A glimpse at what Danny and his friends were up to the weekend in chapter three of "Cracking the Façade."
You can expect an actual update of "Cracking the Façade" later today!
Enjoy! ;)
Sam sips at her smoothie, blatantly staring at Danny from across the booth as he angrily picks the seeds off of the bun of his burger. "It's not a big deal," she says. He mumbles something in response and shoves his food away, folding his arms as he glares at the tabletop.
"How bad can it be?" Tucker agrees, taking ownership of the discarded meal. "You just gotta sit in an office for half an hour, right?"
"With a shrink," Danny mutters. "You guys don't get it. She wants to talk. She wants to know why I flipped on Dash and whatnot, but she wants to know more. I can't tell her more. Do you both realize how bad this can be?"
"Danny," Sam sighs. "You can't get so worked up over this. Just tell her what everyone usually wants to hear. You don't have to talk about your—" she lowers her voice "—ghost powers. You've fooled people before with stupidly obvious lies. How hard can it be now?"
The hybrid huffs, swiping his hair back with a hand. "She doesn't seem easy to get one over on, though. She…seems weird. I don't know how to explain it. Besides, after Spectra, why should I trust anybody to talk to?"
Tucker loudly slurps his soda, nodding his head. "He has a point. The last time we had a counselor, she tried to obliterate his sister."
Sam narrows her eyes at the techno geek and he ducks down in his seat. "Let's just take this one day at a time. We have until Monday to make a plan. Mrs. Collin doesn't have to figure out anything. It's not like they can keep you for an entire year, Danny."
"Oh, yes, they can," Danny argues. "I'm in there until she gets answers. If I don't say anything, I'm stuck there. And if I do say anything, I'm likely to get out of the office and handed over to the Guys in White." He pauses, frowning as his eyebrows knit together. "Or strapped to my parents' examination table… Not sure which is worse, really."
"Well…being quiet is worth a try," Tucker says, grinning as he brings his PDA up from under the table. "Why doesn't he just try being silent the entire time? Maybe she'll give up and send him out."
"Or I'll remain in there until the end of the year."
Sam chews on the inside of her cheek, glancing between the boys as she thinks it over. Finally, she says, "It has to be worth a try, right? It's not like being quiet will get you into any more trouble than getting in a fight with Dash."
Danny gives a humorless chuckle and rolls his eyes. "Somehow, I think seeing Mrs. Collin is gonna become a lot more complicated…"