High School Never Ends

[atyourservices]

Mostly because I'm surprised we've never had this kind of meme before. We love high school AUs. We love romance. Why not combine those into a glorious mix?

Your teen years are important, formatively speaking. You're trying to find out just where you belong and what kind of person you're going to be. This already daunting task is complicated by the soul-sucking demon known as high school. If you weren't having a hard time before coming here, you certainly are now.

Add into this mixture raging hormones, and baby, you've got a misery stew cooking. But it's not all bad! Sometimes high school crushes can be sweet, and the occasional high school relationship lasts.

So whether you're too cool or distracted for romance or always on to the next good looking stud, come on down and try to navigate the romantic labyrinth that is the halls of The Love High.

HOW TO PLAY

• Comment with your character and preferences. Needless to say, aging down and AUing is welcomed and probably necessary. Have fun with it! Feel free to include a short blurb about your character's The Love High self. Are they popular? The class clown? A drifter? A band geek?
• Comment to others.
• Use the RNG. Or not.

PROMPTS

1. childhood: You've known each other forever. Puberty has changed a couple of things, though.
2. friends to more: Best buds, right? Can you let a little crush get between you?
3. always there for you: You've seen the person you've liked for forever get hurt time and time again, always offering a shoulder to cry on. You should make your own move, unless you're content in the background forever.
4. bad boy/good girl: Or bad girl/good boy, or bad boy/good boy...there's a certain appeal.
5. the innocent: They're the delicate little pure flower of the school. Do you genuinely want to date them or is this a mission for corruption.
6. smitten puppy: You know the type. Always following the object of their adoration around. Don't you want to sweep them off their feet and show them there's other fish in the sea?
7. the ice queen/king: You have to defrost them.
8. 10 things: You were challenged to ask them out or bed them, but shit got real.
9. never noticed anyone before: You'll never be into all this love and sex stuff. Your classmates are crazy - wait, who's that? Your face is flushing. Why?
10. never noticed: This person's always been there for you. You feel silly that you've never noticed.
11. the unattainable: Is the school's hottest cheerleader or football player really all that high above you?
12. follow you until you love me: It's not stalking! You just happen to be in the same place as them...all the time.
13. hate at first sight: You hate their guts but you can't stay away.
14. sudden hottie: Were they always so bangin', or did taking off their glasses or pulling down their ponytail do that much?
15. too shy, too blind: you're too shy to tell them how you feel. you also don't see that they clearly feel the same.
16. kindness counts: They were kind to you, which is a pretty big deal in high school especially if you're an outcast, and you can't help nursing an even bigger crush.
17. sudden attraction: You're the kind who falls instantly and hard.
18. always on the move: You change crushes or dates like underwear. Maybe this one is the one, though.
19. nerd love: Both of you are social pariahs. At least you have each other.
20. into older people: He or she is the kind of teen who's so mature and always dating college students or even real adults. But you can change their mind about their peers, right?
21. differences in social classes: One of you is popular, the other so not. Can you make it work, or will the popular part be ashamed?
22. opposites attract: Sometimes, the weirdos get the hottest babes.
23. awkward confessions: You want to get your feelings out into the open - curse your voice cracking.
24. asking you out: You'll totally borrow your dad's car to take them to the movies. Or here, here's your letterman jacket. Go steady?
25. parents don't understand: Your parents want to keep you apart or are too tragically uncool.
26. dates: If you have to go dutch at McDonald's, it's sad. Maybe stay-at-home dates are better.
27. prom: Limos, tuxes, wasted money, oh my!
28. slow dance: The DJ popped in that best of the 90s love songs megamix CD. Now's your chance.
29. sadie hawkins: The Sadie Hawkins Dance. Get your khaki pants. Oh oh oh. Girls ask the guys. It's always a surprise.
30. sneaking out: The most romantic times are past curfew.
31. detention: As the Breakfast Club taught us, it's possible to find love in a hopeless place.
32. experimentation: It doesn't count if it's above the belt, right? And finger definitely don't count.
33. over the top: You're that couple that is always on the PDA or being schloopy and goopy romantic. Don't be that couple.
34. first kiss: Pucker up.
35. first time: Is it romantic and slow or in the back of someone's car?
36. drunk: Drunk confessions and attempts to make passes are ill-advised.
37. fight: High school couple fights can be deadly. Avoid at all costs
38. the volatile couple: Speaking of, there's always a couple that seems to be fighting 24/7? When they're hot, they're hot, when they're cold, they're glacial.
39. finally together: You're the will-they-won't-they of high school, and when you get together senior year, the whole class will give you a standing ovation because FINALLY.
40. long term couple: When did you guys get together? Probably like middle school or something. You've always been together.
41. hide who you are: Unfortunately, even these days some people make it necessary for those who don't conform to the "ideals" to hide their true selves.
42. break up: Statistically, it was bound to fail.
43. after graduation: Can you guys make it work after you lose the common ground of school? This can be challenging if you're going to be living in different places.
44. WILDCARD

Comments

[heavenonearth]

[ castiel meets dean's eyes to find dean already watching him, slow and lazy like a cat surveying a mouse, but castiel watches him right back, open and searching, his head tilted slightly, like an owl surveying a cat.

but then dean goes and says that and castiel feels himself flushing right to his hairline, and he breaks eye contact to glance away and clear his throat. ]

I never said it was a sacrifice.

[ he says, almost primly, zipping up his hoodie and stuffing his hands into the pockets as he moves past dean and towards the door, ready to be done with this place, and back to his warm bed and familiar desk where it's quiet, and he can shower, and think in peace. ]

Besides, there's no need for you to act like you were any more hard pressed. You said some things yourself, Dean.

[ghostlife]

[ Dean keeps smiling right on through that cute flush of Cas's that even the shadowed moonlight can't hide. And he follows along right after. ]

I'm not.

[ Maybe he answers that a little quickly, but he keeps going, hoping Cas doesn't notice, or think anything of it if he does. The Impala's still waiting out front like a loyal dog, the doors still unlocked, and Dean heads right for the trunk and tosses the duffle in. ]

You owe me for the basement, Shaggy, nothing else. As far as I'm concerned, I got as good as I gave.

[ He comes around the side of the car and falls into the driver's seat, slides the key in, starts the engine and immediately feels comfortable. Queen comes on blasting through the radio, and Dean doesn't make a move to turn it down. ]

[heavenonearth]

[ he does notice, but does in fact think nothing of it. his head's already too full, swimming with thoughts and assumptions, he doesn't have more room for one more thing to analyze, and he's too distracted to really take it to heart anyway.

but he doesn't have a chance to answer dean, because the car starts and the music blasts loud enough to drown any conversation, and even though it's unpleasantly noisy castiel doesn't ask him to turn it down. maybe it's for the best. he's not sure he'll be able to talk normally, anyway, to hold a conversation about anything other than what just happened, what it means, and what's going to happen from here. already it's burning a hole into him, but castiel is swallowing it down, and biting at his own lips in a nervous tic while he locks his door after sliding into the passengers' seat, and buckling his seatbelt.

tucking his hands under his arms for warmth, castiel keeps his gaze fixed out the window, watching the dark shadow of the house, the shape and scent and sound of which he's sure he won't ever forget. but he keeps his counsel, keeps silent and thoughtful, and unless dean interrupts it, he'll keep it the entire ride back to their dormitory. ]

[ghostlife]

[ There are the kind of tense, awkward silences that Dean can't stand and breaks as soon as he feels them closing in, and then there are tense awkward silences that he likes to pretend aren't as tense or awkward as they really are, and he doesn't want them broken, and he fills them with stupid jokes and light-hearted conversations or, even better, the sweet lullaby of classic rock. Cas looks out the passenger window, Dean watches the road, and they keep quiet the whole trip back, filling the car up with the smell of sex and the sound of unanswered questions.

A half hour trip later, they're pulling up to the dorm. It's dark out but early still, only around 8pm, and since it's Friday night, there are students all around, some heading out on their way to whatever party they're going to, others just talking in small groups about where they plan to go. Dean drops Cas off at the door to disappear inside and get that shower he's dying for, before Dean pulls the Impala the block down to the parking lot and walks back, the duffle carried over his shoulder.

He gets invited out by three separate people along the way and brushes them off using his coach and early morning training tomorrow as an excuse, but he promises them some other time, and he accepts so often otherwise that they let him off without an argument this once. He thinks about going, but he's got some clean up to do himself. And anyway, something about Cas being Cas just makes him want to keep an eye on him for the night. He doesn't worry about how most people he fucks handle it, makes sure they're on decent terms, gives them his number if they don't have it, and is out of there fast as he can. But Cas is his roommate. This is different, weird. Even if Dean's doing his best to act like it's not. So he turns down the invites, and heads up to the room they share. ]