A few days had passed and things had pretty much went back to normal for the members of the Winchester household. The incident with the milk was never mentioned again, because no one was willing to bring it up. It was put aside and almost forgotten, with no one bringing that day up again. Mary and John's relationship also went back to it's previous state, with them fighting a bit about the way the boys were being raised, but not so much that they couldn't bear to be around each other.
Meanwhile Dean had been studying hard for his math test. He really wanted to do well on this test, to pull his grade up from that C he had gotten on his last report card. In regards to school, Dean wasn't like Sammy at all. For Sam, A's came easy, even though he never spent more than twenty minutes on homework each night. Granted, Sammy was only in fifth grade, but still- Dean had never gotten all A's, even at Sam's age. Dean had to try twice as hard to get grades that were half as good as Sam's. And although Mary constantly reminded her eldest that everyone learned things differently and that his grades weren't an accurate reflection on how smart he was, Dean still wanted to impress his mother by getting a good grade in math, his hardest subject. He wanted her to congratulate him on a perfect report card, like she did Sammy.
Dean sat at his desk, early one evening, studying for his test. All of a sudden, the numbers on his calculator started flickering on and off, disappearing and then reappearing back again. Dean tried pressing the "clear" button a couple of times, but all that did was turn the calculator off completely.
Great, Dean thought to himself. Just great. I guess it's out of batteries.
"Mom!" Dean called. "Mom!"
When he received no answer, Dean went downstairs into the kitchen to find Sammy opening the door to the refrigerator.
"Hey Sam," Dean looked at his little brother, who was helping himself to a chunk of cheese. "Where's Mom?"
"She went to the store to buy groceries and to drop something off at the post office. She'll be back in about thirty to forty minutes."
"What? She's not here?"
"I think that's what I meant when I said that she left to buy groceries," Sam smiled his cheeky grin.
"Don't be a smartass, Sam," Dean gave him a look. "I need to know where Mom keeps the spare batteries."
"I don't know," Sam shrugged.
"Well I need them now because I'm right in the middle of studying for my test!"
"OK, Deanie, I'll help you look," Sam replied.
"Don't call me Deanie," Dean said, but agreed to let Sam help him look for the extra batteries in the kitchen.
The boys searched in all the kitchen counters, but didn't find the batteries that Dean needed.
"Maybe Dad has some in his office," Dean decided, after the boys had looked through all the counters.
"You're not supposed to touch his stuff, Dean," Sam said wisely.
"I know, but if I take them and use them for now, how will he ever know? And then when Mom comes back I'll ask her for new batteries and put the old ones back where they came from. Dad'll never know."
"I don't know, Dean..." Sam said, but Dean was already running up the stairs, so Sammy quickly followed him.
"Dean, Dad says that he never wants to see us in his office," Sam said, standing by the door of John's office while Dean went in. "He'll get really mad if he finds out we were in here."
"He won't find out," Dean said, looking through John's drawers. "Ah, look batteries!" Dean pulled out two double A Energizers.
"Dean, what if Dad finds out you took them? He'll kill you."
"Sam, you worry too much. I'll put them back real soon."
"OK," Sam finally agreed, coming into the room. "But don't forget."
"I won't... Hey!" Dean said, pointing at a stack of papers on John's desk. The sheet of paper on top of the pile had Dean's name written on it. "What's that?"
"What are you pointing at?" Sam asked.
"That," Dean turned around to show Sam what he was talking about. However, as he turned around, he accidentally knocked over the stack of a souvenir glass that was standing on one of the shelves of John's desk with his elbow. The glass hit the base of John's chair and cracked in two big pieces and many other little ones.
"Shit!" Dean cried out. "Oh no!"
"Dean!" Sam looked up in horror. "That was Dad's!"
"I know, Sam!" Dean snapped. "Here, I'll just clean it up."
Dean started picking up the pieces quickly. In his hurry, he picked up a piece by the wrong side, cutting his hand.
"Ow!" he cried out in pain.
"You OK, Dean?" Sam asked worriedly.
"I'm fine, let's just get this cleaned up!" The boys picked up the pieces, Dean put the Energizers back into their cupboard and they ran out of the office. Once back in the kitchen, they quickly threw the pieces of broken glass into the garbage and threw a couple of paper towels on top of that, so that no one would come across the glass in the garbage bin. Only then did Dean run his hand under cold water, trying desperately to stop the bleeding.
"Dean?" Sammy finally broke the silence. "I'm scared."
"What are you scared of, Sammy? You didn't do anything."
"Well, what's Dad going to do to you?"
"I'm kind of hoping that he never finds out. After all, he has a lot of stuff on those shelves. I doubt he'll notice that one glass. I mean he might notice eventually, but probably not today." In reality, Dean was just as scared as Sam was, he just didn't want to let Sam know that John's reaction still frightened him.
"Still, Dean, if he does..." but Sam was stopped with the sound of the front door opening and Mary coming into the house.
"Hi boys," she said. "Can you help me with those grocery bags, please?"
"Sure," Dean said after about thirty seconds of silence. "Come on, Sam."
"Did something happen?" Mary looked from Dean to Sam, who were both looking down at the floor. "You both look kind of funny."
"No, Mom, everything's fine," Dean replied and Sam nodded.
"Well, OK... Dean you're bleeding!" Mary exclaimed, noticing Dean's hand.
"Oh, yeah, that."
"Dean, what happened while I was gone?" Mary said, giving her son one of her Mom looks.
"Um, Dean and I were playing outside and he slipped and fell, breaking the fall with his hand," Sam said, thinking fast.
"Yeah, that's what happened," Dean nodded quickly. "We were playing tag in the backyard and I tripped."
"You tripped on the grass? Sounds to me like something isn't quite adding up here," Mary said. "But oh well. Maybe you'll tell me what really happened later. Come here, Dean, I'll bandage and sanitize your hand."
Dean sat down across from Mary in a kitchen chair, while Mary opened the first aid kid and started wiping Dean's cut with antiseptic, while Sam sat watching the whole procedure. "Sh, honey, I'm almost done," Mary said, when she saw Dean wince. She quickly wrapped a bandage around Dean's cut. "There, all done," she smiled.
At that moment, the front door opened again and John came in. "Hey," he said, taking no notice of the first aid kit lying on the kitchen table. "I'm going to go change and then I'll come down for dinner."
"Alright," Mary said and John headed upstairs.
John had merely been downstairs for ten minutes when he came rushing back, with an angry look.
"Alright, boys!" he raised his voice dramatically. "Who has been touching things in my office?"
"I-I don't know what you're talking about, sir," Dean said, looking away from his father.
"Oh yeah? Then what about the messed up papers, the blood on the floor and the bits of broken glass. Was that you, Sam? Because I swear I'll-."
"Sam had nothing to do with it," Dean imposed, sighing as he spoke. "It was my fault, Dad."