(A/N: Originally prompt by wonder-whovian on Tumblr, I decided to give this Destiel Marching Band AU a shot. Being in marching band myself, writing this has been fun :)
I didn't follow the original prompt exactly, and the band in this story is modeled after my school's band, although the band in this story will be much smaller, about a class B or C. Also, many of you may come across band terms in this story that you won't be familiar with. If you don't know what they mean, ask me in a review, and I'll explain it the best I can. Or you can try googling it, but it'd be better to get an explanation from someone who is in band. I would try and explain them all within the story, but there'll be a lot of them, and it'll be a hassle to keep adding definitions in parenthesis in the story, and will just take away from the plot.
Anyway, hope you enjoy, please leave a review to let me know!)
Dean Winchester scowled as he walked over to the band room, the earlier conversation with his counselor fresh in his memory.
"Look, your grades are fine. But you need to have at least one extracurricular if you want to graduate. Unfortunately, there's only one group that still has spots available, the marching band, everything else is full. Go to the band director's office next to the band room and talk to him about joining."
Mrs. Ellen Harvelle (or Ellen as Dean knew her, since she and her daughter Jo had been close family friends for years), had tried to reassure Dean that the marching band was an excellent program, and that he would have lots of fun. Dean scoffed to himself at that thought. Kids who were in the band were nothing but nerds, dorks, and social outcasts. There was no way he'd ever have any kind of fun with them.
Dean knocked twice on the director's door, and stood there waiting for about half a minute before it opened, revealing a middle aged african-american man who glared down at him.
"Um," Dean began, feeling a little intimidated under the director's stern gaze, "I'm Dean Winchester, and I was sent here by the counselor to see about joining the marching band."
"Is that so?" the director- Rufus Turner as Ellen had informed Dean- said, and his glare softened slightly, "well, step on in, Winchester, and we'll discuss it. Do you a preference on what instrument you want to play?"
Dean shook his head as he walked into the office, and sat down in the chair Mr. Turner offered to him.
"Not really, but I guess percussion would be cool," he said. If he played percussion, then he could at least hold on to some of his dignity, since percussionists were cool. Plus, who wouldn't love to be able to hit stuff with a stick?
"Percussion? Well, looks like it's your lucky day, one of our cymbals quit a week ago, you can fill their hole," Mr. Turner told him, and Dean nodded in response.
With that, Mr. Turner gave Dean an information booklet and practice schedule, and dismissed him.
"What took you so long?" Dean's little brother Sam asked when Dean pulled into the parking lot at the middle school, where Sam went, being in seventh grade.
"Nothing really, just had to go to the band director's office," Dean replied.
Sam paused, looking at Dean like he suddenly grew a third eye.
"Why were you at the band director's office? If I recall, you said you'd rather go to hell than associate with the nerds from band," Sam said, eyebrows raised suspiciously.
"Yeah, well," Dean began, " Ellen said that I needed an extracurricular or else I can't graduate, and every group is full, except for the marching band."
Sam began laughing, and Dean glared at him.
"Oh shut up, Sammy! I didn't have a choice ok?"
"No way, this is too funny! Mr-popular-tough-guy has to join the 'supreme cult of nerds'!" Sam taunted, still laughing.
Dean rolled his eyes, and started the car.
"Whatever, let's go. I need a burger."
The first day of band came faster than Dean would've preferred. But here it was, the beginning of the end of his social life and freedom. Who in their right mind would actually wake up early and go back to school during summer break anyway? Whoever came up with the idea of having a 'band camp' over the last month of summer vacation must've been insane.
'Whatever, it's just a few weeks,' Dean thought to himself as he drove up to the school, 'and then it'll be over and life will be back to the way it was.'
If only he knew how wrong he was.
Dean got to the school, parked, and walked into the building. When he entered the band room, he saw Mr. Turner waiting for him, with two other kids, a girl and a boy, who looked about his age.
"Winchester, good to see you here. Sorry about asking you to come early, but since you haven't been in the band before I thought it'd be a good idea to have someone show you the ropes," Mr. Turner said, and then gestured to the other two students, "this is Charlie Bradbury, band president, and Castiel Novak, band secretary. They volunteered to show you around and answer any questions you have. Bradbury, Novak, I'm leaving Winchester under your care."
Mr. Turner walked out of the band room, leaving Dean with Charlie and Castiel.
"Um," started Dean, after several seconds of awkward silence, "hi, I'm Dean, nice to meet you, and stuff…"
The girl spoke up first, "Hi Dean! I'm Charlie, and like Mr. Turner said, I'm the band prez, as well as the Trumpet section leader."
Charlie was several inches shorter than Dean, had traffic-cone orange hair, and was wearing a t-shirt that said 'gay-mer' with a pixelated rainbow above the letters.
"And this is Castiel," she continued, gesturing to the boy beside her, "clarinet section leader and our esteemed secretary. He's in charge of taking attendance at the beginning of each rehearsal."
Castiel, who had been looking away, turned to face Dean. He had dark, messy hair, and was wearing a dark blue sweater vest over a white dress shirt. Beneath messy bangs were the bluest eyes Dean had ever seen, they were captivating, making his breath catch in his throat and his heart skip a beat.
"Hello Dean," Castiel said politely, nodding in acknowledgement. His voice was surprisingly low for his appearance, and had almost a gravelly edge to it.
Charlie rolled at Castiel's short response and lack of charisma.
"Sorry, Castiel is kinda super shy. He usually keeps to himself, so he's not great at socialising," she said to Dean, but he wasn't really listening. He was still staring at Castiel, as if in a trance. Charlie waved her hand in front of Dean's face, which snapped his attention back to earth.
"Well," Charlie continued, "enough with the introductions, let's get to the grand tour! C'mon Castiel, let's go!"
Charlie led the way, Dean right behind her, and Castiel slowly taking the rear, catching up only when Charlie reached back and dragged him forward by the arm.
The tour lasted about 10-15 minutes. Charlie did most of the talking, but occasionally asked Castiel something to include him in the conversation. They showed Dean where the instrument locker rooms, percussion room (which he would be using a lot), and the vestibules (small rooms that had practice rooms connected to them) all were. Dean also met several other band officers and leaders as they came in to get everything ready for the rest of the band members when they arrived later.
There was Gilda Faeren (vice-president, flute section leader, and Charlie's girlfriend), Bela Talbot (treasurer, alto saxophone section leader), Balthazar Talbot (brass representative, trombone section leader, and Castiel's friend), Anna Milton (pit percussion section leader/head marimba, and Castiel's cousin), and they also saw Jo Harvelle (Guard Captain), whom Dean had already known for a long time.
When the tour finished, Charlie ran off, saying something about an important task she had to take care of, leaving Dean alone with Castiel. After a long period of awkward silence, Dean decided to start up a conversation and break the tension.
"So, your name is Castiel? That's an unusual name," he said.
"It's the angel of Thursday. My family is pretty religious, we're all named after angels. I recieved my name because I was born on a Thursday. I also have three brothers who are named Michael, Lucifer and Gabriel," Castiel replied.
"Lucifer?" Dean asked, shocked, "who names their kid Lucifer?"
"His birthday is October 31st. My mother jokes that his name fits him, since he has a habit of getting into trouble. But he's not the only one, Gabriel likes to mess around just as much. It's kind of surprising they haven't gotten kicked out of college yet, but they do well academically so I suppose that is their saving grace," Castiel continued, before suddenly looking away, cheeks flushed, seemingly embarrassed about talking so much, "anyway, you're not the first person to think my name is weird, everyone does."
Dean chuckled, "Nah, I like it. Sounds cool."
"Really? Everyone says it sounds like a girl's name. I get teased about it all the time, as well as for other things about me," Castiel said quietly.
"Doesn't sound girly to me," Dean replied, shrugging. He was a little shocked that kids could be that cruel. Sure, some of his friends messed around with other students, and he admitted that he wouldn't choose to hang around the nerdy kids, but he wouldn't stoop so low as to tease or bully them.
"Hey, how about I call you Cas? That sounds a little more masculine than Castiel," Dean suggested.
Castiel stared at him, surprised.
"Nicknames are something that are used between people who are friends," he said, expression changing from surprise to confusion.
"Well, then I guess that makes us friends, wouldn't it, Cas?" Dean said, grinning and giving him a playful wink.
Cas blushed a little.
"We are?" he asked Dean, now looking hopeful.
"Sure why not? I'm gonna need a few friendly faces to look forward to if I'm gonna do this band thing," Dean responded.
"Friends," Cas repeated, and broke into a full smile that made Dean's heart melt a little, "we are friends."
Dean chuckled again, "yeah, friends."
(Woohoo! First chapter done! Hope you liked it!
Now I'll try to update this story as quick as I can, but like I've said, I have a pretty busy life. School is almost out though, and hopefully I can have more time to write and type and update quicker.
Please review, it makes me so happy to get reviews, you have no idea.
Also, I welcome constructive criticism, if you see any errors, let me know, I'll fix it soon as I can.
~megaotaku98)