A/N: Sorry for the delay! I was wrapped up in my "Geronimo!" and "H on the Gear Shift is for Human" sequels, and this story got away from me.

But! I want to say thank you to my awesome readers! Between this site and AO3, this fic has almost 2,000 hits! THANK YOU SO MUCH! XD

As always, comments and reviews are welcome!

Chapter 21

9:02 P.M. (11 hours 58 minutes until the Mid-Term)

"Dean, what are you doing?"

"What's it look, like, Cas? I can't concentrate on studying if the room is a wreck!"

"…The room is immaculate. Dean, are you procrastinating?"

"What? No! I just need to tidy up a little bit."

"Between you and me, we actually have one of the cleanest apartments amongst the entire student body. There's nothing to clean."

"….I'll find something to do."

"You could study."

"Shut up, Cas."

10:10 P.M. (10 hours 50 minutes until the Mid-Term)

"Sam! What's the answer to this question?"

"I'm not going to walk you through the entire test, Meg. You actually have to study on your own."

"Hey, you're not studying either!"

"Yes I am! What are you talking about?"

Sam dragged his textbook over the smaller book he'd been reading in order to hide it, but that didn't escape Meg's ever watchful eyes.

"That's not one of our textbooks. Whatcha reading there, Sammy?"

"First of all, don't call me that. It's Sam. Secondly, I'm cross-referencing some information from an older tome. So, I am studying."

Meg let out a loud bark of laughter. "Sam, you're hiding a textbook under another textbook like it's a porn magazine! Does history really make you that hard?" she snickered.

Sam's face turned beet red; even the tips of his ears were almost steaming.

"You're evolving into your true form, Sam! Can recount facts and figures faster than a speeding bullet, can leap over tall stacks of books in a single bound, it is…THE SUPER NERD!"

"Ruby, if you've got time to tease me, you've got time to study," he chokes out; Sam isn't sure if he's choking from embarrassment or laughter.

"You're no fun….SuperNerd."

11:15 P.M. (9 hours 45 minutes until the Mid-Term)

Crunch.

"Gabriel, what are you doing?"

"I like to snack when I study." Crunch.

"Gabriel, eating chips at ear-splitting decibels is not studying."

"What, am I distracting you?"

"…Not at all."

"Then I haven't been trying hard enough." CRUNCH! CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH!

"GABRIEL! Knock it off! I won't fail this test because of your antics!"

"If me eating chips causes you to fail a test, you shouldn't get so snooty about your I.Q."

"I won't waste the time right now to kill you. But, after the test tomorrow, I won't have such reservations!"

1:30 A.M. (7 hours 30 minutes until the Mid-Term)

"Cas, what are you doing?"

"Studying."

"No shit. I meant why?"

"I want to pass this test?"

"Cas, you come home after class every day and read those notes over and over. You've probably memorized every single thing the Professor had said for the past two months. So why are you studying now?"

"Because I do want to know this information, not just remember it long enough for the test, then forget it afterwards. What about you, Dean? How's your studying going?"

"Um…pretty good. Getting lots of learning done over here."

Castiel looked back at Dean lounging on the couch, the open textbook in his lap, but it looked to be fairly close to the beginning of the book. He sighed loudly.

"Dean, how many pages have you read in the last hour?"

"Um…13."

"And what page are you on now?"

"….13."

"Dean!"

"What, Cas? I don't need to study my ass off for this stuff. Hunting monsters is something I don't need to study, it's in my bones!"

"You hunt demons, werewolves, and ghosts. Last I knew, Kishin-eggs were not part of your repertoire. If you want to be a good Meister, you have to know the basics."

"I do know the basics! This history, basic magic, and monsters crap is something I'm good at!"

"Dean, if you do poorly on this test tomorrow, you'll be sleeping on the couch."

Dean raised an eyebrow at his roommate. "You can't kick me out of my own room, Cas."

Cas narrowed his eyes at his partner. "Can't I?" he challenged.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the vote of confidence." When Castiel continued to narrow his eyes at Dean, he threw his hands up. "Yeah, whatever Cas. At least the couch is comfy."

Castiel turned back in his chair, sighing loudly in exasperation. When he was safely engrossed in his book again, Dean started reading his own book as well, though he still found it boring.

The couch was pretty comfortable, but he preferred his bed.

2:45 A.M. (6 hours and 15 minutes until the Mid-Term)

When Kali looked over her shoulder from her desk she saw Gabriel lying on his stomach on the couch, his book open and he seemed to actually be studying.

That was, until she saw the books pages were covered in multi-colored dots.

That's when she let out a loud, annoyed yet slightly intrigued sigh. "Gabriel, what are you doing now?"

Gabriel looked up at her innocently. "Studying."

"What's all over your book?"

He grinned and picked up one of the dots for her to see what it was. She raised an eyebrow. "Gummy bears?" she asked.

He nodded enthusiastically. "Yep! See, I put a bear on each new paragraph, so I get a reward for the every paragraph I read!" He said proudly, popping the candy in his mouth.

Kali rolled her eyes. "That's not studying, that's getting fat."

"Hey, hey, hey! I work hard for this body," Gabriel said, motioning towards his short and stocky build.

She was biting the inside of her lip to keep from laughing so hard she almost bit through it.

3:24 A.M. (5 hours and 36 minutes until the Mid-Term)

Meg and Ruby's gentle snores continued from the couch, as they had been for possibly the past hour. Sam, still reading through his books diligently, was torn between waking them up and letting them sleep a while longer. It was kind of nice to not be teased by the girls mercilessly for his "extra-curricular studying" but the strange book he had found in the library was too fascinating to put down.

It was obviously a book for the older students, not a Level 1 like he was; the fact that it had been wrongfully shelved both delighted and infuriated him. Delight for getting a chance to read this strange tome, pissed because someone couldn't even be bothered to put it back in the right place. It had been easy to slip the book into his bag without anyone noticing, and though he felt guilty for stealing it, he had to read it.

The book itself was a history book, but it was a lot more detailed than the basic one the freshmen were reading. This book gave the bloody details of battles, the effects of spells and potions both used by Witches and the DWMA. It was easy to see why this book was off limits to freshmen, someone might get bad ideas in their head.

Sam wasn't worried about studying for the big test in less than 6 hours. He knew the information backwards and forwards. This book was too intriguing for him to pause in his reading just to study.

He was skimming it at the moment, trying to learn as much as possible before the test. Not only did he want to see if there was anything he could use for his test, but he also wanted to take the book back to the library as soon as the test was over. Sam didn't mind the stealing part, but he didn't want to get caught with it. The longer it was out, the more likely the chance someone might notice the book's absence, and reading books outside of one's level was a dangerous offense. Suspension, detentions, prohibition from hunting kishin-eggs…the list was long and Sam wanted nothing to do with those punishments.

He was skimming over a small mention of past Meisters, when a particular passage caught his eye. Sam's eyes actually paused and reread the passage in its entirety, just to be sure of what he had read:

Early Meisters sometimes attempted to make both themselves and their Weapons stronger by a variety of means, many of which have been discounted as embellishment and exaggeration. One particular groups of Meisters thought that holy fire was the best way to purify their Weapons. Another group believed in ingesting alchemical elixirs (full of toxic heavy metals) was a way to increase the strength of the Weapon and Meister. Some even went so far as to suggest demon's blood could be a way to increase the power of demonic weapons, but there was no evidence of such material existing, nor of it having the desired effect. Considering the Meisters that suggested these ideas have long passed away, there is no evidence to confirm or deny any of these methods as being successful or disastrous.

Sam blinked a couple times as the words bounced around in his head. The early Meisters had some pretty weird ideas, he thought to himself.

When Meg's snore got particularly loud, Sam found himself turning his chair too look at his two girls. They were asleep and leaning against each other on the couch, looking peaceful in their sleep.

They were his badass partners, who had grown up with bikers for family instead of doting grandmothers and eccentric uncles. They were tough as nails and downright scary when pissed.

They were also classified as Demon Weapons because it was his raw anger that they used to fuel their magics.

He looked at them and blinked again. "Huh," he mumbled to himself.

Dots started to connect in Sam's mind, but he stopped himself before any sort of image could form. He looked at the clock, and realized that trying to read any more was a waste. He was exhausted (which he realized when he yawned for almost a full minute) and he was starting to think crazy things.

Time to call it a night.

"Come on Meg, Ruby. Time for bed," Sam said loudly.

The girls jerked awake and he gently herded them to their room. They must have been pretty tired when they didn't even make a wise-crack at him about his still being up and studying.

Sam changed into his sleeping clothes and collapsed into his bed. Maybe I'll see if Dean knows anything about demon's blood, Sam thinks before he passes out.

8:38 A.M. (22 minutes until the Mid-Term)

Dean's eyes fluttered open, and his stomach dropped when he realized there were two things wrong with his surroundings.

One, there was something warm pressed against him on the couch, and something heavy was on his shoulder, black hair tickling his cheek.

Two, there was too much sunlight streaming through the windows, meaning it was later in the morning.

Not having the time to worry about two things at once, Dean decided to panic at the second thing, and ignore the first one altogether.

Glancing at his watch, his emerald eyes flew wide open when he realized what time it was with a panicked gasp.

"Shit!" Dean said and he jumped up, causing Castiel to fall over and crash onto the couch with a startled "Omph!"

Dean turned to see Cas blinking sleepily up at him, looking confused at Dean's panic. "What—"

"We overslept! We're gonna be late!" Dean yelped.

Cas might have just woken up, but he knew Dean well enough to know the hunter wouldn't be blushing that hard just because they might be late, even to such an important exam.

Then Cas thought about where he was, and suddenly he felt his cheeks go warm. He'd fallen asleep on Dean's shoulder. When had that happened? He didn't even remember sitting on the couch next to his roommate….

"How did we oversleep?!" Dean demanded, breaking Cas's train of thought. Dean was looking around the room, clearly knowing they needed to get moving, but unsure what he needed to do at that exact second. Too many things at once had shut down his motor functions for several seconds, it seemed.

Cas took a few precious seconds to rub the sleep from his eyes and run a hand through his mess of hair, trying to tame it, but gave up. "You didn't set an alarm," Cas said, stating the obvious.

Dean rolled his eyes in exasperation. He raced towards their room, planning to at least change his shirt if nothing else. "What happened to yours, Mr. 'I'm always up before the crack of dawn thanks to my internal alarm clock'?"

Cas went to the bathroom to splash water on his face, blinking the sleep from his eyes, trying not to panic at anything. "It's not an exact science, Dean. Don't try blaming this on me."

Dean raced past the bathroom and rounded the corner into the kitchen, muttering to himself the entire time. Cas took the moment to head into their room and change his clothes quickly.

Dean raced back and barreled part way into the room when he saw Castiel facing away from him, completely shirtless. Dean was so startled by the sight of Cas's naked back that he immediately whipped around, trying not to see anything. As he felt the embarrassed flush warm his cheeks, he took a second to actually glance back as Cas pulled on a clean button-up shirt.

Castiel was lean and his back was unmarked, unlike Dean, who was starting to get a nice collection of scars from hunting. He had a swimmer's body, lean with long muscle, where Dean had started to work out more since he wasn't hunting regularly or working on cars with Bobby anymore. Working in the salvage yard had kept him in shape most of his life.

It was so odd to see Cas in anything but jeans and a shirt, seeing him without it was like seeing him sleeping; it was almost a mystical moment.

Dean cleared his throat and turned back, mentally berating himself and questioning his odd reaction. God, it's not like I haven't seen a guy's back before. What the hell is wrong with me? he wondered.

Then he remembered Cas's body leaning up against his when he woke up, and that's when he realized why he was acting squirrelly. It was the first time he'd ever been that close to anyone that wasn't immediate family. The fact that it was his roommate Castiel only made it more awkward.

Like a true Winchester, he filed away the moment in the vault in his mind where he put things when he didn't have time to deal with them. He had a test to take.

Castiel turned around and just before he finished buttoning his shirt Dean tossed a foil pack at the weapon. Cas caught it with one hand, and looked at it a little disdainfully.

"Pop-Tarts?" Cas asked, wrinkling his nose. "This does not a good breakfast make."

"Hey! It says right on the box '7 important vitamins and minerals.' Besides, you're making us late with your primping, and we gotta get going. So, mobile breakfast it is." Dean said a little too cheerfully; he was trying too hard to play off the accidental roommate cuddling he'd woken up to, and Castiel realized it.

Cas rolled his eyes at Dean's teasing, but decided to follow Dean's lead and pretend it didn't happen either. He needed to focus on this test, and his jumbled ideas and emotions he had towards his roommate weren't helping matters.

He obediently followed Dean out the door as they ran towards their class, jogging and eating the Pop-Tarts along the way. They got the classroom just in time. As the bell struck 9:00 A.M., Dean looked to see all of his friends were also in the classroom. Kali looked tired but determined; Gabriel seemed more bored than anything. Bookworm was looking carefully contemplative, and both the girls looked annoyed.

Hopefully this test is a piece of cake, Dean thought to himself, feeling a little nervous. Pop quizzes shouted at him from his Dad or Mom about monster lore during a hunt was one thing, a standardized paper and pencil test was a new experience altogether.

It was slightly more terrifying.

The difficulty of the test seemed to be determined by who was commenting on it.

Sam, on one hand, thought it actually wasn't that big of a deal, even easy.

Gabriel, on the other hand, seemed to believe that trying to disarm a bomb strapped to a obese man as he zoomed around a football stadium on a jetpack would've been easier.

They finished the test and had to go about the rest of their classes like normal as they waited for the test to be graded. The results of the test would be posted on the bulletin board outside of the classroom at 7 P.M. Each of the students were a little distracted in the rest of their classes, all wondering how well they did or didn't do.

Even Dean was a little nervous about his grade. Not for himself, really; he believed hunting monsters and good grade-point averages had nothing to do with each other. Unfortunately, his parents didn't think so, and Dean didn't want to be on the receiving end of another "School is important, being smart is important yadda yadda yadda" speech. He liked to think he was smart enough thanks to Bobby and Ellen raising him up.

Still, he was waiting with just as much anticipation as everyone else as they crowded around the bulletin board, the names and ranking of the students on a long list of paper. People bemoaned and cheered as they read their name and wandered off. Some high-fived friends, and one girl looked like she was about to cry, and this made them all a little nervous. The seven friends walked up to the board together though, and were in for a surprise.

"Sam's first in the class!" Ruby read excitedly.

"Really?" he asked in surprise, eyes wide but grinning madly.

Dean ruffled his younger cousin's hair. "Way to go, Bookworm!"

"Knock it off, Dean," Sam bemoaned as he tried to undo the damage Dean did to his hair.

"Castiel is second!" Meg said aloud. She gave him a playful wink. "Knew you had it in you."

"Of course he's second, he's Cas," Dean said with pride. Castiel tried not to blush at the attention.

Ruby's eyes went wide in surprise. "Oh, come on!" She whined, whipping around and shooting an accusing glare at Dean. "You're third?!"

Dean face split into a wide grin, both in pride and relief. "Not as dumb as you thought I was, huh?"

"But…third?! I actually studied for this exam, and you just breezed through it!"

Sam's eyebrows arched up. "Since when is sleeping considered studying?"

Ruby shot him a murderous glare. "Shut up, Sam!"

Meg crossed her arms and stood in Dean's way. "Alright, I demand to know how you cheated to get that grade. I want to use it on the next one."

Dean pointed to himself. "Hello, Hunter. How to gank monsters is the biggest part of the job."

Meg glared at him, but made a disgusted noise. "You're despicable."

"A despicable genius," Dean gloated, and Meg smacked his arm. "Ow," he moaned, but kept grinning.

"I mean, I get Sam, he reads all the time, but you?" Ruby shook her head, still unbelieving.

Dean threw a friendly arm around Sam's shoulders, a trick considering he was a few inches taller. "What can I say? Genius runs in the family," he said cheerfully.

There was a few seconds of silence, and Dean felt Sam tense next to him. Mentally, Dean berated himself. You idiot! You said it, why? Now he's gonna run off again!

Before Dean could open his mouth to apologize, or say something to cover up his stupidity, Sam turned to him and actually smiled a little. "Yeah, I guess it's a Winchester thing," he said slowly.

Dean's face changed from chagrin to surprise to joy in only a span of seconds, but Sam saw it all. He was still getting used to the idea, of having family outside of John; he sometimes became terrified that Dean would take his friends and leave, but Gabriel's words grounded him.

Speaking of Gabriel….

Kali let out a angry growl, and she glared at Dean so ferociously the boy knew that, if looks could kill, he would have been a puddle of ooze on the ground. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Gabriel jumped in. "She's one point behind you, fourth place."

"One point!" Kali bemoaned. "How is that even possible?!"

"Like I said, via awesome Winchester Hunting genes," Dean said.

Kali was still looking furious, but she didn't say another word as Ruby and Meg found themselves comfortably in the middle of the grades. Ruby was just a few points higher than her sister, and was having a blast dangling that in her older sister's face.

"Haha, I'm smarter than you!" Ruby teased.

Meg rolled her eyes. "Are not. I just don't care as much about that magic crap like you do. Give me a good brawl any day."

"Hey, that magic crap is interesting. I can't help that you have to be smart in order to understand it!

"Ruby, I will stomp you into paste if you don't knock it off!"

Before Ruby and Meg could get in a fight (something Dean was secretly interested in seeing—that'd be one hell of a show), Kali stomped off, leaving the group behind. Gabriel looked back at his friends, shouted a hurried good-bye, and followed Kali through the maze of hallways that made up the school. She seemed to be making her way back to their room, but he kept a few steps behind her because she looked pissed enough to strangle him.

Gabriel, however, didn't like seeing Kali upset. Mostly because it was downright terrifying. "Kali, don't be mad. Fourth was still an A, I think. You're still considered one of the top students in the class," he said, trying to placate her.

Kali whipped around at glared at Gabriel, stopping him in the empty hallway. "As annoyed as I am with Dean Winchester beating me on this test, that's not what I'm pissed about. I'm mad at you, Gabriel. What happened?" she snapped.

"Happened?" Gabriel asked innocently.

Kali stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at the boy. "Yes, Gabriel. You failed that test. The lowest grade in the class. I want to know why, right now."

Gabriel sighed. "Kali, sometimes people don't do well on tests. If they don't know the information, they sometimes get bad scores."

"Bullshit, Gabriel," Kali said, throwing the boy for a loop. It was the first time he'd heard her swear like that. "You failed that test on purpose."

"Wha—no! I just didn't—"

"Gabriel, you do realize that your grades affect me, too, right? I'll be the laughingstock of the school when everyone sees how poorly you did. They'll think you're an idiot and bemoan my having you for my partner! This could completely de-rail early graduation, everything I've been working towards!"

Kali paused in her rant to see his partner not even look at her. He was staring at his shoes, scuffing the floor underneath them. She put her hands on her hips and stared at him, waiting for him to say something.

Gabriel glanced at her, and a little smile tugged at his lips. "You always did that when you're pissed," he said to himself.

Kali raised an eyebrow. "'Did'?" she asked.

Gabriel let out a loud, aggravated sigh. "Did, do, whatever! I wasn't accepted into this school for my grammar or test-taking abilities. So I failed the test, big deal. Sorry you got saddled with a stupid partner."

"You're not stupid!" she snapped in irritation, catching him off guard. "Your study skills leave something to be desired, but you're not stupid. You're too clever and cunning to be called stupid."

"Was that a compliment?" Gabriel asked incredulously, making her glare at him as she threw her hands up.

"Gabriel, we both know you helped me study last night. Some of the exact same things you explained to me, concisely and without pause, were the same things you failed on that test. You're too smart to have failed such a simple test so spectacularly!"

"Look, I'm sorry. You just said it, I have no study skills. This proves it. I appreciate the confidence you have in my cunning cleverness, but I just can't do tests. Sorry," Gabriel said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking upset. "I just get nervous, Kali."

She leaned close to him, watching him carefully. "Even if you got nervous, you should have gotten something right. A test of 0.00% on a mostly multiple choice test is a mathematic impossibility unless you were trying to fail it."

Gabriel blinked a couple times in surprise, and suddenly he couldn't even look at his partner. His defensive demeanor changed into a mask of miserable nervousness, and Kali actually thought he was about to cry. He only glanced at her briefly, and she could still see how lost he looked.

"Kali, I just…I can't stand out, okay? I've gotta stay under the radar," he said quietly, whispered really. She had to lean forward just to hear him say the words.

She looked him over, and saw how he was trying desperately to not look at her, and she sighed. "So, you thought failing the test was the best way to go about that? Why would you need to do that?"

"I can't tell you, Kali. Just, please, trust me. I have to stay under the radar," Gabriel said, pleaded actually. "Please, just drop it, Kali," he begged. He looked so hopeless. She could tell this wasn't just another prank; he really was in some sort of trouble.

She wanted to keep ranting, to get him to understand the problems this purposeful failure would mean for her, for her future, but when she spoke she said something that even caught herself off guard.

"Next time make a C."

Gabriel looked up at her, tilting his head to side in a questioning manner. "What?"

"Next time make a C. Then a B. And you keep making Bs until we graduate. Bs show you're smart, but not too smart. Still average. Understand?" she asked.

Gabriel blinked at his partner a couple times, completely floored by her. "How about Cs? Those are average, right?" He asked.

Kali smirked, crossing her arms over her chest in smug satisfaction. "So, you did choose to fail that test," she said, and Gabriel groaned when he realized she'd tricked him.

"Maybe a little," he admitted.

"I knew you were smarter than that. Probably even smarter than Sam Winchester, perhaps?"

Gabriel held up his hands. "Don't compare me to Bookworm. He's a supernerd. He practically lives in those textbooks."

"And you can't tell me why this charade was necessary?" Kali pressed again.

Gabriel shook his head. "I'm sorry. I just…I panicked. I need to stay out of the limelight, you know? I figured failing the test wouldn't draw attention."

"Normally, it wouldn't. But you went to the extreme end of the grading scale, and that's just as telling as if you'd gotten a 100."

"So…Cs are okay?" Gabriel reiterated, sounding a little hopeful.

Kali rolled her eyes. "If you must throw a couple Cs in there, fine. The majority of your grades have to be Bs, though. Deal?"

Gabriel looked at the hand she extended towards him. He let a little grin tug up the corners of his lips. "Deal," he said, and they shook hands.

Gabriel held onto her hand a few seconds longer than necessary, and he chuckled awkwardly when he realized it. He dropped her hand like it was on fire, and Kali sighed.

"Gabriel, you're not allowed to get a crush on me," she commanded.

Gabriel's golden eyes flashed in shock. "Get a what?!" he said, jaw hanging open slightly.

Kali's laughter was spontaneous and explosive. Seemed like having Gabriel for a partner meant some of his mischievous nature was rubbing off on her.

Gabriel cleared his throat, quieting her laughter. "Why are you helping me on this? And not dragging me through a game of 20 Questions?"

Kali straightened up and smiled at him. It was a small smile, it barely upturned the corners of her lips, but it was still there. "As much of a fool as you may act, and as much I want to kill you sometimes, you're still my partner. Partners help each other. Even if whatever you're up too makes no sense to a normal person."

"Aw, Kali, keep talking like that and I might actually start to think you actually like me."

Kali rolled her eyes. "Keep it up, Gabriel, and I might change my mind."