Disclaimer: Not mine at all, Sam, and the rest of the SN gang belong to the TV people.
A/N Thanks so much to Liz (starzskymoon) for taking the time to beta this for me. Any mistakes are mine as I did do a bit of tweaking afterward.
I have had this idea brewing all summer and finally was able to sit down and write it. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. AM
"Winchester, keep your dirty boots off my side of the room. I just cleaned 'cause my partner from Poly Sci is coming to study."
"I can't help the mud, the door's on your side of the room. Wait, you cleaned up to study? What's her name?"
"Hey! hands off. She's mine. You'll have to find your own girl. And I would appreciate it if you would make yourself scarce in about ten minutes. I don't want you distracting from my charm."
"Charm," Sam snorted. "Right. Don't worry; I'm heading out in five."
"I don't need to steal your girls anyway," Sam added under his breath with a secret smile.
"Man, tell me again how you ended up with a work study job planting trees and stuff?" his roommate asked. "A shovel and dirt hole is a long way from pre-law."
"That's just the job available I had the most experience for." Sam replied.
Yeah, experience…
Earlier that fall
"So, Mr. Winchester," the staff advisor began.
"Call me Sam."
"Okay, Sam. A condition of your scholarship is that you have fifteen hours a week work study. Each semester there are a variety of jobs available. Many of them are food services, custodial, and other support positions on campus. There are also a few jobs that are related to specific majors. Your declared major is still pre-law, correct?"
"Yessir. I don't have any previous law experience so if there is a job where I could gain some that would be perfect!"
"Unfortunately, Sam, all of the law related work study spots have been taken. It is a little late to be arranging this. Therefore, your choices are limited. Maybe next year we can arrange something.
Also, you do not have any prior experience from a part time job. You must have focused more on your studies in high school. Here's a list of the jobs still available. Look them over and see what might match your skills."
Washing dishes in the cafeteria – I've done dishes of course. Suppose I could do that.
Custodial – vacuuming, collecting trash, etc… haven't really done that before, never had a vacuum, but also not that hard to do.
Admissions – filing… could do that too.
Grounds keeping – tree planting (ability to do physical tasks, outdoor work/shovel experience helpful)… Hum, wonder if digging up graves would count as experience?
"Sir, like you said, I haven't had any part time jobs to provide experience, but I do know how to use a shovel. Grounds keeping is probably the one I'm most qualified for."
"Oh? Does your family do a lot of gardening?"
"Um, uh… not exactly…" Sam stammered nervously. Coming up with reasonable explanations for life as a Winchester often got interesting. "See… um, I had this uncle who's a pastor. He sometimes gave me spending money if I'd help dig a hole in the cemetery before a funeral. Sometimes they didn't have access to the big equipment usually used." It was sorta true, although, the part about there already being a body in the grave was definitely best to leave out.
"Huh, that's a new one for me; it would definitely qualify as experience. I'll give you the contact information for the ground's supervisor and you can get it all worked out with him. Unless you need to talk to me in the meantime, I'll see you sometime before winter break so we can get your spring semester schedule arranged."
"Thank you sir. I'll be sure to arrange it soon."
Several weeks into fall semester
The freshman comp. class was full. They always are. Everyone had to take the class, whether they wanted to or not. However, there was a group of girls talking animatedly in the back corner who would make it that much more difficult to listen to the teacher. Sam was curious what the hot topic was. He caught snatches of conversation as he walked by, but couldn't quite hear what they were saying.
"What about the guy in the corner on the other side? He's cute. Looks like he was a football player in high school or something," said a girl who looked like she was a cheerleader.
"Nah, too much of a jock," a pretty, tall, blond girl retorted. "How 'bout that guy sitting a few rows in front of us? Very nice. Oh, wait..." she whispered as he stood up, "he's kinda short. I'm way too tall for a guy like that. We would look silly together."
"How about that guy that just walked by? He's got to be tall enough for you... kinda geeky and skinny though. And he's going for a seat in the front. Probably would want to study all the time and wouldn't be any fun, you can definitely have him," the cheerleader responded.
"No, he's actually cute. I sorta like the slightly studious look. There's something to be said for brains."
A few days later
The same two girls from freshman comp. class were walking to the dining hall near their dorm for an early supper when the cheerleader stopped and stared. "Wow, would you look at that hunk planting trees. He's built!"
The tall blonde laughed, "You do realize that's the guy you thought was too much of a geek for you in comp. the other day. Since you said I can have him I think I'll have to go introduce myself."
She purposefully strutted toward the guy and did… just that. "Hi, my name is Jessica. I recognized you from my comp. class and thought I'd introduce myself."
"Oh, hi. I'm Sam, Sam Winchester." He stuttered out.
Gaining his composure he continued. "Yeah, you do look familiar; I must have seen you in class. Maybe we could get together sometime to work on our papers for next week. Bounce ideas off one another or something."
"Yeah, I'd like that."
and the rest is history