Sequel to "Meet the Novaks" where Dean gives the speech and a few other special things. I hope you enjoy, and sorry in advance for having to use a slur but it is what the character would have done and shows she is garbage. And I hope you enjoy the speech I worked very hard on it and think I did a pretty good job.
I own nothing except for the stuff that isn't canon.
Enjoy!
Diversity in Sexuality:
Claire is sitting in the cafeteria, pushing the congealing macaroni and cheese around the tray. Usually she'd have a fresh, home-cooked meal for lunch instead of the processed garbage the school thinks is 'healthy', but she'd been running late and had to skip preparing her meal.
Just when she's about to get up, throw out her food and spend the rest of the day in the library, two people sit down in front of her. Well… she wouldn't just call them people. Out of the entirety of the school she thinks they are the two closest to actually being her 'friends'.
"Hey Claire," Krissy says, setting down her own tray of certified grey gloop, "you sure do look like Hell cooled over."
"It's nice to see you too, asshole," Claire remarks from her position on the table, one hand holding her head up against the pressing weight of gravity.
"Now, now, ladies," Ben chimes in, "we wouldn't want to get wild, now would we?"
At this the three all burst into varying degrees of snickers, tapering off after a minute.
Krissy breaks the silence yet again. "So what happened today?" she asks, "You were late for homeroom and Mr. Theroux almost bust a vein. I had to tell him you had 'feminine issues'."
"Thanks for that," Claire says, dropping her fork, "I woke up late because my crappy alarm clock decided today would be the day it would stop working."
"And here I thought you were considering becoming a delinquent," Ben sighs, hand to his chest as Krissy snorts out a laugh. Claire chuckles a bit too, awkwardly at best since that comment hit pretty close to home.
"So, did I miss anything important?" Claire interrupts, hoping to move the conversation onto something that doesn't bring up anymore of her past.
"Well you did miss the usual Pledge of Allegiance you traitorous harpy," Krissy gleefully informs her, a smirk that Claire has come to learn will mean that the next words out of the girl's mouth won't be anything good. "And Theroux handed out these flyers." She slips the salmon colored paper onto the table and passes it towards Claire.
Claire has already lost interest in the quickly cooling lunch and instead focuses on whatever announcement the school decided to waste trees on and- oh no.
The words at the top of the page already have her eyes widening in fear and she looks up to see her two friends smiling in the way only friends do when they can embarrass their own.
"So," Krissy drawls out, "we finally get to meet Mr. Novak… and apparently Mr. Novak."
"Ugh!" Claire hits the table with her head, "I totally forgot!"
"How could you forget your parents coming to speak to the entire school?" Ben asks.
"Okay maybe I didn't forget," Claire admits, "more like forcibly blocked out so I can get on with my life."
"Hey how bad could they be?" Krissy pipes in, chomping down on a soggy French fry, "I mean, as long as they aren't those overly flamboyant types there won't be any fuss from the bigots."
"Don't worry," Claire grumbles, "they are definitely not like that. I mean, my one dad lied to himself about his sexuality for years I'm sure he's been able to convince a lot of people that he isn't gay, including himself."
"If it makes you feel any better, I won't be here to see the panel," Ben adds on, hoping to brighten his friend's day up.
"How?" Claire questions, "How does this make me feel better?"
"Because I'll be in Hawaii by then?" Ben jokes, corners of the mouth upturned until two sets of hands slap him from both sides.
"Just let me enjoy my food of the damned in relative misery," Claire finally ends the discussion, picking up her fork, stabbing a piece of macaroni and sticking it in her mouth. However, the fact that it has been sitting out for so long only helps her gag the piece of pasta right back out and onto her napkin.
"Gross!"
"Wimp."
Sam is resting comfortably in one of the Men of Letters most comfortable couches: book in one hand and spiked hot chocolate in the other. The Men of Letters may have been a group of sexist, racist, possibly homophobic, and elitist nerds, but they do not skimp when it comes to comfort. He nestles into the cushions, ready to catch up on some light reading of the Sasquatch mating habits when he hears it.
The thump of footsteps: the sound of relaxation ruined.
Sam sighs, putting his book down before swinging his legs off the couch to where his feet now rest on the ground, just in time for Dean to come pacing through, looking ready to fight the next person to get in his way, with Castiel not too far behind him.
"Dean!" Castiel says calmly, hands trying and failing to get a grip on the hunter's shoulder, "Dean, you're worrying over nothing. You'll do fine!"
"But, Cas!" Dean says, finally responding to his partner's efforts and letting him place a hand on his shoulder, "It's… it's public speaking! I can't get up in front of a bunch of people-high schooler's no less- and have them judge me-why'd you sign us up for this!"
"If I remember correctly it was you who agreed to Claire's principal out of spite," Castiel informs him dryly.
Dean splutters, "Bu-wh-Then why'd you let me go through with it!"
Castiel is about to respond again, but Sam cuts him off.
"God Dean," he speaks, "it's just an assembly. I know you haven't been to one, like, ever, since you were more than likely in a janitor's closet, making out with the closest, most available mouth. What's so hard about talking about coming out of a figurative closet?"
"For your information, bitch," Dean glares at the back of Sam's mane, "I didn't just making out in the janitor's closet, I also got high behind the bleachers thank you very much."
"Sorry for giving you too much credit," Sam deadpans.
"You better be!" Dean bites back, "…I think?"
"Anyway," Castiel interrupts the brothers before they derail further from the topic at hand, "it's just a speech, and maybe some questions… but why are you afraid Dean? You fight and kill many of the things normal people should actually be afraid of?"
"Because," Dean whines, "it's… high school. I know for a fact that the things we fight have more soul than you're average high school student."
"He's got a point there, Cas," Sam pipes in again, but quickly learns to stay out of it with a heated glare from the angel.
"Dean," Castiel tries once again to placate his lover, "I am sure that no matter what you say, you will do a fantastic job and inspire many students, while also embarrassing Claire." He then moves in to give Dean a quick peck on his lips.
"Ew," Sam says, head bent backwards, acting as a little brother should and being grossed out by his brother and his boyfriend.
Castiel doesn't move away from Dean's face, and in fact moves more towards his ear. "And if you do a good job," Castiel stage whispers, "I'll be sure to show you how well my oral skills are…"
All Dean can do is choke out a strangled sob.
All Sam can do is try and hold in his breakfast until he makes it to the bathroom.
Claire stands in the hallway outside the auditorium, trying (and failing) to calm herself down. She's so out of it, she doesn't even see the pom poms until they've surrounded her.
"Hello, No-vag," a red headed cheerleader bites out, stepping into her and knocking Claire's center of gravity off, "watch where you're going."
"Cecily," Claire grounds out, "nice to see you've joined us today. We all thought the worse when you didn't show up for the longest time but I've heard how dangerous it is to mix alcohol with the morning after pill."
"What was that you little whore?" Cecily turns, eyes as red as her hair.
"I'm sorry are you talking to me or one of the other clowns who seem to think the sun shines out of your ass?"
Cecily steps forward, getting close and personal with Claire's face. But Claire isn't one to back down from a challenge.
"Listen here, freak," Cecily starts out, "I was out with a bad case of the flu, and only the flu, but the only reason I came back today was to watch what the student body does to your two little faggies-I mean, daddies. It's not often you get to witness the start of a lynch mob."
Claire is about to go off on this girl, until the clearing of a throat behind them has everyone swiveling their heads. Immediately all the cheerleaders, including Cecily, are shocked to see the three men standing there, all in suits and the whole nine yards. Claire only smirks.
"What's this about a lynch mob?" the one in the middle asks, "If I had known there was gonna be one of those I would have brought my special occasion shotgun!"
The gaggle of girls gulps, breaking the circle to stand behind their de facto leader Cecily. Trying to gain control of the situation, Cecily crosses her arms and tries to throw her best icy glare at the men. "I'm sorry," she snipes, "but this was a private discussion."
The man in the middle meets her icy glare for icy glare, and smirks. "Well," he starts offhandedly, "that must have been my mistake. I just assumed I could be a part of the conversation since I am one of those 'faggies' that you mentioned-isn't that right Claire, sweetie?"
"That's right, Dad," Claire moves to stand between Dean and Castiel, "Cecily, girls, I'd like you to meet Dean and Jimmy Novak, my dads."
"And I'm Sam, the uncle!" Sam adds in, not wanting to be left out.
The girls are stunned, not prepared for the actual Novaks in front of them. One girl harshly whispers to Cecily: "You said they would be ugly! They aren't ugly!"
Cecily, too stubborn to admit defeat, raises her nose and turns on her heel. "Whatever, have fun getting through to your audience. It'll sure be… hard." With that, she enters the gymnasium to take her place with the other cheerleaders.
Claire, however, turns around and gives her 'dads' a big hug. "Thank you two so much! I never thought I would see anything other than smug on their faces before today!"
Castiel chuckles, "Anything for our little girl."
Claire lets go of the two, and before she can say anything else sees someone through the break between her parents.
"Krissy!"
Krissy is walking down the hall, ready to greet her friend and her dads… when it happens.
The three men turn.
"You!"
Dean, Sam, and Krissy seem to shout the same word at the same time, fingers raised like an Old Western Stand-off.
"What are you doing here?" Krissy asks, "How do you know Claire?"
"Better yet," Sam interrupts, "what are you doing here and how do you know Claire?"
"Or, an even better idea, just here me out," Claire squeezes between the two groups, "how the hell do you people even know each other!?"
The three hunters with unspoken history just glare at each other, waiting to see who will be the first to crack. It's not until Castiel puts his hand on Dean's arm, giving him his sternest look that anything actually gets done.
"Krissy Chambers used to be a hunter," Dean explains, "and we ran into each other from time to time. Last time we saw her she promised she quit the business…"
"Which I did!" she says, then turns to Claire, "But how do you know these losers?"
Small protests are heard and ignored as Claire explains. "Well," Claire starts, "Dean and Cas here are my dads, because this man," she points to Castiel, "is actually an angel in my dad's body, but promised to look out for me, acting like a dad. And he," the finger has moved to Dean, "is in love with said angel so technically he is also my father."
Krissy squints, taking this all in, before giving Claire a hug. Claire is shocked, but returns it nonetheless.
"Any particular reason for this odd display of physical affection?" Claire quips.
"I'm just happy I know someone whose life is as messed up as mine!" Krissy says, moving away, "And don't expect stuff like that in the future."
Claire smiles, "I wouldn't dream of it."
Dean and Castiel look on as their daughter reaffirms her friendship, when Sam nudges them into reality. They look at him and Sam holds up his phone.
"You two are supposed to be on in a couple of minutes."
Dean had almost forgotten…
'Thanks Sammy…'
Krissy and Claire enter first, finding their way to any available seat and avoiding Cecily as she sits practically on the quarterback Mike Turner's lap. Cecily glares from her perch, but the two girls just giggle at her ignorance.
When the gym doors open next, the room falls silent as the three men enter. Sam decides to stand in the background, stopping just after they open the door, while Dean and Castiel continue forward to where the podium rests. Waiting for them is Principal Rauch, but they can feel all the eyes on them of the students.
"Mr. Novaks," she smils, "thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to come and speak to the children!"
"It's our pleasure," Castiel shakes her hand, "Dean is ready to give his speech, and we'll both be happy to take any questions."
"I'm sure you'll do a great job," she turns to Dean, and all he can do is gulp and nod. She moves to sit down next to an ancient grumbling man, the vice principal from the looks of it. Castiel grabs Dean's hand, squeezes it once, before moving to sit down letting Dean have the podium to himself.
He moves forward to the stand, tongue lapping over his dry lips. He puts his hands on the podium, but then takes them off, and then on again. He's nervous, and it clearly shows.
He brings a finger up to tap the mic, and the sound is emitted loudly from the loudspeaker. A few of the kids laugh, he smiles awkwardly.
"Hello, kids," Dean starts, "my name is Dean Novak, and today I'm here to talk to you about, uh… 'Diversity in Sexuality'."
"Now some of you must be scratching your heads and thinking what that might mean. To a lot of you there are only 'two' sexualities… and even to some only one! But in actuality there is a… spectrum, if you will. I mean there are more than just L and G in LGBTQA etc., etc. I'm here to represent the B, which stands for Bisexual, which is when you feel sexual attraction for two genders. So, basically, if I were to reach my hand into someone's pants, I'd be happy with whatever I find!"
A few chuckles, and Dean starts to relax.
"And my husband over there is Pansexual, meaning he is sexually attracted to people with any gender. Yes, any gender. Just like sexualities there is diversity in genders, but I am not well suited for this discussion, and rather ask you research more about this if you are interested. But getting back to what I was saying, there are many different sexualities than just the two. There is such a thing as being heterosexual or homosexual, but it is not the only thing. That's one of the first problems I'm here to address. People tend to think of only the two sexualities instead of the many, but this causes a lot of confusion. Especially to people who don't fit into the neat little box of sexuality society seems to want to keep. But that box needs to be broken, as it cannot contain the many sexual orientations that actually exist. "
"And I don't blame any of you for conforming to this idea, because that is how it has been presented. There has been little representation in the way of other sexualities, but it is getting there. Yet even some of the representation isn't helpful to the community. Now some of you might have seen my husband and me when we first walked in and had to double take. We must not look like what you'd expect of two queer individuals, but that goes to show that we can look just like you. And by 'we' I don't just mean the two of us, but any person whose sexuality is different than the 'norm'. I mean I enjoy football, beer, guns, and classic rock music. The stereotypical presentation of the queer individual is definitely not true for the majority of those who present outside what is perceived to be the 'normal' sexual orientation."
"And I know coming here today how the perception of 'normal' may be very ignorant. I'm expecting some of your parents may have been very outspoken over our presence here today. But this is not about indoctrination as many want to believe: this is about education. I can tell you for a fact that not being educated about stuff like this can be very harmful. Before I felt… comfortable enough with my own sexuality I can admit to acting in a way that was very harmful to the queer community. I made the jokes, the same stereotypical assumptions. I was doing as my father had taught me because he wasn't the biggest supporter of the 'Rainbow Brigade', that's for sure. In fact, it not only took me a long time to admit these feelings to myself, but also to those who I care about, and even longer for me to put a ring on that guy's finger."
"So even if you get nothing out of this speech but this, please take this into consideration. You may not be having any different feelings than you were experiencing before, but if you find you have different… interests than the majority of this community do not think they are bad. Do not repress them. I want you to research, you do have Internet, and figure out what you are feeling and do not be ashamed. Even if you are a flaming heterosexual you should still research so you can be an Ally. Which, it turns out is not what the A in LGBTQA stands for by the way, sorry Asexuals. And try and make choices that don't lead to hatred and bigotry.
I would like to thank you for your time, and if you have any questions my husband and I would be happy to answer them in the time we were allotted."
There's clapping coming from many of the students, even some of the teachers. Claire and Krissy are clapping like crazy. Cecily looks like someone fed her a piece of shit pie, not expecting the amount of applause being given the man. Even her boyfriend is clapping for them!
"That was wonderful Mr. Novak!" Principal Rauch stands, silencing the audience, "Now we'll begin with the questions… you, there."
"Yes, hi, I was wondering how you and Mr. Novak met…"
At the end of the day, Krissy and Claire stand around Claire's locker, discussing the panel and the day's events.
"I can't believe how well that went," Claire says taking books out of her locker for the journey home.
"I can't believe Dean knew that many big words," Krissy says, leaning against the metal door next to Claire's open one.
"Well he said he worked very hard to make the speech as great as it did," Claire admits, "and that he might have had help from Cas and Sam organizing it."
"I can see that," Krissy says, pushing off the lockers to a standing position.
"And I think all that hard work paid off," Claire adds on, closing her locker, "you should have seen how happy he was afterwards. We're gonna head out for celebratory dinner, you're welcome to come with."
Krissy stops to think for a moment, but grins back at her friend, "I think I'd be okay with that."
Claire smiles, "Great-"
"Whoops, your bad."
Claire is once again knocked off balance by Cecily, but this time her books fly from her hands and spread across the floor of the hallway. She glares at the retreating figure of the head cheerleader and goes down to pick up her discarded books.
She's reaching for one of the books when she notices another hand going for it. She knows it can't be Krissy because a) Krissy wouldn't help anyone whose books fell on the ground and b) the hands are very manly.
The other person helping her turns out to be Cecily's boyfriend, Mike Turner. She stops, surprised that he is even helping her.
He hands her the books with a sad grin. "Sorry about Cecily," he says, "she can be a…"
"Real bitch?" Krissy adds in from her perch on the sidelines.
"Something like that," Mike laughs.
The trio laughs a little, but then lapse into the awkward silence it should be. Claire's about to leave, but then Mike speaks up again.
"So… you're dads sure were something today," Mike says, eyes downturned.
"Yeah," Claire cautions, "they were."
"I thought they were really brave, being able to speak about something so personal to a community like ours," Mike continues, a small smile on his face, "Especially to walk out holding hands afterwards… they did seem really happy."
Claire may not be smart in some of the subjects here at school, her physics grade can attest to that, but she does know how to read a person. And right now she's getting a certain feeling about Mike…
"Well, if you want, Krissy and I were going to meet up with my dads and my uncle, you're welcome to come if you want."
Both Mike and Krissy turn to look at her. Krissy is mouthing a 'What the Hell!?' while Mike nervously tries to decline.
"Now I won't take no for an answer," she says, linking arms with the quarterback, "Just think of it as extra Q&A time."
Mike is about to decline again, but Claire shoots him a look that has him muttering out a weak 'okay.'
Claire doesn't smile smugly in satisfaction.
She doesn't smile when Mike and Dean get into a very interesting conversation about expectations, appearances, and happiness.
And she certainly doesn't smile when she hears through the grape vine that Mike dumbed Cecily because he'd rather be with the team's tight end than with hers.
I hope you all enjoyed the story! Again sorry for the use of a slur, it just fit the character and shows why she is trash. Also if you thought positively of the story, please review away. Constructive criticism is appreciated but please send it privately. Hateful comments should be kept to a minimum of negative 5. Thank you, and be on the look-out for more like this!