Chapter 11. Reputation
Everyone was currently finishing their dinner in the dining room so this was his chance to put his plan into action. He had been thinking all day about how he was going to make sure his brother was protected while he slept. It wasn't as if he could put a circle of salt around the kid's bed. For a start he thought Sam might kill him and secondly he didn't think that it would stay there very long.
Most of the morning had been spent checking out the place and although Dean had spent most of the day with Jay he was also keeping on eye on Sam but trying to not be obvious about it. After everyone had been called in for lunch, which Dean hadn't really cared for, the teachers had told all the kids to take a seat in the classroom. From that point on they had explained exactly what was going to happen in the coming month.
They were going to split into 4 groups, 10 kids per group. The groups were then assigned colours of Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. Mr. Graham had mentioned something about competitions. He had to admit that he felt rather pleased with the group he had been put in. He was put in the red group alongside Jay and Sam and some other kids that he would meet formally the next morning.
In fact he was extremely happy because if he had of been stuck in a group with Dane for a whole month he would have gone crazy. Now all he had to do was compete against the guy and Dean was quite confident that he could kick the guy's ass in anything he put his mind to.
Back to the mission at hand he slipped quietly out of the dinning room and headed straight for the stairs but was stopped when a voice called him. Turning around at the base of the steps he saw that it was Mr. Graham.
"Where do you think you are going Mr. Winchester?" the old man asked sternly.
"I just needed to go to the bathroom Sir."
"There is a toilet downstairs right next to the classroom that I'm sure I showed everyone."
Dean's eyebrows narrowed, "No Sir, I don't think you did. I am already halfway up the stairs and I wont be long," he tried to convince as he really needed to get up stairs.
Mr. Graham gave him an irritated look, "Very well then but no funny business!"
"Wouldn't dream of it Sir," Dean muttered to himself as he began making his way up the stairs again.
"What was that?" the teacher asked from the bottom of the stairs.
"I said thank you Sir," Dean answered back already reaching the top of the stairs and out of view of the cranky old teacher.
Once he was on the 2nd floor Dean walked quickly to his room and over to his bag and pulled out a medium sized bag of salt. Once he had what he needed to headed to Sam's room.
As he entered the younger boy's room he saw his brothers back pack on the top bunk of a bed near the window. He walked over to the bunk and grabbed Sam's bag, throwing it to the floor. He then proceeded to lift the mattress of the bunk and place it on the floor. Lifting himself up he proceeded to pour salt on the wooden edges that held the mattress.
Earlier that day when he had been trying to figure out a way to put a protection circle around his brothers bed he had realized that if he put the salt on the wood that held the mattress up then he wouldn't have to worry about the salt being wiped away because the mattress would hold it down and Sam would remain in a protective circle the whole time he was asleep. And on the plus side he wouldn't have to worry about embarrassing his poor brother because no-one would even know it was there. He was quite proud of himself, it was the perfect plan.
"What are you doing in here?" a young voice asked making him jump, just as he was placing the mattress down carefully so as not to disturb the salt.
He turned around quickly and saw a young boy about Sam's age standing before him. In fact if he remembered correctly he was one of Sam's friends.
"Matt …" he began but was cut off.
"It's Mike. So what are you doing in here?"
Dean took his walkman out of his pocket and held it up for the teen to see, "Batteries ran out Sam brought some extra ones along," he lied.
"What's the salt for?" Mike asked eyeing the salt bag that was still sitting on the floor.
Dean looked down at the offending bag of salt, "Oh that's an inside joke between me and Sammy. If you wanna know, ask him," Dean said picking up the bag of salt and moving past the younger boy intending on leaving the room.
"My brother said you were a freak," Mike commented making Dean turn around to face him.
"Your brother huh? Let me guess you're a Baker," Dean said shaking his head. /Trust Sammy to make friends with the brother of the school's biggest jerk off/ he thought. Mike just nodded.
"Yeah well kid I'd rather be a freak than be related your brother," Dean retaliated with a smirk and then walked out of the room.
Sam noticed that towards the end of dinner that his brother had disappeared and he really hoped that he wasn't up to something that was going to get him into trouble. Mr. Graham already had enough against him, he didn't need more. Dean returned not long after his little disappearing act and joined Jay and a couple other boys at their table.
He was both happy and apprehensive about being put in Dean's group. At least he had Daniel in their group. He seemed to be the least judgmental in his group of friends so even if Dean decided to be a pain in the butt it wouldn't be too bad.
After dinner the teachers allowed everyone to do their own thing since official camp activities were to begin the next day. Miss Northam had said that they may as well get accustomed to the house for the first night.
Which brought him to where he was now, sitting down with Daniel and Matt waiting for Mike to come back down from upstairs so they could start a game of Monopoly.
"Here he comes," Daniel said pushing his glasses back up on his nose for the hundredth time.
Both Matt and Sam looked in the same direction as Daniel to see Mike walking into the room. He had an amused look on his face.
"Hey Sammy," he greeted as he sat down Indian style next to the board game.
Sam frowned, "Since when do you call me Sammy?"
"That's what your freako big brother calls you don't he?"
"Dude will stop calling him a freak," Sam said getting irritated.
"Dude he was in our room doing something to your bunk and he had salt with him," Mike explained, "That's weird if you ask me."
"Yeah well nobody asked you did they," Daniel replied, "Now are we gonna play Monopoly or what?"
Sam glared at Mike for a moment longer then looked at Daniel with a tight smile, "sure."
"Great I'm the cannon," Matt said straight away, grabbing the game piece out of the box.
"But I wanted to be the cannon," Mike argued back already forgetting the little altercation with Sam.
Daniel rolled his eyes as the two squabbled over who was going to be the cannon. He looked over at Sam and was about to joke with him about it when he noticed that he still had a frown on his face.
"Dude I've told you before just ignore him. He only says that shit to get a rise out of you," Daniel whispered to him while the two other boys continued to argue of the small plastic piece.
"I'm fine. Let's just play and …" Sam raid reaching over the board and snatching the cannon out of Matt's hand, "If you two cant come to a compromise then I'm gonna be the cannon."
"Hey!" they both said at the same time.
"That's it, Sam's the cannon. You two pick another piece each," Daniel told them, as always the voice of reason within the group.
Sam smirked in Mike's direction and once the game was underway he looked over to where Dean and Jay were sitting. Jay was laughing at something his brother had obviously said. He was going to make sure to talk to his brother first thing in the morning.
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John hung up his cell phone as Caleb walked through the motel room's door. The younger man looked like he had something to share.
"Well I'd say there is definitely a connection between the victims," Caleb said as he sat down at the small table by the window, "I just finished talking to relatives of …" He looked down at his notepad, "…Jamie-lee Walker 15 and Mitchell Summers 18 and guess what? They both collapsed in the last week and are now in comas, just like that Bradley kid."
John nodded, "I just finished calling another 3 victims on the list that are still in Rose Creek and apparently it's the same thing."
"Did you ask them about any mood changes?"
"No Caleb I forgot to mention it … of course I asked them," John replied sarcastically.
"And?"
"They told me the same thing that Mrs. Kearns did."
"So did Jamie-lee and Mitchell's parents."
"Okay so I'm thinking that this isn't just a coincidence."
"Ah no I doubt that and I think my original guess what right. I think we are dealing with some type of possession," Caleb told him, "but why suddenly do the victim's collapse after what … 2 years?"
John thought for a moment and then looked back at Caleb, "Well I can't be sure because I'm not even sure what type of possession we're dealing with but if we're dealing with spirit possession then maybe that's as long as the spirit can hold on before the body collapses."
"Possible. I mean I've dealt with spirit possession before but not for this amount of time," Caleb said running his hands over his newly shaven head.
"Well I know that all the kids went to the local school here. I rang the school and we have an appointment for tomorrow with the Principal," John told him standing up from his seated position on the bed.
"Good," Caleb replied, "What are we this time oh wise hunter?"
John smiled, "We're reporters doing a story on the currently hospitalized students."
"Oh, no more Uncle Johnny?" the younger hunter asked cheekily.
"You want to play nephew, fine then you can go out and get us dinner."
"Why can't you do it?"
"Because I asked you to and good little nephews obey their Uncles," John replied with a smile on his face.
"Who ever said I was good?"
"I did … so get going."
Caleb stood up and pulled his car keys from his jacket pocket, "It sucks being your pretend nephew," he grumbled as he made his way out of the motel room.
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In Dean's opinion it was way too early to be awake, let alone standing outside but here he was with 39 other students waiting for the teachers to get organized. He hadn't been impressed the night before when they had all been sent to bed by 8.30 pm. For a Winchester that was way too early. Not that he had actually gone to sleep at that time. No, once he was sure everyone was asleep he had gotten out of his bed and rifled through the secret compartment in his bag to find his home made EMF meter. He knew he was probably being over cautious but it wouldn't hurt to at least check once. He had turned off the volume so that no-one heard what he was doing. Mike had already caught him putting salt around Sam's bed so he really didn't want to get caught walking around with an EMF meter, not that anyone would really know what it was anyway.
"Okay People listen up I want the red group to go stand by Miss Northam, yellow group stand by Mr. Taylor, green group stand by Mrs. Connors and blue group you're with me," Mr. Graham explained.
Dean, Sam, Jay and Daniel joined the rest of their group over where Miss Northam was standing. Dean counted himself lucky again that he didn't get stuck with Mr. Graham as his team leader.
"As I told everyone yesterday, for the remainder of your time here you will be in your groups. To keep things interesting and fun as well as educational, there will be competitions between groups every couple of days. You'll be given the chance to work together as team and there will be prizes for the best teams."
"Tomorrow afternoon a basketball tournament will be held," Mr. Graham told them looking down at his itinerary, "Red verses Yellow and then Blue verses Green. The winners of those two matches will win the first camp prize. Miss Northam Your team may use the basketball court for practice first. The remaining teams, your teachers already have activities planned. That's all, enjoy yourselves."
As soon as Mr. Graham had finished his long and boring speech the other teams dispersed to different parts of the camp.
"Okay kids, lets head to the basketball court then shall we," Miss Northam said smiling, leading the way to the basketball court at the side of the building.
"So far not so bad," Jay commented from beside Dean as they followed their group.
Dean looked at him, "yeah basketball I can do."
Dean looked ahead and noticed that the girl in front of them had turned around and was walking backwards. Dean looked her up and down as she continued to stare at Jay. She was really nice. Her long wavy hair was almost black and tied back in a pony tail; she had sparkling blue eyes and a damn good body which looked really nice in the jeans and fitted t-shirt she was wearing. Dean thought she looked about 16 or 17.
"What do you want Brat?" Jay asked the girl bringing Dean out of his daydreaming.
"Oh I was just wondering why I had to be put in the same group as you," She replied a small smile on her lips.
"To punish me, little sis, to punish me,"
Dean looked at Jay, "Sister?"
"Yeah I told you I had a little sister."
"Yeah but dude I thought you meant little sister … I was thinking more Sammy's age."
"She's a year younger than me," Jay explained.
"She is right here," the girl sniped at her brother.
"Sorry Stacey, this is Dean Winchester, Dean this is my little pain in the ass sister Stacey," Jay introduced.
"It's nice to finally meet you," Dean said giving her one of his most charming smiles, causing Jay to roll his eyes.
"She's a brat."
"Shut up Jay," she replied sticking her tongue out at her brother.
"She doesn't look … seem too bad to me," Dean said as he continued to watch Stacey walk backwards.
"You don't look bad yourself Winchester," she added with a wink, "Too bad I already have a boyfriend."
"God kill me now," Jay muttered as his sister flirted with his new friend, "Wait since when do you have a boyfriend?"
"Since Dane Baker asked me out last week."
"What?"
"You heard me."
Dean looked at Jay then back at Stacey and he'd been a big brother long enough to know when an argument was about to occur. Not wanting to get in the middle of a sibling quarrel that didn't involve his own brother Dean patted Jay on the back.
"I'll meet you at the court Dude, nice to meet you Stacey."
"Yeah," both siblings replied as he continued walking with the group.
Sam stood at the edge of the basketball court and listened as Miss Northam explained that she wanted everyone to do some warm ups before they began. Sam hated warming up. He always had. Their Dad had drummed it into them since he could remember to do warm up stretches before any physical training and he did understand the importance of it but it didn't mean that he liked it.
He felt someone come and stand beside him and he didn't need to turn and look to know that it was Dean. His brother had a presence that he could sense straight away.
"You can't ever get away from doing warm ups, even here hey Sammy?" Dean whispered in his ear and Sam once again didn't need to look to know that Dean had a smartass look on his face.
"For the last time it's Sam!" Sam whispered back harshly.
"Sorry Sammy you can tell you self all you want that you're a Sam but you'll always be a Sammy."
"Alright everyone start with the warm up exercises that I just showed you," Miss Northam addressed the class, causing both boys to stop their chatter for a moment.
Sam sighed and finally looked up at Dean with an annoyed expression.
"What?" Dean asked, not quite sure what he had done this time to receive the look he was getting.
"I need to talk to you," Sam told him grabbing his arm and dragging his brother over to the side of the building.
"What?"
"What the hell were you doing in our room last night with salt?" Sam demanded in a hushed tone so he didn't alert attention to them.
"I put salt around your bed … well actually I put it around underneath the mattress. It should stay there with the mattress holding it down."
"Dean, for God's sake, can you please get a grip!" Sam exclaimed.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he asked raising his voice to a loud whisper.
"It means that we are on a school camp, nothing is gonna get us and I would prefer that my friends didn't think we were a bunch of freaks."
Dean frowned down at his little brother, "This is what this little tantrum is about? You're worried about your reputation?" he asked angrily.
"Come on Dean!"
"No Sam, don't 'come on Dean' me. It's my responsibility to make sure you're safe and until I know for sure that this place is safe that's what I'm going to do. That's what I'm here for."
"Can't you ever just be normal?" Sam asked raising his voice a little.
"Can't you ever stop bitching like a girl?" Dean retaliated.
"Boys, is everything okay over there?" Miss Northam asked as both Dean and Sam glared at each other.
"Everything is fine Ma'am," Sam answered first.
"Good, could you two please join the rest of the class." She asked, realizing that everything was not fine with the brothers but decided not to push it for now.
Sam stomped back over to where Daniel was doing his warm ups and began his own. Dean stood still in the same spot for a moment trying to get his temper under control. When he felt he was calm enough he walked over but not entirely joining the group and began doing some warm up stretches. He really wasn't in the mood to be around people after his little run in with Sam but he didn't really have a choice in the matter.
Sleep seemed to be evading him that night and dinner had been crap just like the previous night at camp dread as Dean and Jay had begun calling it. It had been a long day especially after his argument with Sam. He couldn't believe that he had walked away from Jay and Stacey to avoid a sibling argument and walked into one with his own brother. He still couldn't believe the ungrateful little shit. The only reason he was even here was because Dean was here and under strict orders to keep him safe. And when his Dad ordered him to keep Sammy safe he meant from everything, which meant Dean had to cover all the bases, normal and supernatural.
Neither brother had really spoken to each other for most of the day which had pissed him off even more because he hated fighting with Sammy. But fighting with Sammy seemed to be the theme since the kid had hit adolescence. The only difference was that usually the fighting was going on between their Dad and Sam not Dean and Sam. He was starting to understand how his Dad felt sometimes.
Jay and Stacey seemed to be fairing a little better than the Winchesters; at least they were still talking to one another. Thinking of Stacey, he couldn't believe that he had never noticed her at school and that Jay had never pointed her out or introduced him. She was definitely a looker and she was fiery, which are two qualities that he liked in a girl. Just so happens though that this particular girl was his friend's sister and his newfound enemy's girlfriend. Nothing seemed to be going right for him at the moment. What a cool chick like Stacey saw in Dane he didn't know but Dean had never had any trouble getting other guys girlfriends to like him before, maybe he should use his skills to save her from her poor choice in boyfriends. It was just a thought.
He turned over in his bunk when sleep still wouldn't come. He heard a whole lot of different snores coming from different parts of the room. He couldn't remember ever sleeping with this many people in the same room before. It was disturbing and he was just glad that he didn't suffer from nightmares very often or that could very embarrassing.
He pushed himself up on his elbow and looked through the window. From where he was he had a good view of the back yard area, the clothesline and just the beginning of the forest. He was about to lay back down when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He squinted to see in the dark but it looked like two figures walking across the yard and towards the forest. /Didn't Mr. Graham say that the forest was off limits?/ he thought as he watched the two walk across the yard. After a moment of watching he was sure that one of the figures was Mr. Graham him self and he looked like he was leading the other person, who now looked a lot like Mr. Taylor.
"What the hell?" he whispered to himself.
He watched as the young gym teacher was lead to the edge of the forest. Dean lost sight of them as they made their way down the path.
Curiosity almost got the better of him because he was so tempted to get out of bed and follow the two teachers but he realized that if he got caught he'd be in some deep trouble. Besides Sam was probably right, they were just at a school camp, what could happen? Mr. Graham and Mr. Taylor probably just had to discuss something with Mrs. Chipshaw. He laid back down on his stomach, with his hand underneath his pillow. Underneath the pillow his hand was wrapped around the hilt of a small blessed dagger. He knew that he would be in even bigger trouble if he was caught with a knife but he had been sleeping with one for so long that he thought he would probably have had even more trouble falling asleep if he didn't have it with him. Besides it wasn't as big as the one he usually slept with.
He yawned into his pillow and suddenly realized that he was starting to get tired. As he eyelids began to close, his last thought was that he was going to talk to Mr. Taylor tomorrow to make sure nothing weird was going on.
TBC...
Well there it is ... it's starting now :-) let me know what you think :-)