Hopefully a normal bus ride

Getting seated on the bus, Nathan turned to Lauren and decided it was time to demonstrate his powers.

"Hey Lulu" he said one last time, hoping to get one more cute blush out of her. "Don't think I have gone off the deep end or anything, but I am pretty sure that I am psychic" he announced smugly. This caused Phoebe on the bench in front of him to tense up slightly and turn backwards to face Nathan, giving him a meaningful glare. She tapped Rebecca on the arm to get her attention, muttering "this should be good..." under her breath

Lauren was yet again embarrassed by Nathan's nickname that he refused to stop using, although she didn't really mind him using it. She was slightly concerned for his mental health however, but just chalked it up to being Nathan's latest peculiarity. Showing her scepticism over her claim by raising her eyebrow, she responded with "Oh really? Could you show us then", taking note of how both her and Nathan's sisters were leaning over the benches backrest for a better view of the fiasco that was about to take place.

Nathan felt butterflies in his stomach, at the sudden audience he would be performing for. But as he always said, once you are in a hole, just keep on diggin.

"What you don't believe me? Pfffff, bunch of naysayers the lot of you! Well prepare to have your minds blown, and your doubts shattered!" he announced, deciding to make a show of it. He was rapidly coming to the realisation that he had absolutely no understanding of how he had managed to use his power like he did in the kitchen this morning. All he could remember was desperately wanting his sister to understand him.

Well, movies and comic books had never failed him before, so lifting up his hands, he pressed his index and middle fingers against the sided so his scalp and focused on putting his thoughts in Laura's head, holding his breath and straining.

"You got performance anxiety lil bro?" taunted Phoebe, earning a short bark of laughter from Rebecca and a small chuckle from Laura.

After a few more moments of straining and letting out strangled noises from his mouth, he decided to concede and prevent any further embarrassment. "Nope, its not coming" he declared, shrugging his shoulders.

"You are so full of shit, you know that right?" Rebecca sniped, turning back to face the front of the bus.

"Hey no need to be rude! Just because Phoebe interrupted me!" he shot back

"Oh so it's my fault you can't help lying through your teeth!" she responded, trying to cover for him before he attracted unwelcome attention. Shutting the conversation off before it could escalate, she also turned to face the front of the bus. She cursed silently. She would have to give him a bollocking later. What was he doing, running around telling everyone he had superpowers! That is the literal opposite of what you are meant to do in this kind of situation! She doesn't even read comics like Nate does, and even she knows that!

Nathan put his hands over his face and leant back against the bench. Why does everything go wrong for him. All he wanted to do was show off his cool power, but he couldn't even do that correctly. Lauren was rubbing his shoulder, saying comforting things like "Don't worry I'm sure you can do it if you try harder" and, "You can try again later if you feel like it".

He appreciated the sentiment and was thankful for her sympathy, but it didn't do much to diminish his building feeling of ineptitude. If only he could properly explain the truth to her. If only he had the words to describe what he was capable of doing. If only he was able to replicate his show of psychic prowess from this morning...

He suddenly felt a slightly familiar tingling sensation at the base of his spine, before an equally similar shooting sensation sharply travelled up to his brain, where once again it felt like something was peeling away his precise intention, leaving a vacuum in its place. This time, something felt unfamiliar, as the vacuum felt as if it was nestling up against the previous filled vacuum that had arrived in his brain from when he had used the ability that morning, before it filled out again. Just as it had finished filling out, he felt a sharp stabbing pain in his skull, as he momentarily had tunnel vision. He inhaled sharply, tensing his abdomen until the feeling went away

He felt Lauren's hand quickly shot away from him as if she had received an electric shock, Nathan immediately knew that his power had worked. Lauren had similarly held her hand over her mouth in shock just like his sister had, here eyes widened, staring at him intently. Her entire body had fully turned around to directly face him, but rather unexpectedly, she quickly turned around, furrowing her brow and tapped her foot rapidly on the ground.

Nathan wondered in silence for the rest of the ride about whether he had upset her or not, the mood having been drastically altered from before. As the bus pulled up to the college bus station, Lauren gave him one or two anxious glances as they started to file out of the bus seats.