Even just the chapter title is ominous this time! Giving me shivers! And it really doesn't bode well for Sam does it?
Warnings: Bullying, self-harm, swearing
Disclaimer: See chap 1
Beta: Little Miss Artist
Word Count: 2,000
Chapter: 14/21
Next Update: Friday
Textus
Chapter 14: Pushed Too Far
When Sam awoke in a foul mood, he just knew that it would be a bad day. He wasn't sure what told him so; it was just a gut feeling. And, as a hunter, he'd been trained to always listen to his gut.
He'd gotten dressed as always and only spent a moment to wonder on why none of the usual morning noises were coming from Dean's room. Dean was noisy in everything he did, even getting dressed, but that morning Sam couldn't hear a peep. He brushed it from his mind as he walked quickly down the hallway.
The first thing that caught his eye in the kitchen was a small square piece of paper sitting on the kitchen table.
Sam,
Sorry, car emergency – had to go into work early. You'll have to walk.
~Dean
Sam read over the note several times before it actually sunk in. He glanced over to the clock – twenty minutes until school started. Twenty minutes to complete a usually half hour plus a bit walk? Had it really been such an emergency that Dean hadn't even had the time to wake him up? Anger welled up in Sam. That was just like Dean to leave a note and think naught of any other consequences his actions might have. What did he care if Sam got in trouble for being late again? Why would it matter to him that Sam was very quickly moving to the top of Mr. Newman's most hated students list? And that was definitely not a place one wanted to be, as Mr. Newman could be incredibly strict, sometimes to the point of being downright mean.
This wasn't helping.
Sam took a few deep breaths before grabbing his school stuff and setting off. He walked very quickly and kept checking his watch like time would suddenly jump ahead if he didn't check it every minute. He was running out of time. Had he remembered his homework? Did he print out his project for science? What if he hadn't brought his homework and Mr. Newman started really hating him? What if he got detention? What if-
Sam stopped his increasingly paranoid thoughts. It wasn't helping anyone, least of all Sam. He calmly told himself that he had in fact gathered all the necessary school supplies the night before, as he usually did.
He'd be fine…just so long as he made it to school on time.
Sam was just about to resort to running when the school came into view. He sighed and started to relax until he heard the first bell ring. Immediately, Sam began sprinting, his backpack bouncing against his back in time with his feet on the pavement. The second bell rang just as he neared the school doors. He was late.
That was just great.
Sam slowed down as he entered the school, he didn't need to get in even more trouble by getting caught running in the halls. He jogged up the stairs and rounded a corner before coming to a stop in front of Mr. Newman's class room. He gently pushed it open and held his breath, preparing for the worst.
"Samuel!" Sam cringed. Yup, Samuel never meant anything good was coming.
"It's Sam," Sam snapped before he even registered what he'd done. Both Mr. Newman and Sam's eyes flew open, but Mr. Newman did it out of anger, while Sam was just surprised with himself.
"What did you say?"
"I prefer Sam, is all," Sam said lightly, trying to seem harmless.
"Yes, well, Samuel, I prefer students to be on time to my class but it seems I don't get what I want either now do I?"
"Sorry, Sir, it won't happen again," Sam said, wishing he could just sink into the floor.
"I highly doubt that," he said coldly, "Now take a seat." Sam hastened to obey and nearly tripped over himself in his rush.
"Pass forward your homework," he called. Sam felt a rush of relief. Good thing he'd taken care of it last night or he'd never have remembered.
After turning in their homework, they all worked on a vocab activity while Mr. Newman graded their homework.
For once Sam felt confident that his homework was as good as it got. He'd worked extra hard on it in an attempt to make Mr. Newman like him a bit more. There was nothing worse than going to a class with someone who not only held a large amount of power over you, but hated you as well. Besides an A+, at least a 97, on that homework would pull his overall class grade up to an A.
"Five minutes left, class, everyone pass forward your papers while I pass back homework," he said as he went around handing out papers. When he stopped in front of Sam, Sam was filled with a sense of foreboding. Mr. Newman dropped the paper on Sam's desk with an icy smile before moving on. Sam slowly flipped over his paper to look at the grade.
96.
An A.
Most people would be more than satisfied with a ninety-six, but Sam had really wanted at least a ninety-seven to pull his semester grade up to an A. What had he done wrong? He'd spent so much time on that one sheet of paper he couldn't possibly imagine what he'd gotten wrong.
He scanned down the paper until he came across red ink. In a messy scrawl, it said '-4 points, Don't be late again.'
Sam looked up to see Mr. Newman, who had finished handing out papers, staring right at him. As much as Sam wanted an A+, a 96 wouldn't have bothered himnearly as much if it was what he earned. If he had made mistakes, he only had himself to blame. But that wasn't his fault. That was just his teacher being a jerk. He could have just given Sam detention or something. There was no need to take it out on his perfectly executed homework. He would have gotten a perfect 100 if Mr. Newman hadn't decided to be an ass and take four points off for something completely unrelated to the homework!
If he was in a bad mood when he woke up than he was in a downright foul mood by then. When the bell rang, Sam stood up quickly as exited with a glare. He stormed down the hallway feeling rage boil up inside of him.
He saw Mike, Stubble and Blondie standing by a locker, seemingly waiting for someone. Sam just wasn't in the mood that day. He was just going to ignore them…no matter what they said, he'd ignore them. He closed his eyes as he passed, praying they'd let him go just once.
"Hey, Samantha!" Mike called once Sam was a few feet past him. Sam's eyes flew open. That was too close to home. It had never really bothered Sam when Dean called him Samantha, just as it had never really bothered him when Dean called him Sammy (no matter how much Sam protested otherwise.) But it was much different coming from Mike's dirty mouth. Like soiling something secret between Sam and Dean only.
"What do you want?" Sam snarled.
"Well see I've got some homework that needs doing and I need someone to do it."
"No way in Hell," Sam said instantly. What did they think he was? Their personal nerd? Sam rolled his eyes before turning away from them.
"Hey, shit-head, don't you turn your back on me!" He yelled, grabbing forcefully onto Sam's shoulder.
Sam wasn't sure why he did it. He should have thought about the consequences, but he didn't. He should have thought about what Dean and John would say, but he didn't. Sam was just so pissed about Mr. Newman and his already bad mood was quickly getting worse and that was just the spark on the rocket.
Sam whipped around and decked Mike right in the face.
The force knocked Mike back causing him to stumble into a locker. Several of the nearby students stopped to look and a few even began cheering Sam on.
Stubble and Blondie were on him almost instantly, but Sam held them back with a punch to the stomach each. Suddenly people were patting Sam on the back and someone shot a hand out and raised Sam's wrist above the crowd like he was a returning hero. Apparently Sam wasn't the only one who was sick of Mike.
The cheering crowd died down all of a sudden and people started parting to let someone through.
Sam looked up right into the face of Mr. Newman.
"Come with me, Samuel," he said curtly before turning. Sam was tempted to say no way in Hell again, but managed to refrain himself. He was already screwed, no need to make things worse.
Sam quietly followed Mr. Newman to the principal's office where he was instructed to wait. Sam sat down in one of the chairs in the hallway and wondered what was going to happen. He felt like a little kid in trouble for throwing dirt at someone on the playground. Only at that age, they'd just say don't do that and move on.
"Sam, can you come in here for a moment?" the principal said. The principal, Mr. Burke, was a tall, skinny man with black hair and brown eyes. He was the type of principal everyone liked who was all about school spirit and didn't go around snapping at students. "Please have a seat." Sam sat down in one of the two chairs across from Mr. Burke, the other chair being occupied by Mr. Newman.
"In your words, Sam, what happened?"
"Um, well…um…" Honestly, Sam wasn't quite sure what had happened. All his rage had just boiled over and he'd lashed out at the nearest person. It was all kind of a blur to Sam.
"Sam?" Mr. Burke prodded.
"He provoked me, Sir, and I haven't been having a great day and I just sort of lashed out," Sam said, settling on the truth. "I really didn't mean anything by it."
"I'm sure you didn't, but, Sam, this school doesn't tolerate fighting at all," Mr. Burke said, though his tone was gentle.
"Yes, I'm sorry, Sir, I'm not sure what came over me."
"You're father has been called and should be here soon. I can tell this isn't typical behavior for you, Sam. Almost all of your teachers have said nothing but good stuff about you and you're still relatively new to our school, so I'm going to be a bit more lenient than I normally am when it comes to fighting. I'm going to give you a two day suspension, and seeing as tomorrow is Friday, we'll start it next Monday, okay? That way you can have tomorrow to catch up with your teachers and get any work you'll miss. You're excused from the rest of today as well."
"Thank you, Sir."
"We all have bad days," Mr. Burke said with a wink.
"What? That's it? A two day suspension? Sir, I implore you to reconsider!" Mr. Newman cried in outrage.
"I'm quite satisfied with the punishment, Mr. Newman. Besides, I'm sure Sam's parents will have more to say on the subject anyway. Please return to your class," Mr. Burke said, dismissing the history teacher. Mr. Newman glowered for a minute before stalking out of the room.
"Sam, you're welcome to wait for your father in the hallway," Mr. Burke said. Sam nodded silently and got up. Once in the hallway, he sat in the same seat as before and prepared himself.
Sam would take Mr. Newman any day over the wrath of a very pissed off John Winchester.
TBC…
P.S. I don't know exactly what would be reasonable or unreasonable in this situation for punishment, but I believe a 2 day suspension is what you get at our school plus it worked with my timeline so whatever *shrug*
Review Replies:
Cartoon Cow: Congrats, first again! I agree, Sam's hair was better before he got rid of the bangs, made him look younger and more adorable!
Tripoli: Yeah, I know, Dean would probably have demanded something a long time ago, but I needed it to be like this, so let's just say Dean's hurt-little-bro radar needs a new battery! It'll kick in soon though, once I get a chance to swing by the guilt-trip hardware store ;)
1axzdyz3dgftw1xLSNx3dg1xMGG: I know what you mean about this making you sad sometimes. I have to make sure I'm in the right mood to write this or it'll seem to peppy for Sam's current emotional level.
Judyann: Are you psychic or something? You were indeed right that the next chapter would not be good for Sam. He's finally had it!
OutTonightAndForever: I agree, I hate when people just suddenly have their characters totally switch moods without leading up to it – drives me crazy! Unfortunately, it's gonna get worse between Sam and Dean :(
Sammy4evacausehesawesome: Aww, you made me smile so much! But, sadly, no I don't have a book out, though I am working very very hard to remedy that situation so maybe in a few years! Not too much longer, I promise, just a chapter or two. As you can tell by this chapter Sam won't last much longer as this rate.
Gord and V: Totally, the prank sounds funny until it happens to you. Then it's totally demoralizing. Dean won't take too much more, but he won't find out in a way you're expecting ;)
Hummingfox: Sam will spill his secrets, but it might not be Dean who makes him ;) You're just gonna have to wait to see. But, no, it won't end well for Sam either way.
TinTin11: Don't worry about it, I know what you mean. We lost power for a bit and had some minor flooding from Irene so I totally understand. Thank you for taking the time to go back and review!
LeighAnnWallace, sarah, Sparkiebunny (thanks for letting me know about TinTin11) : Thanks guys!