hear you had a bit of an outburst recently among your friends. I was told it came as quite a shock to those who know you well."
Miss Atwoods begins.

" yea well, it just gets old ya know? I mean if I wanted to hear whining all the time I'd call my little sister." Tiffany answers in an annoyed tone.

" Well Tiffany , what exactly makes you feel like they are whining? "
The woman is probing now and Tiffany is already aggitated.

" What you wanna stick up for them now? Should I come in here and be all... poor me I'm a robot and noone cares or maybe poor me I have horns so everyone looks at me funny.... Oh I know maybe I can come in and cry alot and tell you how I have no soul and noone understands me? is that what you want? Cause if it is I ain't doin it. Its not me !"
Tiffany answers angrily.

"No, I would like for you to tell me what you think is bothering you though. Is it all these things you've mentioned? Or is it something else."

Tiffany looks back down at her paper again.
On it she has drawn a house, stick figured people holding hands outside and trees.
It looks more like a kindergarten drawing than that of a 16 year old girl.

" I don't know why it bothers me so much it just does ok. I mean , every single day when we go out and patrol or whatever we see all this stuff... people kidnapped , bank robberies... major stuff ya know?
And then like , we all go to hang out and I love hanging out with everyone, I can hardly wait to see them cause alot of the time when we hang out is the only time I get to see them.
And then it never freakin fails someone will start crap with someone else and there will be an arguement or someone will get all over emotional and freak out..."
Tiffany looks up at Miss Atwoods.

" And so , it becomes no longer fun?"
Miss Atwoods asks as she listens, her fingers still working across the white paper.

" yea... its no fun. And so like I been goofing off a lot more when they're around cause I figured if I joked about it a little they'd see and maybe loosen up ya know? But geesh... I bout got my head ripped off for it! And I was just playing! "

Miss Atwoods looks up for a moment and back down at her own drawing.

"Tiffany, does this mean anything to you at all?"
She holds up the sketch pad.
The drawing is rather cartoonie. A plump character in a parka coat , a mountain behind him. Several smaller characters in the back ground appear to be sledding or throwing snowballs.


" I never really had a parka. My dad never got me one. I never even went sledding. I saw it on a tv cartoon one time. this kid wore a parka and all the kids laughed and i thought it was funny.
I just said it cause I thought it was funny. "

She looks back down at her own paper again before continueing. One of the stick figures looks as if shes wearing a frilly dress and holds her arms above her head like a ballerina.

" How come I can't be more like her. She dances , she sings... everyone loves her. Shes so cute and bubbly and shes.... "

"Who is she Tiffany and what is it that you think she is?" Miss Atwoods asks.

" It doesn't matter. Can i go now please? I have alot of homework to do ."
Tiffany doesn't wait for ananswer. She stands quickly and wads the picture up into a ball tossing it into a nearby trash can as she leaves the office.

Miss Atwoods sighs.softly. She stands and walks to the trash can taking the drawing out and smoothing the paper over her desk.

The stick figures all stand around the dancing ballerina smiling. All but one.
In the background is one figure , its face incomplete. That figure holds what appears to be a suitcase with the letters SJS drawn on it.

Maybe another talk will draw Tiffany out a bit more. But for today Miss Atwoods decides to leave her be.

Valorie Atwoods was cleaning the clutter from her desk when a small knock sounded on her office door.
It was still 20 minutes before the first of the class of the day and 45 minutes from her first scheduled appointment this morning.

"Yes? Come in please." she answered as she carried a stack of files to her filing cabinet.

Tiffany opened the door slowly as she peered behind her to make sure noone was looking.
She had already mentioned an early morning appointemnt here in case she should be seen coming out before class.

"Miss Atwoods? I was wondering if you have a minute ? " Tiffany questioned.

*Sure , have a seat Miss Seagler , and good morning to you!" the counsler said with a warm smile as she motioned to a nearby chair..

As Tiffany sat down she glanced around the office walls. Paintings of warm seascapes . serene sunsets and a diploma from a University Hung neatly.

" What brings you back this morning Tiffany? Is everything ok? "

" Oh... well yea... kinda... I mean I just wanted to let you know I thought about things and I appologized to Isaac and Kai last night."
Tiffany ended the statement with a quiet sigh as she mumbled "So everythings cool I guess."

Miss Atwoods face retained the warm gentle smile as she listened.

" Well that is certainly a responsible response to the problem. How do you feel about it? did they respond like you had hoped?"

" yea... I mean well kinda. Kai did... he actually found me and appologized before I had time to say anything first. But we talked and joked a little about it and so it seemed ok."
she let it drop there a moment before adding,
" Isaac ... I dont think he took it very well though. He just told me it wasn't Him I should be appologizing to and flew off. I thought He would be the more understanding one."

Tiffany pulled a leg up under her in the chair as she shifted in her seat.

" So Isaac's response left you feeling the issue was still unresolved ."
it was a statement. Not a question when Miss Atwoods said it. But to Tiffany it needed answered.

" Well yea.. I mean .. i don't want my friends mad at me. I mean thier the only fam... friends I have around here ya know? And I shouldn't have blown up like that. I should have bit my tongue and just told Nick later like I always do. he woulda listened and told me what he thought and it would have been out of my system then. It's just we were having such a good night for once, everyone had been laughing and talking...."
she stopped again realizing she had began to rable with her words.

"Well , I think you handled yourself well by appologizing . My advice is to give things a day or two to go back to normal and see how it goes. You have already took the first step in breaking the tension barrier , see if that helps."
Miss Atwoods smiled again.
" While you are here though I wanted to ask how your visit with your family went last week. "

" Oh it went great. My mom made meatloaf and mashed potatoes , those are my favorites and my lil sister had a dance recital so we went to that too."
Tiffany rolls her eyes at the mention of the recital.

" Recital? How nice , what kind of recital was it? "
Valorie was again sketching as the two talked.

" She takes ballet and Jazz dance classes. Shes really good. She had two performances that night. One for each class. My mom took a ton of pictures plus the school shes in takes professional ones you can buy too so my mom ordered a ton from that too.
I'm sure they will be plastered all over the Living room the next time i go home."

The bell rang signaling 5 minutes to First hour and Tiffany looked up to Miss Atwoods.
" Oh god I didn't realize i had been here so long , I gotta get to class. Thanks Miss Atwoods!"
She rose from the chair and waved as she hurried out of the office to her class.

Looking down at her sketch pad Valorie now pays attention to what she has drawn.
A waterfall , large boulders, birds flying. A relativly peaceful scene not much different from those she herself enjoys. In the background atop one of the large boulders is the stick figure from Tiffanys drawing the previous visit. Still clutching the square suitcase with the letters SJS scrawled across.

She hasn't decided what it all means yet. Tiffany would have to open up a bit more first.