Madison and The Monsters

17. A Talk ~Take 2~

 Despite the fact it was a Wednesday and Madison did not have therapy on Wednesdays the day was different. Dr. Fox was free and Madison had caused quite the ruckus. Madison certainly wasn't thrilled especially when she saw her mother writing notes about her behavior to give to Dr. Fox. No matter how much she tried to get out of it she found she was unable to. So Madison found herself on an awkward drive to the clinic with her odd mother. Her mum had been acting odd ever since she had seen Madison playing with dolls. Madison was rather confused but didn't ask her mum about it. That wouldn't stop the silence from being broken though.

"We should discuss your punishment. I've decided that you're grounded for two weeks and you aren't allowed to play video games with your brother, or watch television," her mum said without taking her eyes off the road.

"Okay," Madison knew she wasn't getting out of her punishment.

"Also not computer time unless it's for school," her mum added.

"Okay," Madison repeated.

"Good, we may discuss the situation further after your appointment," her mum stated.

Madison silently got out of the parked car. Her mum held her hand all the way into the clinic, probably afraid she was a flight risk. Once inside her mum seemed to relax, letting go of her hand and going to talk with the secretary. Even though Madison would very much like not to be there she went and sat in the kid's corner of the clinic with a sour face. She couldn't avoid her problems forever, she knew that.

Silently she moved the beads around on the rollercoaster toy that she only ever saw at clinics. She knew she was too old to be playing with it but it caught her focus and moving the beads was relaxing to her. She was so focussed that when she heard Dr. Fox's voice behind her she nearly jumped out of her socks.

"It's time Madison," he said.

"Okay," Madison quickly moved all the beads to one side to Dr. Fox's amusement.

When Madison sat down in the chair across from Dr. Fox she quickly noticed her mum's note on his desk. She could see a little disappointment on his face which wasn't shocking considering yesterday. Madison was beyond curious about what he was going to want to talk about first. Her running away, whatever was in her mum's note, or who knows what else. It turned out the first conversation topic would be the note, or at least that's what she assumed considering he picked up the note.

"You're playing with dolls again?" he questioned.

"No," Madison immediately denied.

"Your mother saw you-"

"That was a one-time thing, at least I hope it was," she interrupted him.

"Can you explain what you mean?"

"Well you won't believe me, but fine. Marigold, she's a fairy, was kidnapped by Noir some time ago. She returned today. She likes to play with dolls I don't."

"She's your friend like the grundwasser?"

"Eh, kind of."

"You don't make it sound like you like her."

"Her happiness and optimism can be nauseating."

"I see. Your mum also wrote that you slept outside, is that true."

"Yes."

"That can be really dangerous; you could have gotten into a really bad situation."

"I was in the middle of nowhere, Grundwasser's well."

"Promise me you won't do that again. Call a friend, a relative, or even me. Here's my card, promise me you'll use it if you need to."

"I promise."

"Good, now we should really discuss the running off."

"Ugh."

"Running away doesn't help anyone in the long run."

"I know."

"Madison, knowing something doesn't mean anything if you don't act on what you know."

"I got invited to a sleepover," Madison changed the topic.

"That's great, are you excited?"

"No, I'm grounded."

"How about I talk to your mum, I think this could be good for you."

"Don't bother, I don't want to go."

"You really need step out of your comfort zone. I won't talk to your mum if you don't want me to though."

"Only because my Alice wants me to go."

"I'm glad you told me, it's good for you to talk about these things."

"..."

The conversing didn't get any more awkward, but that doesn't say all that much. There was talk of school and the monsters. Surprisingly Dr. Fox didn't comment on her talk of the monsters, perhaps he was trying a different technique due the results of his other techniques. It wasn't all that bad an idea, once he stopped negatively commenting on the monster she opened up a lot more than on regular days. When she wasn't worried so much about his response she was a lot more eager to talk freely. The results were clearly making happy.

Overall it wasn't as bad as Madison had expected. Talking about her feelings regarding Marigold return was nice she had to admit. Dr. Fox seemed to think Marigold return was good in a way, he thought her positivity could rub off. Madison doubted him but she didn't completely kick the thought out.

Her mum was actually quite eager to let her go to the sleepover, after all her mum wanted her to be a normal tween girl. Madison was certainly less than eager. Going to a sleepover with her best friend and the girls that had hated her since elementary just seemed like a really bad idea. Alice wanted her to go though, Alice was important to Madison despite the fact Madison had a tendency to push people away. Perhaps Madison was taking Luke's advice to heart, letting people stand with her.

Sorry. I don't like this chapter. I may edit it further in the future, but right now I just want to be done with the chapter. I wrote, and then I deleted, and then I wrote it again. The first time I wrote it was horrid so I scrapped it completely. Roughly ten more chapters, and they'll definitely be on the longer side. On that topic sorry this chapter is rather short. Now that this chapter is out of the way the book should flow. My future chapters should have better editing on them and be longer. I was really busy and basically this was rather last minute. School has calmed down so I should be able to get out weekly chapters that are better than this and who knows possibly more than once weekly in the future. Not this week though, I've got a bunch of book planning, a short story rewrite, and a chapter to write on my shared account. I look forward to future chapters and I hope you do to. Please comment.  -Ann