Late update. Sorry folks!
Summertime was coming to a close, and although autumn was approaching, the weather stayed decidedly warm. Castiel, Dean, and Sam had several more adventures together before school started, including another trip to the library, making microwave s'mores, a few more water balloon fights, and seeing a movie at the movie theater. All good times must come to an end, though. The Friday before school started, Dean asked Castiel how he was going to get to school while they were sitting on the backyard deck eating popsicles.
"Ummm," Cas thought. "I don't really know. I hadn't thought about that."
"Maybe you can carpool with us then!" Dean said, excited. Cas tilted his head, confused at the unfamiliar term. Dean sighed a little bit. "We could drive you to and from school," he explained. Cas' face lit up.
"Oh! Yes, that would be good," he said. "Then we could spend more time together since we're not going to really get as much of a chance anymore."
"You can still come over after school now and then," Dean reassured him. "And on the weekends sometimes too." Cas smiled.
"That would be good," he said again, licking a drip off his popsicle. "I like being at your house, and being with you and Sam. It's where I'm happiest." Dean grinned and slung an arm around his friend's shoulder.
"I'm happy with you too," he said. Cas leaned into Dean, with a small, content smile. Ever since the sleepover, he'd gotten better with physical affection, and now seemed to crave it. Hugging Dean, snuggling with Dean, laying his head on Dean's lap, leaning against Dean, standing right next to Dean, resting his head on Dean's shoulder, and just somehow ending up in Dean's personal bubble were all Cas' new favorite hobbies. Dean didn't mind, of course, and was glad that Cas had gotten so comfortable around him, but he did have a talk with him about how other people might have a problem with personal space, just so Cas didn't run into any issues at school. Cas had insisted he didn't want to hug anyone besides Dean and sometimes Sam, but Dean had made sure he understood what personal space was anyway, just in case. The boy was already extremely nervous for second grade, mostly because he didn't want to get teased again, but he'd also somehow convinced himself that the work was going to be very hard for him. He fretted about it often, no matter how many times Dean told him he wouldn't have a problem.
"But Jim says I'm stupid," Cas let slip once, which made Dean frown in worry and reassure Cas that he was most certainly not stupid. After Cas' nightmare episode at the sleepover, Dean couldn't shake the nagging voice in his head that said there was something wrong with Cas, or something wrong at home. Dean would've liked to talk to his mother about it, but she was working night shift hours at the hospital almost every night because one of the other nurses was on maternity leave. Dean even ended up making dinner for him and Sam most nights because Mary left for work around dinner time. When she was home in the evenings, she looked exhausted, and Dean didn't want to bother her, thinking she deserved a chance to relax. Once or twice Dean had asked Cas himself if everything was alright, and the younger boy had just answered that he was fine, but he always looked tense. And his eyes would go blank, like he'd carefully put up a wall and hid his true emotions and feelings and answers behind it.
Monday morning, the first day of the new school year, Cas walked next door to the Winchester's and squished into the backseat of Mary's car with Sam and Dean. Mary first dropped Dean and Cas off at the elementary school, then took Sam to the nearby kindergarten. Cas gripped his backpack tightly and looked up at the brick building apprehensively as he and Dean stood on the pavement.
"You'll do great," Dean reassured him, seeing his nervousness. "I promise. C'mon, I'll walk you to your class, okay?" Cas nodded, and grabbed Dean's hand.
"Don't leave until I'm all the way inside?" he said, the end turning up like a question.
"I won't leave," Dean promised. He felt bad that Cas was so scared, but he had to admit the wide, deer-in-the-headlights eyes and slightly parted mouth were kinda cute. They walked inside, Cas insisting on going slowly so he could get a good look at everything. Finally they reached the second grade classrooms.
"This is you, right?" Dean asked Cas.
"Yes, this is it." Cas licked his lips and let go of Dean's hand so he could stand on his tiptoes and peer around the door. Dean gently pulled him inside and glanced at the desk.
"Oh, you have Ms. Barnes, I had her, she's pretty awesome, and pretty good-looking, too," Dean whispered to Cas, who all but rolled his eyes at the last comment. "Let's see if she remembers me, yeah?" Dean walked up to the desk, Cas following.
"Hiya, Ms. Barnes," Dean said, giving her a charming smile. "It's me, Dean Winchester. D'ya remember me?" Ms. Barnes smiled, flicking her soft black curls over her shoulder.
"Dean, of course I do. Oh, you got taller, didn't you? How are you, sweetie?" Dean seemed a little deflated at the 'sweetie', and Cas couldn't help but cover his mouth with his hand to stifle his laughter. Ms. Barnes heard the noise and turned her attention to him. "And I'm assuming you're in my class this year?" she asked him kindly. "I haven't seen you around before. Did you just move here?"
"Yes. How did you know that?" Cas asked.
"Psychic," Ms. Barnes answered airily, tapping the side of her head. Cas seemed skeptical of this, but Dean quickly spoke before Cas could argue his doubts on his teacher's supposed ESP.
"This is Castiel Novak," Dean said. "He's really, really smart, so beware." Cas' cheeks flushed pink and he shoved Dean lightly with his shoulder.
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Castiel," Ms. Barnes said. "Dean, honey, don't you have your own class to get to?"
"Oh, yeah," Dean said, remembering. "I should probably go. Seeya Cas, have fun!" Cas gave Dean one last, quick hug, but he didn't seem scared anymore. He was looking around the classroom with interest now instead of fear. Dean grinned, satisfied, and patted the kid on the back before heading out.
When Dean got back into the hallway, it was close to empty, only a few kids still lingering. Dean glanced around for teachers before running down the hallway to the fourth grade classroom. Then, of course, Dean ran past his room just as the bell rang and had to backtrack to find it. Finally he located it, opened the door, and slipped in. The teacher looked up (Mr. Shurley, Dean read from the thing on his desk), but was still only on "Bradbury, Charlie" for roll call. Forever grateful for the last name "Winchester", Dean slid into an empty desk in the middle of the room.
After roll call Mr. Shurley passed out an empty composition book to each student. "At the beginning of each class, you're all going to have fifteen minutes for free writing in your journal. You can write whatever you want, whether it's something that actually happened to you or fiction. Just know I'll be keeping them, so don't write anything you wouldn't want your teacher reading." The class gave a collective giggle. "And remember to put your names on the front, and write the date at the top of the page!" Mr. Shurley reminded. "Fifteen minutes start now." Dean wrote his name on the front of his notebook, then opened it to the first page. He wrote down the date, and then stared at the blank lines. He had no clue what to write. His mind kept drifting off to his brother and Castiel, hoping they were both having okay first days. Then Dean realized he could just write about them. He poked his tongue out a little and began to write.
The two most important people in the world to me are my little brother Sammy and my best friend Castiel Novak. Castiel is a funny name, so I just say Cas. He's really small and really smart. Sammy is smart too, even though he's only five. Today is his first day of kindergarten. He was excited to go school because he wanted to be just like me. Sammy likes to be just like me. Cas wasn't excited for school because he didn't want to get teased. He said he got teased at his old school. Cas is only seven, but he's my best friend anyway. During the summer he moved next door to my house, and we hung out almost every single day and did cool stuff. My favorite thing we did was when he spent the night at my house...
The fifteen minutes passed quicker than Dean had thought they would. He was only halfway through depicting every detail of the sleepover when Mr. Shurley announced time was up. Dean dropped his journal on Mr. Shurley's desk, almost hating to part with it.
The rest of his classes Dean gave an entire 50% of his attention to, and he was quite relieved when the bell rang for lunch. He sped-walked to get around the 'no running' rule now that teachers were around, and entered the cafeteria, looking around for Cas.
"Hey, Dean!" Benny Lafitte, Dean's friend called, waving from the table where he and the rest of Dean's friends were sitting. Dean waved back.
"I'll be there in a minute!" he yelled back. Finally he spotted Cas waiting in line to buy his lunch, clutching money in his hands tightly.
"Hiya!" Dean said, going over to stand next to Cas. "How's it going so far?"
"Very well!" Cas chirped. "Ms. Barnes is really nice, and I liked history a lot, and math, and science. It was fun!"
"See, I told ya all this stuff would be easy for you," Dean said while Cas beamed. "Hey, why are you waitin' in line to buy the school food? Didn't your mom pack you a lunch or somethin'?" Cas shook his head.
"No, she wasn't awake when I woke up for school, so I just took some money for myself."
"Well, this food tastes gross. Tomorrow I'll ask my mom to make an extra lunch for you instead, yeah?"
"Oh, y-you don't have to do that," Cas protested, flushing a little bit. "You don't have to spend extra money on me."
"It's just a lunch, it's no big deal," Dean said. "Why you worried about that?"
"Jim says I cost him too much money," Cas mumbled, his voice barely audible, as if Dean wasn't supposed to hear.
"That's dumb, you're a kid, your family is /supposed/ to spend money on you and stuff," Dean insisted. He'd decided he didn't like Cas' step father very much, and even though he'd never met him, he could tell by the things Cas sometimes let slip. "Tomorrow my mom will make you a lunch, okay?"
"Okay," Cas agreed obediently. He gave Dean a hug, burying his face into Dean's side. "Are we going to eat lunch together?" He looked up at Dean with big blue eyes, and Dean almost said yes before stopping himself.
"Aw, Cas, I'd love to, but I think you should try to get to know the kids in your class so you can make friends with some of them."
"But you're already my friend," Cas said, incomprehensive.
"Yeah, I know, and I love being friends with you, but don't you want other friends too from your class that are your own age?"
"I guess so," Cas said doubtfully. "There was a boy, Gabriel I think, who seemed okay and a girl named Meg who let me use her ruler because I forgot mine."
"There, see? You can eat with one of them." Cas still looked unsure, so Dean knelt down to look the boy in the eye, which usually made him listen. "C'mon Cas-Bird, I gotta push you outta the nest so you can learn to fly." Cas squinted, thinking, trying to process the metaphor, before he nodded his head, understanding.
"Okay," he said. "You should go to your friends, too, then."
"Alright," Dean laughed. "Sounds like a plan. Have a good lunch, uh, or try to at least. If you don't know what kinda meat it is, don't eat it, ya hear?" He ruffled Cas' hair as he stood up, and gave the blue-eyed boy a little smile and a wave as he left, then went to sit down on the bench at his table next to Benny, where his other friends had already all sat down. He was sitting in between Benny and his other closest friend, Lisa Braeden, and next to Lisa was Bela Talbot (Dean wasn't sure if he liked Bela or not, but he tolerated her anyway). Across from them were Ash Lindberg, Garth Fitzgerald, Charlie Bradbury, and Tessa McKeon. Dean didn't really spend time with his friends outside of school, except for projects and the occasional party, but he enjoyed their company very much.
"Who was that boy?" asked Lisa curiously, taking a bite of her ham sandwich.
"Oh, he lives next door, his name's Castiel," Dean said. "Today was his first day of school here, so I was just checkin' up on him." The conversations drifted to the assigned reading for english, and after a little while Dean tuned out and glanced around the busy cafeteria for Cas. He saw him sitting at a table talking with a girl who had pale skin, a round face and long, wavy brown hair. Well, /she/ was doing the talking, Cas was listening, seemingly fascinated. His eyes were wide with interest at whatever she was saying. Dean smiled, glad Cas had found someone. He continued eating his lunch, feeling happier than he had all day. Maybe he didn't need to worry about his friend so much.
On the drive home from school, Cas could not stop talking about his day. He talked about Ms. Barnes, whom he loved, and he talked about how easy math was, and how he was going to have to do a book report soon, and although he'd never done a book report before it sounded fun, and his new friend Meg Masters was really interesting, and history was his favorite subject. Then, whenever Cas would pause to think or take a breath, Sam would jump in with something about kindergarten. Dean was happy his brother and his friend were happy, but if they'd just shut up for a minute, that would be awesome.
"And how was your day, Dean?" Mary finally asked after both Sam and Cas had run out of things to say.
"Oh, y'know, fine. It was... School," Dean answered without enthusiasm. "Mr. Shurley seems kinda cool. He lets us do free journal writing at the beginning of class."
"That sounds nice," Mary replied. "What did you write about?"
"Just those two," Dean said, jerking his thumb at Sam and Cas. "Although maybe tomorrow I'll write about how they're noisy an' annoying instead of how great they are!" Sam stuck his tongue out and giggled, but Cas actually looked hurt untill Dean reassured him it was just a joke.
After Mary parked in front of the Winchester's house, Cas walked next door to his place and gave a cheery wave goodbye. Dean couldn't stop the glowing feeling in his chest. He remembered the shy, awkward, timid Castiel that had first watched him and Sam over the fence, and thought about how much he'd changed. Now Cas could actually carry on a conversation without shyness, he seemed more relaxed around people, hugs weren't terribly awkward anymore, and he'd even made a new friend at school all on his own. Dean felt very proud to think he was the one who'd helped Cas out of his shell, and for the millionth time, he thought how glad he was Cas had moved next door in the first place.
Kind of a filler chapter, but hope you enjoyed anyway! Thanks for reading! And, thanks as always to everyone who has favorited/followed/reviewed, you are all automatically super awesome okay? I grin like an idiot at my computer screen when I get a notification email from this site.
Also, 10 points to you if you know who Castiel's teacher is! ;)
Next chapter: What IS wrong with Cas, anyway?