❛ CHAPTER FIVE ━ THE CONSEQUENCE OF
A BROKEN PROMISE ❜
𖤐¸𓍢 ━━ ❪ ACT ONE OF SOULBOUND ❫ ˖ ୧ 。
◟ ✦ DID YOU ALMOST SHOOT A YORKIE! ❞
MORNINGS FOR OLIVE CONSIST of breakfast at seven-twenty, brushing her teeth with Ben by seven-thirty-five and trying to convince Dean to stay home from school while he attempts to brush her hair. Like today.
"Please, pleaaase!" Olive dragged, rocking back and forth on a stool as she looked at Dean through the mirror, "I don't need school to be an Astronaut!"
Dean sighs. He thought being a hunter was probably the most stressful thing in his life— until he became a surrogate father. Now, he wished to face a group of Vamps than brush through Olive's messy hair.
"You legally have to go, Olive," He reminds, "You're so close to reading big paragraphs without stuttering!"
"Owww," Olive whined again, tears in her eyes as she reached up to rub the tenderness in her roots, "That hurts!"
With three pink hair pieces between his teeth Dean said, "Gotta stand still." He pulls slightly at the knot in the middle of her head.
The brush gets stuck.
"Damnit," He cursed, stepping back to look, "Alright, I have a better idea."
He untangles the brush from her hair and grabs it all in one hand, using his other to wrap the pink hair piece around it. It flopped down against her hair, not as tight as he thought it was.
Then, he took another hair piece and wrapped it again, and again, until her hair was more pink than its normal tawny brown.
"Ponytail," He says proudly, grimacing at the mess, "Or at least the outline of one."
Olive looks at herself in the mirror, then at Dean behind her, "I look like a chewed barbie doll."
Dean looks genuinely offended.
"Why can't Lisa do my hair for school?" Olive sighs, crossing her arms.
"Lisa picked up a morning shift a work so we can go to your play tomorrow night," He crossed his own arms, "I think it looks great," He reassures, pushing back a large piece of hair out of her face.
She smiles, looking back at herself in the mirror with a newfound appreciation, "I look great. Can I pick my outfit today?"
Dean grimaced at the thought.
Olive's style consisted of colorful clothes that didn't match together because Lisa thinks that kids her age should express themselves.
He'd agree if it wasn't for the fact that Olive always wanted to wear her pink bedtime robe, no shoes and rainbow stripped leggins over one of his band shirts.
He's surprised the school hasn't called Child Services.
"Let me pick your outfit, okay?" He says lightly, following her into her bedroom.
"Let's match today!" Olive suggests, running to her dresser and pulling out a pink t-shirt, "Do you have one of these?"
He shakes his head, "No, but I'll be on the look out," He lies, grabbing a pretty blue dress from the closet and holding it up, "Let's do this with your new vans, I bought you those for Christmas and you haven't worn them yet."
She sighs, grabbing the dress and running back to the bathroom. He waits impatiently, looking at his watch that read eight-o-seven. They were going to be late.
"Come on, O! Your teachers hates me already," He wracks his knuckle on the door.
Olive comes out of the bathroom with a smile, flatting down the blue dress and looking up at him, "What do you think?" She asked.
Dean knew she had him wrapped around his finger if he got choked up seeing her look older than she was. Time is flying by and he was having a hard time keeping up.
"Stop growing," He orders lightly.
Dean was tasked with taking Ben and Olive to school by eight-thirty but when the pair started chanting for McDonalds breakfast shakes, he couldn't help but comply.
They got their at nine pm.
He made them vow not to tell Lisa about their pit stop.
"Ben, don't forget your backpack!" Dean shouts, reaching over the front seat and handing Ben his backpack through the window.
Ben smiled, grabbing it and running off.
"Bye to you too. . ." Dean falters.
He jumps in surprise when the back door slams closed, Olive adjusting the straps of her backpack before turning towards the building.
Dean freaks, rolling down his window, "Woah, woah, hold the fire!" He shouts, "Where are you going?"
Olive froze, looking between him and the building, "School?" She jerks her thumb back.
"Well. . .you didn't say goodbye!" He tells her.
She smiles, opening the front seat and climbing back in the car to give Dean a kiss on the cheek, "Bye daddy!"
Olive closes the door and runs off.
Dean smiles sadly, watching her wave goodbye at the door before ducking inside. An overwhelming sadness fills his heart, wishing he let her stay home so they could spend the day watching movies like they always did.
Although Dean knew he wasn't, he felt like he was losing her forever and he hasn't even been in her life for more than a year.
"Good morning, Olive," Ms. Heatly smiles at the girl who was always the last one at the door, "Late again?"
She smiles bashfully, "Traffic?" She lies.
Ms. Heatly glanced over Olive's attire. Her hair alone made the woman smile knowingly. All she knew about Olive was that she had a father who didn't know the first thing about raising a little girl.
A child, sure. But a little girl was a whole different ball game.
"Your daddy did your hair today?" Ms. Heatly asked, holding back her amusement.
She smiles, "I look great!"
She laughs, "I agree." She hesitates, "Do you mind if I fix it up a little?"
Olive smiles, closing her eyes as Ms. Heatly moved forward and undid the messy attempt at a ponytail.
The hair pieces snapped.
"Oh goodness," She laughs again, taking a moment to think before pulling the pink ribbon out of her hair, "Here, this might be better."
In seconds, Olive's hair had gone from a ponytail to a two low pigtails tied at the bottom by a silk pink ribbon.
"There," Ms. Heatly smiles, "That's better."
"Thank you, Ms. Heatly!" Olive says happily, rushing into the classroom to join her friends.
After that it's always a blur, she'd sit for a few hours and listen to her teacher speak about nonsense, lunch with the Joey, Karla and Lora, recess, and then her favorite part of the day— theater.
Dean and Lisa were iffy about Olive picking up an after school program but days went by and theater was all Olive talked about.
After school Ben would walk her down to the music room before getting picked up by Lisa while Dean was at work, Olive would stay there for a few hours before getting picked up by Dean after work.
It was the perfect system.
With theater class came Olive's burst of imagination.
There was countless times Dean and Lisa caught Olive floating around at odd hours of the night, pretending to fly to Neverland.
Tomorrow was her official reenactment of Peter Pan— Olive was chosen to play Wendy.
"Every time I just freeze!" Olive huffed her lips tugs into a pout as Dean drove down the street that night after a long rehearsal, "Miss. Addy says I have to get it right or she'll give Wendy to Marley Andrews."
Dean frowned. "Well that's not fair, you've been working on this for months.." She threw her hands up in agreement, "Are you worried about forgetting the lines and embarrassing yourself?" Olive nodded slowly. "That would be funny.." He trailed off.
"Hey!"
"What?— Alright don't get grumpy with me," They pulled up into the driveway and Dean turned his body to face her. "You can't be scared you're going to fail because you won't get anything done. Remember what I said when we met?"
Olive looked up at him through her eyelashes, mumbling something he couldn't hear.
"Sorry, what was that?" He gave her a look.
"I gotta be brave." She repeated.
"Exactly. If you're brave then you can do anything, just like it's always been," He paused, glancing at her hair, "Did you fix your hair at school?"
She reached up to touch it, "Ms. Heatly fixed it, do you like it?"
He grimaced slightly, "I thought mine was better."
"Me too!" She agrees, causing him to smile happily, "I'm still nervous about the play."
"Eh, don't be. I'm going to be in the front row cheering you on, even if you faceplant," He vows.
Olive grinned. "You will?"
"Have I ever done wrong by you, O?"
"Remember when we threw that Christmas Party and you let me have a sip of Sid's eggnog but there wasn't just eggnog in it?" She tilted her head.
Dean scoffed, "You weren't complaining!"
"Not the point!"
"Well speaking of Sid, I'm supposed to meet up with him at the bar tonight," He unlocked her door, "Don't wait up, short stack."
Olive grumbled at the nickname, giving him a half hug before jumping out of the truck and towards the house— her pigtails bouncing behind her, she turned with an over-exaggerated wave that Dean promptly returned before he pulled out of the driveway.
If only they knew that their lives were about to get a lot more complicated, many then Dean wouldn't have gone to that bar after all.
‧₊ ❁ཻུ۪۪.;:୭̥.┊
Later that night Dean came home on edge, after getting drinks at Jonesy's with Sid, he heard a scream in a building across the street, it was abandoned, no sign of a screaming woman, but he found claw marks on the wall and a large bloodstain on another. It could have been anything— he wanted it to be anything else than what he thought it was.
Its been hardly a year without his past coming back to kick his ass, the last thing he needed was something unnatural picking up his scent and tracing it back to his family.
His thoughts drifted to Olive and a chill ran down his spine.
Although he didn't find any signs of life he still couldn't shake the fact that something was watching him.
"And no one's called about a missing person?" Dean asked the operator on the other line, snapping his finger at Olive in warning, the six-year-old dropped the floating pillow with her mind and grumbled.
"No, this would have been today.." He continued, giving the girl a look that she returned with her tongue out.
Children, he thought.
"So no reports of anything around Vineland and Oak street near that hotel renovation?" Olive began hopping around him, singing, so he lightly kicked her with the heel of his shoe, "Call it a hunch, I've been a cop for a long time."
Lisa walked down the stairs in her blue night robe, a light yawn leaving her lips when she turned the corner and gave her boyfriend a soft smile, leaning against the doorway of the living room.
Dean quickly finished his call with the 911 operator as Lisa looked at Olive knowingly.
"I could have sworn I put you to bed, Bug."
"I was waiting for dad," Olive said between jumps and ballet spins.
"I told her not to wait up." He says.
"Mhmm. You sure it doesn't have anything to do with your play tomorrow? Want me to call Miss. Addy and let her know you can't go?"
Olive stopped jumping, "I'm going to bed." She announced, running upstairs to her room before either of them to get a word in. Dean chuckled softly.
Lisa turned towards him, "Who was that?" It wasn't in an accusing or pushy tone, Lisa's voice was always light and understanding. It was one of the reasons he loved her so much.
"Sid." He lied. It was because he loved Lisa that he couldn't get her involved, "Just setting up a poker game."
But Lisa always knew when he was lying through his teeth. "It's 11:30." She smirked knowingly, slightly amused.
Dean hesitates but plays it off like he was thinking. "Is it really? Well, that explains why he was asleep when I called." He laughed it off, but Lisa knew better than to dig deeper. "I'll be right up."
"Okay." She smiled, turning away from him and towards the stairs. Not seeing Dean's frown fall when she was officially out of sight.
Lisa's light footsteps trudged up the stairs but Olive still heard them anyway, she was quick enough to turn off her lamplight before closing her eyes.
She stiffened when Lisa opened the door, walking into the room before leaning over to kiss her on the forehead.
Olive practically melted at her maternal touch.
"Goodnight, bug." She smiled.
Olive opened one of her eyes, "Night, Lisa. Love you."
"I love you too."
Back downstairs Dean checks the locks on the windows before turning off the light and walking into the kitchen for a glass of water.
The flap of wings isn't heard by him until he turns around, jumping at the sight of none other than Castiel, who looked unhappy and upset.
"Jesus fuck, Cas━" He whisper-shouts.
"I can't believe you lost the child," Cas says lowly, looking livid, "I give you a single responsiblity━"
"Woah, woah," Dean holds his hands out, waving them around for Cas to stop, "What are you talking about? Olly is upstairs. You're the one who's been MIA, not returning my calls, you son of a bitch!"
Cas genuinely hesitates, "She's with you. . .?"
Dean grows suspiciously on edge, "Why wouldn't she be? What's been going on upstairs?"
He sighs, leaning against the countertop, "I told the angels about Olive and━"
"You did what?" Dean snaps, not caring how loud sounds as he stepped towards the angel, ready to kill him, "What were you thinking?"
"They don't believe me, Dean," He reports, deadpanning, "According to them, there was no ancient energy anywhere on Earth that remotely resembles what I felt that night you found Olive in the woods. I seems like I was the only Angel on Earth who saw it."
Dean falters, "I don't understand."
"I don't know how, but Olive had gone from being easily recognizable on this planet to practically never existing," Castiel reports, "Which should be impossible because her blood, her scent, her soul. Those things could be spotted by every supernatural being in this universe."
The hunter scoffs in shock, "Maya was right."
"Maya? Who's Maya?" Cas questioned.
"A demon. The night you left, Olive and I got cornered by two Vamps working with a demon, they wanted Olive," He tells him, "She gave me a charm shaped like a star, told me it hid Olive from everything."
Castiel thinks long and hard, "Angels can see through magic."
"It wasn't magic," Dean corrects, "She said she was working for one of your feathered freaks." He paused, "What were you doing on Earth anyway?"
The Angel looks away. He wouldn't dare tell him that he raised Sam Winchester from the dead the same night Dean had come across Olive in the woods.
"If an Angel gifted Olive that neckless, then I wasn't the only Angel on Earth who felt her power like I thought," Cas says more to himself.
"Damnit, Cas, what's going on?"
"I don't know."
"Then what do you know?" He snaps.
Castiel glares at him, "I know, that if monsters are working together and demons are openly working with angels, then Olive Grace is a bigger threat than I thought. You're lucky I don't have her examined and taken to Raphael."
Dean clenched his jaw, "You wouldn't dare."
"Do you want to put your life on it?" Castiel warns.
The hunter doesn't hesitate, "Yes. Because if you think you can go upstairs and take my daughter out of her bed you're going to die." Dean snaps the warning.
Castiel tilts his head, "Daughter?" He repeats, "You've grown attached to the child━"
"You're not taking her."
Castiel clenched his jaw, "What do you want from me, Dean? I've done everything for you, what else could you possible want?"
"I want to know what she is, so I can protect her," Dean says, "Maya told me that she was a Gaurdian, I've searched every lore I can imagine and nothing fits her description."
"Gaurdian?" Cas repeats, going ridged, "Are you sure that's what the demon claimed she was?"
"Yeah, why?"
Castiel was gone.
Dean wanted to scream, throwing his cup of water in the sink roughly.
That night he reluctanted added another sigial hidden among the rest inside their home. An Angel Warding symbol.
‧₊ ❁ཻུ۪۪.;:୭̥.┊
The next morning was Olive's big day and she couldn't be more nervous, she wasn't able to eat breakfast, the mere thought of eggs and toast made her sick but Ben said if she didn't at least have some fruit then spiders would crawl into her ears and she did not want that.
It was Saturday so Olive didn't have to worry about school, she stayed in the backyard practicing her routine in front of her stuffed animals while Ben rode his bike down the small hill next to the treehouse. Before crawling on her hands and feet and chasing Ben around like a scary spider. It genuinely scared him.
Her eyes caught sight of Dean, who pulled up in front of the garage and didn't say a word as he ducked inside.
Lisa also must have seen him too because she walked out of the house and made a beeline towards the garage, with Olive chasing after her.
"Just getting a hammer." was the first thing she heard when she slowed beside Lisa in the doorway, Dean glanced down at her and sighed.
"So, I just ran into Sid." She leaned against the door, "Did you almost shoot a Yorkie?"
Olive's eyes widened in horror, "You shot a doggy?"
"Technically." He admitted. "And I didn't shoot him..he got away."
"What's going on?" Lisa sighed.
Dean lifted both hands, "Nothing."
He won't dare tell them about Castiel's visit the night before, or the worry that oozed off his chest whenever he thought about the exchange.
He had half the mind to lock Olive in the shed until he figured out what was going on.
"How come I don't believe you?" Lisa replied.
Olive leaned in to Lisa's side and the woman placed a gentle hand on her head. Dean watched them with an inner sigh, he couldn't tell them.
"I just— I, uh, got this... I don't know, spidey sense." He tried to explain.
"Okay... Are you hunting something?"
Olive stiffened, her heart banging in her chest as she looked up at Dean. "Is it a demon?"
Dean paused, face going slack.
He didn't want to tell her anything because he knew how scared she was of them.
It didn't matter how strong she got in the last year, there was no way Olive was mentally prepared for another demon attack.
"It is, isn't it." Her eyes started to sting.
"Honestly? At first, I thought that I was." He walked over to Olive and lifted her by the waist.
She easily wrapped her legs around his middle, head on his shoulder. Even at six, Olive was light as a feather and smaller than the average child.
Dean often wondered if she had a delayed growth as a baby, "But I'm pretty sure that I got worked up over nothing. It's, uh, you know... It happens." He glanced away from Lisa.
"Are you sure?" Lisa asked softly. Her eyes were understanding even if it wasn't the answer she wanted to hear.
"No demons, I promise." He directed it more towards Olive, who visibly relaxed. "But I'll tell you what, just because I have an OCD thing about this, why don't you, Ben, and shorty over here go to the arcade before the recital—"
"Play." The girls corrected.
"Bootleg." He shrugged. "I'll meet you guys there and then after we can hit the cheesecake factory for a little celebration. I'll do one last sweep just to be one hundred percent. Save the day."
"Like a superhero," Olive noted. Dean grinned, pointing at her in silent agreement as he passed her to Lisa, who held her just like he did.
Lisa hesitates before a small smile forms on her lips. "Okay." She goes to turn away but stops, "And you will be at the play, right?" Olive's head perked up at her question.
"Front row seats." He reassured.
"Even if I face plant," Olive added.
"Be careful."
"Careful is my middle name." He scoffed. Lisa chuckled as they shared a kiss.
"Ew, gross."
With that, they were gone.
The light bulb starts to flicker above him an hour later.
Dean stands up slowly and reaches for the salt shotgun from the bag beside him. Something bangs by his toolbox. He moves agonizingly slow towards it and just as he moves forward a soccer ball is kicked from behind the Impala.
His body goes cold.
Finger on the trigger which trembled with adrenaline, he rounds the corner slowly— nothing was there.
"Hiya, Dean." He turns around quickly, coming face to face with an old enemy, "Look what the apocalypse shook loose." He was speechless. "You have fun sniffing that trail? 'Cause I sure had fun patting you around."
"You can't be." He hisses.
"Oh, sure I can!" Azazel grins.
"No." Dean steps back.
"Yeah, kiddo. The big daddy brought your pal Cas back, right? So why not me?" His grin never wavered, "Put a little spice to all that sugar." He gave the hunter a cold-blooded smile.
Dean shoots.
"Really? After all we've been through together?"
Azazel grabbed Dean by the throat and lifted him up from the ground.
"You know, you got a great little life here. Pretty lady— real understanding. Hell of a kid you got too and I'm definitely not talking about the boy. All that power in a sparkly tutu, who woulda thought?—" He mocks.
"Shut up!" Dean grunts.
". . .and how do you keep your lawn so green? I mean come on, Dean! You have never been what I'd call brainy, but did you really think you were gonna get to keep all of this? You had to know that we were coming for you sometime, pal. You..and the girl. You can't outrun your past." Azazel stated.
It might have been the pressure on his windpipe that made him seem more than stars in the corner of his eyes, but he could have sworn the familiar hair of his little brother came into view, shoving a syringe in Yellow Eyes' back.
But the ground began to sway under his feet and was swept into unconsciousness before he got a second look.
‧₊ ❁ཻུ۪۪.;:୭̥.┊
Olive popped her head through the red curtain, her eyes racking the sea of people. She felt faint. The girl could barely hold a smile when she locked eyes with Lisa— in the front row as they promised.
Olive's face dropped completely when the seat beside Lisa stared back at her, vacant. The drawing that she made in art class taped to the seat with Dean's name in bright red, a bunch of hearts and stars surrounding it. Lisa gave a reassuring smile.
He'll be here.
Olive swallowed thickly before popping her head back into the curtain.
For a play filled with preschoolers, the backstage was pretty hectic.
Lost boys running around trying to remember their placements, teachers fixing the props a few knocked over. Miss. Addy was in the corner trying to help June Adler with her sudden case of stage fright, the boy who was supposed to play Pan, Conner, was sitting in the corner mumbling his lines, face pale.
Olive wasn't any better.
"Five minutes children! Only five— what do you mean you can't count to five?" Ms. Addy voiced in the background. Olive easily tuned her out.
The girl thought she made a decent Wendy Darling. wavy locks of tawny blonde in loose braids, tied with a ribbon.
A light blue nightgown that she thought was warm and matching blue socks that she brought from home.
It wasn't much, but Dean picked out everything and because of that, she loved it even more. Unknown to everyone else but Olive and Dean, he had horribly sewn W into the hem of the gown— Winchester.
It was choppy and god knows how many times Dean pricked his finger doing it, but he said it would bring her luck.
The memory alone made Olive rub the W in comfort.
"Places people!"
Please be here.
‧₊ ❁ཻུ۪۪.;:୭̥.┊
When Dean opens his eyes it was dark. He doesn't know how many hours had passed but he does know that he's in some type of abandoned house. His head was still pounding and his eyes unfocused.
"Hey, Dean."
The hunter sits up quickly, making his head pound harder. He just stares blankly at the man in the corner— his little brother. Dean doesn't know what to think.
Shifter? Hallucination? Was it Yellow Eyes playing more mind tricks or rogue Angel having another laugh?
Sam chuckles at his uncertainty. "I was expecting, uh, I don't know, a hug, some holy water in the face— something."
"So I'm dead?" Sam gave another breathy chuckle. Dean wasn't anywhere near a light mood, "This is heaven? Yellow Eyes killed me, and now—"
"Yellow Eyes?" Sam asks. "That's what you saw?"
"Saw?"
"You were poisoned." He explains. "Whatever kind of crazy crap you think you've been seeing, it's not real."
It all hit him at once. The scream in the alley. The marks. The Blood. Sulfur. Yellow Eyes. It was all in his head?
"So, then, are you... real? Or am I still—"
"I'm real." He reassures. Dean's eyebrows knitted together at Sam's tone, the younger brother almost seemed impatient with him. "Here, let me save you the trouble."
He goes through the process of the silver, the blade, and the salt.
"All me."
Dean stood up, still unsure. He spent a whole year without his brother— sure he's spent more than a year without Sam before but at least then he knew Sam was safe at college but this was Hell.
"Sammy?"
He nods. "Yeah. It's me."
There was something off, but maybe he was just as uneasy as Dean was.
He takes a step forward and crushes Sam in a hug— It was just like Sam said, he was really here.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute." He pulls himself away, pointing at him. "You were gone, man. I mean that was it! How the hell are you—"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"I mean, no idea." Sam shrugs. "I'm just back."
He blinks. "Well, was it God? Or Cas? Does Cas know anything about this?"
"You tell me. I've been calling, Cas hasn't answered my prayers" Sam tells him.
Dean scoffs, for him, Cas answered too many and needed to back off.
"I don't even know where he is— I was...down there and then, next minute it's raining and I'm lying in that field, alone." Sam explains. "It's kinda hard to go looking for whatever saved you when you got no leads. But I looked. I mean, believe me, I looked for weeks."
Dean thinks about it for a moment, frowning. "Wait weeks? How long have you been back?" Sam hesitates. "How long have you been back, Sam?"
"About a year."
"About a year?"
"Dean—"
"You've been back practically this whole time?! What, did you lose the ability to send a friggin' text message?"
"You finally had what you wanted, Dean," Sam says carefully.
"I wanted my brother! Alive!"
"You wanted a family," Sam says. "You have for a long time, maybe the whole time. I know you. You only gave it up because of the way we lived, but you have something, and you were building something. Had I shown up, Dean, you would have just runoff."
Dean turned away with angry tears, mouth covered.
"I'm sorry. But it felt like after everything, you deserved some regular life. Hell," Sam gave a breathy laugh, "you even got yourself a daughter out of it."
Dean stops, veins going cold. Olive. He completely forgot about Olive's play, his mind brushing over the fact that Sam knew she existed. "What time is it?!"
"I don't know. Eight, maybe nine?" He was taken back by the question. "Why?"
Dean was pacing, pulling out his phone from his pocket. 8:30. The play ended an hour ago and his phone was blown up with multiple calls and texts from Lisa.
"Dean?"
Annoyed with himself, Dean turns to face Sam. "What have you been doing this whole year, huh?"
"Hunting." Sam sits.
"You left me alone and you were flying solo?"
"Not solo," He replies.
"What?"
Sam sighed. "I hooked up with some other people."
"You? Working with strangers?" Dean mused.
"They're more like family. And they're here."
‧₊ ❁ཻུ۪۪.;:୭̥.┊
"Boy, why are you crying?" Olive asked from the bed, ignoring the crowd and looking at Connor who was sitting on the floor in his Peter Pan costume.
He stands, "I was crying because I couldn't get my shadow to stick. Besides, I'm not crying." He crosses his arms.
Miss. Addy repeats Olive's lines from down below not so quietly, "I shall sew it on for you my little man, it may hurt a little."
Olive nods, "I shall show it on for you my little man, it may hurt a little."
"Sew." She corrects.
"Soup." Olive repeated. The crowd laughs.
"What is your name?" Pan asked.
"Wendy Moira Angela Darling. What's yours?"
The boy tips Pan's hat. "Peter Pan."
Olive's eyes search the crowd, Lisa smiles with a thumbs up and Ben gives a wave, holding up the recording camera as he tries to capture everything.
Later they would find out the camera was shaking the whole time but it was the effort that counts. Dean was still nowhere in sight, Olive rubbed the W once more before continuing on.
"I think it's perfect-aly sweet of you." She repeated the line. "I will give you a kiss If you'd like."
Dean was planning to boo at that part.
Connor put his hand out, waiting for her to give him a 'kiss' "Do you know what a kiss is?" She asked.
"I shall once you give it to me." The crowd laughed as Olive handed him a thimble. He puts it on his finger with a smile. "Now I shall give you a kiss."
Being so small Olive had to stand on her tippy toes, eyes closed and lips puckered. She pretends to be confused when Pan gives the small thimble back.
"I don't ever want to grow up— that's gross!" He says to the crowd and some chuckle, "I always want to be a little boy and have fun!"
Olive slowly leaves the stage when the song starts. With a heavy stomach, she watches the Lost boys and girls sing.
"What's wrong, Olive?" Karla asked from beside her, she wore a large paper tree with a hole cut in the middle for her head. Glasses firm on her face.
Olive sighs. "My dad was supposed to be here, but he never showed."
"Oh," Karla says. "My dad didn't come either. Moms says he's in a really important meeting. Maybe your dad is too." She reassures.
Olive's eyes search the crowd. "But he promised." She mumbled to herself.
She's congratulated bypassing parents and teachers as she makes her way off the stage an hour after the show.
She barely holds a smile, mumbling soft thank yous. Lisa gave her a smile, Ben tried to lift her spirits and she was grateful but they weren't the person she wanted the most.
"I tried to call him," Lisa says. "He hasn't answered."
Olive remembers the night of her birthday, the little family that sat around the kitchen table as they listened to Dean explain Olive's past and the things that she could do.
Lisa stayed quiet, Ben seemed uneasy. At that moment Olive thought she was done for, but then Ben did something unexpected. The older boy stands up and hugs her, telling her that was she was today didn't change who she was yesterday.
Lisa smiles, telling Olive that they would work through it together. Olive had only felt that type of love once before, with Sophia. So it was overwhelming.
"Do you think he's hunting something?" Ben asks.
"I don't know. .hopefully he'll be there when we get back." Lisa says.
Olive stops walking, scratching at her arm. It was a new tick that developed over time, endless scratching to soothe her endless nerves. "I don't want to go back."
Lisa glanced at Ben. "Okay. .we can go to the movies if you want."
"No...Karla asked me if I wanted to sleepover. ." Olive mumbles.
"Oh. . I was assuming you'd want to talk to Dean—"
"I don't," Olive says firmly. "I want to sleepover Karla's."
Lisa sighs. "If that's what you want to do. ."
"It is."
"Have Karla's mom call me if you change your mind, okay?"
"I won't change my mind," Olive says quietly, nodding once before walking away from them.
Lisa sighs, knowing that things are going to get a lot more complicated.
PUBLISHED, I don't remember!
EDITED, 3/16/2021!
WORDS, 5426!