Dean's Choice
Guidance Counselors and Bullies
-1-
Summary: starts off wee!chester but will span into present time. Dean's sacrifices for his brother.
Authors Note: pre-series, no spoilers, just a fun and mildly angsty and humorous fic.
"Dean, you're letting your family ruin your life." Gracie told him, searching for some kind of indication in his eyes as to why he was throwing his life away like this.
Dean realized he had been mistaken when he'd thought that Gracie would understand it all, he really liked her but she'd never understand, she was just like the rest of them.
"They need me." Dean said, his voice firm, and feeling guilty for even considering the option that he'd been handed. "Sam and my dad, they need me Gracie. I thought you'd at least understand that, even if they don't.
It all began to unravel for him a week ago, when he was called down to the guidance office—technically, not that abnormal but under the pretenses as it were, it was slightly out of the norm, because this time he wasn't in trouble.
He walked into Mrs. Creedy's office and was confronted by her and Miss. Madison, his English teacher, who up until this point he'd really liked. She was young, attractive, and didn't treat him like a bad kid based on the assumptions of a few teachers, like many of them did. He couldn't believe she'd done this to him.
"Sit down, Dean." Mrs. Creedy said. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble."
"Fantastic." Dean muttered, "Can I go then? I have stuff to do."
"Please sit down, Dean." Miss. Madison said, "I promise this won't take a long time. We just want to talk."
"Yes, Dean, we really would love to talk to you."
Mrs. Creedy had that counselor voice and that worried Dean, he knew the tone well. It reminded him of the many times that they'd shoved him into the counselor's office at school after school for being 'anti-social'. Well damn them, it was his choice who he wanted to be friends with and they were out of their minds if they thought he'd start acting buddy-buddy with a bunch of jerks and losers to placate them. Instead, he started to date the counselor's daughter and that put an end to the pressure from them.
"So...what?" Dean asked uncomfortably knowing full well what this was about and having no desire to hash it over with them. He was sure that they all thought he was an idiot but they'd never understand and he could never make them understand what a complicated decision this was...its didn't just involve him.
"We were just a little concerned when we heard that you rejected the scholarship that USC had offered you." Miss. Madison said.
"Did you decide on another school?" Mrs. Creedy questioned.
"I never applied for that scholarship." Dean said.
"I know." Miss. Madison said, "But your paper was just so beautiful that I entered it for you since you didn't seem to want to—you won, Dean. Its a full scholarship."
"I know." Dean said.
He wasn't stupid he knew how big that was but...he couldn't leave Sammy, Sam needed him, and so did their dad.
"I don't want it." Dean said. "I'm not going to college."
The looks they gave him made him glad that it would be only a few more weeks before he was done, because they'd never understand it.
"You're being ridiculous." Gracie said. Clearly they'd returned to the topic of the scholarship he was giving up. "Your dad is the dad, not you. You can't let him be your excuse for giving up a great future."
"It's not just him, Sam's just a kid, he needs me."
"He's not a kid, Dean, and he doesn't need you to babysit or to be his father. It's not your job—he already has one."
"He's twelve!" Dean objected. His brother needed him, and he couldn't care less what she had to say, Sam was no more closer to being an adult than he was ten years ago, no matter how mature he was.
"Exactly." Gracie said, starting to get up. "And he's going to make his own decisions...the same thing that you need to do. Don't let them decide your future for you Dean, it isn't fair."
"What do you know about fair? You have the perfect life and the perfect family, I guess its easy just to think about yourself! You have no idea what its like..." Dean stopped there, he had gone too far.
"Only think of myself..." Gracie tried out the words, fighting the tears. She thought Dean had known her better than that, to think of her like that...she thought he saw her differently than everyone else at this school did...clearly not. "It must be such a struggle just to be in the same room as me." Gracie turned away as the tears started to fall and grabbed her purse off of the table. Gracie walked away not looking back.
"Gracie!" Dean ran after her, the guilt eating him up. It wasn't her fault and now he was taking his frustrations out on the only person he could talk to-aside from Sammy—and their were some things he couldn't talk to Sam about that he could always tell Gracie about.
She was the only girl he'd ever trusted their secret with, and she didn't run away when he did. Gracie didn't deserve the way he was treating her.
"Gracie, stop." Dean grabbed her shoulder and pulled her around. "I'm sorry, I—I didn't mean that, it-it's not true...please, forgive me?"
Dean looked up at her his big brown eyes shining with guilt an she couldn't help but to forgive him. She wasn't trying to be difficult, it was just that she loved him and wanted the best for him. She wanted him to escape this life that he clearly hated, but would never admit to hating.
"You're perfect." Dean said, "There isn't a mean or selfish bone in your body..." Dean grinned seeing that she was starting to budge, "If there were, how would you be able to put up with a horrible jerk like me?"
"I guess I just have really low standards."
Dean wiped away a stray tear, kissed her tenderly, and led her back into the house.
"Dean, I know you have your reasons but...why? Why are you so willing to throw this away? It's a chance that people would die for." Gracie wished he'd help her to understand, even after he'd told her about their life, he still felt like their was this secret hidden part of Dean's life that she knew nothing about.
"I..." Dean's voice trailed off as he heard the door slam shut. "Sammy's home."
"Dean?" Sam called out.
"Bedroom!" Dean hollered back. "Gracie," He whispered, "Promise me, not a word to Sam about the school thing, okay?"
"I..."
"Promise." Dean demanded.
"Not a word." Gracie said quietly.
"Hi Sam." Gracie said, as he walked into Dean's room.
"Oh, hi Gracie." Sam said.
"Hey Sammy, how was school?" Dean asked.
""It's Sam." He said, the correction was second nature by now, he said it nearly automatically. "Fine. Where's dad?"
"He had to go before I got home, he's on a job in Washington...with Caleb."
"Oh." Sam's voice dropped and octave and Dean was reminded of a kicked puppy. Couldn't she see, this was why he couldn't leave. "When's he coming back?"
"Not sure, he said he'd call. Probably not for a while."
"Okay," Sam replied. "I'm going to go do my homework..." Sam walked off and Dean remembered something.
"I'll be right back." He told Gracie, jogging out to the hallway to catch up with Sam.
"Sam, did you change that dressing on your leg? Remember,..."
"Twice a day." Sam finished, "Yeah, I'll go do it now."
"You want some help?"
"I'm not a baby, Dean." Sam objected uncomfortably, still embarrassed by his screw up. "I can do it myself."
A month ago on a hunt, Sam had messed up and got in the way of a hell hound who had tried to chow down on his leg. His dad would have still been yelling at him if Dean hadn't defended him and told their dad to back down. It took what seemed like a million stitches but at least he could walk. Dean had babied him for weeks after the incident...he wished his brother would see that he wasn't a stupid kid.
"Sam, why don't you tell your brother?" Taylor asked, helping him up off of the ground as Colton walked away laughing with his friends.
"No. no way Taylor, and you can't tell him either." Sam said. "Dean already thinks I'm still a baby and can't take care of myself."
"You'd rather be Colton's punching bag?" Taylor asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I can take care of him." Sam said.
"Oh, right, because you've done such a bang up job of that thus far."
Sam frowned, "You sound like my brother."
"Well, then, she must be right." Dean said sneaking up behind them. "Sammy, Taylor, what's going on guys?"
"Just class." Sam said not wanting to give Taylor an opportunity to spill the whole Colton thing to his brother. "Same place you should be actually."
"Class is over-rated, I have better things to do." Like avoid English, Dean thought.
"Oh really," Taylor drawled, her heavy Kentucky accent even heavier as she lowered the tone of her voice. "What's her name?"
Sam snorted, if his brother wasn't currently having this thing with Gracie--something that shocked him as Dean didn't do long term, especially with rich girls--he was sure that Taylor would be right.
"Dad's going to kill you if he find's out you skipped class."
"Dad's not going to find out." Dean said. "I just got a message from him in my voicemail. He left early to meet up with Caleb for work."
"He'll still find out." Sam said.
"Whatever. I just wanted to see if you wanted a ride before I left."
"No." Sam said, "I am going to class, so I can you know, pass."
"Okay…goody two shoes." Dean smirked.
"Really, Sam, because I think it would be better if you took your brother up on that, we could go and take in a movie or something."
"Uh, Taylor, isn't your mom home?" Sam asked.
"Oh, she doesn't care." Taylor waved it off. "Really. Take up your brother's offer Sam."
"No." Sam said, knowing exactly what she was trying to do. He wasn't going to run away from a fight either. "I'm going to class."
Dean sighed, "I've tried so hard, but Sammy, you are clearly a lost case. Taylor, you want a ride?"
"No, Dean." Sam said, "Taylor and I have class."
"He's right." Taylor sighed.
"Well, okay. I'll be back at three to pick you up Sammy."
"I hope you're ready to add dead to your list of injuries." Taylor said once Dean was out of earshot.
"I'll be fine." Sam said, currently not so sure of it.
"Did I mention that you've added mindless idiot to that list?" Taylor asked.
"Let's go down to the quad for lunch." Gracie suggested.
Dean readily agreed, even though he had planned on them leaving campus..easier to avoid nosy teachers that way; the quad connected the middle and high schools and it would give him a chance to check on Sam, as they had lunch at the same time. Sam hated when he did it, but he had no intentions of letting Sam know he was checking up on him. Or so that had been his plan before they got to the quad, and Dean saw Sam getting knocked to the floor by a guy twice his size.
Dean automatically switched into big brother mode as he saw this. He ran over, pulled the guy off of Sam and knocked him down with one swift punch that probably could have taken down a windego. After that he went to go and check on Sam.
Dean helped his brother up off of the ground who looked like he'd gone a few rounds with a hell hound—which he did last week, and Dean was praying that Sammy wasn't in too bad shape because another trip to the ER wouldn't exactly go unnoticed.
"Hey..Hey, are you okay?" Dean asked his brother, checking him over as thoroughly as he could.
"Fine." Sam mumbled, embarrassed that his big brother was fighting his battles for him.
"Are you sure?" Dean was worried, Sam's eye looked like it was swelling up pretty bad and the trickle of blood coming from his nose wasn't at all reassuring.
Dean's glance tuned to the left just in time to see the jerk that was picking on his brother try to blindside him. Dean hit him, and gave him a kick in the side.
"You come near my brother again and I'll kill you." Dean whispered in his ear. "Got it?"
Dean helped his brother up. "C'mon I'll take you home and we'll get you patched up."
Sam stood up, suddenly feeling a pain in his arm, and grabbed it trying to keep it stable in the hopes that would make it stop.
It didn't go unnoticed by Dean and he hoped to god it wasn't broken.
so..chapter one, it got a bit longer than i intended but there was a lot of ground that I wanted to cover. hope you liked it, more to come soon.