CHAPTER 1

Kurt Hummel stared wide eyed down the hallway at the new kid, this one was a weirdo, his mess of dark curly hair that made him look like he had been dragged through a hedge backwards, his ripped pants and shirt, and his tattered old satchel which had what looked like bird droppings plastered all over it, the only thing that was normal about this boy was a dark purple bowtie tied securely around his neck. Kurt watched as the boy opened his satchel, took out a pair of broken spectacles and placed them rather gingerly upon his face as if they would break at the slightest touch. The boy rummaged in his bag again and retrieved a box, he removed the lid and looked inside. His battered glasses slipped down his nose and clattered to the floor, the right lens popped out of its frame. The new kid groaned, replaced the lid back on the box and bent to pick his spectacles from the floor. Kurt giggled.

"What you laughing at Hummel?!" Karofsky growled, placing a hand on Kurt's locker door, trapping Kurt, who hadn't seen Dave walking towards him for his 1:30 bully slot.

"Nnnnothing" stammered Kurt who backed into his locker.

"That's right! 'Cause homos don't laugh in my hallway, it gay's the place out!" David spat at him. "And if I ever hear you laugh again I'll shove you in the dumpster, you got that?!"

"Yyyyyess" Kurt squeaked.

"Good!" Karofsky slammed his fist into Kurt's locker, barely missing Kurt's head and making him yelp. Dave then sniffed and walked off to terrify a ginger haired boy who was looking at the Glee Club sign-up sheet.

Kurt sighed, straightened his designer shirt and returned his gaze to the new boy who was now examining the contents of the box again with great intensity. Kurt wondered what was inside that little red box. The boy smiled to himself and spoke towards the box, he then placed the lid on top of the box and put it inside his locker. The bell rang for the end of lunch and Kurt hurried off to English.

Mercedes usually sat next to Kurt in English but she had been ill all week, this meant that Kurt could put his books on her side of the table instead of balancing them on his legs to look for quotations. Kurt made a mental note to call her when he got home. Ten minutes after Kurt's teacher had finally got the class to settle down and start their essays, the new boy arrived.

"Ahh you must be Blaine?" Mrs Thompson asked the new kid as everyone lifted their heads from their paper to see who she was talking to.

Blaine nodded.

"Well, welcome to English Blaine, why don't you find yourself a seat and I'll bring your books to you"

Blaine looked around the room for a seat.

"Please don't sit here, please don't sit here, please don't sit here." Kurt whispered to himself as the new boy's eyes rested on the seat next to him. Blaine started walking towards his table as Kurt groaned and sunk lower in his chair.

Kurt grimaced as Blaine lowered himself into Mercedes chair and Mrs Thompson placed Frankenstein and Macbeth in front of him.

"Hi" Blaine said sticking out his hand for Kurt to shake. "I'm Blaine Anderson".

Kurt's gaze drifted to the kid's grubby hand, his nose wrinkled at the thought of shaking it.

"I don't shake." Kurt said to Blaine through gritted teeth sliding his books from Blaine's side of the table and shoving his hands deep inside his pockets.

"That's okay!" The new kid said cheerfully opening his copy of Frankenstein. "What's the question?" he asked.

"Huh?" Kurt said looking up from his own copy.

"The question. What is it?"

"Oh" Kurt said. "How do gothic authors create fear and terror through the use of supernatural events?"

Blaine smiled. "Thanks"

"Mhmm" Kurt replied burying himself in his novel of Frankenstein again.

The whole class, apart from Puck, who was busy throwing paper airplanes across the classroom, worked in silence for the rest of the lesson and when the bell went for the end of lesson Kurt walked as fast as he could out of the room. Kurt checked behind him to make sure that the new boy wasn't following him, and was pleased to see that he wasn't there.

"Excuse me! Wait!" Kurt's heart fell, he turned around to see the curly haired boy running down the hallway towards him with his pencil.

Kurt sighed and cursed himself, he didn't want to get seen with this boy, he was already at the bottom of the food chain.

Blaine stopped in front of Kurt and handed him his pencil. "This fell out of your bag" he smiled at Kurt.

"Thanks" Kurt said through gritted teeth, he turned on his heel and walked off towards the car park.

Blaine hurried after him. "Wait! I don't know your name!"

Kurt was starting to get annoyed with this boy, couldn't he see that Kurt didn't want to be around him.

"Where are you going?" Blaine asked persistently.

Kurt stopped, turned to Blaine and shouted "My name is Kurt! I'm going home! Now please stop bugging me!" he regretted it as soon as it came out of his mouth. "Shit! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to shout at…"

Blaine's face fell, he nodded at Kurt and walked off down the hallway. Kurt sighed to himself as he watched the new boy disappear.

"Well it was his fault for being so annoying." Kurt thought to himself as he got into his car and slammed the door.

"Hey kiddo!" Burt chirped up as Kurt entered the kitchen. "School okay today?"

Kurt ignored his dad and crossed to the fridge where he took out a carton of orange juice and poured himself a glass. Burt's brow furrowed as he watched his son.

"Kurt? What's wrong?" Kurt's dad asked.

Kurt sighed. "Am I a bad person dad?"

Burt gave his son a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"There's this new boy at school and he's a mess, he looks homeless, and he's taken a liking to me-"

"-a liking to you?" Burt cut his son off.

Kurt shook his head. "No dad, not in that way! Just in a friendship way. Anyway he keeps trying to talk to me, but I don't want to get seen with him. but he doesn't have any friends and…and I told him to leave me alone today" Kurt looked down and shifted his feet.

Burt lifted his sons chin. "That's not like you Kurt, but it doesn't make you a bad person"

"Thanks dad." Kurt smiled at his dad as he started to walk towards the stairs.

"But Kurt!" Burt called. "You always said you didn't care if you weren't popular at school, you could always be friends with his kid, he sounds nice."

Kurt groaned as he walked up the stairs to his bedroom.

Kurt was laying on his bed staring at his ceiling with his phone pressed up against his ear.

"So he just came and sat next to you?" Mercedes giggled down the phone.

"Yeah." Kurt moaned. "And then when I thought I had finally got rid of him, he was running down the corridor with my pencil, it was so embarrassing! Everyone was looking and OMG!"

Mercedes burst into a fit of giggles. "Bird poop boy saved Kurt's pencil!"

"Mercedes stop it!" Kurt laughed.

Kurt and Mercedes spent the rest of the evening talking about unimportant things until Mercedes started to slur her words through lack of sleep. Kurt wished her a get well soon and they said goodbye to each other.

It had been a very long day for Kurt, and knew he was tired but his brain just wouldn't shut off, he tossed and turned all night, but Blaine's hurt expression was etched on Kurt's mind.

"My eyes are going to look horrible tomorrow!" Kurt moaned into his pillow.

Kurt sat bolt upright in his bed and whispered into the darkness. "Of course!" He smiled to himself "If I give Blaine a makeover, A) it will make him more presentable to talk to, and I won't be wanting to puke at the sight of his satchel, and B) I won't get bullied any more than I am if I'm seen with him!... Kurt Hummel! You. Are. A. Genius! ... I hope he lets me give him a makeover… shouldn't be too hard to convince him." Kurt thought to himself and curled his covers tighter around him.

Kurt sat in his car scribbling a note onto a scrap of paper:

Blaine,

I'm sorry about yesterday, can I make it up to you?

Meet me in the choir room after school,

Kurt.

Once Kurt had finished he tucked the paper into his pocket, got out of his car, and made his way to the hallway where to his relief he found that Blaine wasn't by his locker. Kurt walked up to the new kid's locker, and made sure that no one was looking before posting the piece of paper through a gap at the side of the locker.

The bell rang for first lesson and Kurt walked to sports class feeling slightly happier about the Blaine situation. However, Kurt's feelings changed when he reached the boys locker rooms. Blaine was slumped against the shower wall and was sporting a huge black eye, small sobs escaped from the boy's mouth as he held his knees to his chest. Kurt didn't know what to do.

"Blaine?" Kurt asked as he gingerly stepped towards Blaine. Blaine didn't acknowledge him so Kurt bent down to his level. "Blaine? Who did this to you?"

Blaine stared angrily at Kurt. "Leave me alone." Blaine whimpered and pushed Kurt away with very little force.

"I need to take you to see the nurse" Kurt said, his voice filled with concern. "C'mon, up you get."

Blaine frowned. "I'm fine." He said with a groan.

Kurt crossed his arms. "No you're not Blaine Anderson, look at yourself!" Blaine lifted his head to Kurt's gaze as Kurt pulled him to his feet.

"Why are you doing this for me? I thought you hated me."

Kurt's eyebrows furrowed. "I don't hate you Blaine, I just… It's hard to explain."

"I don't want to see the nurse" Blaine sobbed.

Kurt sighed. He didn't know what to do for this boy, he knew what it felt like to be beaten like this, the humiliation, the pain, the want to go home and cry…

"…The want to go home and cry!" Kurt thought. "Hey! I could take you home?"

Blaine shook his head. "I don't want to go home."

Kurt thought again. "I could take you to mine?"

Blaine looked at Kurt in confusion. "Why?"

"Well I wanted to make it up to you for the way I treated you yesterday" Kurt explained. "I wanted to invite you over for dinner with my family but since you don't want to see the school nurse or go home, you can come today."

Blaine smiled at Kurt. "You wanted to invite me over?"

"Yes" Kurt smiled back. This was the first time Kurt had really seen Blaine, he had spent his whole time trying to avoid this kid, only to realize that he was actually really cute. Kurt felt something twist in the pit of his stomach. Was he getting feelings for this boy?

Kurt walked Blaine to his car and helped him inside before walking around to his side of the car.

"Kurt?" Blaine asked as Kurt plugged his seat belt in. Kurt looked up, Blaine's face was inches from his.