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The first time Dean won the Annual Inter-schools basketball tournament, he had just joined the team and honestly, he hadn't thought about it.
Due to his dad's endless moving career ( which he didn't know a thing about and was glad he didn't ), he and his brother Sam just had been transferred to another school, another little town where the name Winchester was still unknown, and Dean was starting to get tired of it. He had yet to actually start highschool on the upcoming fall and he really, really hoped to finally get a few years in the same place before leaving again, but for college this time.
The first months of freshman year had been quiet. No calls, no late-night drinking, no ushered conversations on bar's stools. When November had come around, Dean had finally allowed himself to relax and hope.
He was a good student, maintaining good grades in all of his classes so he'd decided to give sports a go. And that was when he'd stumbled upon the basketball team.
Literally stumbled, that is. He'd just happened to get lost in the enormous buildings and burst in the gym in the middle of try-outs. For a second he had remained frozen, unsure of what to do, then he had shrugged and stepped behind the last boy in the line.
Later, he has found out that the last boy in the line was Castiel Novak, who was training to be on the state team. But he didn't know his name at the time and had just striked a friendship with the boy with unruly black hair and piercing blue eyes, because they both had made the team and Dean really needed friends.
After a while of just talking when together on the bench, Castiel had introduced Dean to Charlie, his nerdy, geeky redhead of a best friend and Jo, her girlfriend. When Benny, who was in his maths class, had joined them over lunch, Dean had felt this strange warmth in his chest, something that yelled happiness, and he'd smiled.
Castiel ( Cas, like Dean had started calling him ), was a real force to be reckoned with on match. That's why, when he'd learned Cas was on the selection for the school team on the state's Inter-schools tournament, he hadn't been surprised, just glad for his friend. He'd been shell-shocked, however, when he found out he was in the list. The following months had passed on a blur and somehow, Dean was now standing next to Cas, nervously waiting for the referee to start the match. The finale. Suddenly there was a sharp noise, the timer started, and Dean forgot everything to throw himself in the game.
And when Cas smiled and handed him the cup to lift, with their friends whooping in the background ( how Sam managed to fit on Benny's shoulders, he would never know ), Dean laughed, breathless, happy, because this was maybe the achievement of the year, but that, that prize, was just a beggining.