Disclaimer: Supernatural is not mine.
Summary: Sam doesn't fall into the wrong crowd. He takes control of it.
'Dean Winchester is the wrong crowd while Sam Winchester falls into the wrong crowd' is the general assumption.
Sam believes this assumption is completely moronic.
One, 'Dean' and 'crowd' shouldn't even be in the same sentence. He's a loner. He'll only withstand the company of girls, his family, and girls. Two, Sam doesn't 'fall into' anything. He's seen and done too much to let some self-proclaimed tough guy twist his thoughts. Three, his dad has trouble controlling him. Does anyone honestly think he'll play follow the leader?
No, Dean Winchester is the wrong sort while Sam Winchester leads the wrong crowd.
It starts when he's eleven and realizes that he doesn't enjoy being a loner as much as Dean does. He tries to fit in but there are only certain types of kids who think it's totally normal and cool to have a gun in your backpack.
That one is simple.
"Let me hold it," orders the leader. He's short and fast. The two kids behind him know how to throw punches.
Sam isn't worried. "No."
"I just want to see it!" He gets into Sam's face.
Sam's eyes harden and he adjusts his stance. "I said no."
The other kid's eyes drop first.
It isn't until weeks of picking the lunch table, the teachers that get pranked, the shortcuts home, and the nights to sneak out that he realizes the short and fast kid isn't the leader anymore.
Surprisingly, Dean just doesn't notice. Lilah Morrigan is a redheaded sixteen-year-old. It's Dean's first day of senior year when he hits on her.
John Winchester is reading a book Pasteur Jim Murphy lent him when his sons enter. Dean is walking oddly and grimaces with every step. Sam comes in behind him. His lips are twitching. "What happened to you?" John asks.
Sam blurts out the answer before Dean has opened his mouth. "He tried to sneak a kiss and the girl kneed him right in the – ow!"
Dean smacks him upside the head and corrects, "It was an accident and she apologized."
Sam moves out of smacking range. "She said she'd come after you with her mom's pruning sheers if you tried it again."
Sam runs into her that night.
He's waiting on the patio when she opens the screen in pajama bottoms and a tank top that exposes her midriff. There's a belly button ring and he fights the urge to examine the decoration.
She looks him up and down. "You're the one my brother's tagging after now?"
Sam shrugged. In truth, he hadn't connected Lilah to Danny, whose head of hair was so bright red that it made Sam want to go for the fire extinguisher. "I'm Sam Winchester."
"The moron's brother." It's not a question. "Where are you going?"
"Out."
She glares. "You know, if I tell my dad who your brother is, you won't be allowed around here anymore."
She goes back in and comes back out five minutes later dressed and with Danny in tow. He says, "She told my dad she'd watch us."
Lilah smirks at Sam. "So, where are we going?"
Later, as they're passing around a bottle of whiskey and Danny is choking on a cigarette, she turns to him. "I thought Dean Winchester's brother is supposed to be a geek."
Sam makes a theatrical hushing sound and gesture. "It's a secret."
"You should be an actor."
"Will you be my leading lady?"
"Mmmokay."
That night, Sam finds out her belly button ring has a dragonfly on it with blue specks.
Having his arm around a junior hottie quickly removes his status as fresh meat. After the initial shock, Dean's only comment is, "That's my boy," even as he keeps his distance from Lilah.
Rebecca and Zach Warren were his first friends in California, before he found his 'wrong crowd'. Rebecca knew. She never said so but it showed in the quirk of her lips whenever a teacher gushed over him and the confidence in her step when she walks into his crowd, knowing that a look from Sam would make any of them back off.
He guesses it's a good thing she's closer to him than Jessica. It means she'll stick up for him even if it's a lie.
He hears her in the library with the blonde she's tutoring. "Come on, Jess. If you like him, you should go for it."
"I don't know. I've heard some rumors."
Rebecca sighed. "Look, Sam did fall into the wrong crowd. It didn't change him into anything dangerous. He's just a good guy with bad friends."
Sam asks Jessica out the next day. She says yes. Rebecca comes by the next night. She wants help studying and Sam stays up with her until two in the morning without complaint.
A new crowd comes with Jess. Sam doesn't attempt a takeover. This is the 'right crowd' and their thought process is completely beyond his comprehension.
Then, Jess dies. Then, their father dies. Then, Dean tells him the secret and he's afraid. Dean's afraid his brother will 'fall into' the wrong crowd. Whatever angelic little brother Dean sees, Sam knows, in reality, he is the 'wrong crowd'.
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