Sara shoved some hair out of her face and attempted to concentrate on the calculus book in front of her, but she may as well have been reading a foreign language. She groaned, her head collapsing onto her folded arms.

"You're telling me," Alex groaned from across the table. She was chewing on the end of her pencil. A half empty Red Bull sat beside her on one side, her not even half finished homework on the other side.

"Maths is my worst subject," Sara mumbled.

"Um, hello?" Claire called. She was sitting on the counter, eating a sandwich, an open History book in her lap. "At least you guys don't have a gigantic test tomorrow."

"It's not fair for them to give Sara this much homework," Alex complained. "It was her first day!"

The phone rang, and Sara was closest, so she reached over and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, kiddo," Jody said. "How was your first day?"

Sara groaned again.

"That good, huh?" Jody asked sympathetically.

"Do you know calculus?"

"Not even a little," her foster mother continued. "Did you try using the internet?"

"Yeah, to make ourselves disappear!" Alex called, and the girls laughed.

"You'll get the hang of it," Jody assured her. "If you need help, though, you could always Skype Mrs. Tran. She's the smartest person I know."

"Good idea, maybe we'll try that," Sara said.

"Well, I wish you good luck. I just wanted to call and let you girls know I'll be working late tonight. There's some cash in an envelope on top the fridge – why don't you girls order some pizza?"

"Sure. Want us to wait up for you?"

"Nah, you girls go ahead and eat, I'll grab something when I get home." She paused. "And Alex better not be drinking that Red Bull stuff again."

Sara slid her eyes to the now empty can, and to where Alex was opening another. "Nope."

"Alright. I should be home by ten or eleven. I'll see you all tonight."

"Sure thing, Jody. See you then." Sara hung up.

"Pizza?" Claire asked, and Sara nodded. Claire picked up the phone and dialed the number to order.

They took a break long enough to try and call Mrs. Tran, who didn't pick up. They left a message, and called Sam, who also didn't pick up.

"We're doomed," Alex acknowledged. "Tell Harrison Ford I loved him."

"Is Jimmy Carter the one who was screwing the blonde chick?" Claire asked.

"That was John Kennedy," Sara said. "This isn't even my country and I knew that."

"Seriously, Claire, your history knowledge is pathetic," Alex agreed.

"Forget it," Claire said, closing her book and jumping off the counter to open the door for the pizza delivery guy. "I'm transferring to Hogwarts."

They ate their pizza on the porch, watching the sun start to set. Alex's cat was curled at her feet, and an ancient stray bloodhound that Jody found lay under the porch steps, panting.

"Do you think Jody would be mad if I got a puppy?" Claire asked.

"Claire, you couldn't even take care of a goldfish," Alex reminded her.

"That's different. A puppy would actually bark when it's hungry."

Sara couldn't help but laugh, choking on her drink and coughing as Alex hit her back a few times, Claire rolling with laughter.

"Having fun, ladies?"

Sara coughed a few times, startled – she hadn't heard her father approach. She held up a finger, and took a drink, clearing her throat. Claire laughed and kicked her feet up, while Alex looked uncomfortable.

"Um, hi," Sara said, clearing her throat again as she sat up.

Crowley lifted the pizza box lid, examining the contents, smothered with cheese and every topping known to man. "Dinner for champions," he acknowledged.

"We're seventeen," Claire said. "What'd you expect? Filet mignon and caviar?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Are you absolutely positive your Castiel's?" he asked. "Not Dean's?" He turned to Sara. "I presume you're ready for our exercises?"

"Right, demon training," she groaned. "I completely forgot. I've been hung up on other things."

"Other things?" he frowned.

"Calculus," Claire elaborated.

"Calculus," he repeated slowly, as though having trouble accepting the fact this his all-powerful half demon daughter was struggling with her maths.

Sara turned bright red. "They don't kid around with their homework here in the states. Is it okay if we reschedule the whole demon training? Sir?" she added as an afterthought. Best show some respect.

He stared at her for a long moment, and sighed. "Well, show it to me."

She frowned. "What?"

"The calculus. Show it to me."

Sara was shocked, but wasn't going to turn down help. The girls stood, leading the King of Hell into their living room, and headed for the kitchen. They sat around the table, and Crowley looked over the homework, frowning and glancing at the book.

"This is wrong," he began, pointing at the first problem. "You're using the wrong formula. You need to be using the area of a parabolic segment . . ."

The girls listened intently, scratching and erasing where they were wrong and correcting their mistakes. Sara was trying to keep up, but couldn't decide what was more bogus – the fact that her evil, villainous demon father from the literal depths of hell was helping her and her foster sisters with their calculus homework, or the fact that he was actually being patient about it. The hate Sara held for him in her heart ebbed a little as he took her pencil, erasing the problem on her paper and helping her correct it. Was she wrong? Did he actually have potential somewhere in his twisted soul?

She reminded herself how long she was alone, and swallowed the pain, concentrating on her homework.

At one point, Alex's phone rang, and she jumped up, turning bright red.

"I'll, uh, I'll be just a minute," she said quickly, practically running from the room.

"Boys," Claire shrugged, kicking her feet up on the table. "Say, Mephisto," she said, looking at Crowley. "How are you at History?"

Jody Mills was exhausted. Four extra hours of chasing petty crooks and running around DA offices was enough to exhaust someone, of course. She was expecting to come home, grab a piece of cold pizza, find the girls watching some crappy movie or tweeting or whatever the hell kids did, and then she was going to bed.

She wasn't expecting to find the demon King of Hell in her kitchen tutoring her kids.

They must have finished their calculus, because they had their history books open and were jotting down notes as Crowley described in extreme, gory detail exactly what Mesopotamian sacrifices entailed.

"What's going on here?" Jody frowned, standing in the doorway.

The girls and the demon looked up, almost guiltily, as though they'd been caught doing something naughty.

Jody looked at her watch. "Girls, it's eleven thirty. Shouldn't you be getting ready for bed?"

"Sorry, Jody," Alex said guiltily. "We were getting help with our homework."

Jody was beyond shocked. She looked at Crowley, eyes wide and eyebrows raised. "You helped them with homework?"

"Hey, don't be mad," Claire said, standing and gathering her books. "Thanks to Johnny Blaze here, I'm going to pass tomorrow's history test. Night." She headed for her room. Alex stood, looking apologetic, and gave Jody and small shrug before following Claire.

Sara started the gather her stuff as well. "Um, thanks," she said to her father after an awkward moment of silence. She hurried out of the room, and Jody looked at Crowley, who looked touched and confused all at once.

"Did you see that?" he asked as Jody headed for the fridge with beer on her mind.

"See what?" she sighed, grabbing two and setting one in front of the demon. If anything she was a decent host.

"For a moment, she didn't look like she completely resented me." He popped the top off his beer. "I call that progress."

Jody sighed. If there was one thing she prided herself in, it was her mom speeches. And here she was, getting ready to give one to Crowley.

"Crowley, listen," she began. "Sara may be powerful or half demon, or whatever. It's not important. What is important is that she is also your daughter. She's been without a father for a very long time. She's going to start out with harsh feelings toward you. You're getting one chance at this. What I'm trying to say is, before treating her like a protegee, treat her like a daughter. Get to know her. Find out what she likes, what she doesn't like. What makes her happy. And never, ever just disappear from her life again. She may be willing to forgive you a first time, but she definitely won't be willing to get her heart broken a second time."

He raised his eyebrows, surprised. "You do realize who you're talking to, yes?" he gestured at himself. "King of Hell? Demon? Worst of the worst?"

"What you do outside your life with Sara isn't a concern, as long as you don't put her in danger," Jody said sharply. "Look, the boys told me what went down a few years ago. Human blood junkie, right? They also told me," she continued, rolling her beer bottle behind her hands as he glowered at her. "That you've been a bit more lenient in your feelings since then. Dean told me how you treated that girl, Amara. Like a kid. Or whatever. The Crowley I know – you know, the one that tried to kill me? Ring a bell? – that Crowley wouldn't be attempting to make a connection with Sara. That Crowley would have abducted her and done whatever he wanted to use her power. The fact that you're trying so hard here leads me to believe maybe you're not as big of a mega douche as everyone thinks you are." She shrugged and took another sip of beer, waiting for Crowley's reaction.

He slid his hand a bit closer. "You know," he began slyly with a smirk. "Our first date may not have gone that well . . ."

Jody smiled sweetly. "Keep dreaming." She stood. "I'm going to bed. Get the hell outta my house."