Continued….
When he walked in the front door he was met with a dozing Sam on the couch. When he asked for Dean the boy merely pointed towards the bedroom. John opened the door and saw Dean asleep facedown on a history book. Not wanting to argue tonight anyway he wrote a note for Dean to come home afterschool and went out to the living room and told Sam to go to bed. This was a good thing as it would give John time to organize his thoughts and prepare a better argument and plan if necessary. He fell asleep reading all of his notes.
After Sam bedded down for the night, Dean flipped the book closed and pulled out the car magazine he had bought on the way home. His little asleep while studying act had surprisingly worked. He was more than a little shocked that he had fooled the great John Winchester. Damn him for trying to screw up his plans.
The next day Sam came home alone. "Dean?" John dared ask. Sam just shrugged.
He hesitated wondering what to do; go to the school and drag him out or just wait and nail him when he got home. He really didn't want a scene at the school but this had been the second day in a row that Dean had defied him and he certainly couldn't allow that. He went over and grabbed his keys and headed to the car, he had to take back control.
John practiced his deep breathing exercises all the way to the school. He would remain calm and get Dean home where he could explain the error of his ways. Yeah right John thought like anything in his life could go that smoothly. He couldn't wait to get there yet the trip seemed brief as he pulled up to the school. He knew from his earlier visit that the shop was in the back as so many are. He pulled around and got out trying to get control of his entire being before he faced his son.
He saw a door next to the garage bay door and half expected it to be locked but was pleasantly surprised to find the knob twist and the door to give way. He immediately saw his son bent over the car and the teacher in the corner sweeping up the days labor. He looked up with a questioning face and asked John if he could help him.
"Afternoon, I'm John Winchester and that's my son over there," he said nodding that direction.
"Ahh the prodigy," Mr. Taggert said. "Dean had been working very hard almost too hard."
"Yeah I heard, I actually told him to come straight home the last two days but I see that was ignored."
"Oh I'm sorry I had no idea, Dean didn't tell me."
"It's not your fault; there is just something about that car that has sucked him right in."
"I know what you mean it's like he has fallen under spell."
"That's what I'm afraid of," John said under his breath.
"Well I have been in contact with his other teachers and understand that he isn't doing well in their classes so I told him today that if he wanted to continue to work after school he would have to fulfill his obligations in all of his classes. He was less than pleased but grunted that he would try. To be honest I hope he does because I am losing my workers."
"What do you mean?" John asked.
"Well just this week alone two of the kids got hurt working on that car. One sliced his hand open pretty badly and needed stitches and the other got his thumb smashed and is out of commission. Weirdest damn thing, those two are so careful and to both go out at nearly the same time, well it's just odd is all."
Dean who hadn't even acknowledged John's appearance just kept right on working. John knew this was well beyond normal and he had his hands more than full.
After convincing Dean it was time to come home the two sat on opposite sides of the table. "Come on son you cannot deny the fact that there is something going on with this car," John said pushing his research closer to his eldest.
Sammy looked on hoping his brother would see the light. "Just look at it, Dean please."
"What is wrong with you two, it's a car and I want to get her up and running so I get a good grade. Dad you always want me to get good grades so here I am focusing and now you have problems with it."
John sighed and ran his hand over his head and tried again. "Dean the hit and run, then the car crushed the owner then the other incidents include: the next owner dying of a heart attack when he was sitting at a red light, the parking brake failing and it careened down the street and hit not one but two people and finally the latest one to own the damn thing was found in his garage that was filled with carbon monoxide," John finished hoping Dean couldn't deny all that information.
"The guy would have had a heart attack no matter where he was, they didn't put the parking brake on and it rolled away on a busy street, and a suicide," Dean retorted.
"What about the first two?" Sammy asked.
"The kid wasn't paying attention or was drunk and probably the same thing for the car falling on him. Jeez guys get off my case," Dean said as he got up to leave.
"Sit down I'm not done with you," John ordered.
"Well I'm done," Dean declared.
"Excuse me; you do not talk to me like that. This ends right now, the attitude the back talk and working on that car. You work on it during class time and that is it, no more after school and Saturday's."
"Or what," Dean snapped.
John couldn't believe his ears. "Or we leave that's what," John stated firmly.
Dean just shook his head and left the room. It took every ounce of self control for John not to follow his son and beat the holy hell out of him. Instead he took several deep breaths and smiled at Sam. "It will be okay, we'll get through this, I promise."
The next morning****
John knew he had to get up but couldn't get his body to cooperate. His eyes felt so heavy and his body seemed glued to the mattress. He had spent much of the night wondering what to do with Dean. He needed to get up and tell the boy he had better be home right after school but by the time he coaxed his body out of bed Dean was long gone.
"Were you serious about leaving?" Sam asked as he loaded his backpack.
"I don't want to I know you like it here," John said.
"I will if it will help Dean," Sam said with a tight smile.
John smiled and nodded hoping he could figure it all out before he had to take that measure. He pulled out all the documents he had and began to go over them again, he pulled the phone close knowing he would be seeking all kinds of advice that day.
"Yeah Caleb he is totally different, like he is possessed without being possessed, ah uh, okay, yeah just what I told you. Yeah that's what I was afraid of…yeah that's what Tom said too…okay thanks. I will as soon as I can…thanks I know you will. Okay bye," John said hanging up his fourth call of the day. He called the hunters he knew were experienced and would be honest with him and they all said the same thing; the car was bad news and John had to get Dean away from it before it consumed him.
Dean didn't care what John said he and Betsy were made for each other. Why couldn't the old man be proud he was after all following in his footsteps as a mechanic, damn the man was never happy. He had been ordered to come home after school and it wasn't that he didn't take his father's threat seriously it was just that he couldn't stay away from the shop and Betsy. He was nearly done with her and there was no way he wasn't going to be the one to test drive her, he was too close and had worked too hard and besides she didn't like anybody but him. He had to come up with a plan.
Dean stood in the hallway and batted his eyelashes at Ariel as she passed by. They were in the same math class and Dean had caught her many times gazing at him and it was time to make use of that longing.
"Ariel, I need your help with something. You see I have a project I'm trying to get done for my dad's birthday, but he wants me home after school, but if I'm staying after say for math class he wouldn't have a problem."
"Okay, but what does that have to do with me?" she asked.
"I'll call and tell him I have to stay after for some help but he won't believe me and I was wondering…"
"If I would pretend to be Mrs. Wembly?"
"See you are smart," Dean said leaning into her his green eyes ablaze.
"It's wrong Dean, it's a lie," she argued.
"But all will be forgiven when he sees the end result of my efforts," Dean said convincingly.
Against her better judgment Ariel dialed the number Dean handed to her and acted as if she was his 5th period math teacher who was going to be working with him after school the remainder of the week in an effort to get his grade up. She was convincing and thoroughly enjoyed the hug she got as reward but couldn't help regretting her dishonesty.
Dean was in the clear and in rejoiced in that fact. He practically skipped to the auto body shop. In a few days it would be done. At the other end of the phone John set the handset back in the cradle and faked a smile to Sam. He was a lot of things but naïve wasn't one of them and he had a pretty good idea that Dean had somehow convinced a girl to make that call for him. He looked back over at Sam who was hard at work on his History diorama that he was supposed to present on Friday. They would leave Saturday morning.
Dean got to work fast and by Friday afternoon she was finished. Exuberance flowed from every pore as he turned and gave his teacher a toothy grin. "I'm done," he said proudly.
"Good job, on Monday we start her up and you my boy have the honor of driving her around the parking lot," Mr. Taggert said as he grabbed his briefcase.
But Dean had other ideas; they reached the door when Dean suddenly remembered he forgot something. "I left my math book on the table," he said as Mr. Taggert looked at his watch and sighed.
"Okay hurry up then."
Dean ran back into the garage and found the math book he had intentionally left on the table. He looked at the spare key to the door hanging on the hook in front of him. He then looked back over at his teacher who was rubbing his neck and looking down to the ground. Dean looked back and the key and snatched sticking it in between the pages of his book.
"Ready?"
"Yes sir," Dean said smiling.