Okay, let's do it. Get it over with.

A jog through the rain, She hit the intercom and a moment later the door latch buzzed.

Megan McCall walked into the waiting room where she’d spent every Saturday morning for the past seven weeks. Ever since the Incident, She kept waiting for the place to become familiar. It never did.

She hated this. The sessions were bad enough but the waiting really killed her. Dr. Hanson always kept her waiting. Even if she was on time, even if there were no other patients ahead of her, he always started the session five minutes or so late. It pissed her off but she never said anything about it.

Today, though, she found the new doctor standing in the doorway, smiling at her, lifting an eyebrow in greeting. Right on time.

“You’re Megan?” the man said, offering an easy smile. “I’m Bill Peters.” He was about her father’s age, handsome. Full head of hair. Hanson was bald and looked like a shrink. This guy… Maybe a little George Cooney, Crazy Megan decides. Her wariness fades slightly.

And he doesn’t call himself “Doctor.” Interesting.

“Hi.”

“Come on in.” He gestured. She stepped into the office.

‘How’s Dr. Hanson?” she asked, sitting in the chair across from his desk. “Somebody in his family’s sick?”

His mother. An accident. I hear she’ll be all right. But he had to go to Leesburg for the week.”

“So you re like a substitute teacher?”

He laughed. “Something like that.”

"I didn't know shr-therapists took over other patients.”

“Some don’t.”

Dr. Peters-Bill Peters-had called yesterday after school to tell her that Hanson had arranged for him to take over his appointments and, if she wanted, she could make her regular session after all. No way, Crazy Megan had whispered at first. But after Megan had talked with Peters for a while she decided she’d give it a try. There was something comforting about his voice. Besides, baldy Hanson wasn't doing diddly for her. The sessions amounted to her lame bitching about school and about being lonely and about Amy and Josh and Brittany, and Hanson nodding and saying she had to be friends with herself. Whatever the hell that meant.