Time Warp: Never Good at Bad [Sean]

[Kaylee Thomas]

(October 16th, 2009. Age 17)

It hadn't been the best week, but that wasn't gonna stop Kaylee from showing her best side to Doctor Neville. She skipped around the corner to Doctor Neville's office, slowing to a walk as she approached the door. It was half-open, so she peeked in to be sure nobody else was in there. Thankfully, it was only Doctor Neville in the office. She'd started to think maybe he kept Friday afternoons open for social visits such as the ones she had taken to. Although it was likely a coincidence, it was still nice to think of.

She tried to remember the thing she'd googled about blocking her thoughts around telepathic people. As it turned out, she was someone who thought particularly loudly and straightforwardly, so even if they did their best not to listen sometimes things kind of... slipped through. She didn't want to intrude upon someone's mindspace like that, and so she did her best to put up walls. Even if that wasn't how it worked in the least, she figured she should at least try.

The main reason she had hoped blocking her thoughts was possible, aside from common courtesy of allowing someone their own head, was because of her boyfriend. Jacks, or Jacksonville (a name he frequently blamed his mother for even considering), had considered Kaylee a sort of part of his territory for the last year and a half. He asked her if she'd like to go out about three months before, and so far she thought things were going pretty well. 

Except they so weren't. She was simply in denial about a few things, the first of which being that she considered him to be not a total jerk. Being young and far too optimistic of people, she was incorrect.

Aside from that, she was doing pretty well. She'd finally called her mom again this week and they were definitely okay. She tried to get Dorie to teach her how to bake, something that went horribly until mister Jordan came in from his main garden and (after chuckling at the flour-patched appearance of his daughter and how pristine Kaylee had managed to stay in comparison) helped them to make a pie and some rather interesting cookies. Some of which she hoped to make for Doctor Neville. And maybe also Priscilla, as a peace offering, but there was actually no disruption of peace there since about May. She figured in that case it was best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Kaylee decided to make her presence officially known, opening the door and leaning into the office. "Doctor Neville?" She smiled, her voice not wavering in the way it had the first few times visiting his office. The nervousness that had surrounded her about being sent to the office of any official had dissipated rather quickly once she realised how much they genuinely cared for the students at Hammel. "Hi, sorry if I'm interrupting anything. Are you busy?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean’s scheduling was a hodgepodge, and, on more than one occasion, coworkers had informed him that they did not know how he managed. They psychiatrist understood, since the student population of Hammel hovered around seven-hundred, and there were another hundred faculty members. Most of the students had family that demanded periodic check-ins, or otherwise there were government assessments, and coordination with the sister schools, and coordination with other medical professionals about particular students. He also served as the faculty advisor to two clubs, and there were only so many hours in the day.

The insomnia helped. As did the fact that he had no family waiting for him back home, and so it didn’t matter how many hours he put in at work. At least people relied upon his presence at Hammel.

The psychiatrist tried to provide consistency to all of his students with standing appointments, while also leaving hours open in the day (and during the week as a whole) for students to come talk with him absent an appointment.

One such block of time was Friday afternoons, since it fit well into the schedules of most of the student body. During his freed hours, if he had no drop-ins, he used the time to take care of paperwork or telephone calls.

When Kaylee knocked on his door, he had been finishing with some notes from earlier in the week. The psychiatrist lifted his head, and offered her a smile. “You aren’t interrupting at all.” To make that point, he marked the file and then closed it, shifting it to another portion of his desk. “Please, come in.”

She had come to his office enough times to know the furniture policy, in that she could sit anywhere she liked, from the chairs in front of his desk to the sofa at the other end of the office. He would move to accommodate her choice.