Disclaimer: Butch Hartman owns Danny Phantom, I don't. Otherwise, I'd have paid off my credit card by now... I said it was over. I lied.

Session 8: Paulina Martinez

Age: 15

"You... um, wanted to see me?" The lilting voice was unusually hesitant, accent nearly hidden under an uncommon trepidation.

Cade set his pen aside, running one hand absently through close-cropped hair. "Yeah, Paulina, I did, thanks. Come in and have a seat, would you? There's something I think we need to discuss."

The dark-haired girl did as she was bid, closing the door behind her. Sitting delicately on the edge of the visitor's chair, she waited for him to begin.

Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly.

"Paulina... I think I owe you an apology."

He might as well have dropped a ton of bricks on her. The anxiety in the blue-green eyes turned to confusion mixed with a healthy dose of shock, and the girl's perfectly-shaped jaw dropped open in a very unladylike gape.

"A... what? Why?"

"The assembly the other day. I said a couple things about you while I was dealing with Spectra that I probably shouldn't have. Admittedly, I was trying to bait her into losing control, but... that doesn't excuse what I said. As school psychologist, I should have known better, and I apologize."

She stared at him for a long moment, confusion fading into something else he couldn't quite identify. Then she smiled, a small, wry expression that bore little resemblance to the ones she usually wore.

"You shouldn't apologize, Dr. Maboroshi," she said softly. "Mi abuela always says that truth doesn't need excuses made for it."

Cade's eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?"

"The stuff about me reducing people to tears in the lunchroom? It's true. I'm good at it... I always know just where to hit somebody to hurt the worst."

Okay, THIS, he hadn't expected. But far be it from him to pass up a professional opportunity. Lacing his fingers together, he propped his chin up on his hands.

"So... Why?"

"I don't know... it makes me feel good for a while, I guess... and I guess it's what the other girls want to hear... They laugh."

He shifted. "But you seem to be feeling bad about it now."

"I... I got attacked by a ghost a while ago. That weird one, with the grey hair, and the fireballs... and the ghost boy saved me... but then he called me shallow. And he told me... that the ghost that came after me... that I'd made it. By the things I said and did... I made people hate me... And Ms. Spectra kept saying that people only liked me because I was pretty and rich, and..." Her voice wobbled, and she stopped, obviously on the brink of tears.

"Hey... look at me." Cade deliberately pitched his voice low and gentle, stomping on the flare of ire inside him. He definitely should have asked Phantom for a few more minutes with the paralyzed Spectra...

"Spectra was a ghost. She fed off people's misery. Whatever she had to tell them to make them hurt, she'd say it. She'd do it. Her opinion's worth less than a pair of Gucci shoes after a fire sale." That got the hoped-for reaction, a tremulous smile.

"As for the ghost boy... Well, he wasn't exactly himself at the time. I can't say more than that, but trust me, he wouldn't have said those things to you normally."

She sniffled. "Do you think I'm shallow?"

Head tilted to one side, he studied her. "No. I think you're a scared girl who's developed some rather unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with your life right now. Yeah, you ARE self-absorbed, but you're a teenager, it comes with the territory. You might want to be careful about who you put down and what you say in the future, because it CAN come back to haunt you. But I wouldn't start calling you Spectra Junior just yet."

"Good... because that hairstyle of hers is completely horrendous," the girl replied, making a face. He laughed.

"I don't think you have to worry too much about losing your friends by easing back on what you say. Most of them are pretty self-absorbed too. They won't care. Though you might want to look into finding some new friends, too... one who like YOU, not just the popularity circles you run in..."

"Yeah... maybe. Is there anything else? Because I have cheerleading practice after school, and the coach will spaz if I'm late. Although it's not like she has any room to talk..."

Cade hung his head as he wrote out the pass. Oh well... Rome wasn't built in a day, after all...