Sam managed to wake up early yet again. Or at least early compared to Dean's standards, as Dean often told him whenever Sam went to wake him up- which by now, seemed to practically be Sam's job. It was odd, Sam sometimes thought, for him, the younger brother, to be waking his older brother up every morning instead of the other way around. But when had their lives been anything but unorthodox?

As of this particular morning, Sam had woken up at 6:40 am, and after getting himself ready, had decided to wake Dean up at 7:15 am. Dean had mumbled groggily when Sam knocked on his door. Sam opened the door and glanced into the room, seeing Dean still half-asleep underneath his blankets. Without a single word, Sam walked over and pulled the sheets off of him- earning a loud groan from Dean, who looked rather offended at being woken up.

"Sam, it's Saturday." Dean whined angrily, digging his face into his pillow. Sam tapped on the wall next to Dean's door, taking a moment to admire Dean's small assortment of posters. As he did so, Dean tugged his blanket back over himself and glanced at Sam. "Why are you waking me up so early on a Saturday?"

Sam's eyes flitted back to Dean before he shook his head with a small laugh. "Dean, I've been telling you that you need to get a calendar. It's friday." Sam walked over and tapped on his phone, showing Dean the date- Friday, the 15th.

Dean groaned loudly and shoved his face back into the pillow. "Goddammit. Why does it have to be a friday?? Why can't it just be saturday?!"

Sam gave a small chuckle as he watched Dean pull his pillow over his ears. Sam rested a hand on the pillow and tugged. "It's <i>also</i> french toast friday <i>and</i> pizza night friday, but I'm guessing you don't want that."

Dean almost instantly sprung up at the sound of french toast and pizza, causing Sam to whip his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing. Dean caught the small burst of contained laughter and fixed himself, hiding his excitement before yawning and patting his hair down.

Dean sighed as Sam stepped back, before he pulled his blanket off of himself, yawning. "Alright, I'll get up then."

Sam nodded and ducked out of his brother's room, closing the door politely. Sam then glanced briefly at his own closed, plain bedroom door before heading downstairs. He had already taken a shower, gotten dressed and fixed his hair. All that was left was for him to eat breakfast and pack up his school things into his backpack. Well, and to brush his teeth, but he figured he could do that <i>after</i> he ate breakfast, so as to not just clean them and then get food remnants on them.

As he descended the stairs, he got a view of the downstairs area. Arizona was napping lazily on the floor by the stairs, but jumped up when she heard footsteps and yelped at Sam. Sam's eyes widened and he laughed as his feet made contact with the floor. He then ran up to Arizona and ran his fingers through her fur as she yelped happily and nipped at his fingers playfully.

"Ari! Ari Ari!" He laughed, grinning madly at Arizona jumped around. "Good morning little girl!" Arizona barked happily, following Sam as he walked towards the kitchen.

"Mornin' son." Bobby spoke as Sam walked into the kitchen, a smile still on his face. Bobby turned and faced Sam, placing a plate of french toast in front of him. "Fixed breakfast for you and Dean. He up yet?"

"Think so." Sam replied, taking the plate in his hands. Plate in hand, he walked to the dining area, which was on the other side of the foyer. He placed his plate down in the middle of the table and then made his way back to the kitchen to grab some silverware, Arizona following him all the way. Bobby was still there, fiddling with the pancake maker. Sam grabbed some silverware from the drawers and glanced at Bobby. "I went in his room to try and wake him up a few minutes ago. I think he got up to get dressed by the time I walked out."

Just then, footsteps were heard, and the two turned to see Dean walk off the stairs and towards the kitchen. As soon as he stepped off the stairs, Arizona yelped and ran over to Dean, who gave a small smile and ran a hand through her fur.

"Mornin' son," Bobby said gruffly, handing Dean a plate of french toast, "Here's your breakfast."

Dean's mouth almost seemed to water as he grabbed the plate in earnest, a hungry look in his eyes. "Thank you Bobby."

Bobby just shook his head and waved Sam and Dean off towards the dining area. "No need to thank me, boy. You two eat up so you can head to school."

Dean nodded, his lips moving briefly. He paused, and suddenly, the slightest hint of fear glimmered behind his eyes. Dean's eyes flickered and he bit his lip, almost as if he were trying to stop himself from saying something. He then quickly turned and headed to the dining room, plate in hand. Bobby immediately noticed and some unidentifiable look formed in his eyes, but he shook his head and just turned to fix himself some breakfast. Sam, however, glanced solemnly at Dean, who walked quickly and silently to the dining room. The memories of their biological father filled his mind, of the moments when John would give out an order or any sort of command, and how Dean would immediately stiffen and reply with a "yes sir." How robotic he'd become. How robotic and soldier-like he'd been trained to be.

Time hadn't yet washed away all the scars, it seemed.

When Sam reentered the dining room, Dean was sitting silently and eating. A conflicted, slightly solemn expression sat on his face, but it seemed to dissipate the moment Sam sat down. Dean glanced at his younger brother and gave a small smile, whatever pain he had remembered now hidden behind his eyes.

Sam couldn't help but frown a little as he ate his french toast.

~~~~~

"Hey, Sam, you alright?"

It took Sam a second to process the question, or the fact that someone was speaking to him. By the time he looked up, Andy was staring at him, a look of concern visible on his face.

"Oh- oh, yeah, sorry." Sam replied, dragging himself out of his trance. He quickly realized how weird he must've looked- staring absentmindedly at a blank piece of notebook paper, dragging his pencil along lazily with no real direction or goal- and snapped his notebook closed, almost without thinking.

Andy shifted in his seat, playing with the pencil between his fingers. "Something happen? You've been weird the entire period."

Sam shook his head, still a little wobbly and caught off guard. "No, no. I just... I don't know. Guess I'm just a little off today."

Andy arched a brow, obviously skeptical, but shrugged his shoulders. "You seem a little bit more than just 'off', dude. I'm serious, are you okay? Did something happen?"

Sam shook his head in dismissal and gripped his pencil. "I'm fine, Andy, really."

As Sam got back to his work, a girl tapped on Andy's shoulder and nudged towards Sam, so Andy tapped Sam's shoulder. "Hey, Sam. This girl wants to ask you something."

Sam turned to see the new transfer student looking at him with big brown eyes. "Yes?"

"Are you okay?" She asked raspily. Her voice sounded odd- and Sam instantly figured out that she must be deaf.

"Yes, I am." Sam replied, signing a little as he did so. The girl looked surprised.

"You know sign?"

Sam shrugged. "Not that well. I know a little." His eyes met the girl's eyes- a look of surprise and gratefulness barely evident. "I... someone I knew went mute for a short period of time. I had to learn sign language so I could easily talk to them."

The girl gave a small skeptical glance, but didn't question him. Instead, she simply nodded in understanding before returning to her work.

The worksheet they were given was a rather simple one, so both Andy and Sam finished it rather quickly. Before Andy could say something else to Sam, though, Sam got a tap on his shoulder from someone else.

Sam turned and saw Jess, the girl who had very kindly helped him with his homework a week prior. She gave a smile and tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Hey Sam. How's your day doing?"

Sam put his elbow on the desk and dropped his pencil. "It's alright, I guess. What about you?"

"My day's good. I had a good first class. Math, with Ms. Bond." She shrugged her shoulders. "She's a pretty cool teacher."

Sam turned to glance at her. "Oh, what math do you have?"

"Algebra 1 Honors. What about you?"

"Geometry Honors, first period with Mr. Craddock."

"Ooh, he's a really good teacher. My cousin had him." She tapped her pencil lightly on her desk, her lips still held up in a smile. "From what I heard, he's really good at explaining things and actually teaching."

Sam nodded. "He is."

"That's good. I'm hoping to get him next year." She tilted her head down and glanced at her worksheet, before her eyes fell onto Sam's. "You finished yours?"

Sam nodded again, and his lips curved into a grin. "Lemme guess, you've been done for a few minutes?"

She grinned and shrugged her shoulders absentmindedly. "Yeah. I'm just really quick at doing work, I guess." She gave a small laugh before glancing at Sam, some new emotion wavering in her eyes. "Oh, I don't mean to brag, in any way."

"Oh no, I don't think you're bragging."

Jess's lips curved up into a shy smile and she tilted her head. "Really?"

When Sam nodded, her lips curved into an even bigger and somehow even shyer smile. "Thanks. People tend to think I'm bragging."

Sam just shook his hand. "Nothing wrong with getting work done quick, right? Saying you can work fast isn't really bragging, unless you make a big show about it."

"True that." Came a voice suddenly, and Sam turned to see the dark haired girl that Jess often stuck with. As he locked eyes with her, something registered in her dark eyes, and she raised her brows. "Oh, you're Sam, right? The name's Ruby."

"Hi, Ruby. Nice to meet you."

She pursed her lips momentarily, her dark eyes glancing across his face as if to scan him. Sam didn't really understand why, but her eyes ran all over his face for a little while. However, it didn't last more then a few seconds, as she quickly unpursed her lips and closed them flatly. "Nice to meet you too." And without another word, she turned and went back to her worksheet.

A confused expression dawned on Sam's face, so Jess tapped his shoulder and cupped her hand to his ear. "Sorry about that, Ruby's just not very open to new people." Jess whispered with an apologetic smile. Sam nodded in understanding, as Jess gave him another smile. She was an oddly cheerful person, but Sam didn't mind.

Jess then tilted her head again, glancing at Sam's binder and then at him. "Oh, what's your next class?"

"French 1, with Mr. Anthony. You?"

Jess tucked her pencil away in her pencil bag, before glancing back at Sam. "I have culinary."

"Oh really? I have Culinary fourth period."

Jess raised her brows and gave an amused huff. "Really? What's your lunch period?"

"Sixth."

She gave a small laugh. "Man, if you had fifth lunch, you'd be the luckiest person ever. Two periods back-to-back of just food. That'd be awesome, wouldn't it?"

Sam laughed as well. "Yeah, it would be."

Jess gave a nod and then took out her phone- the teacher had already said that phones were allowed, only if you finished all your work. Seemingly sensing that Sam was slightly off, she pulled up her instagram and flipped to her saved videos. "Here, since we're both done with our worksheets, I wanna show you something." As Sam (and Andy) glanced at her phone, Jess proceeded to play a few videos of some cute and clumsy dogs, all while Sam began to smile even more. He ended up leaving his second period in a much better mood than when he had arrived.

~~~~~

"Alright class," Cried the art teacher the moment the bell rang, "Get into groups of three! You'll be doing a small group project."

There were a few groans from some kids, but Sam just smiled as Charlie tapped both his and Dean's shoulders.

"Now, this group project shouldn't be too difficult, but some of you may struggle with it. You'll be doing a paintings- one person will paint a sunrise, one person will paint a midday sun, and the last person will paint a sunset! I've given you each paints with colors labeled- if you need to know which colors to use, they've been written on the board." She turned and pointed to the white board, where a lazily sketched sunrise, midday sun and sunset laid, colors labeled. "I will be walking around, so feel free to ask if you need help."

"I'll paint the sunrise." Charlie offered, taking a paintbrush and a few bottles of paint with the appropriate colors labeled. "Dean, you can do a sunset, and Sam can do the midday sun."

Before Dean could reply, Sam interjected with a simple, "I'll do the sunset." Charlie turned and glanced at him, but Sam didn't respond, only meeting her eyes.

"I agree with Sam. He's better at art in general than I am." Dean supplied, shrugging. "And I think the midday sun should be easiest. Best to give it to me, the least artistically talented one of us three." Charlie glanced at Dean as well, but she just shrugged and nodded.

Sam nodded and grabbed a paintbrush and some paint bottles, not bothering to look at the labels. Dean also grabbed a paintbrush and a few bottles of paint, also not looking at the labels. Sam quickly realized this mistake, but thankfully neither Dean nor Charlie seemed to notice that he had grabbed the correct colors without even glancing at the labels.

The teacher handed each of them a 8.5 by 11 inch canvas, and each student quickly put it on their easels. Charlie was the first of the three of them to paint, as she dipped her brush into the green and began painting the landscape. Sam dipped his brush into the green as well and started painting a landscape, while Dean just dipped his into the yellow and started to paint a sun.

The paint was quick to dry, so they only had to wait maybe six minutes to do the next layer. As Sam painted the sunset with ease, Dean glanced at his painting in awe.

"Wow, Sammy. That's really good!" He exclaimed, pausing his own painting for a brief moment.

Before Sam could even acknowledge the comment, Charlie paused her own painting as well and peeked at Sam's. "Woah, Sam, that is really good! How'd you mesh the colors so well?"

"It's not that hard," Sam murmured, almost solely to himself, as he dragged the brush across the canvas. His hand seemed to move on its own, guided by nothing more than the artistic drive within him. "You just gotta pay attention to how they mix while you paint."

Dean and Charlie watched Sam paint for a few moments, entranced. Then, a light lit up in Charlie's eyes, and she stared at Sam in shock.

"Wait, can you see how they mix?"

"Yeah, wh-" Sam suddenly stopped himself, though thankfully not suspiciously. He quickly regretted his slip of the tongue, however, when he saw how Charlie's face lit up.

"You met your soulmate?!?" She exclaimed, thankfully not loud enough to draw attention. Sam internally cursed himself as Dean caught on.

"Wait, Sam, you did?" Dean glanced at Sam, momentarily pausing his painting, "You met your soulmate? When?"

"At the party." Sam murmured, shyness evident in his tone. "It's just.. I don't know, I guess since you also found yours there, I felt it'd be awkward to say I also found mine. And I just wasn't thinking. Shock, I guess."

Dean shook his head adamantly, his green eyes filled with a sudden pride.

"I wouldn't have minded! I thought you were super excited to meet your soulmate? Took you by surprise, I guess?" Dean wrapped an arm around Sam, briefly setting his paintbrush aside. "Do you know who they are?"

"No. I don't know." Sam lied, quite efficiently. "It was dark, and they were so drunk you could smell it on them. I couldn't see their face and the smell was too overwhelming to stand. As curious as I was, I couldn't stay there much longer. I left before I could see their face."

Charlie clicked her tongue and let her eyes dart across Sam's face. "That's a shame. You mind if I help you find them?"

Sam took a brief moment to ponder the question, sincerely considering his options. Eventually, against his better judgement, he found himself nodding.

"Sure."

Charlie smiled gleefully and clapped her hands together. "Yay! This is gonna be so much fun!" She slid her paintbrush across her canvas for the last time and placed it down so the current round of paint could dry. "You won't regret this!"

It was then that she grabbed her phone and typed away at the screen, though Sam was unsure if it was related to his current situation, or if she was just texting her soulmate. Either way, Sam continued painting, hoping his slip of the tongue wouldn't come back to haunt him.

~~~~~

Dean rubbed his eyes tiredly as he stared at the paper in front of him. It was currently 4pm, and school was over. However, Dean had opted to go to the library right next to the school, in order to work on some homework without distractions. Sam was there too, but was in a different section of the library, avidly reading.

As Dean tapped his pencil absentmindedly, a kid suddenly sat down across from him and pulled a binder out. Dean did a quick double take, and his eyes then landed on one of the most handsome guys Dean had ever seen.

Messy dark, almost solid black hair and eyes bluer than anything he'd ever seen. A tanned, slightly chiseled face with a serious expression resting on it, which rather than looking unattractive, made the guy even hotter. Dean didn't even realize he was staring until the boy locked eyes with him.

"Oh, I'm sorry," The boy spoke, and Dean was taken aback by the boy's voice, "Did you want to sit alone?"

"Oh, no, I don't mind." Dean replied, shaking his head. "I'm just working on some chemistry homework."

"Wait, I think we have chemistry together." The boy glanced at Dean's paper. "What period and teacher?"

"Fourth period, Ms. MacLeod."

"Yep, I knew it." The boy grinned and pulled out a piece of paper. "You need any help? I got the homework done already."

Dean breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, please. I barely understand any of this."

The boy chuckled and stood up, opting to sit next to Dean instead. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Castiel Novak, but everyone calls me Cas."

Dean took Cas's hand and shook it. "Dean Winchester."

"Winchester, huh? Cool name." The boy grinned and pulled out a pencil. "Here, let me help."

Sure enough, the boy managed to help Dean. Chemistry might not have been one of Dean's worst subjects, but Cas seemed to know way more than Dean could have ever dreamed. By the time Dean had completed his worksheet, the boy was already helping him with another paper, explaining things to Dean that he had never understood before. Dean was blown away by the boy's knowledge; <i>he must be a chemistry genius!<i> Dean thought to himself in awe. Soon enough, Dean's pencil was flying across the paper, guided by Cas's very helpful tutoring. And for once, Dean didn't mind being tutored.

A full hour passed before either of them realized. Dean didn't even notice until he felt a tapping on his shoulder, which turned out to be Sam. Dean whirled around, breaking Cas's concentration, and they both glanced at Sam.

"I don't mean to interrupt your study session," Sam apologized, glancing at Dean, then Cas, then the paper between them, "But it's almost 5pm. Bobby will probably be wondering where we are."

Dean glanced at his watch, and swore. "Shit! It is, I didn't even realize!"

'Wait, it's 5pm?!" Cas cried, glancing at his phone. His fingers flew away on his screen, and a look of panic crossed his face. "Fuck, I think my brother forgot I was here." Before either Sam or Dean could say anything, Cas flew out of his seat, grabbed his stuff and pressed his phone to his ear. He quickly walked away to a level 1 area of the library, where talking and phones were allowed, and left the two brothers on their own.

"Alright, let me pack up." Dean murmured, grabbing his stuff.

Sam tilted his head and stared at the form of the boy walking off. "Who was that?"

"A kid from my chem class. He was helping me with my classwork."

"What's his name?"

"Castiel."

Sam raised a brow. "That's a pretty unique name."

Dean huffed in amusement. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

A minute or so passed before Dean saw Cas approaching him.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Cas remarked, "My brother was so out of it he left me here. He's gonna come get me."

"How far away do you live?"

"Five, eight minutes. Not far."

"Let me take you. I'm heading home."

Cas glanced at Dean with a look of momentary surprise on his face, before he pulled out his phone. "Oh, okay. Sure. Lemme text my brother."

Dean packed his stuff up and heaved his backpack onto his shoulder, watching Cas all the while. Sam ducked away momentarily to grab his stuff, and by the time he was back, all three of them were ready.

Dean led them all to the Impala, and once they all climbed in, Dean handed his phone to Cas. "Here, plug your address into my gps."

Cas nodded and typed away, then handed his phone back to Dean.

"What songs do you have, by the way?" Cas asked curiously.

"Mostly rock, like AC/DC and Led Zeppelin."

"And Taylor Swift." Sam interjected with a smirk.

"It is not a crime to like Taylor Swift, Sam." Dean gave a quick glare to his younger brother as he peeled out of the parking lot. "Besides, I'm not the one with a Celine Dion addiction."

Sam stuck his tongue out at Dean as an AC/DC song started playing, and Cas couldn't help but laugh. The two of them reminded him so much of his own siblings.

During the car ride, two AC/DC songs and a Taylor Swift song played, and Cas was still nodding his head as Dean pulled up to his house.

"Wait, you live here?"

"I did tell you my surname is Novak." Cas laughed. "And yes, I do."

"Cool house."

Cas grinned as he grabbed his backpack. "Thank you, Dean. I'll see you in chemistry."

"See you."

And with that, Dean pulled away and drove off. Cas was left standing in the driveway, smiling as he watched the car disappear. He was still smiling by the time he walked into his house, but he didn't know why. Regardless, he shrugged it off and headed upstairs.

Hey y'all, sorry for the long ass break in updating! Writer's block is a bitch :( anyways, i got a gf a day ago, and i got in a mood to write again, so i finished this chapter! enjoy!