This initially started as an RP on Omegle between me and TheMarauderBandit. For reasons, we just kind of stopped writing it together, but I liked where it was going and I decided to continue it myself. In this chapter she is writing Gabe and I'm writing Dean. I marked the place where we stopped going back and forth in the next chapter. The highschool AU and making Gabe sick were all her idea. I really enjoyed her writing and wanted to make sure she got the credit she deserves. That said, enjoy!

It was raining, and there were people crowded everywhere—very literally everywhere. Gabriel couldn't remember a time in his life where he had more desperately wanted to be away from the hallways, be away from the chaos that was only fueling the pounding in his head, fueling the hacking coughs that racked him, and the overall illness that seemed to simply surround him; stumbling a bit, as he shivered, miserably sniffling, and just wishing that he could steal away with a bag of cough drops (cherry-flavored, ideally), and hide somewhere dark and quiet. It wasn't until he'd crashed into someone taller than him (who wasn't, honestly?) that he woke up slightly, stumbling away with an apology, shivering slightly. And it wasn't until then, that he realized it was one of those Winchesters. Fan-freaking-tastic.

"Oh, sorry short-stack. Didn't see you there." said Dean, half turning to face the clearly ailing student whom he had just bumped. "Whoa, hey, you okay?" he asked, slightly startled at Gabriel's paler-than-normal complexion. He seemed to ooze with the familiar and miserable aura of someone who was definitely too sick to be in school.

Pressing a tight arm towards his abdomen, burning with flaring pain and churning slightly, at the contact, he unintentionally stumbled over, crashing into the lockers, as his vision blurred, and his world went spinning wildly, turning and violently twisting around. Clenching his eyes shut, he heaved out cough after cough, rattling in his chest, before he managed to compose himself, drawing a rattled breath. "Obviously," Gabriel muttered quietly, feeling as though he'd just swallowed shards of glass. Pain pulsed in his ears, head throbbing, skull tightening. "No, as a matter of fact, I'm really not."

Dean edged forward hesitantly. He seemed not to know whether to help hold the poor guy up or to just keep back and avoid contamination. "Um, well, did you go to the nurse yet? You look terrible." he remarked, stepping out of the way of a passing group of students to Gabriel's side.

A glare was shot up in his direction, setting his jaw in silent anger, "Thanks, because that's what everyone likes to hear." Moving forward, his shoved past Dean, juggling his books in one arm, while using the sleeve of his jacket (one of many, yet he still managed to shiver slightly) to run over his nose, as he gave a miserable sniffle, keeping his head down. If he could remember correctly, he had his next class with that jerk, but he was slightly hoping Dean wouldn't notice. Of course, in his condition, it couldn't be said that Gabriel was having the best luck of his life.

"Whoa, hey! You're not seriously going to go to class like that, are you?" exclaimed Dean, tagging along after him. "I thought you looked familiar. You're in my math class, right?" he asked, falling into stride alongside Gabriel. "Dude, just do us all a favor and go to the nurse. I'll tell Mr. Hudson why you aren't there if you want. You know, so he doesn't mark you absent."

Another sharp stare, and he narrowed his eyebrows at this guy- he just couldn't mind his own business, could he? No, he had to get on Gabriel's nerves- fantastic. "Listen, I've already drank my weight in medicine, okay, and taken at last two bottles of pills, and yet I'm still not getting better- you think the nurse can help? Yeah, right. Okay. Great. Great plan. I'll just go down to her, tell her I'm feeling sick, and she'll give me more medicine, and then send me back to class." Flinching, as another fit hit him, he shook his head slowly at Dean. "I'm fine," he managed out, between lapses of coughs, which were only, in reality a few minutes apart, wearing at his already exhausted stature.

"Pft- yeah. You look peachy." said Dean sarcastically as they turned down the hallway to the mathematics department. He reflexively put a hand up to Gabriel's back to steady him as his coughing seizure racked his body. Dean gently pushed him to the side of the hall to keep him out of the way of the steady stream of people who would trample him by accident if he stopped for too long. "Look, I know that leaking your germs everywhere is really important to you, but seriously, man, go home. If you sit in class we both know you're going to just be coughing and hacking and sneezing and blowing your nose obnoxiously the whole time. You may as well just leave now and avoid the glares and death threats while you can."

Falling against the wall, he shuddered, shivers rolling down his back, as he huddled over slightly, hugging himself, his sleeves falling over his hands, as he curled inward, teeth chattering- "Look, I dunno if you've noticed, but there's a reason I'm here, honestly, there is- it's not just to piss idiots like you off, as well as everyone else in this building, okay? It's gotta mean something's pretty bad at home when you'd rather nearly collapse in the school hallways than go home to face your parents, or for that matter, your brothers, who are absolute, and utterly terrifying whenever you're not at school." Sure, Dean was being nice to him, but Gabriel wasn't understanding why he /couldn't/ just let it go. "I'll be quiet... promise."

Dean looked skeptical as he approached the classroom door. Just as Gabriel was reaching for the doorknob, Dean pushed him aside and yanked the door open himself, poking just his head inside and using the rest of his body to block the door. "Hey, Mr. Hudson!" said Dean, an obnoxiously fake smile decorating at least half his face. "So listen, Gabe-" he pulled Gabriel by his shirt into the sliver of the doorway "And I were both really excited to learn about..." he squinted at the board "... negative exponents today, but unfortunately he's really sick, so I'm gonna take him home. Okay? Okay. Thanks! Bye." he finished rapidly, slamming the door shut and pulling Gabriel down the now nearly-deserted hallway.

Following the much larger junior down the hall, stumbling and coughing weakly, entire body trembling, his grip on the books falling as he was jolted around by the front of his collar, hair plastered in strands towards his forehead, shining with sweat, as a fever began to grow. Not even having time to turn back for his binder, Gabriel was forced to follow Dean, every movement weighted, every breath forced and strained, so that at the speed they were walking, his lungs burned. "What... the hell... was that?" He managed out, shoving Dean away slightly, as if to say: 'I am capable of walking myself, thanks', though having every intention of running back to grab his books, and hide inside the classroom. "I barely even know you, what the-?"

Dean stopped, looking back at Gabriel, his books scattered on the floor. "Hey, what are you talking about? We know each other!" he said brightly, reaching down to gather up the fallen textbooks and notes. "We've suffered through math together for nearly a semester now! That makes us-" he furrowed his brow in concentration as he struggled to find the words "... math buddies?" he finished lamely, scooping up the books under one arm and grabbing the rest out of Gabriel's hands with the other. "Now come on, let's get you home. You'll thank me later." he said, starting back down the hall.

Trying to keep himself from falling behind, /desperately/ not wanting to go back to math class, but feeling he had no other choice, Gabriel eyed the staircase looming ahead of them warily- it'd been pain enough getting up them this morning, and with his coughs already rattling his lungs, world spinning slightly, he wasn't sure just how long he'd make it. "Taking it a little fast for math buddies, dont'cha think?" Though he was teasing, his voice remained quiet, almost solemn, though there was a flash of arrogance in his eyes. "Usually we go to the other's house at around 'we're-making-a-lame-project-in-science-together stage." Before he could even think to speak again, he struggled to find his feet, stumbling for what seemed like the millionth time, head pounding and throbbing, as he unintentionally sunk to a crouch, shivering, and flinching; it wasn't long, before he was burning with embarrassment, pulling himself up, despite the double vision.

Dean stopped again and turned back, the concern plain on his face for a moment before he replaced it with a practiced half-smirk, trying to appear light-hearted. "Well, desperate times call for desperate measures, right? We can pretend that we're making a project together in science if it'll make you feel more comfortable." he said, backtracking to where Gabriel was now hunched over on the ground. "Speaking of which-" Dean continued, shifting all of Gabriel's schoolwork into one arm and pushing the other under the smaller teen's arms to help him stand up. "You're definitely going to melt into a pathetic, nerdy little puddle if we don't get out of here soon. I can feel that fever from here. Come on, stair-time now." he said, leading Gabe toward the steps.

Swallowing thickly, the mere sting of his throat earning a wince, he attempted at his best to put as little weight on Dean as humanly possible, but even on a good day, Gabriel didn't have terribly good balance, and it was becoming harder and harder to simply focus. Damn it, this school was freezing- or was that just him. Stumbling rapidly down the steps, he gripped tight towards the railing, until they finally reached the bottom level, and he huddled over, subconsciously just drawing his many jackets tight around him; dark, bruise-like shadows that rounded his eyes, exhausted and glazed with his rising fever, were becoming more and more obvious, contrasting sharply with the sickly-grey of his skin, which lost color every time he hacked... which was a lot. "I'm not sure I want to even pretend I'm working on a project with you- I've heard of your grades, Winchester, who's the pathetic one now?"

"Whoa, hey that's getting a little personal, don't you think? And I like that my report cards has... variety. Too much of one letter makes me nervous anyway. I like to mix things up." They stepped over the threshold of the front door and started towards the parking lot. "For once having to take Sammy to debate practice at ungodly early hours in the morning pays off! I parked close today." he said, smiling at the dark vintage impala in the front row.

A small smirk passed over his lips, as he was forced forward, flinching against the crippling light, as the sun beat down on him; a wave of heat passed over, forcing another round of shudders, with spurred a fit of coughs, as well as a few vicious sneezes. Disgruntled at the chain reaction, he only hugged himself, trying to keep it from happening again- which naturally only forced another few shudders, as well as the racking coughs, which just sounded horrid. Yeah, they were bad, but the sound wasn't even half as terrible as how crappy it made him feel. Dragging himself along by the time they made it to the car, he barely had enough energy to fire back, swaying a bit, as he collapsed against the door of the impala, barely catching himself before he could fall. "That's a very creative way of simply saying you're too imbecilic to pass Honors Science and English. If I'm not mistaken, you have more than enough Fs."

"And you know what else is creative, Gabe? The seemingly endless ways that you find to annoy me. Now get in." Dean opened the passenger's side door of the impala and tossed the armload of books haphazardly into the back seat.