Author's Note: I would just like to point out that every character I use in this story will be from the show, unless otherwise specified. I just want to be clear that none of these are my OCs, they'll all be characters, even obscure ones, from Supernatural. If I do create an OC for some reason or another, I will be sure to make note of it.
Chapter 2
"Cas, did you finish that essay we were supposed to write for history?" Dean asked as I slid into the passenger seat of his Impala. Charlie and Sam were in the backseat, talking ninety miles a minute about some book they had both been reading. I wondered how Dean could even think with them chattering on like that.
I closed the door and buckled my seatbelt across me. "Yeah. I'm guessing you didn't?"
Dean groaned and laid his head on the steering wheel. "I was hoping someone else would forget too. Ellen's gonna kill me." Ellen Harvelle was the history teacher at the school. Her daughter, Jo, was a freshman this year and her husband, Bobby Singer, used to be good friends with the Winchesters' dad before he went all batshit and started working long hours at the precinct just to avoid being around his kids. Still, they acted like the Winchesters' aunt and uncle, which meant they got to give them a particularly hard time whenever they did something wrong.
It was Bobby who taught Dean how to drive and Ellen who drove Sam to the hospital when his appendix ruptured. It was Ellen who took Charlie to her first comic bookstore and Bobby who bought her her first computer. They've always been really nice to me, too. Though Ellen uses me as an example of a good student whenever she's lecturing Dean about being a bad one, so that's pretty embarrassing. They let us call them by their first names, except when we're in class. Then we have to call her Mrs. Harvelle.
"Maybe she'll give you a break on this one," I said as he put the car in gear and took off toward the school.
"Yeah, right after Sam gets detention for a fight I didn't start," he answered.
That's another thing I love about the Winchesters. You wouldn't know it from how well-mannered Charlie and Sam are most of the time (Well, Sam's well-mannered. Charlie has issues with authority, but the point here is that she doesn't start fights.), but if Dean's in a fight, both will jump in without a moment's hesitation. They're just as protective of Dean as he is of them, though I don't think he realizes it half the time. My brother's not protective of me at all and if he were in a fight, I would probably assume he deserved to get hit.
I shrugged then, because he was probably right. "You've got to start doing your homework."
"I can't focus. It's too boring."
"How about we go to the library after school and study for an hour or two? That ought to help you focus."
"Yes, let's go to the library!" Sam called, his attention honing in on the word library. "Please can we go to the library?"
"I don't remember inviting you," Dean said, smirking at his brother in his rearview mirror. "You're such a nerd."
"He's not the one who stayed up watching X Files last night," Charlie answered, kicking the back of his seat gently. She knew better than to use real force in Deans' baby.
"Hey, that's a good show."
"Not the point."
"Can we come too, Cas?" Sam asked, his voice imploring. "The newest Percy Jackson book just came out and Jo's gonna ruin it for me if I don't get it soon."
"I don't see why not," I answered, trying and failing to hold back a smile.
Dean frowned in his rearview mirror. "Hey, he's not the one driving. He doesn't get to make the rules, I do."
"He already said yes," Charlie shot back, a triumphant smile lighting up her freckled face. "You can't take it back now."
"Ugh, it's too early for this. Fine, we can all go to the library." He threw me a fake glare. "You'll pay for this, Novak."
"Oh, I'm sure I will."
Dean always tried to pretend he wasn't a nerd, but it's a well known fact amongst those who are close to him that he's almost as geeky as Charlie, only less on the technical side of things. Maybe the correct term is nerdy. He won't admit to being able to quote three-fourths of Lord of the Rings, but if you marathon it with him, he'll be right there mouthing the words in between bites of chocolate chip cookie dough.
This is, of course, why the two of us ended up having an argument during second period about what Hogwarts House I was in. We had mostly been having the argument through passed notes and whispers, but resumed it as soon as the bell rang and we were all packing up our stuff.
"I am not in Hufflepuff," I stated loudly. That, of course, got me several strange looks from the rest of the class, who hadn't expected me to loudly declare my House loyalties.
"Are too," Dean smirked, his green eyes twinkling simply because he knew he was irritating me. "Sure as I'm in Gryffindor."
"More like Slytherin," I mumbled, still loud enough for Dean to hear. I swung my backpack over my shoulder as he put a hand over his heart like I had mortally wounded him.
"I am not Slytherin," he responded, once we were out of the classroom door. "I am not a scum-sucking asswipe."
"Not all Slytherin's are bad," Charlie butted in before I could respond. She seemed to appear out of nowhere, her red hair bouncing around her face like she was more than pleased to be walking into the middle of a Harry Potter discussion, which was probably exactly how she was feeling. "Just because we never got to see a good Slytherin doesn't mean they all suck."
"What about Snape?" Jo asked. I hadn't even realized she was there until she spoke, but she and Charlie had been spending more and more time together lately, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Her hair was up in a ponytail and her left ear had at least two more piercings than I remembered it having the last time I saw her. She and Charlie always made an odd pair when they were together. Jo was just as hardcore punk as Charlie was nerdy, but they got along so well that you hardly noticed.
"You're joking, right? Tell me you're joking," Charlie turned on her friend like she had just told her she was thinking about getting a Dark Mark. "Snape is the farthest thing from a good guy. He's an asshat who picks on kids because he's still pissed about being bullied when he was a kid. Yeah, James sucked for picking on him, but Snape was a full grown man by the time Harry and the others came along. He could have acted like one."
Jo raised her hands in surrender. "Yikes. My bad. Carry on."
Charlie turned back toward Dean. "Anyway, you're definitely a Gryffindor."
Dean flashed me with a pleased smirk.
"And I'm a Ravenclaw," I answered. "Not a Hufflepuff."
"While there's nothing wrong with Hufflepuffs, seeing as I'm one, I agree with Cas," Charlie answered. "You're definitely a Ravenclaw."
I shot Dean a smug look of my own and he rolled his eyes playfully. Everyone knew better than to argue with Charlie about her Harry Potter facts. If she said you were in a specific house, you were in that house, no questions asked.
"Yeah, I can see you rocking a blue and silver tie," Jo responded, only half paying attention now that she had her phone out. "It would go great with your eyes."
Charlie looked like she had been betrayed. "It's blue and bronze. God, Jo, how are we even friends?" The two wandered off, ribbing each other about Harry Potter facts until they disappeared into the crowded hallway.
Dean looked up at the clock. "Shit. We've got to get to History or Ellen'll kill us."
He was right, we were going to be late if we didn't get moving.
We slid into our seats a second before the bell rang and I didn't miss Ellen's amused look that she shot toward the both of us, like she was reminding us that she could whip us if she really wanted to. "Alright, everyone, homework on your desks."
Ellen turned around to rummage through her own desk, while I hastily wrote in Dean Winchester on the top of my essay before quickly passing it to him. In this class, he sat one row ahead of me. Ellen figured keeping us from sitting side by side would keep us from talking through class, though it didn't. Him sitting in front of me was just as bad.
"What's this?" he asked, turning as the paper bumped against his cheek.
"Just take it," I hissed while Ellen was still distracted. "You need the grade. Mine can take a bit of a dive."
Dean glanced toward Ellen. "Are you sure?"
"Oh my god, stop being difficult."
Dean spun back around and set the paper on his desk. I fished out my history book and notebook while Ellen went around collecting papers. She stopped when she got to me. "Cas, your homework?"
I sucked in air through my teeth, doing my best to look like I really had forgotten it. "Sorry, Mrs. Harvelle. I completely forgot."
Ellen gave me an irritated look and moved on to Dean's desk. She took one look at his paper and dropped her arms to her sides looking even more irritated. She pursed her lips together and Dean shrunk down in his seat as she turned a glare on the both of us.
"Cas, I know what your handwriting looks like. Or better yet, I know what Dean's looks like. His is barely legible." She added it to the stack of papers in her hand. Snickers went around the room like a wave, but I did my best to ignore it. "This'll be graded as Cas's paper and I'll see both of you in detention. Dean, you should be ashamed of yourself for cheating off your friend's hard work. And Cas, you shouldn't let him."
"He didn't-" I started but Ellen cut me off with a sharp look. Dean sunk down in his desk while Ellen continued around the room.
I waited until she was at the front of the class again before I leaned forward until my face was just behind his head. "Sorry, Dean."
"Dammit, Cas, now everyone thinks I'm using you to cheat," he whispered back without turning around. I spent the rest of the class unable to focus because I was worried that Dean was pissed at me. I had only been trying to help. Dean would never have asked me to do that for him, no matter how dire his grade situation was. He took responsibility for his own messes and now I felt bad for forcing that on him and getting us both in trouble. I should have known not to try to pull that on Ellen, of all people. Any other teacher probably wouldn't have caught on.
Ellen was rambling on about the old Civil War tales and all I could do was stare at the back of Deans head, trying to will him to give me a sign of just how pissed he was. I hated it when Dean got mad at me. I didn't dare pass him any notes. Ellen would murder us if we got two infractions from her on the same day.
So I waited until the bell rang and immediately grabbed Dean's shoulder to get his attention. I started talking even before he turned to look at me. "Dean, I'm so sorry. I'll go tell Ellen it was all me and maybe she'll let you off the hook. She knows you-"
"Woah, calm down, Cas," Dean said, his lips twisting up in that smirk that always made my chest tighten up and made my breath catch. "It's not a big deal. Besides, I'd just have to wait in the parking lot for you to get out. Might as well keep you company."
I felt my whole body relax. He wasn't upset. He threw an arm around me as we made our way into the hallway. "Can't let my guardian angel take the fall by himself just because he was trying to help out his best friend." He grinned at me. "Come on, we'd better find Charlie before lunch so I can give her the keys. Don't want them roasting in the Impala while they wait for us. It'd stink up my baby."
