Here's my first attempt at a Highschool AU. I hope you guys all like it. The ideas just kind of came to me...
I own nothing but my own characters and all the other rights belong to Supernatural and the other respective companies.
The sound of fists striking flesh rang out across the courtyard. The combatants, a grim looking senior and overly cocky junior, paid almost no attention to the steadily growing crowd around them.
"You'd think they'd wait until after school to do this. First thing in the morning seems a bit ridiculous." I whispered to my best friend Castiel Novak.
"It's just a dominance thing. Winner gets to brag about it all day and nobody fucks with him for the rest of the semester." Cas replied wincing slightly as the senior delivered a particularly painful looking punch directly to the younger boy's jaw.
"Who is that guy anyways?" I nodded in the direction of the older boy.
"Dean Winchester, moved here last week with his brother Sam. Mom's dead, daddy issues, doesn't stay in one place too long, you know the type." Cas had a weird way of finding out everything about anyone he found interesting. As it so happened, I had heard of him before. Sam Winchester, the aforementioned brother, was my new lab partner and had mentioned his brother in passing.
"We should probably head to class before we're late. I'd rather not stick around to see the outcome of this." I tugged on his arm but he was glued to the scene in front of him.
"Dean will win and the other kid will spend the rest of his day in silence nursing a wounded ego and potentially broken jaw."
"Cas?"
"I suspect we'll hear about it more soon enough. A fight like this will spread like wildfire through the school…"
"CAS!"
"What? oh, sorry, Baby. We can leave now." He draped an arm over my shoulder as we headed back into the school. His use of my nickname never failed to make me smile. He himself had come up with it way back in our early teens. My love of Dirty Dancing hadn't gone by unnoticed and now there was hardly a friend of mine who didn't use the moniker. It did tend to lead to a lot of awkward conversations, however, in which I had to explain to people that no, Cas and I weren't dating, and no, I was not an "exotic dancer."
By our luck and overly keen nature, we did make it to our business management class on time and it was twenty minutes into the lecture that Dean sauntered in. I wasn't surprised that a senior was in the class, interest was small so students from all grades were combined into it, but I was surprised that he was in it.
"Ahhh, I'm guessing you're Mr. Winchester, our new student. Glad to see you finally made it to class, I know how hard it is to walk such a long way." Mr. Crowley exclaimed sarcastically, earning snickers from the rest of the class.
"Yeah. Whatever." Dean stared around the classroom looking rather bored.
"Right then, have a seat next to Mr. Novak and Miss Moore in the back. And please take your time, I wouldn't want to rush you." Cas groaned quietly as Dean made a big show of walking slowly down the aisle in Cas and I's direction. He flung his books under his desk, gave me a large, exaggerated wink and leaned back in his chair. This was going to be worse than the time we got seated next to the kid who kept chewing gum with his mouth open. At least that guy ignored us.
"Now onto our group project. I'm going to give each of you an object and you will work in groups to figure out a way to market it. I expect a full report and diagram by Friday." Mr. Crowley said, walking around the room with a box of random items. He handed a running shoe to me, a shamrock hat to Cas, and a pair of sunglasses to Dean. "Now, will be in your group so I expect you to keep him in line."
"Yes, sir." Cas and I said in unison while Dean stuck the sunglasses on his face and propped his legs up on his desk. He stayed like that for most of the class, doodling on a piece of paper and offering an occasional critique. I could see it was wearing on Cas and his jaw tightened with every new comment thrown his way.
"You know, the hat would sell better if you put it on a naked lady." Dean said looking over Cas' shoulder at his work. Cas opened his mouth to say something and I worried that he was finally gonna snap. Thankfully, the bell rang before that happened and I nearly had to run to catch up as he left the room.
"Cocky asshole thinks he's all that." Cas fumed as we walked to gym class.
"Don't let it eat you, he thrives off of the reactions he gets." I said sagely, hoping my Chicken Soup for the Soul advice would sound wise. Cas just shook his head as we parted ways to the locker room. I didn't get a chance to meet up with him again until lunch. We always reconvened at our usual table with the usual group; Our little band of misfits. I never quite understood how we had all become friends, we just sort of gravitated to one another and stuck out the hell hole that was high school together.
"Hiiiii." I said unenthusiastically, taking my usual spot in between Cas and Charlie.
"What's up with you two today? Cas looks like someone stole lunch his money and you look like someone just forced you to watch them eat your childhood pet." Meg Masters said from her seat at the head of the table. Out of everyone who ate lunch with us, it had astounded me the most when Meg had joined our table. A tough girl on the exterior, she didn't look like she belonged with the rest of us. In truth though, she had a strange love of old movies and a unicorn collection so big, she literally had a storage locker to store it all.
"Oh nothing, we were just once again reminded that assholes exist in every corner of the world. Especially if their name is Dean Winchester." I replied, taking a bite of my sandwich.
"You should've seen him in Gym." Kevin Tran said, scarcely looking up from his DS. Genius #1 of our group, Kevin was a sophomore like Cas and I but was mostly enrolled in AP senior classes. He was fun to hang out with but also extremely useful in helping with calculus homework.
"What did he do?" Anna Novak, a freshman and Cas' little sister piped in. A recently diagnosed schizophrenic, she claimed angels talked to her on a daily basis. Her all around sweetness and vulnerability made me feel extra protective over her.
"I got partnered up with him in wrestling and he made damn sure to make it as painful for me as possible. Kept "accidentally" kicking me in the stomach." Cas said pushing his kale salad across his plate with his fork.
"Want me to hack into his police records and create a warrant for his arrest? Manslaughter? Trafficking? Your choice." Charlie Bradbury added in from next to me. Genius #2 of our group, Charlie's favourite thing to do was hacking into any and every website possible. The higher the security, the better as she saw it.
"Thanks for the support but I think I'll just fantasize the many ways he can fall off a cliff." Cas jokingly cast a dreamy look on his face.
"Sounds kinky."
"Meg! Ugh, speak of the devil." Cas jerked his thumb over his shoulder as Dean and his friends took a seat at the table behind ours. I recognized most of the people with him; Benny Lafitte, Sam Winchester, Adam Milligan, Becky Rosen, Ash and Jo Harvelle, Garth Fitzgerald and a girl I only vaguely remembered as Ruby. Overall not a bad group of people but I already felt my respect for them dropping the longer they sat with him.
"Dweeb keeps looking over at us!" Charlie said, shaking her head.
"Probably because literally all of us are staring at him." Kevin pointed out and we all hastily returned our gazes to each other.
"Well at least we only have to deal with him for a year." Meg said leaning back in her chair. We continued our barrage of hate until the bell rang again and we all parted ways. I headed off to Chemistry while Cas went to Religious Studies. I took my usual seat next to Sam and was surprised to see him sporting a rather nasty looking black eye.
"Holy crap! What happened?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. Sam immediately blushed a deep red and I felt bad for pointing it out.
"It's nothing...just some kid thought he was being funny. My brother took care of him, it's no big deal." He smiled slightly at the though and I remembered the guy Dean had been beating up and everything suddenly made sense. Before I could ask him anything else, Ms. Abaddon walked into the room to start class. It actually ended up being a lot of fun partnered up with Sam. We almost blew up a beaker and I spent the rest of the class crying from laughing so hard while he attempted to contain the bright green frothy mess that spilled over the top of it. We both agreed to check the measurements more carefully next time as we went our separate ways at the end of class. I was still wiping tears from my eyes as I put my books away in my locker and waited for Cas. If he had been mad before, he was even worse now. I could almost see the black storm clouds above his head as he slung his bag over his shoulder and we headed outside. We walked in silence for most of the way to his house, I knew he needed to calm down a bit before I could safely ask him anything.
"That assbutt is in my goddamn religion class. The one place I thought I could avoid him!" He fumed finally as we took the back alley shortcut to his house.
"Assbutt? That's a new insult for you. Did he even say anything to you?"
"No...He slept the whole time but that's not the point. The point is he goes around acting like he's run the place, thinking he can just pester anyone he wants. I bet the kid from this morning isn't feeling too hot right now.." I thought about mentioning what Sam had said but realized it probably wouldn't help Cas' mood so I just kept my mouth shut as he unlocked his front door and we walked into his kitchen, depositing our bags on the pile that was already formed in the front entrance.
"Hey kiddos! How was school?" Cas' dad, Chuck, said from the sink where he was washing dishes. Cas' mom had been killed in a car accident when he was a child and I had copious amounts of respect for his dad for managing the household as well as he did.
"Hi Dad!" Both Cas and I replied. Cas and I were both close to each other's sets of parents and they had learned to expect either both of us or neither of us come dinner time. If we weren't at one's house, we were at the other's.
"Can you two set the table, please? Dinner's almost ready and the others should be home soon.." Chuck pointed to the clean stack of plates behind him and Cas grabbed them all while I picked up a handful of cutlery. We went into the dining room where Anna was already seated, doing her homework.
"So, did you beat him up?" Anna said, moving her textbook out of the way so Cas could put a plate down on her placemat.
"Beat who up?" Cas asked doing a quick count of the plates he had already put down.
"Dean Winchester! You were so mad at him I thought you would've thrown in a few punches when you had the chance."
"Please! Dean would probably have kicked Cas' ass in a heart beat." I snorted.
"Who's gonna kick Cas' ass?" Cas' brother Gabriel said from the front entrance.
"I don't really think it's a matter of 'who'. Anyone could kick Cas' ass." His other brother Uriel replied.
"Language, you two! Now wash up for dinner. Where's Michael and Lucifer?" Cas' oldest brothers were both in college.
"I dunno, probably smoking a joint in the alley, they'll be here soon..." Gabe said taking a seat at the table. We were all seated and eating by the time they showed up and I could already sense one of the familiar dinner conversations starting.
"Why are you two so late?" Chuck waved a forkful of chicken in Michael's direction.
"My classes run a bit later this semester." Michael said shrugging as he shoveled potatoes onto his plate.
"Drugs, dad. We were doing copious amounts of drugs." Lucifer said nonchalantly.
"Lucifer Novak! I do not want to here that kind of talk from you in front of your younger siblings."
"Oh c'mon dad, it's not like they're that impressionable."
"I dunno, Cas is apparently going to get his ass kicked in the near future." Gabe added in.
"Really? by who?" Everyone was suddenly zoned in on Cas.
"Dean Winchester!" Anna said loudly.
"Dean Winchester? How'd you find that out, Anna? Did the angels tell you? By the way, ask them what the weather forecast is gonna be like tomorrow, I wanna know if I can wear shorts or not..."
"GABRIEL! Be nice to your sister! I like that name though...I should use it in my next novel...Dean Winchester..." Chuck was an author and a not so successful one at that. He had gained a small cult following though, and it was enough to keep them living comfortably.
"What's your next novel gonna be about?" I asked curiously
"I'm thinking it will involve two brothers who spend their life on the road hunting things and saving people. It'll be their family business."
"Sounds kinda lame, dad. No offense or anything..."
"It's what the people want, Uriel. You laugh but it'll be a hit." The family went back to bickering and Cas and I managed to sneak away from the table with little to no issue. We went to his room and he slammed the door shut behind him before sinking into his bed with a sigh. I giggled and sat on his computer chair, spinning myself around.
"My family is so annoying sometimes..." Cas' voice was muffled by his pillow.
"I think they're great. I love when we eat dinner at your house. My house is so quiet and boring most of the time."
"Really? And that's what I like about it. At least we can hear ourselves think."
"Oh and you're not gonna like this but I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning...I'll be back for lunch but you're gonna have to suffer through Business management on your own." I watched as his face fell. "Sorry, but you'll survive..."
"Ugh! Doubtful! Way to ruin my day, Baby! Quick, turn on gears so I can get my mind off of my death sentence tomorrow." I laughed at his overly dramatic expression and set up his XBox console so we could play some videogames for a while. We only played for a few minutes before Chuck poked his head in and invited us to play a game of Risk which went on until well past 10 pm.
"Well, I should probably head home, I guess." I sighed as Lucifer captured my last piece of land from me.
"Night, Baby! Safe walk home!"
"Dont get hit by a car!"
"Or murdered!"
"Hope you brought your pepper spray!"
"Anna can lend you one of her angels to protect you!"
"Gabe! That's not funny. See you in school tomorrow!" I chuckled and waved to the group before walking to the door. Cas followed me and gave me a big hug before I left.
"You could stay, you know." He said while still holding on to to me.
"I would but I have my dentist appointment tomorrow, remember?" I laughed again as he groaned.
"Right, thanks for reminding me. See you at lunch!" He let go and shut the door behind me as I left. As I headed back into the alley, a sickening feeling entered the pit of my stomach and I wanted nothing more than for Cas to hug me again.
It had been two years, six months, and four days since I had fallen in love with him and I still had no idea how I was going to tell him that.