WHO: Dean Winchester, Sarah Petrelli WHERE: the Hyperion WHEN: Friday, May 5, 2006; afternoon WHAT: Parent-teacher conference, bwahaha. RATING: TBD STATUS: log; (partial posted to date) NOTES: May assignment.
Dean stood outside the door of the classroom, nervous and excited all at once. It was stupid to be so excited about a parent teacher conference when he dreaded the things growing up, but damned if Dean wasn't excited. It was another one of those silly firsts he had missed out on, and though it didn't compare to Ben's first birthday or first steps or anything like that, but it was a first and Dean would take what he could get.
Nervously he juggled the apple tarts he had picked up at the gas station between his hands. Dean knew full well that the Winchesters had a talent for getting in trouble--inveriably whenever John left them in a town for longer than a few weeks and a parent teacher conference came around he got an earful which led to a lecture for Dean--but Dean didn't think Ben would be much trouble. He was a good kid after all, with his heart in the right place...but a few well placed bribes never hurt.
Looking at his watch again, Dean waited.
The door opened and the four boys piled out at once, Ben stopping briefly to see Dean before tearing off after Toby, Simon and Monty. Appearing in the view of the door a few moments later, Sarah waved Dean into the room with a smile, then continued picking up the rest of the art supplies and putting them back in their various containers.
"Come on in, I'll just be a minute," she said, nodding to the work in front of her. "It's Friday, and even if they don't have a final bell to wait for, they're too eager to get out of here to pick up after themselves completely."
Dean sat the bag of tarts down on her desk, then went to help Sarah clean up the art supplies. He understood that feeling, wanting Friday to pass so the weekend would come. "I brought you these little apple pie things...probably the closets I've ever come to bringing the teacher an apple."
Once the supplies were cleared away, Dean started walking around the classroom, looking for things that had Ben's handwriting on it or looked like something he'd do. He kept up with Ben's schoolwork, but he hadn't seen the classroom in a while and he was curious if much had changed thanks to his son.
"Apple tarts. Cute," Sarah said with a grin, sliding the last supplies box into place before movie to briefly check out the plate on the desk. "Ben usually brings your mother's apple pie if he wants out of a test."
Which was always entertaining for her, especially how certain he was that this time, she'd go for it even when she'd told him no time and time again.
"Over here," she said, nodding to a bulletin board with a car-print border when she realized what he was doing. "Ben has his own board, as do all of them, and along with things about them, they put their best work up, as they don't always have the same assignment, and picking 'best' from between all of them wouldn't be as positive."
Dean would have recognized the board even had she not pointed it out. There were a few pictures on it, which was a clear identifying feature, but there was also a varied collection of Ben's favorites, from his AC/DC album cover to a cutout of his Guitar Hero stuff.
The corners of Dean's lips turned up and he reached out to trace the outline of a picture of him and Claire and Ben. "He's something else," Dean said turning quickly from the board and going to sit down before he let something as silly as a board make him as emotional as a girl. "So Ben doing ok? Learning good?"
Noting where Dean's attention went, Sarah smiled softly before picking up a folder from her desk and then settling into a chair at the table Dean was sitting at, the one the boys shared for all their group classes. The informality suited the small classroom and Sarah's general approach to teaching, especially now with the class numbers so much smaller with all the disappearances over the months.
Opening up the folder, she pulled out several of Ben's tests and projects that hadn't gone onto his board, but all boasted relatively good grades.
"Ben's doing great," she said, sliding the work over to Dean to see. "He's smart - very smart, actually, which I think he likes to play down so he doesn't look like a 'nerd'. I've caught him nearly answering a question before stopping and letting one of the other boys answer, even though I'm certain he knew what the answer was."
Dean chuckled, not too surprised or worried about it. He'd done the same thing a time or two when he was growing up, and he had turned out ok. It was one thing to be smart or a smartass, and another to be cocky about the fact you had half of the dictionary memorized or something. Still, even though he knew Ben was smart, there was something nice about hearing it.
"He's doing ok otherwise too, right?" Ben was doing ok in school, so he assumed most of the conference was over. He smiled. The apples really had worked. If that was all it took, next time he was gonna bring her a big apple pie..or have Ben do it ahead of time for him. That kid and his big puppy eyes could make anyone change their mind.
The conference, however, hadn't gotten to the conference-y parts yet, as Sarah had wanted to start with positive things. Not that the rest was necessarily entirely negative, but she wanted to help Dean put into perspective the things she wanted to address with him. While it wasn't nothing she had not been able to handle, it was something that she worried could be become a problem.
"Ben is an amazing kid," she said with a smile. "In addition to being very smart, he's creative, funny, determined and very friendly. All of those are great traits, but I'm a little concerned with the way Ben makes friends - namely, that no matter where he is, he'll make friends with any reasonably attractive woman."
Dean laughed quietly. "What's wrong with that? Winchesters have always been naturally good with the ladies, and Ben is good at making friends."
Dean paused. His kid's on again, off again best friend was a demon, and Dean constantly had to tell him that he couldn't flirt with every dangerous looking female that made their way to LA. Ben couldn't seem to get it that not every girl who looked awesome was going to be awesome, no matter how many times Dean or the kid's grandparents told him. He didn't have that many other friends his age other than Simon, Monty and Toby, but what could be done? Everyone came and went so quickly here, friendships...even family relationships, were hard.
His laugh had faded, and a solemn look was on his face instead, but he waited on Sarah's response to his cocky question, not knowing anything else to say instead.
Though she had been sure Dean wouldn't see it as a problem at all, given the womanizing reputation he'd had before dating Claire, Sarah waited for him to consider the weight of what she was saying. That type of friendliness and faith wasn't something to be quashed at all, but it did concern Sarah that there wouldn't always be someone there to curb Ben's actions and keep him from potential harm, especially knowing who Ben was often exposed to in his life, like the demon, Ruby.
"It's a problem," she said, once Dean seemed to sober up, "because he tried to bring a woman back to the hotel that I'm nearly sure was a prostitute."
And then she leaned back and waited for the inevitable amusement.
Dean's mouth dropped open at Sarah's words. Surely she wasn't serious...Then again, Dean knew full well that he liked women in general despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that they were often quite risque... so it was little surprise his son was the same way.
"If she really was a prostitute, I'm sure he offered to give her something in return." Dean said, a devilish smirk on his face. "Maybe he was going to give her pie or his lunch or let her sit through one of your classes. I've heard they're pretty cool..." Dean couldn't hold in the small burst of laughter that came when he thought about how much Ben liked school of all things.
His face got the charming smile that he had perfected to get what he wanted. Sarah might be married, and Dean might be serious about Claire, but he wasn't above trying to bribe a girl with a smile. "He's still a good kid, though. I doubt he would have wanted anything more from her than a game on his Wii and a good ear to listen to his dirty jokes."
One eyebrow raised, as she wasn't one to fall for that kind of smile - not from children and not from grown men, especially this one - Sarah shook her head.
"I'm not saying he's a bad kid, at all," she said. "I'm just saying he's very much like his father, but without the reservation about people that you have."
Head canted, she regarded Dean for a moment. "I know it's hard for all the children here, because they aren't exposed to a school full of kids every day because of the danger, but that is part of the point. Even though this woman was... diplomatic about Ben trying to bring her back, I am worried the next one won't be."
With a sigh, she nodded to Ben's board again. "Look closer at one of the pictures there - the group one from your Christmas Eve party. Not everyone is visible anymore."