“Why not?” she asks, like the answer isn’t obvious.

“Because being in high school when you can feel everyone’s feelings is a complete nightmare?” I answer dryly.

“You’ve made some good strides since November, Caleb,” she soothes. I sense it more in her emotions than her voice, and it grates. I don’t want to be soothed right now.

“Yeah, whatever,” I bite.

“Caleb”—there’s that stare again and the soothing hardens—“what have we talked about?”

“Don’t deflect emotion with being an asshole,” I recite, and there’s a small, quick glow within the perfectly even Therapist Mode that Dr. Bright’s emotions operate in.

“I don’t remember putting it quite that way,” she smirks, “but yes. When you’re overwhelmed or refusing the input from your ability, you respond with anger. And we don’t want a repeat of what happened with Tyler.”

“Yeah, I know,” I sigh. “It’s just easier, you know?”

“What’s easier?”

“Feeling annoyed or mad at stuff,” I say.

“It might be an easy way to push away the other feelings,” she tells me, “but it won’t help you process them.”

We sit in silence again but this time Dr. Bright is the one to break it.

“How was it being with your family the past few weeks?” she asks.

“Um, it was good, I guess,” I say. “I mean, I feel like I’ve gotten used to their feelings, you know? So, like, I’m able to balance them a bit. But it’s not like that in school.”

“What helps you balance your family’s emotions?”

“Well, there’s only three of them, so that helps. And even when their feelings are annoying or whatever, I can kinda tell who they belong to. They’re familiar.”

“Has the color system proved useful?” she asks.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I say, thinking about how Dr. Bright feels warm and yellow right now. “Like, it doesn’t always make things easier, but it’s definitely something.”

“Do you think that could help at school?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “There’s just so much. There’s too much, you know…”

“Input?” she suggests.

“Yeah, exactly. And so I can’t process, like, any of it, and that’s when I get overwhelmed.”

She purses her lips and I feel the itchiness that I’ve come to know as Dr. Bright working through stuff in her head. It feels like I’m trying to solve a math problem I don’t understand.

“The familiarity of your family’s emotions makes it easier for you to balance your ability,” she repeats. “Is there anyone at school who could do the same thing?”

“What?”

“Is there someone—a teammate or friend—who you feel comfortable around? Someone whose emotions you could focus on when you get overwhelmed?” The itchiness settles as she says this, like this is really a solution to my Problem.