Emily nodded appreciatively. Gemma seemed to be more than willing to both give her the time and space to work things out, but also offer quiet support. She really was good at this. Emily had wondered for a little while how long she'd been doing this, but wasn't so crass as to just outright come out and ask what Gemma's age was.

Emily didn't need her empathy to feel the reassurance Gemma was sending her way, nor work out that asking her to sit in on a conversation with a mansion student was an exercise in trust. She actually blushed a little, in surprise to herself. "Okay. Thank you." She began psyching herself up. Yeah. She could do this. Take some notes, not look threatening, impress Gemma and learn something about how she did this whole thing.

And then she almost jumped out of her skin when the door was knocked on. Emily was so used to relying on her power she didn't even notice someone coming in-

Alice??? Surely not. Surely there was another Alice, the odds of Gemma inviting the one student that Emily was both friends with, and knew was getting up to things she should be was-

Shit.

She blinked slowly for a moment. "Er. I'm not in trouble, as far as I know. Why, have you done something?" She narrowed her eyes a little before realising her boss was next to her. She lowered her voice for a quick moment, though Alice would probably hear her anyway. "So you know how I was trying to be a little more social with students here? Alice is one of the people I've been spending time with."

Oh god. Oh god. A string of curse words.

Alice was mostly on time, and it was nice that Gemma got to talk to Emily before she arrived. She was prepared to let Emily off the hook if she was not ready to observe a session, or even if Alice was not okay with someone observing. But it was worth a shot, and it was not going to be a difficult meeting anyw...

>>"Well, clearly it must be something big if the both of are in trouble."

Gemma arched an eyebrow as she moved her chair from behind her desk, allowing them to sit face to face, with Emily to the side. It was amusing that Alice assumed they were both in trouble; obviously Emily had not been recognized by the other students as an intern.

>>"Hey Mrs T, look if we could just get the lecture over with I have some work to finish and about 3 meals to prepare ahead of time. And I'm sure Emily doesn't want me hanging around her work too long... bad influences and all that."

They knew each other, at least. Gemma glanced at Emily, allowing her to react first. Was there something they should both be in trouble for?...

>>"Er. I'm not in trouble, as far as I know. Why, have you done something?... So you know how I was trying to be a little more social with students here? Alice is one of the people I've been spending time with."

"I see" Gemma nodded with a small smile "Very well. The good news is, neither of you are in trouble. Alice, Emily is my counseling intern. I was wondering if you would allow her to observe our talk today. Only if you are comfortable with it."

Alice bit back a bitchy comment given she was in the presence of a proper adult rather than whatever she and Emily were. Now wasn't the time for them to have their usual barbed back and forth's, as much fun as that would be. She was surprised to hear Emily refer to her as a friend though, even if it was probably the most appropriate term. Just didn't feel right when most of their conversations consisted of swearing and sarcasm.

What Gemma was saying was actually worse to Alice. A lecture she could deal with, having another round of 'We're very disappointed in you' and 'we know you can do so much better' were instead going to be replace by one of those talks. Ones that involved too many repressed feelings and awkward questions.

With the added benefit of Emily sitting in to see all to good bits.

"That's fine, she'll have to learn how to deal with the awkward ones anyway so why not let her cut her teeth on me?" Didn't mean she'd make it easy for them, she wasn't ever a fan of the mental health side of the mansion. Sure, she knew logically it was an incredibly important, even vital, service they gave the students, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

"In that case where do you want to start? A quick recap of my past demons or just dive right in the new ones?"

On reflection it was probably a good thing the student Gemma brought in was Alice. Emily weirdly placed a lot of trust in her, she was pretty upfront about intent. Even if Emily hadn't been able to read her emotions, as she currently could not, she'd have a pretty good idea of what was going on in the blue covered head most of the time. And she really appreciated that. It also helped that Alice could keep up with Emily when it came to her black belt in bitch-fu.

Emily blinked, and did her best to hide a wide smile. Alice was definitely not awkward. She really wasn't sure how much she'd talk in this situation. This was both because she wasn't fully aware of the social dynamic in the situation, and also because she didn't want to say something stupid to Alice in front of her boss.

Past demons? What sort of relationship did Alice HAVE with Gemma? Emily figured she wasn't the type to open up to many people, and she'd glimpsed some of Alice's past. She certainly wasn't unstable, and further she seemed to know exactly who she was. In fact the only troublesome personality trait Emily could think of came as a result of Alice being super spoiled.

There was a chance that Alice and Emily would not be a good fit for the session. Gemma did not know exactly how much history they had with each other, or that the fact that they knew each other would make the situation more difficult. Alice had the right to say no to the whole thing. But she didn't.

>>"That's fine, she'll have to learn how to deal with the awkward ones anyway so why not let her cut her teeth on me?"

So far, so good. Gemma nodded, making sure both girls found a comfortable place to sit. They would proceed with the session.

>>"In that case where do you want to start? A quick recap of my past demons or just dive right in the new ones?"

Gemma chuckled. Alice was not going to make this very easy. It had nothing to do with Emily, probably; there were other reasons she had to come in for a session.

"You can share as much as you want about your past, if you think it's relevant." she allowed "I called you in for today to talk about where you are right now, and what your goals might be for moving forward."

Emily apparently didn't know anything, or at least was very good at acting like she was surprised that Alice had talked to Gemma before. Wasn't she meant to be some kind of psych intern or something? Or had Gemma not revealed the details of her conversations with students to her?

Then again, Alice didn't really care too much, instead just making sure she at least knew what time it was and that she didn't reveal anything too important was fine by her.

"I think we'll keep it recent then, can't have Emily knowing my secrets just yet," she said slyly, giving her friend a wink. "but if you wanted to know my goals that's easy. After the epic way I failed my last year I have been resitting a number of class to get up to the acceptance criteria of the electrical engineering course I'm wanting to take at NYU." Which was incredibly boring but she was at least getting some good grades and it looked like she'd get accepted. "Other than that I've been catching up with my sister now that she is back in town."

Emily had definitely picked up a few things here and there from Alice, like the repeating a year, which was pretty evident from her age. Emily did not remotely judge her for it, she'd had a similar scenario that had just stemmed from low drive and very little interest in a direction for her life. Once she'd figured that out it was pretty simple. Emily wasn't remotely bad at education, it was just drive that had been the issue. That and depression.

Emily tilted her head at Gemma, waiting for a significant pause and inserted a question. "Is this pretty typical as meetings go for you? The paperwork doesn't really convey what it's like in person." She admitted, she'd wondered if they were reflective. "Also obviously I don't sit and read your case reports. Data protection and all that."

Oooooh Alice had a sister! Emily didn't think she'd brought her up before, just her mother and witch of a grandmother. Intriguing.

Gemma was honestly curious how much Alice was willing to share. One could never quite tell with teenagers. She was not an easy case, but she was a smart girl, and she was not actively sabotaging everything they had done in their sessions. She had some bad time, but she seemed to be finding her way back now. Gemma wondered how much she was to open up about all that with Emily present. Even though students knew their powers didn't work around Gemma, they still were on edge sometimes.

>>"I think we'll keep it recent then, can't have Emily knowing my secrets just yet, but if you wanted to know my goals that's easy. After the epic way I failed my last year I have been resitting a number of class to get up to the acceptance criteria of the electrical engineering course I'm wanting to take at NYU. Other than that I've been catching up with my sister now that she is back in town."

"So I hear" Gemma nodded. She'd heard from the X-men that Serena was on the roster.

>>"Is this pretty typical as meetings go for you? The paperwork doesn't really convey what it's like in person. Also obviously I don't sit and read your case reports. Data protection and all that."

"So far, this is kind of how it's supposed to go" Gemma chuckled "Alice, do you want to take a look at what you'll need to get done to stay on track for the NYU course? Do you have any other plans to balance with that?"

Not any pushing on the sister thing? Interesting. It wasn't the most normal relationship given they had only know each other three years or so. And were half sisters technically. but they hadn't exactly gonna around explained their messed up little family drama.

Raising an eyebrow when Emily started asking questions she was starting to see why Gemma had asked if she could sit in. Alice wasn't the worst case in the mansion, most of her problems were pretty domestic to be honest and while she hated having to sometimes face her problems she must have been relatively easy to deal with. When she wasn't being a complete bitch.

"Makes sense, I've handled most of the academic side but I know there's the usually CV padding which I haven't had a look at yet." All of the usual charity work, job experience and lies that a Uni took one look at and ignored. It was like a collective game of BS to see who would crack first and admit it was all pointless. She reckoned they'd take one look at her name, connect the dots to her family and reckon they could get a big payout down the line if she went there. They wouldn't, obviously but Alice wasn't going to tell them that.

"As for balance I won't need to worry about working outside of uni to cover bills so I was thinking of asking the POW bloc party if they needed another intern again. It'd help beef out my work experience and get industry practice in." Just ignore the bit where she could geek out all the time.

Emily made a mental note to ask Alice about the sister thing later. She definitely wanted to know more about that, she'd never have pegged Alice as someone who grew up with a sibling. She absolutely exuded the independent brat vibe. Not that Emily was throwing stones with that, she was definitely suited to being an only child.

Emily had mostly managed to avoid too much harassment by Gemma, she supposed Alice was much more of a clear cut case of 'troubled' mansion student. It probably helped that Emily didn't fail a year so much as spend a year deciding what she wanted to do with her life.

She did feel extremely uncomfortable on some level. She kept suppressing the desire to ask Alice questions about her answers, and she wasn't sure which of it was professional curiosity, and which parts were her wanting to know more about her friend. On top of that, she couldn't feel what Alice was feeling, which made everything a touch more awkward.

She bit her tongue. It was hard to not offer advice, or her friend help. But she didn't want to overstep any boundaries with Gemma. Emily had gone through the whole college application thing, and she would've found it much easier to do some of the application stuff if she'd had a friend to look through some of it with her.

Alice and Emily were very similar personalities on a lot of levels. She'd offer later, maybe.

Raising an eyebrow at Alice in amusement Emily bit her tongue again. The thought of Alice as an intern was all kinds of amusing.

>>"Makes sense, I've handled most of the academic side but I know there's the usually CV padding which I haven't had a look at yet."

Gemma made a note (a real one this time) about the CV thing. This was more traditional school counselor territory, and one that she was very familiar with. Schools required a lot of extra these days, and keeping up with that all kinds of places offered all kinds of extracurriculars, not all of which were useful or even real.

>>"As for balance I won't need to worry about working outside of uni to cover bills so I was thinking of asking the POW bloc party if they needed another intern again. It'd help beef out my work experience and get industry practice in."

Gemma made another note, then nodded with a smile.

"Alright, we can definitely work on these. I'm going to have to take another look at your academics, but adding interesting things to your CV to stand out is definitely a good idea. Emily, would you like to take this one? You probably have more up-to-date information on extracurriculars Alice might be interested in."

Other than some slightly lower scores in English than everything else Alice doubted Mrs Taylor would find anything too bad. She'd gotten most of her work in on time and her exams? Pretty damn excellent. For a second time around. When she actually worked. Which she was this time.

Raising an eyebrow at the suggestion she gave her friend a long look. "She probably has a pretty good idea what kind of extracurriculars I prefer. Whether the uni would like those is another thing entirely." She hadn't exactly been shy around Emily with what she did to unwind and had even tempted her into promises of nights out in the near future. "But sure, lets see what the font of wisdom my peers can draw from gives."

Certainly couldn't be worse than some of the awful suggestions from some of her teachers and if push came to shove she could always leverage a little bit of the family connection to get in at one of the more cushy charities they had some links with. Spending a few hours a week doing some basic data management or tech support for a bunch of rich people looking for their next pet project wouldn't be a bad way to waste her time. Might even net some sweet loot if they held an event anytime in the near future.

Emily listened to Gemma and nodded. She was pretty happy that Gemma had come to a similar conclusion where Alice was concerned. Emily had been through a similar situation to Alice, in some ways. And she'd also applied to university very recently, she knew Alice's likes and dislikes pretty well too. Family stuff aside, they were pretty straight with one another.

... Alice was so going to get her into trouble. Nope!

"Alice, there are plenty of other nerds at the university, especially if you're talking NYU. There are plenty of clubs and societies that would fit you, especially gaming. And as for the C.V specific stuff, it depends what you're looking for, but I assume finding work at all would help. Or doing some more volunteering." She tried to steer the topic very quickly before Alice could say anything stupid.

"We can take a look later."

"Non quite so nerdy as me though dear and I will fight on that." OK so maybe she was exaggerating a little on that but she couldn't imagine too many of them. She kind of hit the trifecta with the games, the tech and the costumes that it would take a lot to beat her one that. but the clubs did interest her. "Although I could do to know more about the groups I might want to join. Might be worth looking in on them before I go so I have a decent idea."

Sighing, she reckoned she'd have to do a least a little volunteering. Even with intern stuff she knew her CV wasn't exactly stellar so adding some big name non profit to it would get her noticed a little. "If I were to do some volunteer work how exactly would I arrange that other than, well calling ones up to find openings?" There had to be a more efficient method right, like some kind of site or board with people putting open positions up?

Or she just abuse the family connection. That also worked.

"I'm sure that is the only thing we will look into dear. Nothing untoward at all," she remarked with a grin. So she was messing with the new girl, who was also her friend, like that was unusual for her.

>> "She probably has a pretty good idea what kind of extracurriculars I prefer. Whether the uni would like those is another thing entirely. But sure, lets see what the font of wisdom my peers can draw from gives."

There was something going on between the two girls that Gemma could not quite put a finger on. They were making some references to things she didn't know; maybe they knew each other better than they let on. Still, Emily was trying her best to sound professional under Gemma's careful supervision.

>>"Alice, there are plenty of other nerds at the university, especially if you're talking NYU. There are plenty of clubs and societies that would fit you, especially gaming. And as for the C.V specific stuff, it depends what you're looking for, but I assume finding work at all would help. Or doing some more volunteering."

Gemma nodded. Joining clubs was always a good place to start, not only to show varied interests, but also to make new, like-minded friends. And volunteering was something Gemma always encouraged. It was good for a CV, sure, but it also taught the students about responsibility and community thinking, and participating in society.

>>"If I were to do some volunteer work how exactly would I arrange that other than, well calling ones up to find openings?"

"There are resources you can look at" Gemma noted "It helps if you narrow it down to causes you would like to volunteer for, or groups you might want to help. We have quite the collection of brochures and website links... they could probably use some updating, though." she added with a smile at Emily. It was a good job for an intern.

"Well, it sounds like there is a lot you two can work on. Let me know if you need any help."