Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
Late that afternoon, Virginia was typing up some notes when she heard loud bangings coming from outside her tiny office. After a while she decided to go outside to see the commotion. She saw people moving furniture down the hall from her suite. Then she remembered that Jeremy told her that his department was moving to the third floor.
“Dr. Chan, I think that’s our new neighbors.” The receptionist advised.
“They’re quit noisy don’t you think?” Marc commented from behind her.
She turned around and gave him a slight nod “I haven’t seen you this whole morning, have you been busy?”
He smiled “ I believe you were the busy bee. You want to go to lunch?” he offered.
“Is it that time again?” she asked while she took a glance at her watch “Wow, time sure flies by when you’re having fun.” She joked.
He chuckled. “So how about it?”
She was about to answer when a voice called out to her “Ginny!”
Virginia turned around and smiled at the person approaching her “Hi Remy. I didn’t know you were moving today.”
He was out of breath as he nodded “Yeah…we decided to do it a littler earlier. How about lunch?”
She turned to Marc who didn’t look too happy. “Why don’t the three of us go?” she offered.
Jeremy smiled “I don’t mind. How about you…”
“Dr. Marc Cheung.” He said.
“Oh another doctor. Nice to meet you.” He brought out a hand and Marc reluctantly shook it after noticing the dirty marks on his hand. “Oh Im sorry, I was moving my stuff. Well, let me tell the manager and I’ll be right back.” He said brightly.
Virginia covered a smile as she turned back to Marc “They’re social workers.” She explained “He’s in the teen abuse department.”
“I see. Oh, you know, I forgot about this appointment that I had. I have to go get my teeth cleaned. So maybe next time.” Marc said hastily as he rushed out the door.
Virginia watched as he disappeared down the hallway to the elevators. She wondered why he had a sudden change of plans? When Jeremy returned he was jumping with joy inside because Dr. Marc Cheung wasn’t there. He already had a bad impression on the guy. The two had a peaceful lunch at a nearby food court where they decided on sub sandwiches. She reserved a seat while he ordered.
“Club sandwich on white for you and a lemonade.” He announced as he released the tray onto the table and began unwrapping his own sandwich.
“What did you have?” she arched her neck to see what he had.
“Turkey sandwich with everything.” He announced as he took a huge bite of the sandwich.
She couldn’t finish the whole six inch so she saved the other half for later while he finished the entire sandwich. “You guys sure can eat.” She commented.
He looked up “You guys?”
“You and your friend, Jeff.” She searched his face to see any responses. She only sensed a bit of disappointment.
“You two went out before?”
Virginia nodded “Last Sunday, we went out for sushi.” She didn’t go into details.
He only nodded quietly “You had fun?” he asked, he didn’t want to ask her too much but he was dying to know how she felt about him.
She gave a slight shrug “Like any friends would have.” She noticed his face brightened with a smile so she quickly added “Just like me and you right now.”
He continued to smile, hiding his disappointment under his smile “Jeff is a fun guy you know, despite his profession.”
Virginia nodded “Yes, I know. So are you!” she added “Looks like we all pretty much have the same life.”
“I guess you can say that. But I admire what you do. I think its psychological but when people know you have a degree, they tend to listen more. As for me? Those teenagers ignore me when I lecture.”
She tilted her head thoughtfully “That’s the key word, lecture. I don’t agree that having a degree makes people more opted to listen to you. Why don’t you try to talk to them instead of telling them something is wrong. I can guarantee you that they know that its wrong, but they just want to do it. I think teenagers are harder to talk to just because they don’t have quite an mature understanding for life.”
“But you know a lot of adults don’t either.” He added.
She nodded “True. But at least they are willing to listen. I’ve personally never had a patient younger than the age of 21. But I don’t think they’ll like to hear me ramble on about how great life is. Because they go through this emotional, resentful stage where they just don’t want to listen to anyone but themselves or their friends.”
He smiled “Not necessarily. I’ve been talking to this little girl who’s around 16, she listens to me and not her parents. She’s told me how they always punish her for something stupid. Like being on the phone or internet, but she claims that she’s only on for about an hour. Well, it turns out that she’s failing most of her classes and her parents don’t know how to deal with her because her other brother and sisters did very well in high school.”
Virginia shook her head “I think she listens to what you have to say is because she thinks you understand. Or maybe she doesn’t have enough attention from her parents so she looks for it through being a ‘bad’ girl so they would punish her.”
“Is that what they teach you in college?” he teased.
She laughed “Not really, this is through my own knowledge from being a teenager myself. I was an orphan and was raised in a family with four other siblings. I didn’t understand why my adopted parents chose me since they had four other kids to begin with. Needless to say, I fought hard for the attention, of course at that time, I didn’t know that I was doing it all wrong. Everyone needs a parent’s or an authority figure to give them love an attention. Some kids choose doing wrong things and some kids choose to do well in school so they get a good response. It all has to do with this…” she pointed to the brain.
“I think we take it for granted.” He commented. “You’re very informative.” He said with a smile. She was so easy to talk to and so open minded.
“That’s why people come to me for advice.” She joked.
“Does that mean I have to pay a fee?” his eyes wide making his face look ten years younger.
She laughed “The first one’s always free.” She looked at her watch “Well, time to get back to work.”
“Already?” he whined as he pushed himself out of the chair. Before they split up in the hallway between her suite and his new suite, he asked her “Ginny, we’re having a barbeque this weekend at the beach, are you interested in coming?”
She paused for a few seconds “Maybe, let me look at my schedule and I’ll give you a call.”
He nodded with a smile “Sure.” The split up and returned to work.