Title: Plastic Dinosaur
Author: Rhea314
Fandoms: Supernatural
Rating: G
Pairing: Sam/OFC, Sam/Jess
Warnings: none
Summary: Sam has a crush. Written for Cliché Bingo prompt “secret admirers”.
Words: 746

Sam doesn't really have a template for this. Sure Dean likes girls, lots of them, but he just seems to smile and the fall into his lap. Sam isn't sure that's what he wants. Jennifer is a red head with dimples when she smiles and freckles on her nose. She wears overalls with strawberry shaped buttons and second hand plain t-shirts in primary solid colors, and sometimes pink. Sam thinks that maybe she could understand him, his family. She brings sack lunches to school and carefully peels the skins of oranges so they make perfect spirals, which Sam knows takes a lot of work and concentration. She's good at math, even fractions, which Sam thought were hard when they introduced them at his last school, and she has pretty cursive handwriting with which she signs her drawings when they're hung outside the art room. She's not the best artist but her handwriting is elegant and mature. Sam's cursive is still developing, Dean says he probably wont need it except to make a good signature, but Sam want's to learn. So going to Dean is probably not a good idea because Sam doesn't want Dean to meet Jennifer. What if Jennifer doesn't like his brother? What if she says he's creepy like some of the other girls have said when Dean drives up to pick up Sam after school? Dean doesn't scope girls Sam's age so Sam knows they're just being stupid when they say that Dean doesn't look safe. Dean is the safest person Sam knows.

Sam doesn't ask Dean and he doesn't talk to Jennifer beyond quietly complimenting her on her handwriting after art one Thursday. Sam isn't sure Jennifer heard him, but he likes to think she might have, maybe. They're moving again soon and Sam and Jennifer have sat together at lunch only once. Sam was at one end of the table with some of the guys from the soccer team and Jennifer was at the other with two of her friends. Sam spent most of the meal looking at his lunch and trying to sneak glances at Jennifer out of the corner of his eye. He doesn't think she noticed. The day they have to leave Sam decides he has to do something. The Winchesters don't have much but Sam has a plastic dinosaur from when his father opened a "Dinosavers!" account so Sam and Dean could have money of their own. Not a lot, but enough to get by if something happened on a hunt and dad had to be in the hospital for a while. It's a green stegosaurs and Sam has been carrying it around in his suitcase because it was something his dad got him, and it does look pretty cool. He puts the dinosaur in a brown paper bag with a note and a lock of his hair. He remembers reading once about how during the war some girls would keep their sweethearts hair in lockets around their necks in hopes to keep them close at heart and bring them home safe. Sam knows exactly how much a lock of hair can do, and hopes that maybe Jennifer will understand how much a lock of his hair actually means. She probably won’t, but she reads a lot so maybe she'll understand that too. Sam sneaks the bag into the top of Jennifer's locker during lunch. He's written her name in large blocky print, disguised not to look like his own, so she'll be sure to get it. He signs the note with just an S and hopes that even though he's disguised his handwriting maybe she'll know it's him. Sam never gets to see her find it because dad picks him up from school early and he doesn't really have time to say goodbye to anyone. They leave town that night.

Sam eventually forgets about Jennifer, but sometimes he thinks about how he once put a plastic dinosaur in a bag and gave it to a girl because he liked her. It sometimes embarrasses him to remember it, but when Jess asks about his first crush Sam tells the story, only blushing a little bit. Jess kisses him and tells him what a sweet boy he was.
"I wish someone gave me a lock of their hair. That's really romantic."
"Really?" Jess twines her hands in Sam's hair and kisses him deeper.
"Mmm-hm." And Sam smiles because he knows even if he isn't saying everything, Jess understands.