Hi! I've procrastinated with this story for a while, but since people seemed to enjoy my oneshot "Hidden", I decided to give a longer story a go. I haven't been properly caught up with Supernatural since like mid season 7, so I hope I grip the characters without seeming totally ooc. I hate when that happens! Anyways, please review and let me know what you think!
TRIGGERING SUBJECTS: homophobia, drug abuse, smoking, drinking and a lot of other things but my head hurts right now.
ps, the mother Lori is not related to the character in any way. That was simply a mistake from my side. I also have things planned out for Michael as well, so don't worry :) and yes, I literally experienced hell finding all this country music, consider it research.
Lawrence, Kansas 1998.
"Boys, what do you call a homosexual dentist?"
And there it was. After a six hour long ride of nothing else but the sound of country music, their father Wade muted the radio and looked into the mirror so he could see his three sons. Cas knew that whatever the answer was, it was certainly not something he would enjoy himself.
"A tooth fairy?" Gabriel proposes without further enthusiasm or actual engagement. Balthazar just looks at Cas and gives him the 'dad's not funny'- look, the thing is that Cas isn't sure what he thinks about all those jokes. He knows it's the 90's, but come on. Some of them were rothless, and made Cas wonder what would happen if one of his brothers actually turned out to be homosexual. Would Wade throw them out on the street?
"Wade, please." his mother finally says to cut him off. But their father just keeps laughing and turns up the radio. They're playing a Johnny Cash song. After this endless drive Cas decides he hates the countryside. He hates Lawrence in Kansas and he hates hay and everything in Lawrence, Kansas. He wants to go home to New York, the city that never sleeps. He wants to be with his two best friends, Anna and Meg. He doesn't want to be in a boring small town, that's not where he belongs; what would a king be without his empire? but his father decided to do the thing. He decided to do the bad thing right when there was hope and chances for Cas to finally be satisfied. Instead he was ripped away from the map by his parents who wanted to find their love in the town they once were young children without any hope or aspiration, just each other.
"Is this the place?" Cas opens his eyes. He didn't realise he'd fallen asleep. Balthazar seems dissapointed. The thing about the Novak brothers, Gabriel and Cas followed a lead. Balthazar was the perfect leader since he was the only one whose ever dared standing up against their Nazi-Homophobic-Racist-Sexist-Alcoholic-Asshole of a father. Not even their mother Lori had once said a bad thing about him. Cas rembered when they had found her crying after the bad thing had happend, and Gabriel had asked why she loved him and Lori had replied; "He wasn't always like this."
But now Castiel thinks about it, he knows she was wrong. Evil always breeds more evil, and if that was so, his father had been burdened with his wicked ways for a very, very long time.
"Yes." Wade says. "What do you boys think?"
Gabriel squinted. "I think it looks like a freaking stable."
Balthazar rolled his eyes.
"That's a stable, that's the house. Use your eyes, scrub."
"Balthazar! be nice to your little brother!"
This time, they both rolled their eyes and looked at each other in complete understanding.
"Alrighty boys, who wants to help dad get the bags out of the car?"
Castiel had picked the quietest room in the house. It was on the top floor, where he was accompanied by nothing else then a bathroom and an empty room, perfect for a library or a safe haven, where he could just be by himself and read or sketch. Before he conqured the room he made his family swear they wouldn't go onto that floor, ever. They all agreed. It was all his.
Cas threw himself on the matress he had to call bed until the furnitures arrived and looked up at the ceiling.
"New school, new town. Can it be any worse?" he asked the roof. "Do yo think the guys in school will be nice to me?"
The roof was silent.
"Yeah," Cas said, yawning. "Me too."
He woke by the loud sound of banging on the door.
"Cas, you're gonna be late. First day in school, yeah?" Gabriel's voice slowly fades as Cas opens his eyes. He fell asleep in his clothes.
He jumps out of bed and walks forward to his bag. He takes out an outwashed t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He walks to the door.
Gabriel's already gone and Cas is kinda grateful for that. He makes his way into the bathroom to brush his teeths. He stops and looks himself in the mirror.
"It's okay Cas." he tells himself. "You look fine."
Downstairs Balthazar is already gone and his mother is drinking applejuice by the fridge.
"Your father went jobhunting this morning." she explained as if Cas and Gabriel really cared.
"You'll be riding with me to school, yeah?" Gabriel asked and was already halfway up from his chair with a toast hanging from his mouth.
"You're disgusting." Cas confirmed.
Gabriel bowed. "I do try my best, little brother."
Gabriel Novak drove a red Sierra Marks and the station was playing Walking to Jerusalem by Tracy Byrd. Gabriel was upset.
"They're always playing this stupid song whenever I turn on the radio," he muttered. "Like, alright, I am named after someone from the bible. Can we let it go now?"
Cas didn't really pay attention to him, because he was always saying stupid things like that. But that's what Cas admired in his brothers; free will. Maybe one day he's find some too.
The school was huge. And Cas had already gone to three different classrooms without a single one being "Algebra 291 with Mr Stevenson."
He was exhausted so he took the schedule out of his pocket again and looked at it like the numbers would change. But no. All that it said was "Algebra 291 with Mr Stevenson."
"Hey, you lost or something?" Cas almost dropped the schedule in pure horror. He'd been startled by the voice, since he'd been convinced he was by himself.
But no.
When he looked up he looked straight into the eyes of a green-eyed, leather-jacket all-but-rednecked guy. He was actually pretty hot. That would say if you were a girl and into that sort of stuff.
"Do you know where I can find Mr Stevensons Algebra 291?"
Leather-jacket smiled. "Sure. Have I seen you around before?"
"I don't think so, no." Cas kindly replied though his on-going inner monolouge telling him this was either a terrible idea or an absolutely wonderful one.
"I am Cas." he said.
"Dean." Leather-jacket introduced himself. "Where you from, Cas?"
"Richmond."
Dean raised an eyebrow. "Where is that?"
"New York."
"What's a city boy doing on the countryside?" Dean insists.
Cas is silent. What to reply? tell Dean the truth and let him know his entire family story? Cas wasn't very good at making friends but he didn't want to scare Dean away either.
"My mom's an artist and she needed inspiration." he quickly lied. It was true though; his mother was really a painter and that's where he'd gotten his interest on in the first place. But the rest was a complete lie.
"An artist, uh? Someone I've heard of?"
Cas shrugged. "Not very likely. She had an art gallery back in NY, but that's about it."
"Well, Cas. Look's like you're running late for Algebra. Be lucky it's your first day. Mr Stevenson is a killer, and not just with numbers."
By lunchtime Cas slowly started to understand that the person who'd spoken to him just so happend to be the self-proclaimed bad boy of Lawrence High.
Other than that, he had made a few friends during the day. Becky, a really optimistic science nerd, and Chuck, her annoying Mr-Know-It-All boyfriend who liked to refer to himself as 'struggling novelist' although Cas knew Chuck was the kind of guy who listened to Bonnie Tyler and wrote depressing poems. Cas followed them to the cafeteria simply because they were the only two people he actually had gotten to know a little and that actually seemed to consider him a friend back.
"Hey guys!" Becky stopped by a table close to the window. "This is Castiel. He just moved here."
Cas nervously sat down next to Chuck and some other guy.
"Andy Gallagher." he introduced himself. The other people sitting around the table quickly followed his lead and Cas got really confused by all the names.
Lisa. Cassie. Jo. Samandriel.
"Or as we like to call him, 'Annoying Guy Number Two." Chuck interfered.
"Who's Annoying Guy Number One?" Andy asked.
"Funny just you asked me that because..."
Castiel turned to the girls, who was whispering to each other rather than always teasing and making constant fools out of themselves. He had enough of this at home already.
"But I heard it's because he was away on military camp."
"Don't be ignorant. His father was secretly proud of him and just sent him to California or something."
"Who are we talking about?" Cas asked carefully.
Lisa turned to him. "Dean Winchester. He almost killed a guy last year because he threatened his little brother."
"He's a psychopath." Jo agreed.
"Stay away from him." Cassie warned.
On his way to meet up Gabriel, he heard someone calling his name behind him.
"There you are."
Dean Winchester. Psychotic Dean. Almost-Killer Dean. Leather-jacket.
"You were looking for me?" Cas asked surprised. Dean nodded as he gasped for air.
"Man they should really remove a few steps off those freaking stairs."
Cas didn't reply and instead he just looked over to the parking lot. He had no interest in walking home.
"Me and some other guys are going to throw a party Friday night and I thought I might invite you."
Cas tried to get a hold on this conversation. Was Dean Winchester asking him to come to a party?
"Uhm, sure."
"Great." Dean replied.
"My brother's waiting for me. I have to go."
"Fine." Dean said.
"Alright." Cas replied.
"Who was that?" Gabriel asked when they were back in the rusty old pickup again. Cas turned on the radio and the station was playing Little Rock by Collin Raye. For once he didn't mind the terrible tunes at all.
"Just some guy." Cas said.
"It's always just some guy." Gabriel muttered.
Cas pretended not to hear and started to sing along in the song. Maybe he'd never actually love Kansas in the conception 'love', but he could definitely learn how to appericiate it.