Sam woke up staring at the ceiling of another motel room. He and Dean had been here a few months and John had stayed with them on and off. It as more off than on but that was expected with their father.
"Hey Dean"
"I am asleep"
"Wake up"
"No"
"It is my last day of high school".
"Congrats"
"You have to be at work in 45 minutes"
"Wake me up in 44 minutes".
"No" Sam finally swung out of bed and not so politely yanked the covers off the end of his brother's bed. It wasn't cold so it was not exactly cruel but it annoyed Dean enough to get him to stand up.
"I'm hungry" Dean complained as he glared lightly at Sam. Even as a hunter, Dean took awhile to wake up in the morning. Unless something was attacking them. If a demon so much as breathed in the same room, Dean would wake up from a dead sleep, swinging knives and reciting Latin. However, when they were safe, before nine in the morning, his older brother had to concentrate to walk in a straight line. Sam thought it was hilarious; Dean thought Sam was annoying as soon as he was awake enough to hear Sam laughing.
"I hate my job" Dean continued to complain as he threw himself down at the table next to the window.
"Yea, well, hustling pool and underground poker do not offer lucrative retirement plans".
"They do the way I play" Dean replied.
"Fine, you got a real job because you promised not to do anything illegal until I graduated".
"Mmmm" Dean hummed as he reached across the table to pick up the piece of paper that had not been there the previous night.
"Where is Dad anyway? Thought he was staying here". Sam said this causally, but he sure as hell hoped his dad had stuck around long enough to watch his youngest graduate high school.
Dean tuned Sam out for a second and tried to focus on the note in front of him. It was clearly in his dad's handwriting— he spend enough time updating the man's journal to know that— but Dean could not make sense of what it said. Maybe he was still half asleep. Dean reached across the table to hand the note to Sam.
"What?" Sam took the note, and within seconds was reading his dad's lousy excuse for his absence this morning. Sam had almost got used to his dad being secretive and allusive, but it did not mean he had to like it.
"Wait, he is going to miss my graduation?" Dad had missed Dean's graduation but then again so had Dean and Sam. On Dean's second to last day, Dad had caught wind of a hunt across the state and lied to the school about a family emergency. Dean's certificate took two months to arrive in the mail, because they spend that whole summer chasing some werewolf across South Dakota. Thinking about it gave Sam another reason to be angry with his father, but Dean took the hit like the loyal son he was and did not complain. Sam, to this day, is still angry on his brother's behalf.
Sam confirmed what Dean had really hoped he had read incorrectly. Dean tried to think of a way to soften the blow, but before he could Sam balled up the paper and threw it neatly into the trash can. Guess we were not talking about it Dean thought.
"I have to get to school. Are you dropping me off?"
"Yup, let me just change and we can go". Dean did not mention the fact that Sam's classes did not start for 45 minutes at a school half a mile down the block; he just got up and grabbed his stuff while his brother stood somewhat impatiently, pretending to search through his backpack for something. Dean known Sam had packed that thing meticulously the night before, but appreciated that his brother was at least pretending to be busy while he waited.
In the car, Dean wanted to say something but he was not sure what. He knew that his brother and his dad had been fighting in increasingly loud sessions for the last couple years and he knew that his brother valued his education much more than their father did. Dean honestly did not mind school, but he certainly did not have the level of attachment Sam did. Dean could remember the delighted look on his brother's face, especially as a kid, whenever Sam learned something new and Dean could still picture the gleam in his eye when Dean talked to Sam about his new found knowledge. Dean also remembered, conversely to Sam's pleasure, John's annoyance and eventually anger in Sam's apathy towards hunting. Sam had gotten this far, really, by following Dean around, sticking to the sidelines whenever possible and researching more than every other hunter combined. Dean could also imagine that Sam was disappointed his schooling had ended. Dad not longer had a reason to settle down and Sam no longer had lawfully required access to new, interesting information.
"You ready for this?" Lame Dean Lame. Dean cringed.
"Yea. You are coming to this right?" Sam emphasized the word and looked for a split second looked like the much younger brother who had once been attached to Dean's hip.
"You bet. I'll walk out of the place if they don't let me leave".
"That will look good on your resume".
"Come on, Sam, as if everything on mine isn't already fake". Dean pulled up to the school.
"You know you better hustle if you want to make it before the first bell" Dean teased his brother "You only have 43 minutes".
"Shut up, Dean" Sam say back as he pulled his bag out of the seat. "And do not be late. If you sit in the rows in the back, you will not be able to see anything".
"As if I would want to see you" Dean shot back.
"Right" Sam slammed the door in mock anger, but smiled slightly at Dean as he passed in front of the car. Dean gave him a ridiculous grin back and Sam's look conveyed his opinion of Dean's behavior.
Dean pulled away from the parking to after watching his brother walk into the school building. He was actually starving and in Sam's rush, Dean had not eaten breakfast. No matter how peeved they were at their father, Dean was not skipping the most important meal of the day.
After eating the remaining doughnuts and drinking all the milk, Dean drove into work.
Sam walked into the school and admitted to himself that perhaps he was acting a little silly. There really was no one in the halls and after gathering the last of the stuff and his graduation gown from his locker, Sam headed to his first class. He was early so his teacher had not arrived to open the door yet. Sam slid down the wall and pulled a book out of his backpack in an aborted attempt to distract himself. He wished he could say he was surprised at his dad's disappearing act, but he wasn't. He could not even say the note new was. At least it was dated this time.
As the year started wrapping up, Sam's relief at finishing high school faded. High school did not change much unless you were in a specialized program so english and math existed across the whole country, but what he had planned next, needed more stability. His worry about his ability to stay in one place for four years outweighed his disappointment about his dad.
Apparently, Sam sat there for a long time, because when Sam looked up, his teacher had unlocked the door and gestured for him to take his seat. With ten minutes remaining before the last bell, Sam walked around the room and pushed in every one of the chairs. The janitors pulled them out at night to vacuum the carpet, but the sight of the disorganized mess got on Sam's nerves. Finishing the last row, Sam bend to pick a stray marker and tossed it on the desk in the back of the classroom. Smiling at his actions, his teacher put a stack of graded papers in his hands and Sam started to hand them out based on his memory of his classmates' sitting arrangement. Unknowns went to the bottom of the stack but at this point people had begun taking their seats so it did not take Sam long to locate everyone.
This pattern continued all day. Sam arrived early to his classes, greeted his teachers and spend the period weaving around his talkative peers to hand back the last assignments of their high school careers. Maybe he should not have bothered; he saw at least half of them in the garage before they even made it out of the room.
The last bell rang early and the teachers hurried all their students into caps and gowns and then herded them to the field for the start of graduation practice.
"There are 400 of us in this class. I guarantee we are not going to be to able to sit down and stand up in sync without professional help". Sam's neighbor leaned over to talk to him and
Sam wholeheartedly agreed. Most of the kids in his class drove he and Ethan crazy, skipping class and talking through more lectures than there were in human history.
"Well, you can not blame for trying".
"Yes, I can blame them for trying". Ethan whispered to Sam after they had spend 30 minutes standing up and sitting down with absolutely no success.
"Think they will give up?"
"Nope" Ethan whispered back, even quieter. "Mr. Donovan just showed up. We could be here until the cows come home. Knowing her, we do not get it right the real time, she will make us stay after and do it over".
Sam avoided the teacher's glare at his snort of laughter and turned to see Ethan grinning him. Sam was really going to miss this kid.
Miraculously, hours passed without anyone passing out from the constant changes in gravity. At 3:15, the students were released with final directions to finish changing and meet back there at 4:00 sharp to line up in formal formation.
"They never should have let anyone leave; half these kids are not coming back" Ethan commented to Sam as they sat on the edge of the quad and watched the sound crew move equipment around.
"Even after they paid for their gowns?" Sam asked, wanting to object to Ethan's statement simply because he had been the one to say it.
"You know that means nothing to these people".
"You sound ready to get out of here".
"You know, I have been trying to get out of here since the day I set foot on the campus".
Ethan had started at this school as a senior and Sam had started the second semester of the year. They fought over library space almost as often as they agreed, but they become friends and competitors almost immediately.
Sam could honestly say his grades were higher than ever just because he fought to stay ahead of Ethan. He ultimately couldn't. Ethan was graduating third in their class and Sam was fourth— by a tenth of a point. Ethan never let him live it down, ever.
"Oh, look they are pulling us back". Ethan remarked sarcastically as the teachers waved in their direction.
It took another 30 minutes to find 350 students. The last 50 were left unaccounted for, but optimistic people might predict that they could still make it in time. Finally at 5pm everyone was seated, mostly dressed and as wild as howler monkeys. Sam and Ethan switched between making faces at each other and screaming over the noise. After another half an hour of the ear splitting noise, the principal called the class to attention with a shriek of feedback.
"Hello and welcome to graduation ceremony…"Sam tuned out his principal and looked for Dean in the crowd. He found his brother sitting in the center of the second row, almost as close to the stage as he could get. Sam grinned thanks at him as Dean caught his eye and fake yawned in response to the speaker, now someone else from the faculty. Sam rolled his eyes and looked back at Ethan, knowing that he had the most ridiculous yet awesome older brother.
Finally, the names started being called:
"Adam"
"Brooks"
"Clark"
"Davidson"
On and on and on until Ethan and Sam had resorted to playing rock paper scissors in the back row. Half the parents were going to be asleep by the time they got to their kids' name.
"Winchester"
At the sound of their last name, Dean looked up and watched the principal hold out his hand to Sam, shaking it then handing his brother his diploma. Dean thought Sam looked silly in his gown because it was too short for his tall frame, but up on stage Sam looked like someone important, someone who make real change in the world and not killing monsters and credit cards scams, but like one of the greats who revolutionized the ways humans thought.
The moment was over too soon, which Dean was sure every other family felt and suddenly Dean wished he had thought to bring a camera.
The rest of the alphabet flew by and soon the mass of people was surging the stage, trying to reach their student. Dean stood off to the side, where Sam could see him from the stairs and waited. Sam started towards him, turned around when someone handed him something and finished walking towards Dean. As soon as Sam was within arms distance, Dean stole his brother's cap and tossed it in the air, watching it before he caught it again.
"I am supposed to be the one to do that".
"You were taking too long".
"What did you think of the ceremony?" Sam asked.
"About the same as you, judging by the look on your face".
"It was long" Sam agreed.
"They could have let you stand there for a minute, let you revel in the glory".
"If they let kids do that, we would be here all night".
"Yea, but you deserved it". Dean suddenly sounded serious, and Sam could see pride in his older brother's eyes. Sam loved Dean in that moment and for a second it did not matter that either one of their parents saw him graduate high school; he had Dean.
Dean saw his little brother's face change at his comment and decided this was the closest they were going to get to chick flick moment so if they were going to hug, they better do it now. Sam seemed to agree and there was a brief hug before Dean ripped the tassel off Sam's cap while trying to move it to the opposite side.
"Hey" Sam protested, releasing his brother "first you steal my hat then you try to destroy the thing. Not very friendly".
"Oh, yea, because you are such a friendly person"
"First of all, I was insulting you, so your comeback makes no sense and secondly we need to go check me out so we can rid ourselves of this place".
"I have not met a single person has used 'firstly' and 'secondly' since fourth grade".
"Thirdly" Sam said directly to his brother's face "you are still a jerk".
"Bitch".
"Dean, we are approaching civilization. Please at least try to pretend you are a human being with, you know, manners".
"No can do, Sammy".
Sam hardly had time to glare at him, before Ethan's whole family was on top of them. Ethan had an older sister and brother as well as two younger sisters and it seemed they had brought several aunts and uncles, so they made quite an impression. Ethan's mom insisted on shaking Dean's hand and asking his name, taking pictures of all them together and rambling on about their after graduation plans.
"So Sam, I can not believe Ethan has not mentioned it to me before, but you are going to college somewhere, right?"
At that, Sam froze a little and looked at Ethan who shrugged apologetically.
"I am not sure if we are staying here after graduation" Sam said, which was not exactly an answer, but he needed to talk to Dean before he told anyone else.
Sam was saved from more questions by the gradually increasing whine of Ethan's siblings and soon just he, Ethan and Dean were standing alone in the middle of a huge crowd of people.
"Well, I would say call me, but that doesn't work with you, does it?" Ethan smiled a little sadly at Sam. As they had got to know each other and between bouts of arguments about everything under the sun, Sam had told Ethan a little about his life, moving around, never keeping the same set of friends and his failed attempts in the past to stay in contact with his old friends. This fact had been conveniently ignored as their days dwindled down and their competition increased.
"Yea, my family is notorious for bad cell phone reception" Sam joked, before moving to hug Ethan as well. They stayed there for few seconds before Ethan pulled away and looked at Sam. The glance did not last long, but it was enough to say good bye. To acknowledge that they had become close and would always appreciate the other's friendship. To admit to the fact they would probably never see each other again. To signal the end of high school.
Ethan took a step back and walked backwards towards his family.
"You, Sam Winchester, will have to live the rest of your life knowing that you lost to me over a one point problem on the calculus final".
"You're dreaming, brother" Sam yelled back, watching a grin light up Ethan's face before he turned away and vanished into the crowd. High school was over.
Dean listened to Sam talk to Ethan's family and saw rather than listened to him say good bye to his friend. Dean smiled slightly at Sam's words and knew that was his way of saying thank you to Ethan, calling him brother and Dean was not jealous of that.
After the ceremony the scene was starting to feel like a bit of a let down and now Dean was ready to ramble too.
"Ready, Sammy?"
"Yea, let me just tell my teacher I'm leaving".
They pushed through the crowd back up to the stage and after Sam got the nod of approval from Ms. Donovan, they shoved their way all the way back to the Impala. There were really too many people here.
As they drove, Dean wondered about something.
"So the answer, you gave Ethan's mom…" Dean trailed off as Sam got out of the car and walked into the motel room.
Sam knew he only had a certain amount of time before Dean asked again so he went to his duffel and pulled out three packets of papers. Dean followed him to sit on the bed and Sam set the piles of papers in his brother's hands. Dean looked at him for a second before looking down to start peeling the papers apart and Sam hoped that Dean would react like his brother and not like a mini version of John.
Suddenly not being able to take it, Sam explained as Dean opened the envelope.
"I applied to college".
Dean's head jerked up at that and Sam hurried to explain.
"I applied to Stanford, UC Berkeley and MIT. MIT" Sam said, lifting the first packet out of Dean's hands "rejected me". Sam tossed the envelope onto the floor.
"UC Berkeley and Stanford accepted me" Sam held up both those envelopes, as if letting Dean stare at the return address for Berkeley was going to prove this statement.
Dean felt a mix of feelings, namely pride, almost overwhelming pride, but under that he felt confusion and a little hurt.
"When did you apply?" Dean asked, but really what did he care.
"January, pretty soon after I got to this new school". Sam looked unbelievably nervous, as if Dean's response would dictate the rest of his life.
"What did you want to study?" Dean asked, his own voice sounding calm to him.
"Criminal psychology and English, eventually apply to law school". That answer did not shock Dean anymore then it would have if Sam had said he was going to study in the supernatural. Dean had not given a moment's thought to what Sam might study in college. But evidently Sam had.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Sam's features pinched briefly and Dean could look how how much Sam wanted to share this with him and Dean could clearly see regret in Sam's eyes that he had hurt Dean by keeping this to himself.
"I was afraid…I don't even really know what I was afraid of. At first, it seemed so impossible. Then the kids around me started applying and I filled out the appliances in class counseling with everyone else and I send them away and it still seemed impossible. Then MIT rejected me and I figured I would not get in anywhere. Then Berkeley and Stanford both came back with acceptances and I was thrilled. But that week, Dad was here and you know he would have freaked if he knew I was leaving, so I didn't say anything. Then Dad left and I still didn't say anything, even though I should have. I'm sorry".
"Sam, I would not been mad at you".
"I know. I mean I know you are not going to react like Dad, but for a second I just wanted to imagine I was going and not fight with anyone about it" Sam admitted. Sam knew that Dad would not have only freaked, he would have forbid Sam from attending college and abandoning the hunt.
There was a pause.
A very long pause.
Or maybe a short pause. What could Sam tell, it wasn't as if he was staring at his watch.
Then Dean was talking and Sam could approval in his voice.
"You don't have to imagine it, kid. You are going".
Exactly what Sam was hoping to hear. Exactly what he had been waiting for months to hear, someone, anyone, say. But now that the waiting was over, Sam was beyond glad that the first person on his side was Dean.
"Dean…"
"No chick flicks moments, Sammy. Now how does this work?"
"You are not mad at me?" Sam asked.
"Nope" Dean said in an offhanded way that Sam knew was not revealing his true feelings. Sam glared at his brother. Dean rolled his eyes and thus begun a staring contest; Sam won.
"Sam" Dean started "You are meant to do something more than this. You in your" Dean waved his hands to indicate Sam's cap and gown "you are going to do something great".
"No chick flick moments" Sam whispered.
Dean, for once, did not say anything.
"Jerk" Sam finally said, just to break the tension and because that was their way of saying thank you and I love you rolled into one.
"Bitch".
A little more silence.
"Show me what we have to do now" Dean whapped Sam on the shoulder and Sam reached over to pull his laptop out from under the bed.
He pulled up the orientation page, but checking his inbox, he realized that Ethan's mom had already emailed him the photos from graduation. Sam clicked on the download icon and soon he, Dean and Ethan were smiling brilliantly from the screen. College was beginning.
I basically wrote John out of this story because I am sick of his attitude and I wanted someone to at least acknowledge that Sam got a full ride to a prestigious university.