Rating: NC-17 (This part: PG-13)
Pairings: Dean/Castiel and mentions of Dean/Lisa, Jo/Garth and Sam/Jess (in this part).
Warnings: Swearing. (For this chapter)
Genre/s: AU, High School - AU
Author's Notes: This is unbeta'd so all mistakes are entirely my own. Thanks for reading, all reviews are much appreciated!

CHAPTER FIVE

The minute Dean's alarm clock went off the next morning, he felt like pushing the 'snooze' button and just ignoring everything. He really didn't want to go into school and face Castiel. But, he knew it was stupid; avoiding school like some stupid girl just because he'd been a little rude to the guy he sat beside in English. Because that's all Castiel was; the guy that Dean sat beside in English. Absolutely nothing more than that.

So, he forced himself out of bed and into the shower. Afterwards, he attempted to calm his nerves by taking a few bites of toast and some coffee. His dad was still passed out on the couch when Dean left the house. That meant he had to give his little brother a ride to school.

"C'mon, Sammy! We're late already!" Dean shouted as he started the Impala's engine.

"Like you care," Sam muttered as he left the house, slinging his bookbag over his shoulder. Something wasn't right with him. He didn't look nearly as chirpy as he normally did this time in the morning. Dean frowned as he watched Sam get into the passenger side and slam the door behind him.

"Dude, careful with my car," Dean growled, reversing carefully out of their driveway before glancing at Sam warily. "Something wrong?" he asked as he took a right turn.

"No," Sam mumbled, turning his head to look out the window with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Dean sighed heavily. Okay, he didn't want to get into talking about each other's feeling either. But, he was worried. Sam wasn't usually this moody. Maybe he fell out with that girl he'd been hanging out with. Hopefully they'd sort things out soon if that was what was wrong with him.

After an awkward drive to school, Sam got out of Dean's car quickly and headed inside. Dean parked his car and took a deep breath before getting out. Seemingly out of nowhere, Jo was by his side.

"I'm still angry with you, Dean," she muttered, walking beside him without looking at him at all.

Dean chuckled softly, rolling his eyes. "Then why are following me?"

"Because," Jo began, dragging out each syllable unnecessarily longer. "No matter how much of a complete and utter dick you are to others around you, I'll always be here to tell you how much of a complete and utter dick you are. I think you really do need me to tell you that every now and then." She patted Dean on the back a few times with a grin on her face as they entered the school and made their way towards their lockers.

"You're like the annoying little sister I never had… or wanted," Dean said with an over-dramatic sigh to which Jo punched him on the arm.

"So, d'you have English today, Smart-ass?" Jo asked just as they arrived at their lockers. She began entering her combination code on her padlock carefully as she glanced at Dean a few times.

Dean sighed, tugging open his locker which really needed a clear-out. How could his locker be so full and messy when they weren't even half-way through the semester yet? "Uhm, yeah. Lesson after lunch," Dean muttered, feeling sick just thinking about it.

Jo must've sensed Dean's anxiety because a minute later she threw a piece of crumpled-up paper at him. "Hey, don't worry. Okay? Everything's gonna be fine," she said with a soft tone in her voice and a warm smile on her face. Dean knew that Jo wasn't good at talking about feelings. That's why they got along so well, because Dean wasn't exactly great about talking about his emotions either. But, he always knew one thing; Jo would always try to comfort him, even if she couldn't get him to talk about things.

Dean shot her a reassuring smile before beginning to rummage through his untidy locker to fish out his Economics and Maths textbooks. Afterwards, he closed over his locker and stuffed the textbooks into his backpack. "I guess I'll see you at lunch then," Dean mumbled.

"Yeah, whatever," Jo said, slinging her backpack over her shoulder and giving Dean a half-hearted salute as she walked away.

As Dean made his way to Economics, he asked himself why he was so freakin' nervous about English. He'd been sitting beside Castiel for the past month in English and last year he'd sat beside him in Science. Not once had either of them spoke to the other. So, why was it so nerve-wracking for Dean? Was it because Dean knew who Castiel… or Jimmy or whatever really was now? Was it because Dean was feeling guilty about what happened on Friday night? Or was it because he was internally freaking-out over the fact that he found Castiel (or Jimmy, or whatever) strangely attractive?

As with every time that he was anxiously waiting for something that he didn't want to do, time seemed to fly by. Dean found himself wishing, for the first time ever, that his Maths lesson was just a little bit longer when the bell rang signalling the start of lunchtime. It sounded more like a warning bell to Dean. Warning that it was getting closer and closer to the time that he'd have to face Castiel and see those big blue eyes yet again. His stomach swirled with nausea at the thought.

When he got to his usual lunch table in the cafeteria, there were a few more new faces crowded round the table. The first one he recognized as Cassie from his religious studies class. She was sat beside an excited looking Lisa. Beside Jo were Anna and Pamela as usual. At the other side of the table sat Adam, Ash and a girl with fiery ginger hair and large, black-framed glasses.

"Hey, guys," Dean said as he took a seat beside this new girl he'd never met before who shot him a timid smile and went back to gazing down at her phone. The rest of the table acknowledged him like they usually did with Ash giving him a fist-bump.

"Hi, Dean," Lisa replied, giving him that dazzling smile and twirling a strand of her long, dark hair between her fingers. "I had fun on Friday." She grazed her teeth over her bottom lip and winked at him flirtatiously to which he grinned and chuckled.

"So did I," he said before digging in to his burger. He knew she wanted some kind of 'we should do it again sometime' promise. He could tell by the way her shoulders slumped slightly and her face didn't look as excited anymore. But, Dean just wasn't that type of guy. Yeah, he thought Lisa was cute and all, but Dean Winchester did not do dating. He had tried that once a long time ago and it didn't work out at all. It left him miserable and humiliated. No way was he going through all that again.

"Oh, by the way," Jo began, pausing to take a sip of her coke before setting it down and continuing, "Dean, this is Charlie. Charlie, this is Dean." Jo gestured toward the unfamiliar red-head and Dean held out his hand for her. After an awkward handshake, Charlie began to blush slightly.

"I know who he is," she muttered, lowering her head a little as if she didn't mean to say that. "I mean… hi!" she chirped with a nervous chuckle.

"What did you mean? How did you know who I am?" Dean asked, not accusingly, just curiously. "Please tell me you're not some kind of stalker." He took a large bite of his burger, gazing over at Charlie who was now fiddling with her phone anxiously.

"No, of course not. I'm just a good... hacker," she mumbled, smiling awkwardly at Dean.

"Good? No, Dean. She's very good," Jo interrupted. "Last year I needed some dirt on that jerk Garth after he threatened to post those embarrassing pictures of me drunk onto Facebook if I didn't go on a date with him. Two hours. It took her just two hours to get me a lifetime worth of black-mail material on that guy. Let's just say, he deleted the photos right away." Jo chuckled to herself victoriously before turning her attention to Pamela who had just spotted a hot guy across the cafeteria.

Dean laughed, turning to look back at Charlie who was still working on her phone. "So, you can get info on anyone?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink and trying not to look too interested. Which he totally was.

Charlie shrugged and looked up at Dean as her glasses perched low on her nose. "Well, I've never failed. So, that must be a good sign," she chuckled and then furrowed her eyebrows slightly. "Why? Who do you need dirt on?"

Dean thought silently for a while. Would it be bad to ask her for info on Castiel? It wasn't like he was going to turn out to have a big secret life or anything. The guy seemed pretty cookie-cutter clean. "Not dirt," Dean replied, leaning closer and lowering his voice slightly. "I just need basic info on someone."

"Who?" Charlie repeated, her attention now fully on Dean.

"A guy called Castiel Novak," he whispered. "He's in my English cla—"

"What?" Anna interrupted, glaring at Dean with a suspicious look on her face. "Why do you need information on my brother?"

Dean felt his heart leap into his throat and he cleared his throat, leaning away from Charlie. Damn it, he had no idea that Anna was Castiel's sister. He shrugged, putting on his best uninterested smirk and keeping his cool. "I-I don't. It's just… a friend of mine has a huge crush on him." He could hear Jo laughing softly at his answer and promptly kicked her leg underneath the table.

Anna nodded slowly, rolling her eyes. "Why can't she just go up and get to know him or something?"

"Things are kinda… complicated between them right now," Dean replied, finishing off his burger with a frown. Truer words had never passed his lips. Things were complicated between him and Castiel. Maybe he should just man-up and go speak to him. But, the nervous nausea in his stomach and the thoughts of things that could go wrong in his head prevented him from doing so.

"I can get you the information by the end of the day," Charlie said, not looking up from her phone.

Dean wiped his hands on his jacket and shot Charlie a grateful smile. "Thanks. How much do I owe you?" he asked, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket.

Charlie glanced up immediately and shook her head. "No, I don't charge," she laughed. "I do, however, request that you tell me exactly how you use the information. But, we can talk about that later."

The bell rang a few minutes later and Dean groaned exasperatedly. Jo shot him a warm smile before they all made their separate ways towards the first of their afternoon classes. Dean contemplated skipping English and hanging out in the school library or something. Though that would be the easy way out and Dean wasn't that type of guy. So, as much as he really didn't want to, Dean trudged to his locker and pulled out his English and Geography textbooks before making his way slowly towards his English classroom.

When he got there, most of the class were already in their seats including Castiel. He sighed wearily and slumped down onto the chair beside the mussed haired boy who barely even acknowledged him. After taking his notebook, pen and textbook out of his backpack, Dean threw it to his feet and settled back in his chair waiting for Mr. Shurley to start the lesson. Dean didn't dare to look at Castiel. He didn't want to see those eyes and that hair and those lips and—

"Good afternoon, class," Mr. Shurley said and Dean fixed his gaze on the tired looking teacher for the first half of the lesson, just barely getting some notes jotted down.

"So, your first project of the semester is based around poetry," Mr. Shurley said, writing some authors' names down on the board. "I will put you all into pairs and you must write a poem together on the topic I assign you both."

Dean could feel his heart-rate pick up in his chest and he was silently pleading for Mr. Shurley to pair him up with anyone but Castiel. Please not him, Please not him, Please not him. "James Novak, you're paired with Dean." Dean could hear some people snickering around the classroom and he rolled his eyes, burying his face in his hands. Apparently, Castiel (or James) wasn't too happy about this either judging by the way Dean could hear him sighing.

As Mr. Shurley continued to call out the pairs, Dean lifted his head and turned to face Castiel, picking up the courage to say, "Thought you said your name was 'Castiel'."

Castiel gazed at him for a few silent seconds, head tilted to the side slightly. "Forgive me, my full name is James Castiel Novak. I usually go by 'James' or 'Jimmy'. I reserve the name 'Castiel' for people whom I assume are worth getting to know." He then paused, a frown forming on his lips. "Please just call me James," he muttered, turning to face the front of the classroom again.

Dean felt his heart wrench painfully in his chest with guilt, hurt and slight embarrassment. He knew that the way Castiel… James was treating him was directly because of what happened on Friday night. Rendered temporarily mute by Castiel's words, Dean spent the rest of the lesson worrying about how the hell they were going to get along long enough to get this stupid poetry project done.

At the end of the lesson, Dean began putting his books away into his backpack before turning to look at Castiel who was doing the same. "So, how are we gonna do this?" Dean asked, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

"Huh?" Cas asked, looking like he'd just shaken himself out of a world of his own.

"The project," Dean reminded him, holding back an annoyed sigh.

"Oh, yes. Well, if you prefer me to do it and put your name on it too, I can do that," Castiel suggested, voice slightly cold as he began making his way out of the classroom making no move to wait for Dean.

"What? No, of course not," Dean said, walking after him. "How about library after school tomorrow?"

"Whatever," Castiel muttered, still walking far ahead of Dean as the corridor filled with students. Dean soon lost him in the crowd of teenagers making their way towards their last class of the day.

At the end of the school day, Dean made his way toward his locker. He was still thinking about how he was paired up with Castiel of all people to do a freakin' English project. Fuck his life and his stupid bad luck. When he got to his locker, Charlie was leaning against it with a grin on her face and a folder in her hands.

"Here's the basic info you asked for," she said, reaching out the dark purple folder for him. Dean tried to take it but she pulled it away again with a chuckle. "You've gotta tell me why you needed this."

Dean sighed, rolling his eyes. "Like I told Anna; a friend of mine has a massive crush on the guy. She's a bit shy though," he lied, trying to grab the folder.

"That's cute," Charlie replied with a knowing smirk. She then finally handed him the folder. "Good luck." She then gave him a Vulcan salute and began making her way towards the exit.

Dean took a deep breath, staring down at the purple folder he now held in his hands. It had the words 'James Castiel Novak' written on the front in black, permanent marker ink. He knew that this was nothing more than basic information on Castiel. But, somehow, he felt as though by reading this he was violating the guy's privacy. It couldn't be that bad, right? With a sigh, Dean stuffed the folder into his backpack and opened his locker.

When he was making his way towards his car, he saw Sam leaning against it, waiting for him. He still had that look on his face from this morning that screamed 'I don't want to talk to you'. Dean got into the driver's seat in silence and Sam climbed into the passenger side. The kid had to crouch over slightly just to fit inside. He was a giant and it made Dean feel as though he was the youngest.

"Stop growing, dude," he joked, starting the engine.

"I will, once you start growing," Sam retorted, a grin finally spreading across his face. Dean hoped that it would stay that way. He still wondered what had got his little brother's boxers in a twist this morning, though he pushed it to the back of his mind. Dean had way more pressing matters at hand right now.