A/N: This is cheesy and fluffy and overall very light cause I couldn't deal with anything else last night. It's basically me channeling my own group project frustration into something creative. I feel like everyone's better off like that. ;)
I post on Tumblr as well - notthetoothfairy. :)
Kurt hates group projects. He absolutely hates them. Yet, his teachers insist that it improves team work. It never does, he wants to shout at them. But he doesn't really need a repeat of being sent to the principals office after the fiasco that was Britney week his junior year.
Speaking of Britney – he got paired with Brittany. Kurt sighs quietly to himself. At least he likes her. In his last French project, he got paired with Azimio, of all people. Still, Brittany being... well, Brittany, there is not a big chance that she will have the slightest idea of what their project even is about. Kurt almost doesn't dare to read any further but curiosity gets the best of him.
Noah Puckerman, the list reads. Oh, great, Kurt thinks. Puck usually skips half his classes, sleeps in the other half, and fails almost all of them. So, basically, he got paired with the two people least likely to graduate in the end of the year. Peachy. Just peachy.
But there's another name on the list. Blaine Anderson. Kurt frowns. He doesn't know anyone at McKinley with that name and he's pretty sure that he knows everyone in his English class. Just as he's about to raise his hand, his teacher starts to speak.
"Brittany, Noah, Kurt, you three got paired with our new transfer student, Blaine. He is not going to be attending class at McKinley until next Thursday but I gave him your email addresses so he could get in touch with you about the project," she explains. With a side glance at Puck, she adds, "You should still meet up with your group this week to get started. I'm sure Blaine will catch up soon enough."
Kurt is not that sure. The odds of finding an eager student at McKinley that catches up on homework on a voluntary basis are very, very slight. On the other hand, with Brittany and Puck in the mix, things can't possibly get any worse.
He is this close to just giving up on the project altogether. As a preparation for their project, Brittany has drawn an alternative cover page for the book featuring Lord Tubbington. And Puck hasn't even read the book yet.
"Dude, I took this chick out to dinner, I have no money for books," he says and lays his head back on the table where it's been resting for the past five minutes while Brittany happily continues to color her drawing and Kurt massages his temples in a very irritated way. This Blaine kid better be good, otherwise he might lose his mind.
"Puck, they have this book at every public library," Kurt tells him. "You can probably get it for less than a dollar on Amazon. Everybody reads 1984 in high school, there's got to be thousands of students selling it online."
"Whatever, I'll read it next week."
"Our first assignment is due in two weeks," Kurt argues, "we should really get started on this."
"It's unfair," Puck whines. "The other guy has another week to chill."
Brittany giggles and draws a mustache on her cat. Kurt shakes his head to himself. This is so not going to work. He pulls up his email on his laptop to check the guidelines they got from their teacher again. He gets an email alert as the inbox refreshes.
"Oh, we just got an email from Blaine," he says and opens it. "Hi guys, sorry I can't be there this week," he reads out loud. "I'm still wrapping things up for the transfer. Can you tell me where you're at with the project so that I can get started on my own? I'll definitely be there next week. See you soon, Blaine."
"I was going to name my cat Blaine," Brittany says absent-mindedly while erasing something on her drawing, "but that sounded too much like a dolphin's name, so I changed it."
"What?" Kurt asks, not even bothering to hide his irritation very well. Brittany merely shrugs in response.
Puck ignores them and stares at Kurt's laptop instead. "The dude seems to be really into group projects, man," he says excitedly. "Maybe he can do it for us!"
"Excuse you," Kurt replies coldly and pulls the laptop closer to him. "We will all contribute to this project. I'm sure Blaine will get his proper McKinley welcome without us leaving him hanging with a group project."
He shudders, thinking of being a new transfer kid at the school. Blaine will probably return to whatever school he's leaving for this hellhole within two weeks. Still, the email is a good sign.
They meet up at the McKinley study hall the next Wednesday. Blaine is not starting class until the next day but he promised Kurt to be there in his email. However, fifteen minutes into their meeting, he still hasn't showed up and between Brittany reading the same sentence over and over again in confusion and Puck proudly declaring that he read the first chapter, Kurt wants to bang his head against the wall.
Five minutes and no progress at all later, a boy comes running towards their table, breathing heavily.
"I'm so sorry," he gasps and drops all of his stuff next to the chair between Kurt and Brittany.
Kurt, who has by now lost all of his patience, just raises an eyebrow at the boy and doesn't say anything. The problem is – neither do Puck or Brittany.
Blaine blinks a few times. "Sorry, am I at the wrong table? Are you guys not part of my group for the 1984 project?"
Get a grip, Kurt tells himself. After all, the poor guy doesn't deserve to be treated badly just because he's late. He looks a little confused, a crease appearing between his thick eyebrows. He's actually kind of cute. Kurt doesn't let that fact stop him from being a little wary. He's been down that road before.
He shakes his head. "No, we are your group, sorry," Kurt apologizes. "It's not been going too well so far."
"We haven't really started yet," Puck tells Blaine and Kurt glares at him.
"Oh, good," Blaine says and pulls out his book and oh dear God, he labeled pages in his copy, he has actually read the book. "Still, I'm really sorry. I didn't know where to go exactly and I asked this woman for help and she basically dragged me into her office, handing me a dozen pamphlets."
"Wait, we're reading a Shakespeare play?" Brittany says with a frown and Blaine tilts his head in confusion.
"You're thinking of Hamlet, Brittany," Kurt says and shoots an apologetic look at Blaine. "That must have been Miss Pillsbury, she's our guidance counselor and she gets overly excited about new students." Blaine huffs out a laugh and nods in agreement. He's got a nice smile and Kurt finds himself smiling back easily. "Anyway, welcome to our group. We haven't really done much yet except the summary of the book."
That I wrote myself, he adds in his mind.
"Yeah, I read that," Blaine says and pulls out a printed copy of it, with little notes scribbled across the paper. "It was really good and I don't really have anything to add to it. But I thought we could maybe include a paragraph or two about dystopian fiction in general to put it into a broader context?"
Kurt has the sudden urge to hug him. This is probably the first time in his life he's ever worked with someone who is actually prepared.
"That actually sounds like a really good idea," he says and leans forward a bit to read Blaine's notes. He fights the urge to coo at the goofy smiley faces Blaine has drawn whenever he liked a specific paragraph in the summary. "We have an assignment due after this one in which we're supposed to compare the plot to other dystopian settings but if we include it now, we can get a headstart."
Puck rolls his eyes. "Who cares about a headstart? Let's just do the necessary parts and hand that in."
Kurt is used to Puck's attitude, of course. Blaine, however, isn't, and Kurt sees him sink into his chair a little. He shifts uncomfortably and mumbles, "I'd really like to do well on this project... I'm transferring from a kind of prestigious school and it might look bad if my grades slip on top of that."
"Ignore him," Kurt says to Blaine and shoots Puck a warning look. "I want a good grade as well so I think we should definitely go with your plan, Blaine."
"I'm not writing more than is demanded," Puck grumbles, typing something on his phone.
"That's still aiming very high, considering you haven't written anything so far," Kurt snaps.
Puck shrugs and continues to scroll through his phone. There's a tense silence for a few seconds until Brittany breaks it by packing her stuff.
"Where are you going?" Kurt asks incredulously.
"Cheer practice," Brittany says. "Coach Sylvester is making us practice earlier this year. She likes getting to yell at us for an hour longer."
Kurt swallows his snappy response and just nods. There's no need to argue, he doesn't really want to get on Coach Sylvester's bad side.
"I have to go, too," Puck says. "There's a fight behind the bleachers."
"We've been here for half an hour and we haven't gotten anywhere," Kurt groans. "You can't leave yet."
"Dude, I have to. Chicks dig black eyes," Puck offers as an explanation and it's really a sign of how fed up Kurt is that he thinks it's as good as any.
Blaine doesn't say anything until both Brittany and Puck are gone.
"Well, that was interesting," he states when they're left alone at the table.
Kurt sighs. "I'm really sorry you have to be part of this group. I swear the other groups are probably not much better than ours, but we really did not get the best deal with those two, either."
"They seem like a handful," Blaine agrees.
"They're actually not that bad once you get to know them," Kurt says, relenting a little when he thinks of his afternoons spent with Brittany or how Puck defended him against Karofksy. "They're just not ideal partners for a group project."
"Well, are you still free?" Blaine asks. "Because I meant it when I said I want to keep my grades up. If I want to get into NYADA, I really need a good record."
Kurt stares at him. "You're applying to NYADA?"
"Yeah, have you heard of it?"
"Heard of it? Of course I've heard of it. I'm applying, actually. My best friend Rachel is, too."
Blaine's smile grows and his eyes start to sparkle a little. "How awesome is that! I have never met anyone else who even knows of their program!"
"You'll have to thank Miss Pillsbury for that," Kurt says and smiles at the pamphlets that Blaine must have thrown into his bag hastily because they're hanging a little over the edge of it. "I'm Kurt, by the way."
Blaine laughs. "I'm Blaine. Nice to meet you, Kurt."
Blaine, Kurt discovers, is awesome to work with. He's the ideal group project partner, always prepared, interested enough to provide new ideas and engage in discussions and even patient enough to deal with the lack of motivation coming from Brittany and Puck. They get As on their first two assignment and they're well into their third one when Kurt finally admits to himself that he has developed quite a crush on Blaine.
There's nothing he can do about it, really. Blaine is not only gorgeous, he's funny, smart and charming. They never run out of things to talk about, sometimes hanging around much longer than Brittany and Puck to keep talking. He loves musicals and old movies and brings home-made cookies to their group meetings. And he might even be gay. At least, Kurt has a strong suspicion after a particularly deep discussion with Blaine about LGBTQ* characters in dystopian novels, Blaine introducing Kurt to the book series Proxy, his eyes practically glowing when he declared, "And the best thing is – the protagonists are gay, Kurt!"
So, he's fairly certain. And it's glorious. He tells himself that maybe, just maybe, those looks that Blaine throws him during their project meetings, whenever Brittany says something particularly otherworldly or Puck falls asleep again, mean more than just mutual irritation. Blaine definitely stops looking irritated after a few seconds, his eyes alight with something different... yet eerily familiar because Kurt's pretty sure he's got the same look in his own eyes.
They have exchanged numbers and are now texting on an almost daily basis. Kurt makes sure to keep his texts project-related for the most part so that he doesn't come across as too forward but he could kiss his phone every time Blaine sends him a slightly more conversational text, asking if he's read the latest Vogue article or if he's already chosen his audition song for NYADA.
"I don't think they're going to join us, Kurt," Blaine says after 30 minutes of waiting around in the study hall.
"I could kill them," Kurt mumbles furiously. "Our assignment is due tomorrow and they don't even bother to show up."
Blaine puts his hand on his forearm in a soothing motion. "Relax, we're almost done anyway."
"How can you stay so calm?" Kurt asks him and lets out a frustrated sigh.
Blaine shrugs. "It's not like they've been contributing much to our other assignments, right? Plus," he adds with a slight blush, "I like spending time with you, even if it's homework."
Kurt is a goner after that statement. He keeps his gaze downward a little shyly when he nods. "I like that, too," he says.
Blaine sits up a little straighter and grabs his book. "You know what we should do?"
"What?"
"Go to the Lima Bean."
"What, why?" Kurt asks, confused. "We're not done yet."
"We can finish the assignment there," Blaine insists. "And coffee will probably be a better project partner than the forces of Brittany and Puck combined."
"Easily," Kurt agrees. "Okay then, let's go."
Blaine buys him coffee and Kurt is pretty sure that they have at least progressed to friendship by now. Friends buy each other coffee, right? Between working on the project and discussing the latest Broadway gossip, they spend almost two hours at the Lima Bean and decide to stay for a fourth round of coffee even after the finishing touches on their project assignment have been made.
"You know," Blaine says and blows a little air into his coffee cup, "I'm really glad I transferred."
"Really?" Kurt asks, wrinkling his nose. "You like McKinley better than your old school?"
"No," Blaine says. "I mean, I thought McKinley would be horrible. But... I met you."
Kurt almost spits out his coffee and damn Blaine for his timing. That probably looked really unattractive. He might not be an expert in the area of flirting but that is just what Blaine is doing, isn't it? You don't just tell other people you are glad you've met them. And you certainly don't blush as prettily as Blaine is at the moment if it's just meant as a friendly statement. Kurt feels his insides grow hot and it's not the coffee spreading through his body.
"Blaine..." he whispers, at a loss of words.
"Sorry, was that too forward?" Blaine asks and bites his lip. "It's just... I really like you, Kurt, and I'm totally fine with being friends but I was sort of hoping this could be date of sorts. I mean, not if you don't feel the same, then this is just a project thing and we don't have to ever speak of this again. Actually, let me take a look at our assignment, maybe we could add-"
"Blaine," Kurt interrupts, his giddy smile morphing into an amused grin. "I really don't want to work on the assignment right now."
Blaine stops rambling. "You don't?"
"No."
"Okay," Blaine says and shifts in his seat awkwardly, taking a sip of his coffee. Right where Kurt wanted him.
"I want to enjoy my first date with the cute guy I've been crushing on for weeks."
Blaine chokes on his coffee. Serves him right.
His plan of revenge backfires a little when Blaine manages to still look adorable while almost spitting coffee all over the table... but Kurt forgives him as soon as he shyly leans over after an hour of official dating and leans his head against Kurt's shoulder. Kurt nuzzles his hairline lightly and whispers, "I really used to hate group projects."
"And now?" Blaine asks quietly, his fingers playing with the collar of Kurt's shirt.
"They're still horrible."
Blaine laughs.
"But this one has got its perks," Kurt admits and blames the way Blaine is beaming at him when he leans in and kisses his cheek.