Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Neptune: Year One ❯ Interlude II ( Chapter 10 )

-Neptune: Year One-

Diclaimer: It's all Naoko Takeushi's folks, I don't own any of it.

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-Interlude II-

December 9, 1991
Shinjuku Junior High School
Office of Junko Shibue, School Psychologist
File #134 of current academic year

Student I.D. #1326
Student Name: Haruka Tenoh
Grade: 9
Age: 14

Purpose of Visit:

Both the school principal and the instructors feel that the student in question has become an overly disruptive presence in the classroom. While her academic grades remain exceptionally high and she continues to excel in gym class and extracurricular sports (most notably track and field), about a month ago her behavior took a peculiar shift. She cut her once long hair down to almost a boy's length, began wearing the school's boy's uniform to her clases and has recently begun to request both administrators and students to refer to her with the masculine suffix "-kun." This acting out could be indicative of both a need for attention (neglect at home?) and possible gender confusion issues. Administrative staff, along with both the principal and vice principal, have thus called for this mandatory meeting between the student and myself.

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Junko finished typing out the header of the file. She pulled the sheet out of the typewriter and, noting the time, placed it in an open manila file on her dark oak desk. Returning to her desk, she took another sip of coffee when a knock was heard at the door to her office. “Come on in,” she said in a pleasant voice. A young boy with sandy blonde hair casually strode in and shut the door behind him. As Junko watched, he proceeded to sit in the chair opposite her desk and looked at her strangely, like he was expecting something. “Um, may I help you?”

“I suppose that would depend on whether or not I need help, ne?” he answered in a somewhat husky voice.

“Young man,” Junko said, “If you’d like to make an appointment to see me…”

“I already have an appointment, Shibue-sensei.”

Junko bent forward and looked at the young “boy” more closely. “Tenoh Haruka-san?”

“Hai,” she answered with a smirk.

Junko stared for another second or two before shaking herself out of it and opening the student’s file. “You’re here because both your teachers and your principal are worried about you. Do you understand why?”

Haruka’s smirk widened ever so slightly. “Suppose you tell me, sensei.”

Junko brought her hands together on her desk. “You don’t know?”

“I’ve a pretty good idea, but I’d like to hear it from you.”

“Why did you cut your long hair and start to wear boy’s uniforms?”

“Why do you wear long hair and dresses?”

Junko raised an eyebrow. “Because I’m a school psychologist and it’s expected of me.”

“I see,” the student said with a twinkle in her eye. “Well, I’m not a school psychologist, nor do I ever plan on being one, no offense to yourself or your profession. I’m just a junior high student, so I’m not under the same expectations as you. So now that we’ve aired that out, I’m sure we both feel better, ne? I’ll be leaving now...”

“Stay,” Junko commanded, a bit of sternness slipping into her normally pleasant voice. The cocky young freshman sat back down and crossed her legs as she once more seemed to study the psychologist. Junko would have to be cautious. This student was smarter than what she’d expected, and the psychologist had the distinct impression that haruka was examining her just as much as she was examining Haruka. “We’re not done yet.”

The student simply shrugged her shoulders. “It was worth a shot.”

Junko cleared her throat a bit as she reached into her drawer and took out a notebook. “Tell me a bit about yourself.”

“Let’s see… My id always wanted to be a boy, but my superego keeps telling it no. Then about a month ago my ego reached a compromise between the two and now I just dress like one.” Junko looked up from her notebook and gave the girl an exasperated look. “Did I mention my Electra complex and my penis envy yet? Because let me tell you, if you want to really get to the root of things…”

“Haruka,” Junko said as she crumpled up the sheet of paper from her notebook and tossed it into the waste basket by her feet, “Where did you get all that?”

“A library book on psychology. I thought it best not to walk in here unarmed.”

“I see… Haruka-chan…”

“Kun.”

“Chan, ” Junko repeated, emphasizing the word as she met the student’s blue-green eyes. “Haruka-chan, this is no laughing matter. Gender confusion is a serious topic and…” she was cut off by the laughter of the girl in front of her.

“'Gender confusion?'” Haruka asked, “Are you serious?” She stopped laughing and leaned forward. “Sensei, I’m not confused about my gender.”

“Oh?”

“I’m a girl. And for the record, I like being a girl. I don’t want to be a guy, nor have I ever wished to be one in the past.”

“But you do participate heavily in predominately male athletic sports such as running and judo, and I’m told you someday wish to race cars…”

“Formula one,” Haruka answered. “By the way, did you know ‘racecar’ is the same spelled forward or backward?”

“Really? No I didn’t, I…” Junko stopped herself as she realized with a start that Haruka had managed to take over the counseling session. Ignoring the smug look of the student in front of her, the psychologist reached into her desk and took out two aspirin, drinking them down with what remained in her coffee mug. “Haruka,” she said, attempting to shift the focus and come at the problem from a different angle, “Tell me about racing. Running, driving, what does it mean to you?”

“Let’s see… When I run fast, really fast, I can imagine giving into my urge to kill my mother and marrying my father…”

“Enough!” Junko shouted in frustration. “And just for the record, you’re wasting both our time. I don’t follow Freud.”

“Ah, a Jungian then?” Haruka asked, “Or are you more influenced by Erick Erickson’s work?”

“Good grief, just how much reading did you do for this meeting?” Noting the look of amusement on the student's face, Junko frowned. “Look, let’s cut the crap,” she said as she sat back and crossed her arms. “Let’s just set all our cards out on the table. Haruka, your wearing boys uniforms and cutting your hair in a boy’s style could be seen as evidence of latent homosexual tendencies.”

“I resent that.”

“You resent the implication of homosexuality.”

“I resent the implication that it’s latent.”

Junko’s eyes widened. She wasn’t expecting for the young girl before her to simply come out and state it like that, or be that sure of her sexuality at her age. “I see.”

“Well, you did suggest we lay all our cards out on the table.”

“So you feel yourself to be a lesbian?”

“I suppose you could say that, hai.”

“And are you currently sexually active?”

“Why do you ask?” Haruka asked, flashing the psychologist a wink and a grin.

Junko blushed slightly as she looked down at her notebook and scribbled down notes. “That kind of behavior is highly inappropriate, Haruka-chan. Please don’t do that again.”

“Fair enough,” Haruka answered as she sat back. “Would it help if we did some word association?”

The psychologist narrowed her eyes at the student in front of her and sighed. “Very well, we'll play your game. Although at this point I don’t see how constructive it’ll actually be. Day.”

“Night.”

“Black.”

“Belt.”

“Annoyance.”

“ ;dresses.”

“Love.”

“Aquamarine.&# 8221;

The psychologist tilted her head a bit at that. The normal response would’ve been either an antonym such as ‘hate’ or an object of love such as ‘dog’ or ‘sweetheart.’ “I see… Tree.”

“House.”

“Mother.”
“Father.”

“Earth.”

“ ;Prince.”

Another unexpected answer. “Moon.”

“Tragedy.”

“Tragedy ?” Junko asked. “Now why of all the things you could’ve associated the moon with did you pick the word ‘tragedy’?”

Haruka shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I realize that most people would probably say something like ‘white’ or ‘romance,’ but for some reason the moon’s always made me feel sad.”

“Interesting…”

“Gym class.”

“No, that wasn't part of the word association. I was commenting that it was interesting you associated the moon with feelings of melancholy. Hate.”

“Lipstick.”

“Affection. 221;

“Ocean.”

“Love.”

&# 8220;Loss.”

Junko brought her hand up to her chin as she contemplated the answers she was getting. She wasn’t entirely sure if the girl was still playing some sort of game with her or not, nor was she necessarily sure what any of it meant if she wasn’t. She had an intuitive feeling however that she’d stumbled onto something though. The thought of continuing their mental jousting match however was a daunting prospect.

The school bell rang.

“Shibue-sensei,” Haruka said, “Not that I’m not having fun with all this, but if you’re going to keep me here into next period I’m going to need a permission slip from you when I leave.”

Junko took a deep breath. “No, you’re free to go. I am, however, going to recommend at least one follow-up session.”

Haruka smiled self-assuredly at the school psychiatrist. “A bit of a masochist, are we?”

“Just be here next Monday after lunch period, okay?” she said as she wrote a quick permission slip and handed it to the freshman.

Haruka shrugged. “Fair enough, next Monday after lunch.” As the student got up and left the room, Junko allowed a sigh of relief.

“Mother was right," she murmured as she silently thanked the powers that be that she didn't have any further appointments for that day, "I should've gone with my first love and become a veterinarian."