The Life & Times of Sara Sidle

Whoo! I recovered from my writer's block! Here's another chapter! :p

November 5, 1984- 3:04 pm- Mountain Peak Middle School Principal Office

Sara was sitting in the chair across from her principal's office chair fiddling with her fingers. She wasn't too happy about being here, but she knew she had to pay the price of her actions...even though she was sure Melissa deserved what she got. She lowered her head and sighed as she heard the receptionist at the front desk lead her foster parents into the principal's office and they walked in looking at Sara before taking a seat.

"I'm glad that you were able to make it here," the principal, Mr. Roach started.

"It's no trouble, just please tell us exactly why Sara is in here?" Nancy started.

"Well..." Mr. Roach folded his hands over one another and sighed. "Sara, why don't you tell them?"

Sara looked up at her foster parents hesitantly before taking a deep breath and starting. "I walked to school today just like I always do...I went to my locker and got my things and started off to my english class."

So far everything seemed alright.

"Everything was okay until I got to PE..."

The principal nodded for her to continue.

"I was changing out and one of the other girls said something...and I got angry so...I...scared her."

"What did they say, exactly?" Mr. Roach asked.

Sara licked her dry lips lowering her head again.

"What, no bruises today? I'm surprised your foster parents actually care about you enough to not beat the crap out of you!"

Sara fist tightened and she got right up in Melissa's face. Melissa was now genuinely scared at the fierce look in Sara's eyes and the intimidating tone in her voice.

"Don't you dare say anything like that to me again!"

Melissa was now making a scene. "Help! Someone help- she's going to stab me just like her psycho mother killed her father!"

"Do I have to...?" she asked looking up. The principal sighed.

"It would help."

She looked over at Nancy and Ted who looked at her expectingly. She sighed and folded her hands over one another.

"Did she deserve it?"

This sentence confused Sara and she looked up to see a smiling Ted.

"Come on, now- did she deserve it?"

He nudged her gently with a grin and Sara smiled about to continue when...

"Ted!"

Nancy's apalled voice made them all jump.

"Don't condone what she did!"

He nodded. "Sorry, Nance," Ted said. 'Nance' was what he usually called Nancy when he was trying to apologize. When she had turned away, he put a gentle hand on Sara's shoulder and winked at her making her smile.

"Thank you Mr. Roach," Nancy said nodding. "We can handle it from here."

He nodded and watched the group all stand up and walk out of the room.

"Sara..."

Sara looked up at Nancy who sighed.

"Now, I'm not saying that what you did was wrong and I'm not saying what you did was right..." she sighed rubbing her head. "I think we should look into counseling."

Sara was apalled. "What? Counseling? You can't-"

"Sara, please...I think it would help...you need to get this out. I know that day was really hard for you, and...you never really talked about it...I think it would be good for you."

Nancy had now kneeled down beside Sara and put a hand on her shoulder. Sara shook out of her grasp and walked off. How did Nancy even know that what Melissa said or did may have been associated with that day anyway?

"Sara, please!"

Sara turned around to look at a pleading Nancy.

"Please, Sara..."

"You're not my real parents, I don't have to listen to you! You have no right to penetrate those boundaries! You have no idea what happened, so stay out of my life!"

She stormed off leaving a stunned Nancy and Ted speechless.

"Ted...I didn't mean-"

"Shh...Nancy it's okay." Ted pulled Nancy close to her and rubbed her back. "It's okay."

Sara ran off, tears forming in her eyes. She stopped when she reached Josh's new home and knocked on the door lightly. The door opened and Josh's eyes widened.

"Sara?"

She buried herself in his arms.

"Sara, it's okay," he said hugging her. "Come in and tell me what happened."

She walked into the house and he closed the door. She sat down on a brown couch and looked around the house through tear-stained eyes. The house looked relatively new. The walls looked to have been recently re-painted and the furniture was in good condition.

Josh had come back into the living room with a glass of water which he handed to Sara.

"Okay, what happened?"

She took a deep breath before sipping some of the water. "You know what happened at PE today?"

He nodded.

"My foster parents came to the principal's office...and...afterwards Nancy said she wanted me to go to counseling."

He put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I'm turning into her, Josh!"

He wiped a tear from her cheek. "Who?"

"Her!"

"You mean...your mother?"

She broke down in sobs as he said the word and she just nodded between the racking of her body from crying.

"After she was arrested, she...she went to a mental instituition for a while...she was getting evaluated..."

He rubbed the small of her back as she continued.

"I'm not crazy, Josh! I don't need counseling! Obviously everyone else thinks differently! They have no idea what happened-"

"Shh..." He gently pulled her closer and whispered in her ear. "You're not crazy. No one thinks you are, okay?" She nodded slowly. "Okay, Nancy and Ted are just concerned, Sar," he said hugging her gently.

"Did you just call me 'Sar'?"

He smiled. "I believe I did."

She giggled a little and he continued. "They know what happened to you on that day was hard. They just want to make sure that you're okay, that you're dealing with it. They don't know what happened, that's true...but you have to understand that they want to help make things right again."

"But they never will be," she whispered.

"Yes they will, if you let someone help you. You can't do this alone, Sara." She turned to look up at him and he wiped another tear from her face. "Okay?"

She slowly nodded and caught her breath. "Okay."

"Good. Talking about it may be a good thing, y'know? Get it out...just put it on the table. You may even feel better after you go, y'know?"

She nodded.

"Okay, good," he said. "Now wipe those tears away, I don't want George seeing you like this."

She smiled and wiped the tears away as a door slammed.

"Damn it! Little devil got off on parole-"

"Bro! Shut it, we've got company!"

Sara giggled a little as she saw his older brother walk through the door. He was a well-dressed man and clean-shaven at that. He wore a brown suit with a matching tie and golden shirt cuffs. He wore polished dark brown dress shoes.

"Oh! I'm sorry," he said bowing his head slightly. He walked over and ruffled Josh's hair. "So uh, who's this little lady?"

"Don't do that!" Josh said meaning him ruffling his hair. "This, my friend, is Sara."

"Oh! The legendary Sara Sidle, how could I not have noticed such a legend?" George said walking over to her and shaking her hand. "Well, how are you doing this fine evening?"

"Good."

"That's good, well, uh...you ever need anyone sued, I'm your man," he said handing her a white business card that clearly said George Richard Deckard- Attorney at Law. "Yup, I'll sue their little asses into the ground."

Sara giggled and Josh just shot him a look.

"Heeeeeelllllloooo!" Sara looked up to see a red-haired woman walk through the doorway. "Little Joshie's got company! This must be Sara!"

She walked around the room to greet Sara. Sara held her hand out for a shake but instead the woman pulled her into a tight hug, her red-painted fingernails felt through her thin shirt.

"Frankie, uh...you might want to let her breathe some, you know- people like to do that some times," Josh said rolling his eyes.

"I'm sorry, hon!" Frankie said letting her go. "My, aren't you a pretty girl! Josh was right!"

"FRANKIE!"

"Oh, sorry Joshie," she said with a smile and walked off.

"QUIT CALLING ME THAT!" Josh yelled and then turned to Sara clearing his throat. "So anyways, Sara...you've met the whole gang. Want to stay for dinner?"

She thought about it for a minute and smiled. "I'd like that, Joshie," she said with a smirk. "But I need to go apologize to someone," she said standing up. "See you later Joshie," she teased and walked off.

"See you later Sar."

Sara smiled at the mention of her new nickname and walked off down the street with her hands in her pockets. She sighed and looked at the sky. It was getting darker which meant Nancy was half-way through dinner if they weren't out looking for her. She rounded the corner to her home and opened the door.

"Hello?"

The smell of spaghetti and garlic bread filled her nostrils and Nancy ran over to her hugging her tightly.

"SARA! Sweet lord, I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Yeah, uh...I'm sorry about earlier..."

"No, it's alright," Nancy said. "But...would you mind if we scheduled an appointment with that counselor?"

She sighed but shook her head slowly. "I guess it'd be alright."

"Okay! Go get your father and we'll eat dinner!"

Sara nodded and with a weak smile went down the hall to find her father.

But she still wasn't too keen on the idea.
 
Haha! Very cute with the whole thing with Josh's brother & sis in-laws! :) I really like Josh; and I've been secretly hoping that he'd turn up in CSI one day... :lol:
 
^ Aaah! Sash sounds really cute! :D Now could you please turn in your stories to the CSI writers so we'd get to see Josh on the show? :)
 
Here's a new chapter for ya guys!

Quick notes: The pictures described in this office are pictures I have actually seen, and I swear- THEY DON’T MAKE YOU FEEL HAPPY. Also, there is a cat in the building, and I thought I could work the idea into the story for a nice addition to the background.

November 7, 1984- Happy Campers Counseling Center

Sara sat in the waiting room looking at the floor. She didn’t want to be here, she didn’t need to be here. The only reason she went was to please Nancy.

She sighed deeply as the ticking of the clock on the wall became increasingly annoying. The building was called Happy Campers Counseling Center. Sara didn’t see anything happy about the building. The walls were white, and plastered on them were the most depressing pictures Sara had seen in her life.

One of the pictures was of a little girl holding her baby doll tightly to her chest. It was drawn in a blue pen, and then charcoal effects and shadowing were later added. Sara tilted her head to get a better look at it- the little girl looked like her mother and father had just died and she was all alone, as if she let go of that tiny doll her whole world would fall apart.

Another picture, positioned just to the right of the other, was of a little boy, again in the blue pen and charcoal. He was sitting on the ground staring at what was in front of him with his legs crossed Indian-style. His chin was rested on his right arm, and he had a defeated, sad expression on his face.

There was a small wooden table with pamphlets in small holders about children going through their parent’s divorce and another talking about how this building was supposed to provide a safe outlet for the children who went there- a place where they could talk and let everything out and have someone to listen to them.

Sara didn’t want to talk to anyone about what happened on September 16, 1984 at the Sidle residence, thank you very much.

Sara looked around the rest of the building- behind the glass windows lay the receptionist’s office, and inside was a fat white cat lying on one of the desks. He looked so spoiled; he turned and looked at Sara and hissed. If no one else was in the room Sara would’ve hissed back at the cat, but she refrained from doing so since there was another group of people sitting on the ugly leather couches with her.

She looked at the clock on the wall again- her appointment was supposed to start about twenty minutes before. She debated on leaving the building- this seemed like a very appetizing idea at the moment. Still, something told her to stay. She wasn’t sure if it was the fact that Josh told her that this may help or the fact that Nancy really wanted her to go.

After fumbling with her shoelaces on her sneakers for about fifteen minutes, the thick white door leading to the rooms where the sessions were held flew open. A woman about 5’6” stepped out of the room tucking some of her black hair behind her ear. She smiled kindly at Sara- Sara could only guess that this was to try and lighten the mood of the overly depressing atmosphere- and she motioned with her finger for Sara to follow her.

Sara got up sighing and walked over to the door. The woman’s small figure disappeared from the doorway and she walked down a long hallway covered in ugly wallpaper. She opened the door to her office and Sara stepped inside.

“Take a seat, hon.”

Sara rolled her eyes (of course when she was out of the woman’s sight), and took a seat on the couch at the far end of the room. She sat with her legs pressed tightly to her chest and she wrapped her arms around her knees. She didn’t know what it was, but there was something about this whole thing- something about the room maybe- that was giving her an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

The woman sat down in her office chair across from Sara with her clipboard in hand. She slipped on some thin glasses and grabbed a blue pen from a drawer before clearing her throat.

“Alright Sara, my name is Renee, and I want you to know that you can talk about anything in here, I’m only here to listen, I’m not here to judge you.”

That was a first.

“Alright, so…your mother, Nancy-“

“She’s not my mother.”

Sara didn’t mean for it to slip out, it just did. The woman nodded a little. “I’m sorry- foster mother- said something happened to you that put you into foster care.”

“Doesn’t something generally happen to people who have to go to foster care?” Sara shot back rolling her eyes.

“I suppose so.” The woman wrote something down on the piece of paper clipped on her clipboard before continuing. “She said it might be best to talk about it.”

“I don’t want to.”

She nodded and leaned forward a bit. “You know Sara- a lot of people have to deal with things. Divorced parents, bullies at school, abusive relationships- and we all have to just move on.”

“Okay, then let’s move on.”

The woman shook her head slowly and continued. “But they can’t move on alone, they need someone to listen to them, to help them get through it. You, Sara, are not invincible. You can’t go through this alone. You’re only 12-years-old.”

Sara looked at the woman from under the dark locks of hair that were now in her eyes, camouflaging the somewhat angry expression on Sara’s face.

“Please, can you talk to me about it?”

Sara lowered her head and sighed, slowly rocking herself back-and-forth as she thought.

“Why do you do that?”

Sara raised her head up to look at the woman who was staring at her. “Why do I do what?” Sara asked.

“Why do you rock yourself back-and-forth hugging your knees?”

“Why does it matter?”
“It matters to me, I’m curious.”

“It’s a habit.”

“How did you form this habit?”

“I know what you’re doing and I don’t like it.”

The woman was taken-aback by Sara’s statement. She suddenly found beads of sweat dripping down her face and she was fumbling with her papers trying to find out what to do or say next.

Sara was glaring at the woman with her small brown orbs covered with her thick brown hair. She wasn’t letting up one second- she didn’t want to talk about it and this woman wasn’t going to do or say anything that would make her change her mind.

“I…” the woman stuttered trying to find the right words. She turned around and went through the folders and papers on her desk, as if some small piece of paper held her answer. Behind her, Sara sat with her head buried in her knees sighing deeply as yet again another person was trying to figure out the mystery that was Sara Sidle.

The woman continued looking through her desk and even considered looking on her computer for the answer of what to do next, when the door opened and Sara walked out of the room leaving the woman behind, her glasses sliding off of her face and her make-up smeared from sweating so much.

Sara walked out of the building. After hearing the satisfying slam of the heavy door to the building, she nodded and walked off with her hands in her pockets. She remembered her last glance of the clock on the wall before she left the building and knew that it was dinnertime. She continued walking until she saw the familiar outline of her home in the distance and walked through the entryway after opening the door.

Sara had been hoping to sneak by Nancy undetected, but she was not victorious.

“Sara! How’d it go?” Nancy asked walking over to her as one of her arms was stretched behind her stirring what Sara suspected to be dinner.

“You really want to know?”

“Yes, tell me!” Nancy said nodding.

“The shrink sucked.”

And with that, Sara left Nancy standing in the kitchen stunned. Sara walked over to her room and opened her door, slamming it shut behind her and collapsing onto her bed, welcoming the darkness that had been threatening to consume her exhausted form.
 
:O omigosh! That was SOOO good! Poor Sara..makes me sad to know that this more than likely happened to her..haha, now i'm deranged! Emotion for the characters, eh? *shakes head* Poor me..
 
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