Chapter 7. On Their Way
Sam watched the scenery as the bus made its way down the highway. He couldn't believe that he had actually made it. This was the first normal thing that his father had allowed him to participate in besides going to school and he couldn't get rid of the smile that was on his face.
He was sitting next to Daniel on seats in the middle of the bus. In front of them sat Matt and Mike. The four boys had made sure that they were seated together so they could talk the whole way there.
Sam was glad that Dean had made a friend in Jay because that meant that Dean hopefully wouldn't pester him or embarrass him. Not that he thought of Dean as an embarrassment but he did realize that Dean was not like most people and he wanted to appear as normal as possible to his friends.
He turned around in his seat and saw that Dean was seated in the back row right next to the window. Jay was sitting next to Dean and next to Jay was a blonde girl that Sam didn't know. Jay and the blonde girl were talking and Dean was staring out the window watching as the scenery whizzed past him, with his ear phones from his walkman stuck in his ears.
"How long have we been on the road?" Daniel asked.
Sam turned back to his friend and looked at his watch, "I think about an hour."
"Which means we have about an hour to go," Mike said, turning around and poking his head up above the back of his seat so he could look at the two boys.
"Actually it's an hour and nine minutes," Sam corrected.
"Same difference," Mike muttered.
"Mr. Baker, sit down properly in your seat this instant," Mr. Graham said crossly, walking down the isle of the bus.
"Yes Sir," Mike said quickly turning and sitting down in his seat.
Mr. Graham came to a stop in front of the four boys and stared at Sam for a moment making him uneasy.
"Sir have I done anything wrong?" Sam asked uncertainly
"You're Samuel Winchester yes?"
Sam eyed the teacher warily then answered, "Yes."
"I have heard some good things about you Mr. Winchester; make sure you don't follow your brother's lead."
Sam raised his eyebrows /what the hell is that supposed to mean?/ he thought. He knew that his brother didn't exactly like school and had gotten into more than his fair share of trouble with some teachers but as far as he knew Dean's grades weren't always that bad. He remembered now that Mr. Graham was one of Dean's teachers. /well he certainly got on the wrong side of this teacher/ he thought.
Mr. Graham looked at Sam for a moment more, like he was expecting an answer, then moved back to his seat with the other teachers at the front of the bus.
"What was that all about?" Daniel asked once Mr. Graham was out of earshot.
"I dunno," Sam answered, turning around in his seat to see if his brother had seen what happened.
He found Dean looking in his direction, ear phones now out of his ears, and caught his eye, silently asking what the hell he had done to piss the teacher off. All he got was a shrug of the shoulders for his answer, so turned back around to Daniel.
Dean, Jay and Lynda looked on as Mr. Graham walked away from Sam and back to his seat. Dean shook his head at the audacity of the man. What right did he have to say that to his brother? Just because the old man obviously didn't like him didn't mean he had the right to say anything to Sam.
The man was acting as if Dean was a real troublemaker and other than his sarcastic wit and lack of interest in economics Dean couldn't think of anything he had possibly done to get on the bad side of him. But like Miss Northam had said, Mr. Graham happened to be a grump /Understatement of the year/ Dean thought.
"Well you haven't made a very good impression with Mr. Graham," Lynda observed.
"Yeah that's my mission in life to make a good impression to my teachers," Dean replied sarcastically.
Jay laughed, "Well you're doing a good job there."
"I never like to do anything halfhearted."
"How old is your brother Dean?" Lynda asked, curious to know more about him.
"He's thirteen. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
"No but I live with Dane and Mike."
"How come you live with your cousins?" Jay asked.
"My parents died and my Uncle and Aunt took me in," she told them sadly.
"Sorry … about your parents," Dean told her sincerely. He had already lost his mother and he didn't know if he could take it if he had lost his father too. He didn't want to think about that.
"Thanks."
"You said you have a sister didn't you Jay?" Dean asked trying to steer the conversation away from the morbid topic.
"Yeah I have a little sister called Stacey, she's a brat."
Dean laughed a little at that. He looked back over at Sam and saw that he was chatting away and laughing with the boy sitting next to him. He looked really happy and relaxed and Dean thought that despite the fact that he really, really didn't want to be here, it was worth it to see Sammy enjoying something. He would try to convince himself of that for now anyway.
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Caleb pulled into Jim's driveway after he got back from dropping the boys off and made his way into the house. The whole way home he had been thinking that he had been glad that he was never made to do anything like that when he was at school. It had been eight years since he had graduated high school and he hadn't looked back. He couldn't say that he missed it one bit and he got the feeling that Dean was going to be the same.
Sam on the other hand seemed to thrive at school. He loved to learn and he was quiet handy to have around when research was needed to be done for a hunt because he got right into it and nine times out of ten he was spot on. Dean on the other hand, although extremely intelligent, enjoyed practical learning rather than book learning. He was always looking for action.
As he walked into the lounge room he found Jim sitting on the couch reading a book and John no where to be seen. Jim looked up when he heard Caleb come in.
"How'd it go? I assume you made it on time," Jim asked, putting down his book.
"Sammy was in so much of a rush I was afraid he was going to jump out of the car before we stopped," he laughed.
Jim laughed, "So they got on the bus okay."
"Yes although Dean still wasn't too happy about it, where'd Papa Winchester get to?"
"He's just out the back checking something. He should be in any minute."
Just as Jim finished his sentence John walked into the room, "Speak of the devil …" Caleb stated, causing John to raise his eyebrows.
"The boys get on the bus okay?" he asked the younger hunter.
Caleb rolled his eyes, "Doesn't anyone trust me around here? Of course they got on the bus okay."
"Right, good," John said putting his hands on his jean clad hips, "I guess we can get going then."
"Sure if you're ready. Let's hit the road."
Jim stood up to walk them to the door, "You two be careful out there," he warned.
Caleb picked up his duffle bag and then looked at Jim with a smirk, "We're always careful."
"Hopefully it won't take us too long," John stated as he also picked up his duffle bag that he had left by the front door.
"I'll see you when you get back and John don't worry about the boys, I'm sure they are already having fun." Jim told him smiling.
"Well Sammy probably is anyway."
"See ya!" Caleb waved from down the driveway.
Jim watched the two hunters walk down the driveway for a moment before closing the door and heading inside. He found it amazing. One minute his house is full of people, the next it was empty again. He went back to the couch and returned to reading the book he had been reading before getting up and doing some work in his church.
Once they were further down the driveway Caleb turned to look at John, "So which car are we taking?"
"It doesn't bother me. We can go in yours if you want."
"Great! I just put a new stereo system in," Caleb announced waggling his eyebrows.
"Terrific," John said sarcastically, "Just let me get some ID's out of my truck and we're good to go."
"Okay."
John opened his truck and opened up the secret compartment in between the two front seats and took out a few of his fake badges, just incase he needed them. Once he had them he locked up the truck and headed to the Charger. Once he was satisfied that he had everything he needed he sat down in the Charger and winced as music started blaring from the speakers as soon as Caleb started the engine. He reached forward and turned down the volume a few notches.
Caleb looked at his mentor insulted, "Dean appreciates my music."
"Yeah well you're a bad influence," John joked as Caleb pulled out of the driveway.
"I learnt all I know from you," Caleb replied, smirking.
John just laughed as they took off towards Rock Creek. They had nearly an hour and a half drive ahead of them and John decided to use this time to re-read over Caleb's notes, while Caleb sang along to his music.
TBC ...
Well there's chapter 7 ... hope everyone liked it :-) seeya soon !