Title: High School Sweethearts and Second Chances

Author: Noturbaby

Summary: Dean meets Buffy when he's a senior at Sunnydale High and she's a junior. Buffy wants a normal life and a normal boyfriend. Follows BtVS season 2 and 3. Pre-series SPN.

"Oh my gawd, Willow, who is the hottie talking to Oz?" Cordelia ignored the fact the Willow, Buffy and Xander were already having a conversation when she approached.

Willow turned from the group to look at her boyfriend. "Oh, that's Dean," she said with a smile and turned back to the group "He's new. He helped Oz with his van. He seems nice."

"Nice? No, Wills, he seems hot. Hot, as in you need to introduce us, hot." Buffy replied and Cordelia nodded her agreement.

"Am I even standing here?" Xander asked of the air.

"Xander, you're here, just not as interesting." Cordelia turned to walk down the hall then turned, "Seriously, Willow, you need to have Oz introduce him."

Buffy sighed, "I need to see Giles, catch you later?"

Willow smiled, "Yeah, no, wait, I'll go with you." Willow waved to Oz and then left with Buffy.

Dean grabbed the notebook Oz was holding out to him. "Thanks, man, I totally owe you."

"No, we're cool." A distracted Oz replied. He was watching Willow walk away.

"Dude, go after her. I'll see you later."

"Yeah, right, ok." Oz went after Willow and Dean shook his head and went the other way.

"Anything happen on patrol last night?" Buffy and Willow watched as Giles put several ancient looking books on the library counter.

"Nope, it was all with the quiet. No vamps, no demons, no monsters. It was quite boring actually."

"That's good, but don't get complacent. You must always be on guard. You must…"

"I know, Giles. The big bads don't take vacation and it's always quiet before the storm and yada yada yada." Buffy rolled her eyes. She would have preferred fighting actual vampires to just wasting her time walking around cemeteries.

"You need to take this seriously. We don't know…"

"Okay, Giles, I'll be serious." She sighed.

Willow was looking over the books Giles had set down. "What's with all of this, Giles?"

Giles instantly became focused. "They're for a friend that called and needed to locate some information about a demon. Now, Buffy, will I see you after school for training?"

Buffy and Willow turned to go, "Yeah, sure Giles. We'll make with the training after school."

"Good, alright then. I'll see you later." With that the girls left the library and Giles returned to his office.

Buffy walked into her second period American Lit class and found herself pleasantly surprised to see Oz's friend, Dean, standing in the front of the room leaning against the chalk board. He tilted his head to the side and watched Buffy walk down the aisle to her seat. She took her seat, and looked back at him, but he was now watching Harmony take her seat and he was smiling. Buffy pouted. Any guy that wants Harmony can't want anything to do with me she thought to herself.

"Class, class," Mrs. Anders called out. "Let's take our seats." As the class quieted, "Class this is Dean Winchester. He is joining us from…" She waited for Dean to respond.

Dean stood up from the chalkboard. "Kansas." His deep voice made all the girls pay attention.

"Kansas," Mrs. Anders repeated. "Good. Here's your copy of Huck Finn. Please find a seat. I'm sure someone will be happy to share their notes with you. Class let's discuss Twain's use of dialect in this novel and how it influences your understanding."

Dean took his copy and strolled down the aisle to a seat near the back. Harmony turned to him, "You can borrow my notes if you like."

"S'all right. I don't need 'em." Dean replied in a hushed voice. "I've read it before."

"Fine," Harmony huffed and turned in her seat. Buffy smiled slightly to herself. At least he didn't want to use just any excuse to talk to Harmony.

Near the end of class Buffy felt a tap on her shoulder. " What chapter are you guys on?" She turned to see Dean leaning over towards her. She gulped.

"I have no idea."

Dean laughed quietly. "Great. That makes it easy to catch up."

Harmony turned to them and answered snottily , "Chapter 19. Which you would know if you had bothered to look at my notes."

Dean looked at her with amused shock on his face. "Well, thanks I guess."

"Don't mention it." Harmony gathered her things and got up to leave.

"She always so sweet?" Dean asked as he and Buffy gathered their things, too.

"Harmony? Yeah. She's great." Buffy rolled her eyes.

Dean laughed, "Harmony? Really? Her name is Harmony. I get the "Harm" part."

Buffy laughed, "Yeah, well she really hates you now for talking to me. I'm one of her least favorite."

Dean smiled at her, "I can see why." Buffy looked confused, "maybe I'll catch you later." Dean continued on as Xander approached them.

As Dean walked away Buffy still looked confused. "Okay. Yeah later." She called after him then turned to Xander, "Why do you think Harmony doesn't like me?"

"Who cares? Harmony doesn't like anyone. Why would you get a special reason? She's just an all around disliker of people."

"Who's a disliker of people?" Willow asked as her and Oz met up with them.

"Harmony. Your friend, Dean, said he could see why Harmony doesn't like me and I was wondering. Not why Harmony doesn't like me 'cause that's easy. I'm not of her group and therefore not of the to be liked or spoken to. I mean how did the new guy know? Do I just scream social leper?"

Xander and Oz smiled at each other. "He knew 'cuz you're of the cute and he noticed." Xander replied. "He could tell Harmony doesn't like you for that."

"You think he thinks I'm cute?" Buffy asked excitedly. "I might have to stop skipping American Lit."

After school Buffy crashed through the library doors and found Giles talking with Dean. "That should help." Giles cut off his sentence when he saw Buffy.

"What should help?" Buffy asked as she approached them.

Looking a bit like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Dean tucked a stack of books under his arm. "Well, since you didn't know where we were in Huck Finn and I didn't borrow Harmony's notes, I actually had to come to the library and have this guy help me."

"Yep, when it comes to old books Giles is the man." Buffy smiled up at him.

"Yes, well that should be all of it, Dean. If you need any more help just stop by," Giles stepped between them and attempted to usher Dean out of the library.

Dean continued to smile at Buffy and barely responded to Giles tugging. "Okay, thanks. Um, I guess I'll see you in class." He said to Buffy, his smile broadening when she started sucking on a lollipop and hopped onto Giles' counter.

"Yep. Go American Lit and all that Huck stuff."

Once Dean was finally out the door, Giles turned his attention on Buffy. "So I gather the two of you have class together."

"Yes, but just the one. Why?"

"No reason, Just trying to keep up with you and all your social entanglements."

"He isn't an entanglement. He's just a fellow classmate - with entanglement possibilities."

"Do you really think that's wise?"

"You never think anything a normal teenager would do is wise."

"Buffy, -"

"I know I'm not a normal teenager. Let's get on with the training."

Dean found Sam waiting for him on the curb in front of his school. "Geez, Dean, what took you?"

"I had to get the books from Pastor Jim's friend, remember?" He tilted his head to indicate the books under his arm.

"I should have known. You never carry books home for homework." Sam teased.

Dean smiled at the joke while they walked. "Never need to Sammy. Hey, guess what? I'm reading Huck Finn again."

Sam gaped up at him, "Seriously?" Dean nodded. "What is that now eight times in 2 years?"

"Yeah, something like that. But who's counting right?" They turned down another block and the houses soon turned from nice suburban to slightly run down. Dean squinted, "Is that Dad home already?"

Sam squinted, too and then smiled, "Yeah. Awesome, maybe we can all eat together."

"What cha hungry for?" Dean asked as they both slightly quickened their pace.

"Anything. Anything but meatloaf. Lunch was meatloaf - or they claimed it was. I've smelled corpses that smelled better."

Dean laughed. "Maybe we can talk him into ordering pizza. That way we can look over these books instead of cooking and cleaning up after."

Sam smiled, confidant that Dean would be able to talk their father into splurging for the pizza if it meant they could all do research.

Joyce Summers stopped short when she walked into her living room. There was her daughter curled up in a chair reading. Well, she thought, at least she looked like her daughter but she had never seen her daughter actually reading a classic. "Buffy?"

"Hm?"

"You want dinner? I've got frozen Italian or frozen Chinese."

"'kay, sounds good," Buffy's distracted reply made Joyce smile even more.

"Alright, I'll let you know when it's ready."

"Huh? Okay," Buffy looked up to find her mom had gone back to the kitchen.

A few minutes later Joyce called her to dinner. "What's that you're reading Buffy?"

"Ugh, Huck Finn. It's for American Lit. I can barely understand what they're saying half the time."

Joyce smiled. "I remember that book. It's a classic. I think you'll enjoy it if you give it a chance."

"Sure, Mom, whatever you say. I just need to get through chapter 20 by tomorrow in case I'm asked any questions."

"How much more do you have to go?" Joyce asked thinking that reading 20 chapters in one night seemed an excessive amount of homework.

"Only 3 chapters. They're pretty short. I should handle okay." Buffy finished her dinner. "Mom, you really need to buy better frozen food. This spaghetti tastes like chow mein."

Joyce smiled, "That's because it is chow mein, Buffy, I have the Italian."

"Oh, well, then I guess it's ok." Buffy stood to clear the table only to be stopped by her mom.

"Buffy, go back to Huck. I've got this."

"Really?"

"Really."

Buffy went to her room to finish her reading but decided to call Willow instead.

"Hey, Buffy, what's up? Are you going on patrol?" Willow asked when she got to the phone.

"Yeah, eventually. It's been pretty quite lately, I'd say boring even."

"Are you hoping to run into Angel? Cuz I bet running into him wouldn't be boring."

Buffy smiled, "Yeah, it would be nice to see him. But actually I was wondering what you could tell me about Oz's friend, Dean."?

"Why? You don't think he's a bad guy or something do you? I really hope he's not."

Buffy laughed. "Willow, calm down. I'm just curious. I saw him in the library after school."

Willow cut her off, "What was he doing there?"

"He was getting books from Giles to help him get caught up in his classes. How does Oz know him?"

"They have auto shop together. Oz's van was making this disturbing sound the other day and Dean walked right up to Oz and asked him to pop the hood he took a look at it and asked if he could take it to shop class and it was fixed when school was over that day."

"He skipped a whole day of classes just to work on Oz's van? They hadn't even met yet?" Warning signs were going off in Buffy's head. No one was that nice.

"Well, Oz did give him his entire semester of notes for Western Civics. And I guess Dean knows like every song ever written. So he and Oz bonded over music when they worked on the van that day. It was kind of sweet actually."

Buffy felt better and the warning bells got quiet. "I can see how Oz would like that."

"Yeah, so do you like him? Cordelia was right he is a hottie."

"Yeah he is. Gorgeous eyes and his smile is worth going to American Lit with Anders."

"So Dean, tell me. You notice anything odd today?" It was the same question John had been asking for a week. Which meant that he didn't know Dean was skipping classes yet.

"No, Dad. Meeting Pastor Jim's friend for the books was the only interesting part of my day. This dude has a million books like these. Kinda weird that he works in a high school, don't you think?"

"A man's gotta work somewhere, Dean. I guess school librarian makes as much sense as anything else. Easy way to keep all the books around." John wasn't sure if Dean believed his answer so he didn't look at him when he asked, "What was the guy like?"

"British, formal. Got me out of there quick when another student came in. But normal, I guess. Normal as anyone in this line of work. He's a hunter?" Dean didn't think Giles would be able to carry a shotgun let alone dig up a grave and salt and burn a corpse.

"No, he's not a hunter," John replied confirming Dean's thoughts. "He's like a keeper of records or something. Jim didn't really get into it and I didn't pressure him. Once he told me he found someone with these books - I didn't ask much more. You got homework? Besides this?" John asked with an attempt to be a normal parent.

"No, sir. Just re-reading Huck Finn for the millionth time. What is it with that book? I think it may be my curse to read it at every school I attend."

John laughed. "Yeah, sorry about that. I guess but at least it's a test you know you'll pass." That comment made Dean snort with laughter. "How's that kid's van you worked on? Was it the timing belt like I thought?"

"Van's good and yep it was the belt." Dean looked over to where Sammy was reading. "Hey, it's late kid, time for bed." Dean got up walked over to his brother and took the book out of his hand. "Dude, seriously you need to get to sleep."

"Dean, I'm not a kid. I'm fine. I'll go to bed when I'm ready," Sam picked up the book and shifted in his seat seeming resolute not to listen to Dean's order.

Dean shrugged it off, but John's voice was stern when he said, "Sam, go to bed." Sam huffed, put down his book and dragged himself out of the room. Dean smiled to himself but the smile turned serious when John looked at him and said, "You, too, kid."

Buffy slowly made her way across the cemetery. "Here vampy vampy" she called barely above a whisper. She shrugged a sigh. Where were all the vampires? She thought. Could she quit being the slayer if all the vamps had left town? She considered that for a moment. Not being a slayer would mean she could be a normal girl. She could have a social life again and go shopping. She could go shopping for cute things to wear while being a normal girl with a social life. She could go on dates in the cute things she bought. She could go on dates with cute boys in the things she bought. She thought about that for a second and mentally corrected herself. She would be the one in the cute things she bought but she'd be with cute guys. Cute guys like that Dean guy. Yeah, she smiled, no vamps could be a very good thing. She kept those thoughts in her head as she skipped home and climbed back through her window. Maybe another uneventful patrol was a very good thing.

Dean sat on the brick wall outside of school watching the girls parade by. This was definitely a perk to being in California. Girls wore much shorter skirts here. He tried to remember some of the names of the girls he recognized from class but he wasn't too good at it. He saw Cordelia. They weren't in any classes together but she had definitely made herself known. Damn, he thought, she is one fine looking girl, too bad she's such a snob. She'd like him long enough to see they weren't in the same tax bracket and dump him in a second. Dean'd been through that before and once was enough. Still, she was real nice to look at. Dean watched her meet up with Harmony. Figures they'd be friends he thought. Wait, who was the girl that told him Harmony's name? Did he even get her name? She was cute, seemed nice. She was at the library, too. Yeah, she was real cute. What was her name? He went back in his head but realized he hadn't caught her name. Aw hell, he thought. That means I have to go to American Lit again. As he got up from his seat on the wall, he saw Willow. He remember her with that girl when he'd been talking with Oz. He figured he'd follow her to see if she ran into that girl.

As they came to the main doors, Buffy was just walking up. "Hey, Wills!" She called.

"Hey, so any luck last night?" Willow asked. Damn, Dean thought, say her name.

"Nope, all's quiet on the Sunnydale front. Which I don't think is such a bad thing."

"What's not such a bad thing?" Xander asked as he moved passed Dean to catch up with the girls.

"A quiet night is not such a bad thing. Methinks it means the baddies are on hiatus and I can take a break." Buffy replied.

"Yeah, sure. Quiet for now. But when do things stay quiet in this town?" Xander shifted his bag from his shoulder as they approached a classroom.

"Hey," Buffy slapped his shoulder. "Don't go harshing my good mood. If I'm hoping for a break in the action don't go ruining it."

Xander rubbed his arm where she had slapped him mumbling, "Ouch," They had arrived at the classroom and he and Willow were preparing to go in. " Well, chica, see ya lata."

By all of them stopping at once, Dean nearly ran into them. "Oh, hi, Dean," Willow called.

"Hey, uh, hi," he mumbled out when Miss Calendar walked up.

"Hi, guys," She said cheerily. "Are you ready to get started?"

Dean grabbed Xander's arm, "Who is that?" his mouth nearly drooling.

"Down, boy. That's Miss Calendar our computer science teacher." Xander quietly told Dean. "Yeah, we all know she's hot."

Dean looked at him with shock all over his face. "Dude, I've been skipping this class for days. I had no idea." Xander laughed and followed Dean into the room. Dean put on his most charming smile. "Hi, I'm Dean Winchester. I'm new. I.." He stammered.

Miss Calendar raised an eyebrow. "So Dean, tell me, where have you been for the past four days?"

As Buffy watched from the door, Dean ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck. "I uh couldn't find the class?" He offered weakly. Buffy thought he looked adorable but Miss Calendar wasn't buying it.

"Right, go sit down," Dean went and sat at the closest computer. Xander laughed at him but totally understood. Most of the class was separated with the guys in the front and girls in the back. Willow was the only girl in the front and that was because she always sat by Xander. "Maybe we can have Willow catch you up."

"Sure, Miss Calendar, I'll be happy to help," Willow offered before waving bye to Buffy and taking her seat. Buffy walked off alone to meet Giles in the library.

"So another quiet night?" Giles asked.

"Yep, the vamps are on vacation." Buffy swung her legs and checked her nails.

"Hmm, That is odd. I'm going to check some sources and see if there could be any reason for this quiet time. Have you seen Angel lately?" Giles walked to his office and Buffy hopped off the counter.

"No, he hasn't been around either. But it's not like he was reliably around before."

"True. But I wonder if they are connected in someway," Giles mused. "Either way, remember to be alert. This could all be building up to something.."

"Or," Buffy offered, "it could be that the killing of the Master scared them all away and I can retire." She said with a bright smile.

Giles chuckled but then took a serious turn when he saw her smile. "Buffy," he paused realizing what he was about to say would bring down her mood. "Slayers don't retire."

Buffy pouted, "You and Xander. What's with the men in my life bringing me down? It's Friday and that makes over seven days without slayage. I think that calls for a night off from patrol and a night to be a normal girl." The bell rang ending first period. Buffy stood to leave. "I'm taking tonight off."

"Buffy," Giles' reprimand began but then he sighed, "very well." Buffy skipped out the door with a huge grin on her face. She had a night off and American Lit was next.

Xander, Willow and Dean were outside Mrs. Anders' classroom. "Didn't you ever take a computer class before?" Willow asked Dean.

"No," he laughed. "Computers are more my brother's thing. I'm more into….." he paused as he saw Buffy approach.

Xander took his pause to mean Dean was into Buffy and instantly became protective of Buffy. "You're into what exactly?"

"Cars," Dean turned and looked at Xander. Xander relaxed. "So, Willow, do you really think you can help me? I mean I barely know a thing about computers."

"Of course Willow will help you," A smiling Buffy joined them and linked arms with Willow. "Wills is all about the help."

"Yeah, Dean, I can help you. Ooh, c'mon Xander, we're gonna be late." Willow broke off with Buffy and she and Xander hurried off. Dean turned to Buffy and held out his arm for her to take the same way she had been holding Willow's and with a smile she accepted.

"So tell me, Dean, did you get all caught up with Huck?" Buffy asked him as he led her to ser seat.

"After reading it eight or so times at my other schools, I think I'm good." He leaned forward and flashed her his most dazzling smile. She stared and stopped breathing for a second only to be interrupted by Harmony brushing past her.

Harmony sat and spun towards them in her seat. "Hi, Dean, are you ready for today's quiz?" She was smiling but her intentions were clear as she threw Buffy a look that could kill.

"Quiz?" Buffy squeaked.

"Anders has a quiz every Friday. You'd know that if you ever attended class," with a toss of her hair Harmony turned around. Buffy gave Dean a frightened look. Dean shrugged and leaned back. He better take a look at the book.

As the bell rang to end class, Mrs. Anders handed the quizzes back.

"Well done, Ms. Summers. Big improvement. I'm glad you're enjoying Huck Finn."

Summers, Dean repeated to himself. At least he got part of a name. "And Mr. Winchester a perfect score! I'm so glad to have you join the class."

"Thank you, Mrs. Anders," Dean folded the paper and tucked it into his book and repeated Summers to himself.

"So, why do you skip this class?" Dean asked Buffy once they were in the hall.

Buffy shrugged, "I don't know, why have you skipped computers until today?"

Dean glanced around, "cuz I don't think I'm really gonna need that. I don't see me writing computer programs in my future."

"Oh, but you're gonna need American Lit?" Buffy snorted a laughed.

They came to a corner and Dean had to go toward auto shop and he was pretty sure this girl wasn't going in that direction. "No," he laughed. "I only went to that class to see you." He turned and quickly disappeared down the packed hall leaving Buffy with her jaw hanging open.

"Dude, seriously, you should come," Oz handed Dean the socket wrench. "The Bronze isn't totally lame and the band is playing pretty tight right now."

Dean looked up at him from under the hood of the beater he was working on. "The Dingoes?" He wiped his hands on a rag and stood to grab the air filter off the shelf. "I don't know, man. I have to think about it."

Oz scoffed. "There is nothing else to do, man, seriously."

Dean smiled. He had been in towns much smaller than Sunnydale on Friday nights. There was always something going on if you knew where to look. He went back under the hood. "Maybe, is your girl going to be there?"

"Yeah." Oz had a quizzical look on his face.

"Cool, she's pretty cool. I have computer class with her."

Oz smiled and nodded. "Yeah, Willow's definitely cool." Summers, Dean repeated to himself. He wanted to ask if any of Willow's friends were going to be there. But before he could Oz offered, "Xander and Buffy will be there."

Dean cracked his head on the hood as he stood, "Buffy? Who the hell is Buffy?"

Oz looked at him in disbelief and then gave a knowing grin. "Oh, you know her." Dean just looked at him, a questioning look on his face.

"Dude, Buffy?"

"Buffy."

Dean thought it must be a California thing. Who names a kid Buffy?

Dean leaned against the tree near the curb waiting for Sam's school to let out. He wondered how he was going to get a chance to go out on his own tonight. It was something unheard of if his dad was in town which he was. When it was just him and Sammy he knew he could go out and Sam would cover for him. He was so deep in thought he nearly missed Sam walking up to him. "Hey, kid, how was school?"

"Okay I guess. What about you? Anything good happen in your day?" Sam was sounding a little sarcastic but Dean figured he knew how to change that.

"Well, to begin with, you're going to want to stay here through high school 'cuz our computer teacher is way hot. I'm talking I think I may take up computers just to stay in the class all year." Sam laughed at that.

"So, she's not a computer geek then?" Sam asked while slightly leaning into Dean's arm.

"Sure she's a geek. But she's a hot geek which makes it all right." Dean said smiling and pushing Sam back. "Also, and I know this will make all the Winchesters proud, I got a 100% on my Huck Finn quiz."

Sam looked up at him shocked, "No shit?"

"No, shit."

"Wow, I think you may have had a better day. But, I did get partnered up with Chloe Lassiter in Living Science class."

"She cute?"

"Oh yeah," Sam blushed. "She's way cute."

"Good for you, Sammy. Good for you." Dean threw an arm around his brother for a second before turning it into a noogie. Then he released him. "You think Dad'll let me go out tonight? I know he's got a weekend of training planned."

"Ugh," Sam slouched. He hated training weekends. He'd much rather read all weekend or watch old movies with Dean. Then suddenly he brightened. "Yeah I think you'll be able to go out. Dad was going to take us training in the forest, but it's supposed to rain." It was difficult not to notice the glee in his voice.

"Cool." Not being able to go outside would make training the equivalent to working out and that was something Dean knew he could handle after staying out. It's the staying up all night after staying out all night that were killers.