Singer's Auto Salvage yard was a playground if Dean had ever seen one. It might not have had swings or a slide, like the playgrounds Sam liked, but it was filled with some many old cars that Dean could play with that, to him at least, it was way better. Sam was a big fan on Bobby's dog, mostly because he thought the large German Shepard was a wolf.
"We should get one of these," Sam nodded petting the dog on the front porch. "I like it."
"Where are we gonna put a dog in the car Sammy?" Dean asked.
"In the trunk," Sam said matter-o-factually.
"You can't keep a dog in the trunk of a car," Dean answered.
"There's plenty of room," Sam nodded. "I fitted in there. We's can get a little dog."
"No dogs in the car, Sam," John said crouching down next to him. "Hard enough to keep track of the two of you. Don't need a dog too."
Sam shrugged and whispered into the dog's ear something that Dean couldn't quite make out.
"Let's head inside," John suggested. "I think dinner's almost ready and Bobby's got a couple rooms set up for the two of ya."
"We don't have to share a room?" Dean asked excitedly.
John shook his head. "Not this time."
"But… but…" Sam said in a panic. "What… what… what if I can't see Deans? I need to see him to sleep. What if something gets me?"
"Nothing's gonna get you," John said, guiding both boys into the house. "You'll be fine."
"I do not thinks so," Sam said shaking his head. "This is a very bad idea. I cannot sleep without Deans."
The subject of school came up over dinner that night. Bobby believed that it was probably a good idea to enroll Dean in the school right there in Sioux Falls.
"You can still go out and do jobs," Bobby explained. "I can watch the boys while you're away."
"I can teach him all he needs to know," John said, looking between Bobby and the boys. "Why don't you two put your plates in the sink if you're done and go play in the living room for a bit?"
"Kid needs friends," Bobby told John as the boys did as they were instructed.
"I can home school him," John argued though his teeth. "I can teach him what he needs."
"Does he know anyone besides a bunch of middle aged hunters and two year old?" Bobby sighed. "Kids his own age would be good for him. There are a couple places for rent in town. I can still watch the boys while you're on hunts and ya won't be sleeping on my couch. He needs peers, John, structure. Kid hasn't known a normal day is almost two years. A bit of book learnin' never hurt anybody."
John eventually gave in, sighing into a glass of bourbon.
"Sounds dumb," Dean said when John explained school to him a week before he was start in the Winchester's new apartment above the hardware store downtown. "I don't wanna go."
"You have to go," John sighed; he knew this was going to happen.
"Can Sam come?" Dean asked. "I'll only go if Sammy can go."
"Not this time, buddy," John explained. "He's gonna stay home with me or Bobby while you're there."
"What about lunch time?" Dean asked, looking up. "What if you don't make his lunch right? If it's not right he won't eat it, then he gets cranky and starts crying and then you'll get mad at him. What if you try to give him mayonnaise on his sandwich? He's very picky."
"I can make Sammy's lunch," John said.
"What if Sammy misses me?" Dean argued. "He gets bored really easy. And if you don't watch him all the time he eats things. He's always trying to eat my Legos and army men. You have to watch him every minute. What if I can't wear my fireman helmet? What if the other kids are mean?"
"But what if the other kids are nice?" John reasoned. "You don't hafta worry about Sam. I can take care of him."
"But Sammy is my job," Dean said. "I gots to take care of him. You say so all the time."
"I'm his father, Dean," John sighed, losing patience. "I can take care of Sam for a couple hours while you're at school. And when I'm working, Uncle Bobby can take care of him."
"Can I try school and if I don't like it, not go anymore?"
"We'll talk about it," John answered.
"Okay," Dean nodded. "But if Sam gets too sad I'm not staying."
John sighed. "That's not how it works."
Dean nodded. "I has to do what's best for Sam. He gets really upset if he can't see me."
"I know," John rolled his eyes. He was not about to negotiate with a six year old. "But how about you just do what I tell you to do and let me worry about Sam?"
"I still think it sounds stupid," Dean shrugged. "But I'll try it."
"Good," John said placing his hand on top of Dean's fire helmet and pushing to down his face as he stood up.
On Dean's first day of school, John was in West Virginia on a werewolf job. So Dean stood in front of Singer's Auto Salvage in a new to him Batman t-shirt from the Goodwill and black rain coat with his fireman helmet, with a book bag that looked way too big for him waiting for the bus. Sam sat against the fence with Bobby.
"Is you sellin' Dean?" Sam asked pulling grass out of the ground and throwing it into the air.
"No, Sam," Bobby chuckled. "Dean's going to school. He'll be back after nap time."
"He's going away?" Sam pouted. "Why?"
"Dad says I have to," Dean said. "But if you don't want me to go—"
"Dean," Bobby warned.
Dean sighed and chewed on the inside of his lip. The bus pulled up nosily. Dean walked forward slowly.
"You goes to school on a submarine!?" Sam yelled. "I go too Uncle Bobby!"
Dean turned at Sam's words being pulled by the heart back toward his brother.
"Come on, Dean," Bobby said. "You said you'd try."
Dean took a deep breath and stepped forward toward the bus. He made is way slowly up the stairs trying not to cry. He sat in the first seat looking out the window to Sam and Bobby who were waving. He waved back weakly as the bus drove away.
Dean's teacher was a young pudgy woman with shoulder length strawberry blonde hair and glasses. He wasn't sure if he would like this Miss Sherry person, but he promised his dad and Bobby that he would try. All the other kids seemed to know what to do, but Dean just stood awkwardly in the doorway, frozen. He felt like he did when he didn't talk, terrified and alone. He missed Sam. Sam never shoved him out of the way.
"Hi," Miss Sherry said, coming over to Dean. "What's your name?"
Dean started to shake a little. This was way too over whelming. "I'm Dean," he whispered. "Dean Winchester."
"I'm Miss Sherry," his teacher replied. "Do you want to come inside?"
Dean shook his head no. "I don't like school. I think I wanna go home now. Uncle Bobby said that I could go home if I didn't like it. I wanna go back to his house."
"But you haven't even tried it yet," Miss Sherry said. "Why don't we get your coat off and we sit down for a little bit and try school out."
Miss Sherry seemed nice; maybe she wouldn't be so bad. "I'm kinda scared." Dean whispered. "My dad says not to be afraid because that's how the bad things get you. He says that I have to brave."
"He sounds smart, your dad," Miss Sherry smiled. "You like Batman right? And you want to be a fireman when you grow up? Those are brave guys Dean. I bet they could try first grade for a little bit."
"You think so?"
"Yeah, I really do," Miss Sherry said extending her hand out to him. "Come on, let's go be brave."
Dean nodded and took her hand. She led him into a brightly colored room filled with tables with one empty chair. He looked up at his teacher, who nodded and he took his seat; according to the stickers he was between Matthew Wallace and Kelly Zander. Everyone was staring at him, so he looked down at the table.
Miss Sherry wanted everyone to introduce themselves and share something special about themselves as a get to know you exercise. Dean learned that Ally's mom was a vet and Jason like to skateboard; Julie was a ballerina and Patrick wanted to be a football player when he grew up. Dean knew he couldn't talk about his dad's work, Dad made him promise to never tell anyone, mostly because they would think he was crazy. John told Dean everything about ghosts and monsters and things that go bump in the night. He did this so that Dean would understand why he had to protect Sam. He also made sure that Dean understood that he couldn't ever tell anyone the truth, because if he did, someone would take them away and he wouldn't be able to protect them anymore. He didn't know how much Dean actually saw of John's hunts, but he knew the boy always saw the aftermath. How that looked to a six year old never crossed John's mind. To him Dean was never just a kid. He was a little solider in training for the war against monsters. When it was his turn he looked up at Miss Sherry and squirmed in his seat.
"I'm not special," he said quietly.
"You don't have anything to share Dean?" Miss Sherry asked. "There has to be something."
Dean shook his. "No, I'm not special." He repeated.
"There's nothing that you're really good at?" Miss Sherry asked.
"Sammy says he really likes it when I tell him stories at bed time," Dean said.
"That's something," Miss Sherry smiled. "Who's Sammy?"
"My little brother," Dean answered. "He's two, so they might not be good stories, but he likes them. He really likes the ones I maked up about dragons and saving people. Sammy likes dragons. They're his most favorite."
"You make up the stories?" Miss Sherry asked. Dean nodded. "So you're a story teller. That's special, Dean."
"How come your Mommy or Daddy doesn't tell your brother stories?" Julie the ballerina asked. Dean decided he didn't like her.
"My Dad's busy," Dean said to the table. "Sammy's my job."
"What about your mom?" Julie asked.
Dean stared at his name sticker, and started to pick at the corners. He really didn't like this Julie girl. "My Mommy's in Heaven with the Angels."
"Why?" Julie asked.
"Julie that's enough," Miss Sherry said. She was unprepared for one of her little first graders to have a dead parent. It wasn't in Dean's file when she got her class list for the year. Now she had to figure out how to protect this little awkward shy boy from curious six and seven year olds.
"I tried school, Miss Sherry," Dean said. "I don't like it. Can I go home now? Please?"
"Not yet, Dean," Miss Sherry said sweetly. "In a little while."
Everybody got to go outside for recess after lunch. Dean took his fire truck and sat against the brick wall of the school. Hopefully Bobby wouldn't make him come back to school ever. He really didn't like it. He knew he wouldn't. He knew the other kids would be mean. Julie and Ally can over to him while he rolled his truck back and forth in the sand, staring at him until he looked up.
"Where's heaven?" Julie asked. "Is it in Iowa?"
"It's in the sky," Dean mumbled, rolling his truck over their feet so they'd back away.
"How'd your mom get there?" Ally asked.
"Please go away," Dean said quietly shifting back and forth awkwardly. "I don't like talking about my mom."
"Why?" Julie asked. Dean decided that he really didn't like this girl.
"Come on Julie," Ally said, pulling at her friends arm. "Let's go play on the monkey bars. He doesn't wanna talk."
"But I wanna know!" Julie yelled pulling her arm away. Miss Sherry finally noticed that Julie was standing over Dean and made her way over.
"What's going on?" Miss Sherry asked.
"Dean won't tell me about heaven," Julie pouted.
"Why don't you go play on playground," Miss Sherry said.
"But—" Julie protested.
"Now," Miss Sherry said sternly, pointing to the playground. She sat down next to Dean on the wall as Julie and Ally ran away toward the monkey bars. "I'm sorry, Dean. I'll try to keep Julie and Ally away from you."
Dean nodded. "I telled Uncle Bobby and my Dad that the other kids would be mean. They just told me school would be a fun time. But they lied to me. Sometimes they do that to make me feel better, but I always figure it out when they lie to me, and then I'm sad. Uncle Bobby said I could go home if I didn't like school, but he was lying again wasn't he?"
Miss Sherry sighed. "I can't let you go home until the end of the day. It's the rules."
"Okay," Dean said, taking a deep breath to keep himself from crying.
"I'm not going to lie to you, Dean," Miss Sherry promised. "Sometimes school is hard, but I don't think you should give up after just one day one. I think that if you keep trying you might even like school. Not all the kids are going to bother you like Julie and Ally. They're just curious. You're the only one in the class who knows about heaven. They don't understand why you don't want to talk about it." The school bell rang telling everyone to go back inside. "Now, come on, we're going to library to have story time."
"I like stories," Dean smiled, following her inside.
Dean had been to his fair share of libraries in the last year and half. His dad did a lot of research for his job at libraries. He would send Sam and Dean to the kid's section while he looked up lore on whatever he was hunting at the time. That's how Dean got so good at making up stories for Sam. Miss Sherry said that the class could each pick out a book to bring home for the week, so Dean searched the library for a book he thought Sam would like; something with dragons. Sam loved dragons. He found a book of Grimm Fairy Tales that he hadn't read to Sam before. It had a bunch of stories in it. Sam would like that, hearing a different story every night.
The rest of the day was pretty alright after Dean got his book. Miss Sherry made sure that Julie left Dean alone, explaining to her that it wasn't okay to ask Dean about heaven anymore. Miss Sherry showed the class some cool science tricks. He thought is school was like the second half of the day all time that maybe it wasn't so bad after all. It was worth a second chance at least.
"So, Dean," Miss Sherry said while they waited for the bus in the lobby. "Am I going to see you tomorrow or should I give your seat to someone else?"
Dean thought for a minute, contorting his face a little before answering. "I think I'll come back. School's okay."
"Good," Miss Sherry smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
Dean was met with a full body slam from a two year old the moment he opened the door to Bobby's house. "Deans!" Sam squealed. "I thinked that you was gone forever."
"You missed me?" Dean asked, hugging his brother back. "I missed you too. Wanna see what I got for you?"
Sam stepped back a little his eyes wide and excited. "I get a present from school?"
Dean opened his book bag and pulled out the big book he borrowed from the library. "My teacher says we can borrow it for a whole week. There's lots of stories in there for bed time."
"I like it," Sammy smiled. He then grabbed Dean's hand and dragged him into the living room. "Uncle Bobby! Deans is back! See what he gives me!"
"How was it?" Bobby asked, walking into the room from the kitchen drying his hands on a dish towel.
"At first it was scary," Dean said. "Then the other kids were mean to me, just like I said, but my teacher is really nice. She taked us to the library, and that was cool. And then I learned things. I liked that part. I telled my teacher that I'd go back tomorrow."
"So not all bad then?"
Dean shook his head. "Not all bad. Miss Sherry says that she can get Julie to stop being mean to me. Julie is the meanest kid. She kept asking me about Mommy and heaven, but I telled her I didn't want to talk about it, but she wouldn't leave me alone."
"Sorry to hear that," Bobby said.
"I don't like the other kids, Uncle Bobby," Dean said. "I don't think they like me very much either."
"What do you mean they don't like you?" Bobby asked.
Dean sat down on the floor with Sam to play, because Sam was pulling at his sleeve. Sam handed him a green army man and made shooting noises. Dean helped Sam arrange the army men on Bobby's coffee table for battle. Sam liked the way that Dean set up the battles. How he would set them up hiding behind things instead of in lines like his dad or Bobby set them up. To Sam, Dean was the best at pretty much everything, and when he was two, Green Army fights were pretty high up on that list.
Bobby realized that Dean was done talking about school. That was just how Dean was, stubborn as his father. He didn't say a thing about school at dinner, even when asked questions about it. He didn't say a thing about it while the boys wound down for bed. He only talked about the book for Fairy Tales as he read it to Sammy before lights out.