Blaine Anderson was nervous. Being a 5 year old doesn't help at all. Standing in front of the building he would learn to love, he turned to look at his brother Cooper, who had also gone here for his kindergarten years. Turning his head to look back at the entrance, he said to his brother, "Cooper, I'm scared, what if they don't like me? What if I want to show them my cool new dance moves that you showed me but they think it's stupid?"
"Blaine, just remember, if you want to show them your dance moves, maintain your balance, or else it will look all wrong. And don't forget to show off that precious smile of yours!" Cooper answered back with faked enthusiasm. While their parents waited in the car for Cooper to return to drive him off to middle school, he walked Blaine into the Dalton Kindergarten for Boys. Signing in his little brother was a breeze, and walking away to leave him on his own on his very first day of kindergarten was even easier for Cooper.
See, Cooper Anderson loved to be the star of the family, and when little Blaine came along, well, let's just say that that's when the major jealousy started kicking in. Blaine got all the attention when he was a baby, and when he started following in Cooper's footsteps, Cooper got angry. Angry at himself for even considering teaching Blaine what he knew. Angry at Blaine for being cuter and smarter than him. Angry at his parents for paying more attention to little Blaine.
So that's why Blaine Anderson walked into his new classroom for the year alone, looking sad, and without a family member like so many other kids. He quietly sat down at a table and started humming a song to himself while studying the other children here. He figured that if he had to be with them all year, he should at least know who they are.
Immediately he spotted a little blond boy and a black haired boy playing with the blocks in the corner, Jeff and Nick, he would come to know. A boy that was holding a teddy bear was standing with his mother who was talking with their teacher, although he looked like he could be a teddy bear himself, Trent, he thought he heard the mother say. So he continued around the room, making observations as he went. Olive-toned skin, dark straight hair, and a grin that lit up the room were the features of one Wesley Montgomery, who was the first person to talk to Blaine. But before that happened, five other boys came into the room. Three normal looking boys came in, all straight brown hair, all about the same height. Blaine would learn that their names are Sebastian, Thad, and Flint. Next came a shy-looking African American boy who stuck closely to his parents. The last person who entered the room before Wes, was a confident looking boy, perfectly aligned hair, smile on his face, and a bowtie resting just below his neck. To Blaine's surprise, he looked over at Blaine and gave a small smile and a wave. Blaine waved back and that's when Wes started talking to him.
"Hi, my name's Wesley Montgomery and this is my second year of being at Dalton. What's your name?" Wes asked in a rush.
"Blaine, Blaine Anderson," he answered, "This is my first year of school ever."
"Really? Well you'll really like it here, Miss Jessica, she's our teacher, is real nice. Sometimes she takes us outside if we're good and lets us play with the Frisbee that she has hidden in her office. And nap time is actually fun, because she reads us stories!" He responded enthusiastically. The excitement on his face could be seen from miles away.
Pretty soon, Miss Jessica had said good bye to the parents and now had all the kids in a circle on the rug in the middle of the room. She knew that it would take a while for these boys to get used to one another, but patience is a virtue. Starting off with a name game, they began to learn about each other.
They found out that Sebastian had recently moved to Westerville, Thad's birthday had just passed in August, and Flint was working on his beat-boxing. When it was Wes's turn, he puffed up his chest in pride and said, "My name is Wesley Montgomery and this is my second year of being at Dalton."
Trent shared that sometimes, his mom would call him a teddy bear because he was so huggable, and after that, no one could resist and they all gathered him in a group hug. Nick and Jeff had been best friends since they could remember, and they had known each other since they were born. David, the shy African American, said that his dad was teaching him to play the piano.
Kurt, the boy with the bowtie, said that his dad owned a mechanic shop, and that he probably knew more about cars than anybody. Blaine smiled at this, and thought that it was nice that all these people had comfort and love and new experiences coming from their families.
Soon, it was Blaine's turn to talk. He thought about it, and finally said, "My name is Blaine Anderson and my brother Cooper taught me how to dance. But not fake dancing like they do on the TV shows, real dancing, like they do in competitions."
"Prove it!" Sebastian yelled, Blaine already didn't like him.
"Fine, I will." Blaine replied with venom in his voice, "Miss Jessica, do you have music?"
"Of course, I'll go get some CDs and you can pick one, okay?" She said, and returned from her office moments later with a couple CDs. Blaine looked through them and then he smiled and picked one up, he recognized it because he had been practicing with one of these songs for the past few weeks.
"This one, track 18." He told Miss Jessica. She put the CD in the player and the beginning of "Eye of the Tiger" came out of the speakers. Some of the boys recognized the song and sang along quietly to the beginning, but that was before they saw Blaine really move. His motions throughout the song were fluid and practiced. Some gasped at the level of talent that Blaine possessed. These moves were something a regular 13 year old would be learning in a dance class. When Blaine finished and ended with a dramatic pose, the room burst with applause. Blaine smiled and sat back down.
"Blaine that was amazing! Where did you learn to dance like that?" Kurt asked him.
"My brother Cooper is almost 14 and he takes dance classes and then he teaches me some stuff. I go to his recitals a lot and they were doing that song for the next one so he was practicing it with me." Blaine shrugged as if it was no big deal. "Oh, and he's gonna take singing lessons when he gets into high school, because he wants to go to California and be an actor." Blaine smiled with pride when he thought of big brother Cooper, making it in the world.
"That was a spectacular performance, everybody give Blaine another round of applause." Miss Jessica said. The room burst with clapping and Blaine blushed a deep crimson color.
The rest of the day went great, Blaine had met all of the boys in his class, but he felt like Kurt was his best friend already. They spent the whole day coloring and talking about Disney movies. The other boys would come over and play with them occasionally, but other than that it was just Kurt and Blaine all day long.
When Blaine saw Cooper standing in the doorway to his classroom, he squealed a little bit and ran over to give his big brother a bone-crushing hug. He noticed that it was almost time for school to be over, so he dragged Cooper in by his hand and introduced him to his teacher, and then to his class. To say that they loved him would be an understatement, Cooper entertained them enough talking about his dancing classes, that by the end of his stories, all the parents were there and it was 20 minutes past the final bell.
All the kids gradually left the room, with smiles on all their faces, but before Kurt left, he grabbed Blaine and hugged him and said, "You, Blaine Anderson, are my best friend." Blaine just smiled and hugged him back.
When Cooper was finally released from talking to Miss Jessica, he asked Blaine about his day.
"Well I danced the entire dance that you taught me, and I did it perfectly! Everybody wanted to be my friend after that," Blaine remembered. He continued to recap the entire day, not leaving out any tiny detail. And for the first time in a long time, Cooper Anderson felt happy for Blaine. He just smiled down at him and said, "I'm glad you had fun at school, squirt. Now how about we get home and I teach you a couple new moves?" Blaine just smiled wider and thought he had the best brother ever.