Chapter 1
Year 9: Arrival.
Lawrence High School. Castiel Novak barely took notice of the fading sign as he incredibly nervously walked up the steps to the front office of his new high school. Pushing open the worn doors, he entered and loped up to the lady at the front desk.
"Uhh… hi. I'm Castiel- Castiel Novak. I'm, new, I understand I was to request assista- ask for help, here?"
The woman glanced up briefly, looked down and sighed. In a monotonous and scripted voice, she said,
"Your class is 9D. Your homeroom teacher is Mr Singer, and your guide and buddy's name is Sam Winchester. Feel free to ask him any questions. Please wait out those doors."
Castiel stood there for a moment, unsure if he had been dismissed. When the lady shuffled her papers across and began to type at her computer, he realised he had been and quickly stumbled out of the doors on the other side of the building. He looked down the hall both ways, searching for any indicator of the person that might be Sam.
It wasn't long before a bright eyed, shaggy haired kid traipsed up to him.
"Hey man! You must be Castiel. Cool name, I'm Sam. I'll be your buddy, which basically means I'll show you around and help you out and stuff. We don't usually have all the buddies and stuff, but someone arriving during the middle of the second semester of the year seems to be a pretty rare occurrence or something. Anyway! I'm Sam. I think I said that. Let's go and find your locker, shall we?"
And with that Sam turned left into the hallway, Castiel following anxiously behind. They reached a musty grey locker, and Sam turned to Castiel once more.
"Hey, so this is your locker, umber 665. Mine's just down there – number 641, the one with the Harry Potter sticker on it. I'm kind of a fan. Your locker's at the end of the year nine ones because you came to this school so late, but that just means you'll be next to the year ten lockers, which isn't really a big deal – "
Castiel saw someone come up behind Sam and ruffle his hair, making Sam whirl around and push the offender away.
"Dean! Stop it, I'm showing Castiel around the school."
"Castiel, ey?" the one apparently named Dean turned to face him.
"You're in the same class as my brother then?"
Castiel somehow managed to stutter out a reply.
"Uh, well, I'm in Sam's class… I infer, uh, guess he's your sibling?"
"Yep, Sammy hear is my baby brother. You definitely seem the type he keeps in company – I'm Dean, I'm in year 10, and my locker is also apparently next to yours."
Sam blanched. "Dean, don't be stupid, your locker's way down the hall!"
Dean gave Sam an impish grin.
"Not anymore. This one's far closer to my homeroom, and it isn't hard to get a girl to swap locker's with you when its number is 666. A scary story or two gets them nice and vulnerable. The way I like them."
"You're a sick jerk."
"You're a wimpy bitch."
Castiel took time away from the brotherly bickering to cast his eyes over the rest of the hall. All the lockers were grey and numbered, with various imperfections and inscriptions covering many of their surfaces. The walls were peppermint green and the floor was a light, mottled grey. Students gathered in groups around different lockers, animatedly chatting and gossiping. Others sorted out books, while others still were being quite… physical.
Castiel blushed and turned back to the conversation, but not before Dean noticed what he'd seen.
"That chick making out with that dude, she's Lucy. She's in year 11, and the first thing you need to know is to not get in her friggen way. Like, not even eye contact. She's hot, but she's like a friggen, I dunno, impala or something."
Sam looked pointedly at Dean.
"An impala is a type of African antelope."
"Well not an impala then! Some type of horned thing though. Like a deer, or devil of elephant. Or something – anyway, the dude she's with is named Nick, I don't even know how he got that gig – she's not even that into him or anything. She keeps flirting with Sammy –"
"She is absolutely not flirting with me Dean. She only talks to me when she has to. Which is barely ever."
"She finds reasons to talk to you! No one wears that low cut a top and that short a skirt and 'accidentally' drops all their books in front of you. Dude, c'mon. Seriously."
"She's like, nearly two years older than me! Why would she – oh man I am so sorry!"
Sam focused his attention back to Castiel.
"I'm sorry Castiel, I'll have to show you around a later, during lunch or something, since my brother is a ginormous jerk ("bitch" Dean mutters under his breath) and the bell's about to ring for homeroom. Just shove your stuff in your locker and grab your books and stuff, the room we're in is pretty far away from here. You can meet some of my friends there though!"
Castiel hastened to sort out his belongings, quickly memorising the code for his locker Sam had given him just then before grabbing his books and walking hurriedly with Sam down the hall as the bell rang.
Author's Note:
Well hello there! Congratulations to you if you managed to make it this far. Uh, this story probably isn't going to be what you'd define as short.
Please review, favourite, follow, whatever else you do on this site if you feel like it. Constructive criticism is entirely welcome, of course. Note that some spelling may be different in this such as 'grey' and 'memorising' as I'm from Australia. Lovely!
-E