I'm Walking On Sunshine
Main characters: Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson
Pairings: Klaine
Fandom: Glee
Author: Myrne
Rated: T
Summary: Blaine Anderson has loved hiking ever since he was a little boy. Walking the Four Days Marches in the Netherlands is his next big marching event. His whole world is turned upside down when he meets Kurt, a volunteer, working at the Four Days Marches. Blaine is in for the best week of his life!
Important: I don't own Glee and their characters!
Hi guys, I'm really nervous to start a multi chaptered story, but I'm going for it!
The four days marches is a real event, in my home town in the Netherlands. It's actually the biggest, multiple day marching event in the world with over 40.000 participants every year. Google 'Four Days Marches Nijmegen' if you want to know more about this amazing event!
Not to brag, but I actually finished 3 times (in 2014, 2015 and 2016). I did the 4x40km (almost 25 miles, Blaine has to do 4x50km, which is 31 miles, because he's a 18 year old man). It's so much fun, if you're into hiking ofcourse. But also, the whole week, Nijmegen is hosting a big festival across the whole town, with bands performing and stuff. It's crazy how much I'm actually in love with the whole event. I hope to finish for the fourth time in less than a month (the event is always in the third week of July), so wish me luck!
And I hope you're going to like this story. The story will probably be around 9 or 10 chapters long, depending on how much content I want to actually squeeze into the story.
Sorry for all the mistakes. English is not my mother tongue.
#1: Training
"Man, it's hot," Blaine whined, patting his forehead with a tissue for the fifieth time that day. Together with Wes, he was walking 15 miles today. To participate in the Four Days Marches he needed to walk 31 miles every day for 4 days in a row. Luckily, Wes was crazy enough aswell to travel to Europe, the Netherlands to be precise, and participate. Blaine couldn't have wished for a better walking partner.
"I know, Blaine. I heard it's hot in the Netherlands too around the time of the Four Days Marches. Better we get used to it." Wes reached behind and got his water bottle out of his backpack.
"I know, I know." Blaine got his water bottle too, just noticing how dry his throat was. Drinking was always a big problem for him. He either forgot or he didn't bring enough, so he'd run out of water before the end of the hike. He had to force himself to drink every other 15 minutes or so, or he would pass out on the first day of the Four Days Marches. And he had already been accepted to walk and paid for his flight and hotel there. He wasn't planning on drop out on the very first day.
Blaine and Wes were currently walking around Westerville, trying to avoid trails in the country side. The Four Days Marches were all asphalt roads, which was killing for the feet and knees. If they weren't properly trained to walk asphalt, they would be in for 4 days of toughness. And walking 4x31 miles was hard enough already.
"Let's take a break, I'm hungry as hell," Blaine announced, and sat down on a bench on the side of the road, a sign of "you are leaving Westerville" close by. "We still need to walk another 5 miles if we want to reach 15 miles today. And we need to, because next week I want to walk 20 miles."
Blaine was worried. Training was really hard when you were in senior year of Dalton Academy. He wanted to have walked atleast 31 miles once, to feel how it is to walk such a distance. He heard from other participants (yes, he was a member of the 'Four Days Marches USA' facebook page, thank you very much) that the people at the side of the road would cheer you on, and if you were having trouble, often other participants would give words of comfort. So, it was a mental matter for atleast 50%. But you couldn't purely rely on people at the side of the road or the fellow hikers.
"It's going to be okay, stop worrying so much, or else your curles will get sucked into that pretty head of yours," Wes said jokingly, nibbling away on his sandwich. "We're going to be together, and we'll get through it together."
Blaine actually smiled at that statement, because he was so glad he got to do this with Wes. They had tried to get David on their side, but David "wasn't crazy", as he quoted it. He would fly out to Europe aswell, to cheer them on, though. They had booked hotels a year in advance, just because the city of Nijmegen would be packed that week. There were also camp sites, but Blaine wasn't sleeping in a tent when he was walking the biggest hike in his life up to date.
Blaine was lucky, as soon as he told his parents about his plan, they wanted to pay a big part of the trip for him. He was willing to take a part time job, but even then he didn't know if he would have the money in time. His parents paid for his plane ticket and the hotel in the city centre of Nijmegen, just 1 mile from the start and finish line. Often, Blaine hated the fact his parents had much money, because it meant he had a "certain reputation to uphold" (his parents' words, not his), but in this case, he was happy.
It had been a dream to participate in the Four Days Marches ever since Blaine heard of it. When he was 13 years old, he stumbled upon a blog of a participant from the USA, describing his experiences of the Four Days Marches. From that day, he was hooked. Blaine considered himself a hiker, ever since his mother brought him along on hikes around Ohio when he was little. So this event was perfect!
That the event took place in the Netherlands made it slightly harder to participate at a young age, but he spoke to his parents about it, and they promised him that he could go, the year he turned eighteen, if it was still a dream then.
And a dream it was! A year before turning eighteen, Blaine told his parents that if he wanted a place to sleep, they needed to book a hotel right now. So his parents booked a nice room with three beds, one for Blaine, one for Wes and one, just in case someone wanted to come and cheer them on. And that person was David, who told them he would come as soon as Wes and Blaine told them about their plans.
When February rolled around, Blaine checked the official website every day to see if he could register. As soon as the day rolled around, Blaine was signed in, just as Wes. But he knew, that the first time you had to be given a place amongst the 40.000+ participants. Just because every year, there were more people registered than there were places. As soon as you finished once, you knew that the next year, you could walk without biting your nails off in nerves. Luckily, both Wes and Blaine got a spot.
Now, it was April and Wes, David and Blaine were leaving for the Netherlands in just three months. They would arrive in Nijmegen a week prior to the event, to sleep off their jet lags, to prepare and ofcourse to sight see. After the marches, they would be in the Netherlands for another week and then they would spend the whole month of August in other countries in Europe before returning to the USA to start college.
Blaine was accepted into NYU. He was going to New York and he got to travel Europe and participate in the biggest multiple day walking event of the world in the summer before! He considered himself damn lucky.
"Thank you, Wes, for being just as crazy as me to do this." Blaine placed a hand on Wes' shoulder and both they laughed, because yes, they were crazy.
After a 15 minute break, they went on with their hike, completing the 15 miles much quicker than expected. They high fived as soon as they reached Blaine's house, the starting and ending point of that day.
Wes chilled a bit at Blaine's, before getting in his car to go home and relax. A week from that day, they were going to walk 20 miles, and at the rate they were training right now, they would reach the magic 30 miles at the beginning of June, which was perfect.
Blaine took a long, hot shower to ease his muscles and then devoured the meal his mother lovingly cooked up for him. Then he had to force himself to go upstairs to study for his finals. Luckily, the thought of the best summer that was coming up, made it a lot easier to motivate himself to study.
What Blaine didn't know, was that his life would change that summer, in more ways than one.
This was just an introduction chapter, no Kurt yet or Klaine interaction, I'm so sorry! Next chapter will be here soon.