MONDAY

Sam took my hand when he got off the bus, as usual. Dean and another boy got off the bus one right after the other, and Dean said to him, "We'll see you in a little while." The other boy walked in the opposite direction, and Dean turned to me and said, "Hey." I felt happy that he was acknowledging me now.

The boys did their homework, and then we walked down to The Circle. I had forgotten to bring my book, so I sat on the curb and watched as the boys threw the football.

"Hey Kate, come play, we need another person." called Jake, one of the other teen boys.

"Uh, no thanks, I don't know anything about football." I said.

"We're not playing the actual game, we're just throwing it. C'mon, we need you on our side."

"Fine." I stood up. "But I warn you, I'm a klutz."

I tried to pay attention, but I was actually a little scared of the ball, so when I came towards me, I backed away from it. As it turns out I had reason to be afraid, because the ball ended up hitting me right in the face.

"OUCH!" I said loudly, bending over. My eyes teared up from the pain in my nose. The boys came over to me quickly, and when I stood up, Sam's eyes got wide.

"Your nose is bleeding!" he told me.

I put my hand up to my nose and it came away bloody.

"Wow, I've never had a nosebleed before." I said.

"Lemme run into my house and grab some ice." said Tim, another neighborhood boy.

Dean and Jake both took my arms and led me over to the curb.

"Sit down here." Jake said. "Man, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to throw it that hard."

"Pinch your nose." Dean told me. Sam sat down on the ground in front of me and Dean sat next to me.

"Are you okay, Kate?" Sam asked worriedly, watching me closely.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I reassured him.

Tim came over with a wad of paper towels and a plastic baggie of ice.

"Here's some paper towels." he said. "Pinch your nose and once the bleeding is stopped, put the ice on it."

I sat for a couple of minutes until the bleeding had stopped. The boys stood around me and chatted about school sports.

"We should probably go back to your house." I said, looking at Dean.

"Okay." he said. 'C'mon, Sam."

We stood up and Dean said, "See you guys tomorrow."

"Sorry Kate." Jake said again.

"That's okay." I said ruefully. "I told you I was a klutz."

Sam held my hand as we walked and Dean kept glancing up at me. We got back to their house just as their father's car pulled up the the curb. He came in right after us.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We were playing football and Kate got hit in the face. " Dean said.

"Oh geez." Mr. Winchester said. "Let me look at it."

I took the ice off my face and he leaned down and looked at me.

"I don't think your nose is broken." he said. "Putting ice on it right away was a good idea. Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said.

Sam jumped up on his Dad and hugged him.

Mr. Winchester took something out of his pocket as he held Sam on his hip. "Here, I wanted to give you a house key." he said. "Just in case Dean forgets his, which has been known to happen."

"Thank you." I said, feeling flattered. That made me feel like he trusted me.

TUESDAY

We were walking down the The Circle when Jake came over to us. "Jimmy found a huge black snake at the stream. Want to come see it?"

"Uh, I thought the stream was off limits to kids." Dean said.

"I won't tell if you don't." said Jake.

"I want to see the snake!" Sam said. "Pleeeease, Dean?" He looked up at me. "Kate, can we?"

Dean looked at me seriously. "We can't tell Dad." he said. "We'll go for just a minute."

The stream ran behind the houses on my street and the area at the end of the stream was known to be a hangout place for teens to party. There was a lot of trash and junk there. It was an unspoken rule in the neighborhood that younger kids really weren't supposed to go.

I felt a little worried. Maybe I should say something? Sam took my hand and looked up at me. "I've never seen a real live black snake before!" he said excitedly.

"We need to be careful." I told him. We followed Jake, his sister, and a couple other kids through the yards and walked along the dirt at the side of the stream.

"It's low right now because we haven't had a lot of rain." Jake said. "Don't slip in the mud." We stopped at a place where the water was like a shallow puddle and the dirt around it had turned to viscous mud mixed with sand. Jimmy brought the snake over, carrying it on a stick, and dropped it on the ground.

"Don't worry, it's dead." he said. The kids bent over it, oohing and aahing. It was probably about 4 feet long.

"Dean, Sam, let's go." I said, nervously. I had no idea how long we had been there. We walked back to their house and went into the living room. Dean turned on the tv and we sat down to watch. We heard the car pull in and the kitchen door opened, and then Mr. Winchester called, "Who tracked mud into the house?" in his deep voice.

Oh, crap, I said to myself. I didn't think to look at our shoes. He came into the living room and stood there looking at us.

"Well, I can tell by the guilty looks on all three of your faces that something happened. Who wants to tell me about it?" He put his hands on his hips. Nobody said anything for a long moment.

"Do I need to start spanking butts? Boys, report!" he barked. Both boys stood up. I wondered if I should too. Slowly, I stood up next to Sam. I felt just as scared as they did. I should have told the boys no, and they were my responsibility.

"Um, Jake told us that Jimmy found a black snake at the stream, so...we went to look at it." Dean said, looking at the floor. He traced the pattern in the rug with the toe of his shoe.

Mr. Winchester folded his arms and stared at all three of us. I couldn't meet his eyes.

"You went down to the stream?" he asked tightly.

"Yes sir." Dean and Sam said together. Sam took my hand.

"Boys, you know that you are not allowed to go there!" His voice deepened with anger.

"Dad, it was a real black snake and it was really really long!" Sam said.

"Samuel, I don't care if there was a real live dinosaur there. You broke a rule." Mr. Winchester shifted his attention to me. "And you just allowed them to do this and went along with it? Do your parents let you go to the stream?"

I felt like curling up into a ball under his intense gaze.

I cleared my throat. "No, sir, they don't." I glanced up at him.

"Well Kate, I have to say I'm disappointed. You made a bad judgment call in allowing the boys to go to the stream. You know all the trash that's down there. What if one of the boys had fallen on a broken bottle?"

Tears came to my eyes. "I'm sorry sir, you're right, I should have said no." I swallowed nervously, scared about what he would say to my question. "Are you going to fire me?" A tear trickled down my cheek and I wiped it away quickly, hoping no one had noticed.

He sighed heavily. "No, I'm not." He looked at the boys. "You are grounded to the house for the rest of the week, no playing outside after school." He pointed at me. "That goes for you too, young lady."

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Winchester. It won't happen again." I said quickly.

"You can go now. I need to have a- discussion- with the boys about breaking rules."

"O-okay. Bye, boys. See you tomorrow."

WEDNESDAY

The next day when I picked them up, I said, "Sorry about yesterday. I should have checked our shoes to make sure they weren't muddy."

"Well, we're the ones that wanted to go." Dean said. "You just went along with us."

"Yeah, but I'm your babysitter and I'm supposed to be the one in charge."

Sam asked me, "Did you get in trouble? Me and Dean got spanked."

"No, I didn't."

"You didn't get into any trouble?" Sam was outraged. "That's not fair!"

"My parents didn't get home until late, so I didn't even see them last night." I told him. "I don't think they'd care about something like that anyway."

"Maybe Daddy should have spanked you too!" Sam said. "Then it would be fair."

"Sorry, Sam." I said.

They were eating their snack when someone knocked on the door. It was one of the kids from the neighborhood.

"Can Dean come out to play football?" he asked.

"Um, actually, no. They got grounded yesterday because we went to the stream. They can't go out until next week." I told him.

"Oh, okay. See ya." he turned and walked away.

I went back to the kitchen table. "Sorry, guys." I told them.

Dean shrugged. " S' okay. We can watch cartoons."

We went into the living room after they had eaten, and Sam curled up next to me on the sofa as usual. Dean sat on the other side of me this time, instead of next to Sam like he usually did, and at one point he actually started leaning on my side a little bit. I didn't move or say anything, but it made me think that Dean was actually starting to like me a little bit.

THURSDAY

The boys were excited when they got off the bus.

"Guess what, Kate! We're going camping with Daddy this weekend!" Sam hopped up and down with excitement as we walked.

"That's neat. Do you like camping?" I asked them.

"Yeah, it's fun!" Sam said. "Daddy makes s'mores for us, and we can eat as many as we want!"

"Our Dad teaches us about hunting stuff too." Dean said. "He got a bow for us and he's going to teach me how to use it this weekend."

"That sounds interesting." I said.

"Do you like camping, Kate?" Sam asked me. We walked into the house.

"I've never been."

"You've never been camping?" Sam said incredulously.

"My parents aren't exactly the camping type." I told him. "Too many bugs and not enough civilization. If my father was away from his phone or newpaper for more than a day, I think he'd lose his mind. Besides, he's too busy with his career to do something like that."

Dean looked at me. "That's too bad." he said. "Camping is great. Dad teaches us a lot of stuff when we go."

"I'm glad you get to spend time like that with him." I said.

When Mr. Winchester came home, he told me that I didn't have to babysit them tomorrow, because they were leaving from school early to go camping. He gave me a roll of money and thanked me.

"We'll see you Monday." he said.

"Have fun, you guys." I said.

Sam came over to me. He hugged me two times. "I need to give you two hugs because I won't see you tomorrow!" he said.

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