Okay guys, this is...*drum-roll in the background*...THE LAST CHAPTER! Basically, it's what happens on Monday when they go back to school. I like it, but if you don't, that's okay. Your opinion. I love reviews, as long as they aren't too rude. Constructive criticism is fine, though. Anyway, I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or any associated characters, events, etc.

Chapter 9

Castiel was surprised at how quickly all his friends learned what had happened on Saturday. He walked into school Monday morning, and was swarmed by people wanting to know exactly what he and his mom fought about, and why, and every little insignificant detail. It was kind of annoying.

Apparently, Balthazar had told Meg and Uriel why Cas was staying with him, and they had started telling everyone else. The rumor mill had then butchered the story so badly that a few people were under the impression that Naomi had pulled a gun on him. He tried to straighten out what had happened, but for a crowd of people who were all busy talking about what happened him, no one seemed particularly happy with his side of the story. His mom was being completely awful and he couldn't take it anymore, so he walked away.

He told his closer friends about how Dean had actually stood up to her first, and they were, to say the least, surprised. Though, taking another look at Dean, who had come back to school(finally), they realized that it could be true. Dean wasn't as scared, or as twitchy, as he had been before. He held himself more confidently, and seemed more focused on the world around him. And he didn't stutter nearly as much. It wasn't quite so hard to see him standing up to Mrs. Novak. And besides, it was clear that something had happened to lessen his fear of everything. Arguing with Castiel's mom was more likely than most other scenarios.

Gabriel tracked Cas down before the first class. "Cas!" Cas turned, and gave his older brother a wan smile. "Could you do me a favor?" Gabriel asked, looking around and lowering his voice a bit, so as not to be overheard. "Try and find out if Balthazar or his parents would mind me staying with them as well. I'm considering bailing. If they can't, I'll see if I can find someplace else to go." He grinned at his younger brother's shocked expression. "Don't tell Raphael. He's pretty ticked that you left. Talking about how 'the family should at least try and stick together', and whatnot. Oh, and Anna told me to tell you she wishes you stayed, but completely understands why you had to."

"Oh." Castiel said, slightly dumbfounded. "Okay. Uh, tell Anna I say hi. And yeah, I'll ask Balthazar. His parents might say yes. He has a big house, and they're pretty friendly."

Gabriel grinned broadly, clapping Cas on the shoulder. "Thanks! Oh, I told Mike and Luke about what happened."

"I know. They texted me."

"What'd they say?"

"Luke offered to let me come live with them. I said I'll consider it, but I don't really want to move out of town, if I can avoid it. Michael says he wishes I had stayed until I graduated, but he's proud of me." Cas blushed very slightly. He hadn't been trying to make his brothers proud, he'd just gotten tired of their mother and all of her problems. Suddenly, Castiel remembered something important. "Actually, could you do me a favor as well? I left the video at home. Could you bring it in tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure, no problem. See you later, okay?"

The bell rang for first period, and the two brothers had to split up.

At lunch, Jo Harvelle came up to their table to talk to Cas. "Hey, Castiel, you probably need a job or something, right? Now that your mom kicked you out? Because the restaurant my mom owns, the Roadhouse, is hiring, and I think I could talk her into giving you a job." She ignored Meg while talking, who in turn was ignoring her. They'd never gotten along, but when Meg's pitbull attacked Jo and her mom last year, their rivalry had spiked, then fallen down into a 'I won't acknowledge your existence if you won't acknowledge mine' sort of thing. They had rushed to finish the Shakespeare project just so that their momentary partnership would be over with as soon as possible. Now they were back on their regular schedule of ignoring each other.

"Thanks, I'll look into that." Cas gave her a nod and a smile, which she returned before leaving the group once more.

"You know," Balthazar said, picking up his sandwich and taking a bite. "I never realized how much of a jerk your mom is before. My parents would never kick me out." He added thoughtfully. Cas just shrugged.

"Hey, is that Dean?" Meg asked suddenly, looking off towards the far end of the cafeteria. Everyone turned to look. Sure enough, Dean Winchester was sitting by himself at the other side of the caf, reading a book. Meg got up and started to walk in his direction. "Be right back."

"What're you doing?" Uriel asked, looking at Meg in confusion.

"I'm going to invite him to sit with us. He's not too bad, for a nerd." She replied casually, then headed off towards the distant table. The group watched as she went up to him and started talking. He looked surprised, and maybe a little nervous, and the longer she talked, the more shocked he seemed. After a minute or so of this, she folded her arms and just stood there, staring at him. He relented, and got up. Then Meg grabbed his arm and started leading him over to their table. As she got closer, the group realized she was smirking.

"Here. 'Kay, everyone, you all know Dean. Dean, this is Balthazar and Uriel. And some other people might show up later." He stood kind of awkwardly, until she sighed. "Just sit down, okay? We aren't going to punch you or something." Dean sat down, blushing. The rest of the group acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened, greeting Dean and then going about their conversations as usual.

Dean never sat alone at lunch again.

That Friday, in his office, Anthony J. Crowley was in a bad mood. When he assigned the projects, he had made sure to pair up people that wouldn't work well together. If another teacher had asked him about it, he would have lied and said that he was trying to encourage them to set aside their differences. In reality, he just wanted to see how the assignments crashed and burned. It was far more entertaining when that happened. But this years videos had all been turned in with minimal problems. The two pairs he had thought would be the most entertaining were positively boring. Kevin Tran and Richard Roman got the video done efficiently enough, though there were rumors that Kevin had sprayed bleach in Dick's eyes afterwards, rumors that were backed up by how pleased Kevin looked with himself and the glares that Dick kept sending him with puffy red eyes. And then the Novak boy and the Winchester boy not only gotten it done, with a decent enough grade, they also ended up as friends! But all the videos themselves were just boring.

All the fun has gone out of teaching. He thought sourly, as he graded yet another video of sixteen and seventeen year-olds stumbling through Shakespeare. Well, he added after a moments thought. There's always next year!

That's it! That's the end! It's been a pleasure writing this, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did! Thank you, so much, for reading this!

(Just out of curiosity, did any of you notice my reference to 'Good Omens'? If you haven't read 'Good Omens', there's a demon in it named Anthony J. Crowley. Very good book, it's written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, I recommend it to anyone that likes Supernatural. It has a lot of the same themes.)