Sam-16 Aly-8

Sam picked me up from school in his yellow VW Beetle. I got in the back seat and he handed me a paper bag.

"Here's a snack. Eat it before we get to the library" he told me.

"Aww, why do we have to go to the library?" I complained.

"Because I'm meeting some people there to study." he said.

"I wanted to go home and watch cartoons!" I whined.

He frowned at me in the rear view mirror. "Don't start with the whining, please. It shouldn't be too long."

I opened the bag and pulled out a granola bar, a sliced apple, and a juice box. Sam always gave me healthy snacks. If it had been Dean, he would have stopped at a 7-11 and bought me some chips or a candy bar. Dean and Dad had gone on a case this weekend and once again it was just me and Sam.

He pulled into the parking lot and parked the bug. He turned to look at me. "Do you have any homework?"

"No, silly, it's Friday! Ms. Chapman never gives us homework on Fridays!"I said.

He shook his head. "Oh, to be in elementary school again. How about you do some of mine then? 'Cause I've got a buttload." He leaned over and picked up his bag and opened the door. I opened my door and got out.

"You can get out 4 books, okay? But you've got to make sure you keep track of them." he reached for me. "Hand" he said, and I put my hand in his as we walked across the parking lot.

We walked into the adult section where there were large tables. There was one with 4 other teens around it. They looked at us as we walked over to them.

"Hey" Sam said to them. "This is my little sister, Aly." He put his bag down on a chair. "I'm going to take her to get some books and I'll be right back." he told them. He looked down at me. "Come on."

"Why can't I go by myself? I'm not a baby, you know" I grumped at him.

"Because you can't." he said simply.

"Sam, that's not fair!" I said as we walked away from the table. Unfortunately I whined again. He turned toward me, grabbed my upper arm, and leaned down so that his face was in my face.

"I said STOP with the whining" he said firmly. "I mean it, if you keep this up, you're going to sit in a chair in time out the whole time we're here. Is that what you want?" Up close I could see that his eyes looked tired and he had dark circles under them.

I looked down at the floor.

"Aly, look at me when I 'm talking to you." he said seriously.

"You sound just like Dad" I said sourly. I raised my head and looked at him.

"I just don't get why you won't let me go to the kid's section by myself!"

"It's not you, okay? It's other people. I don't trust other people. So you have to stay with me." He straightened up. "C'mon."

He stood by one of the little tables in the kids' section, looking ridiculously out of place. Sam is really tall and really big, and since everything in the kids' section is kid sized, he looked silly. He looked at his watch.

"Aly, you have 10 minutes" he said.

"Okay" I sighed. I liked to take my time and browse, but he wasn't going to let me do that today. I found 4 books and we walked back to the table. I sat down at the end and opened one of my books. I barely listened to Sam and his friends as they joked and studied. I finished the first book I was reading and got up and walked over to Sam. His chair was tilted back.

"Sam" I said. He turned his head to look at me.

"I finished a book. Can I go get the next one in the series?"

"Wow, that was fast. Why don't you wait until we leave, you can get it right before we check out."

"I don't want to wait" I said, trying not to whine. He gave me a look. "I'm not whining!" I protested.

"You're real close, little girl." he tapped his pen on his open palm. " We're almost done here. Read one of your other books right now."

"But Sam, I-"

He set his chair down with a bang. "do you realize you've done nothing but argue and whine this whole time? I swear, you're going to bed early tonight" he said angrily. I heard one of the other guys say, "Oooh" and one of them chuckled. I was embarrassed. I stomped over to my seat and put my head down on the table and tried not to cry. After a couple minutes I felt okay and I sat up again. A girl had scooted her chair really close to Sam's and their heads were together. I watched them as they talked, she looked into his eyes and smiled at him and reached out to touch his arm. Sam didn't seem to be affected my any of this behavior. After a couple more minutes, they started packing up their stuff. I got up and went over to stand next to Sam's chair. One of the guys said, "Who's up for going out to grab some burgers?"

The girl sitting next to him said, "Sam, do you want to?"

Sam opened his bag and put his binders in. He shook his head. "Nah, I've got kid duty this weekend." he nodded at me.

" Oh" the girl gave a little pout that looked really fake. "Maybe next week then."

" Maybe" Sam said absently. He looked at me and put his hand on my back. "You ready to go?" He stood up. "See you guys" Everyone said bye to him and I picked up my books.

"Let's get the next book for you" he said as we walked toward the checkout counter.

"Do I really have to go to bed early?" I asked him.

"If you don't whine any more tonight, then no. If you do whine, then yes."

We checked my books out and went to his car.

"Want to go to Bella 's and get a pizza?" he asked.

"YES!" I said loudly, bouncing on my seat.

He put his hand up to his head. "Not too loud, I have a headache. I want to just pick it up and take it home instead of eating there tonight, okay?"

"Aww, I want to play the racing game!" The restaurant had a couple of old fashioned video games in their dining room.

"Next time." he said.

"You're no fun" I said, and kicked his seat. He turned around, frowning at me.

"What did I tell you about kicking the seat?" he asked sternly.

"Um, not to." I looked down, feeling guilty. "Sorry, Sam."

"What do you want on the pizza?" he asked me, rubbing his forehead.

"Sausage" I said. "Did you have a bad dream again and have trouble sleeping?" He glanced at me in the rear view mirror. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Your eyes look tired. They look a certain way when you don't sleep."

"You are a very perceptive kid" he said.

"What's that mean?"

"It means you notice things that other people don't."

"I also noticed that that girl likes you."

"What girl?"

"The one sitting next to you at the library."

"Jennifer?" he scoffed. "No she doesn't."

"Sam, she was leaning close to you and she kept looking into your eyes. You didn't notice?'

"Not really."

I laughed. "Dean was right. You are dense when it comes to girls!"

We ate the pizza sitting in front of the tv, watching the Friday night cooking show that we always watched together. Sam's cell phone rang at towards the end of the show. He answered it and talked for a couple minutes.

"It's Dad" he mouthed at me. In a moment he said, "Here she is" and handed me the phone.

"Hi Daddy!" I said happily.

"Hi baby girl" Daddy said. "Are you being good for Sam?"

"Of course!"I said, and he laughed. "We went to the library and he let me get out 4 books."

"Make sure you keep track of them, young lady" he said in a stern tone. "We don't want a repeat of what happened last time." A couple months ago I had forgotten about and lost 2 library books and they were a month overdue. I had gotten a spanking and been grounded from getting books for a while.

"I know, Daddy" I said with annoyance.

"Don't get sassy with me, I'll tell Sam to swat your bottom." he said warningly.

"Sorry" I mumbled. I heard Dean's voice in the background.

"Dean says to tell you that he left you a chocolate bar on top of the fridge."

"Ooh, tell him thank you!" I said happily.

"All right, we've got to go. Have a good night, sweetie. Love you."

"Love you back, Good night." I hung up the phone and put it on the table. Sam had gone to the bathroom.

I went into the kitchen and pulled one of the chairs over to the counter, then climbed up onto the chair and stepped onto the counter next to the fridge. I picked up the candy bar and opened it and took a bite.

Sam came into the kitchen. "WHAT are you doing?" he asked me, taking in the scene.

"Dean left me a candy bar!"I said. Sam walked over to me and put his arm around my waist and lifted me off the counter and set me on the floor.

"Don't do that again, Aly, it's dangerous." he reached down and took the candy bar out of my hand.

"Hey!" I protested.

"it's almost bedtime. You don't need chocolate at bedtime."

"But Dean bought it for me!" I jumped up at him. Sam easily held the candy up out of my reach. "Give it, Sam!" I jumped again.

"You should have asked if you could have it" he admonished.

"You would have said no!" I snapped. "Give it, it's mine!"

"No. go get ready for bed."

"Aww, are you making me go to bed early?"

" I was going to let you stay up at watch another episode, but I guess not since you just whined."

"NOT! FAIR!" I stomped my foot after each word for emphasis. "You're just a big meany!"

"Alyson, go get ready for bed now." he said tiredly.

"You aren't letting me do ANYTHING!" I protested angrily. " Tonight sucks!"

"Hey! Watch your mouth!" he looked down at me, surprised. "I don't want to hear you say that again!"

"Tonight sucks, and you suck!" I said angrily.

"Okay, little girl, that's enough out of you" he said. He put the chocolate bar down on the table and picked me up and held me under his arm. He swatted me twice.

" Lose the attitude and stop the whining NOW."

I twisted my body in his grasp. "Owww, Sam" I whined. He smacked me again. "Did you hear what I just said?"

"Yeees, I'm sorry!" Tears came to my eyes, because Sam has a large hand, and it is hard.

"Are you going to get ready for bed without any more trouble?"

"Yes sir" I said contritely. He set me down on the floor.

"Good. Because if you give me any more grief, you're going to end up over my knees."

I walked to my room and did my nightly routine, pajamas, use the toilet, brush teeth, brush hair. Sam came into my room as I was getting into bed. He took a book off of my dresser and sat down next to me and leaned against the head of my bed.

"One chapter" he said. He put his arm around me and I snuggled into his side. He was reading The Hobbit out loud to me at bedtime. I must have fallen asleep while he was reading, because the next thing I remembered was feeling him pull the covers up and then him kissing my cheek.