Author's Note: Sorry to those reading this story that are blond and/or cheerleaders. I don't mean to offend, just playing up high school stereotypes to emphasis that this is all new for Nicole. To an outsider, that is how high school is, so what can you do?

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Supernatural, I'm just a lowly writer that needs something to do.

Chapter Three

Nicole was dragging her feet the next day at school. She thought it would be easy to get home at two a.m. and then get up at six to get to school but boy was she wrong. How do teenagers do it? She wondered as she trudged into the locker room to change for P.E., the first class of the day. Looking around, Nicole groaned; the locker room was going to be an adventure in itself. A small group of girls, cheerleaders, Nicole noted, were gathered around just inside the door, their lockers open, clothes lying on the bench beside them. They were all in their underwear, flaunting their bodies to the less confident majority of the class, who hid behind locker doors, changed quickly and averted their eyes.

The cheerleader from the day before spotted Nicole. Her eyes narrowed and she pranced up to block Nicole's way to her locker.

"Excuse me," Nicole stood her ground, refusing to be intimidated by the blonde bimbo. She'd fought monsters most people couldn't even imagine, no cheerleader who thought her body was better than everyone else was going to scare her.

"I think," The girl kept her voice light and airy, "That someone needs to teach you how things work around here. See, I am Carla Monroe, head of the cheer squad. I get what I want and no one gets in my way. You may think you're cool and that you can be friends with who ever you want, but I get the final say on where you stand in this school. That means you stay away from Adam Milligan, he's mine."

Nicole mentally rolled her eyes, "Whomever."

Carla blinked, "What?"

"It's whomever. I can be friends with whomever I want," Nicole squared her shoulders and looked Carla in the eye, "And you're right. I can pick my own friends and so can Adam. If you have a problem, maybe you should go throw up again to keep your figure in check."

Carla bristled at the comment, "N-no one talks to me like that. You be careful, Nicole, I can make your life miserable."

"Please do," Nicole glared before pushing passed Carla and opening her locker. She changed quickly, but didn't hide the fact that she was toned and in shape. She could hear the slight gasps and whispers from the cheerleaders as she slipped her gym shirt over her head. Smirking, she headed out the field where the couch was waiting.

They were joined by the boys and two captains were selected: one boy, Patrick who Nicole soon learned was the soccer captain, and a girl, Martha who played for the girl's team. Each team picked their players in turn, which Nicole thought was pointless. If they wanted to win, the captains should have only picked the best players. You wouldn't catch Nicole going into battle with some wheezing nerdy kid with coke-bottle glasses that couldn't hold his own with a shot gun, but whatever.

As they moved out to the middle of the field, Adam fell into step beside Nicole, "Are you ready?"

Cocking an eyebrow, Nicole glanced up at him, "For what?"

Adam grinned, "To lose. You got picked by the losing team while I got picked by the winning team."

"Please, just because you're on the team doesn't mean you can win, you're only one player, Adam." Nicole joked, though to be honest, glancing around at her team mates he wasn't wrong about her team being a loser team. From the pickings, they had gotten only a handful of people that looked like they knew what they were doing. Everyone else looked scared. P.E. was the cruelest class ever, Nicole thought as some scrawny kid pulled out his inhaler and took a puff.

"Just wait," Adam was saying, "I say my team wins."

"Really? Well, why don't we bet on it?" Nicole hated that her voice sounded brisk and defensive, but what could she do? She was working off minimal sleep and she always got cranky when she was tired.

Adam laughed, his smile taking the edge off Nicole, "Sure. What do you want if you win?"

"Hey!" The couch shouted, "No betting on the games, it is bad sportsmanship. Get into position!"

Before Nicole hurried to her post on the left side, she whispered to Adam, "We win, you buy me lunch today."

"And if you lose?" Adam muttered.

Nicole glanced around Adam's team. Carla and her friends hung back by the goal post, checking their manicures. "I won't."

Adam's laughter was drowned out by the sudden whistle and a dozen kids lurching for the ball.

The key to winning isn't always offense. Sometimes, you had to board up the windows, salt the doorways and hunker down while you wait for enemy to come to you. It was a strategy every hunter knew and used often when outmanned and it was the strategy Nicole used now. She played defense, keeping close to the ball, guarding the goal and waiting for the other team to show weakness before stealing the ball.

Unfortunately, Adam's team was better and by the end of the period, they were up by two points. Nicole could have handled the loss better if Carla hadn't been on the winning team.

"Looks like my team won," Carla bragged in the locker room, dressed only in her towel as she stopped by Nicole's locker. "Big surprise. Like I told you earlier, I run this school and I get what I want, even a win during gym class."

Nicole took a deep breath to calm down. This girl was getting on her nerves, "Carla, you're team may have won, but it wasn't because of you."

Glaring, Carla turned away, "Just watch your back, Nicole."

Nicole grabbed her backpack and left the locker room, ignoring the cheerleader's threat. In the hall, Adam was waiting for her.

"So, my team won, I believe the way gambling works is that I now get the prize money," He teased as they weaved their way through the halls.

Nicole smiled, forgetting her cheer problem and cheering right up, "I don't believe a prize was specified if you won. Bummer."

"Not so fast," They came to a stop outside Nicole's class, "I get to pick the prize."

Rolling her eyes mockingly, Nicole argued, "No, you don't. You have to pick a prize before the bet is made."

"Nonsense," Adam insisted, "This is high school; things are different here."

"Sure," Nicole nodded, feigning seriousness.

Adam continued, "And so, as winner of the bet, I select my prize to be ice cream after school. You're buying, of course."

"You're a horrible date," Nicole teased before slipping into class.

As she took her seat, her smile fell and she wrinkled her brow in concern. The job was going well, she was Adam's friend and would be spending more time with him but when she was with him, she was comfortable. Comfortable in her line of work was not good; her guard was lowered and things could get by her, like the three guys sitting in the corner that had slipped in when she wasn't paying attention. If they had been demons, Adam would be dead and she would have failed John, her father, and herself.