"Come on Scar!" Dean said softly as he shook me awake. It was Monday. School. Ugh. Dad had actually gotten a job at an auto shop and he was already gone for the day. Dean would be the one who was going to register us for our classes at our respective schools. Sam would be a Junior at the same school where Adam was a Freshman, Windom High. I would be the loner at the Middle school which was a mere ten feet from the high school. I would be an almighty seventh grader. You gotta love small towns, their schools always seemed to be really close to one another. The elementary school was right on the other side of the middle school. The only thing that separated the three schools was a short four foot fence. According to Adam, the middle and the high school shared the track behind the schools and also the obstacle course for P.E. classes. When I asked him why the schools had an obstacle course, he just shrugged. Rushing out the doors probably wasn't the best start to my first almost full year of school, but hey, I never said I liked it easy. We registered me first at the middle school because the middle school started before the high school. Apparently older kids need more sleep. The only class that looked fun was P.E. class and that wasn't until the end of the day. I sighed. It was going to be a long day.
The worst part of pretty much all of my classes was coming in the door. Every student in Windom, I soon found out, has known each other since pretty much birth. Every single person knew that I was the new kid. It didn't help matters when every single teacher made me stand in front of the room and introduce myself. One of my teachers started addressing me by my full name.
"You must be Scarlet-May, Class, this is our new student, Scarlet-May. Now, your name is long, is there a nick name you go by? I bet you go by May, don't you?" He had asked.
"Actually, all of my brothers and friends call me Scar," I told him. He looked almost taken aback. It was kind of funny. Someone seemed to think it was funny too because there was laughing from the back of the classroom.
"Do you think something is funny Mr. Cole?" The teacher had asked. The boy in the back just shook his head. I had lunch after that class and then P.E. after lunch. I was so excited for the exercise after being cooped up all day. At lunch I sat by myself. I figured if anyone wanted to be friends with me, they would sit with me instead of me trying to force myself into an already established group of people who didn't want me. Sure enough, someone did approach me.
"So May, what do you think about the weather here in our lovely town of Windom?" The boy who had laughed in the back of my last class sat in front of me at the table.
"Are you really asking about the weather?" I asked him.
"No, I just wanted to come over here and talk to you and that seems to be the clichéd opening topic," He smiled. He was a handsome boy. He looked to be muscled and in very good shape. His strange colored eyes seemed to notice everything. They were a mix of grey and blue and were very beautiful. He had brown hair that was cut about an inch and a half away from his head and was not organized in any way, shape, or form. It stood up in the oddest places and made me almost laugh.
"All right Mr. Cole, why did you want to talk to me?" I asked.
"Oh, Ajax, please, Mr. Cole is my father." He replied dramatically. I laughed. "I don't know, you seem like a cool person," He shrugged.
"Looks can be deceiving," I smiled a little bit.
"Oh, I know what you mean, my sister swears that Mr. Hendrix, the principal, is a vampire," he said pointing seriously towards an older balding man who was picking stuff out of his teeth with a fingernail. I laughed again. I liked this kid, he seemed to have a great sense of humor.
"So, you have a sister," I prodded.
"And you have brothers," He poked back.
"You first then I'll tell you about my brothers," I promised. He thought about it for a little then he nodded his head and started in on a very intricate tale of his growing up with two older sisters. I thought I was a very good audience. I oohed and ahhed in all the right places. After he told it, he gave a dramatic bow. Or as much of a bow as he could give while sitting down at a school lunch table. Again, I giggled.
"Now you," He prodded. I told him about Dean and Sam and getting Adam just this weekend.
"Okay, your story is better, I will admit defeat." He looked at the watch he wore. "What class do you have next?" he asked.
"Gym with Peterson," I replied taking my schedule to read it as we walked down the hallway to our next classes.
"Cool, another class together," he smiled flashing his dimples at me. "I hope you're fast Winchester, we're running the mile today and I'd hate to leave you in my dust."
"Bring it on Cole," I taunted.
"That's Mr. Peterson, I have to go change into my P.E. clothes. I'll see you out on the track," He smiled.
"Mr. Peterson?" I asked the man that Cole had pointed to as he walked away.
"Yes?" The man demanded. His short answers kind of reminded me of dad.
"I'm a new student, I was wondering what I should do," I told him.
"Well, we're running the mile today and since you don't have any clothes, you can sit out if you want," The man answered me. I could hear it in his voice that he didn't want to excuse me for the minor problem of not having any P.E. clothes.
"If it's okay with you sir, I would like to run it with my classmates," I told him. I could see a gleam of pride in his eyes as he gave me a curt nod. He was very much like dad. Dad was one of those men who didn't like excuses. He never babied us, he told it like it was and he expected us to do the same. If we did something wrong we were expected to own up to it, not make excuses. Dad always said that he learned that from the marines. "Marine?" I asked Mr. Peterson. He looked startled that I picked it up.
"How do you know?" He asked.
"My dad was one, is one if you believe the sayings about ex marines," I said. He nodded his head at me.
"They're all true," He told me.
"Yes sir," I replied.
"Let's go to the track to meet the rest of the class." He told me. We walked outside and across the large expanse of grass to the track in silence. It was a nice day outside, a good day to run. The air wasn't suffocating hot or biting cold. It was on the colder side but not chilly. The sun was shining.
"There you are May!" Cole exclaimed as he saw me and he waved me over to him. I stood next to him in the big mass of middle school bodies that were waiting for the signal to run. Cole told me that we were going to race and I accepted the challenge. Mr. Peterson blew his whistle and we were off. Most of the kids took off at a slow jog. Not me. I knew for a fact that I could sprint full out for a mile. But I didn't. I went for a run instead. Not quite a sprint, but more than a jog. Very soon I began pulling away from Cole who up until that point had been keeping up with me. He was loosing breath though and I was barely feeling the effects. After two laps, I was a good twenty steps ahead of him and after that he fell behind even more. I ran around the last turn and I sprinted full-out the last few yards.
"Five minutes exactly," Mr. Peterson told me my time with a smile. I smiled back but in my mind I was thinking about how much better I could have gotten. I could shave at least half a minute off of that time. "Cool off, the rest of the time is yours to talk or whatever you want to do," Mr. Peterson smiled. Cole rounded the last bend and ran the few yards like me but he was huffing and puffing like he was going to hurl. I on the other hand was a little winded.
"Six o' five Mr. Cole," Mr. Peterson congratulated. Cole put his hands on the top of his head and started walking around the track with me. I glanced over at the obstacle course that was right next to the track and smiled when I saw Sam was lining up to go next.
"Let's watch," I said, nodding in that direction. "That's my brother Sam."
"There's no way he's going to beat Brent," Cole said coolly.
"Just watch," I told him. I knew that Sammy would win just like I knew that I would beat Cole in the mile. We were trained and these people weren't. The two of them lined up at the start. The teacher blew her whistle and they were off. Sam vaulted over the first four foot wall like it was nothing. The second was a six-foot-tall one. Sammy placed his boot on the wall and grabbed the top of it and hoisted himself over letting himself drop to the other side. Two down, three more to go. The balance obstacle was a ten foot long log over a pit of mud. Sam didn't even slow down as he sprinted across it. At the monkey bars he decided to show off by pulling himself up and running on top of the bars. The last obstacle was the net climb. That was the one where most people doing these courses failed. They lost strength before they got to this part, but not Sammy. He went up that thing in about twenty seconds. The drop down was the easiest part. All he had to do was let go. He sprinted the few yards to the end and the whistle blew. The other guy, Brent was still caught on the net climb.
"What are you, a family of freaks?" Cole asked with a smile on his face. I laughed at that.
"Nope, dad was a marine," I said in a way of explaining. He nodded like he understood. That really wasn't the reason we were trained but that was the reason I gave out whenever someone asked. They all seemed to buy it. Apparently all marines they knew treated their children like they were still in the corp. I waved at Sammy as he looked my way and he jogged over with a big smile on his face.
"Five minute mile," I claimed proudly.
"It took you that long squirt?" He asked with a teasing smile on his face. "I did four thirty on the course," He bragged.
"Dean would've done three," I shot back.
"Dean dropped out of high school," Sam retorted.
"What does that have to do with anything?" I sneered.
"He's not here right now smarty pants, even if he didn't drop out of school, he's still twenty years old, he would've graduated by now," Sam explained.
"Maybe," I laughed. One of my theories about Dean dropping out of school was that he was going to fail his senior year and instead of telling dad he was failing, he opted for dropping out. I would too. Cole cleared his throat beside me and Sam looked at him like he hadn't noticed him.
"Sammy, this is my new friend Cole, Cole, this is my brother," I told him.
"My name is actually Ajax," Cole protested shaking Sam's offered arm. Sam looked confused.
"If you insist on calling me May, I am going to insist on calling you Cole," I retorted snidely.
"Fine, I'll live with it," He snorted.
"Fine," I told him.
I looked up and noticed that Sammy was still standing there very awkwardly. Well crap, he was going to tease me about this forever. Damn, he would tell Dean!
"Could you hold on a second," I told Cole as I grabbed Sam and hauled him away.
"Aww, you even have nick names already," Sammy cooed. I knew it. He was just waiting for the opportunity.
"You tell Dean and I will kill you," I threatened.
"I think that Dean deserves to know," Sammy smirked.
"Nothing's going on, we're just friends," I insisted.
"Good, because even though Dean may be kidding about you not dating until your thirty, but he definitely wasn't kidding about the drill down he would give any boyfriend of yours." Sammy warned. I knew it too. The worst thing about living with two older brothers is that I was subject to many horror stories of sexual prowess. Sam for the most part was pretty clean. Dean on the other hand claimed he had hundreds of stories. Because of him, Sam had been subjected to the condom talk since he was eight. I had been subject to it since I was five. Lucky me. Because that's what every five year old girl worries about. Along with the usual talks, I, being the youngest and the only girl, had been subjected to constant threats from both of my brothers and dad. They warned about what they would do to me and my boyfriend if we had sex. It was fine for Dean as long as he covered up, but if I ever so much as thought about it, I wouldn't be sitting for three months. I was pretty sure my hypothetical boyfriend had it worse though. Let's just say that my family was pretty creative when it came to torture.
"Just friends Samuel," I insisted, I was a little irritated. He had no right to dictate my life. I still didn't like it when Dean and dad tried to do it. But then again, he was my older brother and I had gotten pretty used to his nagging, sulking manner and his constant butting into my life. That's just what family did. Dean always said that family always put up with each other's quirks and dumbass stunts. He said Sammy and I had a lot of them. Dumbass qualities that is. But he loved us and he always looked out for us. Sometimes I felt sorry for him because he always had to put up with us and felt like he had to cover us when we pulled dumbass stunts. That didn't mean that it didn't bug the crap out of me when he dictated my life. Cole and I started to walk around the track again. He seemed really nice, I liked him, but still not in the romantic way that Sammy had implied. After that class, I had another class with Cole. This class was math though and that class was one of my worst subjects. Thankfully, Cole was pretty good at it. He was a good friend, I found out, he didn't just sit there and watch me struggle through it, he actually tried to help me. He was really nice. After my math class, there was one more class before I got to go home. This was the longest class of my life. I kept my eye on the clock the entire time but no matter how much I willed it, the second hand didn't move any faster. In fact it seemed to go slower and slower until I swear it skipped every other second. I don't remember anything from that last class which just so happened to be English. Great, I was going to fail English. I really didn't understand why we needed to have a class where we learned about the native language that we spoke. I would have to learn to pay attention to that class if I didn't want to fail it. Sammy may be the easy-going brother of mine, but he was a hard ass about grades. If you didn't get a good grade, he would be on you until you got the grade up. That was something I found ironic because dad didn't even care as much as Sammy did about grades. As soon as the bell rang I was sprinting out the door like the gun had just gone off at a track meet. I would have to wait almost a half an hour until the High School dismissed their students so I took my headphones out of my bag and listened to some classic rock as I took my books out to start on my homework. It wasn't five minutes later that I felt a presence beside me and I looked to see Cole sitting to my left. I took out my headphones and smiled at him.
"Hey, do you want to work on the math homework together?" I asked him.
"Sure," he replied and we began working on it. We didn't get too much done though, he was so easy to talk to. We finally finished the homework just as the bell rang for the High School and the students all rushed out of the building to their cars that were in the parking lot or to their parents that were picking them up. Sam really hated that he couldn't drive to and from school by himself, but that was because we only had two cars. Dad's truck, and Dean's Impala. Dad needed his truck for work and if Dean didn't have his car, he would be stuck at the hotel all day doing nothing.
"Hey Scar!" Sam waved as him and Adam joined Cole and I.
"Cole, I don't know if you two have met, this is my brother, Adam," I introduced. Considering that almost everybody here in Windom has met each other I had a hunch that they knew each other.
"Yeah, I've seen you around before," Adam smiled as he shook hands with my new friend. "You're Sarah Cole's little brother right?" Adam asked.
"Yep, my name's Ajax," Cole told him. "Speaking of sister, she's over there waving to me, I gotta go, see you tomorrow May!" He called as he ran off.
"May?" Adam asked.
"They have pet names for each other," Sammy snickered. I punched him in the stomach. It wasn't very hard, but it was hard enough that it would probably bruise. "Oh, now I'm definitely telling Dean!" At that exact moment, the Impala pulled up and Sam made a mad dash for the car. I am ashamed to admit it, but Sam could run faster than me. I blamed it on his longer legs and the fact that he was a freaking giant. Sam got to the car, got in, and locked it just as I got to the door. I started to pound on the windows but I thought better of it when I saw the scowl that was forming on Dean's face as Sam talked. I couldn't believe my brothers were being such jerks. Sam was completely distorting the truth and Dean would blow the entire story out of proportions. Finally, the car unlocked but at that time, I really didn't want to get in.
"Scar, stay away," was all Dean said but it still set my temper on fire.
"No," I told him. "I'm not going to stay away from the only friend I have here because you have the wrong idea about our relationship. That is none of your business!" I elaborated.
"Just don't be stupid and remember some of our earlier conversations," Dean advised. I would, but this wasn't a relationship like that and I wouldn't need those talks to refer back to. The rest of the ride back to the house was silent. I wasn't happy with my brothers and I wanted them to know it. I really didn't have anything against Adam but I wasn't happy with Sam and Dean. Sam most of all. When we got back to the house I headed to my room without talking to anyone. I noticed that dad's truck was still gone but that wasn't surprising since I wasn't expecting him back until about 5 and it was only three. Because I had already done my math homework with Cole, I didn't really have too much left. In English we were reading the book To Kill a Mockingbird and I was supposed to catch up with the class but I had already read that book so I really didn't need to. In history we were supposed to take notes on the chapter about World War 2 but Sam was a history nut and I already knew more than the book could tell me about the battles that happened in that war. So since I had nothing to do, I plugged my headphones into my phone and listened to music. I must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing I remember was Dean waking me up for dinner. Dad still wasn't home yet so Dean had ordered take-out. Chinese.
"What do you guys want to watch?" Dean asked as he settled on the couch.
"You guys don't eat at the table?" Adam asked, curiously as he tentatively followed Dean to the room where the TV was.
"Adam, you're used to living with a woman, we are a house of bachelors," Dean chuckled. Adam raised his eyebrows at me. I just shrugged.
"I'm used to him ignoring me," I said walking in to sit on the floor.
"I don't ignore you sweetie, I just choose not to pay attention sometimes," He scoffed as he flipped through the channels. "Woah! this dude has everything!"
"I don't see a difference," I sneered.
"He has like five hundred more, how could you not see a difference?" Dean asked incredulously.
"I wasn't talking- never mind," I laughed.
"Let's watch this," Dean settled on a movie that was playing. I looked up and saw that it was one of those stupid horror movies from the 80's. I rolled my eyes when I saw the ghost that looked like it had a sheet over it's head and had an eerie glow to it.
"Why would you watch this?" I grumbled.
"Because it's hilarious that people actually think that ghosts look like that," Dean chuckled.
"What?" Adam asked. He looked like he thought he heard something totally ridiculous and didn't know if he heard correctly.
"Yeah, real ghosts look nothing like tha..." Dean trailed off as if he realized what he was saying.
"Real ghosts?" Adam laughed.
"Shit." Dean growled.
"And you warned me," I stated pointedly at Dean.
"What are you guys talking about?" Adam demanded. He wasn't smiling anymore. He looked more like he was backed into a corner by crazy people who wanted to kill him.
"Calm down Adam, dad will explain things, until then, just go on with your normal life," Sam urged. I grabbed the remote away from Dean and changed the channel to a stupid sitcom comedy show in an effort to change the subject.
"Dad will explain what?" Adam demanded. "You guys better tell me what is going on because if you don't I'm walking out the door right now." Everyone was silent. I could tell that Sam and Dean were weighing the risk of telling him. Adam stood there for almost five minutes before finally starting towards the front door. Before he went five steps, Dean was up and in front of the door, blocking Adam's way. Adam stumbled backwards, taken aback at Dean's swiftness, but quickly recovered.
"Get out of my way," Adam growled.
"Or what?" Dean taunted.
"I'm warning you, I'm on my school wrestling team," Adam warned. Dean just laughed in his face. Adam reached back ready to strike at Dean but I stopped him.
"You're acting like spoiled brats, both of you," I reprimanded them. "Adam if you're planning on beating your way past Dean, I will warn you that Dean was trained by a marine. He's not a wrestler but he is trained in MMA. Dean, I don't know what the hell you were planning to do but you need to calm down. You're not going to beat your little brother up. Dad would be even more angry at you if you did that. Now go sit down, both of you," I demanded. I was surprised when Adam actually listened to what I said and with a shrug he went to sit down again. Dean just crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow at me.
"What was that?" He asked me.
"I love you," I smiled sweetly at him. He rolled his eyes and then lunged towards me and hoisted me over his right shoulder. "Dean let me go!" I squealed. I hit his back with my fists, but not hard. He smacked my butt a few times before setting me down on the couch next to Sam. "Ow!" I exclaimed after he set me down. He hadn't been that gentle. "Next time you do that to me, I won't soften my blows!" I exclaimed.
"Are we going to tell him?" Sammy asked after he got done chuckling at my comment.
"Dean already practically told him," I shrugged. "We could always blame it on him when dad asks," I laughed.
"Haha, funny. All right Adam, we'll tell you," Dean started. "Dad's not really a mechanic. Well, he is, but that's not really his main job. Dad's a hunter."
"Hunter? Like killing animals?" Adam asked.
"Not exactly," Sammy put in.
"Dad hunts the supernatural." Dean explained.
"Supernatural? Like ghosts and stuff?" Adam asked. He seemed to be taking the news surprisingly well.
"And stuff, yeah," Dean replied. We were silent for a while. Adam looked like he was trying to debate if we were screwing with him or not. Apparently he decided we weren't.
"How long has he been hunting?" Adam asked.
"About sixteen years now," Dean replied. "When Sam was six months old, a demon killed our mother. Dad wanted revenge so he became a hunter. That's why he stayed away from you, he didn't want to drag you into this life."
"So how long have you been hunting?" Adam asked us.
"I killed my first when I was ten. I never really knew anything different but I at least have some memories of a life before hunting, Sam was six months old. He has absolutely no idea what a normal life is." Dean replied.
"I have known about it since I was five but dad wouldn't let me start hunting until I was trained. He only started letting me hunt last year." I told him.
"That long?" Adam asked.
"Well, I don't really have the best attention span and I'm not a really good student. Plus, dad wouldn't even think about letting me hunt until I was at least ten. Even now, I'm only allowed to go on the cut and dry cases, the cases where dad is sure nothing is going to go wrong." I replied bitterly.
"So what do you hunt, besides ghosts?" Adam asked.
"Everything that has anything to do with the paranormal. Ghosts, Demons, Werewolves, Vamps, all of the normal ones plus the really weird and wacky," Dean told Adam.
"So if ghosts don't look like globs with blankets on, what do they look like?" Adam asked. He seemed genuinely curious now.
"They look just like they were when they were living," Sam told him.
"And werewolves, what do they look like?" Adam asked.
"They look like normal people during the day but during the night, they change into harry-looking men and women," I told him.
"And Vampires?" He asked.
"Those are the least well-portrayed in movies. Vampires look exactly like other humans. They don't have elongated canine teeth. What they do have is another set of retractable fangs, a whole other set of teeth that retracts into their gums. Another thing about them is that they aren't turned by a bite, the only way you can be turned into a vampire is if you drink a vampire's blood." Sam explained.
"And Demons, what do they look like?" Adam asked.
"Demons are the trickiest to spot. They posses people so they could be standing right beside you and you wouldn't know it. There are a few tricks that dad will teach you when you're training, but the easiest way to tell is to say "Christo" which is Christ in Latin. The demons will tremble and loose control for a second. When that happens, the eyes of the host go black." I explained.
"Completely black, like no iris, no pupil, and no white part around that, the entire eye socket is filled with black, It's creepy." Dean said.
"Are you okay? You seem to be taking this surprisingly well," I asked Adam.
"Yeah, I feel surprisingly okay. I know I should be freaking out but for some reason I'm not," He shrugged.
"You're a Winchester, you're born for it," Dean smiled.
"Born for what?" A voice asked from behind us.
"Dad you need to get a bell!" I exclaimed.
"Why? Were you talking about something I shouldn't know about?" Dad asked, eying us all in turn. Adam squirmed. We weren't going to try and hide it from dad but the fact that Adam squirmed made us look guilty.
"It was my fault dad, I made a stupid comment directed at a movie and Adam caught on," Dean told him.
"What happened?" Dad asked. He suddenly looked really tired.
"We were watching one of those stupid 80's horror movies and I made a stupid comment about ghosts not looking like that and Adam demanded to know what I meant." Dean told dad.
"We told him," I told dad.
"After I told you not to?" Dad demanded.
"Adam was going to walk out the door, he was about to punch Dean and Dean was about to lay him out so I made peace and we told him," I told dad.
"I don't appreciate that you disobeyed me. I expect my orders to be followed to the letter," Dad sounded disappointed.
"Yes, Sir," Sam, Dean, and I replied.
"But I have to admit, I was having trouble thinking of a way to tell Adam about our lifestyle so this time and this time only, I will cut you some slack," dad told us.
"We're sorry," I told him. Dad smiled at me in acknowledgement.
"So I assume that he is taking it well since he isn't running for the door," dad joked. "Enough for tonight. You have school tomorrow and I have work, time for bed."
"Dad, I don't have school!" Dean protested.
"That was an order Dean, now!" Dad told him. Dean grumbled under his breath as he turned and started climbing the stairs. Adam and Sam followed him. I stayed back for a second.
"He'll fit in perfectly," I smiled. "I love you daddy." I turned and headed for the stairs and I heard him call after me.
"I love you too baby."