Hello everyone! I am so unbelievably sorry that it has taken me so long to update, but sadly it's doctor's orders :( I posted something about it in my profile so you guys wouldn't think I've abandoned you, but my profile is pretty lame, so I can't blame you if you never checked it out, haha. Anyway, my wrist is still on the mend and the nerves aren't wanting to cooperate just yet, but little by little I got this chapter typed up for you! Thank you so much for sticking with me and patiently waiting :) I don't know what I would do without each and every one of you who take the time to read my chapters!
Next order of business is since you readers are the best people out there, I want to make sure I am writing things you want to read! So if you have any ideas for things you want in a future chapter, throw them my way in a review or PM and I'll try to make it happen :)
So let's get on with the main event... a new chapter! I've been out of the writing game for awhile, but I hope this chapter is up to par with the rest. Don't forget to read and review to let me know what you thought!
Dean-16
Sam-12
Katie-8
Katie stepped outside of the school building and squinted her eyes as the spring's sun rays smacked her face. She made her way over to the black, metal bench nearby, her designated "wait here for Sam and don't move until he comes" spot. After hopping up on the seat, Katie grumbled as she looked down at the top of her right hand. She quickly scanned the area around her for any nearby teachers and when she saw the coast was clear, she licked two of her fingers and started scrubbing furiously at the mark on her hand.
"Uh-oh! You're in trouble...," Sam mocked as he came up in front of his little sister. His sudden presence scared Katie and she quickly tried to cover up her hand by laying her other one on top of it.
"Nuh-uh," she threw back. She took up and began walking towards the gates, trying to ignore him. But in one quick stride, Sam was able to catch up with her and they continued walking.
"That's not even a word," Sam corrected.
"Yes it is!" Katie argued back, careful to keep her hand covered still.
"Then spell it," he challenged.
She slowly whispered the word to herself, carefully thinking about the answer before responding, "N-u-h...e?" she spelled, not quite confident in her answer, but threw in the e at the end because lately all her spelling words seemed to have this silly silent e at the end.
"Nope. It's impossible to spell because it's not a word!" he argued back.
Katie was about to make some retort, but decided against it. There was no point because Sam always made sure to get the last word in and show her that she was wrong. She looked up at her brother to see that he had his gaze fixated on the high school 2 blocks up ahead, where they always went after school to meet Dean. After much complaining from Sam that he was in 6th grade now and didn't need his big brother picking him up from school anymore, Dean finally relented and said they could walk the whole 4 blocks from the elementary/junior high to the high school alone.
She quickly licked her fingers again and started rubbing hard at the stupid, red mailbox stamp on the top of her hand. It was a system apparently all teachers used at this elementary school. When they sent a student home with an important note for their parents, they put a nice, big, red stamp on their hand at the very last second before they went home so their parents would know. And Katie knew she had to make this thing disappear fast.
"That's not going to work, you know," Sam informed her. She shot him an evil glare before returning her focus on her hand. She had managed to rub part of the mailbox image into a big, red blob. However, her plan didn't seem to be working fast enough, so she took the hem of her shirt and went to work again.
"What did you do anyway?" he asked, suddenly taking an interest, being the nosy brother he was.
"Nothing," she responded flatly.
"Obviously you did something, otherwise your teacher wouldn't have sent a letter home and put that stamp there." Sam reached down and grabbed on to her wrist, holding up her hand as proof that he wasn't wrong. Katie looked up ahead as they were now approaching the school, and saw Dean walk out of the front doors. She instinctively ripped her wrist from Sam's grasp. She tried shoving it in her pockets, but her hand wouldn't fit all the way. And the warm weather lately had kept her from having a jacket, so there was no option to hide it in her sleeves. She did the last thing she could think of and crossed her arms as they waited at the end of the sidewalk for Dean.
"Don't tell Dean...pleeease, Sammy," she pleaded with her big, green eyes. Sam could never figure out why she thought the whole puppy dog look would work on him.
He let out a small huff before answering, "Fine. But he's gonna find out. He always does."
Dean walked up beside his siblings just in time to catch the last part of what Sam had said, so he was immediately on alert. There was no point in asking them what was going on because that would get him no where...he knew he just had to wait and the secret would come out on its own, especially when it was with Katie. She hadn't exactly acquired the 'sly' trait yet.
"Hey," Dean interjected as he slapped his hand on Sam's back. He didn't miss for a second the deer-caught-in-headlights-look on his sister's face and her crossed arms. "Ready?" he asked as he nodded towards the direction their run down motel was located.
Katie quickly shook her head and took off walking with her brothers trailing behind. "Slow down...where's the freaking fire?" Dean yelled up ahead at his sister.
She stumbled slightly as she turned around to answer him, trying not to slow down her pace. "I..uh...I just really gotta go potty."
Dean threw his brother a confused glance, but Sam just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't feel like getting involved this time.
Once they had entered the motel room, Katie went directly for the bathroom. She had to get to that sink so she could wash the stamp off of her hand. Dean stared at her weirdly as she essentially waddled her way so the bathroom door with her arms still crossed. Out of pure reflex, she reached up to open the door with her right hand, making the half mailbox-half red smudge visible. Realizing her mistake, she quickly opened the door and thought she was home free as she began to close it, but something, or rather someone, blocked it.
Without missing a beat, Dean said, "So, get any cool tattoos lately?"
Katie tried to dodge his glance by looking at the floor and awkwardly trying to hide her hand behind her back now. "No..." She began moving her foot back and forth over a dark black stain on the floor.
Dean may not have been no rocket scientist, but the whole acting awkward, well more awkward than normal, fidgeting, and not making eye contact were all the classic signs that something was going on that she didn't want him to know about. After seeing the red blob on her hand, he knew what it meant. He remembered when they first moved to this new school that Sam came home complaining how the entire Kindergarten through 6th grade had the same stupid policy about some red stamp of a mailbox.
"You sure?" he gave her one last chance before he'd bring out his secret weapon. She replied nodding her head. "Okay, then, cuz I know Dad's gonna call us today and I'd hate to have to tell him someone got a letter sent home from school..." Dean might have threatened on occasion to tell their dad things, but it was only to get his siblings to come clean quicker. He would never actually rat them out to John about anything, he knew better; that would never end well for neither him or his siblings. But for the time being, Katie still hadn't caught on to that little fact that it was an empty threat.
When she heard the mention of their dad, her eyes shot up and Dean knew he had her. "Fine...Mrs. Hines sent home a letter...but I wasn't bad!" she said as she held up her hand to prove her point.
"Well how about I'll be the judge of that." Dean moved out of the doorway to let his sister pass by as she went over to open up her backpack that she had left discarded at the foot of the bed.
"Told you he'd figure it out," Sam mocked from his place on the couch. Instead of turning on the tv, he had been listening in to their conversation, figuring it was going to be more entertaining anyway-well, that and he was curious about the letter too.
Katie pulled out a white envelope with To the parents of Katie Winchester written on it. She looked up at Dean, who was now sitting at the edge of the bed, and before handing it to him, she begged, "Pleeeeease don't tell Dad. Dean, please."
"Maybe," he replied, holding out his hand as she slowly forked it over. Sam just rolled his eyes. He knew better, Dean wasn't going to tell their dad no matter how bad it was. Dean pulled out the letter and the room fell silent as he read it. He neatly folded it back up and put it back inside the envelope.
"So, what's this about you not turning in a history project? Your teacher said you've had 2 weeks to do it. Why is this the first I'm hearing about it?" he asked. Sam audibly gasped, earning him an annoyed glare from his brother. To Sam, not doing your homework was the equivalent of a criminal offense.
"I'm sorry...it's just..I couldn't do it alone and I couldn't ask nobody for help," she responded as she began playing with the hem of her shirt.
"And since when can't you ask me or that nerd freak over there for help?" Dean quickly tried to rack his brain for any reason why he would not have been available to help her these last 2 weeks and couldn't come up with any.
"Cuz you said I'm not allowed to ask you about it," she replied, as if that response should have explained it all.
"What the hell are you even talking about? What is this project even about?" Dean responded, a little harsher than he had intended. Now greatly intrigued by this whole conversation, Sam came over and sat down on the bed beside Dean, waiting to see what was going to happen next. Katie let out an exasperated sigh and reached down to pull out a blue folder from her backpack. Once she retrieved the paper she was looking for from the back of the folder, she pulled it out. It was a long piece of construction paper folded up in half.
Katie unfolded it gently and held it up in front of her brothers. "See? It's a family tree project. We're supposed to write the names of our grandpas and everything. And I couldn't do it because I don't no none of their names. And Dad doesn't like it when I ask about our family, so I just didn't do it. I didn't want Dad to yell at me for asking about them." Dean stared dumbfounded at the yellow construction paper. The teacher had pre-made them, so the lines were all drawn in. There were just spaces for each student to write the names and draw pictures of their siblings, parents, and grandparents. When her brother didn't say anything, she added, "I didn't mean to be bad, Dean."
Dean looked over slowly to Sam, and they both had the same sad and guilty look on their faces. Sad because their sister thought talking about their family was a sin and she had to sidestep around John about everything; guilty because they had never done anything about it before.
"You weren't bad, Katie," Dean responded gently as he laid the letter down on the bed and reached out to grab the family tree chart. "Just cuz Dad says you can't talk about our family, doesn't mean we think the same thing." Sam nodded his head in agreement. Katie let out a loud breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She was just relieved that nobody was mad at her. "You know what I think?" She looked at him, anxiously waiting for the answer. "I say we head over to that table there," he pointed to the kitchen, "and we finish up this project right now."
"Really?" Katie asked, disbelief clear in her voice that he was so eager to help her.
"Yeah. Right Sammy?" Dean stood up, followed by Sam who gave his sister a reassuring smile.
Once they got settled in at the table, Katie had her pencil in her hand, ready to work. Sam and Dean had their chairs pulled up on either side of her. "Look! I started doing it, but that's all the names I knew." She pointed to the 4 spaces she had filled in. Sammy...Dean...Katie...Sir.
"Uh, Katie, why did you write 'sir'?" Dean asked, pointing to it on the chart.
"Cuz the teacher said we can't write Dad or Mom. We gots to write their real name."
"You do know that 'sir' is not Dad's name, right?" Sam responded, shocked that she had even thought that to begin with.
"Yeah-huh. When Dad gets mad, he calls me Katelyn and you, Samuel! Cuz that's our real names. And then we call him 'Sir', cuz that's his real name too," she explained.
Dean ran his hand over his face. Why did his family have to be so messed up that his little sister would think that 'Sir' was their father's real name? It might as well be, because lately they were calling him 'sir' more than they were 'dad' due to his more than normal grumpy mood.
"Dad's real name is John," Sam interjected, drawing Dean out of his thoughts. Katie quickly turned to Dean, waiting for his confirmation or denial of the news that Sam had just revealed. He just nodded his head, telling her Sam was right.
"So I should call Dad 'John' now and not 'sir'?"
"Uh..no...," Dean began, trying to figure out how he was going to explain this in terms an 8 year old would understand. "Don't call Dad 'John'..he doesn't like that name...uh, you should just keep calling him 'sir'...that's like his nickname...he likes that better than his real name." Dean sighed when he saw her nod her head, showing him she understood. Just file this conversation under the 'proof that our family is messed up'.
Sam helped spell out "John" so Katie could make sure she got all of the letters right. Next they moved over to the square that was beside John's. Sam and Dean fell silent because they both knew whose name was going to go there, their mom's.
"De, what was Mommy's name?" she asked innocently.
"It was...Mary...Mary," he responded quietly. Sam, once again, helped her spell the name and they were both thankful when she didn't ask any more questions about her and moved on.
"I gotta write my 2 grandpas and 2 grandmas names," Katie informed her brothers as she pointed to the 4 squares left on the 'family tree'. She looked over at Sam expectantly waiting for an answer and he just shrugged his shoulder, having no idea what to tell her. She looked to her other side and stared at Dean.
"Uh...I have no idea," he replied honestly. "But you know what, who cares. I say we make up our own grandparents!" Dean tried to sound excited so she would go along with his idea, even though quite frankly he felt weird deep down inside because he had no idea what his grandparents names were.
"Okay!" she replied joyfully. "I think our grandpa should be...hmm...Bobby!" She burst into a giggling fit at thinking of their dad's friend Bobby as their grandpa. Her laughter was so contagious that Sam and Dean started laughing too.
"Well, just don't let him know you said that!" Dean joked.
"And a grandma?" she asked. They all looked around the room, trying to find something to help inspire their naming game because the list of women they actually knew was very limited.
Sam spotted an object up on the ceiling. "Fan," he suggested.
"Fan?" Dean questioned, chuckling.
"Fan...uh...Fanny?" Sam tried again.
"Fanny!" Katie cheered in approval and began to write the name down.
As they moved on to the last 2 names, Dean got up and went to the fridge and pulled out the other half of a hamburger he had from last night. He sat back down, unwrapped it, and began chowing down.
"A hamburger for a snack?" Sam asked.
"Yup, I'm a growing boy after all...something you wouldn't know much about, midget," Dean quipped as he took another big bite.
"What about our other grandma?" Katie questioned, drawing their attention back to the task at hand.
"Samantha!" Dean yelled, flashing his infamous sideways grin.
Katie laughed, loving the idea. "Sammy has a girl's name!" She immediately picked up her pencil and Dean helped her write the name, even with Sam's disapproving look. "And now grandpa!" Katie smiled, excited she was almost done.
They paused again, lost in their own thoughts of coming up with a good name. Finally Sam spoke up, "Angus."
Dean looked at him confused as he took another bite. He chewed slowly as he followed Sam's gaze to his hamburger wrapper sitting on the table that said 100% Angus Beef and laughed. "Angus," he confirmed. Just as Katie had finished writing the name, the motel phone rang once and stopped, and then started ringing again. They all knew it was their dad. Dean made his way over and answered.
"Hey Dad...yeah we're fine..how the hu...uh, business?" Dean luckily caught himself before saying the real word. Katie hopped off of her seat and hurriedly made her way to Dean. She stared up at him with, worried that he might tell their dad about what she did. "No, uh, everything is good here...No, sir, no problems at all...," he spoke into the phone. Katie smiled and wrapped her arms around Dean's waist, silently thanking him for keeping it a secret.
Out of natural instinct, Dean started pushing at her to get her off of him. He was never one for hugs. Taking a hint from Dean's shoving, Katie let go and went to her backpack and grabbed the 6 crayons she owned out of it before going back to the kitchen table.
"You wanna help me color it?" she asked, holding up a green crayon for Sam. He chuckled as he grabbed it and began to color the 'tree'. He remembered the days in first and second grade when there wasn't a week that went by when a homework assignment didn't involve coloring.
Katie's head shot up as she heard the familiar click of the phone being hung up. "De, come help us color!" she shouted without taking her eyes off of the paper.
Dean watched as his sister was deeply focused on her coloring and his brother was just haphazardly coloring the surrounding leaves on the tree and he couldn't help but smile. He may or may not have a grandma named after a ceiling fan and a grandpa who shared a name with his favorite hamburger, but none of it mattered because the only family he knew, and even cared to know, was the family that was sitting right in front of him. And he would do anything to make sure that they stayed a family forever.