Chapter One

"Your Madgesty."

SLAM

Kurt felt the fresh indents of his locker turn into a painful instantaneous bruise as he slid down to sit on the floor. He sighed and watched his closeted bully muscle his way through the crowded hallway to the locker room.

"Courage." He muttered the familiar word to himself. He slowly picked himself up off the floor and checked his hair in the mirror in his open locker and his eyes travelled up to the picture of Blaine, the most amazing man in the world.

"My first kiss was supposed to be with you, not that pig in a letterman blanket." He closed his locker and leaned against it. "Unfortunately, you are way too amazing to be single and interested in me, but you are definitely my "Teenage Dream'." Kurt smiled at the memory of the first time he met him and started for his next class, but was stopped dead in his tracks by a total fashion train-wreck- the kind where you want to look away or help the poor soul, but all you can do is stare and go slack-jawed. As he watched, the poor soul in question marched passed him with her arms laden with heavy books and a crumpled up class schedual trying to make herself invisible. Her hair was in a messy, loose ponytail at the nape of her neck and large thick rimmed glasses hid her eyes from the world around her. Her clothing was atrocious: a pair of tattered old jeans with one too many holes in them to be fashionable hole-y and a big oversized hoodie that was definitely not hers but was too old and faded to tell who's is was exactly. The last thing he saw of her was a pair of ratty old flip-flops flapping their way down the hallway and disappearing into the hoards of people around her. Kurt shuddered, recovering from the shock.

"The stuff of nightmares!" He started off for class again, vowing to help her out the next time he saw her. She must be new, but he would make sure she wasn't bullied like him. Of course, he was still going to tell Mercedes all about it in class. As he sat down in his customary seat, putting his bag down on the next seat for Mercedes, he felt his iPhone vibrate in his pocket. Eager to see what Blaine had to say, he pulled it out and his heart skipped a beat.

Lattes after school?

Kurt immediately replied back, happy to be spending time with him.

Only if you are buying. ;)

He waited for the response, hoping that Blaine would know he was joking. Of course he would buy his own. His phone vibrated.

Then it's a date! Pick you up after your glee club.

Kurt nearly dropped his phone when he read the word 'date'.

'Did he really mean date, is it like when I say that to Mercedes?' He asked himself. As if summoned by this thought, Mercedes sat down in the chair next to him.

"Hey Kurt, what's up?" She asked. Kurt barely heard her.

"Not much." He mumbled. He was so preoccupied by his questions and thoughts about Blaine that he completely forgot that he wanted to dish about the fashion disaster in the hallway. He didn't want to tell her about Blaine and their date or non-date yet. He didn't feel totally comfortable talking to her about him. He knew there was a part of her that was a little bit jealous, whether it was because of the time it took from her or the fact that he was getting close to someone when she wasn't, he didn't know; it could be a bit of both.

Mercedes watched as Kurt stared at the clock for the entire hour. She knew it had something to do with Blaine. She had been out with Kurt and Blaine once. She was bored out of her mind. All they talked about was gay things. She had honestly never felt like such a third wheel. It didn't help that between the two of them, she couldn't get a word in because they talked so much. She decided to see if Kurt would talk to her, even though she wasn't all together sure she wanted to hear it. He was taking up all Kurt's thought and his time. When the teacher had his back turned, she leaned over and whispered to him.

"Anything new with you and Blaine?" Kurt turned to look at her and leaned over, shifting his gaze to the teacher's back.

"Not really., just more of the usual." Mercedes smiled, not even totally sure what 'the usual' was exactly. She did know that there was more to the story than he was telling her, and that hurt a little. It made her angry. She just wasn't sure if that was because he had a possible boyfriend or because he was lying to her about it.

"Okay well keep me updated." Kurt nodded.

"Will do." He whispered back.

"Do you want to go get slushies after school?" She asked him.

"Mercedes you know I don't drink that giant cup of food colouring and chemicals! Yuck!" He made a face.

"Okay well we could do something else, maybe just go do some homework together, or go see a movie." She attempted again.

"I can't. I have plans." He was starting to get annoyed, she was taking his staring at the clock time away.

"Oh. Alright then, with who?" She prompted.

"Does it matter? We will make plans another day Merce. I promise." He smiled at her and turned back to clock-watching. Near the end of class, he was starting to feel bad for being annoyed with her and blowing her off. When the bell rang, he caught up with her in the hallway and made plans for the next day after school. That seemed to pacify her a bit. He also wanted to talk to her about what was going on. He didn't want to lose her friendship. She was always there for him and he wanted to be there for her. The rest of the day went by at a glacial pace for Kurt, probably because he wanted it to go by quickly, and when you want something to happen, it never does.

A/N: I know the first chapter wasn't very exciting, but it's proving to take some time to get the story moving in the right direction. The next chapter starts to get things moving a bit. I apologize for the dry reading. All thoughts and suggestions are welcome.