In This Secluded Spot I Respond As I Wouldn't Dare Elsewhere

Getting Revenge

A week went by during which Castiel slowly gathered the items he needed to implement his plan. He didn't want to buy everything at the same time, so he made three different trips to three different stores.

He had to time his efforts perfectly. He needed to wait for rain to flood the baseball fields, because he knew the entire baseball team would be practicing inside the gym due to the bad weather. When they had three days of non-stop rain, Castiel put his plan into motion.

Dean drove him to and from school every day now, so on the fourth day when it was still drizzling, he told Dean he would be staying after school, and asked him to pick him up later from the library. It was getting close to finals, and Castiel told him he wanted to study.

At the end of the day, he waited in one of the bathrooms until he was sure the school had emptied. He gathered his backpack and bag of supplies from his locker and left through the side door, taking care not to be seen. He made his way into the student parking lot.

He headed straight for Alastair's very obvious bright yellow Mustang.

When he was close, he dropped to a crouch and shielded himself with the other cars. He sidled up against the Mustang's tires and flipped open his auto shop notebook.

With a small hammer, he drove nails into the treads of all of the tires, not deep enough to puncture outright, but enough to slowly seep air over days or weeks. From there he moved around to the front of the car. Making sure not to be seen, he snipped the edges of the windshield wipers so the metal of the arms touched the windshield. He then coated them with a mixture of Vaseline and gravel he had picked up from the school's driveway. The light rain didn't affect his work at all. In fact, it was better this way because he knew Alastair would have to turn on the wipers on his way home.

Finally, he unscrewed a jar of brightly colored fish eggs. Used as bait for trout, the eggs were small enough to slide into the air vents at the base of the windshield. He and Uncle Raphael used them when they went fishing the last time he visited Maine. With their oily, strong scent, Castiel knew they would sit and bake in the summer sun and smell for a long time to come.

Satisfied with his efforts, he packed everything up into a plastic bag and returned it to his backpack. He couldn't help but smile when he left the parking lot.

*****

The next afternoon they were sharing lunch in their usual spot, with bologna for Dean and turkey on rye for Castiel. He was in a particularly good mood, because not only had he gotten back at Alastair, but he hadn't seen him all day, either. He wondered if his handiwork caused him to miss school. He chuckled lightly to himself, thinking about his accomplishment.

Dean was lying on his back, with his head propped up against a tree and Leaves of Grass in his hands. He looked over the edge of the spine at Castiel and smiled. "You're soundin' happy today."

"I am."

"And why is that?"

"Because I finally decided to claim my pound of flesh."

"That sounds familiar." Dean made a confused face. "I should know that — "

"It means I took revenge. On Alastair."

Dean sat up in alarm. "You what?"

"I got back at him for everything he's done to me, and to you — "

"Cas, what did you do?"

"I simply used some of my acquired auto shop skills and put them to good use."

"Cas — "

"I vandalized his Mustang. I was extremely careful. He'll never know who did it."

"This isn't like drawin' on his locker, man. This is big time shit," Dean said.

"I didn't disable his car or make it dangerous to drive. I merely...got creative."

"Got creative how?"

"First I hammered nails in the tire treads. Then I shortened the rubber on the windshield wiper blades, and I placed Vaseline mixed with gravel along the blades — "

"Why'd you do that?"

"Because the moment he turned on the wipers, if the shortened rubber didn't scratch the windshield, the thick and viscous Vaseline covered in the gravel abrasive would."

"Jeez."

"And of course there were the fish eggs."

"The fish what?"

"I slid fish eggs used for bait into the vent below the windshield. Once they bake in the summer sun he'll never know where the smell is coming from, and every time he tries to turn on the air conditioning he'll receive a reminder."

"Unbelievable, Cas."