Author's note: For anyone wondering, yes, I've done some research into this kind of therapy and am also drawing on some personal experience. :)

Ghost on the Couch

March 27 (part one)

Class was almost over. But for once, Danny wanted the minutes to drag as long as possible. This classroom was so much more preferable to that guy's office.

But time never did stop for him when he wanted it to. Clockwork didn't like him that much.

The bell rang at last. Danny sluggishly walked with Sam and Tucker to their lockers.

"I'm starving," said Tucker. "Let's hit up the Nasty Burger."

"Can't we go somewhere cultured for once?" asked Sam. "It's not like we have to go somewhere within walking distance anymore, remember? I've got my car."

"Yeah, like I have enough money to go anywhere else," said Tucker.

"Fine, fine." Sam rolled her eyes and shut her locker, placing her bag on her shoulders. "At least they have decent veggie burgers."

Tucker squared his bag on his shoulders as well. He then frowned at Danny, who hadn't even approached his own locker. Sam followed Tucker's gaze and also frowned.

"What's up, Danny?" asked Sam. "You're not usually this slow."

Slow? What did she mean by that? Did she think he was being lazy? Or inconsiderate?

Personalization.

Danny hastily threw his books into his bag, using intangibility to place other items in his locker. "Sorry. Um, just—well, you guys can go to the Nasty Burger without me. I can't go anyway."

"Why not?" asked Sam.

"Yeah, you didn't get detention today, did you?" asked Tucker.

What? Why would he ask that? Did he just think Danny was always getting in trouble for something? That detention was just the most likely reason he'd be unable to hang out?

Personalization again.

"No," said Danny, though detention sounded so much more tolerable than therapy. "My mom's just picking me up right now."

"Again?" asked Sam. "Didn't she pick you up last Monday?"

"Um, yeah. She wants to take me shopping. For clothes."

"Again?"

Danny concealed a wince. Right, he already used that excuse. How could he forget? He was such an idiot.

Labeling.

"Yeah. More clothes," stammered Danny. "Can never have enough clothes. According to my mom, anyway."

He smiled. Sam and Tucker only stared back with puzzled expressions. But he couldn't tell them the truth, couldn't tell them where his mom was really making him go this Monday afternoon. What would they say? What would they think of him? They'd probably think he was weak and they would pity him and—

Jumping to conclusions. He did that so often. Another tally for that one.

He didn't want them to know. The whole situation was far too embarrassing.

Outside in the school courtyard, they parted ways, Sam and Tucker heading to the student parking lot and Danny heading to the curb where a line of cars helmed by parents waited to pick up students. He located his mother's car and approached it but stopped when he noticed Maddie sitting in the passenger seat.

"Mom?" He came up to the passenger side as Maddie rolled down her window. "What are you doing?"

"I want you to drive to the office," said Maddie with a smile. "You have your permit, right?"

"Well, yes, but—"

"Great, get in!"

Danny looked over at the steering wheel and could feel his neck burning. Driving. With his mother. He couldn't. No. She'd just get angry with him and hit him again, and he just couldn't handle that today.

Overgeneralization. She only hit him one time, the very first time he drove with her. Why did he always think that was somehow going to happen again?

And he definitely deserved it. He had been a class-act jerk and provoked her. He shouldn't have done that.

Should statement.

"Do I have to?" he asked.

"Yes," said Maddie simply but firmly. "You're going to be turning sixteen next week. You really need to be practicing more so you can pass your driving test on the first try this time."

Danny flinched at the comment. Her choice of words and emphasis were all too clear to him. A few months prior, she had been disappointed when he failed the written test to get his permit the first time and almost livid when he wasted her time yet again and failed a second time. He managed to pass the third time but somehow still got five of the questions wrong. After all that extra studying and seeing the test two times before, he should've been able to get a perfect score but he was still such a failure—

Polarized thinking. Should statement.

He pulled in a breath and moved to the other side of the car, putting his bag in the back seat before climbing into the driver's seat. He checked the mirrors, adjusted the seat, any little thing he could think of to stall.

But he couldn't put it off forever. His mother would start yelling at him to hurry up if he didn't get going soon.

Jumping to conclusions. Again!

And he had been driving for months by now. He could do this. It wouldn't be far. Just a couple miles.

He shifted the car into drive and cautiously checked around him before pulling out into traffic. He gripped the wheel with both hands, nine and three, no way he was going to give his mom any reason at all to criticize him.

"Take a right here," said Maddie.

A red light. He came to a complete stop before the intersection, pulled forward just enough to see oncoming cars, made the turn smoothly and safely.

"Good job, sweetie."

Danny's mouth twitched with a forced smile. He wished she wouldn't comment on his driving at all. Good, bad, he would just prefer not to hear it.

She continued giving him directions, turns and merges and speed limit reminders. "Slow down" and "it's clear so you can get over now" and "the light's about to change, don't try to run it." Danny hyperfocused on her words, on the cars around him, on the road. He had to do this right, couldn't make her mad, didn't even have the space in his head to determine which thinking error this was.

He drove at the speed limit no matter how many cars tailed and passed him. The memory always pushed into his mind even as he tried to repress it. That first time he drove with her. He had been so tired of her yelling at him and making him feel like even more of a failure than his teachers and classmates had ever made him feel. He had slammed on the accelerator, went over and far beyond the speed limit, ran a stop sign, didn't brake until—

He tried to swallow it back down. The mark she had left on his face at the end of that first driving lesson lasted only a day, but he was reminded of it every time he took the wheel with her in the passenger seat.

He pulled into a parking space in front of the pizza restaurant that shared its top floor with the therapy offices and shifted the car into park, a sigh of relief escaping him. Made it. Somehow, he had gotten through this. And she wasn't mad at him. Biggest relief of all.

"Good job, Danny," said Maddie cheerfully. "Right between the lines, too! You didn't even hesitate this time."

Danny shrugged and looked down at his lap. "It's gotten easier."

Maddie checked the time. "We're early. We can just wait here for a bit." She rummaged through her purse and pulled out a wrapped sandwich. "Here. I got this for you. Why don't you eat it before you go in?"

A sandwich. What kind? Didn't matter. There was no way it'd feel good in his stomach right now.

"That's all right. I'm not hungry." He switched off the engine and opened the car door, stepping out amidst the pizza restaurant's wafting smell of greased-up cheese and tomato sauce that made his gut lurch.

Maddie met him as he started up the stairway to distance himself from the awful smell. "Danny, wait! Lock the car first."

He looked down at the keys in his hand. Lock the car, of course. Stupid, stupid, so unbelievably—

Labeling, you dumbass.

Labeling again, moron.

He clicked the lock button and handed the keys to Maddie, then proceeded the rest of the way up the stairs.

"Danny, are you sure you don't want to eat?" Maddie walked behind him, still holding the sandwich in her hand. "You don't have to eat all of it. Just half? Or maybe I could buy you some pizza when you're done?"

Danny stopped outside the therapy office door and shook his head. "I'm fine, Mom. I ate a lot at lunch."

He gave her his best smile, the most genuine he could muster. She studied his face for a long moment.

"Did you really?" she asked softly.

Danny's smile fell away. What was she implying? Did she think he wasn't eating enough? Did she think he was too thin? Did she think he looked bad?

Personalization.

"Yes," he said. "Really. I'm good until dinner."

He tried to smile again. Maddie studied him a moment longer before slowly nodding.

"All right." She held a hand out to him. "Let me have your phone, then."

Danny groaned and reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and placing it in her hand. She put the sandwich and phone in her purse.

"Ready?" she asked him.

Danny pulled the door and held it open for her, following her inside. There was no one crying in the lobby today. Besides the receptionist, they were alone.

All right. Just seven more times. And in an hour, it would be just six more times. In an hour, he'd be a quarter of the way done with this.