Well sorry as usual for the slow update! I have some excuse this time as our household has been struck down with the Noro virus - not pleasant! This chapter has been written in dribs and drabs and I'm not sure it flows brilliantly, I have done more editing on it than any of the other chapters so far! Anyway, hope you like it. Thank you so much to all who reviewed last chapter and all who are reading and following. Please read and review - I love to get your feedback!

Chapter 6

The day Charlie had been dreading finally dawned. She was woken at 6.00 by Sam gently shaking her.

'Charlie…wake up Charlie. It's time to get up.'

Charlie groaned and rolled away from Sam to face the wall. 'I'm tired. Just 10 more minutes…' she murmured.

Sam smiled 'No can do Sweetheart, you have to get up and get ready for school.'

Charlie groaned even louder at the reminder that she was starting her new school today. Her stomach clenched with nerves at the thought and she felt even less inclined to get out of bed than she had been 2 minutes earlier.

'Come on Charlie, it's not so bad, you'll enjoy it once you get there.' Sam coaxed.

'I won't!' she growled.

'What's going on?' Charlie heard Dean's voice now. He peered into Charlie's room to see Charlie still cocooned under her sheets and Sam leaning over her trying to get her out of bed.

'Charlie doesn't want to get up.' Sam said smirking at his brother and raising his eyebrows.

'Too bad kiddo, up and at 'em. We don't wanna be late your first day.' Dean said, predictably using a firmer tone than Sam.

'No!' Charlie whined.

Dean stalked over to her bed and signalled with his head for Sam to move aside. Sam rolled his eyes.

'Dean…be nice.' He told his brother and then headed out of the door to go get some breakfast.

'Charlie, you need to get up now, I'm not going to say it again.' Dean commanded.

Charlie just squeaked crossly and snuggled further down in her covers.

'Don't say I didn't warn you…' Dean said as he yanked her covers off the bed onto the floor and gave one sharp swat to her upturned butt.

She immediately rolled over and sat up 'Ow! Dean, that hurt and that was mean!'

'Got you up didn't it?' he smirked.

Charlie folded her arms and glared at Dean 'I don't wanna go to school, I don't feel good.'

'Nice try Kiddo, but you can't fool me. Now do I have to warm your butt up some more or are you going to get ready like you've been asked?'

Charlie huffed, but didn't dare challenge Dean any further, instead she just slid off her bed and sulkily strode over to her closet.

'Good choice.' Dean said smugly, watching as she pulled out some underwear, jeans and her Yoda t-shirt, shooting him one final glare before she went into her bathroom to change, slamming the door behind her.

'Hey!' Dean barked, not liking the amount of attitude she was giving him, even though he totally understood why.

'Sorry.' Charlie said softly through the bathroom door, realising she was one step away from Dean losing it on her butt. Dean smiled at her apology. She was learning.

'See you in the kitchen Kiddo, don't take too long.'

'Ok Dean.' She agreed, with some reluctance in her tone.

Dean strolled back into the kitchen to find Sam eating a bowl of fruit and yoghurt. Holding back his eye roll he went to the fridge and pulled out some eggs to make Charlie some French toast.

'Is she up?' Sam asked.

'Yep, just took a bit of gentle persuasion.' Dean said with a smirk, miming a slap to his butt to show Sam what he meant.

'Dean! Was that really necessary? She's scared about starting school, I don't think that's what she needed this morning.'

'Well, your softly, softly approach was getting nowhere – it got her up didn't it?'

Sam looked disapproving and Dean held his hands up in surrender 'It was just one gentle swat Sam, not a big deal.'

Sam chose not to reply and dug into his breakfast. Charlie wandered into the kitchen about 10 minutes later looking subdued.

'Hey kiddo, got your favourite French toast with golden syrup.' Dean said plonking a plate down in front of Charlie as she sat at the table.

'I'm not hungry.' She grouched.

'What? Not even hungry for French toast?!'

'Told you I was feeling sick..' she pouted.

'It's just nerves Charlie, you'll feel better once you get to school and see it's not so bad.' Sam told her.

Charlie crossed her arms and glared at Sam, who had to force himself not to laugh at the sight of little Charlie trying to look mean, but actually looking too damn cute for words.

'You don't know that! What if it's even worse than I think it's gonna be?'

'I don't think that's possible Honey, you already think it's going to be the worst thing ever, so it can't be worse than that surely?' he pointed out.

'Come on Kiddo, take a few bites and drink your milk.' Dean said more gently than usual.

Charlie's glare transferred to Dean, but she backed down a bit as he raised his eyebrows at her and she cut a small piece of French toast off and stuffed it in her mouth.

'Good girl.' He praised and she began eating with more enthusiasm as she couldn't resist the delicious sweet stickiness in front of her.

Once breakfast was over Charlie was bundled into the car with her new school bag and stationery, slouching and grumbling all the way. 'Here you go Kiddo.' Dean said as he handed her a paper bag with her lunch. 'Don't worry, I made it, so it's not all rabbit food.' He smirked.

Sam frowned 'I hope it's not all junk.' He said to his brother.

'Don't worry there's a pb&j in there and an apple and don't you know, chocolate is a vegetable too Sammy?!.' He winked at Charlie who couldn't suppress a small grin. 'Have a great day kiddo.' he said ruffling her hair before closing the car door after her.

They had agreed that Sam would take Charlie to school as the first day meant filling out more paperwork, which was one of Dean's least favourite things, apart from research. Anyway, Sam wanted to take her and probably his calming influence would do more to help Charlie settle than Dean's 'Do it or else!' approach.

Sam swung the Impala into the parking lot, which was crowded with large yellow buses, unloading gaggles of kids as well as the odd parent escorting their child to the door of the large brick building with 'Lebanon Elementary School' emblazoned in large letters above the entrance. Charlie clasped tightly onto Sam's hand as they walked up the large stone steps to the glass doors. It wasn't the largest school, with only 3 classes per grade, so Sam hoped Charlie wouldn't feel too overwhelmed and would soon make friends. Sam squeezed her hand reassuringly as they approached the reception, where a lady in her 50's with glassed and a greying bob sat at her desk behind some sliding glass windows. She looked up as Sam cleared his throat.

'Good Morning.' She said with a smile making eye contact with both Sam and Charlie. Charlie decided she quite liked her so far. Sam returned her smile.

'Morning, I'm Sam Winchester. This is my niece; Charlie Winchester. She's starting here today.'

To simplify things and provide a reasonable explanation for why Charlie was living with them they had had the paperwork made up to show Sam as Charlie's Uncle and Dean as her Dad, obviously making her name Winchester. Charlie was ok with it, as it made it almost like playing a part and actually made it easier than facing school as herself. Of course, it really made no actual difference to who she was, but she liked the idea of having a different persona to hide behind.

'Oh yes, of course.' The lady said brightly and she turned to address Charlie 'I'm Miss Winters and I work here in the office, so you'll see me now and then if you have any tardy slips to fill in or need to go to the nurse or to see the Principal. It's good to meet you Charlie. I'll call one of your class mates down to show you around in a moment and you can leave your Uncle to chat with the Principal and fill out some more paperwork.' She gave Sam a conciliatory smile 'Sorry, so many forms to fill out! I'll call Principal Hargreaves now and he can meet Charlie before she goes off to class.'

She glanced at Charlie who was not doing too well at hiding her nerves right now. She wasn't sure she wanted to meet the principal and she didn't like the idea of having to let go of Sam's hand and go off to class alone, even worse than alone, with some kid she didn't know and was sure would not like her.

'Don't worry Charlie. Everyone is very friendly here and you'll soon feel at home.' Miss Winters tried to reassure her. Charlie managed a small smile in answer. Miss Winters was nice, she wished she could just stay there with her and not have to face the other kids or the teachers.

Sam squeezed her hand again and bent down to talk to her as Miss Winters disappeared off to talk to Principal Hargreaves. 'See Charlie, so far so good, she's really nice isn't she?'

Charlie nodded. 'I'm still scared about meeting everyone else though. Especially the other kids.'

Sam gave her a kiss on the forehead 'You'll do great Charlie. How could they not love you?!'

Charlie rolled her eyes but couldn't stop a small smile from crossing her lips.

'Ok.' Said Miss Winters coming back to the window. 'You can go right in and see Principal Hargreaves now while I call Marcy Davenport down to walk you to class. She'll look after you Charlie.'

'Thank you Maam' Charlie said politely causing Miss Winters to beam.

'Such lovely manners.'

Sam smiled and gave Charlie's hand another gentle squeeze, this time one of pride, as he pulled her along with him through the office door to another door marked with the Principal's name in silver letters. Sam lifted his arm to knock but before he could a short, round man with a cheerful face and balding head pulled the door open. He was wearing a blue suit and a tie with small birds all over it.

'Come in, come in!' he said jovially as he shook Sam's and then Charlie's hands. He had to crane his neck back to meet Sam's gaze, but wasn't fazed, being a short man he was used to having to look up at people, although he couldn't fail to notice that Sam was particularly tall.

'Take a seat' he said gesturing to two grey leather chairs in front of a large wooden desk strewn with papers. Principal Hargreaves took the seat behind the desk and sat facing them.

'Well, you must be Charlie.' He smiled

'Yes sir.'

'I'm Principal Hargreaves and I am pleased to welcome you to our school. I'm sure you will be very happy here. And who is this you have brought along with you today?'

'This is Sam, he's my uncle.'

'Ah yes…..' he looked down for a moment at the papers in front of him. 'You live with him and your father, is that right?'

'Yes sir.'

'Well pleased to meet you too Mr Winchester, Thank you for sending us the transcripts from Charlie's old school…looks like you are a bright spark Charlie. We're lucky to have you.'

Charlie blushed and glanced sideways at Sam who was smiling down at her.

'She sure is Principal Hargreaves.' Sam agreed.

'Ok, well I won't keep you any longer Miss Winchester. You're in Rose Class with Miss Golding. I think Miss Davenport is going to take you to class and she'll look after you from here. If there's any problems you can come to me any time. I have an open door. I just need to get your Uncle to fill out some medical forms and other boring stuff, so you head off now. Have a good day.'

'Thank you, Sir.' Charlie said in a small voice, standing up from her chair. Sam stood up too and gave her a hug, whispering in her ear. 'You'll be fine Sweetheart, I love you.' She nodded, gave him a small wave and went back out into the office to see a pretty girl with long dark hair and brown eyes waiting in the seat outside.

'Ah, there you are Charlie.' Miss Winters said cheerfully. 'This is Marcy, she's in your class and she'll take care of you from here.'

'Hi Charlie.' The girl said with a confident smile and Charlie muttered back a small 'Hi'.

'It's this way.' She said beckoning to Charlie with her head and Charlie followed on obediently. They made their way through a set of double doors and down a corridor off of the main reception. The walls were painted white, but in need of a bit of refreshment as they were chipped and scuffed from years of children navigating the halls. The skirting and doors were painted in a kind of pale orange, which reminded Charlie of puke - not that inviting.

'So…' began Marcy, once they were out of hearing of the reception. 'You're new here?'

Charlie refrained from rolling her eyes, 'what a stupid question!' she thought, but she bit her tongue and just nodded.

'Did your folks just move here?'

'I live with my Dad and my Uncle, they moved here for work.' Charlie said sticking to the story but trying to keep the details to the minimum.

'What about your Mom?' the noisy girl asked.

'She died.' Charlie said bluntly, her expression hardening at the other girl poking her nose in and her lack of tact.

'Oh, sorry to hear that. No brothers or sisters?'

'Nope. Is it far to our class?' Charlie asked, keen to move the topic of conversation along and dreading the same reception from the rest of her classmates. Of course, they were all going to be curious about the new girl, especially in a small school like this one, but she didn't want to be the centre of attention and she didn't want to have to repeat herself over and over and keep explaining about her Mom to all these perfect strangers.

'We're here.' Marcy gestured towards another orange door with 'Miss Golding' written in black lettering, Charlie's stomach clenched as she followed Marcy into the room. It was a bright room with children's posters about Volcanoes all along one side and paper flowers around a large wall of windows opposite the door, which overlooked the school yard. Standing next to a desk at the front of the room was a slim lady, probably in her 40s. She had shoulder length curly blonde hair and she smiled at the girls as they came in.

'Marcy, thanks for looking after Miss Winchester, you can take your seat now. Hello, you must be Charlie, I'm Miss Golding, welcome to Rose class. We're really happy to have you.' Charlie returned her smile and stood awkwardly next to her at the front of the class. In front of her were about 30 kids sitting in pairs at yellow tables set out in rows. They were all staring at her curiously and she was blushing like crazy.

'Okay class, this is Charlie, she's just moved to Lebanon, so she doesn't know anybody yet. I want all of you to make her feel welcome and be kind friends to her. Is there anything you want to tell us about yourself Charlie?'

Charlie's heartbeat increased even further at the thought of having to talk to the whole class, She shook her head and Miss Golding, noticing the look of terror on the little girls face gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and said 'That's ok. There's a seat free just over there next to Theo', she pointed to a table where a freckled boy with sandy hair was currently sitting alone. Charlie nodded and trailed her way over to the desk at the back of the room, not making eye contact with anyone. She slid into the chair next to Theo and shoved her bag under the desk once she had taken out a notebook and her pencil case. She looked down at her hands as Miss Golding started talking again.

'Ok, so I want you to work in your pairs and work out a new ending to your story. Charlie, Theo can fill you in on where we got to before you came in. You'll do just fine.'

Theo turned to Charlie and stuck out his hand and she raised her eyes to meet his, taking in his mischievous looking grin,

'Hi, I'm Theo.'

She smiled back tentatively and shook his hand.

'Charlie.' She said.

'Looks like we are partners.'

Charlie shrugged and nodded 'Guess so.'

'Cool!' he grinned and Charlie decided she liked him. He was friendly at least and he wasn't complaining about being stuck with the new kid.

'So, what are we supposed to be doing?'

'We have to rewrite the ending of one of these fairy tales.' He gestured to the book, which showed a list of favourite fairy tales including Goldilocks, Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood.

'Okay, so which one do you wanna do?' she asked.

'You choose.' He shrugged. 'My sister is doing Cinderella, so that one's out.' He gestured over to his right and Charlie turned to look at the occupants of the next table over, one of whom had the exact same freckles and hair colour as Theo, except her hair was in two braids.

'Wow, you're twins, that's awesome!' said Charlie. She had always thought it must be good fun being a twin.

Theo shrugged and rolled his eyes 'Yeah, I guess it's okay sometimes, except for when she steals all my Star Wars trading cards!' he said this loud enough for his sister to hear and she stuck her tongue out at Theo and gave Charlie a friendly wave

Charlie grinned, she could tell the two of them were just kidding around and they really did like each other 'So how come you two are not partners?'

Theo blushed slightly and explained 'Miss Golding split us up because we were goofing off too much. That's cool though or I wouldn't have got paired up with you, would I?'

Charlie blushed 'So, you like Star Wars?' she asked changing the subject from herself.

'Love it! Only the old original movies though.'

'Totally!' agreed Charlie 'The Phantom Menace sucked big time!'

'See, I knew you were cool, soon as I saw your Yoda shirt! Soon as I saw it I thought – "Friends we will be"..'

Charlie giggled. 'Hey, we'd better get on with this story or Miss Golding is gonna move me too.' she said, realising everyone else in the class seemed to be getting down to some writing.

'So….Goldilocks?' asked Theo

'Sure…..any ideas?' Charlie asked and Theo began explaining his thoughts. They came up with a pretty good alternative involving aliens and slime monsters. Infinitely superior to the original as far as Charlie was concerned.

As Charlie sat with her new friends at lunchtime she couldn't stop smiling inside and out. She was amazed at how easy it was to talk to Theo and that basically the first kid she had met at this school was on her wavelength, not counting Marcy, who she could tell she probably didn't have that much in common with from the get go. But Theo was funny, smart and a geek like her and when she met his sister, Leah at recess she soon realised she had found another kindred spirit. Charlie nearly squealed when she heard the name, although apparently, she was named after an Aunt in Cincinnati and not the Princess and member of the Imperial Senate, whose name, Theo explained, was spelt Leia anyway – he sure knew his stuff! After all Charlie's fears and resistance to the whole school thing she was actually having fun and making at least two new friends right off the bat was something she had definitely not expected. She hadn't felt like she was missing anything at the bunker, but she had to admit it was nice to have someone to be silly with and to act her age. Despite being smart the brother and sister duo were not goody two shoes and just like Charlie they had a mischievous streak, which would probably get them all into trouble before too long.

They had also introduced her to a few other of their friends in the class, a plump boy called Marcus, who had a huge mop of curly blonde hair and seemed to be obsessed with dinosaurs since they were not only on his t-shirt and backpack but on his lunchbox and sneakers. A pretty girl called Rachel, who had brown hair in a short bob and blue eyes. She was fairly quiet, but she was friendly and it was obvious that she and Leah were the best of friends, although Leah was by far the louder of the two. And finally, Grant, a tall skinny boy with dark hair and grey eyes, who seemed to find everything anybody said to be absolutely hilarious. They all seemed like nice kids and didn't seem to object to Charlie crashing their group for which she was very grateful.

When Dean came to pick Charlie up that afternoon she was waiting just inside the glass doors where Miss Winters was supervising her and a group of others who were being collected. Theo and Leah went on a school bus as they lived in the next town over. As soon as she heard the Impala's distinctive engine pulling up in the drop off zone, Charlie pointed out the black car to Miss Winters and she allowed her to leave. She came galloping down the stone steps as Dean got out of the car. Dean smiled as she barrelled towards him with a big smile on her face. After all her angst and doom and gloom over the school idea he had sincerely expected her to come out looking utterly miserable, but the opposite was clearly true.

'Hey Charlie!' Dean exhaled as Charlie practically knocked the wind out of him with a huge hug.

'Hey Dean!' she replied as she released him.

'So, how was it Sweetheart? The worst day ever…?' he smirked knowingly rubbing the top of her head.

'It was really good Dean.' Charlie beamed.

'Yeah? So, it was a good idea to try it?' he probed, not being able to resist an 'I told you so.'

Charlie tried to glare, but couldn't help a small smile as she clambered into the back seat and Dean slammed his door and started up the engine.

Charlie chatted non-stop all the way back to the bunker about her new friends, about her teacher, about the easy math work they were doing and about her new and improved Goldilocks story, which had Dean laughing out loud. Normally Dean would have been weary of Charlie's endless chatter and breathe a sigh of relief on arriving in the garage of the bunker, but today he was just relieved that she was babbling. Babbling meant that she was happy and that was more than he thought he could have hoped for that morning when she left. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, least of all Sam, but he hadn't been able to stop worrying about Charlie all day. Sam felt the same, but hadn't tried to hide it and Dean had distracted himself by pouring scorn on Sam's mother-hen act and his fussing over Charlie, not fooling Sam for one moment that he didn't feel exactly the same.

Sam came to meet Charlie at the entrance of the garage, eager to find out how things had gone and see what kind of a mood she was in. He was instantly gratified to see a cheerful smiling face greet him.

'Hey Sammy!'

'Charlie! How was it Honey? Did you like school?' he asked immediately after wrapping her up in a bear hug.

Charlie wriggled free so that she could carry on talking 'It was good Sammy, really good. My teacher is Miss Golding, she's really great. The work was okay, some of it was even fun.'

'Yeah, wait till she tells you about Goldilocks and the slime monsters.' Dean smirked, coming along behind Charlie and ushering both her and Sam into the main room of the bunker.

'Were the other kids nice?'

'Yeah, mostly, I even made some friends Sammy. Theo is so cool and he is an expert on Star Wars, he has a twin sister called Leah and she's awesome too. They let me play with them at recess and sit with them and their friends at lunch, I think they might like me too.,,' she said with wide eyes.

'Well of course they like you Sweetheart, what did I tell you?' Sam said with a fond grin. He had been hoping her first day would be positive, but this was more than he had hoped for and he was beyond pleased that she loved it so much.

'I got some homework!' she said excitedly pulling some books out of her backpack.

Dean rolled his eyes. Charlie was just like Sam. 'Kiddo, you know it's not normal to like homework right?'

'Who wants to be normal?!' she scoffed with a cheeky smirk at Dean and Sam laughed.

'Can you help me with it Sam?' she asked.

'Of course I will Honey.' He said pulling a chair out for Charlie and then one for himself. Sam and Dean shared a grin over her head, acknowledging their shared relief that her first day had gone so well, before Dean realised he was dangerously close to a chick flick moment and he cleared his throat awkwardly and averted his gaze.

'Well, I guess I'll go get some snacks for the brainiacs.' Dean said heading off to the kitchen. Sam just smiled indulgently and focussed on Charlie's science project.