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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭

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Delaney leant back in the back seat of the Impala and sighed quietly to herself when Randy had texted her to check in. Sam and Dean had caught a whiff of a case that went down at their old school they had gone to for about a month. They had combined the junior high school and high school together to form one massive school so it was one of the few times that Delaney and the boys were in the same building for school. It was before Delaney started to stay with Bobby for longer periods of time so it wound up being the third school Delaney had been to in the span of three months. She had only been in sixth grade while Sam was a sophomore and Dean a senior so it sucked more for Delaney who tried to make friends. 

Delaney remembered being so confused why they kept moving from motel to motel every few months. The boys had just kept saying it was for John's job and the business he was in made them hop around the states a lot, making it hard for them to stay in one school for a long period of time. It had satisfied Delaney back then because she hadn't wanted to fight with her father or brothers over switching schools constantly. Though, it was really upsetting not being able to have a solid friend besides your two older brothers.

Randy had wanted to start right away with the hunt down for Lilith and getting Delaney back on the demon blood, but she had needed just a bit more time to work out just how she was going to work her plan. Randy couldn't know that Delaney suspected something of him. She really rather not start a fight over a suspicion she had of him when it could just be her brain playing tricks on her. It was hard to push her feelings for Randy aside and try to see past the rose colored lenses she had looked at the demon with the past few months. They had only just said those three special words to each other and Delaney selfishly hoped that he was actually the good demon he said he was. She really couldn't handle losing anyone else.

The passenger side door to the Impala opened and snapped Delaney out of her daze of quickly typing back a response to Randy about being in the middle of the hunt she'd mentioned the night before on the drive over. He had, thankfully, given her the few days she needed to set her mind straight before jumping into the Lilith hunt once again. The weight on Delaney's shoulders only seemed to triple as the days went on and she was waiting for the day she'd suffocate from the weight of it with her anxiety being worse off than normal.

"So?" Dean asked from the driver's seat, looking towards Sam who had just sat back in the car dressed in his white scrubs.

At the high school, a girl had been killed in the bathroom. The side of her head had been smashed and bloody before she was drowned in one of the stalls. The girl that had done it claimed she had been possessed by something and it wasn't actually her that had killed the poor girl. It was just weird enough for the boys to drag Delaney into the Impala and head over to investigate.

"I think she's telling the truth," Sam said, shrugging slightly. "I mean, the way she talked about being there mentally but not physically - kind of sounds like demonic possession to me. She didn't see any black smoke or smell sulfur, though."

"Maybe it isn't a demon," Dean suggested, now thinking over the new information they had on the case that the police didn't get. "Kids can be vicious."

"So you're just going to change your mind just like that?" Delaney scoffed, poking her head into the front seat between her brothers. "We're already here, Dean. Might as well check out the school, right?"

Dean rose his eyebrows at Delaney and an amused grin took over his face. "Right, yeah, the school, Della. Truman High, home of the bombers."

Delaney furrowed her eyebrows, not understanding why Dean stared at her like he knew all of her dirty little secrets. "I - what's your point, Dean?"

"I don't know, baby girl. I mean, we went there, like... for a month a million years ago. Why are you so jazzed to go back? What? The nerd miss being in her environment or something?"

Sam rolled his eyes at Dean's antics and shifted in his seat. "She's right, Dean. We've looked into less. Let's just go check out the school before we officially do anything drastic."

"Alright, alright. What's our cover? FBI? Homeland Security? Swedish exchange students?"

A ghost of a smirk appeared on Delaney's face and she sat back in her seat. "Oh, don't you worry, Dee. I have the perfect idea."

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𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗟, 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟳

Delaney got out of the back of the Impala with the help of Sam and took the pink backpack he handed to her that held all the things she needed for her first day at school. She stared up at the massive building that contained the grades sixth through twelfth. This would be the third school she'd been through in the past three months and she already missed her friends from her old school. She had nearly thrown a fit when John told her he'd have to move her and the boys to another school... again. However, it stopped before it even started when Dean gave her one look for her to not argue or it'd just make for a bad situation.

So here she was, at a new school with no friends and being the new girl... again. 

"Thanks, Dad," Dean said to John, patting the trunk when he got out his own bag. He stopped in front of Delaney who moved her green eyes from the school building and over to her big brother who squatted down before her. "Okay, baby girl, you have your lunch, right?"

"Yeah, Sammy packed it for me this morning along with my books," Delaney mumbled, clutching onto the straps of her backpack. She had made sure to make it known all morning that she wasn't happy one bit about going to yet another school.

Dean tucked a piece of Delaney's curly brown hair behind her ear and tilted his head in the calculating way he always did when he knew something was wrong. "What's wrong, Della?"

"I miss my friends," Delaney huffed, knowing it was better to just tell Dean how she felt since he always saw right through her.

"You'll make new friends here, little one," Sam assured, moving out of the way of the students that made their way to the building. "You've never had a problem with that."

"This is the third school we've been to this year and it's only November," Delaney said, her eyes bouncing between her two brothers who looked guilty. She never understood why John's job made them move around so much. She knew he was some kind of salesperson or something, but she didn't think that a salesperson would need to move from state this much. Wouldn't he be able to stay long enough to let the kids go a full school year before they had to move again? 

None of it made sense to her and Delaney had always been the observant and questioning type. Dean teased that she'd make a great lawyer or detective one day because of those traits that she'd picked up from Mary. She had gotten John's looks, but boy did she get Mary's personality.

"You'll be fine. Now, if anyone gives you trouble, you let Sammy and I know, okay? We'll take care of it," Dean told her, squeezing her biceps gently. "And no boys."

"I'm eleven."

"Yeah, and I know how a boy's mind works. So... do as I say."

"Yes, Dad," Delaney quipped and brushed past Dean and Sam to make her way into the building and find her classroom. 

Dean exhaled heavily and pushed himself back to his full height as he watched Delaney disappear into the school. "She's a brat, Sammy."

Sam snorted and began to make his way towards the school. "Wonder who she reminds me of."

"Shut up."

Delaney had eventually found the classroom that had been printed on the information page John had given to her that morning. As usual, Delaney had been pulled to the front of the class to be introduced by the teacher. She had never been a shy person, but any time she had been placed in front of the class to be introduced, Delaney always felt her anxiety claw at her throat and try to suffocate her. 

"Ladies and gentleman, please say hello to Delaney Winchester."

"Hi, Delaney," the class greeted Delaney together. Some sounded excited about the new student that graced them and the others sounded annoyed that they had to deal with a new girl who didn't know anything about the school.

"Is there anything you'd like to tell us about yourself, Delaney?"

Delaney glanced up at her teacher who had brown curly hair and kind brown eyes, a small smile on his face to encourage her to say something. "Um, I want to be a lawyer when I grow up."

"Well, I am sure you'd make a fantastic lawyer, Delaney. You can take a seat next to Bella in the back, okay?" the teacher told Delaney who silently nodded and walked to the vacant seat next to a a girl in glasses and black curly hair. He walked back behind his desk and flashed the class a smile. "Alright, gang... essay assignment."  

The class groaned at the thought of having to write an essay and Delaney and Bella were the only two to take out their notebooks to write down the information that the teacher was about to write down on the board.

"Yes, my heart breaks for you," the teacher teased the class and turned to erase some of the stuff that had been written onto the board. 

"Hey..." Bella whispered to Delaney, leaning over a bit so she could whisper low enough for the teacher not to hear. She offered Delaney a warm smile in greeting, pushing the glasses up her nose. "I'm Bella."

"Delaney," Delaney introduced back even though the teacher had told Delaney the girl's name and Delaney's name had been announced to the whole class just a minute ago. She offered the girl a small smile in return before she focused back on her notebook to write down the information.

"I want three pages on your most memorable family experience. Just a reminder though that this is going to be half your final grade."

Delaney began to write down the teacher's notes in her notebook when she heard a small hiss from Bella. She turned her head to see that the girl behind Bella - a pretty blonde haired girl that reminded Delaney of those cliche mean girls you'd see in the movies - pulled on her hair while laughing with her two friends. "Hey, leave her alone. She hasn't done anything to you."

The blonde girl halted in her laughter and turned to Delaney with a fierce gaze in her ocean blue eyes. She narrowed her eyes at Delaney as if that would threaten Delaney in any sort of way. "How about you mind your business, newbie?" 

Delaney frowned when the blonde girl just went back to tugging on one of Bella's curls and pulling the girl's head back before letting it snap back into place. "I said leave her alone."

Bella's eyes widened and she slowly moved her head to look at Delaney, shaking her head for the girl to stop. It was clear the poor girl had been used to the antics of the mean girl behind her and didn't want Delaney to meet the same fate.

"You want to take her place... newbie?"

Delaney fixed a challenging expression on the blonde girl, smirking at her and tilting her head. If she had looked in the mirror, she'd be met with the same taunting look that Dean typically gave to anyone who messed with his baby sister. "I'd love to see you try."

The blonde girl's mouth quickly shut as she stared back at Delaney in shock. She had never been treated like that before and Delaney could tell by the stunned look on her face. She'd never had to defend herself a day in her life since she was always the one to pick on everyone else.

However, that wouldn't be happening so long as Delaney was here. Not like it'd be for long anyway so the blonde girl could try her best with Delaney.

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𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗗𝗔𝗬

Delaney pushed her cart of cleaning supplies along the familiar halls of Truman High. It hadn't changed much since she'd gone there. Drawings done by the sixth to eighth graders and then the typical encouragement posters scattered around the walls. The bulletin boards held flyers for the upcoming school dance and the miscellaneous raffle flyer to raise money for the school. 

Sam had texted her to let her know he hadn't found any sulfur and she, unfortunately, hadn't found any sulfur anywhere on her two loops around her end of the building. So either there was a different monster at play in the high school or it really was just an act of an angry bullied girl against one of the many girls that probably bullied her. 

"Nothing?" Sam asked when he met up with Delaney outside the gym where they heard Dean's voice who had dressed up as the new substitute gym coach.

"No," Delaney sighed and slapped her hands to her sides. "So it's either there's nothing here..."

"Or I was wrong," Sam finished for his sister and nodded, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, let's just talk to Dean and see what he says."

Delaney pushed open the gym doors and froze in her place when she saw Dean dressed in tight, red gym shorts, white polo with the school's name in red letters on the right side, long white socks and white sneakers. She was definitely going to be having nightmares about this exact visual for the rest of her life.

Dean noticed his siblings and picked up the bag of red dodgeballs on the floor by his feet and threw it in the air, telling the kids to go nuts before he walked over to his siblings. 

"Having fun?" Sam mused, eyeing Dean's outfit choice oddly.

"The whistle makes me their god," Dean said, waving the whistle around that rested around his neck.

"Well, I'm pretty sure the real God is rolling over in Heaven right now at the sight of you," Delaney mocked, shaking her head at her older brother. "Nice shorts, by the way."

Dean glanced down at his shorts and subconsciously fixed them so they rested lower on his hips. "Find anything?"

"No, Sammy and I went around the entire building twice and there's just no sulfur," Delaney informed Dean, stuffing her hands into the back pockets of her pants. "So, Sammy and I were thinking maybe he was wrong, but wanted to know what you thought."

"Hey, it happens to be the best of us. No sulfur means no demon means no case. I say we hit the road, but after lunch. It's sloppy Joe day," Dean said just as one of the kids got hit in the face with a dodgeball, running past the three Winchesters while covering his nose to try stop the bleeding. "Good hustle, Colby! Walk it off!"

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Not even five minutes after Delaney and Sam left Dean alone to finish his power trip with the kids in gym, another incident happened in the home economics room. The students were about to learn how to cook with stuff you put in a blender when one of the boys had been hauled out of the room after his hand got shoved into the blender. The nerdy teen boy that had been covered in the blood from the hand he used to shove the jock's hand into the blender, collapsed to the ground.

Delaney and Sam had ran over to check on the boy when he blinked his eyes open and looked petrified, asking the two what had happened. They were about to help the boy up and get him to the nurse also when a black gooey liquid began to trickle out of the boy's ear. 

They weren't dealing with a demon, but they were definitely dealing with one very pissed off spirit. It reminded Delaney of the one back at the old apartment block that had gone to with Jo.

While the school had been called for an emergency assembly on non-violence, Delaney and Sam took advantage of the empty halls to the run their EMF meters along the hallways. Dean had still been in his gym class when they called for the assembly so he had to go to the assembly and then try to sneak his way out of it so he could speak with Delaney and Sam about what happened.

"Hey," Dean called to Delaney and Sam who were halfway down the hall now, still coming up with nothing on their EMF meters. He was now, thankfully, changed into a red track suit instead of the nightmarish red shorts he had on before.

"How's the nonviolence assembly going?" Sam asked when Dean caught up to him and Delaney.

"Apparently, shoving a kid's arm into a Cuisinart is not a healthy display of anger. So, the kid had ectoplasm leaking out of his ear?"

"Which only comes from one seriously pissed of spirit. It has to be ghost possession," Delaney said, continuing down the hall between Dean and Sam. 

"That's pretty rare, Della."

Delaney shrugged lamely, not really having much of a defense to Dean's statement. "I mean, it happens. They get angry enough, they can take control of a person's body."

Dean exhaled heavily and ran his hands down his face. "Alright, so, what, we got a ghost in the building?"

"Yeah, but where is the question. Delly and I have found a single thing on the EMF. Maybe we could find out who it is, at least. You know, check and see if somebody died bloody around here or something."

"Way ahead of you," Dean said, pulling out a folded up piece of paper from his track suit pocket. "I had to break into the principal's office to get this. Oh, and FYI, three of the cheerleaders are legal."

"They're eighteen, Dean," Delaney balked, staring at Dean in disbelief. "You're almost thirty."

"Oh come on, baby girl, guess which ones."

"I don't think so, you freakin' creep," Delaney snapped.

Dean made a sound of annoyance at Delaney, but decided to brush it off since they had more pressing matters at the moment. "So, there was only one death on campus. It was a suicide back in '98. Some girl named Bella Cook."

Delaney felt the breath in her throat hitch and she snatched the paper from Dean to look at the file, her heart sinking into her stomach when she saw Bella's name at the top. She could feel the tears prick in her eyes at the thought of the only friend she had made while in this hell hole had killed herself. Delaney hadn't been there long enough to make sure she was okay and that hurt. "I knew her. Dee, how did she die?"

"She slit her wrists in the first-floor girl's bathroom."

"That's where the girl got Swirleyed to death."

Dean rubbed Delaney's back soothingly when he noticed the tears that began to fall out of his baby sister's eyes at the thought of her dead friend. "So, what? This ghost is possessing nerds?"

Delaney folded the paper back up so she wouldn't have to look at Bella's name or smiling school photo any longer. "She's using them to go after bullies. She had a hard time with them back then."

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𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗟, 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟳

Delaney walked through the hallway to get to her next lesson of the day, hugging her books close to her chest. She had just seen Sam in the hallway who had stopped her on the side to see how her fast day had been going. Not like the eleven year old had much to go on since lunch hadn't even hit yet, but she did tell him about the bully she stood up to for a girl in her class. He was pretty proud of her for sticking up someone she didn't even know, but made her promise him she wouldn't start any trouble with anyone in the school. 

They may only be here for a little bit of time, but Sam didn't want Delaney getting in trouble with John or Dean. Especially not Dean because Delaney was always extra sensitive after Dean had finished yelling at her for something she did wrong. Their relationship was special and Delaney always felt worse about disappointing Dean than she did disappointing John. 

As she made her way down the hall to get to her class at the end, she watched as Bella was tripped by a few of the girls passing by and she fell to the ground along with the books she held in her hand. Delaney shot the girls a harsh glare and ran over to help her new friend out, dropping to her knees and collecting up the stuff that Bella had dropped.

"Thanks, Delaney," Bella quietly said, keeping her head down so her hair could hide her face from the other students that just laughed at her expense.

"Great school," Delaney remarked, handing Bella her sparkly purple pencil case. She hated to see someone get bullied this way. No one ever deserved to go through this kind of torment. Kids were just plain mean.

"It's okay. I just need to make it a few more years and then I can be out of here. I'm going to Michigan State when I graduate high school. They got the best vet program in the country."

Delaney smiled softly at the girl and helped her back to her feet, picking up her own books once again. "Do you like animals?"

"They are a lot nicer than people."

"I can't argue with that," Delaney giggled and began to walk down the hall with Bella at her side this time. They both had to go to the same room so Delaney decided she would walk with her new found friend to make sure no one else bothered her on the way there. 

As Delaney and Bella passed by the janitors closet, Dean snuck his way out with a pretty blonde haired and blue eyed girl behind him. He noticed Delaney with Bella and sent his baby sister a wink. "Heya, baby girl."

Delaney weakly waved at Dean, noticing the slight mess that was now his usually perfectly kept hair. She narrowed her eyes as she tried to figure out what happened when Bella nudged her with a gasp.

"That's your brother with Amanda Heckerling? He's cool."

Delaney snorted to herself and shifted her books in her arms before they fell. "Yeah, Dean likes to think he is."

"Hey, newbie," the blonde girl, who Delaney eventually learned was named Melody, smiled tauntingly at her and Bella.  "I've been looking for you, cupcake. You still want to take Bella's place?"

"Get out of here, Bella," Delaney whispered, shooing Bella who mumbled something about a teacher before she ran off. She waited for Bella to be out of sight before she focused her gaze back on Melody. "I'm not going to fight with you, Melody."

Melody lifted a hand in a sort of shrug and stepped closer to Delaney as a small crowd began to form around them. It annoyed Delaney how Melody carried herself as if she were the most important person in the hallway. "Why not, newbie? You chicken?"

Delaney rolled her eyes at the girl and just stared at Melody, waiting for her to do something. Dean had always taught her never to be the one to hit first because that made her wrong. If she hit the person after they hit her, that was just self defense and she wouldn't get in trouble for it. 

The smack that resounded around the hallways shocked the hallway as no one expected a sixth grader that have that much power in a slap. Delaney held her throbbing her cheek and slowly fixed her fierce green eyes on the blonde girl again. However, before she could lunge at the girl and retaliate, Bella had ran back over and pulled Delaney back. She shot the dark haired girl a confused look and then she heard her teacher's voice coming down the hall, telling everyone to scatter before he gave everyone detention.

Bella gently removed Delaney's hand from her cheek and profusely apologized when she saw the red handprint that marked Delaney's cheek from Melody's slap. Though, Delaney didn't care because it was better than a poor, innocent girl like Bella getting it.

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𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗗𝗔𝗬

Delaney found herself in the back of the Impala again, wiping tears from her eyes with her head pressed against the cold glass of the window. The rain came down harshly on the Impala and accurately depicted how Delaney felt on the inside. Her, Dean and Sam had just left the cemetery where they salted and burned poor Bella's body. She was just bones at this point, but Delaney could see the vibrant smile and bright eyes that Bella had when she looked down into the grave. She wished she could have saved the poor girl from her constant torment.

"Della, you okay?" Dean asked, glancing in the rear view mirror to see his sister's broken form.

Delaney sniffled softly and wiped at the tear that dared to fall from her eye. "Bella was my friend back then. I just burned his bones."

Sam reached behind him to squeeze Delaney's knee comfortingly, smiling sadly at her. "She's at peace now, little one. She's okay now."

"If Dad had just let us stay just a little while longer, maybe I could have helped her, you know?"

"You read the coroner's report just like Sam and I did, baby girl. Bella was on every anxiety drug and antidepressant known to man and she was only twelve. School was hell for that poor girl. Her parents had split up. She just wanted out. It was tragic, but it's not your fault this happened. To tell you the truth, I'm glad we got out of that town. I hated that school."

Delaney glanced down to her lap and fiddled with her fingers, chewing on the inside of her lip as her anxiety tried to claw its way out again. "It... wasn't all bad."

"How can you say that after what happened to you?"

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𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗟, 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟳

"That girl is dead," Dean raged, pacing back and forth in front of Delaney while she sat on the top of the small green bleacher that was placed in the front yard of the school. The football team practiced just ahead of Delaney, Sam and Dean and Delaney tore her eyes from the team and over to Dean. 

"Dean..." Delaney sighed, hiding her still red cheek from Dean's sight again with her hair. Word had gotten out pretty quickly that Melody had slapped Delaney and, of course, both Dean and Sam had found out along with everyone else. They had pretty much tracked down Delaney and hauled her outside during lunch to get the story of what happened. "It's not a big deal."

"No, Delaney, I'm going to rip her lungs out for hurting you," Dean seethed, stopping in his pacing and turning to Delaney again. He gently grabbed her face and tilted it to the side so he could get a better look at her reddened cheek, frowning at the sight. He hated the sight of any mark on his baby sister. The sight alone just made him want to track this Melody girl down more and give her a piece of his mind for even thinking about touching his baby sister. He ran a gentle thumb over the red area and let out a heavy sigh, dropping his hand back to his side. "How can you say this isn't a big deal? Look at your cheek! If Dad was here - "

"He's not."

"Well, Sammy and I are! Man, once I'm done giving that Melody girl a piece of my mind - "

"Just shut up, okay?!" Delaney finally exploded, throwing her hands in the air and shocking both Dean and Sam. She had never blown up on Dean like that before, always calming down when it came to Dean not getting more worked up. It was a very rare sight to see Delaney disrespect Dean in any sort of way. 

Sam exchanged a look with Dean, the two having one of their silent conversations through facial expressions. Delaney had tried to learn what the faces meant so she could snoop in on their silent conversations, but she could never make sense of what the faces meant. Especially when they used the same facial expression for certain scenarios. It was rather annyoing if she were honest.

"Look, I don't need either one of you to help me," Delaney continued after a long beat of silence and went to stand up so she could go back inside the school to find Bella, but was forced to sit back down by Dean. She could already hear the lecture in her head.

"Exactly, I purposely made dad put you into karate and cheerleading, Delaney. You could have taken her down in two seconds. Why didn't you fight back?"

Sam placed a hand on Dean's shoulder to try and calm him down. "Dean, maybe you should ease up on her."

"No, Sammy, I want to know why my sister isn't defending herself!"

"Because I don't want to be the freak!" Delaney yelled over Dean, bolting to her feet so her and Dean were eye to eye with each other. "You ever think of that? I'd like to be normal. I'd like to keep friends for more than a month before I have to leave them because Dad's shipping us off somewhere. I don't get why we can't just stay with Uncle Bobby all the time if he's just gonna keep moving us like this."

Dean rose his eyebrows at his baby sister and crossed his arms, disappointment clear in his eyes. "Oh and taking a beating? That's normal to you?"

"You act like it was this big thing, Dean. She slapped me. That was it," Delaney huffed, knowing that other kids had gotten way worse than what Melody had given her. It was one slap and Delaney was pretty sure that Melody probably wouldn't try to mess with her again for a little bit after getting in trouble. "Did Dad call yet?"

"Yeah, he called this morning," Sam responded, checking his phone for any other texts or calls from John but there had been none. "He's going to try selling for another week before he moves us again. We weren't supposed to be here longer than this."

"At least Dean has Amanda," Delaney piped up, smiling devilishly at her brother and making kissy faces at him. "She liiikeeessss him."

Dean's face fell at the thought of Amanda and seemed to visibly tense up at the thought. "She wants me to meet her parents. I don't do parents."

Delaney giggled into her hand at her brother's obvious distress just as the bell rang. She let Dean help her down from bleachers and kiss her on the forehead. Sam offered to walk her to next lesson of the day and promised Dean he wouldn't let any of the kids go near her. Though, none would probably go after her after Melody just had. No one would want to meet the same fate that the blonde girl had.

The rest of the day dragged on and the bell eventually rang to signal that there was just one final class for the students before they could go home for the day. Delaney was about to walk out of the class with Bella at her side when the teacher called her back to speak for a moment and Bella told Delaney she'd wait for her outside, walking out.

Delaney slowly walked over to the teacher, worried he'd yell at her for the small altercation between her and Melody that wasn't even her fault. "If you're going to yell at me for what happened between Melody and I, I didn't start it."

"No, I know, Delaney," the teacher and held up Delaney's paper she had written about the day she helped her Uncle Bobby fix up one of the cars in his lot. It had an A in the corner of the page with a red circle around it. "I just wanted to talk to you about your paper. It was well written. You ever thought about going into creative writing?"

"No, sir. I want to be a lawyer when I grow up and help the innocent people get the justice they deserve," Delaney replied, relaxing her shoulders and body now that she didn't have to worry about getting in trouble. "My older brothers always tease me about being a future lawyer or police officer."

"You don't want to be a police officer?" the teacher asked, folding his hands on the desk and smiling softly at Delaney.

"No, guns kind of scare me," Delaney admitted sheepishly and rocked back on her heels. "I want to go to Stanford, but I probably won't be able to go. My dad won't like me being far away."

The teacher eyed Delaney for a long moment before he stood up from the desk and rounded it, leaning against the front of it so he could be closer to Delaney and they could talk a bit more on a personal level. "Delaney, I'm probably over stepping boundaries here, but I'm just going to say it. You seem like a very bright young girl and I would hate to see your bright mind wasted. You should be able to live out your dreams, so you make sure you follow them, okay? It might make your family sad to be away from you, but you just have to remind them that you're going to be getting a great education and will make them proud. That it's your life and you should be able to shape it to how you want. Promise me you'll do what will make you happy?"

Delaney was quiet for a moment as she thought over the teacher's words, knowing he had a point. She shouldn't let John, Dean or Sam dictate which college to go to in the future because she'd be doing what she loved. She would be living out her dreams at the end of those long four years and the added two or four years at law school. If they all truly loved her and wanted what was best for her, then the boys and John would surely allow her to go off and do her own thing.

Right?

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗗𝗔𝗬

"We came back here so you could talk to a teacher?"

Delaney looked out her window to the high school and fiddled with the small vial of salt she had taken out of the duffle bag in case she came into contact with anything. She had noticed her old teacher was still teaching at the school and she had to get in to see if he knew anything more about Bella or the two kids that had been attacked.

"He's a good guy, Dean. Maybe he can help," Delaney said, shifting her gaze from the building and to her older brothers in the front seat.

"Well, whatever. Go have your Robin Williams O Captain! My captain! moment. Just make it quick," Dean instructed, turning the engine off and made himself comfortable in the driver's seat.

"Just be careful, Delly."

Delaney nodded at her brothers and pushed her way out of the Impala, walking into the school that had empty hallways with all of its students in class. It was weird walking through the halls alone with no one it because she had always been used to having Bella at her side in the hallways and having to shimmy her way through the mass crowd of students. Now she was able to walk freely through the hallways and over to her old teacher's room. However, before she could knock on the door to alert her old teacher, a girl behind her tapped her on the shoulder.

"Excuse me? Would you be able to tell me where room 305 is?"

"Sure. Um..." Delaney stepped out of the small entrance way that lead to her teacher's door and motioned down the hall. "Just go down this hall, take your first right and it should be the third door on the left."

The student glanced over her shoulder before she turned her focus back to Delaney a sinister sort of look taking over her features. "Thanks, Laney."

Delaney barely had time to react before the student had whipped out a small knife and stabbed it into Delaney's chest before whipping it right back out. She threw the knife to the ground and narrowed her gaze at the Winchester girl that had dropped to her knees, clutching her bleeding chest. 

"You got prettier, Winchester," the student taunted, kicking out her leg and hitting Delaney in the side of the head. She stalked over to Delaney who had flown to the ground and went grab her by the back of the neck, but was stopped by Delaney.

Delaney poured some of the salt from the vial into her palm and shoved it into the teen's mouth, keeping her hand clamped over the girl's mouth so the ghost couldn't try to spit it out. The ghost had been shoved out of the teen girl's body and bounced into the ceiling of the school to find its next host. She fell back to her ass when the girl slumped in her arms and Delaney tried to fight off the pain so she could get the girl to the nurse.

This was going to be a bit harder than Delaney originally thought.

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

Delaney hissed as Sam dabbed at the puncture wound with a bit of peroxide to clean it. She had stumbled her way out of the high school after dropping the girl at the nurse's office and collapsed into the back of the Impala. Dean sped away from the high school to get to a spot on the side of the empty highway just outside of town so the boys could patch Delaney up and figure out what to do next.

"Sorry," Sam sheepishly said, dabbing at the wound one more time to clear out the rest of the blood. He placed a small bandage over the wound that thankfully hadn't been bad enough to need stitches and dropped everything back into the first aid kit. "You're good now, Delly."

"That ghost is dead. I'm gonna rip its lungs out!" Dean snapped, pacing back and forth in front of Delaney and Sam. He froze when they both shot him equal deadpan looks. "You both know what I mean."

"Boys, it knew my name," Delaney said, eyes bouncing between her brothers. "We burned Bella's bones. What the hell?"

Dean took out the case file again and flipped through some of the pages. "I don't know, Della. Maybe it wasn't Bella. Maybe we missed something. We just got to go back." He paused as realization dawned him and he handed his siblings the file. "Check it out. Look, Martha Dumptruck, revenge of the nerds, and Hello Kitty - they all rode the same bus."

Delaney leant her chin on Sam's shoulder so she could read the file in his hands. "Okay, so maybe the bus is haunted."

"It would explain why there's no EMF at the school, but not the attacks. I mean, ghosts are tied to the places that they haunt. They can't just move," Sam said, looking up from the file with furrowed eyebrows.

"Unless this one can. Is that a thing, Dean?" Delaney questioned, tearing her gaze from the file and over to her older brother.

"I mean, there is lore about spirits possessing people and riding them for miles. Then when they leave the body, they're bungeed back to their usual haunt. Until then, the ghosts can go wherever they want."

"So a spook can just grab a kid on the bus and walks right into Truman?" Sam inquired.

"It's possible."

Delaney puffed out her cheeks and her chin fell off Sam's shoulder, allowing her to press her forehead into it instead. "Ghosts getting creative - that's fun."

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

Delaney and the boys decided to head over to the bus before the school day let out and inspect the bus while no one was on it. Much to what the trio expected, all three of their EMF meters were going off like a rave. "Yeah, definitely ain't clean."

"Here, ghosty, ghosty, ghosty!" Dean called, banging his shotgun on the roof of the bus. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

"Boys, I don't get it. No one ever died on this bus, and it's not like there's a body hidden in here. So how is this ghost even a thing?" Delaney asked, looking back down to her whirring EMF meter.

Dean slowly walked down the aisle of seats and scanned them for anything that stuck out. "Yeah, but a flap of skin, a hair, I mean, hell, a hangnail, something has got to be tying the ghost to this place. We just got to find it." He eventually made his way back over to the driver's seat and dropped down into it, shifting through the books and pages the driver had stashed in there. He paused when he came to a permit and held it up for Sam and Delaney to see. "Got a new permit. Issued two weeks ago."

Delaney walked over and took the permit out of Dean's hand to see a photo of an older female with graying hair stare back at her. "That was when the first attack happened. Name of the bus driver is Melody McGregor Sr. Holy shit, you've got to be kidding me."

"What?"

"I knew her daughter," Delaney said, realizing the driver of the bus was Melody's mom. "This is Melody's mom."

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗟, 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟳

Delaney gripped onto the straps of her backpack as she walked out of the school. She was supposed to meet with Dean and Sam where they had been earlier after Delaney's altercation with Melody. However, before Delaney could get any further past the double doors of the school, Delaney saw Melody and a group of kids laughing and poking at Bella who tried to keep her glasses from falling and breaking.

Frowning, Delaney walked over to the small crowd and stood protectively in front of Bella who stay cowered on her knees. "Melody, do you ever take a vacation or are you just a disgrace to humanity every day?" she barked, helping Bella to her feet and lightly pushing her friend in the direction of the bus.

Melody let out a shriek of anger before she pushed Delaney in the back and sent the youngest Winchester to her knees. She hissed in pain when she scratched her palms on the concrete beneath her. "Come on, Lose-chester, let's see what you've got."

Delaney's jaw ticked and finally let her cord snap, spinning around and kicked her foot out which sent Melody flying to the wet pavement below. She pushed herself back to her feet and slapped Melody across the face - much like the blonde had done to her earlier that day - and smiled in satisfaction when the girl whimpered quietly at the sting.

"You're not tough, Melody. You're just a weak girl that picks on other kids to make herself better. I'd think twice before you mess with anyone else in the school because I can assure you that I'll be there ready to take you down once again."

After that, Melody had scrambled to her feet and ran back into the school with the tears streaming down her face while her two friends ran after her. The students around Delaney cheered for her and Bella had sent Delaney a grateful smile from her seat on the bus where she'd seen the whole thing go down.

Melody wouldn't be a problem anymore. Hopefully.

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗗𝗔𝗬

"So you were friends with Melody?"

"Yes, ma'am, when I was in the sixth grade," Delaney replied politely to Mrs. McGregor. She and the boys had showed up not too long after school let out for the day to ask her some questions about Melody and the three students that had been possessed.

"That's so lovely to hear. I don't remember Melody having many friends at Truman besides those two girls that followed her around everywhere," Mrs. McGregor said, folding her hands in her lap as she sat in the chair across from the couch the Winchesters sat on.

"When did, uh - when did Melody pass?" Dean asked.

Mrs. McGregor frowned at the thought of her late daughter and blinked away the tears in her eyes. "Um, she was eighteen when she passed. She was drinking, then got into drugs, then too many drugs. Then she just slipped through my fingers. It was my fault. I should have seen it coming, you know? Melody, she, uh - well, she had her troubles."

"What kind of troubles?" Delaney inquired, not knowing what was wrong with Melody. She had always put up this strong front that she owned the world so Delaney couldn't even imagine what the blonde had really gone through. She actually did feel kind of bad for attacking Melody that day outside the school, but Delaney also felt Melody needed to get stood up to if she were to stop harassing everyone else.

"School was never easy for Melody. We didn't have much money and, well, you know, kids - they can be cruel about that kind of stuff. They picked on her."

Delaney just nearly stopped the scoff that wanted to escape, knowing fully well that it most definitely the other way around for that. "They picked on her?"

"Mmhmm. They called her poor and stupid. It really got bad after she got hit outside of the school building and everyone beat down on her after that, seeing her as weak when she stopped fighting back. Then, after what happened to her father, she - "

"Her father?"

"Yeah, Jake, my husband. He died when Melody was thirteen. Cancer.  I was working three jobs, so it fell to Melody to take care of him. She was a great kid. She made sure Jake got his medicine. She helped him, cleaned up after him. You know, you - you watch somebody die slow, waste away to nothing... it does things to a person. Horrible things."

Delaney felt her heart ache at the knowledge of Melody's dying father. It didn't make any of what Melody had done right. However, Delaney felt bad that she had been so awful to the girl that day outside the school in front of that crowd. It obviously effected her after that and Delaney hated the thought that maybe it was her fault. "I didn't know about her father."

"Melody wouldn't talk about him, not even to me. Lot of anger in that poor girl."

"I'm sorry," Delaney whispered, glancing down to her hands that sat in her lap and fiddling with her thumbs. The guilt only weighing heavily on her shoulders even though she knew it wasn't her fault.

"Well, we'd really like to pay our respects, Mrs. McGregor. Um, would you mind telling us where Melody is buried?" Dean questioned, rubbing Delaney's knee soothingly.

"Oh, she wasn't. I had her cremated."

"All of her?"

Mrs. McGregor stared at Dean oddly for a long moment, finding the question rather odd. If Delaney had been in her spot, she would have reacted the same way. "I mean... I kept a lock of her hair."

"Oh, that's - that's nice. Where do you keep that exactly?"

Sam reached across Delaney and nudged Dean for not being subtle about the way he had asked that. He just hoped that Mrs. McGregor wouldn't find it too weird and would still answer the question.

"On my bus, in my bible."

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

Later that night, Delaney and the boys found out that Mrs. McGregor's bus would be used to take the football team to their game and back. The substitute bus driver, Eddie, had apparently told Mrs. McGregor she deserved a night to herself and that he would take care of the bus for her while she relaxed. Eddie had done it a few times for her in the past so Mrs. McGregor never questioned Eddie on why he suddenly wanted to drive the football team.

Delaney and the boys had followed the bus along the highway until he had ran over spikes in the road, slicing all of the school bus' tires. She watched as Eddie climbed down the steps of the bus and she grabbed her shot gun, telling the boys she'd handle the distraction while they wrap a salt water rope around her when Delaney got her talking.

"Melody!" Delaney yelled, causing Melody to turn her vessel around to face Delaney.

"Lose-chester," Melody snarled, her vessel's dark eyes glaring at her as she noticed the gun in Delaney's hand. "What are you gonna do, shoot me?"

"Don't need to,"Delaney replied, lowering her shot gun as the boys wrapped the salt water soaked rope around Melody's vessel and the sound of Melody's body sizzling was heard. "The rope is soaked in salt water, Melody. You aren't going anywhere."

Once Dean and Sam had made sure Melody was secure in the ropes, they ran onto the bus to look for the blonde hair that Mrs. McGregor kept. However, much to the Winchester luck, the boys hadn't found the hair anywhere in the books of the bus. Not even the bible that Mrs. McGregor said she kept the hair.

"Della, it's not here!"

"Where is it?" Delaney demanded, raising her shotgun at Melody once again. "What did you do with it?"

"No way you'll ever find it," Melody taunted and smirked at Delaney, rocking back on her heels.

Delaney growled lowly in her throat and grabbed Melody by the front of her vessel's bus shirt and shoved her up against the side of the bus. "Tell me where it is, Melody! No one else needs to get hurt here."

Melody tutted Delaney and shook her head, the smirk never leaving her face. "Delaney Winchester. Still a bully. You, you pretty girl types... you popular girls... you always thought you were better than everybody else. When I finally become like you, you just drag me down again. Don't even let me have the chance at the spotlight. Just a girl who picked on other girls to make myself feel better, right? Now you evil whores are getting what's coming to you. Along with your pretty and perfect jock boys"

"I'm not evil, Melody. I'm not," Delaney stressed, though she wasn't sure if she was trying to convince herself or Melody more of that sentiment. "And neither were you. Trust me. I have seen real evil. We were scared and miserable, and we took it out on each other - us and everybody else. That's just how junior high and high school is. You suffer through that and it gets better. I'm just sorry you didn't get a chance to see that... you or Bella."

Melody shook where she stood and it appeared that Delaney's words didn't do a single thing for Melody. She didn't believe a single word that Delaney had said. "Nothing will get better for me. Not ever." She grunted as she used her vessel's strength to break out of the ropes and started to charge for Delaney.

Delaney stumbled away from Melody and fired two rounds at the vessel, slowly lowering her gun  as the boys went to check on the man and make sure he was okay. She had aimed for nothing vital so the only thing Eddie would have to do now that he was back in his own head was get the bullets out and that's it. Nothing too serious and life threatening. 

When Delaney had gone to step forward and check on the man as well, she was blindsided and tackled to the ground. She was flipped onto her back and she got a flash of one of the football players' red track jackets before a fist was pounded into the side of her face. She tried to fight the jock off, but he was much stronger than she was even with the two bullets Sam put into his back. 

"Boys! Find the hair!" Delaney groaned, trying to use all her strength in keeping the jock boy off her long enough to keep Melody distracted while the boys looked.

The jock eventually overpowered Delaney again and was able to start attacking Delaney's face with his fists once again. She weakly tried to keep the jock's fists away, but was made impossible when the jock moved his legs so Delaney's arms were trapped underneath them, leaving her completely open for the beating. Blood began to pool out of her mouth and nose as the punches came harder into her face.

"Take your times, boys!" Delaney managed to remark loudly to her brothers who had hopped out of the bus and began to pat down Eddie.

It was only another minute before the jock suddenly jerked above Delaney and a bright light flashed out of his eyes and mouth before he collapsed on top of Delaney. She groaned when the extra weight was pressed down on her, making it hard to breathe and she struggled to get the boy off. However, it was kind of hard to do when the boy had quite a bit of weight on her.

"Boys?"

"Yeah, Della?"

"Help?"

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗟, 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟳

Delaney stood outside the school with Sam and Dean while they waited for John to show up. They were about to get out of the town and make their way to the next one where Delaney would be at yet another school. She had been praised all day for standing up to Melody and she did give herself a small pat on the back for sticking up for her friends like Dean had always taught her to do. 

Dean had been pouting the whole time they waited outside the school while Sam and Delaney played hand games with each other to pass the time until John showed up. She didn't know what suddenly soured his mood but Sam told her not to ask about it because they would never hear the end of it. So he distracted her by sitting down on the cement railing of the school steps and had Delaney stand in front of him so they can play together.

"I can't wait to leave this town. This place sucks," Dean grumbled to himself, still pacing back and forth in front of his younger siblings.

John had pulled up at that point and Dean sighed in relief, picking Delaney's bag up from the floor at her feet and walked over to the car. When the two younger Winchesters took a minute too long, Dean snapped at them to hurry the hell up before he got into the Impala with John.

"Let's hurry up before we have to listen to him the whole drive," Sam chuckled, sliding off the railing and picking up his own bag. 

"We already do," Delaney mused back, stopping by the side of the car to look back up at the window. There in the window sat Bella with a saddened expression on her face, already having said goodbye to Delaney in the hallway. She had hugged the youngest Winchester tightly and thanked her for always sticking up for her in the short time she'd been there. She gave a small smile to the girl and waved before she got in the Impala, not looking back at the school as it got smaller and smaller.

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗗𝗔𝗬

Delaney had woken up the next morning, feeling like she got rammed by a bus. Thankfully, the bruises weren't too bad and would heal within a few days. She had asked Dean if they could stop by the school one more time so she could speak to Mr. Wyatt quickly. She didn't get to speak to him the whole time they'd been there and she felt weird not saying a single word to him once.

"Mr. Wyatt?" Delaney called, knocking on the door and slowly entering her old classroom. "Uh, hi. You probably don't remember me, but my name is Delaney Winchester, and I just wanted to thank you."

"For?" Mr. Wyatt asked, removing his glasses from his face. He hadn't aged much in the past twelve years and looked almost as Delaney remembered him. 

"I was a student here and you gave me some advice once."

Mr. Wyatt's face slowly broke out into a smile and he pointed his glasses at Delaney. "Yes, Winchester, that's right. You, uh - yo wrote that lovely story about you and your uncle."

"Yeah, I did," Delaney responded, rocking back on her heels and smiled sheepishly at her old teacher. "Honestly, my life has turned into quite the horror story, but I'm good."

"So what was this advice? I might need to plagiarize myself down the line," Mr. Wyatt teased, standing up from his desk and stuffing his hands into his pant pockets.

"You told me to follow my dreams no matter what my family said because it was my life and my dreams. They would be proud of me in the end when I lived that dream out. To make my own choices. I was able to keep my family happy for a while, but I didn't get to live out my dream. I had to join my brothers in the family business. They kind of needed my help. You know, people grow up. Responsibilities and all that."

"Like I said, you're a bright girl and I knew you would have made it one day," Mr. Wyatt said, only warming Delaney's heart. It was the kind of words she should have heard from her own father, but never did. Bobby had been the only one to clap and cheer for her when she would come home with an A+ on her paper or when she got valedictorian when she finally got to go to one single high school all four years because John had started to leave Delaney with Bobby for longer periods of time by that point. "Sorry to hear you couldn't be the lawyer you wanted to be."

Delaney let out a shaky breath and tried to brush off the whole thing as if it didn't bother her. As much as Delaney loved to save people on a daily basis from things they didn't and couldn't know about, she did occasionally wonder what she'd be doing right now if she gone to the law school she wanted to. If she had been able to get married to Will and have a little baby of their own. She would never get to have that normal life she'd had for twenty years before the veil was suddenly lifted from her eyes and she saw what the world was truly like. That she had been created to lead this demon army that didn't even want her in the first place. 

So much for normal, right?

"Yeah, but still, um... you took an interest in me when no one else did. That matters to me more than you could ever imagine. So thank you for that."

Mr. Wyatt bowed his head for a moment, smiling in embarrassment to himself at the praise he had gotten from Delaney. It seemed like he really appreciated what she'd said to him and she probably had made what he does every day just the tiniest bit better. "Well, you know, the only thing that really matters is that you're happy. Are you happy, Delaney?"

Delaney opened her mouth to tell Mr. Wyatt that yes she was happy. She got to be around her brothers all day every day and save people. Killing things that tried to wreak havoc on their planet and was so close to possibly stopping Lucifer from busting out of Hell. That she had finally learned the truth about the family business and the boys were finally treating her better, telling her things more often than they had ever before.

Yes, she was happy because she actually was able to get past Will's death and being in the present. That she fell in love with another guy. Delaney felt her flutter at even just the thought of him. Her face brightening whenever his name flashed across phone screen and feeling herself relax anytime he was around her. She loved him and part of her was scared because... it was different to how it was Will. She couldn't tell what was different about it, but it felt... deeper, maybe? 

However, Delaney couldn't say she was happy. Not really. She was wanted by a rage and revengeful filled demon. A demon that she had to try and kill for taking her brother away from her all those months ago. She had to fight every day against things that could kill her and send her to Hell where the demons would have a field day with her because of who and what she is. That she had to now not only lie to her brothers, but her boyfriend who she loved so deeply and truly. She had to trick three of the most important boys in her life because of a lingering suspicion that one of them was out to do something that could end in global disaster.

So, no. Delaney Elizabeth Winchester was, in fact, not happy. Not even the tiniest bit. 

And she wasn't sure when she'd ever feel happy again. If she'd ever feel happy again.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

So, I just killed my own heart with that final line OOF. We are half way through Part One and I am just so excited to get into this other half of the season because we are FINALLY getting to all the good (bad) stuff that'll begin to happen with Delaney and Randy. I'm so ready to rock the Winchesters' world SO HARD. 

ALSO, IN CASE YOU MISSED IT! I POSTED A CROSS OVER BOOK OF ALL MY WINCHESTER SIBLINGS (Delaney, Duncan, Stiles and Camden). IT'S CALLED Chaos Rising AND IS CURRENTLY UP ON MY PROFILE! SO GO CHECK IT OUT IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY. THE FIST CHAPTER WILL MORE THAN LIKELY BE UP TOMORROW