Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 25

Anna and Claire both come home in a crappy mood. The former throws her backpack down before storming off, presumably to her room. Claire rolls her eyes and drops her back on the floor as well before looking over at Castiel, the only other person in the room.

"I take it school wasn't very fun?" he guesses.

"The number of times people asked me if you raped me or kidnapped me is unbelievable," she tells him. "Seriously, someone kill me now before I do it myself."

Castiel flinches imperceptibly at the suicide joke but doesn't mention it.

"Did you at least go to all your classes?" he asks instead.

"Yeah, and I had no idea what was going on. Now all I've got is a giant stack of missed papers on subjects that I don't know jack about."

"I can help you figure it out," he offers.

"No way. I'm not doing this stuff. I'd never catch up, anyway."

"Well, you're not quite halfway done with the semester, so if you do twice as much work as you usually would, you should at least be caught up by finals."

"You want me to do double work?" she repeats incredulously. "No way. Not happening. I went to class. I've done my part."

"No, your 'part' is whatever I say is your part," he tells her. "As long as you're in the Novak house, you've gotta follow the Novak rules, and that means homework."

She groans. "But I don't even know what we're doing in class!"

"Then it's a good thing I paid attention in high school," he replies.

"Castiel Novak is going to help me with homework?" she repeats. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

"I'm just honored to have been considered mighty in the first place," Castiel replies. "Now get your backpack. We're doing homework."

~~

"Whatcha doing?" Lucifer asks, bounding into the kitchen with his usual childish excitement.

"Geometry," Castiel replies.

"Oh, math." Lucifer pretends to gag. "What geometry stuff are ya doing?"

"Angles," he replies. "You know, same side interior and exterior, alternate interior and exterior, supplementary, complimentary, and vertical angles."

Lucifer just stares at him uncomprehendingly. Finally, he says, "That's thing thingy with the lines that are... uh... congruent? What's the word for going the same way?"

"Parallel," Castiel substitutes.

"Oh, right. Yeah, did those in school and never saw 'em since."

"See?" Claire says in an I-told-you-so fashion.

"Dammit, Lucifer, not helping!"

"I wasn't aware I was supposed to be helping," Lucifer replies.

"He's trying to convince me school is actually useful," Claire tells him. "Like I'll ever need to use this stuff after I graduate."

"Yeah, he's lying," Lucifer replies without hesitation.

"Dammit, Lucifer!"

"No, but there is one science lesson I like," Lucifer continues. " I didn't learn it at school, technically, but I learned it for school."