Dear Fabulous, beautiful, glorious readers; I am unworthy of your praise; you give me far too much credit and leniency. So I've been a good little writer, and uploaded another chapter a mere few days after my last upload. Am very proud of myself, and I hope that quality has not been sacrificed for quantity/punctuality ;)
Please let me know if it's any good, as usual reviews are LOVE, and we all need a little more love in our lives.
Dean trudged slowly towards the main hall and the principal's office. Why was it always him? He thought bitterly.
No matter how well he tried to behave, as soon as he made one tiny mistake they were on him like flies on shit. At least they seemed to think that he was the only one responsible for the incident, and Sam and Eric hadn't been implicated. Deciding that it didn't really matter what they did to him in the grand scheme of things, Dean relaxed slightly and opened the door to the office.
Noel heard Dean arrive before she saw him. She heard his self-assured yet charming voice chattering softly with the receptionist. She laughed appreciatively at something he said, and ushered him into the office. He followed her into the small office, and smiled widely at both Noel, and the Principal.
"Good afternoon Ms. Hamilton and Mr. Harvey" he offered politely, seemingly unfazed by his precarious situation. "What might I do you for" he continued, a suspiciously wide-eyed innocence on his handsome boyish face.
"Well" began Mr. Harvey uncertainly "It seems Mr. Winchester that you may have gotten yourself into another spot of trouble." He finished slowly, thrown off by the lack of guilt or stress on Dean's face.
"Is that so?" replied Dean, surprise colouring his features, "I don't seem to be able to stay out of the ole' trouble, do I?" he continued, sighing with an air of sadness and wisdom beyond his years.
Waiting for the jury to bring down the iron fist, Dean sidled on over to a squashy brown armchair and settled down comfortably, crossing his ankles, rolling up his sleeves, intertwining his long fingers and raising his eyes to appraise the situation. Noel was perched on a chair in the corner, almost out of sight and looking at him in a concerned fashion, while Principal Harvey was standing nervously, seemingly uncertain of how to proceed.
"Erm anyways…" continued the principal, "Apparently there was some sort of fight earlier today, involving some other boys…"
"And you believe I was involved." Dean stated plainly, not bothering to hide his reddened knuckles.
"Come on Dean, do you think we're stupid?" Noel interjected, "I mean who else would it be! You don't really expect us to believe that anyone else in the school would try to take those three on, do you?" She finished, frustrated and out of breath.
"No, I suppose not." he replied with a tired smile, his calm demeanor was such a contradiction to Noel's rant, than she was momentarily speechless.
"Wait… so you're not denying it was you?" Mr. Harvey questioned in a shocked voice.
"I don't really see the point. I'm not really down for lying when I can help it." Dean replied.
Noel's face adopted a pained expression, and she felt a sense of dread come over her. For a second offence, there's no way Dean could avoid expulsion. She had failed.
"What were you thinking?" Mr. Harvey questioned, regaining control in his voice.
Dean plastered an arrogant expression on his face. "You know how it is man, those kids are assholes, so I decided to beat them up."
Principal Jake Harvey was taken aback by Dean's sudden attitude, and decidedly angry.
"Mr. Winchester, you can't just go around beating up kids because you decide you don't like them!" Mr. Harvey shouted, flustered and pissed off.
"I'll do whatever the hell I want!" Dean retorted.
"Yes, Dean apparently you will, and I can't have that in my school. I'm sorry, but you leave me with no other option other than immediate expulsion. I'm frankly disgusted with your attitude and lack of remorse over your, let's face it, unacceptable behaviour."
Dean laughed mockingly, and adopted a cocky expression of arrogance.
"Yeah whatever, old man" he responded with a slight chuckle.
Noel was completely shocked by this other side of Dean. It was strange, but Dean seemed so unfazed by this whole mess, and furthermore he seemed to be putting on this act of rudeness to convince them to expel him. It was so unlike Dean to be this malicious, in all the time she knew him he had never gone more than a few seconds without a grin, a joke, or a flirty comment. And even now despite the fact that his face was full of anger and mockery, his eyes were turned down in a sort of tired sadness. She would have missed it, had she not been trained to look between his expressions of laughter and amusement to the sorrow hidden underneath.
But clearly there was nothing neither she, nor anyone else could do at this point. Dean Winchester was on Mr. Harvey's blacklist, a rare but undesirable honour. She watched helpless, as Dean's father was called, his locker cleaned out, and his name was removed from the register.
Noel escorted Dean to his black impala in the parking lot, and stared at him despondently, thinking of something to say. Dean's eyes were dark, expressionless and unrevealing.
"I'm sorry Dean… I didn't want this to happen. I'm so sorry." Noel finally managed.
Dean's features softened at the regret evident in her tone. A slow but genuine smile spread across his face, a smile that actually reached his eyes.
"It's no big deal, Noel. You know me, I'll be alright." He gave her a lop-sided grin, hopped into the driver's seat, and caressed the steering wheel lovingly, slipping the keys into the ignition.
Noel leaned into the open window, and asked the question that had been pressing on her conscience.
"Dean, why did you do it?" She asked in distress.
He appeared distracted and taken aback by her question. After meeting her worried gaze, he seemed to decide her question was neither malicious nor containing any ulterior motive. His fingers fidgeted with the leather steering wheel for a moment, before mumbling something quietly, under his breath.
"Active Evil is better than Passive Good." Dean quoted quietly.
Then he looked up at her with a smile tugging at his lips.
"Goodbye Noel. Thanks for all the, you know… guidance and stuff." He grinned in private amusement, turned the ignition and sped off across the parking lot, tires screeching and AC/DC's "T.N.T." blaring from the speakers.
Standing in the empty lot, watching the dirt fly out from the back of the impala's tracks, Noel realized that she had just witnessed Dean Winchester be completely truthful for the first time. Watching the dust settle slowly in the afternoon sunshine, Noel tried to convince herself that he'd be okay, that he was a normal teenager who'd land on his feet… And that he hadn't just quoted to her William–fucking-Blake.