God knows, (maybe, if he's paying any attention) that Sam is trying to treat Dean the same as always, but unlike Cas he sees the outside – not Dean's soul - and sees the behaviors, and, yeah, Dean frequently acts like a kid anyway, and it's damned hard to look at this cute kid and not think "kid" and damned near impossible to remember "older than I am." But Sam is trying, and he swears Dean is trying to drive him crazy.
Okay, so Sam understands Dean's insistence on being driven to school, the bus comes at an ungodly awful hour of the morning. He has given Dean a dose of anti-anxiety medicine and is taking a bottle in to the school nurse's office as instructed. Mental checklist, be kind because your older brother is having a nervous breakdown about being de-aged and forced to spent copious amounts of time near teenagers. Try to cheer him up. Humor him. And, above all, don't kill him on the way to school on his first day.
"You know it would be a better use of time if I spent the day helping you try to find the fucking fairy," Dean grouses at him.
Sam sighs. "We've had this discussion, Dean. We need to comply with CPS." Sam is repeating himself, so he decides to try step two of the plan. Trying to cheer Dean up, Sam says, "Well think of all the cute chicks and cheerleaders you'll get to hang out with."
Dean sneers. "Cute cheerleaders are jailbait, Sammy. I don't perv over children." Dean glares at him, daring him to say something about his outer shell. "I prefer women with experience, so wish me a hot teacher."
"Don't go hitting on your teachers, Dean. God, you are so embarrassing sometimes."
"Wouldn't be the first time I got hot with teacher, Sammy. Yeesh, what, you mean you didn't?" Dean pokes his brother. "Oh, that's right; you were like a virgin until college. Was that like a promise ring thing?"
"I am not having this conversation with you, Dean." Sam turns on the music. Dean reaches over and turns it off. Sam turns it on again and smacks Dean's hand away when he reaches to turn it off again. Sam is relieved when they reach the school, both of them alive and in one piece. And he tries not to worry about how young and defenseless (and unarmed because Sam disarmed him before they left home), Dean looks as he shoulders his backpack and stalks off without saying goodbye.
And little. Dean is so small compared to most of these kids who are mostly older than Dean looks right now. Sam takes a deep shaky breath. Then jumps, as Cas is standing too close to him.
"He is very agitated," Cas says. "Will he be okay? Should I accompany him?"
Sam closes the car door as he heads into the building. "Just try to capture the sylph, Cas. He'll be okay. I mean millions of kids go to high school every day and they do okay. Dean will be just fine." Sam is saying this to calm himself as well as Cas.
Dean is reminding himself to breathe as he stops by the counselor's office to turn in his paperwork and pick up his official schedule. As he walks through the hall on his way to auto shop, following the map he needs for this school that holds 1,850-something students, Dean tells himself not to exhibit prey behavior. To keep his chin up and shoulders back. He's still trying to portray an aura of calm as he slides into the large classroom that opens onto garage bays, and freezes when all eyes are on him once he's in the classroom.
There are 32 students in the class; the youngest besides Dean is 16. Most of them look more like the type who will grow up to shoot pool and work with their hands. The room smells of motor oil and gasoline, and Dean feels at home inside. Oh, he knows they're gonna test him, but he knows them – people like them – and he fits here. So, okay, he'll take some ribbing for being a kid, but they will respect his knowledge and ability. Dean may remember to thank Sam for this. It's not a bad way to start the day, he thinks.
The teacher sends him with the class ringleader to a group working on an old beater car, and no matter how they test him, Dean passes. Plus, he gets to talking about working on his car, and damn, they all want to see it. Dean beams because he loves his baby. Dean doesn't even notice when Ms. Melendez slips into the room to talk to the shop teacher, Mr. Clark. Both watch him to see how well he's doing before she slips back out.
A couple of the other shop students walk with Dean a little way before they peel off, and he wanders into his advanced English composition class. No hot chick teacher here. This one, a middle-aged, over-weight, pug-nosed spinster sniffs at the grease in the creases of his hand as he offers his enrollment paper.
She, Miss Rosa, was forewarned she was getting a 14-year old prodigy in her senior advanced placement class, three weeks into the semester no less. He's a cute little waif, she thinks, as he peers up at her shyly with beautiful jade green eyes under thick lashes, and she decides it's not his fault that he has been stuck in an automotive class. Miss Rosa makes a big deal over him to the class before letting him sit down.
They have just started a segment about Poe, and Dean figures he'll be able to hold her own. Miss Rosa said the writing portion is to complete an original horror short story, and Dean smiles at her. "Sounds like fun," he says, and she can't help but smile back. Some of the older guys, who are used to Miss Rosa simpering at them give him stink eye, but he ignores them.
Third period is Psych 101. The class is taught by a professor from Texas A&M Corpus Christi; he likes to be called Doctor Gibbons. This is a small class, and Gibbons requires Dean to spend his first day completing earlier tests he has required. Fortunately, Dean has been honing up on his psychology just recently. Plus, he made kind of a self study of it when he was hunting on his own, teaching himself to be a better con-man.
Fourth period is Mr. Linquist. He and the other advance placement math students accept Dean as soon as he demonstrates he knows the language of math. Linquist realizes that this student loves practical math applications best and, while young, can hold his own. The class is small and mostly male, Dean feels like the majority of them remind him of his geeky brother. Nothing wrong with the kids, he thinks, he just feels like he fits in better with the kids from auto shop.
It's Wednesday, so Dean makes his way to his required student grief group in the Counseling Center to eat his lunch. Mr. Roberts meets him in the lobby area and brings him back where there are five other students in a circle of chairs. Dean doesn't know any of them and except for saying "Hi, I'm Dean" during the introduction, he sits quietly and listens while eating his lunch. Attending may be mandatory for him, but Dean figures it will take an act of Congress, or more, to make him spill his guts to this group. When Mr. Roberts tries to gently draw Dean out, he gets short, painfully polite, responses, and decides to let his newest group member have more time. He does require Dean to go see the school nurse for another dose of anti-anxiety medicine.
Astronomy is interesting, even if they aren't learning anything Dean hasn't taught himself, read about, or observed as he watched the stars. This class is also taught by a college professor, a stick thin short guy who goes by the name Mr. T, and Dean has met several of the students in his earlier math class. The government class is taught by a younger female teacher, a good-looking brunette with big blue eyes, named Ms. Templeton. Dean gives her a slow smile of appreciation when he hands her his enrollment paperwork, and she blushes and shoos him away, thinking he's a precocious kid. The same group of older teen boys from his morning English class seems to be in this group, and the dark-haired ringleader notices Dean's interaction with the teacher. He nudges his friends and the whisper. Dean ignores them, keeping his appreciative eyes on the only good looking teacher he has. He thinks of it as his reward for getting most of the way through the day.
Final class period of the day finds Dean in a large group of student athletes. Mostly these are the members of the baseball team, but there are also some who participate in field events in track and field. These are the varsity team members, and they, and their coaches, are less than happy to have a scrawny egg-head assigned to their section. Except for a couple of the guys Dean met in auto shop who greet him like a potential friend, and a group of five senior boys who share his English and government classes, the rest of the students ignore the newcomer.
The entire male coaching staff is in the gym this time of day, and they are not pleased to have to baby sit, no matter how tragic the kid's story is – mom dead in a house fire when he was a little kid, dad killed in a car accident. They melt a little in their icy looks when they see the scars the kid tries to hide as he changes out in the locker room. They also notice the kid has managed to make friends and enemies on his first day. Quickly discussing him, they decide to see if he has any hidden athletic skills before maybe making him part of the group of student trainers.
Hot for teacher-and bullies