"Back on your feet?"
I turned around as Bobby wandered into the kitchen.
"Looks good."
"Thought I would make something for lunch. Y'all seem to live on fast food."
"Why do you say 'y'all' when you don't even have a Texan accent?"
"Texas things." I shrugged. "Everyone in my community talks this way."
"Community?"
"Yeah." There was no need to elaborate any more. Racism must be rampant in this era.
"Hey, um," Sam peeked over my shoulder. "Can I help?" The kid must be hitting his growth spurt because he was only a couple inches shorter than me. When my brother hit his, he skyrocketed to 6'2" in less than a year.
"How well can you handle a knife?" I asked.
"Good enough to kill a vampire in two tries." He answered nonchalantly.
I had nothing to say. A thirteen year old was already killing vampires? And by that he meant decapitation right? "Um, I'm sure you don't need the same level of strength to chop up… vegetables." I stared at the carrots in my hand. Yeah, he did not need that level of strength for these. "Go ahead." I stepped aside and let him work his excellent chopping skills.
"Dean! Where are you boy?!" Bobby yelled. "Come help me out in the shed!"
"Coming, Bobby!" The two men were soon out the door.
"Say, you went to college right?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, you could say so." I turned on the heat on the stove and placed the frying pan on it– ugh I was supposed to boil the damn noodles before frying them. "Where's the damn pot… Oh there it is."
"So." Sam cleared his throat. "Can you keep this a secret?" Sam asked. "I don't want Dad or Dean to find out."
"Um, yeah of course." Fill up the pot halfway with water, then put the noodles in… I just dumped the whole packet in there. As far as I was aware, one grown man and two growing boys ate a lot. "You wanna go to college, right?"
"Yeah." Sam's smile faltered. "How did you know that?"
"I know." I flashed him what I hoped was a gentle smile. "I know a lot of things about this world. But I can't reveal the future. Like– I can't. But I do know what you want. And you know what? I'll help you get in. That's what you want right? A life away from all of this?"
Sam nodded. "Please don't tell the others." He gave me those puppy eyes and I couldn't refuse his request. Not like I was planning to tell them anyway.
"Of course." I patted his shoulder. "Study hard and you'll get in."
"So– what APs would you recommend?"
"In my world, school was really competitive, so all APs I guess. But this is like, what, three decades earlier? There's no way competition is that fierce yet, right? What's y'all's average GPA?"
"Uh, for Dean's grade it's around 2.5."
I almost dropped the butter I was grabbing from the fridge. "Only?!"
Sam nodded slowly. "Yeah… is that bad?"
"The average GPA in my high school was a 3.8"
Now it was Sam's turn to almost drop the knife. "Seriously?"
I nodded. "I barely managed to scrape by. You couldn't get into UT even after being in the top 6% of your school. You had to be, like, top 5 students or something."
"For real?"
"Yeah. it's not that bad. If you tried you could get into a decent school." I poked the noodles and turned off the heat. I dropped a slice of butter on a pan and put that on instead. "Done with the veggies?" I asked.
"Yeah. What do I do with them? Put them in the pan with the butter. It'll start frying. Do you know how to crack an egg?"
"Uh, kind of?"
"Same. Give it your best shot." I handed him four eggs.
"All in there?"
"Yep." I tilted the pot with the noodles and water over the sink that was running cold water. "I'll put these in once I've strained it."
The rest of it was easy, Sam and I just stirred the mixture until the eggs were completely fried and voila. Food. Real food.
Bobby and Dean walked back in as soon as we started setting the table.
"Something smells good." Bobby nodded at the giant pan in the middle of the cleared up dining table.
"Wash your hands, Dean." Sam chimed when he spotted Dean trying to poke the food.
"Geez." Dean mumbled but washed his hands at the kitchen sink anyway.
"I had a question." I stated once everyone had their own pile of food.
"Shoot." Bobby said.
"I need to take the GED. How."
"Sioux Falls High School offers it. That's where Dean's taking his." Sam provided
"Didn't you graduate already?" Dean questioned.
"Yeah, but not here."
"Next thing I know you're gonna say you wanna go to college." Dean laughed.
"I do." I glared at him. "And I think it's a great idea. I might do it online though. Get a job when I'm not studying."
"You're not gonna hunt?" Dean seemed shocked.
"It's not like I want to." I shrugged.
"Let the kid be." Bobby shook his head. "If she wants to get a job let her. She can help out with the bills."
"Exactly. And college isn't free."
"How much did you spend on yours?"
"18,000 per semester. And it was a public college too." I frowned at the huge number. The others' eyes looked like they were gonna fall out.
"That's robbery." Bobby scoffed. "Did they keep you guys in some kind of palace?"
"I wish. I lived at home."
"Balls."
"I know."
Once everyone was done eating and shrieking over college prices, I gathered up enough motivation to do the week old dishes in the sink and to clean up the kitchen as much as humanly possible. Job hunting could start once I set the place straight.
"So you're just going to stay here?" Dean asked. He held out a hand for the dish I'd just finished scrubbing. There was a towel in his hand.
"It seems like an unspoken agreement." I passed it onto him. It felt domestic. Very domestic. I cringed at the next plate I'd pulled out. "Is that mold?"
"Wouldn't be surprised." Dean chuckled. "You know everything about us, huh? You know Sam wants to go to college?"
"He's not very good at keeping secrets is he?"
"Not really. But I know him more than he knows himself. He's family."
"I guess."
Seeing Dean smiling at the thought of Sam made me think about my own brother. Was he doing okay? Did another kid break his lego cars and make him mad? Or was he still grumbling about me stealing his Qiqi plushie? Did he even know I was gone?
"Did you have family back there?"
"Yeah." I managed to keep the tears at bay. "Good one too. I kind of ran away from home though." I laughed to myself. "It was a dumb idea. Maybe this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't." I cleared my throat. Change of topics. "Where did Sam and Bobby go?"
"Sam said he ran out of school supplies. Bobby went with him to Dollar Tree."
"You don't have anything for your school?"
"Who cares. It's not like I'll actually graduate from a school. I'll just take my GED and then go hunting full time."
"You sound like you have a plan. But don't you have to study for the GED?"
"I just need to know enough to pass it." I caught him smirking at me from the corner of my eye. "Or were you wanting to help me study, sweetheart?" Was he winking at me? This damn flirt.
"I'm not irresponsible like you." I shoved the next pan into his hands a little harder. "I know I'm going to pass. And I'm not one for… study sessions in the janitor's closet."
He sighed. "You know about that too?"
"You cheat on the girls you're dating too. Sadly I don't have a kink for it." But that one fanfiction I'd read on tumblr did give me a kink for doing it in the backseat of the Impala while wearing Dean's brown leather jacket. It was so beautifully written even an asexual person like me had enjoyed every single word of it. "How long are you guys gonna keep watching me?"
"Until we know you're absolutely harmless."
"Fair." I passed him the last of the dishes and turned around to look at the remaining mess in the kitchen. The cabinets needed to be cleaned out to store the utensils and the rest of the counters needed to be wiped. "Have no worries because I'll be cleaning out this house for at least the next few weeks."
"Sounds like a plan for you." he grinned. "And I'll be watching every second of it." His eyes flitted down to my chest for a split second.
How was I supposed to do anything with this guy around?