The days had passed uneventfully and Annie had been with the boys for over a week. Sam and Dean had worked out a routine for their sister that they thought benefited all of them.

She woke up every morning at six thirty to work out with Dean. Sam would join them sometimes, but mostly liked to run outside during that time.

After workouts, they would all shower and meet back up for breakfast. Mainly cereal or toast and bacon but Sam always insisted on everyone having at least one fruit.

When breakfast was through, and everyone pitched in to clean up, Annie had free time until ten thirty. So far she had used that time to be on her phone constantly. It was her new favorite obsession. There were just so many things to do on there.

Once "free time" was over, she met up with Sam in the library. They had been going over basic lore and Latin. So far, it had been very interesting, and she had really enjoyed doing this with her brother. He seemed to always have the answers to her questions and that amazed her.

The trio would have lunch at noon, before once again going their separate ways until two in the afternoon. That was when she'd go to the garage or shooting range with Dean. She was appreciative that both her brothers were so involved with her day to day life.

They'd have supper and then watch a movie. There were a lot of movies that Annie had never seen that Dean had deemed a crime. The siblings were painstakingly going through that list one night at a time.

Annie felt herself really benefiting from the structured schedule. She felt physically stronger, from the workouts and from eating three mostly healthy meals a day. She was getting good sleep at night and she never felt dirty. It was great.

That all came to a head when she had woken up on Wednesday morning, not feeling restful at all. It was her fault and she knew it. She had stayed up all night on her phone, only putting it down around three a.m.

She groaned as her alarm rang again. She aggressively hit snooze, wanting to grab the stupid thing and throw it across her room.

Annie had five minutes to get to the gym or Dean would be in her room, yelling. It had only happened once- on the first day of their new routine and Annie was is no hurry for it to happen again. He had been a little scary.

She finally managed to drag herself out of bed and throw on her workout clothes that she had thankfully laid out the night before.

After a quick trip to the bathroom, she was stumbling into the gym, cursing the lights for being so bright.

Dean had already started his workouts when he saw his sister pull herself in at a snail's pace. He smiled at her, glad he hadn't had to force her out of bed, but it was not returned.

"Thought I was gonna have ta' drag your scrawny ass outta bed this morning."

Annie didn't respond, but sleepily started her stretches. At least they felt good. They'd feel much better if I could get in the bed after.

Dean watched as she sluggishly went through her stretches and then began her warm ups.

When he'd give her a new task, she would do it, but there was always some under the breath mumbling, that he was doing his best not to hear. For his sake and hers. He was doing his best to not go sergeant Winchester on her ass, but she wasn't making that an easy task.

She had moaned and complained when he said they would be going harder today, but Dean just laughed it off and told her to get over it.

Annie was almost at her breaking point with her ab workouts. Her core was screaming and begging her to stop. "I'm tired," she breathed out heavily, stopping mid sit up to drape herself over her knees, praying her brother would let her stop.

Her older brother just glared. He was tired of the bitching and moaning and she was officially on his last nerve. "Good. Keep going."

"Dean. Can't I please be done?" She whined. She hadn't wanted to work out any harder than she had been and felt her irritation bubbling over. Working out had been fun until today.

He shook his head negatively. "Keep going. Monsters don't stop attacking you just because you're tired."

She tried another sit up before laying spread eagle on the floor. "Yeah, but I'm not fighting monsters right now. So that's stupid." She bit out, glaring at her brother.

Dean set his weight down and turned to his little sister with his arms crossed. "Julianna, it's not up for debate. Finish your set. You keep whining and I'll tack on extra."

The siblings had a staring match until Annie couldn't hold it any longer and she looked away fuming.

"Jackass." She grumbled, low enough she thought Dean wouldn't hear, as she continued to do her sit ups.

She thought wrong.

Dean stalked over to her and roughly hauled her to her feet. "Fine then. Forget the sit-ups. You owe me two miles."

"Wha- Dean, no! I'm not running!" She sputterd out, wrenching her arm out of his grasp. She had run yesterday and it would be totally unfair to make her do it today too, after all she had already done.

He raised an eyebrow sternly at her, grabbing her arm again and bringing her close to his face, fed up with the attitude and the whining. "The hell you aren't. Would you like to make it three miles?" He asked. "Tell you what, you can call me a jackass again and I'll make it four." He stared at her, waiting for her to do just that.

She would not like to make it three or four, not knowing if she would even be able to finish the two she was already unfairly assigned. She shook her head angrily, screaming the word jackass over and over again in her head.

"Can't hear your head rattle, little girl." He growled, inwardly cringing at how much he sounded like John Winchester.

"No, Dean." She bit out. "I'll run the stupid two miles." Annie knew she was pushing the proverbial line, but she was exhausted and grumpy and Dean was being an ass.

Dean ignored the brattiness dripping from her voice, deciding that it wouldn't end well for either of them. "Good choice. Get to it." He said, propelling her forward with a heavy swat.

Annie gasped at the sting, and looked at him with hurt eyes. He hadn't ever done that before. That wasn't fair. Sure they had warned her. But there was difference in a warning and it actually happening.

Her mouth dropped open to protest once again but Dean raised his eyebrow in warning, and Annie took the hint. She rubbed her butt begrudgingly and glanced longingly at the exit. She sighed knowing that any more time wasted could cost her more miles and there was no way she was doing more than two.

Annie started running, feeling Dean's eyes on her even as he was lifting his own weights again. Running had never been an issue for her. Mandatory running was a different subject though. In fact, most of the time she enjoyed it. It had been something that had always helped her think. The longer she ran, the more of her anger began to melt off, giving her a clearer mind to let her thoughts wander. She knew she had been out of line by cussing at him but he was being so unfair. Still, Annie could recognize that she had been in the wrong and knew that she needed to apologize for her behavior.

She finished her two miles in fifteen minutes, and Dean was doubly impressed. She was a natural runner like Sam, and not like him at all in that department. He and Sam had both hated when his dad had made them run as punishment, though Dean had hated it much more. The oldest Winchester hoped that it would still be an effective attitude adjustment on her like it had been on him.

Jogging over to her water bottle, she took slow sips, regulating her breathing.

Dean walked behind her and clapped her on the back, ready to put their little incident behind them and move forward. "Great run. You did really good today, kid. Tomorrow keep the whining to a minimum."

And just like that, her anger at her brother returned. All thoughts of apologizing were dashed with his last sentence. She shrugged his hand off her back before glaring at him. "Can I go now?"

"I don't know." He said eyeing her. "Maybe you need to run some more of that attitude out."

Annie averted her gaze, not trusting herself to respond, knowing it was going to come off as disrespectful. She took a deep breath before meeting his hard eyes. "Can I please go now?" She asked as respectfully as she could muster.

Dean nodded stiffly. "We're done. Go shower."

She breathed a sigh of relief and hurried out of the gym before Dean could change his mind and make her do something else. Shucking her shoes off, she grabbed a clean outfit and walked to the shower, happy to wash the sweat off.

The hot water felt great on her sore muscles and alleviated some of the anger she was feeling at Dean. She wished she could stay in there forever, soaking under the steaming stream. She stood there until her stomach painfully reminded her that she needed to hurry up and replace the calories she had just worked off, asap.

Freshly showered, wearing clean clothes, she headed towards the kitchen, mouth already salivating at the smell of bacon.

"Morning." Sam greeted, barely glancing away from the sizzling bacon. "Couldja' grab the bowl of fruit out of the fridge?"

"Yep," she responded, doing what he had asked, though feeling a bit of resentment towards Sam. If he had worked out with them this morning then Dean probably wouldn't have been such a hard ass.

Once the fruit was on the table, she took a seat and grabbed a piece of toast. As she was putting copious amounts of jelly on her bread, Dean walked in, freshly showered as well. She felt his eyes on her once again but she didn't make eye contact. Putting jelly on her toast was a very important task that needed her utmost concentration.

He headed straight for the coffee, before grabbing the plate of bacon from the counter. "Look at that, Annie, Sam didn't burn the bacon this time." He joked, barely dodging Sam's bitch slap.

"I didn't burn it last time!" Sam defended. "It was just... crispy."

Annie didn't look at either one of them, ignoring that Dean had tried to include her in their banter. The hostility was extending to both of her brothers at this point and she really wished she could just have breakfast in her room.

"Whatever you say, Sammy." Dean smirked, crunching on his piece of bacon. He tried to not let his sister's cold shoulder bother him, but it did.

The rest of breakfast was concluded in awkward silence. They had both tried to engage their sister into their conversations, but it had been like talking to a brick wall.

Sam sent Dean a questioning glance, wondering if something had happened during workouts this morning. Dean just shrugged and didn't offer anything more, choosing instead to focus on his breakfast.

Annie finished off her plate and stood to put it in the sink.

"Where are you going?" Dean asked, mouth full of food.

"My room." She stated, doing her best to keep her voice level. "Is that a problem?"

Dean just stared at her, opting not to respond, almost waiting for her to cross the line into disrespectful. Sam watched the interaction, feeling the tension radiating off both of his siblings.

"No. Go ahead." Sam answered when Dean obviously wasn't going to. "Be in the library in an hour so we can start lessons for the day."

She nodded and walked out without another word. As soon as Sam heard her door slam he looked at his brother incredulously. "What did you do?"

"What did I do?" Dean grunted, defensively. "Why is it my fault? She's the one that's being a royal brat!"

Sam sighed. "What happened?"

"I pushed her harder in workouts today and she ignored my warnings to quit whining and then had the balls to call me a jackass. I made her run two punishment miles. She got pissy." Dean grouched. He thought his reaction had been fairly mild, compared to what their father would have done had it been him or Sam.

"That's it?" Sam asked, flabbergasted. Surely his brother was leaving a detail out and something else had happened. The younger brother at the very least appreciated Dean's restraint. He didn't do well with anyone calling him a jackass, especially a thirteen year old.

"Yes, that's it." Dean snapped. "Guess she woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something, but she's skating on thin ice, so she better watch it." He rubbed a hand down his face before it settled on his hip. "I gotta make a beer run. We need anything else?"

Sam shook his head, still trying to process what could have set his sister off. If it was just that, then Sam's theory of their deteriorating honeymoon phase was right. He had hoped they would have had a little more time to get to know each other before that happened, but at the same time, Sam was glad to see that she was comfortable enough with them to misbehave. It was truly a double edged sword.

He figured he should get to the bottom of this before the tension could escalate any further. Sam walked down the hallway and knocked on his sisters open door.

She looked at him surprised. "It hasn't even been close to an hour." Annie sassed.

Sam's eyebrows shot up in shock. She usually didn't take up such a tone with him, especially considering he hadn't even said anything yet. He continued to look at her until he saw her tense shoulders drop. "Sorry."

He nodded an acceptance at her apology. "I was going to ask if you were alright. Dean said you guys had a hard workout today."

She eyed him for a moment. "Is that all he said?"

"Said you'd called him a jackass." He responded, disapprovingly.

Annie started picking the thread on her blanket, already feeling uncomfortable with Sam's censure. "He was being mean."

"How so?"

Now that she had to justify how Dean was being mean she found that it was difficult. "He... made me, uh, run."

"...After you'd called him a jackass, right?"

"Well, yeah... but before that, he was just pushing so hard and I... I was tired and it wasn't fair!"

Sam wanted to snort her logic, and had to remind himself that thirteen was a dramatic age. "Annie, did Dean talk to you before hand about what you would be doing before you had to do it?"

"Yes, but-"

"If you haven't noticed, each day you've built onto your workout a little more. Was what he was asking you to do this morning outrageous and unexpected?"

"Well, no but I-"

Sam held his hand up. "Stop. You were in a bad mood this morning and took it out on Dean even though he hadn't done anything wrong, yes?" He questioned.

Yes. But she stubbornly shook her head.

"Called him a jackass, when trust me, Dean can be one, and he definitely wasn't being on at the moment? You think it was unfair that he was helping you become stronger but I think it was unfair that you were rude to him."

She crossed her arms defensively not liking how guilty Sam was making her feel. She sighed and dropped her arms. "Sorry."

"I don't think I'm the one that you owe an apology." Sam said, happy that she was willing to acknowledge her wrongdoing though. "Dean's out right now, but he'll be back soon."

Annie nodded. "I'll apologize to him... Are you mad at me?" She asked, tears unconsciously welling in her eyes. This whole interaction had her feeling very displaced.

Sam opened his arms and she immediately rushed him for a hug. "No, sweetheart, I'm glad you want to apologize to Dean. Let's have a better day now, huh?"

She buried her face into his chest and nodded. She didn't like either of her brothers being mad at her and was now anxious to apologize to Dean.

Two hours later, Annie was in an even worse mood. She shoved the book away forcefully. "Sam, this is pointless." She groaned, resting her head in her arms.

Sam grabbed the book and slid it back towards her, nudging her to pick her head up. "It most certainly is not pointless. You said you wanted to hunt."

She rolled her eyes before huffing. "Yeah, hunt. Not learn some weird language. Don't they say it's like dead or something?"

The middle Winchester kept wondering why she had a problem with everything today. She had been doing this without problem or complaint for days. "Again, this is part of hunting. Exorcism's get rid of demons. Exorcisms are in Latin. Latin is part of hunting." He stated, reminding himself to be patient with her.

"But-"

"If you don't want to do this part, then you don't get to do other parts. That's the deal."

"I have to memorize it?" She groaned.

Sam shook his head. "Learn not memorize. It's good to know what you're actually saying."

Annie sighed. "Okay."

"Good girl." Sam gently patted her on the shoulder before getting up. "I'll be back to check on you in a bit."

Annie stared at the exorcism for a few more minutes before deciding she deserved a break. Sam couldn't fault her for taking one little tiny break, right?

She pulled out her phone and began playing one of the games she had recently downloaded. Time quickly slipped away from her, as the Latin book remained untouched and her eyes didn't move from her phone.

The phone had sucked her in and distracted her to the point, she didn't hear Sam's foot steps walk down the hall. Or walk into the library.

She wasn't alerted to his presence until he snatched the phone right out of her hands and slipped it in his front pocket.

"Hey!" She protested. She had more to say, but whatever it was died on her lips as soon as she made eye contact with her her pissed off older brother. "I was just on it for a second..."

"Oh, really?" He asked, not believing her for a second. He had watched her for a few minutes before approaching, and knew that wasn't the case. "Since you've been studying this exorcism for an hour now, you could probably write it all out, right?"

An hour?

She glanced at the clock on the wall behind Sam and saw that it had in fact been an hour since he left her here. Feeling trapped, Annie just shrugged. "I'm not that great at spelling." She lied pathetically.

Sam figured he'd entertain this for a minute. "That's fine." He said pulling out a sheet of paper and pencil from the desk across from the table and shutting the Latin book. "You've only had an hour after all. As long as you get the gist of it, I'll be happy. We can work on the spelling later."

She eyed the paper and pencil he had placed before her and racked her brain. But she couldn't even remember the first word, no matter how hard she thought. Annie continued to stare at the piece of paper for a few minutes before she sighed. "I don't remember."

"Mmhmm." Sam nodded. "Would that be because you spent the entire time on your phone instead of doing what you were supposed to do?"

Shrugging had apparently been the wrong answer, when Sam sucked in a sharp breath. "Right," he said opening the book back up and handing her the pencil. "I want you to write this exorcism twenty times."

Her mouth dropped open. "Twenty? But that's... so much, can't I just study it?"

"No. Apparently not." He responded sternly. "Twenty times. Now, Julianna."

"What about my phone?" She whined.

He laughed humorlessly. "Your phone is a privilege that is being revoked right now. You can have it back tomorrow but you are no longer allowed to have it during lessons."

She groaned at the unfairness of it all. "But, Sam..."

"You need to have it finished by noon. We have an appointment at one o'clock to register you in the homeschooling program at Lebanon High."

"That's only forty minutes from now!" She protested, her hand already throbbing at the thought of writing that much.

"Then I suggest you get to writing, young lady, unless you'd like to lose your phone for the rest of this week."

Sam stood there until Annie began copying the translation. He felt bad at her put out disposition but forced himself to remain firm. She had disobeyed and now she was reaping the consequences.

He continued to watch her to make sure she was complying before exiting again, this time heading ot the kitchen to fix them lunch. He checked his own phone, to send a quick text to Dean, wondering where his brother was. A beer run shouldn't take this long, and he was starting to get concerned.