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On with the show!

A week had passed. Mary walked into the classroom and started writing her lesson plan on the board. First day back to work since John left and oh, how she was ready for the distraction.

"Mary?" a female voice asked.

"Hey Amanda."

Amanda was a fellow teacher at the school. Both of them taught English but to different grades.

"I thought I heard you were coming back today. You're here early."

"I guess I was a little too excited. Is it a bad thing I missed my 7th graders?"

Amanda laughed.

"So… you up for a little girl's trip?"

"What do you got?"

"Possible werewolf along the Kansas-Colorado border."

Mary bit her lip and hesitated.

"You know I don't like to go out of state anymore since Sam was born."

"But is it technically out of state? And Sam's almost ten."

"I guess John could take them for the weekend."

"Are you two really on good terms?"

"I don't want to be," Mary confessed. "If I could drop him at the drop of a hat, I would but-"

"The boys," Amanda finished. Mary nodded. "I understand."

"Send my son in when you see him?"

Amanda, or Mrs. Alden, left the classroom. Mary went back to setting up for class. A few minutes later, Dean walked in.

"Mom?"

"Hey, I forgot to tell you this morning. I need you to pick up Sam after school. I have a staff meeting."

"On a Monday?"

"I missed the one on Friday and a couple teachers have offered to catch me up."

"Why can't Dad get him?"

"Because I asked you!" Mary snapped, unintentionally. Dean took a step back. Mary noticed. "I'm sorry. Please, just bring him back here, I'll leave my door unlocked, you can do homework here, and then we'll all go home together. Okay?"

Dean nodded and left the classroom.

John finished taping his last box. Today, while everyone was at school, John was at the house packing his things and moving into his new apartment. He was hoping to have a talk with Mary before they left, but they were gone when he got there.

He was just starting to load everything into his car when his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"John? It's Kate."

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Adam had another accident at preschool today. I'm hung up at work. Can you take him a change of clothes?"

"Of course," John said without hesitating. Kate began giving him instructions and John dropped everything and made his way to Kate's place. There he grabbed two sets of clothes and went to the preschool.

"Can I help you?" Adam's preschool teacher asked.

"Adam's mom called me and said he had an accident. She sent me over."

"John?" she asked. John nodded. "Yeah, Kate told us you would be coming. Adam's waiting in the bathroom if you'd like to change him."

"Can you do it?" John asked. "I'm new in Adam's life. I don't think he'd be trusting, you know?"

"Of course."

The teacher took the clothes from John and went into the bathroom. John waited outside and paced around the classroom. He found a wall of artwork with the title "My Family". Adam's picture was right in the middle. Just two stick figures; him and his mom. John couldn't help but feel bummed that he messed up with the kid already.

"All good to go," the teacher said, walking out of the bathroom with a happy Adam right behind her.

"Hey bud. You alright?" John asked. Adam hid behind the teacher's leg and nodded. He had only met John once and that easily could have been six months ago. He didn't totally remember him.

"Here," John said, handing her a plastic bag with another set of clothes. "Another spare just in case. I have two older boys and my wife would send them to school with clothes when they were this age."

"Thank you. I'll put it with the others. Will we see you back at pickup?"

"No, I think Kate is getting him," John said, watching Adam. He had already run off and was playing dress up with a couple other kids. Adam was too busy trying to put on a fireman's costume jacket to notice. John simply left.

Dean picked up Sam from school, stopped by a McDonalds, and made their way back to the junior high.

"Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to tell you something."

"What?"

"I got in trouble today."

"What'd you do?"

"I threw a ball at Nathan's face. On purpose."

"Why?"

"He and Billy were talking about Mom and Dad."

"How the hell do they know?"

"Dean!"

"What?"

"That's a bad word!"

Dean sighed. "You didn't answer my question."

"I don't know," Sam answered, shrugging his shoulders.

The two walked in silence for a few minutes.

"Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"Are Mom and Dad going to get a divorce?"

"I don't know."

Silence again.

"Dean?"

"Yes Sam?" Dean asked, starting to get annoyed with his brother.

"Please don't tell Mom and Dad I got in trouble."

"I promise. Just don't do it again."

Dean ushered Sam up the stairs to Mary's classroom. She left the door unlocked and already went downstairs to her meeting.

"Eat and then do your homework. Mom said," Dean told Sam.

Sam sat on the floor while Dean jumped up on top of a desk. The classroom was quiet. Sam worked on homework. Dean procrastinated and wandered around the classroom doing random things.

"Can you help me?" Sam asked.

"With what?"

"I'm having trouble with my nines."

Dean sat down on the floor next to his brother. Sam was learning multiplication and having a little trouble.

"What's the problem?"

"9 times 3."

"Well, what's 9 plus 9?"

"18."

"Plus 9?"

Sam closed his eyes and counted in his head.

"27?"

"Yup! Multiplication is just a faster way to do addition."

"I don't like math," Sam said. "It's too hard."

"Just wait til you're in my grade. There's letters."

Sam's eyes grew big just wondering why there could be letters in math. Dean stayed on the floor and helped Sam finish his multiplication. Mary came back up to the classroom about an hour later and the three went home.

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