He sent a charming smile at the elderly Beta secretary, who measured him with a stern gaze from behind rectangular glasses suspended from a gold chain. She merely snorted in response to his pleasant demeanor and met his gaze again, for about the tenth time in the last five minutes. He could tell by her expression that she'd already classified him as the school goon just because he was dressed in army boots, ripped jeans, an AC/DC logo T-shirt, and his dad's old leather jacket with a flannel peeking out from underneath. Not that he minded. In fact, he was... a schoolyard punk. And he was duly proud of it. He was most pleased when someone snorted something along the lines of 'That's not how a proper omega should behave' in his presence.

The door to his left opened and a beautiful brunette with huge brown eyes and soft olive skin walked out of the Deputy Director's office. Her blue t-shirt was just low enough in the neckline to show the small gash between her nice breasts, and as she walked past Dean, he got a glimpse of a firm ass in light grey jeans. She was a Beta, so she only had a faint scent, but she had it. Nice, like grass clippings and dandelions, though... roasted cherries and almonds were better.

"Hi..."

The brunette turned around in surprise. He gave her the same charming smile he'd given the surly secretary earlier, which was met with much more success this time. The brunette's cheeks turned a soft red, and she smiled back, even opening her mouth to say hello when the obnoxious Beta behind the desk interrupted her.

"Assistant Principal Parker will see you now, Mr. Winchester!"

Old Beta managed to interrupt a nice moment of bonding.

"Hope to see you soon, beautiful," he said towards her, which put a look of shy surprise on her face that deepened when he smiled broadly and showed his teeth. They were all always so surprised when they found out he was an Omega. The blockers might have masked the scent, but the fact that his fangs were sharper than Beth's couldn't hide anything.

He gave pretty Betty one last wink and then disappeared into the office.

He was a director's cubicle like any other. He'd seen nearly forty of them in his lifetime. One desk, an armchair behind it, a couple of chairs on the side closer to the door. A small bookcase with books on the left, a diploma and some plaques from inter-school competitions on the wall just opposite the door. It all looked like someone had bought the whole thing at IKEA, and truthfully the chubby, gray-haired Beta behind the desk was probably mass-produced too, because he looked like every other vice principal he'd had the pleasure of knowing. Only this time it came with glasses.

And he was probably dead inside, at least judging by the smell of old broccoli.

Dean subtly wrinkled his nose as he inhaled the unpleasant smell. This office really needed to be aired out, or the air conditioning turned on, or preferably both. Besides the old Beta smell behind the desk, it also smelled like unhappy and scared Omegas and angry Alphas.

"Mr. Dean Winchester, I presume?" Assistant Director Parker looked at him over the rims of his glasses before gesturing to his chair. "Sit down."

Day squatted in the chair directly across from him.

"I assumed your father and especially your younger brother would be coming."

"Yeah... Dad's been busy since first thing this morning, you know? So he couldn't come, and as for Sammy..." he fished in his canvas bag and pulled out an apology note written in his own hand, but in his dad's carefully forged handwriting. "... he's sick. Some kind of flu or something. He's coughing, sniffling and running a fever. Here's what Dad wrote." He handed the letter into Parker's hands.

The assistant principal read it carefully before nodding his head.

"That complicates things a bit. Your brother was supposed to pick up his textbooks and locker."

"That's not a problem, sir. I'll arrange everything for him and I'll also bypass his teachers if they want to give him some teaching. Sam will be happy to do it. He was so excited to come here and he's sorry he's sick. He loves school!" He stressed with proper Omega eagerness, all vulnerable looks, slumped shoulders and exposed neck. While it never had as strong an effect on the Betas as it did on the Alphas, he did it anyway because he wanted to put Sammy in the best light. His own reputation couldn't be saved, even if he longed for it in some fit of madness. But Sam had a long way to go. Great grades, great behavior, extracurricular activities and everything. If he could help it by at least making a good first impression as a small, submissive Omega, he could handle it.

Beta sized him up again through his glasses.

"I believe." He shook his head. "Your brother's a great student, according to his records. Top of every class he's been in. You, on the other hand..." he let his voice trail off and looked meaningfully at the laptop, moved a little to the side and conveniently angled just enough so Dean knew his file was on the screen. "Your school grades aren't worth much, you've got a bunch of unexcused classes, even more that only your father excused, and a few records of disorderly conduct. Disrespect for teachers, destruction of school property even fighting." He folded his hands dramatically on his desk. "In the thirty years I've been doing this job, I've met few Omegas as feisty as you, Mr. Winchester. And I understand all too well that growing up can be really hard for Omega boys. But that doesn't mean I'm going to tolerate you being such a troublemaker, is that clear?"

"Quite clear, sir."

Parker gave him a long, hard look, under which Dean finally lowered his gaze on purpose, which, of course, pleased Beta appropriately. He leaned back comfortably in his chair and even smiled.

"I'm glad we understand each other," he murmured in a conciliatory tone before leaning in a little again. "Now... I know you youngsters don't like to talk about this, but I have to ask... has your brother fully presented himself?" He asked, which was a polite way of finding out if Alpha had his first heat and Omega his first rut. Dean had been hearing similar questions since he was ten.

"Not yet, but we expect it any minute."

"What about you?"

"Two years ago, sir," he answered truthfully, but if he had to go into details like how many times and for how long, he would have told Parker to fuck off. It was nobody's business that his cycles were about as regular as the April weather.

But the deputy didn't ask any such questions, just nodded that he acknowledged the answers.

"We know that at your age, cycles can be quite... confusing, which is why we give all Alpha and Omega students five automatic excused days every two months. All you have to do is call and excuse yourself from class. Should the problem occur more frequently, we require a doctor's note. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," he nodded, trying to look reasonably focused, though he didn't really care how they provided time off for haggling or heat here. He doubted they'd be here long enough to have to use any time off.

"That's all. Get your books, schedule, and other necessities from the study department. You may go now."

He said a polite goodbye to Beth and was very happy to leave his broccoli office.

No sooner had he closed the door behind him than he stepped into the thick scent of strawberries and cream mixed with the sweet Omega smell. He didn't even have time to look around to see where the smell might be coming from when a blonde Omega girl with an unnaturally wide smile popped out of the bench he had been sitting on earlier. She was dressed like a nerd from a 90's movie. A below-the-knee skirt, colorful tights and white sneakers, and a fuzzy pink vest over a short-sleeved plaid shirt.

"Hey! You must be the new student!"

"Yeah. Dean."

"Hi again!" She grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously. "I'm Becky Rosen. I'm in the same class as you. I'm also one of the editors of the school newspaper, and I'm the founder and president of the unofficial Vampire Diaries fan club at this school, and I don't mean to brag, but... I'm kind of a writer, too. I've written a couple of scripts for school plays, and one will be performed in the drama club this year."

"Good job... I guess," he said into the long pause that came after her statement.

"Thanks!" Becky, the other Omega, beamed. "But enough about me..." he waved his hand. "When I heard the new students were coming, I immediately thought I had to come and welcome you. Weren't you supposed to have a brother?"

"I do. Sammy, but he's sick."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope he gets better soon," she sighed. "Well, never mind... is there anything I can do to help you at least? Maybe pick up your books and find your locker or something."

"Sure. Why not," he agreed with a shrug. If nothing else, it would save him the time of looking for the study section, since he hadn't the faintest idea where it might be.

It quickly became apparent that Becky was knowledgeable about everything, so she walked him slowly through half the school, filling him in on its entire history and the latest gossip, from the fact that the history teacher had a new Alpha boyfriend to the laxative scandal and the cheerleaders. The next thing was that she literally flooded him with invitations to various groups and 'helpful' pages once they became FB friends, and was literally horrified when he told her he didn't have Twitter or Instagram from which to follow her. Eventually, when she got over her shock at his lack of desire for social media, she helped him pick up textbooks for him and Sammy and locks for their lockers - the type he could open at eleven. He tossed all of Sam's and most of his textbooks into his locker, then let Becky lead him to his first class.

"You know there are an awful lot of male Omegas, right?" Becky brought up a topic that was bound to come up sooner or later.

"Yeah, only six percent. I won genetic roulette. Hooray!"

"There's one other male Omega in the class; Kevin, but just between you and me, he's a bit of an oddball. It's his mom's fault because she keeps him home all the time and makes him do nothing but study and study and study. If you ask me, I think he should be more...involved, you know? Like me," she put her hand on her chest, "for our creative writing club, I'm..."

Becky's narrative faded into the background as Dean noticed the commotion in the hallway just down the hall from them. It was mostly his height that allowed him to catch a glimpse of the little boy sitting on the floor among the scattered textbooks, notebooks, pens, and other items that must have spilled out of his bag. He looked up to the group of three much larger and definitely stronger nerds that surrounded him, like a hunting pack.

He couldn't be sure what they were because of the abundance of beta scents and Becky's strong strawberry scent, but the blond hunching over the terrified boy was definitely an Alpha. Even from the distance he could see his sharp teeth showing in a grin to the absolutely terrified boy huddled on the ground in front of him; eyes downcast and neck exposed.

His inner Omega growled and he growled with it. There was nothing in the world he hated more than when the strong dared the weak and abused them. And Alphas who thought they owned the world.

He quickly made his way through the crowd of onlookers, some of them looking away, others pretending they weren't actually watching the ugly spectacle, though they couldn't help but snicker, and the last one just stopped and stared and did nothing.

"Hey, Alpha!" He called out to the Alpha - he was now sure, even by smell, that it was an Alpha, just as he was sure that his two cronies were Betas and the boy on the ground was an Omega. "Wanna try it on someone your own size?"

The first look the Alpha gave him was more surprised than anything else. I guess no one had ever dared to touch his dubious authority built up by bullying others. Then the Alpha sniffed, and just as expected, once he caught the scent of Omega, he just grinned. The next thing he did was turn to Dean, straightening up, baring his chest and baring his teeth a little. A dominant stance, much the same way he'd made the little Omega lying on the ground cower, whimper, and try with all his might to comply with the Alpha.

There was a small part of Dean too, echoing softly from the corner, warning him that he really, really had better lower his gaze and his head. To submit. But a much larger part of him instinctively urged him to put himself between the danger - the stupidly posturing Alpha - and the other smaller, weaker, and by the smell, terrified Omega. It was an instinct to protect a member of his own family, maybe even a puppy, and it was a hell of a lot stronger than the instinct to submit. Something the Alphas conveniently forgot.

He stood between the boy and the Alpha and looked calmly into the boy's eyes.

It was obvious that the Alpha was a little surprised by this, but he wasn't going to be swayed in his stance.

"Look who we have here? Some new bitch."

Dean raised an eyebrow. Really? He'd picked up more creative swear words in his time around bars, and from Alphas so hopelessly drunk, and a couple of Betas, that they were unable to hold onto a bar stool. Sometimes they couldn't even articulate properly.

"Is that the best you can do?"

Instead of an answer, he got a deep, guttural growl, full of anger and clear warning. It was literally a command to bare his throat, which he disobeyed with all the glee he could muster. Alf's scent, charcoal and wet dirt, began to slowly turn bitter with anger.

"Oh... what was that?" He asked mockingly, tilting his head to the side and putting a hand to his ear. "Something catch you off guard, Alpha?"

"Watch it, you worthless little bitch, or..."

"Or what?" he grinned. "Are you going to pose until I die of boredom?"

Bitter rage almost completely drowned out the smell of coal as the Alpha moved forward. Dean was about to land the first punch, mentally cursing himself for having a chance to make a much better first impression for Sammy, when a bell rang down the hallway. The alpha paused, and though his jaw remained tight and his teeth a little bared, he backed up. Kudos to the posers who were only brave for so long before the heavy hand of school rules came down on them.

"I'll be watching you," he said as if it were some sort of threat, and of course he didn't forgive himself for bumping his shoulder into Dean's as he walked around him, leaving a bit of his troublesome scent on his jacket.

He resisted the urge to growl in response. This was his dad's jacket. It was saturated with his scent and a little bit of Sammy's, and the last thing he wanted was for this poor little knot to soil it.

"Great! I haven't even been here a day and I already have my first fan!" He didn't forgive himself for at least making a remark before turning to the little Omega who was still sitting on the ground, head bowed in submission.

"Hey, man..." he said softly as he squatted down.

The Omega curled up completely into himself.

"Please don't," he muttered softly.

"Hey, hey, take it easy. I'm not going to do anything to you. Look..." he ran his hand over his neck a few times to pick up some of his scent on his palm, then held it out to the other Omega. "We're on the same team."

Sometimes, when a person was really scared, all he could smell was himself, and besides, the Alpha made everything around him smell like rage and wet coal. The smaller Omega needed reassurance that he wasn't in danger.

There was an audible sniffle at first, before little Omega dared to look up and meet Dean's eyes for the first time.

"I thought..." he blinked, meeting Dean's gaze. "You look like an Alpha..."

Before he could say anything in response, Becky ran up to them.

"Are you okay, Kev?"

This time it was his turn to get a thorough look at the other Omega boy. He looked like a 'proper' Omega, the kind people would say was 'Omega as a picture'. Small for his age, even smaller than Sammy, though the latter was a proper resident at twelve. Slim, delicate features, almond eyes and an overgrowth of thick almost black hair.

"So you're Kevin. I'm Dean. Nice to meet you," he said with a smile, offering his hand not only to greet him but to help him up.

Kevin frowned and knocked his hand away in a surprisingly aggressive manner.

"I didn't ask for your help," he said angrily, and began to shove his things back into his bag. "Do you even know what you did? He's not going to take this lying down. He's going to come back and then it's going to get worse. Why didn't you just let it go?" He asked, not only angry but desperate, barely glancing at Dean as he did so, before running off to class.

"He's right," Becky pointed out. "Do you even know who the Alpha was?"

"Dick?"

"It was Marcus Forest. He's like... the Alpha of this whole," she waved around in an all-encompassing gesture, "school. Some people are afraid to even look him in the eye."

He raised an eyebrow skeptically. This school was pretty damn big, so he doubted he ruled anything, let alone the entire school. Becky just tended to overreact. And even if she did... this wasn't something that would ever worry him. He hadn't sat on his ass in front of thirty similar types before, and he wasn't about to do it now. Besides, he wasn't going to stick around for more than a few weeks anyway, so what did it matter?

"Sure," he snorted. "We'd better get to class. I don't want to be late for my first class."

°°0°°

Becky led him through the cafeteria, her mouth never stopping the whole time. This time she was talking about something that had happened on the last school trip. Dean absorbed only vague snippets, having been completely talked out of his head all morning, and preferred to pay attention to his surroundings rather than Becky.

The cafeteria was like any other. Tables and chairs that perhaps the schools packed compulsorily from one supplier. A glass door on one side overlooking the courtyard, where you could probably eat on warm days too, and two doors to the hallway on the other.

There was nothing surprising about the staffing either. The musky scent of Alpha wafted from one corner of the dining room. That's where the younger ones used to sit. They mostly kept a little distance between them, not much, but you could tell they had their chairs moved so they never touched each other, even though they normally talked to each other. Alphas could get along, but they needed their space.

Most of the dining room was taken up by the Betas, between whom the older Alphas were strategically placed, forming clusters of followers around them. Little packs of sorts. Marcus was there, of course, accompanied by his two Beta buddies and a few other Betas. Dean noticed immediately, as he had a view of both doors. He followed Dean with a hostile gaze all the way across the dining room. He just couldn't help but wink at him in mock coquettishness as the Alpha gave him so much of his surely very precious attention. Marcus' jaw tensed and his nostrils flared in response to the provocation, but he remained seated.

Becky led them to a table where there were practically only Omegas. Female Omegas, as well. Nothing against girls or omega girls - some were definitely worth a look - but the decorations for the spring formal weren't something he was interested in, and that was the topic that was currently running through the table. His only chance for something a little more entertaining was Kevin sitting at the very end, away from the others.

To Becky's considerable confusion, he headed over to him instead of taking the seat the Omega girl had chosen for him.

The other Omega boy had a meal from home in front of him in one of those broken-down, pallet-sized boxes. A cubed sandwich with a whole lot of fruit and veggies. Yuck! Even celery stalks. Whoever made this for him was a bully.

"You want some?" he asked as he sat down across from the other Omega boy, tossing an open bag of jelly beans from the vending machine onto the table. His only lunch for the day. As long as he didn't have a job and Sammy was sick, he wasn't going to spend money on school lunches. He was used to making do with very little.

Kevin looked up from his food in surprise, then turned in equal surprise to look at Becky, who had taken the seat next to him.

"Looks like we'll be sitting with you today. I hope you don't mind?" Becky asked.

"Why do you want to sit with me?" Kevin asked, confused but also suspicious, his honey biscuit scent even taking on a sour tinge of fear.

"And why not...?" He half-asked with a shrug.

Kevin looked even more incredulous than before. His gaze quickly wandered to Marcus' desk, where it stayed for only a moment before the little Omega quickly lowered his gaze. It wasn't hard to guess that it was the moment the self-proclaimed Alpha of the school looked at him.

Dean casually glanced in the same direction to make sure that yes, Markus was carrying out his stupid threat and watching their table while he munched on his food.

"You want me to thank you for what you did in the hallway?" Kevin asked. "Or do you want me to do your homework for you?"

Dean would have had a lot to say about those questions, but before he spoke, he took a deep breath of Kevin's increasingly frightened scent and decided to go about it another way.

"I don't want any of that," he shook his head, leaning forward and leaning against the table. "I think we got off to a bad start. How about we try again, hmm? I'm Dean Winchester..." He reached across the table.

The other Omega boy frowned hesitantly at the proffered hand, before finally letting go of the fork he'd been gripping too tightly up until that point and cautiously accepting the proffered greeting.

"Kevin Tran."

Their handshake was quick, and an awkward silence lengthened in its wake. They might as well have spent the rest of lunch in it, but that wouldn't have been Becky at the table, who simply couldn't keep her mouth shut and only moments later opened the topic of her English homework. That alone made Dean quickly learn that Kevin was just as much of a little nerd - in the best sense of the word - as Sammy. He even liked comic books and DC, like Sam. In fact, the two of them would get along quite well. Hmm, maybe he could introduce them. Sammy had always had trouble making friends, and even though he probably wouldn't be here for more than a month, his little brother couldn't spend all that time on his ass in the corner of the library.

Thinking about Sam, he pulled out his cell phone and checked the chat. A few brief messages awaited him, telling him that he'd taken all his meds, was in bed, and watching soap operas. He sent back a thumbs up and was just about to put his cell phone away when the brunette from the morning walked into the dining room. She immediately caught his eye, so he watched her sit down with her tray.

"Becky," he addressed Becky without taking his intrigued gaze off the brunette. "Who's that? The girl who just sat down at Marcus' table." He asked, pointing to the object of his interest.

Becky frowned as she didn't know who he meant at first, but her expression quickly cleared.

"The brunette in the blue shirt?" She asked in return, and when he nodded, she leaned towards him and lowered her voice. "That's Lisa Braeden. She dated Marcus for a while and may still be dating. No one really knows. She claims she's not dating him anymore, but he still treats her like she's his girlfriend. Typical possessive Alpha, you know..." she vaguely indicated with her hand. "For example, I've heard that he sends threatening messages to people who like her photos or share her location right after her and most often just a short distance from where she is, like he's stalking her. So... just creepy stuff."

What a surprise, he snorted inwardly.

"Do you know her well?"

"Lisa?" She asked; what would he mean by someone else? "I have her among my friends and we follow each other on Instagram too."

He opened Becky's profile and started searching. Lisa... Lisa Braeden. He scrolled through Becky's long list of friends.

"Do you want to add her?" Becky asked, peeking across the table at his phone. "It's under Lisalea Belladdon. But don't get your hopes up. Let's not accept it. She doesn't have just anyone from school in her friends. Naturally she has me in there because she's a freelance contributor to the school newspaper and I'm the editorial whiz and her proofreader."

So not Lisa, but Lisalea... Aha! There she was! Her profile wasn't really public, so he sent her a friend request and lifted his head to look at her desk.

It didn't take a second for Lisa to pick up her cell phone from her desk, which she had put down a moment ago. He watched as she tapped the screen and now slowly dragged her finger down as she viewed his profile. It only had a few pictures of herself with Baby, Sammy and daddy. Nothing that showed where they were at the time of the photo shoot or what they were doing there. Pictures of menus from diners and nice cars and motorbikes they'd come across during their travels and lots of links to songs on YT and that was about it. And they didn't have any mutual friends besides Becky. Not that Dean had many in general... a few people from old school and some of his dad's friends.

Objectively speaking, nothing that should have made Lisa accept his request, but still, he was sure... A smug smile lifted the corners of his mouth as she tapped the screen, and right after that, his own cell phone vibrated in his hand, notifying him that his request had been accepted.

"I got lucky... I guess..." She held up her phone to show Becky Lisa's now fully visible profile, which left her mouth agape in surprise.

"She accepted?" Kevin asked.

"Sure," he replied with a shrug, and in case she didn't believe him, he showed his phone as well before opening the chat and looking up Lisa's name.

"You want to text her right now?" Becky asked, of course staring at his phone again.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"But... but she's a Beta and... she's also... a girl," Kevin stammered in a shocked voice.

He looked over the edge of his cell phone and raised his eyebrows a little.

"Yeah, she is. At least I hope she's... a girl, Kev," he replied to his confusion in a condescending tone. "If she was a replicator from the future or something, our first date would be a little awkward."

"You're going to ask her out?!" Becky squeaked, half shocked and half excited, which was reflected in her scent, which literally exploded in a flood of sweet cream.

"That was kind of the plan..."

"But you're an Omega," Kevin said, as if that meant something.

"A? Is that why I can't ask a Beta girl out?"

Kevin didn't have anything to say to that, so he fell silent while Becky leaned over the table even more, looking like she'd climb on top of him if she wasn't threatened with a note for it.

DeanW. Impala: hi ?

DeanW. Impala: turn around, beautiful. ?

"You should write her something romantic. Like you like her eyes, or that she has beautiful hair," Becky offered, pumping so much happy smell into the air that it must have been felt in the hallway. "Imagine the two of you together...!" He sighed, casting a dreamy glance somewhere in the distance. "A new guy, a bit of a rebel rebelling against Omega stereotypes, and the class's most respectable girl, a bit boring but beautiful. And the two fall madly in love and fight together against the oppression of their classmates who think Betas and Omegas can't be together. It'll be like... like Grease, but way better."

Now it was Dean's turn to stare in disbelief, because what the hell? He was picturing something more like having tacos and a large Coke together and then cuddling in their motel room while Sammy did homework at the motel front desk or maybe on that old couch that was still behind the vending machines. And with any luck, it might even turn into a little more than groping. But definitely nothing as crazy as what Becky was imagining. They'd be gone in two or three weeks anyway.

The phone vibrated in his hand.

Damn it, Becky had made him completely forget his plan to get Lysa's attention in a cool way, and now it was too late to make much of an impression when she texted him back.

Lisalea Belladdon: ? ゚ムヒ

He looked up from the screen and glanced back at Lysa. She was looking cautiously over her shoulder at him and as their gazes met, a smile lit up her face and she raised her hand in a small, subtle wave.

Maybe it wasn't too late to make a great first impression, he thought, and returned her smile with a wave.