This is one of three stories which I've posted the first chapter of (along with Trust in me and Dalton deceit) and the one which gets the most reviews will get priority for updating.

….

Kurt has been at Dalton for two months and seems to be settling in well. He lives in the Warbler House and shares his room with Nick. Blaine is still acting as a mentor and while Kurt is still absolutely besotted he is beginning to think nothing will ever come of it. Kurt, Blaine, Nick and Jeff are all juniors.

…..

"Morning sunshine," laughed Blaine as Kurt opened his dorm door looking less than happy.

"Too tired, who invented Mondays?"

"C'mon let's go get some coffee in your system and all will be better!"

As the boys made their way over to the dining hall Kurt entertained Blaine with stories from his ND sleepover on Saturday night which had developed into a late lunch on Sunday followed by movie and coffee and resulting in him only just making it back to Dalton in time for curfew.

"Honestly the amount of drama that lot can get into in a week is amazing!" While Kurt was enjoying being at Dalton he still felt very close to his New Directions group, they were the original dysfunctional family and even though he had left he knew they still cared greatly for him. In fact he almost felt closer to them now than he had while he was at McKinley.

As the boys finished off their breakfast and coffee the warning bell rang signalling ten minutes until the start of the first class. Blaine walked Kurt along the corridor before heading off to calculus and Kurt walked the last few steps to history alone.

He entered the classroom just ahead of Mr Stevens and quickly took his seat as the noise subsided. The lesson started and Kurt diligently took notes and tried to pay attention, thankful that at least some of the caffeine had finally seeped into his brain. Halfway through the lesson the teacher stopped and wrote in large letters 'Pair presentations' on the board. Immediately muttering started around the room as boys began waving and calling to friends across the room.

Kurt felt his stomach drop as the buzz around the room continued while the teacher handed out notes on the upcoming assignment. While he had friends in his dorms and got on well with many of the Warblers he really didn't know any of the boys in his history class and he sighed deeply resigning himself to doing the work alone. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed the excited buzz had changed to moans and quiet grumbles. Quickly lifting his head he tuned into what the grey haired teacher was saying.

"I have decided this is the fairest way, I will pull pairs and you must work with that person. While you may not like it this is the way life works outside the confines of school, we don't always get to work with friends and we have to find ways to make it work!"

Ah, thought Kurt, so that was the problem. No one was getting to choose their partners and he was possibly the only person not upset by the thought. As he looked over to the desk he realised that the teacher was starting to draw names already, better to get it over with then he thought.

"Barry you will be with Scott. James and Thomas are together. The next pair is Edward and…. Kurt."

Kurt looked round trying to work out which boy was Edward, he didn't even recognise the name but suddenly all the students were standing up, packing their bags, moving around so he was still in the dark. Taking a deep breath he began to pack up his books too when he heard a polite cough coming from behind him. Turning around his eyes quickly took in the tall, dark haired boy with deep brown eyes.

"Hi," said the deep voice, "I'm Eddie Mayers, I don't think we've ever properly been introduced."

"Kurt Hummel, nice to meet you," he said, shaking the offered hand.

"So, history presentation, I guess we should get started straight away as we've only got two weeks to put it together. Are you free after school today?"

Kurt was rather taken aback by the motivated student. The project wasn't huge and he wasn't expecting to start immediately but if he was honest he'd rather get it out of the way too.

"I've got Warblers practice until 5pm but then I'm free if you want to meet then?"

"Cool, we can gather some initial ideas before dinner. I'll meet you in the library then. Give me your phone number in case we need to change the plans"

"Great." Kurt replied typing his number in Eddie's phone and rather intrigued by the boy. Maybe he could find out some information about him before they met in the afternoon.

As Kurt sat down for lunch he had still not had a chance to ask anyone about Eddie but there was only Wes and Nick at the lunch table so he took the opportunity. "Erm, do either of you happen to know anything about Eddie Mayers?" he asked in what he hoped was a nonchalant way.

Wes' eyes flew open and he began to choke on his chicken. Taking a drink and a few deep breaths he looked across at Kurt, "How do you know Eddie?"

"I've been paired with him for a project and I don't know anything about him which is why I'm asking."

"Eddie's a nice enough guy but he was involved in some…erm… some stuff last year which got pretty nasty. I thought they'd kicked him out but his daddy has obviously managed to buy his way back in."

"OK, so what, try to change partners, don't accept any cookies from him? What sort of stuff? Do I need to worry?"

Nick looked across at Kurt's worried face and couldn't help but laugh. "Hey, it's fine. He's a good guy who just took some bad advice last year and ended up in trouble. I'm sure he's learnt his lesson and Dalton wouldn't have let him back in if they thought he'd still be trouble."

Kurt turned back to his salad and started to pick at the lettuce, suddenly he'd lost his appetite. He was flipping bits of cucumber over wondering if he should try to change partners, he really didn't want to get involved in any trouble when he was aware of a hand waving in front of his face and laughing coming from beside him. Rubbing his eyes to bring himself out of his thoughts he looked up to see Blaine's deep hazel eyes staring at him intently. "Did you find any unicorns then?" Kurt's look of confusion clearly showed as Blaine laughed again before adding, "You were off in dreamland, I assumed you were chasing unicorns."

"No, I was wondering where the rainbow would lead to," Kurt replied snappily. He caught how Blaine's smile faltered slightly, great now Blaine thought he was mad at him but as he quickly glanced round the table he noticed Wes and Nick had left, how long had he been sitting there? Taking a deep breath Kurt turned back to Blaine, "Sorry, I shouldn't have snapped," he said quietly.

"No worries," and the tenor took a drink from his water, "seriously though are you alright? You looked pretty deep in thought."

"Yes, I'm fine, it's just going to be a long day." Blaine took a long look at him and then deciding that he clearly wasn't in any immediate danger launched into a story about his chemistry class.

Sorry had to stop there otherwise the chapter became huge!