"Now," Kurt excitedly started, "Obviously for this medley to work, I'm going to have to sing lead, and of course when you're singing Diana Ross, feather boas are a must."
All the other boys in the small classroom looked around at each other with unsure faces, Mr. Shue announced the annual girls versus boys competition in glee club to get ready for Sectionals. The one thing that was throwing everybody off was the fact that this time, you had to make choices based on music geared towards the opposite gender.
"The more opposite your choice, the more points you get," he had said.
Artie spoke first.
"Isn't this lesson about opposites? I mean, you in a sequin gown and feather boa is exactly what you'd expect." He looked around the room while he spoke and resolved back to Kurt questioningly.
"Okay, who said anything about a gown?" Kurt said exasperated. All week he had been getting tormented and joked about for his sexuality and the last place he thought he'd be judged was glee club. He looked at the other boys around him with a straight but clearly irked face.
"Uh, dude, why don't you make yourself useful and go put some rat poison in them old folks' jell-o or visit the Garglers?" Puck said sarcastically.
"The Warblers," Kurt interjected.
"Whatever. See what they're up to. And you can wear all the feathers you want, you'll blend right in." Puck smirked to himself, satisfied with the joke he'd just made.
Kurt turned around and started picking up all his poster boards and packing everything away.
"Fine," he said and walked out of the classroom.
All the remaining glee guys looked at each other with worried expressions, none of them expected Kurt to just up and leave.
-
Walking hurriedly down the hall out to the parking lot was not what Kurt expected himself to do, but he was going to do it anyway. He was sick of everyone getting down on him all the time, and though he was usually good at just rubbing it off he couldn't help but let it get to him this time around. With Dave Karofsky shoving him into lockers and bearing down on him everywhere he went, he didn't know what to expect. He just started becoming numb to everything around him. He was lonely, and even with all his girl friends there was still something missing.
Once at his car he popped the trunk and threw all his posters inside and then quickly got into the drivers seat. He gave it no second thought when he started his car and left the lot.
Mind set on going to Dalton he needed a way to actually look like he belonged there. Reading about them and seeing pictures on the Show Choir Blogs gave him some sort of idea of what to grab as a disguise. Once he got to his house he was just going to grab what he needed and go, simple as that.
Making his way to Dalton was going to be easy, of course it was longer than half an hour away, but still he needed something to get his mind off of his terrible week and he did sort of want to scope out the competition. Kurt didn't really know what 'spying' would entail, he knew what Rachel and the other girls did when they went to spy on Vocal Adrenaline last year but he'd never been able to tag along. His thought process was just to go in, and hope that the Warblers wouldn't notice him.
-
Once he got to Dalton everything he'd planned to do went out the window. The school was beautiful and so big he didn't know how he would get around without getting lost. Right when he walked in one of the bells sounded and boys of all different shapes and sizes made their way into the halls of the enormous academy. Kurt began taking off his sunglasses and decided he needed to figure out why everyone seemed to be in such a hurry.
The first boy he saw, he tapped on the shoulder.
"Oh, excuse me," he started.
The dark haired boy turned around.
"Um, hi. Can I ask you a question? I'm new here." He said quietly.
"My name's Blaine," the boy, now named Blaine, said grinning.
The first thing Kurt noticed were his eyes, deep hazel with a hint of chocolate brown. He was also a bit shorter than himself, and had a head of adorable curls being held down by some light gel. He gasped a bit and realized Blaine was holding out his hand.
"Kurt," he let out, returning the boys handshake. Breaking out of his trance he then proceeded to ask, "So what exactly is going on?"
Blaine giggled a bit and replied, "The Warblers! Every now and then they throw an impromptu performance in the senior commons, it tends to shut the school down for a while." The boys face lit up with excitement, Kurt thought it was refreshing.
"So, wait, the glee club here is kind of cool?" He said astonished. Glee club being cool was his and all of his fellow glee clubbers dreams. If New Directions was cool all of their lives would be different, mainly meaning no more morning slushie facials. Kurt didn't even know how much hair product he'd wasted coming into school just to have to redo his coiff all over again. He was sure that if the glee club had any bit of validity, he'd at least have saving money to look forward to.
"The Warblers are like rock stars." He explained. "Come on, I know a shortcut."
Blaine grabbed Kurt's hand and took him through a very beautifully decorated hall way. Kurt couldn't help but look at all the portraits and furniture as they ran through the hall. It was like everything was happening in slow motion.
Once they ended up in front of the room Kurt assumed was the place Blaine was taking him to, the boy opened the doors to a room full of smiling and excited classmates waiting for a performance.
"Ooh, I stick out like a sore thumb." Kurt looked down at his black jacket and back up at the room full of navy blue and red Dalton blazers. He was worried he'd blown his cover.
"Well, next time, don't forget your jacket, new kid." Blaine said as he untucked one of Kurt's lapels from behind his satchel strap. "You'll fit right in."
Kurt let out a sigh of relief and waited contently to finally hear 'the rock stars' of Dalton Academy.
"Now, if you'll excuse me." Blaine said cordially.
Kurt looked at the boy surprised, and once all the other Warblers started humming and buzzing he lost himself in the tune of Katy Perry and Blaine's silky voice.
"Let's go all the way tonight, no regrets just love. We can dance until we die, you and I, will be young forever."
The Warblers were dancing and harmonizing and everyone around them was live with excitement and pumping their fists, but it was like the Warblers were only singing to Kurt. He couldn't help but keep smiling. Blaine was perfect. He'd only just met him and he was sure he was what he'd been needing. All the baggage he'd been carrying from the week was gone, it was as if nothing could bother him.
"Let you put your hands on me in my skin tight jeans, be your teenage dream tonight."
The song was over and Kurt was blown away. He along with everyone else in the room clapped and cheered and all the boys in the middle, of what finally seemed to be a study, hugged and cheered as well. Blaine just continued to smile at Kurt, even with all the other Warblers going crazy in the center of the room.
Later, Blaine walked up to Kurt with two of the other Warblers looking at him innocently, but Kurt could tell what was about to happen.
"Come, let's talk." One of the boys said, and Kurt just followed them. He'd been caught and now that they knew he was spying on them, they were going to beat him up and send him back to McKinley so all the other glee kids got the message. Kurt should've figured that Blaine being so nice to him was too good to be true. It was Ohio and he was basically the only out gay kid he knew of for miles. Or at least that's what it felt like.
They finally got to a little sitting area, and the two boys along with Blaine went to go get drinks.
"Latte?" Blaine offered once they got back, with four coffee cups instead of just three. Kurt was confused and wondered why they didn't just get straight to it.
"Thank you," he said and held the warm cup in his hands. He looked at the three boys in front of him. They all looked so nice and accepting, but then again, don't judge a book by it's cover.
Blaine interrupted Kurt's thoughts and broke the awkward silence at the little table, "This is Wes and David." He said motioning the the two boys on his right and left sides.
Kurt smiled softly and tried to seem as if he wasn't terrified, "It's very civilised of you to invite me for coffee before you beat me up for spying." He said.
"We are not going to beat you up." The boy named David said, Kurt was surprised. Why were they talking to him then? To slap his hand for breaking the rules?
Again being mentally interrupted Wes spoke up, "You were such a terrible spy, we thought it was sort of endearing."
The three Warblers laughed to themselves, and Kurt just sat there taking it. Blaine noticed the change in Kurt's facial expression and looked at him sympathetically.
"Which made me think that spying on us wasn't really the reason you came." He noted.
Kurt didn't know what to say to answer him, so he just jumped to the first question bumbling around in his head.
"Can I ask you guys a question?" He said, all the boys simultaneously nodded at him. "Are you guys all gay?" He asked nervously.
All the boys laughed, Blaine was the one that spoke, "Uh, uh, no. I mean, I am, but no, these two have girlfriends."
Kurt felt embarrassed at his question, but glad to know that he was now not the only gay kid in Ohio.
Wes spoke, "This is not a gay school. We just have a zero tolerance harassment policy."
And then David, "Everybody gets treated the same. No matter what they are. It's pretty simple."
The last two lines hit home for Kurt, he wished that was what happened at McKinley. Instead he walked the halls feeling like at any moment he'd be rammed into a locker or shoved to the ground. Tears started to rim his eyes, and he didn't know if he could stop them.
"Would you guys excuse us?" Blaine asked the other two, they both got up with their coffee cups and turned to leave.
"Take it easy, Kurt." David said, and he and Wes strode off down the hallway.
"I take it you're having trouble at school." Blaine said quietly, it was like he was reading Kurt's mind. The tears had stopped but right when Kurt went to answer he choked right back up.
"I'm the only person out of the closet at my school," he started. "And I tried to stay strong about it, but there's this neanderthal who's made it his mission to make my life a living hell." Kurt inhaled sharply and was actually crying at this point. "And nobody seems to notice."
Blaine looked at Kurt, not with pity like Mr. Shue did when he talked to him about his troubles, but with understanding and sympathy.
"I know how you feel," he said. "I got taunted at my old school, and it really pissed me off. I even complained about it to the faculty. And they were sympathetic and all, but you could just tell that nobody really cared." Blaine stated and was noticeably mildly heated now.
"It was like, 'Hey, if you're gay, your life's just gonna be miserable. Sorry. Nothing we can do about it.' So I left. I came here. Simple as that." He hesitated and looked at Kurt waiting for a reply that never came, but he knew what to say anyways.
"So you have two options. I mean, I'd love to tell you to just come enroll here, but tuition at Dalton's sort of steep, and I know that's not an option for everybody. Or you can refuse to be the victim. Prejudice is just ignorance, Kurt. And you have a chance right now to teach him." Kurt looked at Blaine curiously and saw the hurt in Blaine's eyes. He could tell this boy cared even though they'd just met.
"How?" Was all Kurt said, he wasn't sure if he was ready to stand up to Karofsky. He just figured if he let the bullying go on long enough, eventually, Dave would get bored and move on to someone else. At the same time, however, Kurt didn't know how much more torment he could take.
"Confront him. Call him out." Blaine said flat out, "I ran, Kurt. I didn't stand up. I let bullies chase me away. And it is something that I really, really regret."
Kurt and Blaine sat there for a few moments just looking at eachother. It was nice for Kurt to just sit and have someone who actually listened and understood what was happening to him.
Finally after the two boys sat and talked for a bit, it was time for Kurt to go. He and Blaine had planned to meet up again at the most local coffee shop and talk some more. They exchanged phone numbers and that was that. Kurt left feeling strangely happy and content, welcome feelings after what he'd been dealing with at school.
-
It had been a couple weeks since Kurt's trip to Dalton. He and Blaine texted pretty regularly, and on the weekends would plan to meet up for coffee. It helped Kurt deal with Karofsky better, but that didn't mean that the bullying let up.
Kurt was walking in the hallway reading a text from Blaine, "Courage." Was all it said but it meant so much to him. He was so glad he chose to tap Blaine's shoulder on the stairs at Dalton.
All of the sudden a hand slammed the phone to the ground and almost at the same time those hands pushed Kurt against the nearest wall of lockers. He looked up and saw a red Varsity jacket walking towards the gym. This was it. This was when Kurt was going to stand tall and tell Karofsky what was on his mind.
"Hey!" He shouted to him, and followed him down the hall to the locker room.
Once he got to where he was going, he slammed the door open and stopped right in front of Dave's locker.
"I am talking to you!" He said angrily.
"Girls locker room is next door," Dave said apathetically, and started putting his gym clothes in his duffel bag.
"What is your problem?" Kurt asked clearly irritated, his fists were balled up at his sides waiting for something to hit.
"Excuse me?" Karofsky scoffed, and threw his stuff down on the bench next to them getting closer to Kurt.
"What are you so scared of?" Kurt was very heated at this point and just wanted this confrontation to be over with.
"Besides you sneaking in here to peek at my junk?" Karofsky said, snorting.
"Oh yeah, every straight guy's nightmare," Kurt spat, waving his hands around like he was starting a ghost story. "That all us gays are secretly out to molest and convert you. Well guess what, Hammerhawk? You're not my type."
"That right?" Karofsky said, obviously Kurt said something right because he was definitely offended by that.
"Yeah. I don't dig on chubby boys who sweat too much and are going to be bald by the time they're thirty." Kurt was kind of proud of himself for making it this far without breaking out into tears. He mentally patted himself on the back.
"Don't push me, Hummel." Dave said, this time slamming his locker shut. This made Kurt nervous but he pressed on.
"You gonna hit me?" Kurt asked, Karofsky had the collar of his shirt in one fist and the other fist was ready for some contact. He looked at both of them and back up at Dave, "Do it."
"Don't push me!" Dave said readying himself if he had decided to punch Kurt.
"Hit me, 'cause it's not gonna change who I am." Kurt started. "You can't punch the gay out of me anymore than I can punch the ignoramus out of you!"
He must've said something right again because Karofsky let go and was now slamming his fists into the lockers, "Get out of my face!" He yelled.
Kurt was going to say one more thing before he'd planned on walking out, "You are nothing but a scared little boy who can't handle how extraordinarily ordinary you are!"
And then it happened, Karofsky had grabbed Kurt's face and slammed his mouth onto his. Kurt's eyes were wide open the entire time, and when Dave pulled away he was crying. He let out a yell that showed he was clearly aggravated and left the locker room in a hurry. Kurt just stood there with his hand over his mouth in shock.
-
"Not again," Kurt whispered to himself. He and Blaine were walking down the stairwell headed off the McKinley campus for lunch, and Karofsky was headed in their direction. If he was headed directly toward them Kurt didn't know, but he definitely didn't want to find out. After what happened he immediately texted Blaine freaking out. He didn't know what to do or think and he needed some comfort.
"Calm down," he told him. "We can talk to him together."
He didn't expect this talk to possibly happen so early.
"Don't worry about it just let me do the talking." Blaine told Kurt noticing the worry in his face. Dave turned the corner quickly, noticing Kurt walking towards him.
"There he is," Kurt notified Blaine, pointing at the boy.
"I got your back," Blaine said as he approached Dave. "Excuse me?" He offered.
The boy turned around looking at Blaine and Kurt, "Hey ladyboys, this your boyfriend Kurt?" He said checking Blaine out.
They were off the stairs at this point and standing at the top of another stone stairwell, Blaine just smiled properly and continued.
"Kurt and I would like to talk to you about something." He said, Kurt was astounded at how calm he sounded. His voice was velvet in his ears and was instantly relaxed by it.
"I have to go to class," Karofsky stated and attempted to walk down the next set of stairs.
"Kurt told me what you did," Blaine announced. Kurt was instantly afraid, he didn't know what Karofsky would do if he'd told anyone about the kiss but he knew he could trust Blaine.
Dave turned around, "Oh yeah?" He said and looked angrily and Kurt and then scanned to Blaine, "What's that?"
Kurt decided to talk this time, he needed Dave to know he wasn't going to let Blaine fight this battle for him, "You kissed me." He said quietly so only the three of them could hear.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Karofsky said flatly and started down the stairs again.
Blaine quickly spoke trying to get the message through to Dave, "It seems like you might be a little confused, and that's totally normal." He started.
Karofsky slowed down a bit but was still making his way down the stairs.
"This is a very hard thing to come to terms with, and you should just know that you're not alone." Blaine said comfortingly.
This obviously made Karofsky angry, the assumption that he was trying to 'come to terms' with anything let alone being gay, was absolutely out of the question.
"Do not, mess with me!" He yelled, jolting up the steps and slamming Blaine against the chain link fence that enclosed the outdoor stairways. Blaine had his hands up in a surrendering way, calmly looking up and down assessing the situation.
Kurt interjected and pushed Dave off of the boy, "You have to stop this!" He screamed.
Karofsky ran down the stairs after letting go of Blaine, and Kurt slumped down onto the concrete steps clearly exhausted from the whole situation. Blaine just stayed standing against the fence with his arms resting on the metal bar in the middle.
"He's not coming out any time soon," he stated jokingly, but Kurt wasn't looking to have a laugh. He just sat on the steps with a pale face and wet eyes.
"What's going on? Why are you so upset?" Blaine asked moving towards Kurt and placing a hand on one of the sitting boys shoulders.
Kurt looked up and managed a sad half smile, "Because until yesterday I had never been kissed." He said, he giggled a bit remembering his previous fling with Brittany and corrected himself. "Or at least one that counted."
Blaine looked at Kurt sadly but still with the same caring eyes as before. He still had his hand on Kurt's shoulder and shook him a little, "Come on," he said. "I'll buy you lunch."
Both boys stood up and walked down the stairs. Kurt managed a smile and realized that yes, Blaine was what he'd been missing.