(A/N): Background.
I love the idea of Kid!Gabriel. I have so many ideas of him being the class-clown and he and Sam being polar opposites but best friends anyway.
Apologies to anyone looking for action/aftermath after Chapters One and Two. It's coming, I swear, but this seemed an organic place to give weight to their background.
I hope sort-of cuteness makes up for it.
Chapter Three
On Sam's very first day of school, he was terrified.
They'd moved into their new house less than a week earlier, later than John had been expecting the building to be ready for them. As such, Sam and Dean missed the first week of the new school year. For Dean, this wasn't a huge deal. He was nine, and already had four years of practice at being one of the most popular kids in his class. It was his third school too, so he'd already done the new kid thing before, after their mom died. He hadn't been all that happy about moving yet again, but he rarely questioned their father's decisions. Missing a week only gave Dean that extra edge.
He'd not only be the coolest kid in class, but he'd be entering into his class right when the status quo was just established. He'd be new and interesting, with stories of his last class and old pranks and everything.
Sam, on the other hand, hadn't started school yet. At five, he was scrawny and quiet and eager to learn. But rather than look forward to school he'd dreaded it. He wasn't cool like Dean. His brain was fast but his words jumbled when he tried to voice his thoughts, particularly if he was rushed or nervous. He was missing that first week of establishing what school was going to be like. He'd missed the week where the teacher introduced routines and explained things and showed them around the huge building.
Sam was going in knowing that his whole class already knew all the things he was going to have to learn. Like where the toilets were, and whether the teacher wanted him to say miss when he raised his hand or stay quiet and where the dining hall was and where he had to go if he was a packed lunch that day.
It started off awful. He had to introduce himself to a huge class, he was so nervous he babbled and talked about his mom and that made him cry and when the teacher had to give him a tissue he was so embarrassed he mumbled 'thanks dad' instead of 'sir' and his whole class laughed at him. Sam was ready for the day to be over before it had even properly started. There was only one group with an empty seat, so Sam wasn't at all surprised when the man put him at that table. His seat was on the left of a boy who had stuck his tongue out at him when he'd first come into the classroom, with another boy on his left who got a desk to himself because he was at the bottom of the group.
There was another boy further to Sam's right, and then another one across from Sam's partner and across from Sam there was a girl with red hair who looked like she wished she wasn't sitting there at all. Sam got the feeling his group wasn't going to be very nice.
At least he could see the front without having to turn around.
By the time Sam was finished at that school and ready to move on to high school, his first day was a distant, hazy memory. But he'd made friends that day, thoroughly dismissing the loneliness he'd feared.
It turned out the girl across from him was called Charlotte and hated her name, insisting everyone call her Charlie. She usually had her hair in two pigtails, which she also hated, and she'd thought boys were all annoying idiots until she met Sam. All of this he learned at playtime, when it was raining outside and they had to stay inside. Sam had chosen to stay at the table when his group raced for space on the carpet and for the neat line of brightly-coloured toy boxes against one wall.
She'd rolled her eyes and told him that he'd been put at a sucky table, and for some reason Sam had smiled. Her eyes were very blue and smiley. She didn't smile much during group work, but Sam had quickly discovered that was because their group mates weren't ones she'd choose.
The boys at either end of their table were sullen and unfriendly types who followed Fergus around but didn't really do anything, apparently. The one between Sam and Charlie was called Art and the one at the other end was called Mark. They both had the same brown hair and green eyes but different noses. Charlie told Sam they were brothers.
The dark-haired boy Sam sat next to was called Fergus but his friends called him Creepy Crawly, and he was a grump, according to Charlie. The boy across from him, next to Charlie, had messy blonde hair and his name was Gabriel and he and Fergus were arch-enemies. Sam was almost positive that those only existed in stories and movies. It seemed Gabriel had several arch-enemies, most of whom he'd been in playgroup with, and it sounded quite a lot like Sam should probably keep a safe distance. Charlie said it sucked sitting next to him because he and Fergus kicked each other under the table all the time and that meant that Gabriel quite often swung his out of the way into Charlie's space, or Fergus would kick her instead.
Sam didn't like bullies, or people who kicked other people. He liked Charlie though. He liked her a lot. She was friendly and funny and she read lots like he did, for fun. She'd even just finished reading the Harry Potter book he was reading, and she bit her lip and swore to him she'd try really hard not to spoil it for him even though she was so excited to have a friend who read books that she just wanted to talk about it forever.
So Sam swore that if Fergus or Gabriel kicked her again he'd kick them back. Sam had quite long legs, despite how small he appeared, and he thought he could quite easily kick Gabriel if he hurt Charlie again.
His chance came when Gabriel and Fergus were kicking each other before lunch. Sam was working hard on his worksheet, but he knew it was going on. He watched Charlie carefully, and when she yelped and gave Gabriel a shove with a scowl on her face, Sam kicked before he could lose his nerve.
Gabriel was in the middle of apologising to Charlie and he looked so surprised as he looked over at Sam that for a moment even Fergus's laughter was quiet.
"You kicked me." he accused, and Sam was instantly ashamed of himself, even as he fought back the urge to hunch his shoulders and say sorry.
"You kicked Charlie." he said, looking down at the table as he felt his face heat up.
Gabriel didn't say anything else. The other boys at the table were watching, Sam could feel them listening to them.
"I didn't kick you." Gabriel said.
"You kicked Charlie." Sam repeated, voice soft and quiet, "And Charlie's my friend."
"You mean girlfriend." Fergus muttered, and instantly the other two boys were making embarrassing 'oooooooh-ing' noises under their breaths.
Sam's face was red and his neck was hot and it was impossible to meet Charlie's eyes even though he could see that she'd gone pink too. It was a shock for everyone when it was Charlie who answered.
"I'd have much more fun being Sam's girlfriend than yours." she huffed, crossing her arms and levelling an indignant glare Fergus's way, "At least he's nice. You're just a pain in the neck."
The shocked silence was tense and massive for exactly two seconds, because that's when Gabriel started to laugh and Fergus started to grumble loud enough to bring the teacher over and everybody got into trouble once he'd dragged the story out of six five year-olds trying to give each other the blame.
Sam got a gentler scolding, because he was new and because he'd been sticking up for Charlie, even if it was the wrong way to go about it. Charlie was told it wasn't very nice to tell people they were a pain in the neck. The teacher sounded as if he agreed with her just a little, though. Fergus and Gabriel were reprimanded properly and told on no uncertain terms that the rivalry between them had to stop.
The teacher didn't care if Gabriel insisted Fergus had been the one to start it, even if Fergus didn't deny it.
Gabriel was second last to be sent back to the group, while the teacher spoke to Fergus on his own. They were supposed to get on with the worksheet while he was busy. Sam tried, but Gabriel's voice had that sort of quality to it that made him listen even if he didn't want to. Gabriel apologised to Charlie properly, even telling her she could have the sweets from his lunchbox at lunch, if she wanted to.
Sam felt bad for kicking Gabriel. Maybe he should have kicked Fergus instead. Maybe he shouldn't have kicked anybody at all. His dad would be furious if he found out Sam was doing things like that. Especially on his first day. It was different from hitting back, he'd heard John tell Dean a hundred times over the years, if you were in a fight it was different. You hit back then. He'd wouldn't be mad if it was a fight.
"I'm sorry I kicked you." he'd said.
At lunchtime Sam was worried he wouldn't be able to sit with Charlie. At Dean's old school the people with packed lunches sat at different table from people who were buying lunch. It had been something Dean had thought was stupid and annoying, because his friends had packed lunches and Dean didn't like them. He liked having hot food for lunch.
But Sam needn't have worried, because it wasn't a rule at the new school. He and Charlie picked a table and he saved her seat while she was in the line. And then Gabriel sat on his other side and told Sam a bad joke and by the time Charlie came over with her lunch all water was well under the bridge. Sam and Gabriel were thick as thieves from that very moment, something that quite often surprised almost everyone but Charlie, because Sam was good and quiet and listened to teachers and Gabriel was wild and cheeky and caused trouble.
They hadn't changed all that much over the years. Sam was still the ever-diligent student and Gabriel was funny and loud and cheeky. Fergus stayed Gabriel's number one arch-enemy, although his friends stopped calling him Creepy Crawly at some point when they were ten, instead dubbing him Crowley. Fergus became a thing of the past. Even teachers called him Crowley. Sam also grew much taller, of course, and Gabriel's hair - no longer short and messy but kept neat and just long enough to curl under his ears - darkened from blonde to something more golden-brown, but essentially they were as they always had been and that worked for them.
On their first day of high school they were sorted into different homerooms because they'd been given different House-names or some such nonsense. Charlie was sorted with Sam and stuck close to his side the whole day because neither was all that keen on making new friends before they'd ascertained who was who. High school was a jungle, a social hierarchy greater and fiercer than the dynamics of the class they'd spent years with. It seemed so small compared to high school.
It sucked not having Gabriel with him all day, even if his best friend could be the biggest pain ever. Charlie was of course his best friend too, but after a few days she'd happily spread her wings and made some friends who were girls, something she'd never really done because their class had been predominantly male and the few girls had been utterly disinterested in books and more interested in ponies. Charlie liked all animals, naturally, but that didn't mean she wanted to spend every lunchtime talking about how cute Sandra's horse was in his winter stockings and with the ribbons she'd braided into his mane or how shiny the medal was that they'd earned at the jumping.
But at high school? High school was Charlie's time to shine. She was quirky and funny and sweet and knowledgable and there was a much larger pool of people their age who were like her.
Sam didn't grudge it, of course. She was his close friend and she was so happy. And they were still best fiends, anyway. Sam was the one urging her to sit with others in class, perfectly okay to sit himself sometimes. At lunch it was even easier, because he had Gabriel at lunchtime and life was good.
They were three weeks in when Sam first got picked on. It wasn't anything huge, a simple bloody nose and some choice words thrown his way. Dean put an end to it pretty quickly and the Headmaster talked to Sam about what had happened. He'd been targeted by Fergus-now-known-as-Crowley, caught between classes because Crowley knew Sam didn't have his best friend beside him every minute any more. As bullies went, Crowley was a coward. He was clever and devious about when he struck and just what he did, rarely entering any fight he couldn't win.
The Headmaster asked about it, Sam told him. Crowley had known he didn't have Gabriel to back him up. He'd shrugged when the teacher asked about new friends. It wasn't that Sam couldn't make any, there were a couple boys in his English class who liked to work with him when they had to choose groups, and there was Jess, the girl in his Maths class who smiled at him and picked him for paired work. But mostly Sam was pretty happy on his own. He'd make friends in his own time, and it wouldn't be just because it'd stop Crowley picking on him.
He politely declined the offer of the buddy system. He'd make his own friends in his own time, thank you. They talked about his old class. He told the teacher about Gabriel, and Charlie and the quiet kid called Garth who'd moved schools last year. It turned out he'd only moved a town over. He went to Sam's school. What was even funnier was that he was in Gabriel's homeroom class too. Sam smiled at that. At least Garth would have a friendly face. He'd been quiet and sweet when they were little, but people didn't take to him easily. He was a bit odd, something Sam and Charlie and Gabriel had always loved about him.
The Head teacher had sent Sam back to class with that funny, thoughtful look adults get in their eye right before they meddle. Sam hoped he'd managed to dissuade it.
When the results of that look rolled around, though, he was really quite glad he hadn't.
Sam walked into homeroom that Monday just like every day he had so far. He even made it all the way to his seat and smiled hello to Charlie before he'd even noticed there were other people sitting at their table. He'd must have looked as wrong-footed as he'd felt, because Charlie had laughed so hard she almost fell out of her seat.
Gabriel had grinned wide and gleeful as always and Garth had raised the fingers of one hand in an awkward, familiar little wave and said it was wonderful to see Sam again.
Sam had never been quite so glad that Crowley was a douche.