Thank you too all the reviewers your words have been really encouraging.

Faltered Chapter 8

Jim and the Winchester boys sat at breakfast the next morning in stunned silence. Jim had kept the boys at his house before but not for a stay of undeterminable length. He hadn't even seen the boys for a number of months, John had asked that he stop coming out to the farm to teach the boys.

Jim wasn't angry he was just flustered.

"Boys the same rules apply as always. You get up at six help around the house. You go to bed at eight unless I say otherwise. You attend church on Sunday. You bath once a week. You mind your behavior and you are not to go in the cellar."

"Yes Sir." Sammy smartly responded. Dean nodded his head but did not quite look at Jim, he never did.

"Alright." Jim mused for a moment as the boys started to clear the dishes.

He had always seen Dean as damaged. He couldn't help labeling the boy.

Even after being his theology teacher for years Jim still imagined Dean as a child raised by wolves unable to communicate, to interact with his peers, to only do as commanded: sit, eat, sleep.

It made Jim feel guilty he knew Dean wasn't stupid, it was just he did not compare to Samuel who would surely be an advanced student.

Today they would find what both the boys were really capable of.

"Grab your hats boys we're going to see the school mistress." Jim stood up from the table.

"Really?!" Sammy asked excitedly. He'd always wanted to go to school with the other children in town, Pop had always said no.

Dean's expression didn't change, his eyes remained as serious as they were when John dropped the boys off the night before.

Jim found the intense expression it a bit unnerving.

"Yes, as my first act as your temporary guardian I'm going to see that you boys attend to school."

Dean never like going into town. Pop rarely ever brought them to town. Maybe he was like Dean and he didn't like the looks that the people into gave him.

Pastor Jim was walking Sam and him over to the school mistress's house. Dean could feel people looking at him as they passed on the sidewalk. Sammy didn't seem to notice, he was too excited about getting to go to school.

Dean didn't really want to go to school. He didn't see how it was important; he wanted to continue training like he had been with his Pop.

But if Sammy was going to school then Dean would go to school to watch out for him. How bad could it be anyway?

Jim stepped up the stairs ahead of the boys and knocked on the door to the small house that was next to the school. After a second, a little blonde hair girl no more than ten years old open it.

"Good morning Pastor." She greeted.

"Good morning Josephine is your mother about?" Jim inquired.

"Yes." Josephine opened the door wide so that the pastor and the boys could enter the house. "Mama the Pastor is here."

The school mistress came from the back of the house.

"Jim what brings you here?" She greeted warmly.

"Ellen…" Jim started but didn't get a chance to finish.

Dean saw the warmth go out of the woman's eyes and a cold stern look replace it. It worried him.

"Jo go to your room will you?"

"Yes mama."

Ellen turned and took her three visitors into her parlor where they all stood.

"What can I do for you Jim?" Ellen said intently.

"Well Ellen you see this is Samuel and his brother Dean."

"Yes the Winchester boys I know." Ellen did know, she had heard all about the eccentric John Winchester and his children.

"Yes well I would like them to attend your school." Jim said as pastorally as he could.

Ellen hitched her eyebrow a bit. She was a tough woman, she always had been. Sam stood close to his brother this woman made him nervous.

"Have they had any schooling before? Can they read and write?" Ellen had no idea what John Winchester had been doing with the boys way out on his farm she highly doubted that he was teaching the boys their multiplication tables.

"They can, you'll have to test them though to see at what level."

"Yes fine. Who is going to pay for them?" Ellen asked bluntly.

"Well I was hoping…" Jim put on his most charming smile

"That's what I thought." Ellen shook her head.

"Children we have two new students today. This is Dean and his brother Sam." Mrs. Ellen introduced the two Winchester boys who stood with her in the front of her classroom.

The students all started whispering to each other. They had all seen the two boys in town, had all heard their parents speak of them in hushed voices.

Ellen held each boy by the shoulder, she felt the younger of the two starting to tense while the older seemed to want to make himself as small as possible.

Ellen had tested both boys the day before, to see if they could read and write, add and subtracted. It was obvious from their tests that they had been taught. She was amazed because from what she'd seen John Winchester didn't seem to be the nurturing teaching type.

She had enjoyed meeting Samuel; he had bright eyes and a curious spirit. He reminded her of their mother. Mary had been one of Ellen's close friends growing up.

Dean was another story. Ellen knew all about what had happen to the boy, what had happened to Mary and their family.

Still sitting with him and trying to talk to him was heart wrenching. He didn't say a word to her didn't ask questions, didn't answer questions. He didn't look at her.

Ellen could have cried when she thought back to the first time she'd gone to see Mary and her new baby. He had been beautiful with lots of light hair and light eyes. Mary had been overcome with joy, even John had seemed wonderfully happy.

Ellen had gotten to hold the small baby and he'd yawned and stretched and fallen asleep in her arms comfortable and content with the world.

The boy in front of her was not comfortable, everything about him screamed discomfort from his posture to the way his eyes shifted never focusing on her even when she spoke to him.

Ellen couldn't help but wondering if he was capable of doing the work, but when she gave him the written test, he past. His handwriting was poor but legible. His writing was simple and his math crudely scratched out, but it was there and for the most part it was correct.

So now she was trying to ease both boys into the class as gently as possible.

"Go take the seats in the back boys." Sam led the way down the row of desks to the back where he and Dean took seats next to one another.

Sam was glad they were sitting in the back, that way he didn't have to feel like they were being watched.

He'd seen the kids all staring at them when they were upfront.

He didn't like feeling different.

Dean was so uncomfortable it was making his skin crawl. He sat huddled down in his seat trying to imagine being anywhere but with all of these strangers.

He wished he and Sammy could go back to their little home at the edge of the woods.

He wished he hadn't been such a failure then maybe Pop would have let them stay in at home.

Then they wouldn't have had to stay with Pastor Jim.

Then he would be sitting in a classroom with a bunch of strangers who stared at Sam and him.

"Here you go." A strange voice cut through Dean's thoughts and he looked up at where it was coming from. It was the little girl from the day before the school mistress's daughter.

"Mama said to give this too you." Josephine held out a slate board to him.

Dean looked over at Sam who was already writing on his own slate. Looking back to Josephine, Dean uncrossed his arms and accepted the board.

Then with a smile and a flash of her golden hair Josephine was gone.

Dean sat alone in the back of the classroom holding the gift he'd been given unsure of what he was suppose to do with it.

TBC…