Title- Dealing with It

Chapter Title- We're off to see the Shrink

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

Darkravenx0- And you just blew your chances of getting a brownie by telling me I suck… You never, ever will see the end of that conversation… I never wrote it… so HA!

Note- What happened to my fans? Oh, yeah, I know. School… which reminds me… I just got my schedule today! I have lunch with my BROTHER. My mom is being a bitch about my summer assignment; I don't know how fast updates will come. I'll try once daily, but I normally like two reviews before I put it up. This time around I only got one.

Dad picked me up before he went home, he didn't tell mom at all. Nobody would find out. It would be our little secret. Except, of course, Uncle Steve knew. Dad drove me home and let me go to the shower first, so mom couldn't tell if I had been there or not. I spent a long time in there, with the door locked. I heard somebody banging against the door.

"Ronnie, there better be hot water left," mom shouted. I looked at the dial. It was as hot as it could get, but the water was freezing. I groaned, I knew I would be in trouble. I ran out of the shower, quickly unlocked the door and ran back in. I heard mom turn the knob and walk in. She felt the water temperature. "Ron, this is freezing. How do you manage to take a shower in this?" she asked me.

"I don't," I grabbed my towel and stepped out. I showed her where the dial was, the hottest it could be.

"Ronnie, we really do need to take you to a psychiatrist." Then she walked off. I heard her pick up the phone and call somebody. She got the name and address to a 'good' psychiatrist. I would end up missing school, and I tried to talk her into letting Nate miss school. She wouldn't hear it.

I woke up late the next morning, mom figured she'd let me sleep. I know she didn't want me in a bad mood for the shrink. I wasn't going to be. I really hated to do these things. I hated the burning sensation on my back and then the sudden change to cold. I hated scrubbing my hands until they bled and I hated counting everything. I hated it, I hated it.

The shrink wasn't far away. It was some old guy, he was balding and fat. I mean huge, I don't know how he fit in the room. They must've pulled off the roof and used a crane to drop him in. There would be no other way for him to get in. He had huge glasses and kept looking at his paper while asking me these stupid questions. He didn't help; he just gave us another number.

Mom called that number from the pay phone and set up an appointment for that day. I think I went to 3 others that day. Nobody helped, they did nothing. They just said they had no idea. Couldn't they tell I was crazy? I could tell mom was getting pissed. When we got home she looked through her stuff trying to find something. She pulled out a cardboard box and looked through a bunch of papers. She finally found something and dialed it. I didn't bother to eaves drop; I had the rest of the day off.

"Ronnie, go pack a suitcase," mom told me. I was really confused. I did what I was told. She wrote a note and put it on the table. "Get in the car, we need to go." I didn't argue. I put my suitcase in the backseat and sat in the passenger side waiting for mom. She came out, did the same with her suitcase and drove to the West-Side. She parked the car, went into the restaurant she worked at and then came back out.

"Where are we going?" I finally asked.

"I know a good therapist," she answered and we drove out of the state.

Mom seemed to know which motels and food places sucked, which ones were decent, and which ones were good. She called home to let dad know we were okay. I took the phone away from her and demanded to talk to Nate.

"Nate, I'm so scared. I don't know what's going on. I don't know where we are going," I told him. I was trying not to cry. "It's so, so dirty here. The shower is the worst. It's got all sorts of mold," I whined. This was freaking me out. I was going to spend the night in the car if mom let me.

"I know where you're goin'," he replied.

"Where, you gotta tell me where!" I shrieked on the phone.

"There's some therapist in New York." New York, what was mom thinking? I dropped the phone.

"Sorry, I gotta go, um, g'night," I mumbled. I turned to mom. She was looking at me.

"Ronnie, baby, I'm sorry I just want you to get better," she told me. She tried to hug me but I pulled away.

"I'm gonna go sleep in the car," I told her and quickly grabbed the keys.

I didn't sleep well, but I slept better than I would have. The car was just a little bit cleaner than the motel. In the morning mom tapped on the window. I was half asleep when I let her in, it could've been anybody. She handed me a bagel and chocolate milk. I would take the chocolate milk, it was sealed, but somebody touched that bagel. What if they didn't wash their hands?

"So, mom, how do you know this therapist?" I asked her.

"When I was 17, just before I moved in with my dad, I got this problem. I went to live with my dad while I had this problem, and I came back to New York and my ex-best friend's mom got me this excellent therapist."

"Did you have the same problem I do?" I asked her. She shouldn't have gotten mad at me if she had this too.

"No, I had something very different. I had kleptomania," she explained. She had kleptomania? And she got mad at me for drawing on walls? There was something a little messed up with that. I just nodded. The ride was quiet, mom stopped by a fast food place for dinner, but I told her no. People touching my food grossed me out.

"Do ya wanna stop at a store and buy somethin' sealed?" she asked me, annoyed. I nodded and grinned. She understood, sometimes.

We didn't stop at a motel that night. Mom pulled into a rest stop, locked the doors and said we could sleep there. I felt disgusting, I hadn't showered in ages.

"When you were a baby, I took you and Nate to New York. I did the same thing. I slept in the car at rest stops."

"Where was dad?" I never knew much about when I was a baby.

"It doesn't matter," she told me. I was going to find out. She was dumb if she thought I wasn't going to.

Please, please review. I'd like to know how I am doing… after this chapter and the next there is a lot of drama. As of 8/31/05, I have 12 chapters done.