Bucket Hat 3

Chapter 27

Leigh was now sitting at the edge of her bed, clutching her toy to her chest as she looked at her and Jesy's psychologist. She was someone they had known for quite a while since becoming famous. Rihanna had provided them with a lot of people who were experts on child psychology to give them guidance. The woman was called Dr Hernandez and she was really nice.

Dr Hernandez sat in a chair across from Leigh with her legs crossed. She was a Hispanic beauty with long legs and a model-like body. She smiled at Leigh-Anne now. "Hello Leigh-Anne."

Leigh's eyes darted to her bedroom door before they came back to the woman. "Hi Dr Hernandez."

"How are you?"

"I'm fine." Leigh was looking at her own arms clutching onto her toy bunny.

"Are you sure? You seem a little tense."

Leigh made a noise of discomfort.

The doctor tilted her head. "Come on now. It's just me."

Leigh twisted her mouth then looked at the psychologist. "I'm a lot bigger now. I should be able to deal with my emotions all on my own." She somewhat mumbled.

The woman frowned by this. "Who says so?"

Leigh fidgeted a little before looking away. She then shrugged.

Dr Hernandez nodded her head slowly. "Why do you feel that way Leigh-Anne?"

Leigh shrunk while keeping her eyes away. "Because . . . well . . . I've gotten a lot better at making the people- at making people not notice that I have autism. Some of them even think that I don't have it anymore and well . . . if they knew that I was still talking to a specialist then they'd maybe think that I'm weird again."

The doctor blinked her eyes in surprise by this. "But I'm not an autism specialist."

Leigh shook her head. "I know but it feels like my anxiety is because of my autism since well . . . I used to get really anxious when I was little and-and well it happened when I got overwhelmed and sometimes I would scream and act strange and people thought I was weird and-well . . ." She didn't know how to say it.

"Mhmm?" Dr Hernandez encouraged. She wanted to hear what Leigh had to say.

Leigh was shifting herself a little and generally behaving as if she really didn't like her situation. "People . . . I know that I have autism but people . . . well if I need a lot of help with it then they'd have more reason to say I'm a poor confused autistic girl and . . ." She started to feel really sad. That label was really bothering her wasn't it? "I just . . ." She started to sob.

Dr Hernandez went to the girl's dresser and pulled a tissue out of the box of tissues there. She then handed it to the weeping girl.

Leigh used it to wipe her eyes and nose.

Dr Hernandez went back to sit down.

Leigh sniffed and then held the tissue in her hand as she looked at the doctor.

"So you think that getting help will make people think that you're helpless? Is that it? Or well more like it'll add fuel to what they're already saying?"

Leigh sniffed and nodded with puffy eyes.

The doctor nodded her head calmly. "Alright. I suppose that I understand where you're coming from."

Leigh sniffed again. "So you're going to leave me alone now?"

She smiled gently. "No sweetie."

Leigh looked to her lap at her toy.