Hello Dr Todd

From a FFF prompt via Scoot

“Yo!” came the retort. All eyes in the room turned to the door. There he was. Walking in with his hat on backwards.

“I said Yo! “ he repeated, urging the gathering to respond in kind.

“Who are you?”

The man with the hat on backwards pulled up a chair, which he also insisted on using backwards. Gillian sighed audibly at the sheer bufoonary of it all.

“I,” announced the backwards man, “am Dr Todd, your new guidance counsellor.”

More audible signs and moans. Teenagers were some of the toughest crowds out there and entering a room full of them wearing your hat backwards and trying to appear cool was not going to win you any favours.

“I’m not talking to you,” said Troy, folding his arms in protest.

“Oh, but you have to. You’re all here because,” replied Dr Todd as be pulled a bit of paper out of his back pocket, “you annoy your teachers in some way.”

“They annoy us,” Gillian retorted. It was her turn to fold her arms. She added a pout for good measure.

“Look, guys,” said Dr Todd, his syrupy, middle-aged tones grating on the forced gathering, “I understand how intense and uncool this all is. Hey, I don’t know if I even want to be here (more groans), but we have to be here so we can talk about why we’re all here.”

“I‘m here so I don’t get kicked out of school,” said Troy.

“Yeah,” agreed Gillian.

“What about you?” Dr Todd asked, directing his attention to a gigantic silent teen sitting off to the side whose gaze was fixed on the window.

With the glacial onrushing of a valium-fueled sloth, he turned from the window to face the group.

“I’ve always been here,” he declared cryptically, before turning back to the window with the same lack of urgency.

After an awkward pause that appeared to last an eternity, Dr Todd turned away from the giant and back to the other two.

“Alrighty then,” he said in a way that referenced a movie character from an age before these teens were born, “let’s get down to brass tacks. Gillian, you are here because you called Mr Fresian a dick…”

“That’s because he’s a dick,” interrupted Gillian, “the dick.”

“…and you’re here Troy because,” said Dr Todd ignorring Gillian’s outburst and referring to his paper, “you bounced through the gymnasium on a pogo stick causing $32,000 worth of damage to the basketball court.”

“What can I say,” replied Troy somewhat triumphantly, “spring had sprung and I wanted to celebrate. On springs.”

“Yes, well, that’s a lot of damage and pretty uncool for the basketball team.” admonished Dr Todd trying not to sound like he was using a growly voice, “they now have to practice in the cooking room.”

“Who cares. They’re all dicks,” Gillian proffered, arms folded even more tightly than before.

“Indeed,” Dr Todd hunting for the right thing to say for this moment in time. His Generation X sensibilities were struggling to ingratiate themselves onto these Gen-Zers

“Yet,” he continued, “I think we all need to remember, and by we, I mean you, need to remember you are here because you’ve made a promise. A promise to this school that you would seek change, not just for the sake of it, but because you truly and firmly believe that if you don’t, it will impact upon your lives not just now, not just next week, but in the months and years to come. Isn’t that right?”

Nothing.

“I said, isn’t that right Gillian and Troy, and… and… window guy?”

“No,” they all said in unison. Even window guy was immediately in on this action.

Dr Todd was confused.

“What?” he said looking down at his paper, “it says here you promised. You all made a promise to Dean Berger.”

“Oh,” explained Gillian, “I promised Dean Berger, but I didn’t mean it.”

“Neither,” agreed Troy.

“I had my fingers cross,” drifted across the room from the window.

“Oh…” said Dr Todd, his shoulders slumping slightly as he realised his initial positive reading of the teen group had been drastically misplaced.

“Look,” said Gillian, potentially feeling some pangs of guilt as she saw yet another counsellor begin to disintegrate before her eyes, “I’m here because this is on at the same time as English. That’s all. I called Mr Fresian a dick because I knew that would get me here.”

Gillian’s explaination seemed to spark something in the others.

“I’m here because I’m find the big classes a struggle and like to be around fewer people,” Troy added.

“And I’m here because I’m in love with Gillian,” announced window guy.

Gillian’s head whipped towards the window. This was huge news. Window guy was always here, saying nothing, looking out the window. Who was he? And how come he loved her? Was this even possible? The mystery was glorious.

“Well,” sighed Dr Todd, taking off his hat and turning his chair to a more comfortable position, “I suppose that’s about right. I used to be a teenager once, but that was during the 1980s when Back to the Future was still set in the future. I don’t know nothing about you lot.”

A moment or two of silence filled the space between them. Was it mutual recognition? Dr Todd couldn’t say. After some time, he spoke up.

“Look everyone,” he said, “I am a qualified counsellor. I do know some stuff about the shit you’re going through, or the shit you’re trying to avoid. We can talk or we can just sit here and do nothing if you want, and I’ll just sign you off at the end of the term.”

Troy looked at Gillian. Gillian looked at window guy. Window guy looked out the window.

Dr Todd wondered, hoped, this spring, something special had started to bloom.