Chapter One: Snowflakes

It was the middle of winter, and most of the school's students were huddled in hallways or underneath the protective slope of the stairwells. It was break period for the underclassmen, and the cold, the teeangers relished the break from books and pencils. They chatted and chirped about relationships and this teacher and that test, but they all stayed hidden from the flurry of snow. All except for Castiel Novak.

Castiel preferred to be called Cas. He was made fun of enough without having a strange name to boot. He secretly liked his name, he loved the way the letters sounded together, but everyone else just thought it was abnormal. He decided to go by Cas way back in elementary school, when that was the only thing abnormal about him. As he grew older, his classmates grew meaner, and soon they realized Castiel was not like them. They picked on him for his ratty coat he always wore, and after puberty, his gruff voice that didn't match his skinny frame. Castiel had no friends, but that was okay with him.

Castiel didn't like to hide under the stairwells and talk about girls. He preferred to sit on the cold, snow covered bench and watch the flakes fall from the sky. He liked the way his favorite beige jacket kept him warm, and the way the white snow looked in his black hair. Castiel may have been alone, but that's not to say he was lonely.

Transfixed by the little ice crystals falling down, Castiel didn't see the short boy with floppy hair, and a taller guy in a long brown leather jacket. The tall guy in the jacket placed a hand on the shoulder of the boy with floppy hair, and said a few words. The floppy haired boy smiled as if he wasn't sure of himself, but hiked his backpack up onto his shoulders and walked through the snowy sidewalks. The leather jacket guy watched the short boy for a moment, and then set off in the other direction towards a group of upperclassmen.

The bell rang shortly after the two boys entered the school, and Castiel was awoken from his daydreams. He hitched his backpack onto his shoulder and merged into the mob of highschoolers. People pushed and shoved trying to make their way through the hallways to class. Castiel stuck to the sides of the hallway, if only to stay out of the way. Eventually he managed to make his way into his classroom. It was Biology I, which was one of Castiel's favorite classes.

He took his chair in the far corner of the classroom, and began to take out his notebooks. As usual, he was early. Most everyone else was still mingling in the hallways, except for a few people who needed questions answered. The teacher mulled around helping those people, and as a few minutes passed, everyone else flooded in the classroom.

Engrossed in his notes, Castiel didn't noticed the floppy-haired boy sit down next to him until the boy leaned over and hesitantly tapped Castiel's elbow. Castiel jerked up with surprise, turning to look at the floppy-haired boy. The boy seemed confused by Castiel's adverse reaction, and it took him a minute to speak.

"Erm, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

Castiel blinked. Clearly, this kid hadn't gotten the memo that no one talks to Cas. "It is alright." He replied. "Why did you tap my elbow?" Castiel tilted his head slightly.

The floppy-haired boy was perplexed by the way Castiel talked. It was curt and direct, and the straightforwardness of it was strange. "I was wondering if this is room 605?"

"Yes, it is." Castiel replied, and turned back to his notes.

"My name is Sam, by the way." The floppy-haired boy said, relieved he'd managed to make it to his first class.

Castiel still didn't understand why Sam kept talking to him, but he answered anyway. "Hello Sam, I am Cas."

"Cas, is that short for something?"

"Yes, Castiel."

"What do you want to be called?" Sam thought everything about Cas was interesting, in a strange, bizzare sort of way, from his name to the way he talked to the way his hair was tidy in an unkempt way.

Castiel thought everything about Sam was unusual. No one had ever asked him which name he preferred. He had just always gone by Cas to escape the teasing.

"I do not know." Castiel answered, unsure whether or not to give the true answer. "Which do you prefer? You may call me that."

Sam quirked an eyebrow. "How do you not know which name you like more?" He laughed a little at the absurdity of the idea.

Castiel stared at him blankly. "That is irrelevant. We were talking about which name I want to be called by."

Sam was unable to reply to the weird response Cas gave him because class started. Castiel instantly became engrossed in the subject matter, but Sam found himself a little bored. He much preferred English and history.

Much to Sam's relief and much to Castiel's dismay, the class went by quickly, and the bell for seventh period rang.

"Cas?"

"Yes?" Castiel looked up from his bag to glance over at Sam, who had his brow furrowed at a map.

"How do you get to the gym? I can't find out where the door is."

Castiel had gym next, so he offered to let Sam follow him. He never walked to class with someone, but he liked Sam. He didn't usually like people his own age, and honestly, he didn't usually like people of other ages too. Younger people made fun of him, and older people left him out.

As Sam and Castiel walked, Sam mostly talked while Castiel mostly listened.

"I just started today, I came in late because I had to do some unpacking. I move around a lot though, so being the new kid isn't weird."

"Yes it is." Castiel replied. Being different in anyway always made you 'weird' to other people. For Sam, it would wear off. For Cas, he was stuck with weird.

Sam looked a little stunned; he still hadn't really grasped Cas's mannerisms yet. "Okay, yeah, it is. But only for a little while."

Castiel nodded, pleased by the correction. "This is the gym. There is another door on the side, but this one is closest to the locker rooms, so I use it more frequently."

"Where are the locker rooms then?"

Castiel pointed to a pair of doors not too far from where they stood. "The boys' is on the left."

The pair walked that way, and Sam followed Cas to his locker. Castiel began to mess with his lock, and started to pull off his shoes and jacket, but then realized Sam still stood next to him.

"Is there a problem, Sam?" Castiel's tone was not offensive, but simply inquisitive.

"Um, I don't have any clothes to change into. I don't even have a locker."

"You can talk to Coach Burns when we go to the gym. He will assist you." Castiel continued to change, and Sam sat down on one of the benches, placing his backpack beneath it. Castiel finished getting dressed, now in shorts and a t-shirt that seemed a little too big for him, and the two continued into the gym.

Sam briefly talked to Coach Burns, and then went to go sit over by Castiel, who was absentmindedly twirling a basketball on his finger.

"He said to just bring a lock and some old clothes next class." Castiel didn't answer, so Sam just looked out at everyone else who was playing basketball. "Don't you like sports?" Sam asked, although he could probably guess the answer.

"No. I am content to watch. Why are you not playing?" Castiel stopped twirling the ball and turned towards Sam.

Sam shrugged. "I don't have any clothes. Plus, who else would you sit with?" Sam smiled at Cas.

Castiel smiled a little. "It is not a problem if you wish to join the others. I typically sit on my own, it does not bother me."

"Well it bothers me." Sam grabbed the basketball from Cas and began to spin it on his finger. Soon the two were engaged in a small competition, trying to see who could keep it going the longest. Castiel was by far the winner, as he had spent many afternoons in the gym practicing.

After a while, a group of tall boys entered the gym. One of them wore a leather jacket and was talking animatedly with the others. He wasn't dressed in gym clothes, but when the others started to play, he just shrugged his jacket off and joined in.

Castiel was busy concentrating on keeping the basketball atop his finger, that when the guy with the leather jacket came over, Castiel jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Hey, Sammy." He said, watching Cas scramble after the basketball from the corner of his eye.

"Hi, Dean." Sam smiled at Dean as Castiel took his place next to Sam again.

"How's school going? You been making friends?"

Sam nodded, and then gestured to Cas. "This is Cas, he showed me around a bit."

Dean looked over to Cas. "Hey, I'm Dean, Sam's brother."

Castiel felt strange. Dean looked like one of the popular, football-playing seniors, and those guys never talked to Castiel. He wasn't even sure how to speak to someone like Dean, so he mumbled a hello under his breath.

Someone was calling Dean's name, and he turned around to see the older boys starting a new game of basketball. Dean lightly kicked Sam's foot with his own and said, "Gotta go, new game. Meet you out by the Impala after class," and like that, Dean was gone.

"I did not know you had a brother." Castiel said afterwards.

"Yeah, he and I are really close. Do you have a brother?"

"No. I have several."

"Oh, really? How many?"

"Six."

Sam blinked. That was a huge family. "Oh, wow. I can't imagine what it would be like with that many siblings."

"It is very crowded in my house. I am the youngest, and most of my brothers find it amusing to harass me."

Sam laughed a little. "I know what that can be like. When I was nine, Dean convinced me monsters were real. I believed him for months."

Castiel quietly thought to himself that monsters were real, they just usually took the form of bigger and stronger boys shoving him into lockers. But, he thought, maybe not all bigger and stronger boys were monsters. Dean seemed alright, regardless of any scary stories he might have told Sam.