A/N: oook so this is an okay chapter. it's not really the most exciting but it's really important! there's lots thats really important for the rest of the story so i hope you enjoy this woo this chapter and the next one will explore more of the bullying thing :( nothing too bad happens though so don't worry! anyway yeah here's the chapter yay

Thursday morning, Dean and Cas showed up to school together. They had hung out the previous day, all afternoon spent Dean's room, just talking. Mostly Dean asking Cas questions. His favorite band, his favorite movies, stuff like that. Even with Dean, Cas wasn't one to volunteer information about himself unless he was asked.

Dean and Cas were making their way to the school building when they heard a nasally voice behind them.

"Hey, guys. How ya doing?"

They stopped walking and turned around to face the person talking. "Alastair. Great to see you. Now fuck off," Dean said angrily.

"Come on, guys. We're friends, aren't we? Now I've heard some things about you two, things that I found very interesting... I heard you guys were a couple of-"

Alastair abruptly stopped talking when Dean's fist connected with his face. Dean wasn't going to let Alastair go any further, and he took by Cas by the arm and led him away, leaving Alastair standing bewildered in the parking lot, clutching his jaw.

"Dean..."

"Cas, it's okay. Don't worry about him. I'll take care of it."

"You'll take care of it? Well, I can fight my own battles, Dean. I don't need you to take care of anything."

"This is our battle, Cas; I don't know if you realized that." Dean put his hands on Cas's shoulders and lightly placed his lips on Cas's cheek before stepping into his class and leaving Cas standing wide-eyed in the hallway.

Dean stumbled to his seat in his economics class and caught sight of Alastair glaring at him from across the room. Dean turned the other way and noticed Chuck also staring at him, although less viciously than Alastair. "Hey, Chuck."

Chuck smiled nervously. "H-hey, Dean. Soo...Castiel, huh..." Dean rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Chuck. Yeah." Was this the only thing anyone was ever going to talk to him about now? It wasn't just people like Chuck and assholes like Alastair. It was everybody. Walking down the hall, Dean felt like everyone's eyes were on him. He walked past Sam on the way to physics and Sam pulled him aside.

"Dude, are you okay? You look like the whole world's out to get you or something," Sam said, looking up at his brother with a concerned expression on his face.

"Well Sam, maybe that's because the whole world is out to get me!"

Sam looked at his watch and then sympathetically back at Dean. "I'm gonna be late for math but talk later? I need a ride home today!" Sam rushed off, leaving Dean irritated in the hallway. He made his way to his next class, deciding that he needed to have another talk with Jo.

In physics, they were doing some kind of experiment and Jo was Dean's lab partner. Dean let Jo take the reins on the science stuff while he sat back and voiced his problems.

"I don't like all this attention. Alastair probably put a price on my head after this morning and all of our friends are talking to me saying the same stupid shit like 'so, Castiel, huh?' and this is all your fault!"

Jo put a hand on Dean's shoulder. "No, no, no, Dean. The thing with Alastair, first of all, is your fault. You didn't have to hit him."

"Yes I did!"

Jo shook her head. "No, you didn't. And maybe I did suggest to our friends that something was going on, but they would've figured it out eventually without my help. I mean, have you seen the way Castiel looks at you?"

"Yeah," Dean mumbled, "last time someone looked at me like that, I got laid."

"Didn't need to hear that, Dean. Anyway, so what if you're getting a bit more attention? Suck it up."

"Easy for you to say," Dean scoffed. "You're not in this situation. And what about Cas? He's new and he was already getting picked on before all this, what's it like for him now?"

Jo rolled her eyes. "Dean, you're exaggerating. Everyone loves Castiel! Maybe some assholes are giving him a hard time, but there's a lot of people who think he's pretty cool. Sam wants him to join the math club."

Dean stood up. "Math club? Fuckin' Sam is trying to turn my boyfriend into a nerd!" Dean noticed the smirk on Jo's face and realized what he had just said. He hadn't acknowledged Cas as his...boyfriend before.

Castiel and Sam were in the same math class, even though Sam was just a sophomore. Cas was sitting quietly working when Sam leaned over to him. "Hey, Castiel. You know what? You should join math club," Sam whispered.

Cas shook his head. "No, thank you, Sam. I don't really like clubs."

"But math club is so fun! You'd love it!" Out of the corner of his eye, Cas saw a hand reach out and lightly smack Sam on the back of his head. "Ow, Anna, what the hell?" Castiel turned to look at the redhead girl sitting behind Sam.

"Don't listen to him, Castiel, math club is dumb." Sam mumbled that it was not dumb, but Anna talked over him. "I'm Anna." She extended her hand and Cas gingerly shook it. "So, Castiel, where did you move from again?"

"Chicago."

Anna nodded. "Right. That's cool. So you're...friends...with Dean Winchester?"

Castiel bit his lip. "Um..."

Anna raised her eyebrows. "It's okay, you don't have to talk about it...if you don't want to." Castiel was silent. Anna continued, "So I"m having this party at my house tomorrow night, and you should come! Dean's invited, too." Anna turned her attention briefly to the boy in front of her. "You can come too, Sam. I guess." Anna glanced back at Cas expectantly.

"Oh, um. How nice of you. Sure, I'll go to your party..." Castiel said slowly.

Anna's face lit up. "Awesome!"

After math it was time for lunch. Castiel didn't know what class Dean would be getting out of so he just followed Sam to the table where their friends usually sat. Dean and Jo walked up a couple minutes later. Sam had been sitting next to Cas, but he moved so that Dean could sit next to Cas. "Dean," Cas said quietly.

"Yeah, Cas?"

"This girl, Anna, is having a party tomorrow and I told her we would go."

"Anna? She's kind of annoying...but if you want to go, we'll be there."

Jo chimed in, "Anna's having a party? I don't remember her inviting me!" Jo got up to go find Anna, and Cas leaned over and rested on Dean's shoulder. He felt Dean wrap an arm around his waist. Cas had been really upset about moving to Lawrence, Kansas from Chicago, but now that he was there, he didn't mind it at all. He tuned out the conversation going on around him and focused on the warmth radiating from Dean and how right it felt to be leaning against him.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Jo returned. "Hey, do y'all want to come over to my house after school? I already called Ellen, she said it was okay... Becky and Chuck will be there." Jo looked around the table and everyone agreed to go over to Jo's house. "Sam, you're friends with Gabriel, right?" Jo asked and Sam nodded. "You should ask him to come, too." Sam nodded again.

After school, Dean, Cas, Sam, and Gabriel all piled into the Impala and drove to Jo's house.

"Hey, Ellen," Dean said when Jo's mom greeted them at the door.

"I think Jo's taking everyone into the living room," Ellen told the group. They thanked her, and Dean led the way to the room in the back of the house. Dean and Cas sat next to each other on a couch. Cas had a nice time, sitting with Dean, talking with his new friends. He got to know Chuck a little better and it turned out that Chuck was pretty cool, even though everyone else seemed to think he was a little annoying.

Ellen kicked everyone out at 11:00, insisting that since it was a school night, everyone needed to get home.

Dean gave Cas and Gabriel a ride home. When they pulled up to the Novak's house, Dean leaned over and kissed Castiel on the cheek again. "I'll come pick you up in the morning, okay?" Cas said okay and smiled at Dean before getting out of the car.

When he and Gabriel were watching the Impala drive away, Gabriel muttered, "Michael wouldn't be too happy about that, you know."

Castiel turned to his brother angrily. "Then don't tell him. I don't care what Michael thinks anyway."

The next day when Dean and Castiel showed up to school, they didn't run into any trouble. Dean noticed a few people saying 'hi' to Cas in the hallway. Jo was right, there were a lot of people who seemed to think Cas was pretty cool.

When the day was over Dean dropped Cas off at his house to get ready for the party. "I'll pick you up at 7, okay?" Dean drove home and took a shower and changed his clothes. Dean took some food from the fridge and had a quick meal before heading out the door a few minutes before 7.

With Cas in the car, they were ready to go. Dean was looking up directions to Anna's house on his phone when Cas spoke up from the passenger seat. "Dean...I've never been to many parties." Dean looked up from the screen of the phone. He put an arm around Cas's shoulders.

"That's okay. This will be fun, I promise."

"If you say so, Dean."

Dean kissed Castiel. "It'll be okay. And we can leave whenever you want." Cas nodded nervously. "Okay, you ready?"