Chapter Text
I flipped through a book, half-listening to whatever Johnny had on the TV. Both of our phones had been taken by our parents on “bad behavior” for a whole month, so I couldn’t even talk to any of my friends. “Michael! Jonathan!” Our dad called from the living room, and we both sighed, getting up and shuffling out the room. We stood in front of both of our parents, preparing for another lecture we were going to ignore. “Pack your things, you’re being sent to a Home for Behavioral Correction.” We both stood there in shock for a moment, not processing what had just been said. “What?” I said intelligently, my parents giving me a sharp glare. “You heard me. Both of your attitudes have gotten out of hand. We provide so much for you kids, and you two especially never appreciate it! Well, we’re done with it. If we can’t fix your attitude, they can.” Even then, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. A home? For correction? It just sounded wrong. “You can’t be serious.” I tried, but their word was final. “They’ll be here to pick you up tomorrow.” They were kind enough to give us two bags, and I made sure to pack all the essentials Johnny and I could need. “How long do you think we’ll be staying?” Johnny finally spoke, reasonably nervous. “I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “Hopefully not too long.” “Will we be able to stay together?” He questioned again. “I’ll make sure of it.” Johnny stopped asking questions after that, which I was thankful for, because I didn’t know anything else. After we finished packing, we made sure to tell our younger siblings that we’d be gone for a while, and said goodbye in case we didn’t have the chance to tomorrow. When Johnny and I were back in our room, he spoke again. “You think it’ll be a bad place?” I thought for a while, and I didn’t have high hopes. “We’ll just have to be prepared.”
We were awoken bright and early the next morning, greeted by two older-looking ladies. “You two must be Michael and Jonathan Stines, yes?” John nodded, and the women took our bags, guiding us to a black Country Squire. They went back inside the house, probably speaking more with our parents. When they finally came back, they filed into the car, not bothering to speak to us when we pulled off.
I shook Johnny awake when we finally arrived. The place was large and had an ominous air to it, which made me uneasy. Grabbing our bags and stepping out of the car, we followed the ladies towards the steps and inside the home. Two younger ladies, wearing green and yellow respectively, greeted us. “Good morning, and welcome to Ms. Pedigree's home for Malevolent Children. We are the head caretakers for the younger and older classes. You’ll learn more about us soon. Now, follow us to get you both ready.” “Hang on,” I interrupted, holding John’s hand. “Will the younger and older kids be separated?” The ladies seemed bothered by the question, but held their tongues. “Yes, the younger and older children have separate living spaces, you’ll learn the specifics at the Orientation. Now, we must hurry.” I squoze John’s hand, reluctantly letting the lady in green lead him away, following the lady in yellow. She brought me to a shabby-looking changing room, giving me an ugly uniform and standing outside the door. I sighed, finally giving thought to my current situation. The vibes of this place and the workers here gave me an all-too-upsetting feeling. But I knew no matter what, I couldn’t let Johnny be alone.
I got dressed and left the changing room, following the yellow lady into a large room full of other children. Scanning my eyes along the crowd, I found Johnny quickly, fidgeting with his fingers as he looked around nervously. I immediately strode towards him, grabbing his hand and holding it tight. ”You stay with me, no matter what, alright?” He nodded, squeezing my hand back.
“Alright, children! Eyes on me.” Everyone turned their attention towards the lady at the front of the room. She wore a fancy black dress, and her gray hair was pinned up into a bun. “I am Ms. Pedigree. You are all now in my home to correct your behavior. You will stay here as long as you need, and I implore you to try and do well in my class. Now that’s cleared up, I want you to meet your head teachers, Ms. Blossom, and Ms. Buttercup.” The ladies wearing yellow and green stepped next to Ms. Pedigree. “They are the head teachers for both the younger and older classes, so please get accustomed to them.” Both ladies walk to different sides of the room. “Now, if you are 6-13, please follow Ms. Buttercup, and if you are 14-17, please follow Ms. Blossom.” The children spread around, but I kept my hold on Johnny’s hand, quickly walking him to Ms. Blossom’s side with me. When the room finally settled down, Ms. Pedigree scanned around. “Now, everything in order?” The room was quiet for a moment, so I hid John behind my back, hoping no one noticed. Until, Ms. Blossom’s voice called out from behind me. “Oh? Who is this here?” I froze, pulling Johnny closer against me, Ms. Pedigree’s attention fully caught. She strode towards us, her black heels clicking against the hardwood floor. “Ah, Mr. Michael and Jonathan Stines. You both are new here, so I will let you off easy. As I’ve said, you are to be separated by age, Jonathan. Please head to your appropriate—” “He’s staying with me.” I interrupted, and Ms. Pedigree’s expression turned cold. “Excuse me?” She tried again. “I said, he’s staying—” Right then and there, Ms. Pedigree smacked me hard against my face. “We do not tolerate ill behavior here. Follow. the. rules.” I stared her in the eyes, my expression hard. “He’s staying. With me.” She smacked me again, and I lunged at her, punching her square in her wrinkled face.
Eventually, a security guy came, and I fought him as long as I could, until I was crumpled on the floor and Johnny had to scoop me up, heaving both our bags on his back. He helped me on both feet and held me up, the two of us leaving as quickly as we could. “Are you alright?” He asked when we were far enough. “You should’ve seen the other guy.” I tried to joke, but he looked at me blankly. “I’m serious, Mike.” I rolled my eyes, not taking it as seriously as he did obviously. “I’m fine, Johnny, what about you? You alright?” He sighed. “You’re the one who got beat up, Mike…”
“Well, let’s hope this place has a nurse then.”
After getting patched up by a nurse, we weren’t asked to separate again; Ms. Blossom taking us to a dorm with other kids my age. We had to share a bed because John wasn’t supposed to be in here, but I couldn't care less. We dropped our bags under our bed, curling up next to each other. “I don’t like it here Mike.” John mumbled, holding me tight. “I know, it’ll be okay.” I pressed a kiss to the top of his head, squeezing him close. Eventually, we both curled up in the twin bed, holding each other close, and drifting to sleep.
We were awoken by a loud alarm the next morning, practically sent flying out of bed; both of us landing on the floor with a hard thud. We scrambled up, our brain lag catching up after the mini heart attack. A lady stood in the hall, leading everyone out of the rooms, so, grabbing John’s hand, we walked along.
The day was long but unremarkable. We got dressed, we went to a boring class I practically slept through, and I was reprimanded for “bad behavior”, nothing I cared about. At the end of the day, we were sent back to our dorm. “You'd better keep that on ice.” John reprimanded, gesturing towards the bruises our very lovely teacher gave me. “It’s fine, John–” “No. It’s not. I hate this place.” He crashed onto the bed, and I sighed, crashing next to him. “We’ll survive, alright? We’ll be out of here in no time, and then we can go back to being chewed out by our parents 24/7.” His eyes were downcast, unconvinced. “What if they want to keep us here?” I chewed on my lip, thinking for a moment before responding. “That won’t happen, alright? They may be dicks, but they still care about us.” He let out a slight chuckle, “Bro! Don’t call our parents dicks!” I smirked, giving him a look. “Oh? But am I wrong?” He shoved my arm in response. “Shut up, man.” He let out an amused huff of air, flopping backward into the bed. I snorted, grabbing my bag from under the bed and digging into it. “Hey, look.” Johnny brought his attention towards me, eyes widening when he saw my knife. “Whoa- bro?? Why’d you bring that?” I rolled my eyes. “Calm down, I’m not going to do anything.” I went to the front of the bedpost and carved our initials, J. + M. S. “Cool, right?” John shrugged, flopping into bed again. I scooted next to him, shimmying under the covers. “...Mike? You’re sure we’ll make it through this?” I wrapped an arm around him, bringing him close. “Most definitely. Just don’t worry about it.” We both went quiet after that, dozing off to sleep.
The week went by quicker than expected, and it was now the weekend. Because of our countless acts of “bad behavior” that I can’t be bothered to remember, we were forced to stay inside and study while the other kids were outside. “C’mon, Johnny! You don’t want to do this as much as I do. I saw a TV in the living room downstairs with some DVDs~!” He sighed, shaking his head. “Tempting as that sounds, what if we get in trouble?? It’s not a good idea, Mike.” I waved him off, scoffing. “Please, we won’t get caught for nothin’. Trust me!” He rolled his lip through his teeth, pausing for a moment before sighing again. “Fine, fine. But if we are caught we’re taking equal blame.”
“No promises!”
“Mike.” I ignored him, getting up from the desk and starting downstairs.
Thankfully for the both of us, the adults were off on other business, meaning we had the TV to ourselves. “Get comfy, Johnny! I’ll find something good.” John parked on the couch, looking around. “Just make it a quick one, I think the others will get back in two hours.” I searched through the disks, looking for anything interesting, until I found it. ‘Supernatural Full Season 1’. “Hey!” I held the case up, “Found something!”
We finished the first two episodes in a breeze, packing up quickly and retreating back to our room. Flopping in bed, we talked about how cool the episodes were. “Dude! Episode two was so cool! With the Wendigo? Freaking awesome.” John shook his head, “I’m still stuck on how Jess died the same way their mom did…Poor Sam.”
“Yeah, but you see how they both died above him? Has to be important.” We both blabbered on for a while until it was time for dinner. We filed down the stairs with the other kids, heading to the mess hall. “We should keep doing this.” John looked at me like I had two heads, “Dude? we we’re already pushing our luck.” I stopped him for a second, letting the others pass us. “Listen, this is the most fun I’ve had in a while, and I’m sure you feel the same. The second we get caught we’ll stop, but until then…Let’s have fun, alright?” John stared at me for a while, before finally nodding. “Fine, but if your the reason all our teeth get knocked out I’ll happily kick your ass for these pricks.” He walked ahead and I only scoffed, striding behind.
1 Year later. . .
It’s been an entire year in this place, and it’s safe to say it messed us up in more ways than we can say. But, especially Johnny, he’s gotten even quieter than usual. Thankfully, even after all that time, it was never discovered that we were using the TV. Two episodes a day, every time we were supposed to be studying, while everyone else was outside, our only source of solace in this desolate hob hole. I was helping Johnny patch up a particularly bad bruise when I suddenly got an idea. “Hey, look.” I pulled my knife out of my bag, going to the front of the bedpost. Drawing a line straight through our initials, I wrote underneath it, ‘S. & D. W.’. John scoffed, “Sam and Dean Winchester?” I smiled brighter than I thought capable. “Yep, we’re Winchesters now Johnny.” I pat him on the shoulder, us both looking at the carving fondly. “..So, what? You think you’re Dean?”
“Uh? Yeah? I’m totally Dean. I’m the oldest…I’m the manliest..I could go on.” John turned towards me, looking personally offended, “Sam is manly?”
“Great. Then you can be him in all his manly gloryness.” I smiled brighter when John rolled his eyes.
“Alright, Dean.” He scoffed, and I gave him a curious smirk.
“Alright, Sam.”
We stood outside, bags in hand, Ms. Blossom standing in front of us. “Congratulations, you boys have officially graduated. Your car will be here shortly.” We looked at each other, confused. “What, didn’t have any caps to throw?” I joked, Johnny
“Yeah, yeah, I know just…They’re the reason we’re here in the first place.”
I thought about it some more, and it’s true. The entire reason we ever got in that mess, we ever were in danger, we ever had so many problems; is because our parents sent us away. But, that’s for me to worry about, not him. “Look, we’ll deal when we get there. Us going back to a warm home is the only thing that matters right now.” His eyes never left the floor, and he nodded slowly. “Yeah, I understand…” He leaned against me and I slung an arm around him, sitting in silence for the rest of the ride.