-The Next Day-
Sammy frowned when he saw the kids who usually arrived late come walking into the classroom. Folding his hands on top of his desk he started to worry that maybe Andrew's daddy really did send Andrew and Michael to another school. Now who were he and Dean going to play with? No one else in school liked the brothers Winchester as much as the Keller boys did.
Spotting Sammy sitting at his desk alone and on the verge of tears, the young teacher stepped out of the block area, where she was helping to settle a small dispute between two of her other students, and walked over to her normally bubbly and enthusiastic student.
"Sammy, what's the matter?" she asked, kneeling at the young boy's side.
"Andrew's not here…" he replied.
"I'm sure he'll be here any minute. Maybe his daddy just got lost on the way here," she offered.
"No, his daddy sent him to another school," Sammy said.
"Now why would Andrew's daddy do that?" Ms. Carson wondered.
"Cause when me and Dean went to Andrew's house yesterday, Andrew's daddy got mad cause he didn't say me and Dean could come over," the five, almost six, year old explained.
"Well, I'm sure even if Andrew's daddy got mad, that's not a good enough reason to make Andrew go to a different school," Ms. Carson said. "I'll tell you what, why don't you go wait by the door and watch the hallway. Maybe you will see Andrew coming down the hall."
She knew how close the two boys were to each other. Sammy had taken to Andrew well, as did Andrew to Sammy. She didn't know Andrew's past history of him interacting with other children at the other schools he had gone too, but she had known Sammy for awhile now and he didn't seem to want to open up or interact with any of the other children in the classroom when he had first arrive. Being dubbed the new kid was hard, extremely hard. And she was glad that Sammy and Andrew had hit it off and gotten along so famously.
Sammy smiled lightly and nodded. "Ok," he said before sliding out of his chair and heading over to the door. Sammy gave it a few minutes, but there was no sight of Andrew. So he gave it a few more minutes, but even then, he still didn't see Andrew. Now it was almost Circle Time!
"Where are you, Andrew?" Sammy whispered looking down the hall.
"Still don't see Andrew, Sammy?" Ms. Carson asked.
"No…" Sammy solemnly said, shaking his head slowly as he looked down at the floor.
"I'm sorry, Sammy. But we're having Circle Time now. Let's go do that and maybe Andrew will show up. Ok?" the young teacher suggested. Sammy reluctantly agreed and walked over to the rug as Ms. Carson gathered all of her students together.
The students sang their usual "Good Morning to You" song together before Ms. Carson asked for two volunteers, one boy and one girl, to count how many girls were present and how many boys were present. With the students chosen, Ben and Julia, the two counted everyone. Afterwards the class had to figure out who was missing.
"Oh! Oh! I know who's missing, Ms. Carson!" Tyler enthusiastically raised his hand and smiled. "Evan's not here."
"Megan's not here either, Ms. Carson!" Chelsea added in.
"Very good observation, Tyler and Chelsea." Ms. Carson smiled. "But I think we have one more friend of ours missing. Does anyone know who?" she asked, watching her students looking around their group and talking it over.
'I know who's missing…' Sammy sadly thought right as someone knocked on the classroom door.
"Someone's at the door, Ms. Carson!" Collin said.
"Thank you, Collin." Ms. Carson smiled at her young student, standing up and walking over to the door to see who was there.
All of the children in the classroom immediately turned their full attention to the classroom door, eager to see who was there. Sammy's face grew with a wide smile once the door was opened and he saw none other than Michael and Andrew standing there.
"Here he is, Ms. Carson." Michael patted Andrew on his shoulders. "Sorry we're late. Our dad accidently slept through his alarm clock," he explained.
"That's ok. It happens to all of us," Ms. Carson said.
"Alright, kiddo, see you at recess," Michael said before walking off to go to his own class.
"Ms. Carson, was Andrew the missing friend?" Brianna wondered.
"Yes, Andrew was our missing friend, Brianna. But now he's here with us today. So that means our friends, Evan and Megan, are not here today."
"That's two students, Ms. Carson!" Ryan smiled, holding up two fingers. Ms. Carson smiled and praised the boy on his math skills and suggested for Andrew to hang his backpack and jacket up in his cubby before joining the rest of the class for Circle Time.
"Andrew, you're here! Your daddy didn't make you go to another school!" Sammy smiled after Andrew sat next to him on the carpet.
"No!" Andrew laughed at his new friend's idea. "Why would my dad do that? He said me and Michael are staying here 'til school is over."
"I thought your daddy was gonna make you go to another school cause he got mad cause me and Dean were playing at your house."
"Ooohhh," Andrew said. "Yeah, he was mad. He's making me go to bed early all week with no TV and me and Michael can't go to the park on Saturday to play soccer."
"You and Michael play soccer?" Sammy's eyes lit up at the drop of the sport. He always wanted to play soccer and be on a soccer team, but John kept saying no. He didn't think soccer would teach Sammy anything important. Plus how was he supposed to play on a team when they were moving all the time? There were more pressuring matters to be dealt with first and foremost.
"Yeah, Michael taught me how to play. I wanna play on a team one day!" Andrew smiled.
"Me too!" Sammy smiled.
The two boys laughed over the fact they both wanted to play soccer and maybe be on the same team one day, eyes glistening, and smiles wide. They were stitching the lines in a cloth of becoming real good buddies pretty fast. Maybe if they could make it, they'd even be lifelong buddies. Maybe this was the thing that would actually keep their dads in one place for good.
Meanwhile on the other side of the school where the fourth graders were, Ms. Connolly went over the day's math assignment. Michael wasn't really interested. He liked science a lot better. It was a lot more exciting than working through a bunch of numbers. Math was just math wherever and whatever it was trying to solve. But right now in particular, Michael was falling asleep with his head in his hand at his desk. So Dean was the one who shook his friend's shoulder, pulling him out of sleep mode. Michael jumped.
"What'd you do that for?!" he asked.
"Dude, you were falling asleep," Dean said.
"So? We're in the back row. And it's not like I can't learn whatever boring ass assignment out of my textbook! It's just math!"
"I know that!" Dean defended. Honestly, the assignment didn't interest him much either. "What's wrong with you?" he asked as Michael slid his arms over his desk and let his head drop on top of it.
Michael sighed and picked his head up, sitting up straight. "My dad made me run laps 'til I practically puked last night. I have to do it again all week every night when he comes home."
"All because Sammy and I came over your house?" Dean asked. But even then that didn't sound odd to him. If the situation was reversed and Michael and Andrew had gone to Dean and Sammy's house and John found out, he'd make Dean run laps until he puked all week too. Dean actually felt bad for Michael. Running laps until exhaustion sucked! It was probably the worst punishment Dean could think of. Well…maybe it wasn't as bad as public spanking. That was just humiliating!
"Sorry dude…" Dean said.
"Nah, don't worry about it. I'm just glad my dad's not making Andrew run laps every night." Michael waved a hand. He'd never wish that torment on his little brother.
"Andrew got in trouble too?"
"He just has to go to bed early all week and he can't watch TV," Michael explained, although he envied his little brother. To a little kid like Andrew going to bed early with no TV seemed like the end of the world! But that was breeze compared to the crap Michael was being put through. He hated to say it, but he envied his little brother.
"So how did it go with your old man?" Michael asked, head in his hand hanging low near the surface of his desk. Hopefully Dean had better luck than he did.
"My dad has no idea that me and Sammy didn't even come home right after school. But he was worried that something was bothering Sammy…"
"Why?"
"Sammy slept in my bed last night with me. He only does that when something's bothering him."
"So what'd you tell your dad?"
"I told him Sammy had a nightmare about clowns. He hates them," Dean said.
"And he bought it?"
"Sammy did put on a good performance." Dean shrugged.
"Awesome." Michael smiled and nodded.
Dean and Michael sat quietly for the next few moments, somewhat paying attention to the math lesson that Mrs. Connolly was leading. But a question kept lingering in Dean's mind, almost eating away at his ability to think of anything else. He kept glancing over at Michael who had no interest in the lesson whatsoever. So he felt confident enough to ask.
"Why were you guys really late this morning?"
"I told you, my dad slept through his alarm clock."
"Yeah, and I'm sure the sky is red and the grass is yellow."
"It will be if it gets peed on enough." Michael shrugged.
"True…" Dean nodded, thinking about it. "But still. What happened?"
Michael looked up, pulling himself up from his seat a bit as he looked around the classroom, keeping a well guarded secret from everyone else in the classroom. Once he was sure no one was looking at him other than Dean, he turned back to the kid next to him.
"Look, don't tell Andrew I told you, but….My dad left early this morning for a job. I overheard him say last night that he was considering teaming up with a new partner for his job. It wasn't exactly him that slept through the alarm," Michael began. "I got up when he got up, which was like military early, but I ended up crashing on the couch. By the time Andrew woke up and woke me up, we didn't have enough time to make it here on time."
"What does your dad do for a living?" Dean wondered.
"Odd jobs. Mostly pest control." Michael shrugged.
"Pest control?" Dean wondered. HIS dad always told everyone that he was currently working in the "pest control" industry. And he did hear John mention this morning something about working with a partner, but right now it was just for small stuff. No talk of pulling out the big guns yet…
"M-my dad works in pest control," Dean said.
"Seriously?" Michael asked.
"Yeah, and he mentioned something about working with a partner too."
Dean and Michael looked at each other, heads bobbling after being dropped and their jaws fallen loose. Were they really this much alike? Both were the older brother, both had a little brother four years younger than them, both were being raised on the road. But most importantly, both were the sons of hunters. They'd even put money on it that they were both born in the same month! Sammy and Andrew too. But just to satisfy curiosity before it killed the cat…
"When's your birthday?" Dean asked.
"January 29th." Michael shrugged.
"January 24th," Dean replied.
"Early birth or late birth?" Michael gave a questioning look. "Or were you on time?"
"I remember my mom telling me when I was little that I was almost a month early," Dean said. "What about you?"
"I was exactly two weeks and one day late," Michael said. "Andrew was on time; June 13th."
'Well, there's one thing that broke this weird ass coincidence,' Dean thought, actually willing to believe that Michael and Andrew were a part of something more than they led on to be. It almost HAD to be a set up by something supernatural! A demon maybe? How many other times do two other kids, same background, same personalities, come walking into the Winchesters' latest school and randomly become best friends?!
"Sammy was on time too…at least that's what my mom told me when he was born," Dean remembered the day to an exact tee. He didn't even have to try to re-live the moment when he chose to. "But he was born on May 2nd."
Michael nodded. "So he's a little over a month older than Andrew."
The two sat in silence for a long while, aimlessly staring at the board at the front of the classroom, half heartedly listening to the lecture. Now they were working on Social Studies and Geography. With the amount of driving and traveling their families did, they had no need to read about it in an old textbook given to them at the beginning of the year. Or in Dean and Michael's cases, when they were enrolled.
"So you think if your dad and my dad are working together, your dad might lift yours and Andrew's punishment?" Dean asked.
"Mm…I doubt it. My dad says inconsistency leads to waywardness," Michael said.
"Oh, that sucks," Dean muttered.
Michael shrugged like it was no big deal. He did disobey his father's words. But it had been a long time since he and Andrew had actually enjoyed the company of someone their age. And it had been even longer since they had a home to bring an actual friend to! He knew Andrew longed to have the life of Riley he used to live; a house to call their own, a mom and a dad, one school district, friends. Secretly, Michael desired to go back and live that old life too, but he always put on a brave face. He couldn't be weak at a time like this. Not when his dad was off hunting and Andrew needed someone to be there for him.
Michael often wondered how much longer it would be before his dad packed up him and Andrew and took them back home, back to their old lives. It couldn't possibly be that much longer now! Dad was working with a partner now, and Michael was fairly sure that they were going to team up and hunt down the thing that started all of this. And they had just randomly decided to settle down here for the hell of it. Dad had been studying the thing closely, tracking it through the patterns it was leaving behind. They all pinpointed to where the Keller family was now. Conveniently located in the same state where Rich had good solid contacts he could actually call good friends. But even when he killed the thing they were going to stay for the summer because Michael and Andrew still had to finish school. But come this summer, there was definitely the possibility that they were going home, back to their old lives, in three short months.