Author's Note: So originally this was apart of a much bigger chapter that would've been probably the biggest one yet but it would've taken me a whole other week or two to finish it, so I just decided to break it into two parts. I hope to have the second part up soon (though I still have to finish the ending and then edit it for mistakes) but hopefully this little bit will tide you over until then. And remember, read & review!

The time quickly ticked by as the rustle of the students stomping outside the hallway signaled that their time had sadly came to an end. Dean let out a sigh of relief when he was finally able to move his stiff joints (turns out, sitting still is harder than expected) before he reached for Castiel's sketchpad, "Okay, let's see this bad boy."

"Not yet," Cas said strongly as he batted Dean's hand away and closed the sketchpad shut before Dean even got to see so much as a glimpse, "It isn't finished. I still have to do some minor touch-ups and proper shading before it is suitable for viewing."

"I'm sure it looks awesome, Cas," Dean assured him, "Come on, just a small peek? Seriously, I think I at least deserve that after all the hard work I've done."

Castiel rolled his eyes, "You just sat there, Dean. How is that hard work?"

"Hey, sometimes being my naturally beautiful self is tiring, you know."

Cas rolled his eyes again but instead of replying with snide comeback, he simply just picked up his books and moved toward the exit.

"What's your homeroom?' Dean asked as he stood up and walked quickly to catch up with him.

Cas sighed miserably, "Unfortunately, I have AP Physics with Mr. Roman."

Dean winced in sympathy when he heard the familiar name, "Shit, that guy's a total Dick." He paused and waited for Castiel to politely laugh at his failing attempt of a joke, but Cas didn't so much as blink.

"You get it?" Dean asked, feeling pretty sure the boy did (he is kinda smart, after all) but this is Castiel he's talking about, whom wouldn't get a joke even if it hit him over the head, "You know, since his actually name is Dick and…" Dammit, Cas, it's not funny if I have to explain it, Dean muttered silently to himself.

"Actually, his full name is Richard," Castiel stated seriously before adding in the exact same neutral tone, "But I do suppose he goes by Dick since, as the saying goes, 'you are what you eat,' correct?"

Dean stopped dead in his tracks and jerked his head to stare at the boy with a shocked expression as Castiel's words slowly processed in his brain.

Castiel Novak just told a joke.

And it was actually funny.

"It's a miracle," Dean hollered with glee as he grabbed Cas by the coat and exclaimed, "You actually are a human being!"

Apparently, his shouts had finally jolted Mr. Shurley awake as his head flew off the desk and he almost fell out of his chair, "I'm up! Wait, where am I?" His eyes then found the two boys that were standing in the doorway and his forehead wrinkled in confusion, "Milton? Winchester? You're not in my class until seventh period."

"Actually, Sir—" Cas began to remind him that he was in charge of morning detentions but Dean clamped a hand over his mouth, hatching a brilliant plan.

"Sorry, we forgot." He then looked to Cas and slung an arm over his shoulder, "C'mon, Milton, we gotta get to class, right?"

"Um…I suppose," Cas said slowly, his confusion evident in his tone as his eyes zeroed in on Dean's arm around him. Dean grinned at the teacher and half-heartedly did a salute before going out into the hallway, tugging Castiel along with him. It wasn't until then did Dean finally detach himself from Cas and motioned for the other boy to follow him as he walked calmly to his locker. Castiel nodded and followed closely behind as they weaved through the overflowing hoard of students pushing to hurry and get to class.

They were almost there to their destination when Dean was suddenly grabbed from behind and pulled into the nearest janitor's closet. After he got over his initial shock, Dean was ready to start throwing punches when the lights flickered on and he got a look at who it was.

"Garth?"

"Sup, Kemosabe," The scrawny sophomore greeted cheerfully with a happy grin on his face, "Looks like you almost forgot our appointment."

Dean furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to ask what the hell he was talking about, but a shy knock at the door cut him off, "Um…Dean, are you alright?"

Dean let out a relieved sigh as he yanked the door open, revealing Castiel standing at the door with the same confusion Dean felt written plainly on his face.

"It's okay, Cas," Dean assured him, "It's just one of my best friend's creepy stalker."

"Stalking is a strong word." Garth said shyly, earning a smile from Cas as he nodded in agreement. Dean rolled his eyes and muttered something unintelligent about "being surrounded by freakin' lunatics" under his breath as he exited the closet and walked back into the hallway, dragging Garth out with him.

And of course, who did he find right behind Castiel waiting for Dean to get out?

"Dean-o, you finally came out of the closet! It's about damn time." Gabriel exclaimed with mock cheer with his arm wrapped around Anna Milton, who was surprisingly not glaring at Dean but staring at Cas with an unreadable expression.

Instead of shooting Gabe a dirty look like he usually does, Dean just smirked knowingly at him and said sweetly, "I have two innocent words for you: Willy Wonka."

The way Gabriel's face drastically changed from amused glee to complete humiliation was so priceless Dean wished he had brought a camera with him.

Gabriel, whose face was now red with embarrassment and a dash of fury, set his murderous glare onto his brother, "What the fuck, Cassie? We had an agreement! I even signed a damn contract for you!"

Cas, despite Gabe's intimidating pissed off appearance, looked as though he was trying his absolute hardest to keep a grin off his face as he pointed out evenly, "Actually, our deal was that I would not tell Kali; whoever else I choose to share the piece of evidence with is completely irrelevant."

"Fuck that shit! I watch Law & Order, Bitch! I'm gonna sue you." Gabriel sputtered out and looked ready to fire out even more profanities but stopped abruptly when Anna put a hand on his arm.

"Gabe, as your legal advisor, I would encourage you to not say anymore before Cassie starts filing a complaint against you for harassment." She said seriously but there was ghost of a smile on her face and a humored twinkle in her hazel eyes, "Now I'm afraid you can't take any legal action towards our brother since he had not breached the contract just by telling someone else. You, however, are still obligated to give Dean a formal apology."

Gabe opened his mouth several times for protests and rebuttals, but always shut his mouth soon after. Finally, he set his angered amber eyes on Dean and grounded out sourly, "I…am….sorry, Dean." He looked like he was finished and Dean opened his mouth to say apology accepted, but Gabriel then smirked and added quickly, "…That you're gay for my baby brother and are too much in denial to ever admit it."

All forgiving words Dean was about to say died in his throat as his jaw fell open. Castiel, however, seemed perfectly in control of his voice as he flushed pink and hissed harshly, "That was never in the agreement!"

Gabriel's smirk grew as he shrugged unapologetically, "Hey, all you said was to apologize. You didn't say for what."

"I-I…I…" Dean tried his hardest to form legible words and when he was finally able to, he found himself sputtering out angrily, "Y-You have to proof!" Please tell me I didn't say that. Please tell me that was just in my head. Oh pretty please tell me I didn't just fucking say that.

But his pleas went unheard as Gabriel beamed and took it as a challenge, "Oh, please let me! Exhibit A: You two don't understand the term of 'personal space.'" He pointed to them and that's when Dean finally realized that he and Cas were practically shoulder-to-shoulder as everyone else was at least a foot or two apart from one another.

Dean instantly jumped away from Cas and tried to ignore the fleeting hurt look that Castiel gave him when he did so. Dean's eyes softened and opened his mouth to apologize, but Gabriel cut him off, "Exhibit B: The eye-fucking we got goin' on here. Seriously, I really didn't think it was possible to make-out with just your eyeballs but somehow you two make it work. Now for my third point—"

"Gabe, knock it off," Anna ordered sternly, scowling at her older brother, "Leave Castiel and his…friend alone, okay?" She said the word friend like it was acid on her tongue and Dean didn't try his hardest to keep himself from glaring at her.

Gabriel looked ready to argue but by the death glare he received from Anna as a warning, he began to pout and his shoulders sagged in defeat as he grumbled, "Fine, whatever. It wasn't much fun anyway."

Anna let out an amused snort and looked down to check her watch, "Come on. We gotta get goin' to World History before the bell rings."

Gabriel sighed and reluctantly nodded, but just as he passed by them to get to class, his hand came out and gave Castiel's ass a hard slap that made the boy jump, "See you in AP Calc, Cassie. Just don't let Dean-o here ogle your ass too much. I mean, you should at least make him buy you dinner first." Gabriel threw a glance over his shoulder just in time to see Dean's expression turned deadly as his teeth clenched in anger.

Meanwhile, Castiel flushed deep red as he watched his brother take his leave, but Dean wasn't for sure if it was in embarrassment or anger. Probably both.

"You're welcome," Anna said with a smile, addressing all of three them though her eyes were solely on Castiel. Dean watched Cas' color faded back to normal as the boy didn't even acknowledge his sister's presence, looking as if she had never even spoken.

Anna's smile slowly wilted away as she chewed the bottom of her lip anxiously for a few moments until a small sigh escaped her lips, "Look, Cas, I—"

"Don't call me that," His words were cold and lacked any sense of emotion, but by the way his blue eyes flared up as he switched his gaze to stare at her proved his clear anger, "Only Dean gets to call me that. Not Michael, not Raphael, not Gabriel, and especially not you."

Anna did her best to cover up her flinch at his words but Dean still managed to catch it, "Cas, please don't be like that—"

"We should go, Dean," Cas said plainly, already beginning to walk further down the hall and away from his adoptive sister, "You may come too, Garth." Dean didn't know what was going on but sent a mocking smirk to Anna anyway before jogging fast to catch up with Cas.

Garth gave her a lopsided grin and salute, "Nice meeting you, Red. Sorry those two hate your guts."

Anna appeared almost wounded as she mumbled deniably, "Castiel does not hate me."

Garth snorted, "Yea, alright." And with that, Garth left hurriedly to catch up with the other two, leaving Anna Milton feeling broken, hurt, sad, and irrationally but inexplicably enraged at Dean Freaking Winchester.

"Dude, what the hell was that about?" Dean demanded once he and Garth fell back in step with Cas.

The boy shrugged, "What was what about?"

Dean made wild hand motions behind them, "That whole pissing match with Anna—"

"What about it?" Cas asked evenly, though his defensive stance seemed to dare him to say anything more.

Now this made Dean shut up about it as he chirped out, "Nothing. Never mind." There was a brief moment of silence that settled over the three until Garth, the one person that Dean wanted to keep his mouth shut, spoke up.

He arched an eyebrow at Dean and motioned to Castiel, "So is this the Cas you mistook me for when you saved me from getting pounded on by Alastair?"

Dean flushed slightly, "I don't recall doing that." He shot a quick nervous sideways glance at Castiel and found the boy looking oddly amused at Garth's statement as he gazed at Dean with a cocked eyebrow and a curious smile.

Dean felt himself grinning bashfully back as he bumped Castiel's shoulder with his own, "Shut up."

Garth noticed the closeness and slightly intimate room between the two and wiggled his finger at them with a furrowed brow, "Um…are you two, you know…"

"What?" Dean snapped as he sent a death glare in Garth's direction, warning him not to elaborate further unless he wants Alastair's harassing to look like a mere doctor check-up when he was done with him.

"Never mind. It's not important." Garth said quickly, averted his gaze, "Uh…anyway, so when are we gonna pounce on the prey?"

Dean furrowed his brow, "What?"

"You know," Garth said exasperated, like the guy couldn't believe Dean had forgotten, "Avenging the beautiful and lovely Jo Harvelle."

A light bulb finally went on and Dean sighed in realization, vaguely remembering what he had told Garth just to get away from him, "Oh yea…Look, just leave it to me, okay? Unlike you, I actually know how to handle these kind of situations."

"But—"

"Garth, face it. You're a living French fry," Dean pointed out, cutting off the sophomore's weak protests, "He will snap you in half like a freaking twig. At least I'll have a fair shot at getting in a couple blows after school today in the parking lot."

Garth looked ready to argue further, but Cas cut him off, "Why don't you just get your revenge on Alastair anonymously so no one will be held accountable for their actions against him?"

Dean looked to Castiel and arched an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

Cas noticed both the boys staring at him now and shrugged shyly before continuing in a quiet hesitant tone, "I mean, you know he's going to try and get payback if he knew it was the two of you messing with him. Wouldn't it be more satisfying and entertaining to see him furious and paranoid since he doesn't know who it was that targeted him?"

"But then he won't know why he's getting punished in the first place." Garth pointed out, earning a nod from Dean in agreement.

"Create a message that explains why he's being punished," Castiel informed him before adding, "Just be sure to not put any specific names in it though. That would just give you away."

"How do you know so much about this stuff?" Dean asked out of pure curiosity.

"I learned it from Gabriel and Balthazar." Cas told him somewhat reluctantly, looking strangely uncomfortable at the innocent question.

"Learned what exactly?"

Castiel rolled his eyes exasperatedly like he couldn't believe he had even asked such a question, "Getting revenge in secret, Dean. They showed me what to do to….certain people that were being overwhelmingly cruel to me."

"Like who?"

"Alastair and Tom," Cas answered very lowly, looking around cautiously for any eavesdroppers that were listening in on their now private conversation, "I'm sorry, Dean. I know the three of you are friends and all, but they did something just horrendous to me freshmen year and I finally snapped. Gabriel helped me create the perfect prank and Balthazar aided me in setting it up. It was so long ago, I had almost forgot all about it."

Dean wanted to ask what those two assholes did that was so….horrendous (he doesn't really know what that word even means but he can tell it doesn't mean all puppies and rainbows either), but Garth interrupted him with his own question, "What'd you do?"

Cas smiled weakly, "Balthazar and I may have broken into both their homes in the dead of night and shaved their eyebrows off while they were asleep."

Dean's eyes widened as he stared at Cas in shock, "That was you?"

Castiel seemed to sink into himself and nodded meekly, "I know it was rather childish and I apologize if I made you angry with me—"

"Dude, don't apologize. That was awesome!" Dean said with a wide grin, slapping Cas on the back in appreciation, "I mean, Al and Tom didn't sleep for a whole month after that! It was seriously on of the best pranks I've seen pulled on those two without the said prankster getting both his legs broken."

Castiel seemed relieved (and maybe a little pleased) at his praise but looked up at Dean in confusion, "But, Dean, aren't they your friends?"

"No. Well…I mean, yea, but it's not like—" Dean had trouble forming the right words to answer him, feeling unable to correctly explain the complicated and conflicted friendship he had with Alastair and Tom, "Look, just because I hang out with those dicks doesn't mean that I actually like them."

"Then why do you hang out with them?"

Dean stayed to respond but suddenly found himself wondering the exact same thing. Why does he hang out with those bastards? He doesn't like them that much—actually, not even in the slightest if he really thought about it. Hell, he doesn't even like Ruby or Bela either for that matter—one's a little too slutty for his liking and the other is a stuck up, manipulative bitch that could actually steal everything in our whole house while you right in the other room without you even knowing what was really going on (at first Dean thought it was kind of a turn-on but it eventually got pretty damn annoying when he'd sleep with her and then find his wallet a hundred dollars short).

But continuously he doesn't voice his true opinions of them and constantly spends time in their unfortunate company since that's the only thing he knows to do. Sure, there are some times when Dean's come close to tell them to go fuck off and never come back but just as the words were about to spew out of his mouth, he'd always chicken out. He's just been around their dumb asses so long, he doesn't even know why he ever thought hanging out with the "cool crowd" was worth losing his self-respect.

"I don't know, Cas," Dean admitted quietly after a long moment of silence, "Force of habit, I guess."

"I used to have habit of collecting dead dragon flies," Garth piped up, earning a look of dismay from Dean as the boy continued, "But then my cat ate them."

This seemed to perk Castiel's interest as he looked to Garth with a look of pure awe, "You have a cat?"

"Used to. It got electrocuted a few years back." Garth replied, shrugging, "But then I got Mr. Fizzles and everything was okay."

"Mr. Fizzles," Dean repeated with a furrowed brow, "What's that? A hamster?"

Garth grinned as he started to dig through his backpack, "No, he's way better-looking." And of all the damn things he pulled out, it was a fucking sock-puppet that looked as though it was made by a freaking five year old, "Say hello to Mr. Fizzles, Fellas."

Castiel leaned into Dean and whispered lowly in his ear, "Dean, are you sure this boy has the mental capacity to be in high school?"

Dean chuckled and shook his head, "Nah, I think teachers just kept passing him so they wouldn't have to put up with him another year."

Garth, over-hearing their conversation, smiled sheepishly and shrugged, "Hey, it's worked so far."

Dean laughed and opened his mouth to comment when suddenly an unfamiliar female voice cut him off, "Castiel!"

Dean saw Castiel's eyes brightened as he spun around in the direction of the voice and smiled, "Rachel? I thought you were avoiding me."

Dean was puzzled and turned around only to find a tall and skinny girl wearing a pencil shirt and blue dress-shirt staring directly at Castiel with a small smile on her face as she rolled her eyes and said, "Of course not. You know I wouldn't be able to do that even if I tried." Her gaze then drifted from Castiel over to Dean and her friendly demeanor vanished as her face went into a displeased frown.

"I see what Balthazar said was true then," She said to Cas in a careful tone as she stared judgmentally at Dean, "You're messing around with the mechanic's son?"

Dean's face tightened but Castiel was the first one to speak as he scolded her with a dash of annoyance in his voice, "Don't refer to him as that. His name is Dean."

"Yes, I've heard about you," The girl said evenly as she looked back to Dean and tilted her head, "You're the boy Castiel has been fixated on, correct?"

What?

"Uh—"

"Rachel, you know better than to believe everything Balthazar says," Cas told her, looking almost defensive, "We're just friends." Even though that innocent statement couldn't be anymore true, Dean felt as if it was a punch in the gut. But luckily, the two were too busy sizing one another up to notice Dean's somewhat hurt expression. But seriously, why was he upset? That's exactly what he had wanted to hear from Castiel's mouth just to remind himself that there was nothing going on between them. He knew this, but that knowledge didn't make it hurt any less.

"I'm sorry, but who are again?" Dean blurted out after a few moments of tense quietness.

It wasn't until he heard Dean's voice did Castiel finally break his glare and look at him, "Dean, this is Rachel Garrison. She's my cousin." He then switched his gaze back to Rachel and motioned to Dean, "Rachel, this is Dean Winchester."

Rachel gave Dean an obvious forced smile as she stuck out her hand, "Hello, Dean. It's lovely to meet your acquaintance."

"Likewise." Dean responded as he briefly shook her hand before letting it fall back to his side again. He looked to his left for Garth to help him out in this awkward conversation (though why he thought Garth could help lessen the awkwardness was beyond him) but found him nowhere to be seen. It wasn't until he looked further down the hall did he see Garth desperately trying to get Jo Harvelle's attention as she deliberately ignored him and continued to keep her entire focus on Charlie.

"What did you want, Rachel?" Castiel asked, bringing Dean's attention back to the dreadful situation he was in.

Rachel smiled and cocked an eyebrow, "What's with the cold stature, Castiel? I thought you were glad to see me."

"I am." Cas assured her before he looked back to Dean, "But as you could see I was in the middle of a conversation. The polite thing to do is at least wait until I was finished conversing with Dean."

"Ms. Tapping sent me to fetch you," She explained cautiously, her tone sounding as though there was hidden meaning to her words, "She wants to talk to you about something."

Beside him, Dean felt Castiel tense, making it obvious that he had caught on to what she was truly saying (though Dean had no freaking clue to what was going on), "Can't it wait until I get home?"

"By the tone of her voice, no."

"So is that your mom or something?" Dean asked her, causing Rachel roll her eyes and shake her head.

"Of course not. Naomi doesn't have any kids of her own. I'm on Castiel's mother's side."

"Good," Dean said with relief, "That bitch shouldn't be allowed to be in full charge of another life form." Apparently, he had said something wrong because both Castiel and Rachel's expressions darkened as they exchanged a silent look.

Feeling excluded and slightly uncomfortable by the sudden change of atmosphere in this conversation, Dean let out a sigh and said, "Yea, I should probably get going before Mr. Henriksen gives me detention for 'loitering in the halls.'" He then looked to Cas and hit his shoulder lightly, "See you later, alright?"

Castiel nodded, "Yes, I will see you at a later time of a day, Dean. Thank you for associating with me as long as you did."

"It wasn't a favor, Cas," Dean told him sternly, "I like hanging out with you." A little too much actually, he finished silently to himself as he turned around and started walking to his homeroom, though before he was able to get out of earshot, he heard Rachel's loud whispering voice hiss, "Cas? Since when did you let anybody call you that again?"

"Since Dean." He heard Castiel answer flatly, causing Dean's heart to swell for an unknown reason.

He didn't know what Rachel meant by "again" but frankly it just added on to the list of things that Dean didn't quite understand about the mysterious and secretive Castiel Novak.

Author's Note: Yay, another chapter! I know this one was a little boring but it needed to be done to create a little insight on Castiel and Anna's very strained relationship (and it is actually a little more important to the whole story line then you would think) as well as to introduce Rachel, who you might see a few times later on. And of course, who doesn't love to see more of Gabriel? But really, thank you all for this wonderful feedback for this fic and hopefully you think this story is getting better with every installment (if so, please feel free to review since I have a bunch of mixed feeling about this chapter since it was so dull and abrupt). But I promise next chapter (teaser trailer anyone?) will be better considering that it contains the following elements: The gang finally meeting Cas, Balthazar being embarrassing as usual, Charlie/Jo, pie and burger sharing, The S.S Destiel, and then Dean being forced to make a tough decision (and yes, I know how this all sounds crazy and doesn't make sense, but you'll find out eventually!). And this is PandoraTheFox signing off!