It felt like I had been walking for hours. The sun filtering through the leaves overhead was getting lower, so I knew that it was later in the afternoon. I was keeping the panic barely held at bay, because I knew if I panicked it wouldn't do me much good.
I tried to look at the trees around me and remember what they looked like so I could try and figure out if I was walking in circles, but they all looked the same to me. And if I didn't look down and watch where I was walking, I caught my feet in a vine or stumbled over a root. I looked for some sort of path, any path, but I must have been so deep in the woods that there was nothing.
I stopped for a moment and sat down on a large log. I brushed my sweaty hair back from my face with a shaking hand. I was hungry, and thirsty, and scared. Dad had said he would always find me, but he didn't know these woods at all. How could he find me?
I worried about the boys. How had Sam managed to disappear so quickly? I hoped he hadn't fallen and hurt himself. We were going to be in trouble for leaving the house and not telling anyone where we had gone. I was going to be in trouble, because I was supposed to be responsible for all three of us and I let them go running off. I swallowed nervously- my butt was still a little sore from the belt, would Dad spank me with it again? Was running off into the woods considered putting yourself in danger? Tears came to my eyes and I wiped them away quickly.
I took a deep breath and stood up, deciding to keep walking. My stomach rumbled with hunger as I walked. I tripped on another tree root, and I put my hand out to grab a branch as I started to fall, but it moved, and then I felt a sharp pain across my back and heard a ripping sound. After I stood up, I reached around and felt my back where it was hurting. My fingers came away bloody. Great, so now I had a cut on my back from a branch. At this point, I was starting to really dislike the woods. Was it possible to become a hunter who didn't have to go into the woods at all? Maybe I could just hunt creatures that lived in cities and towns and not have to go into the forest at all.
I thought I heard someone calling. I stood still and held my breath.
"Hellooooo!" Someone yelled from a distance. "Kate! Kate Winchester, are you there! Kate!"
"Yes!" I yelled back. "I'm here! I'm over here!"
I diodn't know whethere to try and run toward the voice or not. He must have read my mind.
"Stay where you are and I'll come to you! Keep calling to me!" the man yelled.
"Okay!" I called. "I'm here! There's a large tree with fluffy vines around it on my right!" I looked around. "And a big tangled bush to my left! I'm here!"
In a couple of minutes, I heard someone walking through the leaves. I saw the man coming towards me, and I started crying with relief. I ran over to him. He was tall and had brown shaggy hair and a leather vest over his shirt.
"You Kate?" he asked me.
"Yes!" I said, trying not to sob.
He looked at me. "You look like you been through the wringer!" he touched my sleeve. While I had been pulling a branch back to walk under a spiderweb, my sleeve had gotten caught and ripped a little.
"I fell down a couple times and my shirt kept getting caught on branches." I told him.
"Let's get ya to my truck," he said. "Name's Darrell."
"Nice to meet you." I said. "Wait, we have to find my brothers. Two little boys, Sam and Dean- we can't leave without them!"
"They been found already." he told me. "You're the last one they're lookin' for."
"Oh," I said, feeling relief wash over me. "Are they okay?" I asked him.
"Far as I know," he replied, turning away from me.
I followed him through the woods, and a couple of times he stopped and held out his arm for me to take, to steady me as we stepped over large fallen logs.
Finally we reached a clearing, where there was an old beat up truck off to the side.
Darrell pulled out a cell phone and made a call. "Hey, Murphy...I got her. Off of route 104, almost 2 miles from the church." he chuckled. "Yeah. She's okay, a little banged up. All right, see you in a few."
He put the phone in his pocket and opened the passenger door for me. I got in and closed it. He got into the driver's side and reached down to open a cooler that was at my feet, and handed me a bottle of water.
"You're probably dyin' of thirst.' he said. "It was a hot one today, and from the looks of ya, you were sweatin' a lot too."
"Thank you." I said. "Where- where are we?"
He started the truck, and chuckled again. "We're almost two miles away from Jim's church. You know where that is?"
"Yes, we're staying with Pastor Jim right now." I said.
He nodded. "And his house is right behind the church, ain't it?"
"Yeah." I said. "Almost two miles! How did I manage that?"
He shook his head. "I dunno, kid. I don't think you've got a good sense of direction, do ya?"
"I guess not. Dad is going to teach me how to track and stuff...I'm not used to being in the woods."
"Oh." he glanced at me.
I realized that I was going to have to figure out some sort of story. If Dad was this great hunter, how would I explain that I wasn't like that? How would I explain not having any knowledge of the things he did? What if I tried to learn to hunt, and I couldn't do it? What if I always got lost in the woods? What would I do?
"Thank you for, uh, finding me." I said to him.
"No problem. Glad I was here to help."
We pulled into the parking lot of the church. People were milling around, and there were several cars parked off to the side.
"Jim got a bunch of people together to look for y'all," Darrell told me.
"That was nice of him." I said. I felt a little apprehensive but also grateful that the ordeal was over. People had turned to watch the truck when we drove in, and as I opened the door, the crowd parted and Dad came walking towards us. I got out of the truck and as I walked over to him Sam and Dean came around behind him.
"Kate!" Sam said.
I ran up to him and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. "How could you run off like that! Where did you go!" I yelled, and I burst into tears.
I let go of him and covered my face with my hands, embarrassed of my outburst and tears in front of everyone.
I felt arms circling me and opened my eyes. Dad was hugging me. I put my arms around him and rested my head on his broad chest.
"I'm so glad you're safe, Kate," he said. "It's all right," he said comfortingly as I sobbed.
"Dad I'm sorry! I—I told them we shouldn't go into the woods, and I was going to go tell Rosemary, but then Sam saw the rabbit, and he ran-"
He pulled back and looked down at me. "Shh," he said. "The boys told me what happened."
"Am I in trouble?" I asked warily.
He sighed. "Let's put it this way. You're all in trouble, but for different reasons, and the consequences will be different."
"Oh." I did feel reassured by that, but then I felt guilty too. "But- I went with them, and I should have stopped them, and went to tell-"
"Well, this is on them. They know better than to just run off into the woods like that, and they didn't listen to we know how stubborn Sam is." "
"O-okay." I said.
Dad let go of me and I turned towards the boys. They were both looking shame-faced at the ground. "Sorry, Kate," Dean said, and Sam chimed in, "Yeah, sorry Kate. We shouldn't have run off like that."
"I was so into tracking Sam that I didn't think about you not having a lot a 'sperience in the woods," Dean looked up at me. "I'm s'posed to watch out for you and Sammy."
"No, you're not, Dean," I told him. "I'm supposed to be the one watching out for you two."
"All three of you are supposed to be watching out for each other," Dad said. "Now, let's go home, and get you three cleaned up." He put his hand on my back, right where the cut was, and I winced.
"What's wrong, Kate?" Dad looked at me with concern.
"I- I got scraped by a branch." I told him.
"Turn around," he said. "I'm going to lift the back of your shirt to check, all right?"
I turned, and felt him lift my shirt up.
"I'll clean it up when we get to Jim's," he told me.
Pastor Jim came over to us. "Everyone has been found," he called to the crowd of people. "Thank you for coming out to help in the search, and that you to those of you who brought food and drink and supplies."
Everyone started to walk to their cars.
"I'm going to stay here until everyone is gone, I'll meet you at the house in a few," Pastor Jim said to Dad.
"We walked over," Dad said to me. "Let's go."
As we walked through the crowd, Sam took my hand. I could hear people talking.
"Those darn kids need to have their butts warmed," someone grumbled as we walked by. I blushed, embarrassed and guilty. All three of us went into the woods when we shouldn't have. I could have tried harder to stop them, I guess.
Dad ushered us into the kitchen and directed us to sit down. He poured three tall glasses of water and set them in front of us.
"I want you to drink," he told us. "I don't want you getting dehydrated. Are you hungry?"
"Starving," Dean said.
"Do you want a sandwich? I can make ham and cheese, or peanut butter and jelly, and we've also got turkey lunch meat."
The boys asked for ham and cheese.
"Kate?" Dad asked, looking at me.
"Uh, whatever you want to do," I said, shrugging.
"No, you tell me what you want." he smiled at me.
"Turkey with lettuce and mayo?" I asked.
"I think I can do that." he said.
In a couple of minutes, he brought the sandwiches over to us, and set out a bowl with baby carrots in it.
"Eat some vegetables too," he said.
"Aww, do I have to?" Dean complained.
"Yes, you do," Dad said sternly. "I want you to eat three."
"This sucks," Dean muttered, scowling.
"Watch your language, young man," Dad sounded even more stern. "You're already in enough trouble as it is, you want to add more to your spanking?"
Dean blushed, and looked up at Dad. "Uh, no sir."
"You forgot to cut the crusts off, Dad," Sam said dolefully.
"You can still eat it, Sam," Dad told him.
"Kate always remembers," Sam muttered. "and she cuts it into triangles."
"Samuel. No more complaining. Eat." Dad said. He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms.
"Do I even need to tell you how wrong you three were for running off into the woods like that? What were you thinking?"
Sam and Dean looked at each other. "We, uh, we were looking for caterpillars."
"All this trouble because you two went looking at bugs, and then you decided to go follow a wild animal." Dad shook his head. "I guess I have more to teach you about being responsible when you are tracking and walking through the woods."
"But Daaad-" Sam started.
"And you-" Dad looked at Sam, "Need to stop doing what you want on a whim, and start thinking about the repercussions of your actions."
"The what of my what?" Sam's brows creased in a frown.
"You need to think before you act, Sam. Think- 'if I run off after this rabbit, how likely is it that I'm going to get lost, or that the people I'm with will be able to keep up with me or get lost? Am I even supposed to be doing this?' You need to not run off and do whatever you want. This can't keep happening. If it does, I'm going to have to re-think what exactly you're allowed to do." Dad was looking at him sternly.
"No fair," Sam muttered darkly, frowning at his plate.
"Yes fair. You did the wrong thing, and you need to realize that when you do things like this, it's going to have long-reaching consequences as well as immediate ones."
Sam looked up at him. "What does that mean?"
"Well, the immediate consequence is that you're going to get a spanking. The long-reaching consequence is that I may decide that you aren't allowed to go outside at all unless an adult is with you."
"Noooo!" Sam whined. "I don't want a spankin'! An' I wanna be able to go outside by myself!"
Dad frowned at him. "That's another thing you should have thought of, then. 'If I run off into the woods after a rabbit, am I doing the right thing? What kind of trouble am I going to be getting into?'"
Pastor Jim came into the kitchen just then, carrying his first aid kit.
"Boys, do you have any injuries that need to be treated?" he asked.
They both said no.
"So I guess Kate is the only one who got hurt." he said.
"I don't think the forest likes me," I said. "I kept tripping over roots and getting caught on branches."
Dad chuckled. "You just need to learn how to be more aware of things when you're walking through the woods."
He turned and put away all of the sandwich supplies, and we finished eating.
"All right," Dad said, turning back to us. "Boys, you go up to your room and wait for me, and I'll deal with you in a few minutes. Kate, your consequence is going to be early bedtime for three nights, and no reading before bed."
The boys got up and trudged towards the stairs, heads down and shoulders sloping dejectedly.
"What?" I felt stunned. "No- no reading? But- but-"
"I didn't say no reading at all," Dad said. "Just not before bedtime."
Tears came to my eyes, even though I felt angry. "That- that's not fair!" I said hotly.
"Would you rather have the same consequence as the boys?" he asked dryly, and his hand dropped to his belt.
I gulped. "Uh- no, sir." I said.
"Then you will accept what I've given you." he said.
"Yes sir," I said meekly, looking down at my lap.
Dad turned, and took a wooden spoon out of a canister that was on the counter next to the stove, and followed the boys.
"Let me look at your back, Kate," Pastor Jim said.
I turned around and he lifted the back of my shirt.
"What happened here?" he asked.
"I was moving a branch out of the way, and another tree branch scraped across my back." I said. He opened his first aid kit.
"This is going to be cold and sting a little bit." he said. I felt him rubbing something along the cut, and I winced. Then I felt him applying something else. "You should shower tonight, you've got a lot of dirt all over," he said. "After your shower, we can apply some more ointment. All done." He lowered my shirt.
Just then a wail drifted down the stairs.
"Poor Sam," I said, biting my lip.
"Well, Sam knows how to get himself in trouble." Pastor Jim said. "He's always had his own mind, and always been stubborn. He and John are going to butt heads when he's older, mark my words."
"I- I feel guilty that they're getting spanked and I'm not," I said, ducking my head.
"Well, you did go into the woods with them, but your motivation was different. The boys just ran off half-cocked, much like you did at the hotel. They did something dangerous. You tried to stop them, and you went with them to keep an eye on them. And they certainly know better than to go running off into the woods chasing animals. So, like John said, your consequence is different."
"I still feel bad."
He smiled at me. "That's part of being in a family. There's going to be other times when one or both boys gets into trouble and gets punished, and it's not going to have anything to do with you. I had a younger brother who had such a mouth on him, he couldn't keep quiet to save his life, and always had to have the last word. It didn't matter how many times me and my brothers talked to him about keeping quiet, the kid couldn't stop, and he got his butt roasted more than any of us, because of it. But we knew it wasn't our responsibility. And he knew when to stop, he just didn't."
"Oh geez," I said. "What happened to him?"
"He's a very successful lawyer now," Pastor Jim grinned, shaking his head.
When Dad came in to say good nght to me, I was already laying down in bed. My arms were crossed in front of me and I felt wide awake. I had to go to bed at the same time as the boys, an hour earlier than I was used to.
Dad stood by the bed, looking down at me. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"I still think it's not fair that I can't read before bed."
"Well, that's your consequence."
"Well it sucks." I huffed.
He raised his eyebrows. "Watch it," he said warningly. "Jim told me you were feeling guilty because the boys got spanked and you didn't. Are you trying to push me so that I'll spank you too?"
"No!" I snapped, then I thought about it. "I don't know..." my eyes filled with tears suddenly. "I'm not used to this." I said.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled on my arms.I sat up and he hugged me. "Come here," he said. "I know you're not. It's going to take some time. And you can't take responsibility for everything the boys do. You're not going to have responsibility for them like you did."
"Why not?" I asked, sniffing my tears back.
"Because I want you to experience being a kid, not someone who is taking care of everyone else. We already talked about this some. You need to be just part of the family for a while."
"Okay, I guess." I sighed. "It will be weird."
"You'll get used to it." he told me. "You'll have a chance to just be a kid instead of a care-taker." he brushed my hair off of my face and kissed my forehead. "Get some sleep."
"Good night, Dad."
The next morning at breakfast, Dad told us to get dressed after we ate because we were going out.
"Aw, do we have to go out shopping or something?" Dean complained. "I hate shopping!"
"No, although we will have to do that in a couple of weeks," Dad said. "I've rented a house about three blocks from here, and I wanted to show it to you."
Sam sat up straight. "Where we're gonna live? Are we going to school here too?"
"Yes," Dad nodded. "We'll go over and look at the house and see what needs to be done. It's partially furnished, so hopefully we won't need to get much."
Pastor Jim came into the room. "When we get back, I'd like to spend some time talking with you, Kate, if that's all right."
I looked up at him. "Okay," I said slowly. I wasn't sure I was in the mood to dredge up a bunch of unhappy feelings or look at my past right now.
"We can go slow," he put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. "You're in control of what we talk about, all right?"
I smiled up at him.
The house was a one-story ranch house in a quiet neighborhood. It had a living room, a dining room, and a large kitchen at the back with a laundry room next to it. There was a hallway off of the living room where the bedrooms were. At the front of the house was a large bedroom with two single beds in it that ran practially the length of the whole front of the house.
"This used to be two smaller bedrooms, but the people that lived here before took the middle wall down," Pastor Jim told us.
"It's big enough that if we put up a divider, it would be almost like you boys had your own room." Dad said.
"Can we do that, Dad?" Dean looked at him.
"Probably," Dad told him.
There was a smaller bedroom on the other side of the hall, that faced the back of the house, and the bathroom was next to it.
"I'm sorry this is such a small room," Dad said apologetically. "I know your other room was much bigger."
"I don't care," I said. My parent's house had been large and showy, just like everything about them. It had never felt like a home, just a place I was living in, because it had to be kept spotless, and I hadn't had a hand in decorating my room or anything. My mother had had designers come into the house and decide on all the decorating and color schemes. And there were tons of expensive knick knacks and objets d'art that could get broken if you didn't pay attention.
There was a large master bedroom at the end of the hall with another bathroom in it. Dad and Pastor Jim walked through the house, making notes on what furniture was in the house and what furniture would be needed. The boys and I went through the kitchen to the back yard. There were a couple of tall trees, one next to the house, and one further back towards the fence. There were houses on either side of us and also behind us. Someone had planted a little flower bed off to the side up against the fence, but it was empty of any flowers at the moment.
"This is a cool back yard," Sam said.
"Yeah, it's big enough to play some ball in." Dean said. "Hey Kate, are you gonna try to do anything with baseball?"
I shrugged. "I don't know," I said. "It probably was just a fluke that I was able to hit the ball so well."
"That's not what Jake said, 'member?" Dean asked me. "He said you had a good eye."
"Maybe." I shrugged again.
"Come back inside now," Dad called from the kitchen door. We went back into the house.
"Do any of you care what kind of furniture we get for your rooms? It's going to be used, but I didn't know if you wanted anything specific." Dad said, looking at me.
"Can you get some stuff with dinosaurs on it for me?" Sam asked.
Pastor Jim chuckled. "I don't really think anyone makes furniture with dinosaurs on it." he told Sam.
I got the feeling that Dad was asking me what I wanted.
"I don't need girly furniture, if that's what you're asking," I said. "I don't mind whatever you get."
"Well, if we happen to find any 'girly furniture', are you going to object if we get it for you?" Dad asked.
"No. I'll take whatever." I shrugged.
"All right." Dad said. "We can paint the walls if you'd like. What color do you want your rooms to be?"
"Cool!" Dean said. "I want black and silver!"
"I want it to be green like a jungle or dark blue like the night sky, with stars in it." Sam said.
"No, black!" Dean said.
"We're not doing either of those," Dad said with a chuckle. "Dark colors are out."
"Aww, why?" Sam asked.
"Because they make the room look smaller. If you want we can get a dark color for the trim, all right?"
We drove to a hardware supply store, and looked at paint colors. The boys began to bicker about whether to have blue or green. Sam still wanted to have the room look like a jungle.
"What if Sam paints the wall on his side green, and Dean paints the wall of his side blue?" I suggested. Two of the walls for each boy."
"That might work," Pastor Jim said. "What do you think, John?"
"That sounds fine," Dad said distractedly. "What about you, Kate?"
I shrugged again. "Whatever is fine with you want to go with white, that's okay."
Dad came over to me and looked me in the eyes. "No, Kate," he said insistently. "What do you want. This is about you. Think about it, and pick something that would make you happy."
"I—I don't know." I said. "I'm not used to- to doing stuff like this."
"Do you have a favorite color?" he asked.
"Well, that periwinkle color, it's almost like a lavender-blue color. You know the crayon?"
" I don't think I do," Dad said. "Let's go look at the purples then."
Just then Sam and Dean started bickering and shoving each other, and Dad had to step between them and talk to them.
He bent down and looked at them. "I know this is boring for you, but we need to do this today. This is part of getting the house prepared so we can move in, and the sooner we do it, the better. Now, we're going to go get your paint in a minute, but you need to be patient and wait. And if you can't, if this keeps up between you two, then I will take you out to the car, and we will wait there, and the two of you will be waiting with sore behinds. Is that what you want?"
"No sir," they chorused.
"I can take Kate to look at the paint if you want to get the boy's paints started mixing," Pastor Jim said.
"All right," Dad said. "Go ahead."
I followed Pastor Jim over to another aisle.
He looked at me. "John's kind of excited about getting your room fixed up," he told me. "That's why he's being so insistent."
"Why?" I asked.
"Well...he and Mary had wanted to have a girl as well, but...she passed before that came to be. So he feels like he's been given a second chance with you, and it makes him excited."
"Oh. So I should be more into it then."
"Well, you don't have to be," Pastor Jim said. "It doesn't seem to have been your thing."
"It's just that everything was already done, I didn't get to pick anything out. My mother did everything with designers, and they arranged the house and rooms and all."
"I see. Well, Kate, that's all the more reason you should pick this out, for yourself. This is your chance to have what you really want, for the first time."
"Oh, right. I didn't think about it like that." I smiled at him. We looked at the paint samples for a while until I found a couple that I liked.
Dad walked over to us pushing a cart with some paint cans and painting supplies in it.
"Did you find something?" he asked.
"I like these two." I showed him the sample strips.
"The one that is more blue is a nice color, I like that one." he said.
"They're both girly," Sam said grumpily.
"Well, it's for a girls' room, duh!" Dean said, and shoved Sam.
"Quit it!" Sam shoved him back.
"Boys," Dad said. "What did I say? One more time, and we will go out to the car. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir." Both boys sounded sulky.
"Dean, over here by me. Sam, walk over on the other side of Pastor Jim."
Sam sighed heavily, as if it was the worst thing in the world, and trudged over next to me.
"I think after we get Kate's paints mixed, we should get some lunch," Pastor Jim said. "I think that's where part of this crankiness is coming from."
"All right." Dad agreed. "Boys, think about where you want to eat. You too, Kate," he looked at me and smiled.
We walked over to the paint counter, and Dad showed the paint sample to the man behind the counter. He and Pastor Jim talked to the man for a few minutes.
Dad turned to us. "You three stay right here," he said. "We'll be back in a minute."
The man came out from behind the counter, and he led Dad and Pastor Jim down an aisle a few feet away.
"Where do you guys want to eat?" I asked. When I didn't get an answer, I turned.
The boys were halfway down the center aisle, running and shoving each other and laughing.
I started to walk towards them.
"Sam! Dean! Come over here!" I called. "Dad's going to be upse-"
When they heard my voice, both boys turned. Dean had ahold of Sam's arms, and he swung Sam around fast, right into a cart that was being pushed by a woman with curlers in her hair.
"Hey!" she said with surprise. Her cart got shoved over to the side, right into a metal cart that had little bins full of different sized pieces of metal in them- door hinges, large screws, and keys and the like. The sounds of all the metal bits falling to the floor was almost deafening. The metal cart hit the floor with a loud clang.
Sam and Dean stood there gaping, with shocked looks on their faces. I stared back at them. "Boys-" I gasped.
I walked up to the woman quickly. "I'm so sorry, ma'am, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I ain't hurt, but who's gonna clean this mess up?" she scowled, gesturing at the metal scattered all over the floor.
A man wearing an orange shirt with the store logo on it came over. "I need cleanup at the end of aisle 9," he drawled into a walkie-talkie. "Metal pieces, small. Broom and dustpan'll be okay."
"BOYS!" Dad hollered, and I jumped at the same time I saw Sam and Dean jump.
Dad came stomping over to us. "What in the almighty-"
"Oh, they yours?" the woman asked. "You need to keep your kids on a tighter leash, mister."
"Thank you for your advice, ma'am." Dad retorted. He turned to the store clerk. "I'm so sorry. Can my sons clean this up for you?"
He shook his head. "Nah, can't allow it in case they get hurt. Someone's coming from the back to get this."
Dad stalked over to Sam and Dean and grabbed the backs of their collars, pulling them away from each other so that they were on either side of him.
"At this point, I don't even want to hear your explanation, because I'm sure that there isn't a good one."
He turned to Pastor Jim, who had come over to stand beside me. "We'll be in the car...waiting." Dad said tightly.
"All right. John, count to twenty." Pastor Jim said mildly. "Count to thirty if you need to."
"Hmph." Dad said. "Let's go, boys." He turned, and they walked out of the store in a hurry, with the boys still scruffed.
I looked at Pastor Jim. "I—I didn't know-" I stumbled over my words. "I turned around, and they were gone!"
Pastor Jim chuckled. "Life with boys, Kate. You're going to have to get used to it sooner or later." He shook his head as we walked back to our cart. "They remind me so much of me and my brothers, and the shenanigans we used to get up to."
"How many brothers did you have?" I asked.
"Six," he said.
"Oh my goodness," I said. "Seven boys?"
"Yes, seven boys, all very similar to Sam and Dean. After the fourth child was born, my father went out to his workshop and made a paddle, because he said he was tired of hurting his hand, and everyone got the paddle from then on out." He shook his head. "It got a lot of use over the years."
"Yikes," I said.
He picked up the cans of paint that were on the counter and put them in the cart.
"I think we're ready," he said. We walked to the checkout line, and he paid for everything.
When we walked outside the store, the Impala was parked by the curb.
Dad got out of the car and helped Pastor Jim load everything into the trunk.
"I think it's best if we go home," he told us. "The boys decided to give me lip during our...discussion, so now they're going to be spending some time in their room."
"That's fine, we've still got some lunch meat at home," Pastor Jim said.
I got into the back seat and looked over at Sam and Dean. They were both sitting with one leg tucked under their bottoms, and they both had red sulky faces and wet eyes.
Dad got into the car and turned around. "Boys, sit on your butts and get buckled."
"But Dad-" Dean began.
"I told you, you can't buckle the seat belt properly if you're sitting with your leg up like that! Now sit right and buckle up."
Sam glared at Dad, huffed, and crossed his arms.
"Do I need to count, Samuel?" Dad asked in a tight voice. "One..."
Sam sighed, and both boys moved their legs and then buckled their seat belts. Sam crossed his arms again and turned his head to look out the window.
Dad and Pastor Jim talked about scheduling for tomorrow.
"We're going to be working on the house for the next couple of days," Dad told us.
"Pastor Jim has signed you three up for Vacation Bible School this week."
"What's that?" I asked.
"It's like a summer camp, over at the church," Pastor Jim turned to look at me. "It will give you three a chance to meet some of the local kids."
"Don't wanna go to church," Sam grumbled under his breath.
"It's not just church," Pastor Jim told him. "It's going to be about making friends nad learning about the community."
"Okay," I said. "It starts tomorrow?"
"Yes, I'll take you three over in the morning, and then when it's over in the afternoon, you can walk back to the house and Rosemary will be there. There might be a day when she has to be at church in the afternoon, but we'll figure that out."
I started to get nervous. Even though we didn't have the paperwork back yet, this would be my first time meeting people as a Winchester. It was going to be very different.