The Lima Public Library. The last place Blaine expected to spend the first night of his first day at McKinley High. He'd expected to be spending time with Kurt, the reason he transferred to McKinley in the first place. But his AP English class had a paper due tomorrow, the school library didn't have a copy of Huckleberry Finn on the shelf, and Kurt didn't seem at all interested in keeping him company at the town library. Huckleberry Finn was banned. What kind of school bans books? If Mark Twain wanted to say 'enslaved person of African descent' he would have written it that way. Of course, maybe if the book were full of gay slurs he'd see it differently.
So here he was, at the library, doing research so he could doctor a paper he'd written last year and hand it in tomorrow morning. Kurt "I can't live without you" Hummel was off a a vague and mysterious mission, Blaine had no idea when he'd be back.
"Hey, Blaine!" It was Kurt's friend Mercedes. She sat down beside him. "What brings you here on a Thursday night?"
"Huckleberry Finn. I'm surprised the school library doesn't have it."
"Banned thanks to a campaign by Ms. Rachel Berry. Personally, I'd rather read that kind of language in a book than have to hear it directed at me in real life. That's something I'd like to see banned. I did my paper on The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison – not HG Wells." She rolled her eyes as if she'd explained the difference between the two writers too many times.
"So why are you here?"
"Research. They might as well convert the school library to a Starbucks and subscribe to People Magazine if they're not going to keep books there." She was holding a stack of art books. "Can't have somebody stumble across the occasional nude, can we?"
"Art books? I thought you were going to be a singer."
"People have expectations. Kind of the theme of Invisible Man, tell people what they expect to hear and they stop paying attention, you're invisible in the sense nobody notices you. Not in the transparent sense. So, I can't convince my teacher to give me a solo in Lima, Ohio. What's the odds of my getting a Grammy? But if I tell people I want a Grammy they just take the information and move on. Big black girl plus singer equals Grammy dreams. Just what they expected to hear. Blaine, there are two types of people in the world-"
"Those who believe there are two types of people in the world and those that don't?"
She looked at him, puzzled, and then laughed. "I didn't know you were funny."
"Well, why wouldn't I be?" he said laughing.
"You always looked so serious, before. Maybe it was the uniform." He definitely didn't look serious now, what with the red skinny jeans and bow-tie he was currently wearing.
"Well, back in Dalton people found me hilarious." he frowned. They all thought it quite the joke, that he would leave Dalton for McKinley. Wes, his roommate, didn't believe Blaine was serious until right before he left. Wes sat on his side of their shared room and stared in silence at Blaine as he packed his stuff, the things he'd just unpacked three days earlier. "Damn it, Blaine!" That was the last thing Wes said before he walked out, slamming the door behind him. "Damn it, Blaine!" That's all.
"People laughed at you at Dalton?" Mercedes asked, interrupting the memory. "I didn't think that was allowed, I thought that was the whole point of Kurt going there."
"No, that's not allowed there. I just thought about how much I miss my friends there."
"The Warblers? You'll miss singing with them?"
"No, not so much that. I mean not just the singing. We were friends. Most of us lived there and we spent so much time together. All day, all night, most weekends. McKinley is something to get used to."
"I guess." she said rearranging her books. "So why did you switch schools, if there wasn't a problem at Dalton?"
"Kurt." he said beaming. "I wanted to be with him."
Mercedes looked at him as if that was either the most romantic, or maybe the most pathetic, thing she had ever heard. "If that's the case, why didn't you go on the field trip to Dayton?"
"What's in Dayton?"
"Some workshop for a special theater school, or something like that. I don't particularly care about it so I only weaseled the information out of Big Red, this is Ms. Pillsbury, to stay in practice. Prying information out of people is a valuable skill. She's like the worst guidance counselor ever, pick a different one if you get the chance. Why point somebody to a school that only takes 20 students a year? Might as well tell them to aim for a Grammy, they give out more of those. Now take a commercial photographer, there's always a wedding or bar mitzvah or something going on. See, here's-"
"Back up a minute. What's the deal with Dayton?"
"I guess Kurt didn't have time to tell you about it. Okay. I'm standing by my locker and they, that is Kurt and Rachel, come out of Ms. Pillsbury's office yakking about Dayton and what a wonderful opportunity it is. They didn't notice me, 'cause I'm invisible to them most of the time, so I went in and asked Ms. Pillsbury about wonderful opportunities and why they aren't being offered to me. She gave me the brochure..." she dug a crumpled brochure from her purse and handed it to Blaine "and said they only let in 20 students, as if I'd never be good enough. I'm thinking of applying out of spite."
Blaine stared at the brochure. So that's where Kurt "gotta be with you 24/7" Hummel went. "I guess this must be how you felt when you heard about the Gershwin Theater."
"Gershwin as in George and Ira? What about 'em?"
"The Gershwin Theater is the place where they sang on the set from Wicked." He noticed her puzzled expression. "When you were in New York for Nationals? They didn't tell you about that? I thought you and Kurt were close."
"We used to be, not so much anymore. You know the math puzzle where two trains leave the station, one headed east at 60 mph and one headed 10 degrees north of east at 90 mph and how far apart are they two hours later? That's Kurt and me, we're taking separate trains out of Ohio." She frowned and then laughed. "Well, that makes more sense than my theory of what they'd been doing when they showed up at lunchtime, smirking. Those dogs!"
"What was your theory?"
"Never mind. Not important."
"No, I really want to hear it." He smiled his most disarming smile.
"I asked Kurt where they'd been. He said nowhere, doing nothing. Usually, when two people say they've been nowhere, doing nothing it means they've been doing something, if you know what I mean."
"Kurt's gay."
"Ever watch Torchwood?"
"Never heard of it."
"Okay, it's on BBC America. It's about aliens and whatever. There was this kid who used to go here last year, Sam. I used to hang out with him before he moved." She seemed sad about him moving. "Anyway Sam liked to watch that show. So, in this show, there were a couple of cases where a previously straight person fell in love with someone of the same gender. The way it was written, you could see how it could happen. Same thing could happen the other way."
"I don't think Kurt and Rachel are making out."
"Probably not. It's just sometimes I wonder if it's as clearcut as gay on one side of the room, straight on the other. I have this friend who claims to be gay, but he says he'd sleep with the right girl. He says it's the personality, not the plumbing, that you fall in love with. In the long run you're stuck with the personality, aren't you? I mean, half the world's got the right plumbing."
"I thought Kurt was the only gay kid at McKinley."
"There's 1000 kids at McKinley. Statistically speaking there's got to be at least 100 gay kids. If they know they're gay, and who else knows, that's the question. I only know of three, four counting you, six counting girls."
"The library will be closing at 8:30" came the loudspeaker announcement.
"Damn, I'm late!" Mercedes jumped up and picked up her books. "Hey, want some coffee and music? Kurt won't be back from Dayton for hours."
The coffeehouse, McKenna's, was a block away from the library and the couple working behind the counter recognized Mercedes. The girl was tall with light brown skin and curly brown hair. The boy was about the same height, Asian with long wavy black hair.
"Late." the girl said, half-smiling.
"Nice to see you, too." Mercedes answered.
"Alice, Tim, meet Blaine. He's new at McKinley."
"Hey!" Tim said. "You're Kurt's friend, right? I saw you guys in the hallway. You might want to keep a lid on that. Or if you can't control yourselves try the light booth in the auditorium." Alice glared at him. "Or so I've been told."
"You are so full of shit." she said to Tim. "Taste this and tell him what he did wrong." Alice said handing them a cupcake cut in half.
Mercedes tasted her half, "Too sweet, you don't need the icing, or glaze, or whatever's on top."
"She's right about the sweetness. Needs chili or something spicy like that, or maybe ginger. Ginger would be good. Ever had candied ginger? It's sweet with a bite."
"Chili or ginger." Tim said writing it down. "Thanks for the constructive criticism. Much more helpful than 'this bites'. I'll look into that."
A tall white man with long blonde hair came from the kitchen behind the bar. "Ready pumpkin?" He asked Alice, kissing her on the forehead.
"Dad! Not in public."
"I think it's sweet, Mr. McKenna, that she's your widdle pumpkin."
"Well, thank you Tim. I hear you're making you singing debut tonight."
"Maybe." he said slowly.
"Sure you are." Alice said, grinning at his discomfort. "You don't want to disappoint my dad. Since you two agree on so much."
"And Mercedes, you're making a debut of sorts too?" Mr. McKenna asked her.
"Yes, I finally got a decent guitar teacher." Tim smiled and Alice scowled. "Mr. McKenna, Blaine Anderson. Blaine's new at school. He's going to sing with me." She winked at Blaine.
"Well, I'm looking forward to hearing all of you."
Blackbird. Tim made his singing debut and Mercedes made her playing debut with a duet of Blackbird. The song made him miss Kurt even more but then he concentrated on what he was hearing. Tim was a good singer, not great but really good. He'd have to ask him why he wasn't in Glee club. The amazing thing was Mercedes. The only other time he'd heard her sing she was singing alone, giving a powerful rendition of an Aretha Franklin song. Tim's voice wasn't nearly as strong as hers so tonight she had toned down at match his. That was something most performers don't do, try to complement instead of overwhelm, their partner. He was guiding her over the tricky guitar patches, she led him through the vocals. It was a very skillful performance on both their parts. Then he remembered Kurt singing Blackbird. That had been beautiful, and now it seemed Kurt was already plotting a future without him.
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