Chapter 13. What The Hell?
It was 7.30 am and Dean was already heading down the hallway, dressed and ready for a new day. Although he had fallen to sleep later than everyone else he had still waken up early. He still didn't feel one hundred per cent comfortable in these surroundings and hadn't allowed himself to fall into a deep sleep. He had woken up at 6 am and had tried to go back to sleep but in the end gave up and went and had his shower. There were advantages of getting up earlier than everyone else. It meant that he had free reign of the bathroom.
So here he was dressed in his favourite pair of torn jeans and AC/DC t-shirt although he knew he would have to change later when they had the basketball tournament. He passed Sam's room and stopped. He couldn't help himself. He had to poke his head in just to make sure everything was alright with his brother, regardless whether he was still pissed at the kid or not. It was just his big brother instincts and he didn't think he would ever lose them whether Sam liked it or not.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the younger boy's room so Dean continued on his way, fiddling with his walkman/EMF meter. He walked out the door into the upstairs foyer area to find Stacey sitting on the couch against the wall listening to her own walkman.
She looked his way, when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and smiled.
"Hey. It's Dean, right?" She asked taking her earphones out of her ear.
"I see you remembered me," he said giving her a cocky smile.
"Don't flatter yourself … my brother hasn't seemed to make a lot of friends at this school so you're kind of hard to forget,"
"Oh right," he said frowning.
Stacey smiled at the small pout that appeared on his face. She could tell that he was used to girls falling head over heals for him. Not that she couldn't understand why, he definitely was gorgeous but it was in her nature to tease, "So Jay told me that you haven't been here long, what brought you here?"
"We moved here for my Dad's work," he explained sitting down next to her on the couch.
"What's your Dad do?"
"Mechanic, what about your Mom?" Dean asked.
"She's a Lawyer."
"Cool."
"Not really," she sighed, "So who was that kid you were arguing with yesterday during the basketball warm-ups?"
"Oh that's just my little geek pain in the ass brother Sammy." He explained.
"Let me tell you that older brothers are pain in the butt's too."
"Well that's the older brother privilege," he told her smirking.
"Oh really is it now?" she replied with a laugh.
"Yeah," Dean said in mock seriousness.
"Is it also an older brother privilege to be an ass?" she asked raising one eyebrow, Dean couldn't help but think how cute she looked when she did that.
"Well depends on how annoying the younger sibling is … it's all in the big brother rule book."
"Sure it is," she said sarcastically, patting him on the knee.
"So Dane Baker huh?" he asked.
Stacey rolled her eyes; she had been waiting for this to come up.
"Yeah Dane … he saw me talking to you yesterday as we headed off in our separate groups. He told me that he didn't want me speaking to you."
Dean snorted, "And do you always let jerks tell you what to do?"
"For one he is not a jerk and secondly I told him I could talk to whoever I wanted to, but that doesn't mean he will be happy about it."
Dean nodded, "Yeah your right, he's not a jerk, he's an ass and that's being polite," he added with a smile on his face for effect.
"He's not that bad ya know."
"If you say so … anyways … how about you come and sit with me at lunch … you know to show some team spirit and all?" he asked with a cheeky smile.
Stacey rolled her eyes at him, "Team spirit huh? I'm pretty sure to have team spirit you actually have to be with the team … you and me don't make up a whole team."
"It's a start," he replied raising his eyebrows hopefully.
"Your hopeless you know that," she told him laughing a little.
"Hey I'm just offering some stimulating company."
"Yeah well thanks for the offer Romeo but I think I'll stick with my boyfriend, besides I think Dane might kick your ass if I ate with you over him."
Dean shook his head and scoffed at the thought, "Sweetheart he might try."
"Cocky aren't we?"
"No just confident," replied with a cocky smile.
Stacey could understand why girls would fall for this guy. He had a confident and flirtatious nature that she had to admit was appealing and the more she talked to him she couldn't drag her eyes away from his big green ones.
She mentally shook her head and reminded herself that she had a boyfriend and that she wasn't going to let this guy get underneath her skin. The two teenagers didn't get a chance to talk any further because the door on the right hand side wall next to the stairs opened to reveal Mr. Taylor.
Dean looked up as soon as he saw the teacher and started to get up, "Mr. Taylor could I speak to you for a moment?" he asked remembering what he had seen the night before.
Both Stacey and Dean looked at each other when the teacher totally ignored Dean's question and continued on downstairs.
"Why are all the attractive ones, either taken or assholes?" Stacey asked no-one in particular.
Dean looked at her incredulously, "So what, you attracted to everyone here but me?" he asked jokingly.
"I never said you weren't attractive."
"Oh really …"
"That doesn't mean that I'll have lunch with you."
"Worth a shot … anyways I would love to sit and experience some more of this wonderful rapport we seem to have going here … but I really do have to speak to Mr. Taylor," he told her walking backwards over to the steps so that he was still facing her.
"0o0o he knows big words too," she teased, standing up and flicking a long black strand of hair back.
"Oh yeah, I'm the full package baby," he said with a smartass grin.
"Whatever dude," she replied laughing, "I'll see you downstairs soon."
"I'll look forward to it," Dean told her as he made his way downstairs as she made her way back into her room to wake Lynda up as she had promised she would.
Once Dean was downstairs he looked around the foyer but couldn't see the young gym teacher anywhere. He had felt an odd vibe coming from the guy when he had came out of the door upstairs. For as long as Dean had been one of his students he could never remember the guy being rude. He always had time for his students.
Maybe the guy had just been preoccupied with something and hadn't heard Dean speak to him. He knew that it was unlikely because he had definitely spoken loud enough for the teacher to hear him but he didn't want to jump to conclusions.
Standing at the base of the stairs he looked across the downstairs foyer and saw a door that he hadn't noticed before. He walked across the room and stood in front of the door. It had a small plaque attached to it that read 'office'. Dean turned around to leave in search of the teacher again but his curiosity got the better of him. Mr. Graham hadn't mentioned this room in his tour of the place and Dean hadn't even noticed until now. He reached out and turned the door knob and found it to be unlocked.
Turning it the whole way he opened the door slowly. He stood in the doorway just taking a quick look when he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. Jumping at the sudden contact he swung around and relaxed when he saw it was Mr. Taylor.
"What do you think you are doing?" Joe asked in a harsh tone that made Dean's eyes narrow.
"I was looking for you. I …" Dean began but was cut off when the hand that gripped his shoulder tightened its grip.
Dean winced and shrugged the hand off, "Dude, get your hands off me."
"That room is off limits Winchester. Don't let me catch you snooping around again or there will be hell to pay. Do you understand?" Joe asked him in an angry tone.
Dean just stood there frowning at the teacher in front of him thinking what the hell? Where the hell had this change come from? He had always seemed so easy going.
"I asked you a question Winchester. Do you understand?"
"Yeah Dude, chill," Dean replied holding his hands up.
"I expect you to answer me properly Winchester. Now do you understand?"
Dean stood there for a few moments with a confused expression on his face. The teacher had never minded being called Dude before. Dean backed against the wall when Joe took a step towards him entering his personal space. It wasn't that he was scared of the teacher in front of him just shocked over the drastic change in personality.
"Yes Sir. I understand perfectly," he answered, keeping his eyes locked on Joe's.
"Make sure that you do." Joe sneered at him as he reached beside the teen and closed the office door shut.
Dean stood standing, his back against the wall as he watched Joe Taylor walk into the dining room. He was still trying to process what the hell had happened. Besides Miss Northam, Mr. Taylor had always been one of his better teachers but the man that had just confronted him was nothing like the man that he had gotten to know over the last couple of months.
Something definitely wasn't right and he was going to find out what it was.
TBC ...
Okay well there it is ... I love reviews so let me know what you think :-)