Tiptoe39 · @tiptoe39
14th Jan 2011 from Twitter for iPhone
#SamGabeHSAU -
Final exams stop everything. Fun, romance, social activity - for two weeks each student hunkers down into his own bunker and dares not peek out from behind a stack of books for fear the real world will prove too distracting and will upend a half-year's worth of work in one disastrous test.
After final exams, all bets are off.
Through the two weeks of huddling, Sam and Gabriel don't go out. Late-night phone calls and instant messaging (Sam still didn't have a cell phone, damn it) are all they can manage. Sam looks forward to 11 p.m. the way Gabriel used to look forward to five in the afternoon during rehearsals - as a chance to look up and appreciate his blessings before diving back into the sea of information.
Gabriel is not a fan of studying, but to some extent he appreciates the respite. Evenings at home have been difficult since he brought up the idea of going to Sam's for Christmas. He can feel Michael's eyes on him, judging him wherever he goes. As though it's unprecedented for a teenager to ask permission to go out, or to push aside a long-held family tradition. On his own, Gabriel is indignant. He holds conversations with his mirror in which he reduces Michael to a stuttering mess. But in front of the man himself, all Gabriel's rhetorical dominance abandons him, and he can only glower and wish he had the stones to run away like Lucy did.
Somehow he's feeling closer to Lucy in his absence than he ever did when his brother was still living at home. How weird.
Sam hasn't mentioned his invitation to Christmas outside of one gentle reminder that "if things change, you're still welcome." Gabriel knows he is. That isn't the problem.
Dean's buried in finals, too, though he already has his college applications in and so isn't fretting much. But studying keeps him too busy to ask all the lurid questions Sam can practically hear him formulating.
And for the record, other plans are being put on hold in other households in the district.
But after finals, all bets are off.
-
Sam's last final is on Tuesday at 11 a.m. Afterward, he hurries to Dean's car to grab some things. Dean's lent him a key, not so Sam can drive the thing (that would SO not be OK) but because Dean, having not been totally immersed in his finals, has generously helped him plan something ahead of time.
Something Dean's sadly not available to help him actually set up, given said pesky exams. Which is why Sam is lugging armfuls of odds and ends through the hall looking like a beleaguered sherpa. An ornament, red and plastic with a gold-foil trim, falls from his grasp and rolls down the hallway. Sam watches in dismay as it flees, then breathes a sigh of relief as it's stopped beneath a smart black shoe.
"You look like you're stealing Christmas," Ruby says, picking up the ornament and dangling it between two fingers.
"Not stealing," Sam grunts. "Delivering."
"Well, aren't you the anti-Grinch." Ruby comes to his side, negotiates a few trinkets out of his grasp. "Finals done?"
Sam nods and gladly gives her some of the load, then nods toward the back door to the auditorium.
"This for some girl?"
Sam pinks, but then shakes his head. "For a friend."
If he sees Ruby's glance drop to the sprig of mistletoe, he's too distracted to compute its significance.
She helps him carry everything in, wishes him luck (Sam feigns ignorance of what that could possibly mean) and asks just one more time, "Really, this isn't for some girl?"
"See you after break," he says, pushing two fingers against her forehead. For a moment she pouts, as though disappointed. But then she goes. Sam spends a moment contemplating that look, but a moment's all he can spare. He's got to get everything in place before Gabriel arrives.