Chapter Text
“Get up, Dean. It’s your first day of school. Do you want to be late?” That was Ellen, his adoptive mother.
“Don’t care.” He pushed his face farther into the pillow and pulled the blanket over his head.
Ellen knew better than to argue with a half asleep Winchester, so she took a more direct route: She pulled the blanket off the bed, grabbed the pillow away from him, and turned on the light. There was no way for him to avoid the brightness of the room, and bright light was the surest way to wake someone up quickly.
“Breakfast is ready. Head downstairs once your dressed.” She walked out of the room, but paused in the doorway. “Oh, and I know you want everyone to think you don’t care about school, but I know you wouldn’t want to make Sam late. He’s really excited.”
Dean sighed. He couldn’t argue with that, so he crawled out of bed and began to get dressed. He wore jeans and an ACDC t-shirt. He spent longer than he would admit to on making sure his hair looked as cool as possible, then brushed his teeth and went downstairs.
When he got downstairs, Sam was, of course, already completely ready, having finished his breakfast, packed his backpack, and brushed his hair, and had been waiting there for about fifteen minutes. He was wearing a t-shirt with some dorky math joke on it and nice ironed pants. Jo, his adoptive sister, was there too. She had woken up before Dean, but not by much. Though it was easier to pull her out of bed then Dean, it still required some cajoling. Bobby, their dad, was sitting at the table, eating the pancakes that Ellen was cooking.
Dean quickly shoveled some pancakes into his mouth, complementing Ellen on them with a completely full mouth, who rolled her eyes at his lack of manners but thanked him. Then he grabbed his worn in brown leather jacket from the coat hook in front of the door. Sam came up and handed him his backpack. “You were taking forever to wake up, so I packed it for you.” He smiled up at his brother, with the biggest, purest smile, and Dean smiled back at him, much less enthusiastically. He was still sorta sleepy, to be fair, but in general he did not have his brother’s enthusiasm for life. Once Sam was distracted, he went through his backpack to make sure it wasn’t missing anything. It had everything, including his ipod, which he wanted but hadn’t expected Sam to remember, and the school handbook, which he didn’t want, but could have guessed Sam would add.
Once Sam had determined that his siblings were both ready, he basically pulled the two of them out the door. Bobby followed, laughing at his enthusiasm. “It’s just school, kid. Not all that big a deal.” His wife looked at him murderously and he quickly appended, “but I guess it’s the first day, so we ought to get going.” This did not seem to appease Ellen, and Jo laughed, knowing the kind of talking to Bobby was going to get for that comment once he returned home.
They all piled into Bobby’s truck, an old, sort of rusty thing that Dean seemed embarrassed to be associated with, but it had already been decided that at least for the first day, they were going to be driven to school, and that no, Dean was not allowed to just drive everyone himself in his late Dad’s car.
Sam excitedly talked about how he had been placed in a higher math class than the school usually offered to freshmen, and that the only reason he hadn’t managed to skip another grade was because of some problem with his transcript, something to do with all the moving and changing schools.
Once they reached the school, which was not very far, they really could have just walked, Bobby parked in the lot and checked that they all had everything and knew where to go for their first class. He reassured Sam that he was going to do great, he was a very smart kid and if there were any problems he could always talk to Dean. Or, y’know, yer parents, but I get it if you trust Dean more. Sam nodded and hugged him, and then Bobby pointed out that Ash, who they already knew, was right there, and maybe they should go talk to him.
Jo, who already knew more people in town, pretty quickly spotted an old friend and went to talk to her. Sam and Dean followed Ash on a little mini-tour of the school, since school wasn’t going to start for another 15 minutes.
“That way is the cafeteria, the gym, and the quad, where most people eat. I’ll show you that stuff at lunch. This way is most of the building. That door leads to the basement, and it’s supposed to be locked, but the janitor can be bribed. People go down there to make out and stuff. That’s the main science lab…”
He continued his explanation as he walked down the hallway. Apparently every room had something interesting about it, some story or alternate use. There were also rumors of no less than three ghosts in the building, one in the basement, and for some reason, two in the library, one of which had only been sighted in a closet behind the librarians desk.
As they left the library, he noticed someone walking past. He quickly stepped out of the way, and the blonde boy looked over at him with a scowl, his friends trailing after him.
“Dude, what’s his deal?”
“I’m friends with his brother.”
“Thats a bad thing?”
“Yeah. The whole family hates each other. I guess I should tell you about them, if I’m giving you a proper tour of the school.
“Their dad is named Chuck. He’s almost never in town, the kids do whatever the fuck they want. He and his wife are divorced, he got custody. She lives somewhere out of state.
“The oldest kid is named Michael. He’s a senior, and he hates everyone. He is nice to people in front of authority, but a monster the second the teacher turns their back. Stay out of his way and you’ll be fine.
“Second oldest is Castiel. He’s quiet, stays out of everyone’s way. Clearly he’s the bottom of the totem pole in their family, even though he’s second oldest. He’s a pretty cool, despite the fact he dresses like a dork and doesn’t understand sarcasm.
“Third oldest is Lucifer, he’s the one you just saw. I don’t think that’s actually his name, but not even his brothers will let slip what it really is. He’s a sophomore this year, but even last year he basically ran the school, as head of the biggest clique that I’ve ever seen. All his followers have ‘cool’ nicknames like his. The ones you saw him with are Lilith and Azazel.
“The next one is Gabriel. I’m also friends with him. He’s a freshman, but he’s already established as the school prankster. Last year, he managed to paint every hallway in our local middle school bright pink. No one knows where he got the paint, or how he snuck in. He’s never gotten in trouble because the teachers can’t pin anything on him for sure.
“There’s some others, but they’re younger, and I’ve never really interacted with them, so I don’t know their names.”
Then he showed them to their homeroom classes, so they wouldn’t be late, and left.
*****
Ash led Sam and Dean over to his friend group.
“We’re kinda the weirdos of this school, but no one messes with us, ‘cause we’re also kinda the badasses. ‘Cept for Garth. He’s gotten beat up the most out of all of us. He’s picked on because he’s a nerd, but also somehow not that smart. Occasionally he surprises you though.” Garth gave them a giant smile. “Hey, guys! You’re the Winchesters, right?”
“Yeah, that’s us,” said Dean. He noticed Garth’s lunch, which was in a brown paper bag, with a heart and “love mom” drawn on.
“This is Charlie. She’s one of us because she’s a lesbian. If you try to hit on her, she beats you up.”
Charlie gave them a smile too, and the Vulcan salute. Dean did it back.
“That's Castiel. I told you about him earlier. He’ thes quiet one, the only one of the Shurleys who is. Lucifer wants him as part of his group, and Michael says he’d be nice to him if he just did everything he told him- that’s what he says to all his siblings- but for some reason he hangs with us. I mean, he’s a dork, but he has plenty of shots at being cool.”
“I have no wish to follow either of them. I do not need someone to tell me what to do and if I did, neither of them would be a worthy leader.”
“He always talks like that. We like him, even when he makes no sense. Gabe likes him too, but they’re not on the best of terms. Gabe won’t stand up to his older siblings and Castiel has principles.”
“Gabe is sorta part of our group too, but he doesn’t need to be. He’s cool, everyone likes him, but he likes us mostly because Lucifer hates us. Also, we help him with his pranks and shit sometimes.
“So, yeah, that’s us, you can join us if you want. You probably should, being friends with us means being friends with Gabe, which is protection from anyone but Lucifer, but he’ll tease you either way, since you’re new kids.”
Garth had finished his own lunch, and was halfway through Dean’s, who hadn’t been hungry. Charlie and Ash were explaining some computer thing to Sam, while Castiel and Dean just sat there in awkward silence, neither of them having much to say, but feeling like they ought to talk too, since everyone else was having a conversation. Then another kid walked up. He had longish hair, and he walked around as if he owned the school. It actually kind of reminded Dean of the way Lucifer had walked.
“Hello, everybody! You guys are the Winchesters, right? I’m Gabe.” He reached out to shake Sam’s hand, who took it, and found a candy bar left in his palm when he pulled away. He did the same to Dean, who, instead of a candy bar, was gifted a shock from a joy buzzer.
“Don’t take it personally, he does that to everyone.” Said Ash, laughing a little at Dean’s surprised expression.
He glanced over at Sam, staring at the candy in his hand. “Never seen him do that before, though.”
Gabe sat down next to Sam, unnecessarily close.
“Sam, right? Sam Winchester?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Gabe gestured towards the mini Snickers sitting in Sam’s hand.
“Go on, eat it. It’s not poisoned.”
Sam tentatively put it in his mouth.
“So, where did you move here from, again?” This was directed at Dean.
“Nebraska. Our mom owned a bar there, but it burned down, and our dad used to live here and never sold the house, so we decided moving here was the best idea.”
“Huh. Oh, hey, Garth, I brought you some food.” He rummaged around in his backpack, bringing out a bag of chips and a soda.
“Thanks,” Said Garth, who had finished Dean’s lunch and immediately started in on the chips.
“So,” Charlie said, staring at Gabriel intently, “What did you miss half of lunch for this time?”
“I’m behind in almost all my classes, especially math. I had a meeting with the principal, he said if I don’t start getting better grades they’re just gonna kick me out.”
“Oof. Your dad won’t like that.”
Gabriel made a face. He looked scared, but resigned to it. “No. He won’t.”
Sam piped up. “I could probably help you. I’m really good at math.”
“And every other subject,” Dean added, his brotherly pride swelling up.
“Would you? Seriously?”
“I don’t usually help people with their homework. If they want the grades, they should put in the effort. But if the situation is bad with your parents…” Sam looked shy. “We were in foster care for a while. I know what it's like.”
Gabe stared at him for a while. “Thanks. But if you’ve dealt with it, why would you want to get involved in someone else’s crappy family?”
“You’re Ash’s friend, and he’s our friend. So your our friend.”
“Oh. Ok. Cool.” The table sat there in awkward silence for a while. Gabe and Sam were staring at each other.
“Ok, quit making eyes at my brother.” said Dean, moving closer in towards Sam, somewhat protectively. Gabe nodded and looked away, and the conversation continued til the bell rang.
“So, after school? You can help me with my homework?”
“Yeah, sounds good!” Said Sam, clearly very excited. “Should we go to your house, or would it be better if you came over?”
“Our house” Said Dean, with a tone of voice that made it clear there was going to be no arguing.
“Yeah. Your house for sure.” Added Gabe, who seemed as worried about the idea of Sam coming over to the Shurley household as Dean did, though their reasons were different. Then everyone parted, each going to their separate classes.