Chapter 6: Jellyfish in the Sky
Morgan was sitting in silence in the passenger seat of the Impala. There was a manila folder in her lap, filled with everything she needed to know about the school she would be starting the following week. It was the last week of August, and the teenager realized that school supplies might be hard to find in the right colors and the way she wanted things to be. As that thought crossed her mind, she realized how menial and domestic she felt. Instead of looking at the list of supplies as she and Dean drove across the county to pick up school supplies, she looked at her phone, thinking about how she had wished that she had gotten Jonah's phone number when they met at the Fourth of July fair. It would've been nice to have a friend to talk to before school started. Unless he was her friend already and she was just kind of being a dolt when she neglected to get his phone number? It was like she was going into the new school blind. In her nine years of schooling, she had only been the new kid once before, and that was in the first grade when she switched schools after Kindergarten.
The car slowed down and Morgan saw dean pull into the parking lot of a Staples. She pulled out the list of school supplies from the manila folder. She was fast, knowing exactly where to find what she needed. She was quick to get the floppy kind of binders for each class, since they're lighter in her backpack. She got dividers with pockets so she wouldn't have to worry about folders unless a class specifically required folders, so she got some of those too. When she was finished, there was filler paper, pens, pencils, highlighters, a little stapler, markers, colored pencils, a planner, and some sharpies. Every color had a subject, and she had everything she needed. They checked out and Dean just kind of followed her with the money and the shopping cart. Neither of them had said a word to each other the whole trip. Though she thought he was giving her the silent treatment because he was nervous that she was mad at him for having to switch schools and everything. But she was fine. She was really finding her place here, more than she ever did in Ft. Mitchell. Which wasn't hard to do, she didn't have very many friends there either. On the drive back, Dean stared at something out the window.
"What?" Morgan asked as he got off on the exit. Dean smiled, like he was up to something. His daughter was quietly hoping that it was going to be a nice surprise and not so much him pulling a prank on her, as he has a few times in the last couple of months.
"First day of highschool is next week. You're a girl. I thought we could do some shopping," he stated, making a turn and driving towards a shopping mall.
She didn't quite know what to say to him aside from, "Sure, that sounds like fun."
"I thought it might." Dean smiled as they pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car. The two of them walked together, finding their way into the mall and walking through the first floor of the structure. Before they even made it to a store, she heard her stomach growl.
"Can we eat first?"
"Sure. There's probably a food court around here somewhere," Dean said as they went to a directory. They located where the food court would be and walked straight there. It was filled with fast food and desert places, but the two of them didn't mind. They found a Wendy's and Morgan immediately ordered her favorite thing. It was a four-for-four with a junior bacon, nuggets with honey mustard, french fries, and a chocolate frosty. Dean thought it was funny that she always immediately went for anything resembling a milkshake.
"Thank's, Dad," she told him without even thinking as the two of them grabbed their food from the pick up line and walked over to a booth of their choosing in the food court. Dean seemed taken aback as he walked with his coke and baconator.
"What?" she asked him, nervous that she did something wrong. The two of them haven't really felt that father-daughter yet, but maybe it was time. They had been hanging out one on one a lot this week. Sam had been out helping another hunter with a Wendigo in Oregon, but she and Dean had already gotten the call that he was back in the Bunker today. When they finished eating, the two of them cleared the table and walked out of the food court to go shopping. As they walked, looking for stores she might like, though there were none in this particular corridor, Morgan noticed a group of girls passing them as they went to the food court. The one in the middle, some perky blonde.
This was the kind of teenage girl that made Morgan nervous. It was always that kind of girl that liked to pick on Morgan. This teenager was maybe 5'1, a petite girl with wavy blonde hair that walked about like she was a model. Morgan couldn't help but compare herself to her with her own 5'3 stature and pin-straight, chestnut hair. This girl was dressed in a tight, pale pink dress with a jean jacket and cowgirl boots. Morgan was just in a pair of ripped and distressed shorts and a black Five Finger Death Punch muscle shirt and her black high tops vans. This blonde in particular glared at her like she had daggers in her eyes. Morgan was immediately confused until she noticed the boy walking next to her. When he saw her, he immediately turned away from the blonde and walked over to Morgan.
"Hey, I haven't seen you around lately," he gave her a smile as he walked with her and Dean for a bit. Dean just sort of rolled his eyes and took a sip of his coke. Morgan nearly laughed, but she was sort of hung up on the blonde giving her that glare.
"Sorry, I've been training," She told him. It was ambiguous enough to not tell him anything, and the best part was that she wasn't even lying, which was nice for Morgan.
"Training for what?" Jonah inquired, still walking with her and Dean. The teenage girl thought for a second, afraid to open her mouth before she had a plan.
"I don't know yet. I just kind of dick around with our boxing, weightlifting, and gymnastics. I'm not quite sure what I'm gonna do, but I figured I'd be in shape if I wanna join a sport," She explained. Jonah smiled.
"Makes sense. I'm already in football right now and lacrosse in the spring," he informed her as they walked.
"That sounds like fun…" Morgan looked over and noticed how uncomfortable Dean was. "Hey Jonah?"
"Yeah?" He was still smiling, it was like that kid's happy just wouldn't quit. Morgan sighed.
"I'm kind of in the middle of hanging out with my dad. Maybe we could catch up some other time?" She asked him and he nodded.
"Oh, yeah, for sure. I wouldn't want to intrude." He paused. "Why don't we swap numbers? Next time we could plan to hang out instead of bumping into each other in public?" he offered. She laughed.
"Sure," Morgan told him as they swapped phones, putting their number into the other's phone. They switched their phones back.
"See you later, Mo," he called her by her nickname, drawing a smile on her face.
"Bye, Jonah," Morgan told him as he turned and walked back in the direction of the blonde. She looked to Dean, who pretended to gag for a split second.
"Do you like that boy?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow as the teenager spotted a big sale sign in front of American Eagle, a sign outside that particular store always made her excited.
"But daddy, I love him," She whined in a high pitched voice, making an over exaggerated expression. "I'm kidding, Dad. I just thought it would be nice to know someone before I go to school. Or at least I think he's going to the same school. I'm going to Oak Hills High School right?" She asked, not sure since she didn't have her packed with her to check. She was pretty sure that it was Oak-something considering it was in Oak Township, a little area that overlapped with Lebanon, Kansas.
"Yeah, Oak Hills and it starts on Monday at eight in the morning so you should probably plan on going to bed a littler earlier than your usual two A.M. crash," he told her, almost sounding like an actual parent. It was a rare occasion that he said something that may actually come across as parenting. Those were always moments that made Morgan smile. Though there wasn't much he ever needed to tell her to do, when he took advantage of opportunities to guide her and show concern, it always made her smile.
"Yeah, okay. A ten P.M. bedtime sounds quite reasonable," Morgan told him with a slight laugh. The two of them veering into the American Eagle Outfitters and began perusing the merchandise.
When they got out of the car, Morgan grabbed her new school supplies and her shopping bags from various stores where she found sales, as she was afraid to make her dad pay for a lot, though she was like this shopping with her mother before she died. They had been great at sniffing out the sales, and when those failed, sniffing out the high quality items in second hand stores. She carried the bags with a proud smile on her face from the garage to the main room before her room, passing Sam as she and Dean walked through the main room. Sam and Zoey both looked up at the same time, the dog hopping up from her place next to Sam's chair and trotted over to the teenager to greet her. The dog wagged her tail aggressively as she waited for Morgan to bend down and pet her. Morgan smiled.
"I can't pet you yet, pretty lady. My hands are full!" Morgan laughed as she noticed Sam and Dean whispering about something. She knew it meant that it wasn't her business, so she started walking away. When she got to her room, she set all the bags down on her bed while her dog hopped up and sniffed the bags before laying down on her tie-dye comforter. She grabbed her scissors and moved quickly, cutting off all the tags, peeling off all the stickers, and putting away her clothes. She put the pants and the dresser with the rest of her jeans and shorts, she hanged up all the shirts, dresses, and jackets. When she was finished, she pulled out her backpack and started packing it up. She went ever-so-slowly, writing which classes were labeled onto which items, filling the binders with unmarks dividers and pockets. Green for science, blue for math, red for history, black for english, pink for spanish.
"Hey, Kiddo." Morgan nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked over and saw Dean in the doorway.
"Jeez, dad. Don't scare me like that!" Morgan snapped at her father, trying to hold a serious face before failing and breaking into a smile.
"Just wanted to say that I hope you're hungry. Dinner's almost ready," Dean told her before walking away. But then he came right back ad blurted, "and by ready, I mean the delivery guy is about to drop off the pizza." He smiled and walked away for real this time.
"Did you get Hawaiian?!" She yelled after him, fingers crossed.
"Just for you!" She heard him yell back. Morgan absolutely felt like she was home. She finished up what she was doing and went to walk out of her room. She waited a second, waiting for her dog to get up off the teenager's bed and follow her out to the main room as she heard Sam talking to someone at the main entrance, something about having a nice day and the smell of pizza wafting in on the warm summer breeze.