Sam
It was summer and Sam was on his way to Cambridge, Massachusetts for the summer. He had kept in touch with Elle and Matt throughout the school year and that had helped him feel less lonely. He had started to make some friends, a guy named Brady for one. Even though Sam was keeping in contact with Elle he originally planned to take summer classes covered by his scholarship, but unfortunately his scholarship had been rejected. So he had accepted Elle’s internship offer because she offered her parent apartment for such a low rent so that he could figure out what to do.
See, what happened was that his full ride scholarship was already tenuous. Sure, he had things that made him look appealing for scholarship, letters of rec from many teachers, good grades, and sob stories galore that look great for the essays. However, Sam also had a record. It was his dad’s fault really. The police never caught him on anything hard core, just a few grave desecrations or breaking and entering when Dean hadn’t been around to do it for him, but those things stuck out, even on a sealed juvenile record. The fact that he had a record made Stanford very wary about giving him the full ride and had warned him that if he got in any trouble they would retract the offer.
And Sam, being a Winchester, couldn’t stay out of trouble. There was a ghost that was haunting some of the upper level dorms and Sam could tell that with the escalations, there would be a murder soon. So he researched and went to the graveyard, not knowing that someone had planned a rave that night. The rave was good cover for the salting and burning, but not great when the cops got called. Thankfully, Sam got caught in the crowd when the police came and they didn’t even notice that the grave had been dug up. What they had caught him on was being underage where alcohol was being drunk in very large amounts.
Sam was taken into the police station where he was held overnight. The police would have held him longer if Sam hadn’t passed every test that proved that he was as sober as a priest on Sunday. So when Sam was let off with a warning and he checked his emails at the library there was a message from his counselor with the bad news. He was welcome back to Stanford in the fall and he could apply for other scholarships then, but the one he currently had not been renewed. Sam tried to fight it, but the person that was sponsoring the scholarship was an asshole rich alumni who only wanted the PR credit and would not hear anything from Sam.
So Sam had accepted Elle’s offer and had hopped on the plane with the ticket she had provided. He was happy to see her, he really was, but he was dreading it at the same time. Elle, Emmett, and Bruiser were amazing at sniffing out things that were wrong and Sam really didn’t want to explain the whole, “scholarship rejected because I was at a rave in a graveyard, but I wasn’t there to get drunk I was actually there to dig up a body and burn it.” thing.
As Sam walked out of the airport into the pick up area, he saw the bright pink before he was tackled in a hug, “Oh, Sam, I’m so glad you’re here! Have you gotten even taller since the last time I saw you?”
Sam smiled for the first time since he had heard about the haunting, “Hey, Elle. Uh no, I don’t think so.”
Elle pulled away and Sam could see Emmett was here as well and he was carrying Bruiser in a pink purse. Emmett didn’t hug Sam, but he did clasp his forearm and slap him on the shoulder good naturedly, expertly maneuvering Bruiser’s purse so that he didn’t get crushed between them.
“Sam, I’m so glad you accepted Elle’s offer.” Emmett said smiling.
Sam nodded while hunching his shoulders slightly, “Thanks, I’m really grateful for the opportunity.”
Emmett gestured toward the doors and the three of them walked out toward the parking lot.
Elle grabbed Emmett’s hand and said, “You know, you don’t have to carry Bruiser. I can take him, his carrier matches my outfit.”
“Yes it does. But Miss Woods comma Elle, today it also matches mine.” Emmet said smirking while gesturing to his shirt that was pink, but a much tamer pink than Elle’s, “Also I want to get back on his good side.”
Sam frowned at him, confused, but Elle laughed, “He’ll like you as soon as you give him treats. Bruiser knows the vet is good for him, even if he doesn’t like it.”
Sam stayed quiet during this interaction, but wondered offhandedly if this is what having parents, who weren’t hunters, felt like. As the trio got to the car, Emmett and Elle kept up a steady stream of conversation until they were at the Woods-Forest house for dinner. They had discussed this from the minute Sam accepted Elle’s offer. Sam had initially wanted to protest but his inner college student didn’t, free food was free food. Once Emmet had gone into the kitchen to start uncovering the stuff they had ordered, Elle turned to Sam and looked him in the eyes.
“Spill.”
Sam’s heart skipped a beat, but he calmed himself down and asked, “What are you talking about?”
Elle raised a perfect eyebrow, “Really? I’m a lawyer Sam, it’s my job to know when people are hiding things. So, spill, what’s bothering you.”
Sam twisted the cuffs of his jacket in his hands, “It’s not a big deal. Really.”
“Ah! So there is something.” Elle exclaimed quietly so that Emmett couldn’t hear them.
Sam twisted his sleeves more violently, “Yes. I just…you’re doing so much for me already and I don’t want to bother you.”
Elle engulfed Sam in a hug, “You are not bothering me, Sam. I just want to help, if you don’t want to tell me right now, that’s okay. Just know that my door is always open.”
Elle released Sam and began walking to the kitchen before Sam realized that he wanted to tell someone about this. College was his way out of hunting and if he didn’t get enough money to pay for the next semester, at any college, he might not have it anymore.
It burst from him before he stopped it, “I lost my scholarship.”
Elle turned around, her face betraying nothing but she guided Sam to the couch and had him sit down as she gestured for him to continue.
Now that Sam had started it was hard for him to stop, “There was a rave and I was there and there was alcohol. I wasn’t drinking, but I was one of the few that got caught that was underage and I have a small record from when I was a kid. It was in my contract for the scholarship, I couldn’t get arrested, even though I wasn’t charged or they could reject the renewal of it. It was a scholarship from an individual donor so, they made the contract with the school and I would have tried to fight it, but I had a contract before I signed and I knew it was on me. So now I have to make enough money to enroll in Stanford or some other college over there.”
Emmett had come in at the end of Sam’s ramble. Him and Elle exchanged glances before he spoke.
“I know a few of my classmates that practice over in California. I could see if their companies are thinking of sponsoring any college students.” Emmett shot a grin at Sam, “Of course you would have to go through a rigorous application process and write a ton of essays and show them your GPA.”
Elle smiled, “I also could reach out to some of my parents' friends and see if they have any jobs that they need to hire anyone for. Maybe you could work as an extra, they get paid decent money and the schedules are definitely flexible enough for a college schedule.”
Sam’s throat felt thick. He hadn’t had something like this since Dean had stood up for him against teacher’s that hated him. Elle and Emmett hadn’t even questioned when he said that he wasn’t drinking, they had immediately started giving him solutions. The fact that they hadn’t even offered him money, because they knew he would reject it and instead offered options that he had to work for also showed how much they cared.
“Thank you.” Sam said thickly.
Emmett smiled, “Don’t worry Sam, you have a chip on your shoulder that makes you work harder than everyone else. We’re going to help you find a solution.”
Elle grinned at Emmett, “If he can tutor me from absolutely flunking all of my classes to being one of the top students, we can find a solution.”
Sam nodded and tried not to do something stupid, like cry and decided that yes, this was what parents who weren’t hunters must act like. It felt a lot like when Dean and Bobby teamed up against one of the PTA mom’s who was accusing him of stealing something from her kid.