Sam Winchester's morning started off like most mornings did- when it was just him and his brother anyway. The first notes of 'Enter Sandman' would play from the alarm his brother would set in Sam's phone the first night that they arrived at the motel. Sam knew that just in the other room his brother would be out of bed quickly and going through a bag as soon as those first notes started to sound from his own phone. Sam would follow suit afterwards, getting out of bed to pick out an outfit for the day, and mumble a good morning to Dean as the elder Winchester entered his room, before making his way to the bathroom.
Ever since Sam turned sixteen, John had made it a habit of getting the brothers two separate rooms rather then a shared one. Not that either Winchester complained- the brothers had fallen into a simple routine after the first few days of the new room. The added privacy was nice, if a bit odd to get used to after years of sharing either a room or a bed with his brother. The separated rooms were only used during the night, making sleep easier for the duo, while they often stayed in either their own rooms to keep to themselves or hung out together in Dean's room.
"Danny coming over?" Dean questioned, shrugging on his worn brown leather jacket that had been previously nestled into the crook of his arm.
"Not sure." Sam responded quickly before taking a bite out of the still warm breakfast sandwich Dean brought in for him. Dean simply nodded, enjoying his own breakfast as the comfortable silence settled over them. Sam's mind wandered a tad in the silence, running over all the odd little things he's seen or learned about Amity Park. With a sigh, the teen turned to his brother. "Any idea how long dad is going to be gone?"
"He said a few weeks Sammy." Dean answered the question without hesitation, eyes landing on the alarm clock on the bedside table. Sam nodded with another sigh, pulling his bag out from under the table. "'Sides, we gotta get you to school. I'll be stopping by the auto shop I saw nearby. Hopefully I can score a job there in order to make sure we don't run short on anything that we might need." Sam knew that 'anything' could mean going out to the movies as a treat, to having to be able to pay extra days for their rooms when John either didn't set enough money aside or inevitably didn't come back in time, or even having to pay for food and any extra supplies that they needed such as salt for the protection lines.
"Sounds good." Sam agreed, following his brother out to the car.
The ride to school was same as usual, Dean playing his choice of rock music for the morning while Sam was going over the assignments he had due today. Once parked, Sam exited the Impala with a 'see you later' over his shoulder after Dean reminded him he might not be there right after school. It was when he was almost to his homeroom class that his day took an interesting turn away from his usual routine.
"I swear I saw him!" A tall gangling teen with apricot colored hair, which had been pulled into a low ponytail, shouted. His blue eyes glared through thick round-framed glasses at someone else. Sam found himself slowly inching closer, trying to eavesdrop in the conversation. "He stopped that green lunch lady ghost from drowning me in meat! I smell like it too!"
"Sure you did Mikey," came the sarcastic drawl of a female student that looked very much like Mikey. "We've gone over this, 'Phantom,'" the girl put finger quotes around Phantom as she rolled her eyes, "isn't real. He's just a stupid myth cooked up by some crazy crack pot." Sam's attention was peaked by then as he always had a deep interest for legends and myths.
"Fine Becca, don't believe me!" Mikey called after Becca as she made her way through the crowd, throwing his hands up in exasperation. The teen mumbled angrily under is breath while he began shoving books into his locker. Sam's eyes zeroed in on a piece of what looked to be an uncooked, sloppy piece of lunchmeat sitting on the teen's hair tie.
"Hey," Sam called out, apologizing when Mikey jumped at his voice, offering the shorter teen an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I just couldn't help but over hear your conversation, and I was wondering what it was about..."
"You believe me?" Mikey looked shocked, mouth left agape. His eyes blinked rapidly behind his glasses, as if Sam was about to laugh in his face, make fun of him, and then turn around and disappear to mock him about what he was talking about.
"Yeah, hard not to with this in your hair." Sam nodded, plucking the gross glob of meat off of the ponytail.
"Finally someone who does!" Mikey grinned, revealing a set of pink braces. He looked around the hallway suspiciously before meeting Sam's eyes. "Let's go to the roof. You must be new because I know everyone- being easily dismissed allows me to know so much more than people would like. Teachers won't notice either, your teacher will probably assume that you got lost so you will be fine." Sam paused, looking towards room 415 before nodding.
He followed the red head through the crowd and up the steps onto the roof. Sam was a tad surprised to see that no one batted an eye as they made their way up and that the roof was unlocked. "Perks of being a teacher's pet." Mikey grinned back at a stiff Sam, taking a seat away from the edge, crossing his legs. "I'm Mikey by the way. Mikey McLean."
"Sam Winchester." Sam offered a smile, accepting the hand held out to him. "So, what was this about a phantom?"
"The Phantom. The 'p' is capitalized 'cause it's his name. Most people who were here since the beginning are in denial, or something of the likes, but I'm not!" Mikey shook his head, jabbing a finger into his own chest, right over his heart. "I remember the fights, Phantom saving lives. But then... people started moving away and the things that happened just became ghost stories, you know? It's really weird- weirder than Amity's normal level of weird anyways." Sam noticed the hint of sadness in the other teen's blue eyes.
"What stories?" Sam asked. Mikey's eyes clouded in confusion before his eyes suddenly cleared.
"Oh yeah, you're new! Duh- I just said that." Mikey chuckled, shaking his head at his forgetfulness. "My freshman year these ghost started showing up right? They were scaring and terrorizing everyone! Causing messes, destroying things- heck the school was always under some sort of construction, don't even get me started on the other buildings and houses that were destroyed constantly. Then Phantom would show up, and he always defeated the ghosts no matter how hurt he got."
Sam's mind reeled, taking in the information. These things were not ghosts- the ghosts Mikey was describing were all tangible and could actually interact with things regularly- they even supposedly fought each other on a regular basis. These things were definitely not what his dad and brother was used to dealing with. That is if any of this was real. "Like a superhero?" Sam asked, taken aback by the excited look on Mikey's face at his words.
"Exactly! He even had an emblem and everything!" Mikey gushed, nodding his head quickly. "He used to pop up everywhere. Then there was a... really bad fight between him and some other ghosts and things changed. People started moving away, and Phantom didn't show up much more after that, so suddenly people started saying he was a fable. That he wasn't real." Mikey took a breath. "He helps us still. Especially us nerds, and I don't think he even realizes it but I notice when he stops the bullies. He trips them and even lured a teacher in our direction a few times by making noise. I'm pretty sure he thinks everyone forgot, or ignores him but I don't."
"How could everyone forget about someone like that?" Sam mused aloud, receiving a melancholy look.
"The adults never liked him anyways... They thought he was a villain."
Sam hadn't caught much of a glimpse of Danny all day until lunchtime. He was on his way to making it out of the building when he saw the familiar black haired teen. Sam's eyebrows furrowed when he caught sight of Danny favoring his right leg and the teen's hesitant movements. They were all things he remembered seeing in his brother after a rough hunt.
"Hey Danny." Sam greeted with a smile when he caught up with the teen. Danny jumped, twisting around quickly, before meeting Sam's smile with his own as his ice blue eyes landed on Sam.
"Hey Sam, I was wondering when I'll run into you." Danny chuckled, the duo quickly falling into step. "I missed homeroom, what'd I miss?" Sam chuckled, shaking his head.
"I was actually going to ask you the same thing." Sam retorted, getting a look from Danny. "I got distracted, you?"
"Same." Danny retorted the vague answer with a light smile, as the two made it to their way into the Nasty Burger, Sam subtly walking slower to allow Danny to take it easy on his leg. The food order to only a moment and they quickly made their way to a booth. "So, what distracted you?" Danny asked, taking a sip of his soda.
"A kid at the school, Mikey, told me some interesting things about the town." Sam responded, taking in the tilt of Danny's head. "He was telling me about Phantom." Sam noticed the shocked look run through his eyes before it was covered with curiosity.
"That fable? What about it?" Danny questioned, and Sam paused. He figured Danny would have an idea about Phantom, and what went on in the town. It seemed that Danny was only shocked that he would be interested in such a silly topic.
"I ran into a kid named Mikey and he was telling someone, who I assume is his sister, that he was saved from a ghost attack by Phantom. Mikey swore he was real." Sam responded with a shrug. "I thought it was interesting as is, even if it is just a story."
"Ah yea, it was an interesting time for all of us." Danny shrugged, and Sam got the impression that Danny didn't want to be talking about this.
"Anyways, what was your distraction?" Sam asked Danny, willing to drop the subject for the moment.
"I actually just didn't want to see Lancer." Danny gave a soft chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "I owe him an essay I hadn't finished..." Sam couldn't help the laugh that left him at the sheepish look Danny wore.
"I'm always open to help." Sam offered with a smile, before he remembered something. "Oh hey, do you want to come over today?"
"Wish I could, but my dad wants my help with something after school." Danny offered with an apologetic smile, getting a reassuring look from the taller teen.
"It's alright." Sam nodded, just realizing that all that was left of both their meals were fries. Popping one in his mouth, he continued. "So, how was school so far?"
"Mr. Winchester, can I speak with you for a moment?" Sam's head snapped up to land on his criminal justice teacher, Caleb Moncrief. The teacher was a tall, built, dark skinned man with a laid back attitude. Sam nodded, and made his way over to the desk, glancing over to see the students filing out of the door. "I just wanted to talk to you about the assignments you dropped at my desk at the start of class."
"Did I miss something, Mr. Moncrief?" Sam asked, eyebrows furrowed and mind running through the list. He got a small chuckle and the shake of a head in response.
"Everything was accounted for and seems completed." Caleb responded, looking over the stack with an impressed look. "You actually didn't have to do all the work you missed, but good news is you actually went ahead a bit. So, you'll be excused from the next four assignments." Sam looked up with wide eyes, surprised he happened to get done more than he had thought.
"Oh wow, okay. Thanks, Mr. Moncrief." Sam smiled, sharing goodbyes with his teacher before making his way out of the school. He glanced around at the bustling teens around the front of the school, eyes scanning the crowd for Danny but not catching sight of the shorter teen. A vibration from the small phone in his pocket pulled his attention from the masses.
'Started today, can't pick you up. Let me know when you get back - Dean'
Sam sighed, quickly typing out a response to his brother, letting him know he'll be at the library. It was after all much closer to him then the motel was. A last sweeping look around the dwindling crowd confirmed his friend was nowhere to be seen. Letting out another sigh, the teen made the trek to the library, his mind rolling over all the oddities he had learned about Amity Park.
AN: I'm back with another update! Took longer then I would have liked to get this one written out, it was a tad bit of a trouble. But huge thanks to beta RangerHorseTug for actually helping make this a chapter I'm happy to post out!
I actually don't have much to say so...
I hope you all enjoyed this update, and let me know what you thought in the reviews! Hasta Luego!