Quiet Day in the Office

[Aishe Tigani]

Aishe sat back in her chair as she stretched her arms above her head. She glanced over to the corner of the room where her Falabella was lying on her bed - which was a small futon mattress with a fleece blanket tucked around it - with her legs curled up under her like a dog. She was so glad that she had studied human psychology, as she would hate to have to explain to the equine that she wasn't a canine. She went back to the papers that she was looking through.

Things had been pretty quiet in her office as of late, as it was too early in the year for students to be talking to her about ways to boost up their grades and too late for them to be grovelling to get into their friends' classes. Though there were a handful of students, whose files she had read, and was surprised that they hadn't been in to see her, but she guessed that coming to see the school counsellor was completely voluntary and no one was really going to willingly want to walk in her door. As many students pictured her office as being one of those shrink offices in the movies; where the patients lie on a couch and the doctor sits there writing everything down going "I zee... and zees tings happen all the time?", but that wasn't how she worked... at least not until she got a good relationship between her and the person she was talking to.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy sighed as she listened to her father on the phone, "Yes, I will. I'll go right now." After he'd hung up, she dropped the phone and looked down at Wolf, "Not that I want to." She wouldn't think of speaking against her father's point, though. She knew he only had her best interests at heart, in the end, even if she didn't like it sometimes.

Grabbing Wolf's vest, she walked over to the dog, kneeling to buckle it into place, before she clipped the traffic lead onto the canine's collar. With a word, the shepherd followed her out of the office, and after locking her room, they set off through the cold... Not that it was that cold. New York had just been hit with a major snowstorm, after all.

As she reached the main office building, she slipped inside, and followed a somewhat familiar corridor down towards the counseling offices. As she reached the one office she could tell was occupied, she looked in, standing quietly in front of the door as she debated speaking, and thus drawing attention to her presence, but at the same time, considered the possibility of turning tail and just returning to her dorm room.

[Aishe Tigani]

The Gypsy woman was concentrating on the papers in front of her, that she didn't notice that there was a person standing at her door. The Falabella however lifted her head off her mattress and looked at the canine at the door with her ears pricked and rumbled a greeting, which caught the attention of her owner and Aishe's eyes moved from the horse to the direction the filly's ears were pointing.

Aishe chuckled softly. "Sorry, I was in a world of my own." She apologised, though she knew that there was no excuse for her being inattentive of who was at her door. She shook her head, slightly amused, as she heard Star pull herself to her feet and the bay tobiano trotted toward the canine, who stood a fraction taller, stopping before getting too close and stretching out her neck toward Wolf and letting out a gentle rumble as she blew out her nostrils toward the dog.

The woman turned her attention away from the animals as she knew that Wolf was trained to be around horses and Star thought she was a dog so there was no worries about the filly doing anything stupid, returning it to the girl. "Would you like to come in?" She asked softly, she knew when she needed to give someone the option of entering of not.

[Amelia DeFoe]

As Wolf's head turned towards the noise from the corner, Amy followed his gaze, a small smile forming on her face as she spotted the little pony in the corner. It was cute, in a strange way, as she had never seen a falabella before, and couldn't quite reconcile the image of a horse, even a tiny one, in an office. But there it was, and it was well trained, lying on its mat and everything.

But then the woman noticed her, and Amy turned back to her, shrugging, "That's okay." She couldn't fault the woman, and she knew that she had to talk to her eventually. As the little pony approached them, Amy was surprised to see that it was shorter than Wolf, something she cerebrally might have known, but seeing the two interact, it was more obvious. The canine stretched out a nose to sniff at the pony before turning his attention back to Amy, earning a treat from the girl's pocket for his attention.

As she was offered entry into the office, Amy frowned, then nodded. She didn't want to, but she couldn't leave now. She stepped forward, careful not to run over the falabella, then stood uneasily within the threshold of the space, "My dad wanted me to come and talk to you about..." she glanced at the open door, "things."

[Aishe Tigani]

Aishe smiled as she watched the filly and canine got to know each other, remaining silent as she knew that the two animals understood each other. She opened her mouth to reprimand Star as the Falabella took another step forward and nudged the student's hand. Even though the filly hadn't had the training as a therapy horse, she had been with Aishe all her life and had been in the office with enough students to know when a person needed a little extra support, rather than looking for treats as a lot of people thought.

She nodded as Star stepped backward as the girl walked forward and the tiny horse ambled her way back over to her mat and shoved her tiny muzzle into her feed bin, sliding it across the floor until it hit the leg of the table in the corner beside the bookshelves that lined one wall between the large windows that gave the office such an open feel, when she found it empty.

The Gypsy woman smiled at the girl's words. "Would you like anything to drink?" She asked. The office was almost like a one-roomed apartment, other than the shelves that lined the wall with the windows, the opposite wall had a small bench with a sink and kettle, a small fridge under it and a microwave on a shelf on the wall above it. There were days when Aishe found that just remaining in here during the day rather than leaving to eat. "I have a range of sodas, water, tea, coffee, flavoured milk." Ok, the milk bit often threw people off, but the woman had a soft spot for orange-chocolate milk. She wasn't going to push Amy into talking, so she just waited patiently.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy watched the little equine with a smile. It was cute, that was sure, although she wondered if it ever went out to the pastures, or if it just went to the lawn, since the bigger horses might accidentally hurt her. As Star moved off to find her food bowl, the girl's eyes followed her, chuckling at the very horse-like response to finding it empty. Yes, she was definitely a horse, for all that she seemed comfortable around dogs, and might even act like it in some ways.

Her attention turned back to the counsellor as she was offered a drink, reminded incongruently of meeting Ms. Carr for the first time, where the woman had offered her a similar selection. And, again, she asked for the same thing, "If you have a Sprite, yes please." She had a soft spot for the soda, although she didn't get it too often. As she stood there, Wolf sat down at her side, and she dropped his lead to let him lay down. Sure, the shepherd was always on duty. That didn't stop him from taking short naps if she wasn't going to be going anywhere, something he had gotten to be very good at identifying.

[Aishe Tigani]

Aishe ignored the small horse's antics, knowing that her breed was prone to putting on weight quickly if feed too much, and she would take the filly outside to graze right before dinner time. And, as long as she turned Star out into a pasture she had to herself, which the mare pasture normally was at that time of the evening, and gave her an hour to burn off any pent up energy.

She smiled and wrote down Amy's name and sprite on a post-it note, a little info for later, before she rose to her feet and walked over to the fridge and pulled out two bottles; a sprite for Amy and a Schweppes lemon lime sparkling water for herself. After filling up a bowl with water, she walked back, she handed the bottle and a glass to Amy before placing the bowl on the ground under the other chair for Wolf, she then moved to sit behind her desk. She had two chairs on the other side of her desk, but until the students were comfortable talking to her, she liked to have the space between them, though she often wondered about how they thought talking to her over a desk.

She opened her bottle, a smile playing over her lips when it seemed that Amy would indeed need a little prodding to get her to talk, and she took a sip of the drink before she returned the cap. "How are you enjoying your classes this year?" Other than horses, classes seemed to be the most innocent topic to bring up with students, and she hoped that Amy would see it as nothing more than the question it was.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy took the bottle and glass with a small smile, "Thank you." Setting the glass on the desk, she opened the bottle and poured about half carefully into the glass, making sure she didn't spill, before returning the cap to its original position and taking the glass again. Only after she'd taken a sip did she look down to check on Wolf, who had lapped at the water, spilling a bit over the side, before going back to napping, "I'm sorry for the mess, I can clean it up when we leave." When would that be? She wasn't sure. She wasn't sure how this counselor wanted to do things, so she didn't know how long it would take.

Asked about her classes, Amy considered before responding, "I like most of them. I really like Trail class, and I feel like I'm getting to know Amur better." She realized that the woman might not know who Amur was, "Amur is my horse, I got him last year, I'm learning English riding on him. Tommy is my Western horse." She didn't particularly enjoy some parts of psychology, but then, that was okay. She was still learning a lot from the class, even if it did make her uncomfortable sometimes. Turning back to the equestrian classes, she added, "Amur and I might be able to move out of the beginner English class next year." She had the basics, yes, but it was a matter of experience, and she still wouldn't feel comfortable going into the actual dressage class, although the teacher was nice!

[Aishe Tigani]

Aishe brushed off the girl's concern about the spilled water. "Think nothing of it." She assured the student. "It's my own fault for not putting a towel down under the bowl." It was only water, and as she had a horse in her office, a little bit of spilled water was the least of her worries.

She listened as the girl spoke of her equestrian classes, and horses and then the classes again, the woman smile as she sipped her drink, not at all missing the fact that Amy hadn't said one word about her academic classes, though the Gypsy woman wasn't stupid enough to read anything into it. After all, this was an equestrian academy, and the equestrian side of things was the reason ninety percent of the students attended the school. "That's great to hear that you are doing so well in moving from Western to English riding." She shook her head, as her compliment had come out wrong, and to her own ears it sounded like she was telling the girl that she was better off to ride in an English saddle. "Let me rephrase that. It's great to hear that you are picking up the English style of riding quickly."

She sat back in her chair and raised her eyebrows a little. "You said your dad wanted you to come and talk to me." She hadn't wanted to pry, hoping just to flow into it, but if the topic got too much further into horses, they could be here for hours, and she couldn't be that mean to Amy.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy nodded at the woman's words, willing enough to accept the offer to ignore it. Anywhere else, she would have cleaned it up as they left, but here, she wasn't sure if she would remember that, given that they had to talk about things that she didn't want to have to talk about.. But she had to, and that was that.

As she heard the counselor's words, and then correction, she shrugged, "It's interesting, to be able to compare the two. I don't know if I'll go very far in either, but I'm learning a lot on both sides." She didn't know if she was the best student at this academy, because she didn't even want to end up in the Olympics, or anything like that, but then, it was too late to kick her out... Right?

As the counselor turned back to what she had come for, Amy nodded, biting the inside of her cheek. Within moments, Wolf was standing, and her hand found his ruff, fingers twining through the thick fur there as she began, trying to be as succinct as possible, not wanting to give away more than she had to, although she knew the counselor could always ask, "I was attacked about four years ago, which led to my epilepsy," and other things, but the counselor would probably know about those, "And I've always had nightmares about it, but they were getting less frequent, but now I've been having them almost every night." She couldn't help the shudder then, as she thought about the nightmare, usually the exact same one, although it did start differently sometimes, "I don't know why, and I just want it to go away." She looked away, bracing her jaw as she attempted to keep it together, to not fall apart as she thought of the terrifying event.

[Aishe Tigani]

Aishe smiled. "Horse riding is all about the learning." She replied softly. "Learning from others and more importantly, learning from the horses you ride." Aishe had done a lot more learning from the horse than she had people as she grew up with her caravan, but she wouldn't change a thing of it.

She listened as Amy told her tale, all of which the Gypsy woman already, but she was pleased to hear about it from the girl, as the emotion in the child's voice told her so much more than a file ever could. She frowned when the girl mentioned her nightmares becoming more frequent. "I can understand that it wouldn't be an easy topic to talk about, but when it happened, did anyone walk you through it step by step?" She wondered if memories of the night, ones she had blocked out at the time, were floating to the surface. The girl would have just been hitting puberty when it all came to play, but she wasn't too young to have been talked through the stages of the events, and not old enough to be able to invent parts of it.

"Are you a tea drinker, Amy?" She knew of a couple of blends that would help assist with a calm sleep.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy nodded at the woman's words, they were phrased nicely, and fit the situation really well. Amur taught her, even if not with words. His ears and behavior told her if she was doing something wrong, and his reactions to her requests let her know that she was doing something right, or asking for the wrong thing.

Asked about having been walked through it, Amy thought back, then shook her head, "I don't remember if I was or not. I remember being asked about it after I woke up, but they just wanted general things. My mom told them most of it, I think." Sometimes her memories of the psychologist's office were a bit fuzzy, especially when they had talked about the root of the problem, not where they were going, especially those closer to the event in time.

The conversation turned, rather incongruently at least to Amy, to tea, and she took a moment to regather her thoughts, "Not regularly, no. I like it, I just don't like having to prepare it." She tended to stick to water, or a little bit of juice in the water if she wanted a different taste, but she would get tea in the cafeteria sometimes.

[Aishe Tigani]

Aishe's eyebrows lifted as she listened to the girl and she nodded her head. Although she kept her face as blank as possible, she allowed some emotion to float through to show the student that she wasn't taking to a blank wall - as she knew a lot of children did when they went to talk to a counsellor. She'd seen enough supposed child psychologists, while she was interning, who were more interested in talking to the parents than to the child they were supposed to be helping through one crisis or another. Be chewed lightly on her bottom lip. "Amy, do you mind if I give you dad a call? Once we've finished here of course. With your consent, I'd like to get hold of what they did ask you."

She laughed gently as the girl seemed a little thrown by the question about tea. "There are some aspects of my past that haunt me in the middle of the night. And I found a couple of blends of tea that help me sleep a little better. Sure, I could tell you to go to a doctor and get prescribed sleeping pills, but they are never the answer and the side affects they can have will reek havoc on the time you need to be awake." She loved her Romany heritage and upbringing, but there were some traditions that she wished had been banned a century ago, and those traditions were they things that awoke her with a fright.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy frowned at the question that she was asked. On one hand, it would certainly lead to more meeting with this counselor, which she didn't really like... But at the same time, if she could make the nightmares go away, then maybe it was worth a shot? And, then there was the added side benefit of, when Ms. Tigani called her father, he would know that she really had visited the woman, which was always a good thing too... But she really didn't want to have to go through what had happened, step for step... She considered the two sides of the matter, weighing each for a couple of moments, before she shrugged, "Okay." It would be terrible, yes, but were the nightmares really any worse?

As Ms. Tigani started talking about why she had asked about tea, Amy almost smiled, "That sounds nice." She could see where this was going, and while she wasn't certain about how effectively it worked, it wasn't like much of anything else had, and it couldn't hurt, "I guess I could try it. What blends would you recommend?" She would have to head into the town proper to get them, but she could do that. It would be good to remind Wolf of how public transportation worked, in any case.

[Aishe Tigani]

Aishe smiled when Amy gave her the affirmative to calling the girl's father. "Be assured, Amy, I just want to see what was asked of you, at the time. I am not going to make you go back in time and reopen wounds that are beginning to heal. I am hoping that it will give me an idea of where we can go to move forward."

She laughed as Amy seemed interested in trying the tea idea and then blew out her breath. "I blend my own, so you won't be able to pick them up from town." She ordered organic dried herbs online and then created the tea blends. The woman rose from her chair and walked over to the kitchenette and took a couple of jars from a top cupboard and then two more, smaller, jars from a cupboard below. She spooned an amount of tea into each jar, which she labelled with the name of the tea and then took an unopened tea strainer from the drawer and carried them back to Amy. "Here you have Orchid Flower tea, and Sleepy tea, I know not very creative name but it contains lemon balm, peppermint. fennel seeds, rose petals, lavender flowers and liquorice root. You may need to add honey to sweeten them, and you can also add milk or cream to the Sleepy tea."

She placed them on the table beside the girl before walking back around her desk and sitting down again. "I would also suggest that you use that dream journal that you got in Mr D'Arcy's class and start writing down your nightmares. What he hasn't told you, is that the journals are so you can learn to analyse your own dreams, he will never ask you to hand them in for him to read." She had disagreed with him when he had voiced that he was assigning the students with a journal during a staff meeting, though the man had ignored her.