Dean's walk was brisk, but controlled. He couldn't risk running with the two passengers that were stowed away in his hood, but hedid need to go faster than normal. The hood swayed steadily behind him, Sam and Oscar's small bodies only a bare weight he could feel against his back from time to time.

He bit into the remainder of the granola bar he'd split between them. There wasn't any breakfast at the school, so they needed to find their own food in the morning. Granola bars were one thing that Sam didn't have a problem with even at his reduced size. Cereal was a little weirder, since Sam couldn't exactly eat a bowl of it and otherwise he'd just be eating chunks of dry cereal. Dean made a face at that. Lucky Charms just weren't the same if you had to eat the marshmallows and the cereal separate.

The walk to the school was an easy path at the very least. The sidewalk from the motel lead through a suburban development and on the other side lay the high school they'd temporarily enrolled at. The teachers never seemed to believe Dean when he pointed out that he wouldn't be staying long enough, but it didn't matter. He'd be gone in a month no matter what they said or did.

Before reaching the housing development, he came up to a red light and paused, watching the early morning traffic fly by. People rushed to their jobs or their homes. He forcefully mashed the button on the traffic light, waiting for the light to signal pedestrians. It wasn't worth trying to dart across the lanes like that. Sam and Oscar would get tossed about and if Dean ever got hit by a car…

Well, he might survive. His brother wouldn't.

"You guys hanging in okay in there?" Dean asked to the air, for all intents and purposes coming across as talking to himself. None of the cars would be able to hear the others reply, therefore he didn't give a damn what they thought. He needed to know how they were before they reached the school and he wouldn't be able to talk to them at all.

Oscar flinched and looked up in surprise, but then lost track of the answer than almost yelped out of him. He caught sight of the sky, between the folds of the hood. He'd seen images of it on the TVs in the motel, but he had never seen the sky itself. It caught him off guard for a moment. He even thought he might have seen a glimpse of the top of a tree out there, though with the hood offering only small views, he wasn't sure.

"I-I'm fine," he squeaked out. He wasn't sure if he could be heard over the sounds of the cars out there. The tires barreling along the cement, kicking up miniscule pieces of gravel, were so loud from this side of a motel room door.

He took a few breaths of fresh air. That, at least, was a comforting side of the new sensations out of the motel. He wasn't prepared for any of it, had no idea what to expect, and felt very vulnerable even with Dean right there. But the fresh air was nice after living his life in the closed, stale air in the motel walls.

"We're fine, Dean!" Sam shouted up in turn. He backed up the shout with his best kick at the wall they were leaning against; or in other words, Dean's back. He might not be able to feel every move they made, but that should do the trick.

The cadence of walking resumed as the sound of car engines idling started up. Instead of rushing by, they were waiting for the teen to make his way across the road during the red light. Dean didn't waste any time, and the hood swayed in the air as he went.

Oscar huddled down further, trying and failing to pretend that the swaying didn't bother him. It was so weird. He recognized the cadence of human footsteps from being on Dean's hands before. But this swaying was even more than up on the shoulder, because Oscar and Sam were basically hanging there in a makeshift hammock. At least the cloth was thick and comfortable, and it kept them warm.

He kept looking straight up, catching every glimpse of the sky that he could. Once he was past the familiar sounds of rumbling car engines and the creaks and groans of the metal behemoths, he picked up other sounds. Grass whispering, tree branches rattling, the quiet breeze playing with both. He even heard birds chirping with more clarity than he'd ever heard before.

When his neck got sore from looking up for so long, he lowered his gaze, finally remembering the granola in his hands. Eating in the morning wasn't something he often did. Breakfast was nice, but Oscar usually pushed his meals to as late in the day as he could, because otherwise the pain of hunger could keep him from getting enough sleep.

Now, though, Sam and Dean were letting him visit. He could probably get more food from them after they returned and he helped Sam practice some more. He'd make sure to earn every bite, but for now, he started in on his breakfast with a tentative nibble.

"Once, I almost coulda had a whole bar of this to myself! I could see it under the dresser, someone dropped it. I was waiting for the humans to pack up and leave so I could go get it, but they noticed it and picked it up," he explained in a rush, keeping his voice down despite the thought that it was probably already barely audible to someone outside the hood.

Sam bit into his own granola, chewing thoughtfully. He was still trying to wrap his head around the way Oscar lived compared to them. Instead of an open room being welcoming, it was huge and expansive, full of unseen dangers and the possibility of humans grabbing him. Food was a scarcity instead of something expected.

"You can take some home if you want," Sam offered. "I mean, Dean's not gonna mind. And granola lasts longer than pizza or Chinese. You won't have to worry about eating it before it goes. That way, you don't have to worry about dragging an entire bar through the vents!" His eyes went a little wide, trying to imagine pulling something so relatively large for any kind of distance.

Oscar grinned, his whole face brightening with the simple offer. "It wouldn't be that heavy," he mused, though the thought of not having to worry about someone noticing him taking it and causing trouble ... that was worth a lot by itself.

Sam and Dean continued to amaze him with how kind they were to him. He was just a little kid with nothing he could offer them in return except showing Sam how to climb a rope, which he probably could have figured out on his own eventually anyway. He'd have gotten too restless waiting around all the time.

"Th-thanks, that'd be really good, I gotta try to fill up my pantry," he answered. He glanced up at the particularly loud sound of a bird, probably scolding Dean for daring to walk too close to its tree or something like that. Animals always protected their territory, Oscar knew.

The sound of the birds and the trees started to fade as Dean's morning journey neared its end. A distant roar of humanity began to replace the peaceful background as students milled around the school building.

This was the one time that Sam grew nervous. He curled into a ball closer to Oscar, trying to reduce the chances that they would be noticed by the gigantic humans outside. Dean usually managed to cut through crowds unhindered, but there could always be a first.

The hood swayed more than ever as Dean navigated the throng of high school students, doing his best to not attract attention. He was only a freshmen, which always made an easy target. Unlike Sam, though, people would avoid Dean. It was something in his eyes… a hardness that a teenager shouldn't have so early in their life.

Sam put a supportive arm around Oscar's shoulder. For a child that was raised away from humans all his life, this must be terrifying.

"We're almost there," Sam reassured him. "The worst part is almost over."

Oscar was quiet and almost completely frozen when he nodded. It was the instinct in him that made him sit so still. He was drawn in as close to himself as he could, hands tight around his half-eaten breakfast. But his mind wasn't on food for once. It was on not being noticed.

Human voices surrounded them. Loud, boisterous, young human voices. Any one of them could squash Oscar and Sam both in one hand or stomp them under a shoe. Being lost in the schoolyard would be a nightmare. They were toy-sized to these kids. Dean was the only thing standing between them and the tiny passengers in his hood.

When the lighting above them changed and the air took on a different scent, Oscar relaxed a hair. The sound of a door closing behind Dean's brisk walk told him they'd made it into the building without incident. "Oh thank goodness," Oscar breathed, slumping a little. "N-no one noticed."

"Told ya we'd be fine," Sam whispered back. "No one ever pays any attention to Dean other than the girls, and they aren't gonna pay any attention to his hood."

Even so, he and Oscar stayed close, Sam's arm protectively around the younger and smaller kid as Dean strode down the hallway. A door creaked open on the outside and the lighting changed once more to the brighter hues of a classroom with open windows.

Soon, Sam thought to himself. Soon Dean would be sitting in the back and it would be safe to try a quick trip up to his shoulder to peer fugitively around the room and see the world.

Dean avoided the teacher's disapproving glance as he came into the class at the tail end of the students. He was one of the last ones to seek out his seat, but there was always one waiting for him in the back of the room. Right now, he was the new kid. An unknown, and from the look he always had on his face, not one to be messed with.

He was always aware of the slight weight against his back as he walked. No one else even suspected that there was two other kids with him. People that would be in danger if they were seen, but deserved to venture out into the world and breathe fresh air just like anyone else.

Dean slapped his notebook down on the desk in the back and sat in his seat. The hood was high enough on his shoulders and neck that it didn't get disturbed as he slouched down, trying to blend into homeroom.

Oscar could hear other human kids again, but this time they weren't so loud. Most of them were quieting down pretty quickly, in fact, which helped his nerves to settle down enough to get back to nibbling on his breakfast. An actual breakfast. It had been a while since he'd had one.

The room was filled with all new noises, some of which were familiar and some of which weren't. He heard what he thought might be someone scratching away at paper with a pencil. Rubber shoes squeaked against the tile floor, like they would in the motel's bathrooms. Humans sighed, shifted in their creaky seats, and moved papers around.

There were a lot of them. Oscar heaved a sigh, trying to unwind his nerves. He had a feeling they'd be riled up most of the day, if he was going to be stuck in a hood. He just couldn't help the instinct that told him humans were dangerous and he shouldn't be around this many at once. At least he had someone protecting him. Without Dean or Sam there Oscar would already have curled into a ball.

The teacher started talking in the background. Sam took advantage of morning announcements to separate himself from Oscar and snag the remainder of his own breakfast. "They'll start teaching soon," he mumbled around bites of the honey flavored grains. "First they start with announcements around the school. Football games, any events that are planned… not that Dean'll go to any of them."

Sam watched the ceiling from where they were sitting, only just able to make out the plain grey expanse stretching overhead. "Then when she starts teaching, I'm gonna sneak up and see if I can see the board," he confided in the other kid. "If Dean's in his normal spot, his left shoulder should be out of sight unless anyone looks behind themselves, and I can keep the folds of the hoodie up to block me from sight."

Oscar almost choked on his last bites of food. He took a few breaths and stared at Sam with wide eyes, waiting for him to reveal the punchline. But he wasn't joking. Sam really did intend to climb up out of the hood to see what was going on.

He was going where anyone could look over their shoulder and see him. Oscar couldn't think of a closer parallel to sticking his neck out too far if he tried. His brow furrowed with worry and he looked up. "B-but ... what if someone still sees you? Then they'll find us and maybe they'll take us away." His voice, though it wound up with nerves, remained as hushed as ever.

"It'll be okay!" Sam defended himself. "I won't get seen. And even if anyone looks at Dean, they never look at his shoulder." Especially the girls, Sam had started to notice with all the extra time he spent with his brother. The girls got hung up staring at his eyes. Nothing else ever seemed to exist, even the tiny kid hiding from them.

He brought himself to a wobbly stand in the bottom of the hood and put the remainder of his granola down on the steep surface. "I'm always careful. And Dean wouldn't let anyone take us away from him. He's gonna be a hunter, after all. He's ready to defend us if he needs to!"

Oscar stared at Sam with some awe and skepticism battling for dominance on his face. He seemed so sure of his claims, and once again Oscar found that Sam's confidence made him feel a little more confident, too. Somehow, despite being small, the older boy wasn't nearly as fearful of everything as Oscar was. He wished he could be like that.

He glanced only once at the wall beside them that was Dean's back. But that was enough for Sam to start climbing up the hood. Oscar gasped and hastily tried to follow, despite his better judgement. His fingers easily wove between the thick cotton threads, and climbing was easy enough. Even being surreptitious was something he understood and was good at.

The hard part was being out in the open again once they reached the top fold of the hood.

Light from the bright fluorescents above assaulted Oscar's eyes, and gave the room an extra surreal look to it. A big board of dark material was fixed to the farthest wall, and the others were covered in bright colored posters with math facts or multiplication tables that went a lot higher than Oscar had memorized.

His focus was immediately on the other desks, of course, primarily their occupants. Humans. And so many of them. Some leaned casually back, others leaned hunched forward, and others were trying to sneak folded bits of paper to each other. Oscar didn't know where to look. There were so many enormous teens shifting in their seats while the adult droned on in the front.

"Ohh, too many," Oscar muttered weakly, lying on his stomach before he even climbed all the way up to Dean's shoulder. He slid back down into the hood where he immediately felt safer.

"Oscar!" Sam hissed in surprise, disappointed. He tried to spot the other kid, but he was already gone from sight at the bottom.

Dean shifted in his seat, trying to see what was going on down by his shoulder. Sam punched against his shoulder, letting him know they were fine. The teen settled down, absently scribbling doodles on his notebook instead of paying attention to the teacher. Sam rolled his eyes, but didn't bother lecturing Dean.

He shifted a fold of the shirt so it would block him from the kids in front of Dean, then relaxed flat on his stomach to watch the teacher for a bit. His eyes were wide, taking in the information that was given. He might have been downsized, but he never wanted to stop learning. He could clearly remember the days when he'd been able to sit in a classroom like this at the right size, and he missed it.

Plus, Dean clearly wasn't paying attention. Someone needed to.

A/N

If Dean's not going to watch the teacher, Sam's gonna do it for him! As crazy as Oscar thinks he is. Poor Oz, there's a few too many kids around to feel safe.

Next: January 13th