Natalie put her arm around Amber as she wept. She allowed a trickle of her healing power to seep through for the purpose of amplifying the natural healing properties of this cry. Between her sobs, Amber poured out her pent up frustrations. Natalie found herself truly able to understand where she was coming from. For years no one knew what her power was and when they did, it was largely regarded as useless by those who couldn't - or wouldn't - understand. She knew what it was like to have your power (or lack thereof) mocked.
At last no more tears came and Amber wiped her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she sniffed.
"Don't be," Natalie replied firmly. "Now we know what the core issue is, we can do something about it."
Amber stiffened.
"I... I don't want any more tests - "she began.
"Tests?" Natalie repeated. "For what?"
"My power..."
"That's not what I meant by dealing with it."
"I'm sorry."
Natalie smiled.
"What I meant was that you can now start looking at things differently. You don't need powers to go to school or do pottery or do household chorses."
"Well... actually sometimes I use atom manipulation on my pottery."
Natalie laughed.
"I stand corrected."
"I knwo that a lot of Daths and Sems don't have powers that can be used every day," Amber said. "I just... I feel.. inadequate, or handicapped, or whatever."
Natalie nodded.
"I have some homework for you then."
"Homework?"
"Yep," and Natalie pulled out a folded sheet of paper from her bag. "I want you do to at least five things on this list. Take as long as you want. Obviously, college, family all that stuff takes precidence."
Amber skimmed through the list and gave Natalie a slight frown.
"You just happened to have this on you?"
"Sooner or later this day was coming," Natalie shrugged. "I like to be prepared."
"Why do you want me to do charity work?"
Natalie smiled mysteriously.
"You'll see."