Sprout

A heart and a sun

Dean, Castiel, Jimmy, Meg, and Charlie all start rushing toward the forming line near the entrance to the school after they hear the bell ring.

"If you're last you eat boogies!" Jimmy yells as he takes off running.

Meg scoffs in disgust and starts running faster, her deep brown hair billowing out behind her.

Castiel mutters "Ew..." under his breath, and sprints after his brother. Dean knows that he can run faster, but he wants to match his new best friend. Castiel glances at Dean, happy that he's not alone anymore.

Jimmy gets to the doors first, almost tripping over his untied shoelace. He roars his victory, the missing tooth clear in his huge smile. Dean and Castiel stop in front of him next, Cas's breath coming in quick and hard bursts. Meg shoots Dean a glare when she sees that he and Cas finished together. She huffs, and stops, once she sees how far behind Charlie is.

The redhead wheezes, trying to catch her breath. "I don't eat boogies!" She defends, still out of breath. "Your mom does."

Jimmy rolls his ocean-blue eyes and makes a grade-A bitch face. Dean laughs along with him. There's one of the reasons Dean likes Charlie, She's funny. "You tell him, Char!" Dean cheers, his small hand brushing across Castiel's.

Cas feels like he's turning into a tomato. Even his ears flush red when he feels Dean's hand on his. He really hopes that his twin and Dean haven't noticed. He doesn't want them to think he has a crush on Dean. Michael told him that it's bad to like like other boys. Even if they're cute.

✏

Dean sits at his table of four, glaring daggers into the back of Meg's head. Why does she get to sit with his best friend and Dean has to sit with Mean Ruby? She tore up the drawing he made of Charlie, told him that he's gross, and told everyone at the table that he has cooties. And school has only been in session for ten minutes. If she does one more thing, Dean is either going to scream or cry. He wants to call her that word that his daddy told him to not repeat so badly.

It helps that he notices Cas looking at him every once in a while. His new best friend hasn't forgotten about him, and that thought makes Dean smile.

"If everybody can hear me, clap once." Ms. Ellen states loudly. Then almost all of the classroom of eighteen students clap. It's nothing short of a miracle to get a bunch of five-year-olds to pay attention. Dean sees Ruby put her finger so far up her nose that he thinks she's scratching her brain out of the corner of his eye. Charlie doesn't eat boogies, but Dean is pretty sure that Ruby does .

"Welcome to your first day at school," Ellen says, canvassing the colorful classroom. "I'm going to lay down the law, then we can get started on our first assignment."

Ellen explains the rules. Dean wants to tattle on Ruby so badly, but his mom always told him to be the bigger person . He's going to wait until she does something really mean, then make it obvious. Then maybe Ms. Ellen will let him sit with Cas.

"Now, because it's the first day, I want to get to know all of you." Ms. Ellen instructs, passing out blank sheets of paper and crayons. "I want you to write your names in the middle of these papers, then you're going to draw three things that you love."

Dean smirks to himself. He knows what and who he's going to draw already. Even if it's technically four things that he likes, Dean knows that his teacher won't be mad.

When he grabs a blue crayon that reminds him of Cas's eyes, he feels a crumpled-up ball of paper hit his forehead. Then Dean looks up and sees Ruby cackling. His face flushes, and he's about to call her a name that he probably shouldn't at school. Then she goes silent, completely freezing when she sees Ms. Ellen behind Dean.