Kurt wasn't sure when it had started. Maybe with Coach Sylvester's "pear hips" comment but perhaps even earlier in his young life. He knew he'd always had a small problem with food. He wouldn't say he went insane and only eat one hundred calories and day or anything, he just liked eating healthy foods. The stuff other people would describe as "rabbit food." Healthy food was sometimes hard to find in Kurt's home however, as he lived alone with his dad who would much rather eat greasy burgers and fries than the lean meats and vegetables his son preferred.

Kurt knew that it was in high school when his problem first started taking hold. He'd never had any friends so he didn't sit by anyone at lunch, then the bullying escalated and he had stopped going to lunch and eating the midday meal all together. Whenever he went to the cafeteria, he'd only be greeted with slurs, slushy facials, getting tripped, and having someone else's lunch dumped over his head anyway. He saw little reason to have to sit through that torment and just stayed in the library during his lunch hour as often as he could.

Then, in his sophomore year, Kurt joined glee club. He could honestly say it was the best thing to happen to him. For the first time, he had real friends who he could sit next to at lunch and he'd started eating again. He didn't mind when he gained a little weight, in fact, he saw it as a good thing. He thought it made him look a little less like a skeleton. Kurt's dad had even commented that he was starting to look like a normal and healthy human being, rather than someone who should be incinerating in the sunlight or at the sight of a crucifix.

But then, the Cheerios came and Kurt's confidence shattered. Coach Sue's comment had snapped something in him and for two weeks, all he ate was celery for lunch, and that was just to keep the glee club off of his back. Eventually Quinn and Mercedes had kidnapped him and given him a complete lecture on healthy eating. He started eating lunch again but made up for it by running in the mornings and afternoons. It was actually Coach Sylvester herself that made him stop.

It had been after Cheerios practice when she approached him. Preparations for Nationals were in full swing, practices had been doubled to accommodate for Mercedes's recent quitting.

"Hey, Ladyface! See me after practice," she bellowed through her megaphone.

Kurt didn't know or care why Coach would want to see him, all he knew was that she was keeping him from his afternoon run. He'd overslept that morning and missed his run. He needed to hurry up and get home to make up for the time that he missed.

So he showered and changed quickly, running back to the gym in record time to see what his psychotic cheerleading coach could possibly want from him.

"Let's step into my office for a moment, shall we," Sue said, gesturing to the door of her lair.

Kurt walked into the suspiciously ill lit office and sat down in the familiar uncomfortable red chair in front of Coach Sue's desk.

"So Ladyface," Sue said, lowering herself into her chair, "do you know why you are here?"

Kurt shook his head. "No Coach."

"Well, you're here because I want to say two words to you that I have no memory of ever saying to another human being: I'm sorry."

Kurt was sure he had misheard. That was the only explanation. "Excuse me?" he asked.

"Oh don't make me say it again," she snapped, but then quickly composed herself. "I'm sorry that I may have had some part to play in the fact that you are starving yourself."

Kurt was shocked, appalled, flabbergasted. He didn't starve himself. He just liked eating healthy and exercising.

"I'm not-" he started, but never got a chance to finish his thought.

"Shut up. You think I don't notice you wasting away. Stretch Marks and Aretha can try as hard as they want, but they aren't getting anywhere. They shouldn't think that they have the power to single-handedly cure anorexia."

Kurt looked down at his shaking hands. He wasn't anorexic, he wasn't. He just had a slight problem with food.

"I'm not anorexic," Kurt whispered fiercely, more to himself than the coach.

Sue sighed and gave the nervous, shaking boy before her a pitying look. "And here we see the first stage: denial."

Kurt stood up abruptly. He couldn't listen to this anymore. He was not some anorexic who was locked up in some loony bin. He was normal, whatever that was anymore. He was almost out the door when Coach Sue called out to him.

"Kurt!"

He stopped and slowly looked back at her. He was shocked to find a look of genuine concern on the woman's face.

"Please take care of yourself. Don't let yourself slip any further into this mess. Maybe you're right. Maybe you aren't anorexic, yet. Just, don't let yourself get to that point. You are quite possibly the strongest boy I know Ladyface. Don't throw all that away because you don't think you look thin enough."

Kurt swallowed the painful lump in his throat and responded in a choked voice. "I'll try really hard Coach."

He walked out of the office and allowed himself to break down. Out of all the people to notice; out of all the people to care, it had been Sue Sylvester.

There was a change in Kurt after that day. He stopped insisting that he had homework and ate dinner with his father. It wasn't much, usually a tiny piece of chicken and a salad but that was so much more in his eyes. He ate a good portion at lunch too. Quinn and Mercedes had looked on bewildered as he ate more than he had in the past week at lunch in one. Again, it wasn't a feast and was certainly less than what everyone had eaten, but they knew that maybe, just maybe their friend would be okay.

Kurt thought that he would be okay too. That this was so far behind him, it was like Alexander McQueen's last season. Little did he know, this was the only the beginning.

A/N: I know that this is so not how you approach someone with an eating disorder but she's Sue so... Reviews make me smile!

Peace, Love, Glee

Julez