The cheerful chime of the bell hanging from the door of the diner took every ounce of restraint on Dean's account not to rip the damn perky little thing right off and crunch it into shards as Sam and Dean entered in search of breakfast. It just was unnatural that anything be that happy at this time of day. He much preferred nighttimes. Drinking, dicing, darts and swindling the night away. Not the bleary mornings that followed those nights of revelry or the much more common nights of grave digging and the subsequent salting and burning which naturally followed said grave robbery.
Settling at a table Dean sadly discovered that somehow against all laws in the universe the waitress managed to beat the cheerful bell as the world's perkiest, happiest, cheerfulness thing in the whole damn world at 6:30 in the freaking A.M.
After taking their orders she then flounced away with a spring in her step.
"Sam, you can put that paper down right now. I just found our next job."
Slowly putting the local newspaper away which he had previously been examining for any unusual occurrences which may merit their attention, Sam looked to his brother with interest.
"What is it Dean? Where?"
"Right here. That waitress. Its unnatural how cheerful she is at this time of day. She's gotta be possessed."
"No, you're possessed Dean. Try to be serious for at least ten seconds until we get some caffeine into you."
"No I'm telling you Sammy she's…"
"Anything else I can help you fine fellows out with also?" The waitress said as she returned and placed their orders before them.
"Actually," Sam said cutting off whatever rude or crude comment he could see Dean formulating in his bleary mind, "I was wondering if you could give us directions to Hollendale University, it is nearby right?"
"Yeah, less then 20 minutes east of hear. Just take the main road 15 minutes till you see the stadium and then turn right onto the campus and you're there. Are you two new students there?"
"Oh no, actually we were just in the area passing through and thought we would visit our cousin who goes there. Drop by for a little surprise. She is feeling really lonely you know, first time out if the house and on her own. Thought maybe we could cheer her up a little bit."
"Oh that is just so sweet. If you boys feel like waiting around a few minutes I think we have some fresh pastries coming out in a bit. On the house for a couple of cuties like yourselves." She added with a wink as she twirled away.
Twenty minutes later the brothers left the diner not only with directions to the university, but also a box of warm complementary pastries to share with their near, dear and nonexistent cousin Mildie.
"Ok Sammy, what's the deal. You feeling like picking up some extra credit homework or something?"
"No, if you had bothered to read the article in of the paper instead of scowling at your coffee you would have noticed this." Sam said tossing the folded newspaper in Dean's direction.
Another University Teen Missing. Melissa Myers sophomore at Hollendale University disappeared from campus Tuesday night. The fifth in a recent string of missing students in less than two months has local authorities scrambling to find any leads on the five missing college girls but….
"So?" Dean said raising his head from the paper. "You think this is something we should be looking into. Sounds like some standard college predatory psycho of the non supernatural variety."
"No, read the whole article. All of the girls disappeared from on campus sometime after 8pm, all spaced out exactly a week apart. All of them were last seen going into the locker rooms after practice and never seen again until their roommates reported them missing when they never showed up. No trace of the girls were found outside of the locker rooms so it appears they disappeared into thin air right there in the locker room."
"Yeah still sounds like it could be some nut job stalking the campus".
"But what if it's not? We're right here and have nothing else lined up so it's worth a shot, right?"
Dean sighed as he reluctantly agreed to his brother's request. With Sammy it generally was best to just follow his instincts, seeing as often times his skills at finding jobs were right on.
"But the first thing we do is check the sororities. Those are always the first place to look. You know how bloodthirsty monsters love lurking around there." Dean added.
"Yep, I thought you would be thinking something along those lines." Sam said shaking his head.
"…and then we need to be sure to examine the closest campus bar, preferably with some of the sorority girls for further questioning…"