As Mrs. Hartford hurried down the hall to the principals office she tried to convince herself that it was all just a big misunderstanding and that Sam truly was fine. As lost in her thoughts as she was she didn't notice when she ran into Mr. Shepherd, who coincidentally, was the very person she was looking for.
"Oh! Principle Shepherd I'm so sorry! But I'm glad your here, I wanted to talk to you about a student I think may be in an abusive situation."
" Abuse! Mrs. Hartford that is a very heavy accusation. Are you sure that you have enough evidence, or that you even have all your facts straight?"
"Well sir, its Sam Winchester we're talking about, and I'm sure you remember the concerns I expressed to you about him before? I mean, he's only been in this school for two weeks and already he has been sent to the nurses office 3 times...he's always passed it off as injuries from gym but this time the bruises can't be explained with sports."
Mrs. Hartford looked earnestly up at Mr. Shepherd, and as she spoke, the principal could feel her compassion for her students through every word. He shook his head in sadness at the prospect that such a young child should have to face abuse.
"Mr. Shepherd" Mrs. Hartford began " I think that we should take care of the problem immediately, and call Mr. Winchester right now-" " Actually" Mr. Shepherd cut her off " I believe that a problem of this magnitude should be taken care of in person. Lets go to the office to find out Mr. Winchesters place of employment."
nodded her head in total agreement, glad that her concerns were being taken care of so seriously.
With that the two educators took of in the direction of the office. When they arrived there Mr. Shepherd had Mr. Woo the secretary look up where John Winchester could be contacted during the day.
As he pulled into the parking lot of the only motel in town he looked around in distaste. This is where the two Winchester boys had been staying for three weeks? The building was dingy gray smudged with dirty brown patches near the bottom, and the roof crumbling, completely missing shingles in spots. It was very obviously no place for children and yet two boys not even out of grade school were forced to inhabit this rat infested dump. Mr. Shepherd could clearly see now why the Winchesters wore only second hand, ill-fitting clothes, obviously they were poor as dirt. A father who let his kids live in such conditions could only be a complete loser. Instead of working he was listed as unemployed in the school records and when they looked to see where he could be contacted during the day they were directed to this dive. The elderly principle could only hope that John Winchester was merely a lazy loser instead of an abusive one, that he didn't take his frustrations about such a crap life out on his children. Unfortunately, based on the injuries cataloged all over young Sam Winchester, the likely hood of that was slim.
As gathered his thoughts he walked up to room #12 and knocked loudly. Several seconds passed and the principle could hear no movement from inside the room. Irritated, he knocked again, just a bit louder. Still, no one came to answer the door. Determined to get to the bottom of the situation and not about to let a man who was probably passed out drunk stop him the principle walked over to the motel lobby and asked the man at the counter whether he knew if was in his room or not, and could he perhaps open the door too room #12 as had a very important matter to discuss with .
The motel clerk looked up at him, surprised and a little annoyed at being ordered around. "Now look here mister, I don't know who you are but I ain't gonna here you out if ya don't give ma a little respect, ya here? Besides I haven't seen that old bastard Winchester for at least a week. He peeled outta here last Monday like a batt outta hell. I didn't see those two boys with him either but he paid for the room for two weeks so it ain't nonna my business whether he's there or not."
stood looking flabbergasted at the motel clerk as his brain processed what he was just told. John Winchester hadn't been around for at least a week? The Winchester boys, both just children had been living alone in this dump for at least a week, by themselves, completely unsupervised? The old man suddenly went into a flurry of activity. He jerked up from where he had slouched over when he was thinking and he demanded to be given the phone. The motel clerk was a little weary about giving the phone to this complete stranger who looked to be a little unscrewed but he did as he was told and lifted the phone out from under the table. took the phone quickly with a grateful nod and began to dial the school number. "Mrs. Hartford," he said into the phone "it's much worse than we thought. I need you to call Child protection services immediately."