Chap­ter XX begins with the group feel­ing a deep sense of relief after suc­cess­ful­ly escap­ing the chaos that unfold­ed inside the din­er. The fresh spring air greets them as they step out­side, and the sound of pass­ing cars seems to calm their frayed nerves, offer­ing a sharp con­trast to the loud clam­or of the restau­rant. As they walked care­ful­ly, avoid­ing the pot­holes that marked the path to an alley, their steps were cau­tious, and their minds stayed vig­i­lant, par­tic­u­lar­ly watch­ing for any signs of pur­suit from Ozzie. Despite their con­cerns, Ozzie remained behind, like­ly too embar­rassed by his ear­li­er mishap with the pie, or per­haps still try­ing to recov­er from the chaos of the moment.

As they made their way through the dark­ened streets, a moment of reflec­tion sud­den­ly struck the pro­tag­o­nist. They noticed a home­less man sit­ting by a dump­ster, his worn clothes blend­ing into the night­time shad­ows. Com­pas­sion over­whelmed them, prompt­ing them to place the half-eat­en burg­er bas­ket and a cher­ished pur­ple rib­bon flower next to him—a small yet sig­nif­i­cant ges­ture that acknowl­edged his exis­tence. This qui­et act stood in stark con­trast to the pre­oc­cu­pa­tion of their group, high­light­ing the protagonist’s deep­en­ing sense of empa­thy, a qual­i­ty that seemed to be grow­ing more pro­nounced with every pass­ing moment.

Upon return­ing to the bus, the lin­ger­ing ten­sion from the din­er con­tin­ued to buzz in the air among the group. Bob­bi, with her calm demeanor yet prob­ing eyes, remained an ever-present fig­ure, observ­ing the pro­tag­o­nist and adding to their grow­ing dis­com­fort. The pro­tag­o­nist, unable to shake off the unease, felt their thoughts inter­rupt­ed by Fish, who sought clar­i­ty amid Bobbi’s relent­less prob­ing. As Bob­bi’s teas­ing esca­lat­ed, frus­tra­tion began to sim­mer with­in the group, par­tic­u­lar­ly for the pro­tag­o­nist, whose patience was now wear­ing thin due to the unre­solved ten­sion between the two.

Mean­while, Lester, strug­gling with the bus door and jug­gling a stolen pie, added to the build­ing inten­si­ty of the moment. Bob­bi, unable to resist, once again teased Fish, ignit­ing a sharp, defen­sive response from him. The ten­sion in the air esca­lat­ed dra­mat­i­cal­ly as a sud­den wind­storm swept over the group, seem­ing­ly out of nowhere. Fish, caught up in the over­whelm­ing emo­tions of the moment, unleashed his pow­ers, stir­ring the storm with a force that sent Bob­bi stum­bling back­ward, both star­tled and amazed by the dis­play of his abil­i­ties.

As the storm raged on, the pro­tag­o­nist stood motion­less, untouched by the furi­ous winds that sur­round­ed them. The pro­tec­tive bar­ri­er cre­at­ed by Fish’s pow­ers shield­ed them, a strik­ing visu­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the bond they shared as a fam­i­ly. Bob­bi and Will Junior, stand­ing a few feet away, watched in awe, the real­iza­tion dawn­ing on them that the Beau­mont chil­dren were not like any­one they had ever known. They weren’t just ordi­nary kids, but extra­or­di­nary in ways that defied the nor­mal­cy they had once tak­en for grant­ed. This rev­e­la­tion was a turn­ing point, mark­ing a shift in their under­stand­ing of the Beau­mont family’s true nature and the pow­er­ful abil­i­ties they pos­sessed, regard­less of the chaos that con­tin­u­ous­ly swirled around them.

In the after­math of this real­iza­tion, the atmos­phere became thick with unspo­ken thoughts, as Bob­bi and Will strug­gled to process the truth they had just wit­nessed. It was clear that the Beau­mont children’s pow­ers were far from ordi­nary, and as the dust set­tled, the pro­found impli­ca­tions of their abil­i­ties hung in the air. This moment sig­ni­fied more than just a phys­i­cal dis­play of power—it marked a piv­otal shift in the rela­tion­ships among the group, chal­leng­ing their per­cep­tions of nor­mal and cre­at­ing a new under­stand­ing of what it meant to be dif­fer­ent. With Fish’s pow­ers now open­ly acknowl­edged, the group was left to nav­i­gate the com­plex emo­tions that arose from this new­found real­i­ty, all while con­tin­u­ing their jour­ney toward an uncer­tain future.