Strings Attached

Chapter 87

Big time skip because the author doesn't really know what's going on until the end

It's first block on a Monday and who likes Monday? On this basis alone, Castiel is thinking it's going to be a bad day. It's been a pretty good couple of weeks, though. Just over two weeks ago, Castiel started talking to the Hailey girl, and they're becoming pretty good friends.

He's still hanging out with his other friends, of course, and he's had a couple conversations on Twitter since then. They're not as extensive as his conversation with Hailey, and he wouldn't consider them friends like he considers himself friends with Hailey. Still, it's nice that people are noticing him, and like him enough to chat with him.

Castiel's class has a very strict rule about phones. They stay silently in the backpack or pocket for the entire class, and if there's a text, the teacher will take it and read it out loud. If it's a call, you have to answer on speaker. Castiel saw a YouTube video of that once, which was an April Fools joke, but he didn't realize there were teachers that did that.

Of course, Castiel, who has no friends that aren't at school with him, never thought he'd have to worry about that. The only one who Castiel can imagine texting him in class, Dean, sits next to him anyway, so he doesn't have to worry about that. Overall, it seems incredibly unlikely that he would have to deal with the consequences of having a phone.

That's why, when a phone goes off in the middle of class, it takes him a moment to realize it's his. The teacher gives him a look, and he knows she realizes it's him, and he can't weasel his way out of this. He sighs and pulls out his phone, expecting a sham caller. Instead, he sees that it's Wayward Records calling.

"Crap," Castiel mutters.

He had been hoping to keep this whole deal under wraps. Maybe he can still do that. He'll just tell whoever this is — Jim, probably — to call him later. So that's what he does.

"I'm at school, I can't talk right now," Castiel says quickly, not giving the other person any time to speak before.

"Real quick," Jim says. "'Playing with Fire' is on the Billboard top 100."

"Cool, bye." Castiel hangs up quickly, barely giving himself time to finish speaking. He quickly turns the volume off of his phone in case Jim calls back. With his luck, the one time he turns the volume off will be the time he loses his phone.

He shoves the phone in his backpack before risking a glance around the room. He can see people are interested in what that conversation was about, and he silently begs them not to ask. It's none of their business, anyway.

"Who was that?" Meg asks loudly.

"No one," Castiel mutters.

"But —"

"Drop it, Meg," Dean snaps.

"Dean, I'll take care of it," the teacher says, as if she would actually get Meg in trouble for it.

Suddenly, a song starts playing from someone's phone. No. No, this isn't... Well, he's fucked. Someone is playing 'Playing with Fire.' How did they even find it? Sure, it's on YouTube, but how did they know what to look for? Did they check the billboard charts? Because it couldn't be very high on there. No one has heard of it.

"Turn it off," the teacher scolds someone that Castiel doesn't know the name of. Unfortunately, he doesn't.

"Congratulations," Dean murmurs. "Top hundred. That's pretty big."

"I bet I'm number 100," Castiel replies.

"Maybe," Dean allows. "But you're gonna climb your way to number one pretty soon."

Finally, the music stops, cut off mid song. Castiel glances back to see that the teacher finally took the kid's phone. It's about time. She looks down at the screen, then shoots Castiel a puzzled look. Castiel quickly looks down at his desk to avoid eye contact with her.

"Is that...?" she asks.

"Mm hmm," Castiel confirms awkwardly.

"What?" Meg asks.

"Nothing," Castiel mutters.

"What is it?" Meg asks again.

"It's none of your business," Dean tells her.

"But —"

"Can't we just do math like we're supposed to be doing?" Castiel asks finally.

This seems to remind the teacher that this is a class. "Uh, yeah. Yes. Let's — let's do math."

~~

"Hey," Dean greets his boyfriend in the band room for lunch once again. They haven't hid out there in weeks.
Castiel is already there when Dean shows up. He'd been about to start playing something, though he doesn't know what he was going to play. When he hears Dean approach, he puts the guitar down and walks over to him, giving him a quick kiss.

"Hi," Castiel greets him with a smile. "Ooh, hey, I looked it up. It's number 96 on the charts! That's, like, better than a hundred!"

Dean chuckles. "Congratulations, Cas. I'm proud of you. You really are gonna be the next Bon Jovi."

"I doubt it, but thanks anyway."

"Aw, come on," Dean says, rolling his eyes. "You're getting sorta famous already. You've got, like, three hundred followers on Twitter, and you actually talk to them. That's gonna get you more followers and more followers means more popularity, and more popularity means more people listening to your songs, and more people listening to your songs means more being Bon Jovi."

Castiel chuckles at that. "How come you, Gabriel and Lucifer always know exactly what to do in situations like this? Like, I'm the singer-slash-songwriter, not you guys. Stop being so much better than me at it."

"You're still the star," Dean assures him. "We'll just be the ones you come to for help becoming super famous. And by 'we' I mean me because I want to be the helpful one."

Castiel laughs. "Alright, let's go with that."