there's a girl, isn't there.

who: caleb and dean
where: art class
when: morning

Caleb was sitting in art class, sort of half wondering if Dean was going to make it to school today. He hadn't seen him yet(not that he normally did) and the bell was just about to ring. Which meant he was stuck sitting by himself, thoughts churning in all sorts of weird directions, covering Leija, Dean, Lullaby, the town, Mathias, the vampire who munched on Mathias, and something he'd caught in the paper the other day...something about a town slaughtered or something. What this meant was he was highly unfocused, and was actively attempting to ignore the group of girls who he'd glared at the other day to get them off of Dean's case who were looking over at him now and then and giving him the whispery-giggly treatment. Joy.

Dean was running late. Thia didn't have an alarm clock, unsurprisingly and they'd over slept, waking well after the sun was over the horizon. In fact, she'd shaken him awake this morning with a stern admonition to 'go to school' and shooed him out of the house as quickly as she could. He'd barely had time to grab a shower - which he'd insisted on. And he was, of course, still wearing yesterday's clothes, which he'd slept in. He'd stopped on the way to school and grabbed a packet of gum, insanely aware that he was lacking in a toothbrush and dragged his hand through his hair a few times, but he figured he looked basically a mess. But he was a mess with an undeniable bounce in his step. the world was a much better place today as he jogged down the empty corridors to the art room and apologised to the teacher as he reached the class room and headed to his table, dropping his bag by his chair as he sat down and upnodded to Caleb.

Caleb blinked as Dean appeared. He'd just about counted him out, actually. He stared at the guy for a few moments. Because hey! He looked a mess, as a matter of fact. He sorta looked like he'd slept in his clothes, and his hair was a bit of a mess, and yeah. There was that whole mess thing. He'd kind of expected the guy to be bottoming out around now, after the funeral and all. But he supposed he'd expected a less drastic sort of change. "Hey." he greeted, still eyeing him. "Didn't think you'd make it."

"Overslept," Dean told him, reaching for his bag and supplies, until he realised that he had yesterday afternoon's books still in there and stood, going to fetch some school supplies instead. He sat back down and realised as he did so that the girls on the next table had gone very quiet. Which wasn't at all normal. He glanced over and saw them staring at him. One looked away and whispered something to her friend, and then the whispering began again in earnest as they gossiped and threw random looks over to the boys. Today, Dean really couldn't bring himself to care and instead looked back to Caleb with a shrug.

That was a change too. A good change though. Caring about whatever brainless little twits wanted to gossip about wasn't high on his list of Shit To Do. "Yeah..." he said. And clearly, you slept in your clothes. he thought. He didn't say it though, as he absently sketched on his own notepad, though at current it was devoid of anything serious. "How're you doing today?" he asked. And it wasn't the usual blowoff 'how're you'. After all the guy's best friend just got put in the ground, and yeah. There was all that Dealing to be done.

Good, great, amazing? Dean thought with a hint of a smile, but he managed to stop himself from saying that. he reminded himself firmly that he wasn't allowed to Tell. And, anyway, what would you say? She was right - you couldn't just go around saying 'my best friend was raised from the dead' - not if you didn't want them to lock you away. And it wasn't even as if he knew whether Caleb knew about the weird or not. he forced the hint of a smile down off his face and slunk a little lower in his chair, giving him a shrug instead. "Yeah, okay," he said. He didn't know if he could manage the cloud of depression that had been following him for the past few days, but 'sullen' was basically default for Dean and it wasn't hard to adopt, though he couldn't get rid of that spark.

Caleb was an observant guy. He noticed things, and when someone had his attention, it was difficult to slip things by him. Like nowish, when he noted the little smile that Dean was trying to suppress. It left Caleb blinking, and eyeing Dean in a concerned sort of way. Erm. Yeah. "...you sure you're okay?" he asked, because he so had to. He also said it in a bit of a quieter tone as he leaned over his drawing more. He'd been kind of banking on Dean not smiling again for like...weeks. Maybe he was really losing it...stranger things had happened.

Right at that moment, Dean wasn't convinced that he could do this. Because he was honestly and truly happy and he wanted to share that happiness with the world. How did you keep something this big a secret. It was like when he'd discovered he had powers that other people didn't. He'd wanted to tell people then as well. But, he reminded himself, he hadn't. He'd kept them to himself and only told a few choice people. But, didn't those few choice people make the difference? Being able to share with someone - here he couldn't tell anyone. And more, he was getting funny looks because he felt on top of the world and everyone was expecting him to act like she was still dead. He didn't answer at first, starting on a drawing of his own and getting into it before he looked up. "probably," he offered. his standard reply would have been a 'yeah', but he didn't think he could get the tone right on that one.

Caleb studied Dean, abandoning his own drawing for a moment as he did so. This was the trouble with being an antisocial bitch for the most part. It meant he didn't quite know how to deal with things like this. Like, say, his kind of new friend(if that's what they could be considered) acting a bit off the scales. How much could he say? How much could he call him on? And really, did he even know him well enough to know how off this was? He thought it was, from when he'd spoken to Dean after the funeral. But...yeah. There were probably lines around here, lines he should possibly keep in the sand and not go trodding all over, but he just didn't know where they were, what was appropriate and what wasn't. And usually he flat out didn't give a shit, because most of the time he didn't bother giving people the time of fucking day. This was pretty in his face, however, and he didn't know how well he could ignore it.

Dean concentrated back on his drawing, pencil moving over the page as he absently doodled, shading and filling in and then realising what he was drawing. Thia, standing by a window, moonlight coming from behind her, visible only where the light touched. It was a strange effect, given his preferred almost cartoon-like style and for a moment, he absently thought that Caleb would have been able to render it much better than he ever could. And then he came back down to earth, looked up a little wide eyed, noticed he was being watched by the guy and hurriedly turned the page, sitting up more and starting in on something abstract and hurried and nowhere near as good to compensate.

Caleb had started to watch what Dean had been drawing, and it had been...very damn interesting, until the page was turned. Damnit, he'd been paying attention there. And it had looked to him like Dean had been drawing Lullaby. As a card carrying member of the Cult of Creepy Obsessive Stalkers, he knew all about that tendency. How many drawings of Leija did he have exactly? Far more than anyone would consider normal or healthy? Yeah. Something like that. "That was good." he said after trying to weigh what to say. "It was her, wasn't it?" Again he was speaking low, so the girls wouldn't have more fuel to gossip with.

Shit, he'd caught it. Dean tried to think of something to say - and then realised that, actually, that was okay. In fact, it fitted. Hadn't he thinking only yesterday that he was turning into a creepy obsessive weirdo? Well, he could just... go with that. Great, I can officially become a stalker for a dead girl - my life just gets better! he thought, but he felt strangely happy about it all the same. "Yeah..." he admitted.

Caleb propped his head on his good hand, and continued to stare at Dean. "So, you're acting strange today." he said. Because hey, he was incredibly direct sometimes. And he sat there and debated just going about his art-class business, but he so couldn't. Not when there was weirdness going on right in front of him and it was for someone he didn't mind at all.

I can't do this - it's my first class of the day and I've already been called on it. I can't do this! he flailed internally for a moment, though none of that showed on his face. He calmed himself down, telling himself that nobody would ever in a million fucking years guess what was the actual cause for his odd behaviour, so all he had to do was ride it out, not crack and let people think whatever they would. Sure, he might be a target for every gossip going, but for Thia, that was worth it. He suddenly realised that this was just getting better and better - first creepy obsessive weirdo, now... What was he now? Manic-depressive guy? Who knew. All of that aside though, he still had to answer Caleb. "I am?" he asked, being blatant back for a lack of anything else to say, pretending that his strangeness just didn't exist.

"Yeah." Caleb said, nodding a little. "Strange." He paused, eyeing Dean again assessingly. Okay. Logic. He could seriously be just fucking crashing and burning and going completely insane in the process. That was one possibility. Another was that he'd kind of gone backwards on that whole bullshit stages of grief thing, and was back in denial land, which Caleb couldn't really blame him for either. If it wasn't those two, it was something else, and that something else kinda fit in with the whole slept-in-his-clothes thing. Caleb sure as fuck wouldn't blame him for looking for comfort somewhere either, so.... "There's a girl, isn't there." he said after a long pause.

The look that Caleb got for that was very much bunny-in-the-headlights as Dean had no idea what to say to that, his mind blanking completely.

That look was far more than enough to confirm things in Caleb's head. He flashed a smiled for a minute, then attempted to sober his expression more. Serious. Really. Sure. "Well, I say she's doing something right, you smiled a bit ago." Caleb said, basically his way of saying 'it's okay, you know' without having to be all hallmark card about it.

The rest of Dean's brain managed to kick-start itself and catch on to what Caleb was suggesting. And what he seemed to think. He looked down at himself, at teh fact that he was still dressed in yesterday's clothes, hadn't shaved, looked a general mess, was running late. He almost laughed - Caleb thought he'd spent the night with a girl. Which, well, he had - just not in any way the way that his friend meant. Because... no. Really. And he had to bite hard back on the denial that wanted to spring from his lips that it wasn't anything like that. Because, well, it was, in fact, a great excuse. And also explained away the fact that he was aware that he was blushing right now, at least a little.

Caleb caught that, too. So yeah. Fully confirmed in his head. "When you're done being cryptic and silent about the whole thing, you'll have to tell me about her." he said. Because he wasn't going to push for information right now--they were in class for fucks sake. But that didn't mean he wouldn't want to know. And, at the back of that, Caleb was slightly wary about it. Some bounceback chick around to curb the black depression because of a death was kind of...hopefully she wasn't insane. There were a whole lot of insane chicks around, and yeah. Here was Caleb hoping Dean hadn't latched onto one of them. It would probably just be worse in the long run if he had.

...Perfect apart from that part where he'd have to, y'know, talk about non-existent other girl. "She's... no-one you know," Dean mumbled, not looking up. Maybe he could convince the guy that it had been a one off - after all, apparently he'd spent the night. Did that mean that he should be more likely to see the girl again. or less? He didn't have a clue - it wasn't like he had very much experience of relationships. Or, actually, any. Which wasn't something he really broadcast. But it meant that right now he was trying to pretend to have had something that all his experience of came from talking to friends and watching TV. great.

Caleb kept watching Dean, wondering what the deal was now. Did he feel bad about it now that it was out in the open or something? "Well, I hope she's good to you." he offered. And not insane. Please let some girl in this town not be insane. Seriously now. It'd be awesome. He really did hope for Dean's sake he'd found a decent girl, and maybe one who he could drift from, since he didn't figure any relationship started on the heels of the death of a (loved one?) close friend was destined to last. Emotions had to be running high and on a really fucked up scale.

Probably best to kill that here and now, Dean decided - he didn't think that he could keep up the pretense of a girlfriend - especially not one he'd have to talk about and come up with details for and... It had it's benefits, of course. He could see that - it'd allow him to have a 'girl' to gush about and... No, he couldn't do it. Anyway, it'd feel wrong. Maybe if he'd been Joshua, maybe if he'd actually had her, had that right. But he didn't and... No, he couldn't do that. Had to stop this now. He kept looking at his paper as he shrugged. "Probably won't see her again," he muttered. See, one night stand - they happened. Right. Right. Only the girls on the next table must have been listening, because one of them gasped, and then there was a flurry of whispers that had to be quietened by the teacher.

Caleb's first thought was: Dude, if you're going to lie to me, at least do it convincingly. Though he didn't say that. He didn't even know what Dean might be lying about. Just that he felt like he was on some score. It was in the guy's demeanor, and the whole hadn't-made-eye-contact-since-the-girl-came-up thing. And hey--maybe he was just paranoid. That was always possible. Caleb made a career out of abject paranoia, so that wouldn't really be off the charts anywhere. He was probably reading in too far, because he was kind of worried about the guy. Yeah, that must be it.

It probably didn't help that what Dean was drawing was, quiet frankly, absolute tosh. He realised this as he looked down at the random swirls and doodles and turned over yet another page. he was bad at this, really bad. He needed to not be talking about him anymore. He looked up. "So, how're you?" he asked.

I suck. Everything in my life is a trainwreck. The girl I've been obsessing over for ages likes me, and dumped her boyfriend--who she keeps telling me how much she was in love with, by the way--and now we don't know where we stand, and she's left town. My brother, who by all rights shouldn't be in this town anymore, out wrecking havoc someplace else, has decided to stay in town, only I'm worried he's going to get himself killed by doing that. Oh yeah and some fucking vampire chick took a chunk out of him the other night for kicks. That was fun. I gave him stitches. Other than that, another girl is dead, and I'm thinking that we could be friends, definitely, but yeah. There's that death thing. Plus I suck at this friends thing. Oh yeah and I'm worried about you too. Caleb thought. And didn't share any of that, because he so completely couldn't. He also couldn't say the answer he normally would have said, which was 'surviving', because he didn't think it was in very good taste. "Eh." he answered with a shrug.

Dean slumped a little. So much for changing the subject. Bloody hell - what did a guy have to do. "Eh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "That it?" Please, come on mate, help me out here - please?

"There's a stunning amount of bullshit going on lately." Caleb conceded. "That's all. So, eh. Not fantastically well, but I'll get over it, or something." Or it would all crash and burn in a spectacular display of Suck. And really has the potential to, by the way. On several fronts. He just didn't want to sit and bitch about his troubles when Dean's best friend had just died. Seemed really fucked up and wrong to him--not to mention half of it he probably couldn't say anyways, at least, not sitting in fucking art class.

"Sorry," Dean said, honestly meaning it. That sucked, something he could appreciate now that he was no longer wallowing in the pit of despair himself. "If, y'know, you wanna talk about it..." He looked round at the next table, only to get a knowing and assessing look from one of the girls, which was followed by a fit of giggles. great He looked back round, wondering what he'd got himself into. "Somewhere, that's not here," he added, in a lower voice, hunching down further in his seat again.

Caleb gave a half smile at that and nodded. "Somewhere that's not here, maybe I'll fill you in a little better." he agreed. Because that he might be able to do. Maybe it would give the guy something else to spin his wheels on for a while. Caleb knew half the time he was searching for that himself. Just Something Else to concentrate on, half the time it didn't even matter what, so long as it got his attention.

"'Kay," Dean agreed, thinking that it'd have to be somewhere that wasn't here, but that was still in school hours, because he had things to do after school. Which, unfortunately, involved the mall - one of his least favourite places ever. But he'd promise Thia a phone and so he was getting her one today, right after school. And then he was heading over to Journey's for the evening. he wondered if he should tell Caleb that he was using the guy as an alibi, that Sophie thought that he was going to eb round at Caleb's, since he'd told her that when he'd run in this morning. But he couldn't explain it and, really, what were the chances that Sophie was going to ever actually know Caleb anyway? Slim to none. there wasn't an issue here.

Caleb nodded, and left it there. Class was starting to get close to overish, and he was wondering about maybe lunchtime today. That might work. He knew that Dean kind of sat out in on the side lawn. Maybe they could catch up then. He'd have to think about it, but he was acknowledging Dean's offer, and seemed like he might take it.

"I'll be on the side lawn at lunch, if you want," Dean told him as people started to pack up. He'd been thinking along the same lines and he didn't intend to change his spot. He might not feel the drive to wait for Thia anymore, not now, but she'd found him there, hadn't she? She'd known he'd be there and she'd watched him. okay, so yes, it was creepy obsessive weirdo of him, but he liked that - he wanted to be findable.

Well, there it was. "I'll probably see you then." Caleb said, dropping his own shit in his backpack to get ready for the bell. And, now, he probably would. So hey there was that. Maybe he'd get another take on shit. That might be nice.