A/N: Hello dear readers! I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, but I had no internet at all, my parents wouldn't let me go visit my aunt, so I couldn't use her internet... BUT I got home yesterday and my beat sent this back to me this morning, so here you have the next chapter... Thank you a lot for your awesome reviews, and all the favorites and follows this story has been given. A person asked me on tumblr how long I'm planing this story to be, and I will tell you that for now I have no idea, as I said before I want things to happen with time, and I have this written until chapter 19 -and I've got the plans for the 20th chapter- but I don't know how much more chapters I'm going to write until the end of this story. I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, but now I can only hope you had an amazing one ~or any other holiday you celebrate~ and hopefully I'll have the next chapter before New Year, but in case I don't... HAPPY NEW YEAR for all of you! May 2014 be good for you, with lots of love, hapiness and fanfictions ^-^
Sorry about so much text, but I needed to let you all know about it, and wish you all a great year.
Please review this chapter, and tell me what you think about it! ~Even if you don't like it... Let me know to see what I need to change in the future~
Chapter 17 – Reminiscence
He might be ready to change himself for the better, but that certainly didn't include skipping classes. He had always been proud of his track record of barely missing a class -unless it was absolutely unavoidable.
Dean ran as quickly as he could, trying not to knock anyone over yet not really caring if he did. The hallway was almost empty apart from two or three people who were grabbing some books from their lockers. Dean just didn't want to be further delayed. He was in the doorway of his classroom as soon as one could run from one side of the school building to the other. He stopped, briefly caught his breath, and knocked on the door.
It opened to reveal Mrs. Mosely, who gave Dean a rather disapproving look.
"Do you think that now is the time to arrive at your class, Mr. Winchester?" She asked him, trying to make him feel bad for being late. Dean gave her a sheepish smile.
"I'm sorry. I was talking with Mr. Lafitte about some school work. I promise it won't happen again." He assured as he walked to his usual spot.
The lesson went by smoothly; nothing much happened, no one picked on him –he guessed that having the King of school claiming your ass made everyone slightly more careful in their actions. But a phenomenal improvement was that he answered what Mrs. Mosely asked the class; mainly because there was no one else brave enough to speak to her.
It was only at the end of the lesson he remembered that he still needed to talk with Bobby and tell him that he would be going to work later during the near future.
"Hey Bobby, it's me." He told his uncle as the other answered the phone with a gruff "What?". "I was just calling to let you know that I'll be staying behind after school… Yeah… Everything's fine. I just– I know I promised I would help with that car… I'll do it as soon as I get there. –As I was saying, and would have probably have hung up by now if you hadn't interrupted me, I'm just going to get better at something. I'll tell you all about it later. See ya." He liked to work with Bobby. They had always been pretty close and working together was always fun; he had taught Dean everything he needed to know about cars, so that Dean could help in the shop too. There was always something funny happening in there- either someone who thought their car was damaged beyond belief, when it was actually something as simple as bad connection between the motor and the engine, or because the problem was actually something simple like a bad radio connection that would take them merely five minutes to look at and fix. And there were also the breaks, where they would stop for a while and just tell stories about anything they remembered, or talk about their day. Often it was just Dean telling Bobby about how big Sammy was getting, and just how smart his younger brother was. Every other day, Charlie would come by and give them company, because they had always been close to each other and knew each other better than most siblings actually do. They always knew when the other needed comfort or they were in a bad mood or they just needed a good laugh.
Dean was so excited for the end of school day that he was almost jumping in his spot. The classes passed by slowly, making it hard to concentrate, though he kept trying. When lunch came by he sat himself, outside, in a bench with Charlie next to him.
"You know, I'm going to miss this…" Charlie pointed out.
Dean frowned and looked at her.
"What do you mean by that?"
Charlie chuckled.
"No need to get that worried, Winchester. I'm not going anywhere; I just meant that when we finally graduate in two years and two months I'm going to miss the days when we ate lunch together outside to avoid the outrages number of people that eat in that god damn cafeteria. Hell! I'm even going to miss the days when we ate in the cafeteria!" She explained to him with a fond smile in her features.
Dean smiled right back at her –clearly relieved that Charlie wasn't planning on going away–, and pushed up a little closer to her, in order to rest his head in her shoulder.
"Is there any reason why you thought about that now?"
Charlie shrugged.
"Not really… I was just thinking about when we used to be in kindergarten and we went everywhere together, refusing to part… Gosh… Those were the days!"
"Yeah! Do you remember when I finally let you sleep next to me?" Dean asked her, a smile gracing his face as he remembered the past. "You were so happy that you peed whilst you were sleeping."
Charlie looked to him amused.
"Must I remind you that the one who peed was you?"
A light shade of red crept onto Dean's face.
"I was dreaming that I went to the bathroom!" He whined, as Charlie laughed loudly.
People passing by them found it odd that Dean and Charlie were being so loud. It wasn't something that happened every day. It was like they had emerged from their cocoons, deciding to act as pronounced as possible, not giving a moment's notice to the people staring at them.
"I will remind you of that every time you decide to tell that story. I will tell your kids and grandkids how you peed on your bed and then told everyone it was me, when they were all staring at you!"
They were still laughing loudly when Balthazar approached them. Dean suddenly got tense and positioned himself as close to Charlie, to make it easier to protect her in case he tried something funny with them.
"I see you're having fun!" Balthazar smiled, sitting himself down near Charlie. "I was wondering what was so funny… Maybe you could tell me!"
For a second, Dean feared that Charlie would say that he peed on his bed when they were five, but he should have known better. Charlie wasn't going to tell anyone, especially not a Novak albeit the story was trivial, he didn't need to give them another reason to tease him. Charlie just ignored Balthazar and kept facing Dean.
"Oh! Wow! I'm feeling ignored, guys. Could you look at me at least?"
Dean grabbed Charlie's hand and pulled her close to himself. When her face was near enough, he whispered in her ear something that Balthazar didn't catch.
"What did you say? I couldn't hear you from here…" He tried his best to make them face him. When he noticed how hard Charlie was trying not laugh, Balthazar looked at the beautiful green grass near their bench and sighed. "I guess that today isn't my day. Everyone just keeps ignoring me."
Charlie couldn't keep it anymore. She let out a sharp laugh and then it was on. She couldn't stop laughing and after a few seconds Dean was laughing too.
"Are you laughing at me?" Balthazar asked incredulous. "I can't believe that you guys would do that!"
Balthazar's pouting only made them both laugh even harder. Which caused Balthazar to huff in annoyance.
"You guys suck!"
Charlie finally faced him a smile still in her face, making her look a bit younger than her fifteen years.
"You know what? What we just made you go through isn't half of what you make us face on a daily basis. Don't like it? I suggest you stop making us feel even worse." She told him in all seriousness and shoved him out of their bench, laying down on it, placing her head on Dean's lap, who started lightly massaging her head. "Damn Dean! You can give a goddamn good massage! You just got hired by your Queen as her official masseur."
Dean laughed slightly at the mention of their game. They used to role play their favorite characters while growing up. And even after many years, they would still mention the moment when Charlie decided she was the Queen of a land called Moondor and that everyone had to obey to her. And now Dean got a very important position in the Queen's life in Moondor.
"Oh, your Majesty, I can't thank you enough for offering me such a prestigious position. I accept the challenge and I will try to make everything better with my massages!" Dean answered in his mocking voice.
Charlie laughed obnoxiously hard to his statement and his voice.
"Holy crap Dean! You always make me laugh, but you haven't made me laugh this hard in a long time. What was so good about today?" She asked. When Dean tried to make her laugh as much as he did that day, it was usually was because something good had happened and he felt as good as one could possibly be, so she had to wonder… What had happened?
Dean smiled brightly at her.
"I decided that I want to be strong." He told her.
Charlie smiled back at him.
"I'm glad you idiot! I was getting sick of watching you get beaten up every day." She looked at Dean, with her smile fading from her face. "Are going to be strong everywhere or just at school?"
Dean's smile was wiped from his face with her statement, and his eyes searched the ground for nothing in particular.
"You know I want to be strong everywhere, but there's too much at stake in there. I can't decide to change with him having the possibility to beat up Sammy. You know that I can't do that." He stopped, and raised his eyes to meet Charlie's. "You also know that I wish I could change that too. But I can't lose Sammy. I can't do that."
Charlie gave him a comprehensive smile.
"I know Dean… I just wish things were different." She was going to say something else, but she stopped once Jo got closer to them.
"Hey, Charlie! Can you help me with my chemistry homework?" She asked right after greeting them.
Charlie smiled at her and got up.
"Sure. Let's go inside that it's starting to get cold here." As soon they were off, Dean continued eating his lunch, alone.
It didn't take long for Balthazar to walk back to the bench. He sat himself close to Dean and started talking to him.
"You look pretty happy!"
Dean wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone that could possibly make him mad. He was too happy to let it be ruined.
"What do you want?"
Balthazar feigned hurt.
"Is that how you talk to everyone that comes to you?" Once Dean didn't answer, he continued. "I just wanted to ask you what happened to Cassie this morning. He's acting weird ever since he came back from following you."
"I didn't do anything to him." His eyes hardened with the memory of that morning's events. "I just refused to be controlled by him. I won't take it anymore. You can stop coming after me; I won't do what you want and I don't care if it upsets you." With that, Dean stood up and left Balthazar alone in the bench.
"Did he just say he won't be controlled anymore?" He asked himself, pondering the boy's odd behavior. He also realized he had just been left-no, abandoned-on this bench. "And did he seriously just leave me here?!" He sighed, stretching out on the bench as he mulled things over.
What the hell happened this morning? His whole attitude is different! I can't believe that he stood me up! And most importantly, what's Cassie going to do, now that Dean won't let himself be controlled by anyone?! Is he going to make us do something weird? God, I hope he won't make me do something stupid again!