Dean sat alone in a plain white room, well, not alone, there was an elderly woman at a desk watching him, and the twelve other people that were in his class, but besides that he was alone taking his test. He'd sped through the math part, like he thought he would, the science part was pretty much a piece of cake, the writing part had given him some trouble. He knew he could get through it; Rhonda talked him up that morning before he left. He could do this. He made sure he wrote slowly, wrote in tiny capital letters, easier to read. He was pretty proud of what he'd done so far. He was finishing with the part he was dreading the most. Rhonda had filed the paperwork to give him a modified test, but Dean was pretty sure they made it harder on purpose. He looked for keywords in passages like Rhonda taught him and slushed through it. He did his best, a few questions tripped him up, weird wording he wasn't used to, but he tried. He tried his damnedest.

He realized as he kept filled in the circles that he wasn't doing this to prove something to his father like he thought he was. He was doing this for himself, maybe a little bit for Sammy. If he passed this, which he knew he could, he could do anything. There wouldn't be that cloud hanging over him that said "uneducated." He'd have something to fall back on if everything hit that fan.

"Now I just gotta wait," Dean smiled when he met Rhonda for lunch afterward.

"Six weeks," Rhonda replied. "That's not too long."

"I don't think I'll be around then," Dean shrugged. "Dad likes to be settled into a new town around the first of September when school starts for Sam."

"You won't just stay in Sioux Falls?" Rhonda questioned. "Even with everything you got going on here?"

"You'd think," Dean smirked. "But we haven't doubled up on a school district yet, and I went to first grade here and I think Sam finished up 8th here, so obviously we can't stay."

"You can't just decide for yourself?" Rhonda asked. "Why not just say fuck it and stay here."

"Believe me, Rhonda," Dean shook his head. "If I could take Sammy and run away, I woulda done it a hundred years ago. I mean, I love my dad, I really do, but him and Sammy… they're oil and water. I can't walk away alone because I can't leave my kid brother alone with my dad. They'll kill each other. If I go, I'm going with Sammy. I just don't want to piss him off. You met him, he was tame that night. I gotta be that buffer between him and Sam or someone will end up dead. And I can't live with that."

"Why don't you just tell him you're staying with your uncle," Rhonda asked.

"Bobby isn't…" Dean sighed trying to think of a way to say what he wanted to say without sounding like an idiot. "Bobby's not actually related to us. He's a friend of the family, but he's been a part of our lives for so long that he's basically our uncle. He can't just take us. Even if we want him to. Dad won't let him. It was a fight and a half to get him to let us stay here all summer."

"Your dad sounds like a controlling jerk," Rhonda replied. "No offence but, seriously, Dean, it would probably be best to get away. You're an adult now, you don't have to live like that."

"I got to for Sam," Dean shook his head "But I get it. I get why my dad's like that. I mean, after our mom, you know, he… uh… he doesn't want to lose us. He's afraid he's gonna lose us."

"So he puts you in a pressure cooker until you feel like you don't have a choice in your own life?"

"Kinda, yeah," Dean nodded. "But I'd rather just keep him happy than piss him off."

"What if I didn't want you to go?" Rhonda reached across the tabled and rubbed Dean's hand. "What if I gave you a reason to stay?"

Dean chewed on his bottom lip. He had a pretty good idea what she meant, but he knew he'd never stay with her. He couldn't. Sam came first, he had to.

"Come back to my place," Rhonda grinned slyly. "I got you something."

Dean let her pull by the hand down the street to her place over the dentist office a few streets away. He tried to picture what it would be like to call that tiny apartment his. What it would be like to have a job and go home to the same little apartment every day for years.

He could do something like that, especially when he got those test scores back. He could find an auto shop to work at during the week, spend some weekends working at the salvage yard with Bobby. He could probably even hunt sometimes if there were ones close by. How great would that be for Sammy? He could graduate here, go to college nearby. Use that big brain of his for whatever he wanted.

Rhonda pushed Dean onto her sofa.

"I bought you something," she whispered into his ear. "But you behave or you don't get it."

Dean stared at her, wide eyed. "Okay."

"Since you're not my student anymore," Rhonda smiled as he kissed him on the cheek. "We don't have to hide our relationship from anyone. And since we don't have to hide it…"

"What?" Dean asked. "What do we get to do?"

"My parents have a lake house in Minnesota," Rhonda suggested. "We can go there for a weekend, long weekend… week. It would be a great time. There's a rope swing and it real dark out there at night, kind of in the middle of nowhere. It's very romantic."

"That would kind of be awesome, actually," Dean smiled. "Getting out of here for a little bit. I'll talk to Bobby when I get home, work it out."

"Next weekend?" Rhonda grinned.

"Yeah," Dean nodded. "I can do that."

"Awesome," Rhonda kissed him softly on the cheek. "Now close your eyes and look ahead. I want it to be a surprise."

"I love these kinds of surprises," Dean replied.

Several minutes passed in silence while he waited. Until he finally felt Rhonda straddle him, her hands roaming up his chest. She placed he hand over her breast.

"Open," she whispered into his ear. "You like it?"

She was wearing a very sexy pink lacy bra with matching satin panties. Dean definitely liked it. He nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes, ma'am," he managed. "I love it."

"Don't," Rhonda chuckled as he ran his hands over the fabric. "Don't call me ma'am. It's weird."

"Sorry," Dean answered before kissing her collar bone. "You really bought this for me though?"

Rhonda nodded, flipping her hair over her shoulders. "I saw it at the mall and I just… I just knew that you'd love it. And since we don't have to hide our relationship, we can kick it up a notch."

Dean nodded, transfixed. "I like it. I'd appreciate it a whole lot more on the floor." He ran his hand around the front of her underwear, thumbing at the elastic as they made out.

"You know," she leaned back. "This was really expensive; I'd like to get my money's worth."

Dean nodded in agreement. "We can go out to dinner... the movies. I'll pay if you wear that."

"Dean," she laughed. "That's not what I meant."

"What were you thinkin' then?" Dean said still staring in awe that he'd somehow gotten this lucky.

"You wanna try 'em on?"

Dean nodded unsure of what she actually asked.

"You really would?" Rhonda said surprised. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, sure," Dean agreed. He wasn't sure what he was agreeing to, but he knew it had to be awesome. Everything with this girl was awesome.

"Come on then," she grinned, standing up. She pulled him into her bedroom for night he never would have predicted.

As he got ready to leave that night, Rhonda stuck those pink panties in his right front pocket. She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed his shoulder.

"So you don't forget," she smiled.

"I… uh… I don't think I'm going to forget that anytime soon," Dean replied, turning around to kiss her hard.

"You should go," Rhonda whispered. "Don't want your dad to come looking for you."

"Yeah," Dean sighed kissing her again. "That could turn out badly."

"When do you think you'll be leaving town?" Rhonda asked.

"Well," Dean sighed. "I'm gonna stay as long as possible, at most, a month, maybe. Then we'll pack up the cars and throw a dart a the map and live there for a couple months. If we're really lucky we'll be there til Christmas."

"Why?" Rhonda asked. "That's… that's just no way to raise kids."

Dean shrugged. He wasn't going to explain the job to her, he couldn't see explaining the job to any girl he'd end up with. He'd have to truly, honestly, whole-heartedly love someone to dump that kind of crap into their life. Rhonda was great, but he couldn't see her in his life in two months, let alone forever.

"It works most of the time," Dean replied. "Never really known anything different. I'll call you in the morning? We'll talk about this weekend. That would be, like, awesome."

"Yeah," Rhonda smiled. "Yeah, we should spend as much time together as we can before you leave."

When Dean left, he couldn't help but think that Rhonda probably thought they'd do a little bit of a long distance thing when he left. He really did like her, really did enjoy spending time with her, appreciated what she'd done for him, but Dean didn't like having strings. He'd keep her around the next three or weeks sneak around all he could so his dad wouldn't know. But when they left town that was the end of the relationship.

"How'd that test go?" Bobby asked after John sent Sam to bed and he, Dean, and Bobby sat watching the eleven o'clock news.

"Really well," Dean nodded. "Working with Rhonda really helped. Thanks for making me do it, Bobby."

"You're welcome," Bobby nodded placing a hand on Dean's shoulder. "It's a step in the right direction for you I think."

"Yeah," Dean nodded. "Just gotta wait six weeks for the results."

"There's a bunch of cattle mutilations in eastern Ohio," John interjected.

"That's great," Dean shrugged. "I have plans this weekend."

"Well, cancel 'em," John replied. "We're heading out soon. It looks like demons. And I told you that as soon as this test thing was over with, you weren't seeing that woman anymore."

"I can't cancel them," Dean mumbled. "They're important. There's only a couple weeks left in the summer, and you don't even know her, really."

"I don't care," John replied. Dean couldn't help but think about how close his father's voice was to thunder at times like this. How Sam used to tell him when they were curled up together during storms when they were little that he was scared of thunder because it reminded him of their dad.

"John," Bobby sighed. "Let the kid be a kid."

"No, learn some respect, Dean," John continued. "I thought you better than that. I told you to do something and we're going to do it. You understand? I told you I don't like that woman takin' advantage of a young kid like you. Nothing good comes from that. So you'll call her in the morning and tell her you're leaving."

"I don't want to," Dean shook his head. "I have plans for the weekend. I'm not canceling them. I'm nineteen, I can make my own decisions. And I want to go to her lake house for a weekend. The hunt will be there when I get back. It's not gonna hurt anything."

"You know how many people could be dead by next week?"

"Thousands," Dean replied. "Thousands of people die every day, sir. I don't see why it's my job to stop all of it."

"Because I said so," John answered. "Get packing. Let Sam know that we're leaving in the morning."

"That's not fair," Dean said.

"Life's not fair," John glared. "Now go."

"Fine," Dean mumbled getting up off the couch. "You know what, sir, I get why Sam ran away. Seems like a damn good idea."

"Then run, Dean," John answered. "Take off and don't look back. But if you leave don't bother coming home. And don't you think that I'll let you back around Sam again. You won't be able to afford to live on your own, and that girlfriend ain't gonna take in a fifteen year old boy along with ya. So pick your battles, Dean, pick 'em careful."

Dean clenched his teeth tight and glared before storming up the stairs to pack.

Upstairs Sam was reading by flashlight under a blanket.

"What the fuck, Sam?" Dean sighed turning on the light. "What are you eight?"

"I didn't want to get in trouble," Sam replied pulling the blanket off his head.

"Dad wants us to pack up," Dean said. "Leaving in the morning."

"Where to?" Sam asked. "For how long?"

"Ohio and I don't know," Dean sighed as he pulled his duffle bag out from under his bed. "Dad thinks it's demons, so it could be a while." Dean emptied his pockets onto the bed before walking to the dresser to grab the rest of his clothes.

"Hold up," Sam said sitting up on his bed. "Did you just pull a girl's underwear out of your pocket?"

"Uh… yeah," Dean nodded. "They're Rhonda's."

"You stole her underwear?"

"No, she gave them to me," Dean answered. "I'm not a perv."

"Debatable," Sam chuckled. "Um… why did she just give you her underwear? That's really weird, and kinda gross."

"I'm just that good, Sammy," Dean said smirking over at Sam who still wore a half confused half disgusted look on his face.

"How… ummm… how do you get them to do that?" Sam mumbled.

"Do what?" Dean asked dumping all this clothes onto the bed and folding them to stick them in his bag. "Give me their underwear? That's only happened once and I'm not sharing the dirty details, kiddo."

"No, not that," Sam exhaled loudly. "Like, you know… do it."

Dean turned around to face his brother. "Didn't you live with your girlfriend for two weeks?"

Sam shook his head. "No, she only stopped by sometimes. She had to be home for dinner."

"So what did you do all day?" Dean asked, eyebrow raised.

"Stuff," Sam shrugged. "Don't change the subject I wanna know."

"Know what, Sammy?" Dean shook his head.

"Well, like, Tiffany, she… we would…" Sam stammered. "We'd like, kiss and stuff, but like I couldn't… you know… like…" Sam started to make strange uncoordinated hand motions.

"Get past second base?" Dean guessed.

""Umm… I'm not sure which one that is," Sam answered.

"Boobs," Dean said simply.

"Then no," Sam shook his head. "I didn't get to second base."

"It's not a race, Sam," Dean said sitting down on his the edge of his bed. "You don't gotta rush it or nothing. It'll come to you."

"Yeah, but like," Sam replied. "You were, like, twelve when you lost you lost your virginity and stuff."

"I was fifteen," Dean corrected. "Almost sixteen, actually, if you want to get technical about it."

"Really?" Sam asked skeptically.

Dean nodded. "Yeah, you're way ahead of me there. It was all the same girl. Dad, actually, broke up my first real kiss. So there's that."

"Oh," Sam sighed. "But like, I wanna know how to like get girls to let me do stuff to them."

"Just give it time," Dean nodded. "You're a good kid, a nice guy, and girls like that. They don't think that you'll rush them, which is good. You don't want to rush it. Just let it happen. There's nothing wrong with you."

"But," Sam interjected.

"Just let it happen, kid," Dean repeated. "It won't be special or worth it if you force it. Believe me, okay."

Sam nodded. "But I still wanna do stuff, and like, you… you can get girls to just about do anything. I wanna know how to do that."

"Sammy," Dean said seriously. "It'll come to you. I promise, okay. Don't think that there's anything wrong with you because you haven't gotten to second base yet. You're a good kid. Good guys attract respectable girls. As a rule, almost, respectable girls like to go slower."

"How do I find a fast girl," Sam asked.

"Sam," Dean sighed. "You don't want a fast girl. It's not as big of a deal as you're making it out to be. You're a sophomore in high school, you're still weird looking, and you're a nerd, so just let the girls come to you."

"Dean," Sam whined. "I don't think you get understand."

"Yeah, Sammy," Dean nodded. "I do. You're the new kid, you want people to like you. I've been there. You want people, girls, to like you. And you think the best way to get girls to like you is to be good at kissing and fooling around. You think guys will want to be your friend if you can get a girlfriend."

Sam nodded quickly and brushed his hair out of his face. "Yeah, kinda."

"Just don't rush it," Dean said. "You'll regret it if you rush it. Be yourself. There's nothing wrong with being you. Now, pack up. I have a feeling we're going to get a nice early wake up call."

"Yeah, okay," Sam nodded standing up to pack his bag. "Thanks."

Dean threw his arm over his brother's shoulder. "You're too good of a kid to be worried about girls. Just let them come to you. It'll happen, alright?"

Sam nodded and pushed Dean off of him. They packed their bags in a comfortable silence then shut the light off and went to bed.

Dean lay staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out how he was going to tell Rhonda that they were leaving. He felt guilty that he wouldn't get to do it to her face, but maybe if he was lucky, he'd be able to get away for a little bit, met her at that lake cabin. It wasn't like she was a girl in a random town that he'd never be in again. Sioux Falls was about as close to a home base as he was ever going to get. He knew this was coming, but he never imagined his dad would be that much of a dick to take off the day after he took his GED test. Maybe he could convince his dad he had to be at Bobby's to get the results of his test. Maybe that's how he could make sure that he had at least one more day with Rhonda. He wished his dad could understand, not see everything that he and Sam did as defying him. But after that stunt Sam pulled in May, Dean figured it would be a while before their dad fully trusted either of them again.

He worried about Sam, worried that he'd rush himself, meet a girl like the ones Dean attracted when he was sixteen and get himself in all kinds of trouble. He wished he could bring Rhonda around more; show Sam that she was the kind of girl worth dating. Maybe he could find a girl like her in Ohio, or where ever they ended up after that. Teach Sam about the right kind of girls. He worried about Sam ending up like him. He should have been a better role model, but it was too late to change that now. He'd talk to Sam on the long ride to Ohio. Try to explain what he should be looking for; try to convince him to not follow Dean's lead, to hit the books instead of the parties. Sam hand a good head on his shoulders. Dean knew he was capable of figuring it out, but that wasn't going to keep him worrying about his little brother.

AN: I was asked to pick up the action a little bit, don't worry I have a big hunt planned soon! I just wanted to get a couple relativity calm, character building chapters out first. I didn't want to jump from action point to action point, I wanted to show that they were real people too, with real connections. I feel like I tend to lose the connections between the characters when I write the "action sequences."