Carry on my Wayward Daughter: A Supernatural FanFic

Chapter Eleven: Grain of Sand

…1999…

                Aunt Mae gave Holly and me the first day of summer vacation off. My parents wanted to do something special for Sam, since he’d aced all his finals. So we decided to take Sam a place he’d never been before: the beach.

                At first I’d laughed at the idea of the Winchester boys in shorts, but Sam actually seemed pretty excited about it when they told him at our annual Friday night dinners. He had seemed genuinely excited in a way that he never was about my mother’s casserole.

                So today we packed up the van with Sam, Dean, Holly (who just showed up in the morning ready to go even though we don’t think anyone invited her), and random chairs and coolers and took off. Dean sat beside me in the back and we held hands over the seat where my parents couldn’t see past Holly. I still hadn’t told my parents about Dean and didn’t plan too unless they decided to adopt Sam, which sadly was becoming likely at this point. I could hear their reaction to our relationship in their reaction to everything else I did. It was never good enough for them; I was never good enough for them.

                When my dad finally found a parking space all of us “kids” barreled out with thin promises to meet them at the beach in a half-hour. As soon as they drove out of sight Dean wrapped his arm around my shoulder and Sam lightly shoved his brother for all the embarrassing stories Dean told about him on the car ride over. Holly, in a white tank top and cut-off shorts, fanned herself with a brochure she gladly accepted from some salesman and pointed to the pier, “I’m gonna go shop if that’s alright with y’all.” Holly was so southern that sometimes it hurt.

                “Ooh!” I say poking Dean in the ribs as I see a claw machine, “Let’s go win Sam something.” I say and grab Sam’s elbow as I lead him toward the rows of carnival games. Truth be told, I suck at all carnival games except the claw machine; which can be argued not to even be a carnival game, but whatever.

                “Alrighty, what do you want?” I say approaching the machine and start to put my hair up in the world’s worst “business-is-on” bun.

                “Whatever you can win me.” Sam said leaning against the machine.

                “Get him that moose right there.” Dean points to the impossibly placed moose in the corner, “If you’re the Claw Queen it should be child’s play for you.”

                I laugh and quickly peck him on the lips before entering my quarters and starting up the claw. “The secret to the claw is not to overthink.” I move it forward and grin at Dean who rolls his eyes at me, “No math. No stats. No precision. No faith.” I move the claw to the corner, positioned directly above the moose. “Just blind luck, sometimes is all you need.” I close my eyes twitch the claw to the left for good measure and press the button. We all watch with anticipation as the claw dips down through the stuffed animals, grabs the moose’s antler, and hauls him up.

                “But the road to success,” we all grab hands and watch the claw slowly jerk the moose along to the opening slot, “is completely out of our control.” The claw releases the moose and he falls through the slot into the collection area. I whoop and kiss Dean who I can feel laughing under my lips. I crouch down, snatch the moose up and present it to Sam, “Happy Smart Kid Day!”

                …

                Holly and I are getting tattoos; Holly’s seventh and my first. She assures me that here they don’t check ages here, but I still walk in nervous. It’ll be another thing to hide from my parents; another imperfection in their dream of the seamless daughter.