Chapter Text
“Dean, you’re late!” Charlie hissed as Dean sat down in the row of seats behind her.
“Oh no,” he returned sarcastically, adjusting his mask.
Dean Winchester, baseball coach of the Arden Aardvarks ( definitely not his choice of mascot) and resident teacher of advanced placement and senior English Literature classes, sat down and prepared to be bored for the duration of the upcoming meeting.
The auditorium was fairly large for their high school, but it was still small enough for Dr. Missouri Moseley, school district superintendent, to look him in the eye as he sat down and raised one of her perfectly manicured eyebrows. Charlie turned around in her seat, pulled down her mask, and stuck out her tongue. Dean flipped her off.
Early to mid-August was meant for teacher professional development and lesson planning. Currently, the teachers of Arden High School were sitting in a mandatory meeting for the new year, going over policies and procedures to be followed in the next-wave-COVID school year. Being remote for most of the last academic year had been taxing on the teachers as well as the students.
Normally, these yearly meetings were conducted by the school principal, but Zachariah Adler was currently on his way to a white-collar prison for embezzling money from the district. No one liked him anyway, so no one was overly upset. This did mean, however, that the school would be assigned a new principal, either from the same district or elsewhere.
After her brief visual reprimand of Mr. Dean Winchester, Dr. Mosely continued. “Now that everyone has arrived--” okay, maybe she wasn’t done staring Dean down and if he suddenly found the floor in front of him very interesting, well...he had a healthy dose of fear when it came to Dr. Moseley.
“--We can continue with introducing the new, incoming principal of Arden High School.” At this, Dr. Moseley turned behind her and nodded to a man sitting to her left. Dean couldn’t really make out the man’s features from that distance and behind his mask, only that he was a white male with dark hair and maybe had blue eyes. Dean was actually a little intrigued. He didn’t often date in the school’s ‘gene pool’ as it were, but exceptions could be made. He was a sucker for brunettes.
“Everyone, please welcome Castiel Novak, who comes to us from St. Louis. Mr. Novak, if you would say a few words?” Applause broke out around the room. The man nodded, took his place at the podium, and removed his mask.
“Thank you, Dr. Moseley. I am very pleased--” Dean could swear his heart stopped beating. That. Voice. Those. Eyes. Even from this distance, he could make out a few other details about the man, including the fact that he had either missed shaving that morning or had missed some spots along the way; the man had five o’clock shadow at ten in the morning.
Dean sat up a little straighter and paid closer attention.
“As Dr. Moseley mentioned, I am here from the St. Louis area where up until about two years ago I taught high school biology as well as anatomy and physiology.”
Dean zoned out for part of Mr. Novak’s presentation, which covered his pedagogical philosophies of education and how he ended up in Arkansas. Dean began to daydream about the upcoming baseball season...how many new students he would need to add to the team, how to adjust his lineup for missing seniors who had graduated the year before. Seeing Mr. Castiel Novak up in the bleachers cheering the team on, going home with Dean after the game to celebrate...
There was another round of applause, interrupting Dean’s thoughts. Blue eyes met green across the room and the man at the podium smirked before he put his mask back on. It was like he knew that Dean hadn’t been paying attention. Dean cleared his throat (which Charlie heard and turned to look at him with curiosity) and sat up straighter in his seat.
Dr. Moseley approached the podium again but left her mask on. “Thank you, Mr. Novak. Arden is very happy to have you here with us. If everyone would come down to the front, we have some refreshments.” Dean hopped up. He had been ready to jog down, grab some donuts, and jog out again until Mr. Novak spoke. Now, he was ready to grab a powdered donut and introduce himself to the man.
“If Coach Winchester could see me, please?” Dr. Moseley asked before leaving the podium. “I hope all of you have a wonderful day.” She smiled with her eyes and turned off the microphone. Well, there went any hope of properly meeting Mr. Novak; he was probably in for a lecture from the superintendent.
“Busted,” Charlie sing-songed. Charlie Bradbury was the Information and Technology guru of Arden high school. She ran the IT department and also taught the occasional class on programming or video game design. She and Dean had actually met in college and continued being friends after graduation. Happenstance brought them to the same school to teach. They made an interesting duo: the fiery redheaded nerd with a passion for computers and the former-jock-turned teacher with a passion for literature and his baseball team. They worked well together despite the differences. All of the students loved them, even ones who didn’t take their classes.
Dean rolled his eyes at Charlie and walked down toward the stage where everyone was beginning to gather and gossip about the summer. Dr. Moseley caught Dean’s eye just as he got a row away from where she was talking with Mr. Novak, whose mask it seemed, was covered with little bees.
“Ah, Coach Winchester,” Dr. Moseley said as the man approached. “Let me properly introduce you to Mr. Novak.” Dean looked away from Missouri’s dark brown eyes and into the bluest eyes he’d ever seen.
“Hello, Coach Winchester. Please call me Castiel.” Castiel held out his hand for a handshake with the other man. Dean remained still, looking into Castiel’s bright eyes and nearly losing himself in them.
Dr. Moseley cleared her throat, rather loudly.
Dean startled and grasped the other man’s hand. He looked back to Missouri and then again at Castiel. “Right. Hi, Castiel. You can call me Dean. Coach Winchester is for the students, heh.” Dean’s attempt at humor fell a little flat, but Castiel didn’t seem to mind. Dean cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck with his other hand. Castiel covered a laugh with a cough.
Missouri, however, rolled her eyes and walked away, muttering something under her breath about how this was going to be an interesting year.