#and sam and dean reflect that back onto so-called norma suburbia

[readinginthereadyroom]

I can’t help but wonder what it’s like for the people who knew sam and dean before they were america’s most wanted.

can you imagine being one of sam’s stanford friends? like, we knew he was in touch with at least some of them for s1. and at first it’s like—poor sam, surviving that apt fire when jess didn’t. giving up his dreams of law school to take time to grieve. spending it with his brother. a cross-country road trip.

if not for the tragedy, they’d almost be jealous.

but then he just. never comes back. stops contacting them. forgets to answer emails. changes his phone number so often that they don’t really notice when the line just doesn’t connect anymore.

and then. the news filtering down the grapevine of their friend group. did you hear about sam’s brother? he’s some kinda bank robbing murderer. who digs up graves. isn’t sam with him? do you think he’s okay? is this why he never talked about his family?

then it almost feels inevitable. or that’s what they will say, when sam’s name starts cropping up on the news alongside dean’s. the public, oh I always knew there was something off about him. and the private, wtfs? sam would never do anything like that. not the sam we know. knew.

it gets worse. henriksen starts showing up at their houses, one by one down the line. anyone who ever called sam winchester a friend gets the third degree. and henriksen asks all sorts of horrifying questions—about dean, about john. but sam’s friends can’t say anything. they didn’t know either of them. sam never spoke about his family. not in any precise way.

that’s when the rumors will start. fueled by media sensationalism and henriksen’s probing questions—do you think...jess? that maybe sam’s brother...? after all, this all started when he showed up and the news reports say he’s always been a bad apple. why did sam really leave stanford? what really happened to jess?

what happened to sam?

at some point they stop asking. stop talking about sam altogether. no one wants to be associated with a serial killer. wants to admit they liked the guy. that they were genuine friends back in the day.

then there’s the people like mr wyatt from after school special (spn 4x13). it’s just a normal workday. gets surprised with an apparently nice heart-to-heart with one of his former students.

this is why he loves his job—making a difference in people’s lives. the small impacts. an offhand comment to a kid he knew for a month back in the 90s. and it changed this guy’s whole life! sent him to college!

so mr wyatt goes home. jubilant. tells his spouse all about how one of his former students dropped by to thank him today. it’s touching. it’s inspiring. he is 100% gonna plagarize himself and make a difference in every kid’s life that passes thru his classroom.

until he drops the name.

wait. sam winchester? of the winchester brothers? you know, the fbi’s most wanted bank-robbing serial killers. the very much *dead* serial killers?

mr wyatt resigns the very next day.