In this Mystery kid one-shot, Norman is younger!

Norman was sitting on the school bus looking at the girl across the aisle from him.
He thought that she looked pretty cute, with her gentle blond curls and those bright green eyes.
She never seemed to speak though, and he only ever saw her on the bus.
But she might just be shy, Norman was so why wouldn't she?

The girl turned and looked towards Norman so he averted his gaze down, it would be weird if she knew that he was watching her.

Norman had been thinking about talking to her, but he wasn't sure what to say.
He of course could start with 'hello' or 'hey,' but after that, he wasn't so sure about.
If he brought up the weather, it could sound boring, 'how was school' was just too generic and 'how are you' always led nowhere.

What do you say to a girl you like?

The school bus stopped and Norman knew that he was running out of time.
Maybe he should just wait for tomorrow, it would give him a lot of time to figure out what he wants to say.
But…he doesn't want to wait that long.

Norman took a deep breath and while the bus was still stopped he walked over to the girl. "Hey, hey um, can I sit here with you?"

Norman hadn't noticed the light freckles sprayed across her face before, but he did notice that her eyes shown with concern, the girl slowly nodded.

Norman slid in next to her, but not before noticing the confused faces from the other kids on the bus.
Norman sat still for a moment, he is sitting next to her!

"So… how are you?" Norman mentally cursed at himself.

"You…shouldn't be able to see me."

Norman looked at her confused. "What do you mean? I can see you perfectly fine?" Norman heard a snicker coming from the seat behind him.

"Perfectly?"

Norman nodded his head slowly.

The girl looked down. "I, I am not here."

Norman was greatly confused. "Yes you are."

The girl sighed. "I'm not really here, I'm dead."

"But, you look alive? You look like you are here?"

The girl shook her head. "If you can see me, I am guessing that you are a ghost whisperer."

"A ghost what?"

"A ghost whisperer. They can see and speak to ghosts, the last people I knew who could do that were the Prenderghast's."

"But I am not a Prenderghast! I am a Babcock. And I know you are real!"

Suddenly some kid named Alvin leaned over the back of Norman's seat. "Hey Norman, who you talking too? Some pretty girl?" He started laughing.

Norman blushed but he didn't understand why Alvin was laughing. "Um, yes, she is pretty."

"Can I meet her?"

Norman gestured at the girl. "She is right here."

Alvin laughed louder and the girl looked at Norman with sadness. "Norman, I keep telling you. I'm not real."

"Yes you are!"

Alvin wiped his tears from his eyes. "Oh yeah! She is totally real Norman! Real in your head!"

Norman glared at Alvin. "She is real! Why don't either of you get that!?"

"Because she ain't!"

"She is!" Norman's hands gestured at the girl, one of his hands would have smacked the girls curls, but it went through. "What?"

Alvin laughed. "You must be blind Norman! She ain't there!"

The girl looked to be close to tears. "I, I'm sorry Norman but I am a ghost, I had to make myself intangible to you so you would understand."

Norman stared at the girl, he didn't know what to say.
He knew he looked like a idiot, he was an idiot. "You, you aren't real?"

The girl shook her head. "I wish I didn't have to be the one to tell you that you can do this."

Norman looked down, how many more people are there that are ghosts?
Was anyone in his family ghosts, maybe his parents weren't playing a lame trick on him about his grandmother?
Norman studied the girl, she did seem to glow slightly, while Alvin was just…him.

Norman gave the girl a fake smile. "I'm glad you were the one to tell me."