Chapter 1
"No please! I won't try to run again! Please I won't disobey!" The smile that crept onto his face was one only a demon would be able to make. He cocked his head slightly and reached out towards the cheerleader reveling in the way her face contorted up in fear as she tried to flinch away. He chuckled lowly and gently ran his fingers through her hair one last time. He sighed at the softness and shook his head sadly, knowing that this would be the last time he'd ever get to hear her scream. The last time he'd ever get to see her cry. The last time he'd hear her beg, and the last time he'd be able to look into those big beautiful green eyes before the life left them.
"Castiel Novak! You get your butt out of bed before I march in there and drag you out. You're going to be late!" Castiel groaned and turned around in bed before sitting up. He knew his mother would barge in any second if she didn't hear him getting up.
"I'm up, I'm up..." He yawned and sluggishly threw clothes on before heading into the bathroom to brush his teeth. By the time he was finished he knew he only had 25 minutes before school started and he would be officially late to his new school. He dragged himself into the kitchen and looked up through his lashes at his mother and frowned.
"Do I really have to go today? It's a Friday... Let me stay home and help unpack please mom..." Castiel watched as his mother gave him a soft sympathetic smile and brushed his hair back out of his face.
"You know I would love your help, but I don't need a genius right now, the school does." Castiel pouted and sighed dejectedly before nodding.
Evelyn smiled at the crestfallen look on her son's face before straightening up and running her fingers through his hair, "Tell you what..." She patiently waited until she knew she had her son's attention before continuing. "Go to school, try and make some new friends and afterwards when you come home, you and I will drive down and check out that frozen yogurt place. How's that sound?"
She watched as her son, who was as brilliant as her, contemplated over her words before his shoulders dropped hesitantly.
"Mom...what if I let you down? What if I can't make any new friends...You know how hard that is for me...everyone is so intimidated by the 14-year old high school senior that they turn to bullying..."
Castiel bit his lip softly and shivered at the thought of being thrown into another locker or returning home with a bloody nose and torn clothes to see his mother's disappointed face. He was surprised when he looked up and was met with a soft smile and watched as she winked and gave him a hug.
"You could never, in the entire universe, find a way to disappoint me. I just want you to try, besides I have a feeling you'll make some great friends here. A mother knows these things, so just try, can you do that for me?"
Castiel nodded and stood on tip toes to give his mother a soft peck on the cheek before turning and pulling his satchel off of one of the unpacked boxes. "Yeah... I can try but only because you asked me to...not because I want to." He made sure to mumble the last part of his sentence and hid a small smile when his mother didn't acknowledge it.
"Good, that's all I ask. Now get going you only have 15 minutes before the bell rings and you still need to pick up your schedule at the office. Do you remember how to get there?" Evelyn gave a soft laugh at the sight of her child rolling his eyes and mumbling about his eidetic memory.
Castiel spared his mother one last glance before waving and pushing the screen door open, he slowly made his way to the sidewalk where he glanced both ways watching as a few stragglers started speed walking in the direction of the school. With a sigh, Castiel clutched tighter to his book bag and walked down the road he knew he'd have to get used to seeing. By the time Castiel reached the school he only had a little over three minutes left before the first bell rang. He quickly made his way to the administration office where he was met with a mean looking lady.
He was surprised at the bright smile that instantly lit her face as their eyes met, "Well good morning there little guy, did you get lost?" Castiel pouted a bit and bit his lip as his cheeks flushed in embarrassment. He knew he was smaller than the average 14-year-old but he also knew he'd shoot up in a couple of years.
"Um...no ma'am, I um...M-my name is..." Castiel sighed and cleared his throat softly before pushing his hair back from his face, squaring his shoulders, and finally meeting the lady's eyes.
"My name is Castiel Novak, I'm here for my schedule...I was enrolled here yesterday but I'm starting today..." He shifted nervously before letting out the breath he'd been holding while he saw the secretary's face light up in recognition.
"Of course! You're the new genius here, I remember your mother coming in yesterday. She spoke quite fondly of you! Here why don't you come with me to meet your principal and get your schedule." He nodded slowly before walking around the desk to follow after the secretary who was knocking on a blue door. Castiel reached the lady just as the door swung open.
"Good morning Bethany, did you need something?" Castiel looked up to the lady who opened the door just as she motioned them both in and made her way back behind her desk.
"Actually, I'm just here to bring you the new student." Castiel gave a small timid smile to the principal who smiled brightly and extended her hand towards him.
"You must be Castiel Novak; I've been excited to meet you since I overheard your mother yesterday." Castiel bit his lip and fidgeted nervously.
"I...um sorry...I don't mean to seem rude...I just have this thing about touching others... but it's a pleasure to meet you." Castiel gave a small smile and cringed inwardly at the principal's nasally voice as she spoke.
"Of course, of course completely understandable. Well, I would love to continue this conversation however that's the bell and I wouldn't want you winding up even later to class. Here are your classes, we run on an A-day and B-day schedule. Today is an A-day so you will be attending classes 1, 3, and 5 today. Each class is a two-hour class with a 10-minute break after the first one and a 45-minute lunch break after your second one. I will have one of our student office aides show you to your first class." Castiel nodded as he listened attentively while mentally groaning at the length of each class.
"Jason, can you come here for a second." Castiel turned and came face to chest with a taller male who was wearing an AC/DC t-shirt. He slowly met the brightest eyes he'd ever seen and a pearly white smile. He snapped out of his short daydream of said boy, as the principal continued talking. "This is Castiel Novak, I'd like you to show him to his first class and on the way point out a couple of buildings you think he might need to know."
"Yes ma'am, morning Castiel, I'm Jason. Why don't we get going?" Jason quickly spun on his heel and walked down the hall to a door as Castiel thanked the principal for his schedule and ran after the taller boy.
"So who is your first teacher?" Castiel looked down at the small square paper in his hand and groaned.
"Mr. Allen for journalism..." Jason looked over at the short male and raised an eyebrow.
"I know you're new but you shouldn't act that way...Mr. Allen is a great guy, he's an amazing teacher..." Castiel quickly met the other boys' eyes and shook his head.
"No it's not that, it's the class...I um... I don't usually take classes that require me to socialize with others..." Castiel scanned over his schedule again as they walked down a path lined with palm trees and followed along in silence as they made a right turn to pass a couple of buildings.
"Oh okay, well... you'll get used to it eventually, that's the library and the building next to it is the asb building. Hey how old are you anyways?" Jason led them down another path and passed a building with many doors and numbers on them. "This is the place you'll be spending most of your time, the social studies and government classes are the ones you see in front of you, and if you keep going straight you'll see the building that holds all the English classes." Castiel nodded and followed along as Jason went in the opposite direction.
"I'm um... I'm 14...What's that building?" Jason looked over to see where Castiel was pointing.
"Oh that building far off over there is where the art classes are, and the buildings to our left are where the foreign language classes are. Come on, your class is right up ahead." Jason glanced down at the younger boy but made no comment about his age and led him to a small building next to the parking lot.
"This is where the journalism and ASL and EDL classes are held. Come on, this is Allen's class." Castiel gulped loudly, causing Jason to chuckle softly as he knocked on the classroom door and pulled the door open.
"Morning Allen! Hate to interrupt but I brought you the new student...bit on the quiet and shy side but here he is. Got to run, Have fun Castiel!" Jason waved and pushed Castiel into the room before closing the door and walking back towards the office. Castiel bit his lip and flushed brightly at the number of stares that were on him.
"Good morning Castiel, I was just telling everyone about you. I'm sure you'll be a great asset to our class. Why don't you come up here and introduce yourself, I'm Mr. Allen your journalism and homeroom teacher." Castiel looked up and focused solely on his teacher and he slowly made his way to the front of the class willing himself to ignore the 20 or so pairs of eyes on him.
"Dude, you're puny!" Castiel flushed brighter as he reached the front of the class and heard the rest of the students giggle at their classmate's outburst.
"Enough Crowley, let the boy speak." Castiel looked up at the teacher who was standing next to him and gulped at how tall he was, it was slightly unnerving and intimidating.
He cleared his throat softly and forced himself to look over at the class. "I'm Castiel Novak...I uh...I just moved here from Kansas... and before that Las Vegas... and before that um Ohio...we uh we moved around a lot..." Castiel looked down at his hands clenching onto the strap of his bag and wished this introduction was over already. He mentally groaned when his teacher asked if anyone had any questions for him.
"I do, so Castiel right? How old are you? Your kind of a midget..." Castiel looked up and locked eyes with Crowley again as he answered.
"I'm um... I'm 14 years old... I uh... I have an IQ of 187 and I also have an eidetic memory which has helped me get to my senior year fairly quickly and easily... I would have been here earlier but my mother decided to wait a couple of years…" Castiel cringed slightly and took half a step back at the sneer on Crowley's face and flinched slightly when he snorted out a laugh.
"Jesus, not only do you dress and look like a fucking nerd but you actually are. Freak." Castiel felt his cheeks blazing as his gaze fell back down to his hands and wished his hair was long enough to cover his watery eyes.
"Crowley that is enough! Not another word." Crowley rolled his eyes and crossed his arms and was about to open his mouth just as the door opened and someone breezed in.
"Sorry Allen! I didn't hear my alarm go off, I got here as fast as I could." Castiel felt a small jolt and shivered slightly as it traveled down his spine.
"Nice of you to join us Dean, take a seat we were just getting to know our new student." Mr. Allen gave a small smile to his student as he made his way to his desk and looked down at the boy next to him who was now watching said student intensely.
"Sweet, new guy, is that him?" Castiel nodded slightly as he met bright green eyes hinted with humor and kindness.
"Hi...I uh...Nov-stiel...Uh I mean... Cas-ak..." Castiel flushed brightly as the tall male quirked an eyebrow and smiled kindly as he sat down.
"Well uhh...Novstiel it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Castiel... It's uh Castiel Novak, I was going to say Novak but then I ended up changing my mind because it was my last name and I didn't think you needed it so I was going to go and say my first name and it somehow came out as Novstiel... I was then going to fix it and for some reason I figured since I started with my last name the first time I might as well finish telling you it and then I somehow managed Casak... Which is quite-"
"Cas, you're rambling buddy." Dean smiled widely amused and Castiel flushed and returned the smile with one of his own nervously.
"Gay" Crowley fake coughed loudly as the rest of the class erupted once again into giggles. Dean and Castiel both looked down too embarrassed to make any comment.
"Alright, that's enough settle down everyone. Castiel why don't you go take a seat, unfortunately the only one available is next to Crowley..." Castiel watched as his teacher looked down at his seating chart and frowned.
"HELL NO! I am not sitting next to some freaky faggot! He might try to hit on me!" Dean tore his eyes away from his desk in time to see Castiel's watery eyes before the small boy looked down at the ground.
"Crowley shut your fucking trap before I go over there and shut it for you. I swear to God if the next thing that comes out of your mouth is anything but air I will personally send your ass to the hospital. Leave the poor kid alone and stop being an ass. And another thing if it was you and the last girl in the world she would rather die lonely then ever flirt with your ugly mug. So I know without a doubt, Cas over there wouldn't flirt with you either." Dean growled menacingly as the other boy shrank back into his seat and looked up to his teacher.
"Mr. Allen, why don't you switch mine and Crowley's seats that way I can gladly sit next to Cas." Castiel looked up quickly and met his classmates' eyes and kind smile before smiling brightly as well and turned hopeful eyes up to his teacher who nodded and made the seat arrangements.
"Crowley, this is for you. Gather your things and come up here to get this slip." The class watched as the moody teenager grumbled the whole way up to the teacher and grabbed the slip before reading it.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Castiel flinched at the boy's angry tone and took a step back as he quickly marched over to him.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" Castiel squeaked as Crowley grabbed a handful of the front of his vest and yanked him forward as he growled softly.
"Oh you are so lucky you're not alone...this is all your fault and you will pay Castiel Novak...this isn't over...watch your back you freak..."
"Crowley that is enough! You release that young man this instant and go see the principal. The security guard is waiting outside for you, now go!" Castiel glanced back towards the door where sure enough another of his classmates was waving down the school's security guard.
Castiel shut his eyes tightly as he felt Crowley's hold tighten and heard rapid footsteps heading towards them from Dean's direction before he felt himself being shoved into the ground.
"Watch your back Freak." Castiel felt his body trembling slightly as he slowly opened his eyes to see Dean's back in front of him as he stood between himself and Crowley.
"You get the hell out of here on your own two legs or I send you out in a fucking stretcher. Don't you ever lay another finger on him." Castiel flushed brightly as he admired the way Dean's muscles flexed underneath his tight shirt. He looked slightly to the left and noticed the security guard approaching them quickly to presumably drag Crowley away.
Castiel quickly let go of a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and looked up in time to see Dean reach a hand out to help him up. Castiel didn't even hesitate as he quickly took the offered hand and felt himself be yanked up. He stumbled a bit and fell into his classmates' arms and heard a chorus of girls cooing about how cute the two of them looked. His blush darkened to an even deeper shade and heard the rumble of Dean's chuckle. He was surprised to feel himself chuckle softly along with his taller classmate.
Castiel pulled away and smiled up at Dean, "Thank you...for all of that..."
Dean grinned widely and shrugged, " Don't mention it. I have a feeling we're going to make great friends." Castiel watched as Dean extended his hand. This time Castiel hesitated a small bit before quickly taking his hand.
"Let's start over, Dean Winchester. It's a pleasure to meet you Castiel. Would you like to be my friend? Maybe hang out with me and stuff? Wow that sounded way more childish than I expected it to." Castiel was sure he saw Dean's face flush before he schooled his features back to normal.
Castiel smiled and nodded while stifling a sudden urge to giggle like a schoolgirl, "Castiel Novak. Thank you, I'd like that very much."
"Wonderful, now if you two are finished, I'd very much like to get some actual teaching done." Castiel and Dean turned to meet the amused smile of their teacher before hastily making their way to their seats.