Chapter Text
Dean had been up almost all night, jumping around in his room, packing and repacking his backpack, and contemplating the outfit his mom had put out for him the night before. His mother, Mary, had come into his room several times to tuck him under the covers, tiredly glaring at him and asking him to please get some sleep and stop waking her up. He couldn’t do anything but grin sheepishly at her and try to comply, though barely an hour of staring at the ceiling would go by before he would be up yet again.
Today was his first day of school and it was safe to say that he was excited. He knew some of his friends from kindergarten would be there too, though he didn’t know if they would end up in the same class. There was Jo, whom he had known since he was one year old, when his uncle Bobby had married Jo’s mother, Ellen. She came over to his house so often that she was almost like a sister to him.
Mary walked him to school, holding his hand while hoisting a two year old Sam Winchester on her hip. She had a tight grip on Dean, because he kept trying to run off to say hi to his friend. In the end he conceded to staying by her side and settled for waving at them instead. He spotted Charlie, a small red-headed girl, who looked very nervous, standing next to her mother, Victor and Benny that he knew too over in the corner, and a lot of new faces. He couldn’t see Jo or her mother anywhere.
They were shuffled into the classroom, all of the parents lining up against the wall while the kids filed into the seats they had been assigned. Dean looked at the seat next to him before the boy sat down. He still wasn’t the best at reading, even if he had reached the point where he was following the words with his fingers while Mary read aloud to him at night, but he could read some of the name on the paper next to him. Something about a cat, he thought it said.
The boy who sat down next to Dean looked just as tired as Dean probably would be if it weren’t for all of the excitement coursing through his veins. The boy had unruly dark hair and circles under his eyes and met Dean’s gaze with an unsure smile.
Dean spoke loudly to be heard over the chatter of the classroom and introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Dean. What’s your name?” he asked, looking pointedly at the name tag in front of the boy.
“Castiel,” the boy answered. Cat-steel. Weird name, he thought, but it sort of suited the boy. He had a good feeling about this boy already.
“I think you’re gonna be my new best friend,” Dean exclaimed. When he looked up to wave goodbye to his mom as the parents were ushered out, he couldn’t help but beam up at her. He was going to love school, he already knew it.