p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A/N: To those who don't know, Special Topics was an art class at my high school that was basically an extra mod/period/hour or two in art class. We could make ceramic pieces, draw, paint, whatever as long as you were doing something, our teacher didn't really mind./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Also, Mrs. Leela Wesson is based on the actual teacher that I had (Leslee Smith) and she was the best person/teacher/friend ever-well, as far as school staff can go./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Enjoy./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Xx...xX/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam sat propped up against the wall in the hallway staring at his blank canvas just trying to think of something to paint. He had a palate full of paint of varying colours next to him and not one idea in his head./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"He glanced across the hall at the other boy sitting there already hard at work on his own canvas. The kid had a fierce look of concentration on his face as his hand flew over the canvas. Sam knew him as they shared a number of classes. They had never really talked other than stating simple sentences such as "Dude, I hate the smell of this green" or "Hey, can you toss me that brush?" Other than that, Sam just didn't have the nerve to interrupt Gabriel while he was painting. His name was Gabriel Novak and he almost never went without some sort of candy. At the moment, he had a red dum-dum sucker hanging from his lips. Sam had been crushing Gabriel since the first day he'd started at Lawrence High./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam was so lost in thought, he hadn't realized that he had been staring intently at Gabriel until he cleared his throat./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Problem?" he asked, twirling his dum-dum. Sam blushed deeply./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Uh, sorry," he mumbled. "I was just trying to think of something to paint. I didn't realize I was looking at you."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Eh, it's alright. We both know how good looking I am," Gabriel replied with a wink./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam blushed again./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Just paint something you're interested in," Gabriel said. "That's what I do."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I don't even know what I'm interested in anymore," Sam grumbled to himself./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Well what do you like to do?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I like to read," Sam answered bluntly. "How is one supposed to incorporate that into a painting?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""First you could draw an outline of a book, or a quote from a favourite author or something." Gabriel got to his feet to cross the hall and plop down next to Sam. "You mind?" he asked, motioning to his canvas. Sam handed it over./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Gabriel whipped a pencil seemingly out of nowhere and started sketching a rough outline of what looked like an old, frayed, leather-bound book laying on a tabletop. Sam let out an approving whistle pulling a appreciative blush from Gabriel's cheeks. "Then you could paint in the quote around the table. Maybe the title of the book on the cover."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Huh," Sam grunted, feeling a little jealous that he couldn't come up with this on his own. "Now I feel like I'm plagiarizing ." With a shake of his head and a chuckle, Gabriel handed Sam back his canvas just as the bell rang, signalling time for their next class./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam and Gabriel scooted out of the way of the stampede of students off to their next hours. Sam tried to make himself invisible behind his canvas as students filed past him, leaving and entering the art classes around him. His hiding attempt was useless as he heard, "Hey, brother!"coming from the end of the hall. Sam growled with irritation as his older brother made his way down the corridor to stand over his little brother./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Heya, Sammy," Dean said with a grin./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Go to lunch, Dean," Sam retorted./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Aw, can't I just say 'hi' to my little brother?" Dean chuckled and plopped down onto the floor next to Sam anyways. Gabriel tried to hide his amusement by inspecting his painting./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam looked up as Dean's boyfriend Castiel made his way toward them. He waved the black-haired boy over, hoping that he'd be able to drag the older Winchester away./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Hey, Cassie," Gabriel greeted him. Sam looked at him questioningly, wondering how he would know Castiel well enough to have a pet name for him./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Hello, Gabriel." Castiel greeted him with a little smile. Dean looked just as confused as Sam felt./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""We're brothers," Gabriel explained. "Did you guys not know that?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Nope."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Definitely not."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I thought I told you?" Castiel looked to Dean. "I have several siblings."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I knew about Hannah, Balthazar, and Raphael, but nobody else," Dean said looking at his boyfriend/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Aw, little bro, you didn't tell your beau about me or Luci?" Gabriel asked, feigning hurt./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Castiel shrugged. "I thought he knew."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Gabriel shrugged, "He does now." He went back to his painting, deftly ignoring everyone. Sam followed suit hoping Dean would get to class before he got them all in trouble by being rowdy in the hallway during class. After a moment, Dean and Castiel went into their classroom while talking about Castiel's siblings./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Maybe you should get to class too," Gabriel suggested, looking at his watch. "You still have, like, thirty seconds."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I have this lunch," Sam explained taking up his paint brush. "And I have special topics for the rest of the day anyways."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Yeah? Since when?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Since I don't need any other classes anymore," Sam replied. "I have all the credits I need for this year and I'm not about to take a math class I don't absolutely need to go on to junior year."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Plus, what better teacher could you have to be stuck with for the last four hours of the school day?" Gabriel laughed as he reached over Sam to take one of his smaller brushes and load it with paint./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam stole a glance at Gabriel's painting and had to mentally stop his jaw from dropping. It was incredible. A nighttime scene of a train from way-back-when and it was perfect in every way. The sky looked dark and smoky with a thousand stars that looked to actually be twinkling against the deep blues and purples of the sky. The train was just unbelievable. It had dark smoke billowing from the stack and warm, yellow lights in the windows. The sides of the scarlet locomotive were slightly blurred to show that it was in motion. He vaguely registered with amusement that the side read em"The Hogwarts Express"/em./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""You're making me self conscious," Gabriel said, eyeing his work. "Is it bad?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""What?! No!" Sam exclaimed. "I dig it."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Seriously?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Definitely. Although, I didn't take you to be a Potterhead."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Shut up, Winchester," Gabriel told him, giving him a shove with his elbow./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam turned back to his piece and started dabbing his brush into the paints, mixing the colours until he got what he was looking for and got to work. He wasn't half finished with the tabletop before he heard the jingling keys announcing the arrival of a teacher./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""You boys doing alright out here?" their teacher, Mrs. Wesson, asked from entrance of the hallway leading to her classroom./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Sure thing, Lee-Lee," came Gabriel's joking response. Sam just shook his head at him./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Yes, ma'am."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Gabriel snorted./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I didn't think you two knew each other," she commented./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Well, we haven't really spoken much, but ya know, I thought I'd give the guy a break."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""A break?" Sam retorted./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Yeah; a break. You stared at me for a good six minutes, Sammy."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""It's Sam. I wasn't staring on purpose. I was thinking." He should have known better than to try and reason with the little sweet tooth./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Okay, emSam/em," Gabriel retorted. "Perhaps you were just subconsciously drawn to the lusciousness of my cherry stained lips." Sam blushed and rolled his eyes./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Behave, Mr. Novak," Mrs. Wesson told him before chuckling and heading back to her office. "You boys want anything from Wendy's?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Oh, yeah." Sam dug his wallet from his pocket and handed her a five dollar bill./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""The usual?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam nodded and turned to Gabriel, "You want something?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"His cheeks reddened slightly as he looked at his dirty, faded Chuck Taylor's. He shook his head. Picking up on the reasoning for his discomfort, Sam handed Mrs. Wesson another five./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Make it a double," he said./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Sam you don't have to-" Gabriel started, but Mrs. Wesson was already walking away./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam shook his head, holding up his hand./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Nope. That's payment for sketching out my painting."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Gabriel rolled his eyes and the boys went back to their paintings, with Sam ignoring Gabriel's attempts to try to say that he'd pay him back./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Every now and again Sam would glance over at Gabriel's for some support. The piece was coming together nicely. Sam was jealous. He thought his table was maybe starting to look like real wood, but nowhere near what he wanted. He huffed in frustration./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Cool it, Sammy," Gabriel scolded him. "You just need to put down the lighter brown, then, while it's still wet, streak in the dark."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""It's just aggravating that I can't get it right."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Believe me," Gabriel laughed, "I know how that feels."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam rolled his eyes and they both turned back to their own pieces. They sat in relative silence, the only sounds coming from their brushes being swept across the canvas and Gabriel crunching happily on the remnants of his cherry dum-dum. Sam's elbow would skim across Gabriel's arm as he painted, and damn if he wasn't distracted. He didn't want to scoot away, lest Gabriel get the wrong impression and think that Sam didn't like him. But he also wasn't sure that he did want Gabriel to know how, exactly, Sam liked him just yet./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"As he thought this, Sam could feel Gabriel looking at him. Immediately, Sam felt a blush creep up his neck and over his cheeks and ears. Gabriel chuckled./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""You alright, Sammich?" he asked endearingly. Sam's hand faltered and his blush deepened./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Yeah, I'm good," Sam mumbled in response./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Are you sure?" he laughed, nudging Sam with his elbow./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Mhmm," Sam murmured, "Just trying to get this damn table finished before the day's over."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Well, you've still got three mods left and Mrs. Wesson is back, so you still have time to eat and work some more." Sam and Gabriel stood to help their teacher carry things in. Back in the classroom, Gabriel and Sam went straight into Mrs. Wesson's office with their food, chatting about their pieces, while Mrs. Wesson went into the classroom next door to eat with the other teachers. She often left Sam in charge of the room because she knew that he was mature enough to handle the small responsibility./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"In Sam's eyes, Mrs. Wesson was the best teacher a student could hope for. She was always willing to help out with personal issues as well as tips on your artwork. When Sam came to school the day after his father's latest temper tantrum-that resulted with his older brother Dean storming out and Sam having a fat lip and a black eye-Leela Wesson locked them in her office and let him vent out his anger. She wouldn't even give him trouble for using a colourful vocabulary. To Sam, Mrs. Wesson was the best thing to ever grace Lawrence High School./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""So Sam," Gabriel said as they made themselves comfortable in the tall swivel chairs in the office. "Looks like we're gonna be special topics buddies."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Looks to be that way doesn't it?" Sam laughed as he laid out his lunch on napkins from the bottom of the Wendy's bag./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Gabriel dipped a fry into his chocolate Frosty and went to the back of the office to straighten up the paints. He was like Sam in that he'd always hated when people just threw the bottles haphazardly onto the shelves. He moved the emptier ones to the front so they'd get used up sooner. Assorted the colours according to the rainbow-ROYGBIV. Sam watched bemusedly as he bit into his burger, leaving a piece of shredded lettuce dangling from his lip./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I didn't know Dean-o was your brother, Sam," Gabriel said as he finished up with the paints. "That almost makes us brothers in law."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""No it doesn't," Sam laughed. "If our brothers ever did get married to each other, that would make me Castiel's brother in law, and you would be Dean's brother in law."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Whatever. It's close enough."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam rolled his eyes and took another large bite of his burger./p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Also, Mrs. Leela Wesson is based on the actual teacher that I had (Leslee Smith) and she was the best person/teacher/friend ever-well, as far as school staff can go./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Enjoy./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Xx...xX/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam sat propped up against the wall in the hallway staring at his blank canvas just trying to think of something to paint. He had a palate full of paint of varying colours next to him and not one idea in his head./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"He glanced across the hall at the other boy sitting there already hard at work on his own canvas. The kid had a fierce look of concentration on his face as his hand flew over the canvas. Sam knew him as they shared a number of classes. They had never really talked other than stating simple sentences such as "Dude, I hate the smell of this green" or "Hey, can you toss me that brush?" Other than that, Sam just didn't have the nerve to interrupt Gabriel while he was painting. His name was Gabriel Novak and he almost never went without some sort of candy. At the moment, he had a red dum-dum sucker hanging from his lips. Sam had been crushing Gabriel since the first day he'd started at Lawrence High./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam was so lost in thought, he hadn't realized that he had been staring intently at Gabriel until he cleared his throat./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Problem?" he asked, twirling his dum-dum. Sam blushed deeply./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Uh, sorry," he mumbled. "I was just trying to think of something to paint. I didn't realize I was looking at you."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Eh, it's alright. We both know how good looking I am," Gabriel replied with a wink./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam blushed again./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Just paint something you're interested in," Gabriel said. "That's what I do."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I don't even know what I'm interested in anymore," Sam grumbled to himself./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Well what do you like to do?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I like to read," Sam answered bluntly. "How is one supposed to incorporate that into a painting?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""First you could draw an outline of a book, or a quote from a favourite author or something." Gabriel got to his feet to cross the hall and plop down next to Sam. "You mind?" he asked, motioning to his canvas. Sam handed it over./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Gabriel whipped a pencil seemingly out of nowhere and started sketching a rough outline of what looked like an old, frayed, leather-bound book laying on a tabletop. Sam let out an approving whistle pulling a appreciative blush from Gabriel's cheeks. "Then you could paint in the quote around the table. Maybe the title of the book on the cover."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Huh," Sam grunted, feeling a little jealous that he couldn't come up with this on his own. "Now I feel like I'm plagiarizing ." With a shake of his head and a chuckle, Gabriel handed Sam back his canvas just as the bell rang, signalling time for their next class./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam and Gabriel scooted out of the way of the stampede of students off to their next hours. Sam tried to make himself invisible behind his canvas as students filed past him, leaving and entering the art classes around him. His hiding attempt was useless as he heard, "Hey, brother!"coming from the end of the hall. Sam growled with irritation as his older brother made his way down the corridor to stand over his little brother./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Heya, Sammy," Dean said with a grin./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Go to lunch, Dean," Sam retorted./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Aw, can't I just say 'hi' to my little brother?" Dean chuckled and plopped down onto the floor next to Sam anyways. Gabriel tried to hide his amusement by inspecting his painting./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam looked up as Dean's boyfriend Castiel made his way toward them. He waved the black-haired boy over, hoping that he'd be able to drag the older Winchester away./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Hey, Cassie," Gabriel greeted him. Sam looked at him questioningly, wondering how he would know Castiel well enough to have a pet name for him./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Hello, Gabriel." Castiel greeted him with a little smile. Dean looked just as confused as Sam felt./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""We're brothers," Gabriel explained. "Did you guys not know that?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Nope."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Definitely not."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I thought I told you?" Castiel looked to Dean. "I have several siblings."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I knew about Hannah, Balthazar, and Raphael, but nobody else," Dean said looking at his boyfriend/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Aw, little bro, you didn't tell your beau about me or Luci?" Gabriel asked, feigning hurt./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Castiel shrugged. "I thought he knew."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Gabriel shrugged, "He does now." He went back to his painting, deftly ignoring everyone. Sam followed suit hoping Dean would get to class before he got them all in trouble by being rowdy in the hallway during class. After a moment, Dean and Castiel went into their classroom while talking about Castiel's siblings./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Maybe you should get to class too," Gabriel suggested, looking at his watch. "You still have, like, thirty seconds."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I have this lunch," Sam explained taking up his paint brush. "And I have special topics for the rest of the day anyways."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Yeah? Since when?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Since I don't need any other classes anymore," Sam replied. "I have all the credits I need for this year and I'm not about to take a math class I don't absolutely need to go on to junior year."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Plus, what better teacher could you have to be stuck with for the last four hours of the school day?" Gabriel laughed as he reached over Sam to take one of his smaller brushes and load it with paint./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam stole a glance at Gabriel's painting and had to mentally stop his jaw from dropping. It was incredible. A nighttime scene of a train from way-back-when and it was perfect in every way. The sky looked dark and smoky with a thousand stars that looked to actually be twinkling against the deep blues and purples of the sky. The train was just unbelievable. It had dark smoke billowing from the stack and warm, yellow lights in the windows. The sides of the scarlet locomotive were slightly blurred to show that it was in motion. He vaguely registered with amusement that the side read em"The Hogwarts Express"/em./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""You're making me self conscious," Gabriel said, eyeing his work. "Is it bad?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""What?! No!" Sam exclaimed. "I dig it."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Seriously?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Definitely. Although, I didn't take you to be a Potterhead."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Shut up, Winchester," Gabriel told him, giving him a shove with his elbow./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam turned back to his piece and started dabbing his brush into the paints, mixing the colours until he got what he was looking for and got to work. He wasn't half finished with the tabletop before he heard the jingling keys announcing the arrival of a teacher./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""You boys doing alright out here?" their teacher, Mrs. Wesson, asked from entrance of the hallway leading to her classroom./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Sure thing, Lee-Lee," came Gabriel's joking response. Sam just shook his head at him./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Yes, ma'am."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Gabriel snorted./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I didn't think you two knew each other," she commented./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Well, we haven't really spoken much, but ya know, I thought I'd give the guy a break."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""A break?" Sam retorted./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Yeah; a break. You stared at me for a good six minutes, Sammy."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""It's Sam. I wasn't staring on purpose. I was thinking." He should have known better than to try and reason with the little sweet tooth./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Okay, emSam/em," Gabriel retorted. "Perhaps you were just subconsciously drawn to the lusciousness of my cherry stained lips." Sam blushed and rolled his eyes./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Behave, Mr. Novak," Mrs. Wesson told him before chuckling and heading back to her office. "You boys want anything from Wendy's?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Oh, yeah." Sam dug his wallet from his pocket and handed her a five dollar bill./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""The usual?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam nodded and turned to Gabriel, "You want something?"/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"His cheeks reddened slightly as he looked at his dirty, faded Chuck Taylor's. He shook his head. Picking up on the reasoning for his discomfort, Sam handed Mrs. Wesson another five./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Make it a double," he said./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Sam you don't have to-" Gabriel started, but Mrs. Wesson was already walking away./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam shook his head, holding up his hand./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Nope. That's payment for sketching out my painting."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Gabriel rolled his eyes and the boys went back to their paintings, with Sam ignoring Gabriel's attempts to try to say that he'd pay him back./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Every now and again Sam would glance over at Gabriel's for some support. The piece was coming together nicely. Sam was jealous. He thought his table was maybe starting to look like real wood, but nowhere near what he wanted. He huffed in frustration./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Cool it, Sammy," Gabriel scolded him. "You just need to put down the lighter brown, then, while it's still wet, streak in the dark."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""It's just aggravating that I can't get it right."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Believe me," Gabriel laughed, "I know how that feels."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam rolled his eyes and they both turned back to their own pieces. They sat in relative silence, the only sounds coming from their brushes being swept across the canvas and Gabriel crunching happily on the remnants of his cherry dum-dum. Sam's elbow would skim across Gabriel's arm as he painted, and damn if he wasn't distracted. He didn't want to scoot away, lest Gabriel get the wrong impression and think that Sam didn't like him. But he also wasn't sure that he did want Gabriel to know how, exactly, Sam liked him just yet./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"As he thought this, Sam could feel Gabriel looking at him. Immediately, Sam felt a blush creep up his neck and over his cheeks and ears. Gabriel chuckled./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""You alright, Sammich?" he asked endearingly. Sam's hand faltered and his blush deepened./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Yeah, I'm good," Sam mumbled in response./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Are you sure?" he laughed, nudging Sam with his elbow./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Mhmm," Sam murmured, "Just trying to get this damn table finished before the day's over."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Well, you've still got three mods left and Mrs. Wesson is back, so you still have time to eat and work some more." Sam and Gabriel stood to help their teacher carry things in. Back in the classroom, Gabriel and Sam went straight into Mrs. Wesson's office with their food, chatting about their pieces, while Mrs. Wesson went into the classroom next door to eat with the other teachers. She often left Sam in charge of the room because she knew that he was mature enough to handle the small responsibility./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"In Sam's eyes, Mrs. Wesson was the best teacher a student could hope for. She was always willing to help out with personal issues as well as tips on your artwork. When Sam came to school the day after his father's latest temper tantrum-that resulted with his older brother Dean storming out and Sam having a fat lip and a black eye-Leela Wesson locked them in her office and let him vent out his anger. She wouldn't even give him trouble for using a colourful vocabulary. To Sam, Mrs. Wesson was the best thing to ever grace Lawrence High School./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""So Sam," Gabriel said as they made themselves comfortable in the tall swivel chairs in the office. "Looks like we're gonna be special topics buddies."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Looks to be that way doesn't it?" Sam laughed as he laid out his lunch on napkins from the bottom of the Wendy's bag./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Gabriel dipped a fry into his chocolate Frosty and went to the back of the office to straighten up the paints. He was like Sam in that he'd always hated when people just threw the bottles haphazardly onto the shelves. He moved the emptier ones to the front so they'd get used up sooner. Assorted the colours according to the rainbow-ROYGBIV. Sam watched bemusedly as he bit into his burger, leaving a piece of shredded lettuce dangling from his lip./p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""I didn't know Dean-o was your brother, Sam," Gabriel said as he finished up with the paints. "That almost makes us brothers in law."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""No it doesn't," Sam laughed. "If our brothers ever did get married to each other, that would make me Castiel's brother in law, and you would be Dean's brother in law."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;""Whatever. It's close enough."/p
p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8003997802734px;"Sam rolled his eyes and took another large bite of his burger./p