"Sam, are you even listening to me?" Jessica reached her hand across the table to touch his arm. He jumped in response. "Sam!"

His eyes jerked away from the table across the room. "Sorry, I was just trying to figure out this math problem. Causing me some trouble." He looked back down at his notebook and tried to ignore the warmth in his chest.

Jess could tell that math had been the last thing on her boyfriend's mind, but she let it slide. She had never been the jealous type. "Are you coming to the game tonight or what?" Sam ran his fingers through his hair in an effort to clear his head.

"I don't know, Jess. I've got a lot of homework tonight…"

"Come on, you like soccer!"

That caught his attention. "Wait, you're cheering for the soccer team tonight?"

Jess sighed. "Yes, dummy. This is like the fourth time I've told you." Sam tried his best to hide the smirk he knew passed his lips. He couldn't seem overly excited. He had never wanted to hurt Jess.

"Okay, fine. I will come to the game tonight if I'm done with the homework." Jess squealed with excitement.

"Yay!" She leaned across the table and gave Sam a light peck right as Ed, Harry, and Ash slid in next to them at the table.

"If you two are going to do that all lunch, we should just leave," Ed sneered, shaking his head. "Geez, Sam, just because you're dating a hot cheerleader now doesn't mean you have to rub it in while we're eating."

Sam chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, that would take all the fun out of dating her." Jess giggled a little while Sam tried to hide the truth in his words.

Dean chuckled into his pizza at some stupid joke Christian made. Good God, he hated this table. If he had known joining the soccer team would mean spending all of his extra time with his teammates, he probably wouldn't have tried out. His only real friend in the entire world was Cas, who wasn't on the team and who didn't have this lunch. So he was stuck with these lame ass jocks and their cheerleader girlfriends.

"So Dean," Christian started. Here we go again, Dean thought. "You're a senior, you're our best striker, and you're recently outed. Who are you taking to homecoming?"

Christian, actually everyone he knew, was really uncomfortable with his confession about his sexuality. The only way they knew how to deal was by making jokes.

"Your kid brother. Mark, right?" He was so not in the mood for this today.

"Dude, that's gross. I'm fine with you being gay and all," he lied, Dean noted, "but keep away from my family."

"Whatever. See you guys at the game tonight." He grabbed his backpack from the end of the table and trudged off early to the biology room. Cas had his study period there.

When Dean entered the room, there Cas was, same as always, hunched over his books trying to cram as much knowledge into his brain as he could in ten minutes. Physics test, Dean guessed. "Hey," he said, dropping his book directly on top of Cas's.

His easily disgruntled friend glared up at him. "What are you doing here? Don't you have lunch?"

Dean snorted. "Yeah, well apparently it's pick on the gay guy day, so I ditched." Cas's annoyance abated, and his striking blue eyes fell into sympathy.

"That isn't right," he sighed. "I'm sorry you have to go through that Dean."

He batted away his best friend's tenderness with his hand. "Comes with the territory I guess." He took a seat at the lab table and started hitting his pen against its glassy surface. It was easy to see Cas was aggravated by it, but Cas didn't say anything, so Dean didn't stop. He was so sick of people's crap. He was sick of guys avoiding him, thinking he had a crush on them. Yeah right. He was so out of their league.

Except him. That dorky freshman on the chess team. Every once in a while he would come to a soccer game with his friends. Dean played horribly during those games. He couldn't help it. The kid would throw his head back and laugh at the kid with the mullet. The cackling sound would carry across the whole field and fill Dean's ears until he had no idea what was happening in the world except that boy's laughter. He had never heard a more perfect sound.

Of course, chess boy was dating some pretty blonde cheerleader, and Dean knew he didn't have a chance. He felt like crap every time he remembered that.

"Hey Sam," Cas called across the room, which earned him a few glares from the other kids in the study hall. Dean started; he hadn't even realized he'd been drooling. God, he was such a fourteen year old girl. He looked over at the door to see who Cas was talking to, and his heart just about stopped when he was those familiar brown bangs.

"Hey Castiel. What's going on?"

"Studying for physics. And you?" The boy grinned.

"Early for biology. As usual." He pointed to Dean. "You're Dean Smith, aren't you?"

"Oh, sorry," Cas said. "Yeah, Sam this is my best friend Dean. Dean, this is Sam Winchester. You're in his seat," he pointed out.

Sam reached out his hand with his bright as stars smile. Dean thought he might hurl but stood up as quickly as possible to offer Sam his seat back. "Nice to meet you, Dean. Nah, you can sit there." He sat back down, trying not to gape. "You're on the soccer team, right? Our star forward."

A shock went through Dean's entire body when they clasped hands. He tried to ignore it. "Not even close. You're, uh, Jess's boyfriend, right?"

Sam blushed and nodded. Dean's eyes were lit like candles, and he was struggling to keep eye contact. Even Cas could feel the awkwardness bearing down on them. "Sam comes in early to biology a lot, and his seat is next to mine so we hang out."

"Sorry, I didn't realize." Dean made another attempt to get up, but Sam waved him off. "Are you coming to the soccer game tonight, Sam?" he tried.

"Yeah. Jess kind of begged me to go." Dean nodded. Of course. He'd forgotten the cheerleaders were going to this game. They sat there for what could have been ten minutes, but Dean knew he was exaggerating. Finally, the bell broke the silence.

"Well, see you there, then!" Dean smiled as he pulled Cas out of the room. Cas was grinning at him when he closed the book. "What?"

"I'm fairly certain you have a crush on Sam Winchester." When Dean completely ignored him, Cas's smile stretched from ear to ear. "I know you have a crush on Sam Winchester."

Dean groaned. "Shuddup. I do not." He did. Even halfway down the hall he had butterflies rebelling in his stomach and an uncomfortable warmth around his collar.

"There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, he is attractive. And he's smart. And he's really nice…"

"And he's got a girlfriend, which means I have no chance. Not saying I'm interested, of course." Cas chuckled, so Dean pushed him, making him stumble. "Just go ace your test, dork."