As much as I hate to say it, I think this story is going to come to an end soon-ish. And by that, I mean you'll get maybe three more chapters. I might write an epilogue, but I don't know, I just feel like things are closing off. Also, this story is an eventual romance. I love writing the build-up, the confessions of love, the emotional angst and confusion, but I hate writing the afterwards, the couple-y stuff, because then it just gets boring, you know? Depending on how this story is going when I get to the end of what I have mapped out, (I have a story time line to help prevent writer's block) I'll know whether or not I'll keep going. But I mean, if you guys like the story, review! I have no idea if you guys like where the story is headed, if you even care, so I don't know if I should even bother with continuing the story after I get to where I was planning on ending it.

Oh, and as for this chapter, you get a hint as to what you're about to read. Two words: Ball Pit.

Please review, it makes my day.
-Fox

Ali

I rushed back to my room and shut the door behind me, walking into the bathroom so I could shower. I hated swimming pools.I hated everything about them. I hated the smell of sunblock and chlorine, the feel of the water, the lack of air in your lungs. It all brought up bad memories.

I was only seven. It was June, the pools had just opened for the summer, and I had begged my mom to take me. I didn't know how to swim, but that didn't stop me. I stayed in the shallow end doing handstands with my friend Emma. She taught me how, and we would laugh and tumble for hours. But Emma knew how to swim, so every so often, she would go off the diving board a few times. I would watch from the side, cheer her on.

One time, she was gone for longer than usual. She was talking with a girl who looked to be about our age. I got jealous, so I walked over to her. I told her I was going to do a flip off the diving board. At this point in our childhood, flips were the pinacle of cool. Emma pointed out that I couldn't swim, but I'd seen her do it hundreds of times. I figured it couldn't be that much harder than handstands.

I climbed onto the diving board, and as I stood above the water, I could see the light refracting along the bottom of the pool. It had looked so pretty. So I jumped and twisted my body, attempting to flip. But I landed wrong, my arm was hurt. I couldn't move it without excruciating pain. (I'm sure it wasn't really that bad, but to s seven year old, it was hell.) So I drifted in the silky blue-green water, trying desperately to keep my head above the water for what felt like an eternity. Why wasn't someone jumping in to save me, I had thought. It turns out that the lifegaurds had called break and were in the bathroom or something.

I swallowed about a pint of water, and my vision started to fade to black. I remember looking down at the bottom of the pool, my vision blurred and dark, thinking the light wasn't so pretty anymore.

I woke up to a pretty blonde life guard pressing on my chest. I coughed, sucking air into my lungs. I remember Emma looking at me with pity, like I was a kicked puppy. That day has haunted me for eighteen years.

As I washed the chlorine out of my hair, I thought about Sam. I thought about his ridiculously long hair, and I thought about all that plaid. I'd known the guy three days, and not one d=time did I see him without plaid on. Even his baithing suit was plaid.

Then I thought about swimming. I thought about the way he looked at me when I said I couldn't swim, like he couldn't imagine a single twenty-four year old in existence who couldn't swim. I knew it was a bit weird, but I hadn't thought it that weird. I really didn't want to go to the pool with him, but he looked so happy when I had said yes.

But then I had to dig up my old bathing suit I hadn't worn since high school. It was a red one-piece with white polka dots. It was a little small, and rather low cut. I didn't even know why I had brought it, and I kind of wish I hadn't. If I didn't have a bathing suit with me, I wouldn't have had to go swimming, thus never embarrassing myself. Just remembering the pool made my face heat up.

I turned off the shower, grabbing the towel that hung on a railing right outside of the shower. I wrapped it around my body, then grabbed another to wrap aound my hair. I shivered as I stepped out of the steam-filled bathroom into my room. I pulled on my jeans from earlier, but grabbed a different top an oversized sweatshirt. I grabbed my laptop and sat down on my bed, preparing to write about the day so far, but instead I fell asleep.

I opened my eyes, but instead of being in bed with my laptop next to me and the fan swirling overhead, I was back in the clearing in the woods. Instead of the sun rising, like it had been this morning, it was dark, as if it were midnight. I could see the moon hanging in the sky, a brilliant white light cutting through the dark. I looked around the clearing to see Sam and Dean, as well as Jimmy, Carrie, and my mother.

Dean stepped forward, a wicked grin on his face."Worthless demon scum," he said, slapping my face. "You useless piece of trash." I tried to say something back, but all that came out was a whimper. "What, are you gonna cry? Like a little girl?" I whimpered again, and then tears started to fall down my face.

"He's right, you know," Sam said. "What kind of person doesn't even know how to swim? It's literally just moving your arms up and down."

"And you're so stupid," My mother laughed. "You never got a straight A report card in your life! I can't believe you're such an idiot. I always had perfect grades, my parents loved me." My tears were gushing now.

"I-I'm sorry Mom, I tried my best!" I tried.

"Your best obviously wasn't good enough," She spat.

"You're just awful," Jimmy said, joining my mother and the Winchesters. "Why do you think I cheated on you? You're boring, and you're not even that pretty. I was really only dating you out of pity." He put his arm around Carrie who had joined the rest, making a circle of torment.

"You stupid, worthless, ugly bitch," Carrie started. "You killed me and my baby. Thats like, two people. How could you do that? You horrible, heartless demon." And then they all started chanting words. Worthess. Stupid. Idiotic. Demon. Evil. Ugly. Boring. Scum.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I said, choking on tears. "I'm sorry," I repeated. Over and over and over. I felt something shaking me, and the darkness faded as I opened my eyes to see Sam. "Why is it that whenever I wake up, it's because you're shaking me?" I asked.

"We were going to go get some lunch," He said. "We were wondering if you wanted to come. So I came in here, looking for you, and I see you crying and saying you're sorry over and over again."

"Oh, just a bad dream," I say, reassuring not only Sam, but myself as well.

The next week passed in a blur. We did a few more training exercises, and then we went to somewhere in Nevada to kill a nest of vampires. I was still having nightmares, but they weren't nearly as bad. I only sleep-screamed once, which was saying something. I also learned to never refer to the car as simply 'the car'. Dean heard me call it that once, told me something about barrels and 1967, then made me kiss the winshield as an apology to his precious impala.

Things were going great, all things considered. Nothing really interesting happened until one day, as we were driving to yet another motel in yet another town in the middle of nowhere, Dean said something to Sam about a bakery.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Uh, nothing," Sam said, letting me know that it was obviously something.

"What is it?" I pleaded. "Tell me!" Sam and Dean were the last people on Earth I would expect to be talking about bakeries.

"You'll find out soon enough," Dean said. About an hour later, we pulled up to a little bakery and Dean got out, and went inside.

"Where's he going?" I asked Sam.

"He'll be back soon, don't worry." And sure enough, five minutes later, Dean emerged from the bakery with two white boxes in his hands. "Stay here," Sam said, getting out. I let out an aggrivated sigh, but stayed where I was. Sam walked over to Dean, opened the smaller of the two boxes and smiled, closing it again. I rolled down a window.

"Would you two assholes just tell me what's in the damn boxes?" I called out.

"Paitence, young grasshopper," Dean said, smiling. They got back in the car, then Sam handed me the smaller box,while Dean held onto the larger box tightly, as if it might run away from him.

I opened the box to see a slice of cake that had 25 written in green icing. "Guys," I said, my face split by a smile. "How did you know it was my birthday?"

"The first night we met you," Sam replied. "When we were exchanging stories. You mentioned your birthday was November 22nd."

"You remembered that?" I asked, flabbergasted. "And you went all this way just for a slice of cake?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Dean smirked. "We came for the pie. This place makes the best pies in the whole country, and last night I decided I wanted some. But then Sam remembered it was your birthday, so we called and asked them to set aside a slice of cake and to write something on it."

The next few weeks were full of killing and training, moving from one motel to another. I finally got some fake IDs, I even bought a pencil skirt. I learned how to shoot a gun, I memorized the exorcism incantation, I honed my powers, and I realized how hard Sam and Dean had it. They never really got to be kids.

One day I said something about a ball pit, and they both had no idea what I was talking about. The idea that someone never knew the joys of a ball pit really made me think about what being a hunter was really like. I mean, who's never been in a ball pit?

One day, when we had come to a town for training, I told Sam and Dean I had a surprise for them. I made them put on blind folds, then I lead them around back of the motel. "Ali, this is dumb, just let us see," Dean complained.

"In a minute," I tsked. Then I pulled off their blindfolds and stepped back to see their reactions.

"What are we looking at?" Sam asked, confused.

"A ball pit!" I cheered.

"Why are we out here?" Dean asked.

"You two are going to sit there and enjoy this goddamn ball pit," I said, forcefully.

"This is dumb, I'm going back inside," Dean said, walking away.

"Get back here!" I said, grabbing one of the balls, launching it at his head. It hit him in the back of the neck, and he turned slowly.

"Did you just throw a ball at me?" Dean asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Maybe," I grinned. Then I threw one at Sam, hitting his cheek.

"You do realize this means war, right?" Sam said, stepping toward the ball pit and picking up three balls. He threw them at my head, and I ducked two of them, but the last one hit my nose. Dean joined in, but threw a ball at Sam as well as at me. Within minutes, it was a flat out battlefield. I had aimed a ball at Dean and as I threw, Castiel appeared in front of Dean, and the ball bounced off his back.

"Oh hi Castiel, how are you?" I called, laughing. "Care to join the battle?"

"What battle?" He said, looking around. "Why are there plastic balls every where?"

"It's Ali's fault," Sam said, throwing another ball at my face. I ducked, and it flew above my head, hitting a tree behind me.

"I may have fired the first shot, but it was you who declared war," I said, tossing another ball.

"Is that a ball pit?" Cas asked, stepping towards it.

"See guys?" I said. "Even the angel knows what a ball pit is!"

"Ball pits are for small children to sit in, you are not using it right," Cas picked up a ball and studied it.

"Cas, why are you here?" Dean asked, walking over to the angel.

Cas looked over at me, then spoke. "May I speak with you two seperately?" He asked, gesturing for Sam and Dean to follow him.

"Oh sure," I said sarcastically. "Stick me with cleanup. This is racism, I tell you. It's because I'm a demon. isn't it?" I pretended to wipe a tear from my cheek. "Fine, go, leave me to bury my sorrows in this ball pit." They walked away, not saying a word. No one appreciates my humor.

I looked around to see that there were balls everywhere. It would take me an hour to make sure I had all of them. I sighed, then bent over to pick up the ball by my foot. Then I remembered I had demon powers. I tried to focus, imagining all the balls floating up from where they were and finding their way back to the ball pit. My powers were harder to use when I wasn't angry, so I tried to think of infuritating things, like sexist assholes and commercial breaks.

I looked up to see about a hundred brightly colored plastic balls floating around me. It was a magical moment, standing in a swarm of plastic. Just then, Sam, Dean, and Cas all came back. My concentration broke, and all the balls fell, crashing down around me.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked, watching the balls fall.

"Cleaning up, the fun way," I supplied. "Since you assholes left me to clean up by myself, I was trying to make it go faster, but then you guys ruined it. Thanks for that, by the way." I picked up and armful of balls and walked over to the ball pit, dropping them in. "By the way Cas, secrets, secrets, are no fun, unless they're shared with everyone."

"If a secret is shared with everyone, it is no longer a secret," Cas shook his head.

"So I assume whatever it is you guys were talking about, I'm not allowed to know?" I asked.

"You got it," Dean said.

"Since you're all done being secrative, you guys could give me a hand here," I complained.

Sam looked around at the mess surrounding us. "I uh, have some things I need to do," he said, turning away from me.

"Dean?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go help Sam with those 'things'."

"You guys are dicks," I said. "And Castiel, I assume you have somewhere to be as well?"

"Yes, actually," He said, disappearing. I sighed, then tried to focus and use my powers to get all the balls back in the pit, but my powers only worked half of the time. After about an hour of picking up balls, I was done. I walked back into the motel, muttering profanity under my breath. I was going to kill the WInchesters. When I got to my room, I was about to pull out my laptop and write, when a man walked out of the bathroom.

"Who the hell are you?" I yelled, reaching for my backpack. That was where I kept my gun, a knife, some holy water, and other hunting necessities.

"Calm down," He said, walking over to me. "I mean you no harm."

"How did you get in here?" I demanded, grabbing the holy water. I opened it up, and splashed it on him. It sizzled, and he grimaced. His eyes turned black.

"Wait, it's not what you think," He said, stepping away from me, putting his hands above his head to show he was unarmed.

"What I think is that a demon broke into my room and thinks he can get away with it. Explain yourself!" I shouted. Then he said the four words I was least expecting.

"It's me, your father."

Sorry for the shorter chapter, I've kind of got writer's block. Middle chapters are the worst, because they're really just filler I guess. They're not as big as the beginning, which has all the introductions, and the problem presents itself, things like that, and then the end has all the emotional confessions and death and crap, but then the middle is just like "Hello, I'm only here because my mom made me." Ugh whatever. I'll try and make the next chapter extra long.

Do you guys think that Cas ever looks at Dean and thinks "you have a really nice butt. I want to touch your really nice butt." and then he thinks about Dean's butt for a really long time? Because I think he does.

Okay bye.
-Fox