A/N: Congratulations to mew for reviewing first, so the cookies go to you! But, my love and thanks goes out to twilite, P.L. Wynter, Spectral Scribe, Aira Silver (I love how you ask questions!), ChaiGrl, Ghostwriter, Dyrne-Faemne, KatieMalfoy19, SVOC Luva, and SupernaturalGurl for reviewing too! Keep on reviewing and I keep on updating!

Chapter Three:

Ella

"I'm telling you, man, there was something not natural about that janitor," Dean huffed.

Sam rolled his eyes. "There's something not natural about you, but I'm not saying anything."

The older Winchester decided to ignore his little brother's comment and chose instead to raise his binoculars. La Jolla High had gotten out of school fifteen minutes ago, but he had yet to spot Sam's mystery dream girl come out.

"Maybe she plays a sport," Sam suggested.

Dean dearly would have loved to have said maybe you should shut up, but he refrained for the sake of getting along with Sam since God only knew how long this stupid stake out in the front parking lot was going to last. But, there was only so much of Sam's clear dismissal of the disappearing janitor he could take.

"Look—we're obviously here for some supernatural reason," reasoned Dean. "Why else would we be here?"

"But, that doesn't make everyone a demon, Dean," Sam replied.

"I never said the guy was a demon. I just said there was something unnatural about him!" Dean snapped.

They had been bickering about this since the lunch period was over. Dean was adamant that there was something creepy about the janitor who grabbed mystery girl's arm, but Sam was just as adamant that there was a logical explanation for it. But, even Sam was having difficulty coming up with an acceptable way that the man could have disappeared that fast.

"There she is."

Dean looked up. Sure enough, a pretty blonde girl in a baby blue shirt was hurrying through the front gates of La Jolla High School. Her bag swung loosely at her side and a cell phone was pressed against her ear. She stopped walking and seemed to be concentrating on what the person on the other line was saying. Then she erupted into giggles. Dean sighed. God, teenagers were so predictable.

"How are we supposed to talk to her?" Sam asked, studying her from afar.

"Watch the master work, Sammy boy," grinned Dean.

Sam hissed in protest, but Dean paid no attention. In his usual confident swagger, he headed straight for the girl, who had turned left and was making her way toward the student parking lot.

"Excuse me!" he called, once he was sure she could hear him.

The girl kept walking as if she hadn't heard him. Dean rolled his eyes, annoyed. That was something Sammy would do.

"Excuse me!" When there was still no response, Dean grit his teeth in annoyance before yelling, "Hey, Ella!"

"Yes?"

Dean was so shocked that she actually turned around he barely managed to stop walking before he crashed into her. Wide dark eyes appraised him up and down slowly. They were almost calculating, as if trying to sense whether or not she would be able to trust him.

"Your name is Ella?"

She cocked her head at him before offering him a small smile. "Well, actually, it's Gabriella Rowley, but when I was little I liked Ella more than Gabby as a nickname."

Gabriella. That explains a lot.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Ella asked suddenly.

She was smiling slightly at Dean, half of her face trying to be polite, but the half very questioning. It was the same look people gave Sam and Dean when they were victims of supernatural, or friends of victims. It was a face Dean had a seen a lot in his twenty-six years of living.

"I saw a man grab you today at lunch," Dean blurted out, "and—I wanted to ask you if you were okay."

Smooth.

Ella's eyebrows shot up so high they nearly disappeared beneath her bangs. For a brief moment Dean thought she was going to burst out laughing, but instead she retorted:

"My regular knight in shining armor, are you?"

And success.

"You'd be surprised," Dean smirked. It was so easy to get a girl's attention when you're being chivalrous.

Ella laughed, a pretty sound like bells twinkling. "Okay hot shot, what do you really want? You obviously are not in high school, but you're way too old to be interested in me, so what do you want?"

Damn, she's smart.

"The truth?" said Dean, the wheels in his mind turned furiously to think of a cover. "The truth is that me and my brother are new to La Jolla, and we were kind of looking for a tour guide."

Whatever Ella was expecting him to say that was certainly not it. Her eyes grew even rounder, if that was at all possible, and her smile slowly melted off her face. But, to give the girl credit, she did not look mistrusting or afraid, merely properly quizzical. Her eyes slowly appraised Dean again, giving him the impression that she was reading his mind.

"You're not going to turn out to be some sort of psychotic lunatic if I agree to show you my favorite coffee house, are you?" Ella asked slowly.

"Well, since you're taking us to a very public place, I'd say I'm going to have to lay off the psychotic lunacy for the time being."

She laughed again and shook her head. "Oh, God, what have I gotten myself into?" she asked dramatically.

Sam had to hand it to his older brother. If it weren't for the fact that he was so charming with the ladies (and Sam hated to admit this even to himself), Ella never would have agreed to take them all out for coffee. But, it probably helped that they could all walk there, thus she didn't have to get into the Impala, and the café was extremely crowded.

"It's really popular with the locals, which makes the tourists love it too," she explained, twirling a spoon inside her latte.

The little place was very sea worthy. Nets decorated with starfish and sand dollars covered the walls. There was also a Hall of Fame filled with pictures of celebrities like Kristen Kreuk, Alexis Bledel, Matt Damon, and Oprah to name a few. Several squishy armchairs lined the walls, and that's where the three were now sitting out of the way of the door.

"So have you lived in La Jolla your whole life?" Sam asked her.

Ella shook her head. "Nope. My mom and I lived in Fresno. Then she met her second husband and we moved to Santa Rosa up by the Bay area. But, after she died, my step-dad wanted a change of scenery. I've lived here about two years."

She blew air on her hot drink while Dean and Sam exchanged quick glances. Dean kicked Sam under the table.

"I'm sorry," he said sympathetically. "How did she die?"

Ella gave Sam her calculating look. After a moment's hesitation she said, "We didn't know our house had faulty wiring. We didn't have smoke detectors. My step-dad was on business. It happened late at night. I ran out, and I thought my mom was right behind me, but she wasn't." Ella's eyes suddenly grew over bright. It reminded Sam of what happened to his dad every time he mentioned how Mary Winchester had died. "Sorry, I don't usually like talking about my mom's death."

"I understand," Dean said softly.

"But—it's just that…" Ella trailed off helplessly.

"Just what?" encouraged Sam.

Ella looked at the two brothers, and she continued in a low tone. "We had lived in that house for seven years. Seven years and no electrician ever said we had bad wiring. My step-dad, however," Ella laughed bitterly, "he swore it must have been some new problem the storm the week before caused when we got power failure."

Dean took in the bitterness of her voice and the way Ella's hands gripped the edge of the table so her knuckles turned white. It wasn't hard to put two-and-two together with her, just like it wasn't hard with Sammy.

"You don't get along with your step-dad very well, do you?" Dean asked.

"If my real dad had ever shown his face I would be living with him right now—not my egotistical, selfish, arrogant, bastard of a step-father," growled Ella.

Sam found that interesting. "You never met your biological father?"

Ella nodded. "My mom never liked talking about him. I think he broke her heart when he left. Whether he's dead or alive—I don't even know that much."

She sighed and checked her watch. "Well, it was nice meeting you guys, but I've got to run."

Sirens and alarms started ringing in Dean's head. "What? Why?" he asked quickly. A little too quickly.

"I have play rehearsal at five. And if I'm late my drama teacher will kill me because we're doing Rent and I'm in the first scene," she replied. Ella threw her bag over her shoulder. "But, I'll see you around."

She turned on her foot and left without another word. Dean and Sam stared at each other. Each was trying to make out who exactly this young girl was. One minute she was a happy-go-lucky teenager and the next she was a wise old soul who barely had anyone to call her family. Dean felt drawn to her; the way he felt when he saw Sam in trouble. He felt like he knew he should do something, but he didn't even know what that something was. He had only known her an hour and a half.

"Should we follow her?" Sam interrupted his thoughts.

Dean hesitated. "I don't think so. We'll find her again tomorrow and find out where she lives so we can keep an eye on her."

"Shouldn't we be looking for something paranormal that's centering around her?" asked Sam, surprised at his brother's hesitance to dive in deeper with Ella Rowley.

"Until we know what your dream signifies and why Dad sent us here—no. Our job right now is to watch her. Knowing us, Sammy, we're bound to attract some sort of trouble eventually."

Or maybe a little sooner than they think.

A/N: This time it's a chocolate chip cookie to the first reviewer! )