AN- Edited. Severely.
The family came back to live with Granny after a year in NYC for reasons as yet unknown.
Sabrina sat in her history classroom, trying, like everyone else, to pretend that she wasn't bored out of her skull and waiting for the bell to ring so she could just go home. The teacher pretended, likewise, not to notice how eager they all were to get out of the place.
"Now for homework tonight, I want you all to write your own version of Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech." Sabrina raised her hand, and the teacher asked, "Yes, Sabrina?"
"Are we making this up all on our own, or do we have to just put our dreams into his speech?" she asked.
"You can format it any way you desire. I just want it to be serious, gentlemen in the back," the teacher replied, looking pointedly towards the rear of the classroom.
Puck and several of his buddies looked up from whatever they were messing around with. One of them at least had the decency to look embarrassed, Sabrina noted. Just then the bell rang, and Sabrina grabbed her stuff, waited impatiently for Puck to stop talking to his idiot friends for a minute or two, got fed up, sighed, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him into the hallway.
Sabrina spent her afternoon scribbling avidly on a sheet of notebook paper, ignoring everyone else in the house. Until Puck sat on her homework.
"Puck!" she complained, shoving him in an attempt to get him to move.
"You did kind of deserve that," Daphne said.
"What did I do?" Sabrina demanded.
"You've been ignoring everyone, and you were really spacey the entire walk home," Red said.
"So? I'm doing my homework!"
"What's this assignment that you're so interested in, liebling?" Granny Relda asked.
"We're supposed to write our own I Have a Dream speeches for social studies, and we can do whatever we want, as long as we get the message across and it's a serious dream," Sabrina said.
"You've really changed a lot, you know?" Uncle Jake said thoughtfully.
"I have?" Sabrina blinked at him.
"Four years ago, you would have just complained that you had homework. Now you're happy that you get to express what you want." Veronica said as she poked her head into the room from the kitchen. "Daphne, Red, come help me set the table."
Daphne and Red got up and trotted over to help.
"You've matured a lot, 'Brina." Uncle Jake got up, too. "Keep up the good work."
"We have to present them, you know," Puck said.
"I must've missed that part." Sabrina made a face. "I hate talking in front of the class."
"I'll make sure you don't have to read yours if you write mine for me," Puck offered.
"I can't do that, Puck," Sabrina said, and shook her head.
"Why not?" he complained.
"For one thing, that's cheating. For another, even if I was going to do your work for you, I don't know what your dreams are, and I can't make them up. Plus, I don't hate presenting that much."
Puck made a face. "But I'm gonna fail. I fail everything I have to write for that class."
"Speeches aren't supposed to be like a report. They're you telling people how you feel or what you think about something."
"In case you haven't noticed, Grimm, I don't really do feelings."
"Just pretend like you're just talking to one person. Someone you trust."
"How does that help?"
"I dunno, it just does."
"Suuure." Puck raised one eyebrow at her- a trick she'd taught him.
"If you make me write it I'll tell everyone your dream is to be a girl's prince charming and make everyone happy," Sabrina threatened.
Puck's eyes widened. "You wouldn't."
"I won't, if you try it yourself. You can do this."
"Whatever," Puck said.
Sabrina let up. She knew that was the best she was going to get from him.
After dinner, Sabrina went back to writing her speech. Puck joined her, much less enthusiastically. But he still went, which is what counted. The rest of the family decided to leave off watching a movie that night when they saw the mess of papers and the frenzied expressions on the two teen's faces.
Sabrina went to bed around nine thirty, her assignment finished to perfection and typed up. Puck stayed up much later, eeking out a few words at a time, but after everyone else was in bed, he began scribbling furiously, a slight smile on his face.
The next day at school passed slowly. History arrived at last and the teacher began picking students at random to read their speeches. Sabrina tuned them out for the most part- they weren't very interesting, and none of them could read the way her mom did. Then it was her turn.
Sabrina walked up to the front of the room, cringing inwardly at the thought of sharing her private thoughts with a whole classful of people she didn't even really know. Then she remembered her own advice, and looked at Puck- the first friend she saw.
"I have a dream. Actually, I've got several dreams. I dream about being normal. I dream about being happy, and about being able to change the things that happened, even if some of them have turned out good. I dream that someday I'll be able to help minorities have a voice around here, so that they can actually be a part of the world. I dream about growing up and having a job and a family. I dream about becoming a better person. Actually, my hardest dream is to be a good role model for my little sister. I have to make sure that since she insists on looking up to me, the me she looks up to is worth it. My last dream is to protect my family and my best friend, because I don't know what I'd do without them."
Sabrina sat down with a sigh. That hadn't been as bad as she'd thought.
"Puck?" the teacher asked. "Will you go next?"
Puck shrugged, got up, and went to the front of the foom. "Yeah, so I did what you told me to do, Grimm. I wrote this speech to you. The thing is, I don't exactly have any dreams. Not ones I think about, anyway. They might be there, in the back of my brain, along with all those mature things that seem to find their way out when I'm around you. I used to dream that I wasn't going to grow up. Look at me now. Fifteen and counting. I used to dream about showing my dad up, and proving I could be everything he didn't think I was. I used to dream about getting my ex off my back. Mission accomplished. I guess this should actually be my I had a dream speech. But when I think about it, I do have a dream or two still. I have a dream to make your family- well, mostly you I guess- happy, to make all your dreams come true. I know you threatened to put something that sappy in my speech for me, and it's what convinced me to write the stupid thing myself, but here I am putting it in anyway. Why? Because you do weird things to me. I have a dream to get that stupid song the Marshmallow was singing out of my head. I have a dream to live happily ever after- oh my gosh that was corny. I also have a dream to live down this speech and pretend it never happened, because I can't believe I just read this thing aloud to the whole class."
Puck sat back down, his face red.
Sabrina looked at him sidelong, considering commenting on his speech. She decided against it. Too many feelings there- and she was afraid to get into those.