He told himself he was building up his tolerance. He didn't like to think of himself as particularly weak, but he certainly wasn't Mr. Muscle—not by any means. And especially when the numbers weren't fair. It was how he made himself stronger. He'd be able to take it eventually, that was his goal. He just had to keep working at it, building that tolerance. He'd get there. A little bit deeper, a little bit longer. He was doing this to help himself, to get better.

That's what he told himself.

Calypse High School looked decent enough. Actually, it looked more than decent. The middle school was just across the street, and Dean had just dropped Sam off. After parking the impala in the high school lot, Dean made his way to the front of the school, through one set of double doors, and then another. He'd memorized his schedule the night before, but the folded paper was in his back pocket—just in case.

He walked down the hall to his locker at an easy pace. He had to enter his combination twice, but he managed to get his locker open alright.

"I haven't seen you around here."

Dean looked up and saw a group of three girls, two with long dark locks and the other blonde. The brunette with curls was the one who'd spoken.

"Yeah, I'm new. Dean Winchester."

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Like the rifle?"

The side of Dean's mouth quirked up in a smirk. "Yeah, like the rifle," he confirmed.

"I'm Meg," the initiator introduced herself. "And this is Ruby and Ruby."

"Where're you headed, Winchester?" the dark-haired Ruby asked while blonde Ruby leaned against Dean's locker door.

"Uh, I've got historical literature first off with Mr. Shurley."

"Oh, you mean Chuck," Meg said, lips spreading into a smile. "I have him second block. Too bad." She and the rest of the posse took a few steps back.

"See ya," the blonde Ruby said before the three girls turned away in unison.

Dean shook his head as they left, not sure what to make of the trio.

He sensed a presence on his other side and turned to see a dark mess of hair emerging from a locker a few feet over. He kept his head low and looked to be in danger of disappearing into his gray hoodie. The guy glanced over at him and Dean got a glimpse of how blue his eyes were—whoa.

"Hey. I'm Dean Winchester," he automatically introduced himself.

The other boy stared at Dean's outstretched hand for several seconds. "You're new," he eventually said.

Dean withdrew his hand. "Yeah—"

"You don't want to associate with me," blue eyes said before grabbing his books and hurrying off.

Dean blinked. Okay, so these people were a little weird.

Mr. Shurley made Dean stand at the front of the class and introduce himself to the class. It might've been awkward since Dean's entire life was pretty much his little brother and his car, but Dean knew how to talk.

"Thank you…Dean," Mur. Shurley said somewhat uncomfortably. "Why don't you have a seat next to Michael." He gestured to one of the two empty chairs.

Dean didn't think Michael looked very welcoming. The guy with lighter and longer hair who was at the only other table with an empty seat looked much more approachable, but Dean thought he might actually kinda like this teacher and he didn't want to tick him off. So he slid into the chair next to Michael and took care not to bump him at all or even get anywhere close.

"Please don't speak to me," Michael said in an impossibly low, impassive voice. "Next class you will sit elsewhere."

His speech was weirdly formal, but Dean obliged and didn't say anything to him.

After class, the other guy with an open seat at his table came up to Dean.

"Apologies about my cousin," he said. "I'm Gabriel—you can call me Gabe."

Dean shook his hand. "Dean. What's up with him?"

"You could say he's king of the school, I guess. Doesn't like to be bothered by lesser creatures."

"And you're related?"

"Unfortunately," Gabe said with a sigh. "Though he prefers to pretend we don't even know each other. He's got his crowd, I've got mine."

Dean vaguely wondered what crowd blue eyes fit into.

"So this is one of those cliquey schools," Dean ventured a guess.

"You could say that—but it's a bit of an understatement."

Great, Dean thought. That was just what he needed. He hoped the middle school was a slightly more welcoming place, for Sammy's sake.

"You got anywhere to sit at lunch?" Gabe asked.

"I guess not."

"Find my table. There'll be a spot for you." He walked off before Dean could say thanks.

He turned to go to his next class, but ran straight into a firmly built body.

"Sorry—" he immediately apologized.

"Don't worry about it," came a smooth voice. "You're the new guy—Dean…Winchester?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"I'm Lucifer. What's your next class?"

"Ahh…field biology."

"Hmm, with Joshua."

"What?"

"The teacher—everyone calls him Joshua."

"Oh." Dean wasn't quite sure what to make of Lucifer's tone.

"I believe you'll have that class with Balthazar. You'd do well not to engage him in conversation."

Dean frowned. "Why not?"

Lucifer patted Dean's shoulder, not at all demandingly. "You don't want to get in with the wrong crowd, Dean." And then he left.

What the hell was up with this place?

He did have field biology with a guy named Balthazar, but he didn't make a move to talk to Dean, though Dean felt the guy's eyes on him a good portion of the time.

When lunch time rolled around, Dean felt like he could relax a little. He had somewhere to sit, so it would be alright.

He scanned the tables, looking for Gabe, but when he saw him, he was faced with a small dilemma. Balthazar was sitting at the table, along with a girl who had the reddest hair Dean had ever laid eyes on. And, of course, Lucifer had caught sight of him, and watched him like he was just waiting to see what Dean would do. Beside him was a smaller boy with dark and darker eyes that were also trained on Dean, watching, waiting.

The red-haired girl turned her head and saw Dean hesitating. She waved him over. Her smile was what decided it. He sat between her and Gabe and didn't think about what he was doing to his social status—he wasn't even sure who was popular at this place and who wasn't. Cliques seemed more like sides in a war than actual cliques at this school.

"You must be Dean," the girl said. "I'm Anna."

"Nice to meet you," Dean said, flashing her a smile.

"And this is Balthazar," Gabe introduced.

"Yes, we had biology together," Balthazar said, surprising Dean with an accent.

Dean saw Anna tense up and followed her stare to a tall blonde making her way to the table. Her mouth was wide and eyes a little too far apart, but she was still extremely attractive.

"Here we go," Dean heard Gabe mutter.

"Hello, boys," she said in a sing-song voice. "Anna."

"What do you want, Lilith?" Anna asked in a calm voice, but her warm brown eyes were suddenly shooting daggers.

"Oh, don't be like that, sweetie," she said, sliding in next to Balthazar.

"Why don't you go back to Luci's lap," Balthazar suggested. "His dick's probably getting cold without your ass."

Lilith's lips spread into a slow grin. "You'd do well to watch your tongue, Balthazar. You and Lucifer were once family, you know."

Dean's brow furrowed. Gabe and Michael? Balthazar and Lucifer? Wasn't family supposed to stick together?

"I actually came to offer Dean a place at our table. We do have a bit more fun than these bums," she said, sliding an arm around Balthazar. Dean immediately thought, Snake.

Balthazar was on his feet in a split second, fingers wrapped tight around Lilith's wrist. "You, my dear, would do well to keep your hands off me."

"Balthazar."

Everyone turned to look at the source of the voice.

"Control yourself." Beady eyes bore into Balthazar's until he released his grip on Lilith and sat back down in submission. Lilith stood and left without another word, though she did cast Dean one final glance.

"I don't want to see another outburst like that," beady eyes reprimanded. Dean's eyes followed him until he sat at the table where Michael was.

"Who was that?"

I believe I was wrong in telling you Michael was king," Gabe said. "He's more of a prince. Zachariah is the more appropriate king."

In his first day, Dean learned more than he thought possible about the school's hierarchy.

Zachariah's word was law, but there were always rebels.

Michael was next in line. But mostly he just wanted to be left alone. (He wasn't a fan of high school.)

Lucifer and Lilith had a thing and there were rumors that brunette Ruby was a part of the thing, but she denied it.

Meg and Ruby2 used to run with Crowley and Lucifer, but Meg got sick of being told what to do, and she and Ruby2 were practically sisters, so the three of them broke off, which complicated things with Azazel, because Meg and Azazel used to sort of have a thing and Azazel had a friend named Alistair that apparently you never wanted to fuck with.

(This is where it got weird…er.) Lucifer and Michael were twins. Zachariah was the older brother. Lucifer emancipated from his parents in order to get away from Zach. No one knew Michael's thought and feelings on the situation.

Half the school was related one way or another, whether by blood or marriage or whatever. Balthazar was Lucifer's half-brother (so also Mike and Zach's.)

This meant Gabe and Balthazar were somehow related.

This place was a time bomb, just waiting to explode into all-out war.

Anna had a step-brother in middle school, but now he was an ex-step-brother because their parents had gotten a divorce. She didn't go into details.

Anna's ex-step-brother was blue eyes. Blue eyes' name was Castiel.

Second block that day, Dean had art—more specifically, painting. He hadn't wanted to take it, but he needed another class and it was the first one on the list with an opening. Anna's mother, Mrs. Milton, taught the class.

Dean liked Anna. Gabe was an okay guy too and Balthazar was tolerable. All the same, he still missed Jo and Ash and Garth and Adam. They were going to hang out over the weekend and Dean thought maybe he'd invite Anna and Gabe (and Balthazar, to be polite) to come along. He had a feeling Gabe and Ash would hit it off and that way there would be another girl besides Jo—not that that had ever been a problem, but still.

Moments before the bell rang, one last student came through the door—Castiel. He headed to a completely empty table in the back of the room.

"Good morning," Mrs. Milton greeted.

"Good morning," the class echoed. The dull tone suggested this was a routine thing.

"As everyone probably already knows, we have a new student, Dean Winchester. I hope everyone makes him feel very welcome here." Dean got the feeling this woman was blind to Calypse High's ways. Or she just chose to ignore them.

"Now, new project. We talked about it last class. Remember, think medieval. Style, subject matter, colors. Just think medieval. I've got to go make a phone call. Castiel, why don't you explain the project to Dean and show him where everything is? I'll be back in a few minutes." She left the room, heels clicking against the linoleum floor.

Dean wandered back to where Castiel was, the boy's bright blue eyes glued to the table.

"So…you're Castiel."

"I'm sure someone else could explain the project to you," Cas said quietly. He stood quickly and went to a back room. Dean followed.

"So we're supposed to paint something medieval? Like, castles, kings, queens?"

"You really don't want to be seen with me." It sounded like he was warning Dean.

"Why, whose side are you on?" Dean half joked.

"No one's." Cas reached to the top shelf and grabbed a canvas, his hoodie—the same one as yesterday—sliding up his skinny little arm.

"You and Anna were step-siblings, weren't you?"

"What of it?" Cas snapped.

Dean held his hands up, showing he'd meant no harm. "Why not hang out with her?"

"Because. It's better for them if I stay away."

Castiel started to leave the room, so Dean grabbed a canvas and hurried after him.

"Well, I don't really give a shit about social status," Dean said, setting his canvas beside Cas'.

Cas sighed. "You will. I'll show you where the paints and brushes are."