If Blaine Anderson were to look back on the summer when moved with his family from the suburbs of Chicago to Lima, he knows he wasn't thrilled with the prospect. He had a pretty decent life in Chicago. He was happy and friendly, busy with extracurricular activities and a great singer. Everyone seemed to like him. Just as he was entering his junior year at Roosevelt High, his parents pulled him out and moved to Ohio. He had never even heard of Lima before his father announced that his firm would be transferring them to Lima to start a branch there.

When his mom had taken him to register a few days before classes started, his heart sank a little more. The school was tiny compared to his old one, and much older. He sat in one of the faded mint green plastic chairs while they filled out paperwork. He tried to concentrate, but the décor of the front office was stuck in the sixties, and it was kind of distracting.

Three students suddenly burst through the door, and that was a much better distraction. They were led by a short brunette with a look of determination on her face. The two others trailed behind, not as intense. A boy and a girl. The girl was just rolling her eyes, and the boy was pretending to pick lint off his sweater. The boy intrigued Blaine, because who wears a sweater in the middle of the summer? Apparently boys in Lima, Ohio. He looked down at his faded Duran Duran tee and jean shorts. The tee was a hand me down from his older brother, who had stayed in Chicago for college. He loved it, but it was pretty worn.

"Miss Lynch?" the short brunette asked in a sing song voice. "Miss Lynch, could we possibly have the keys to the choir room? We wanted to make sure everything is in place for next week."

He looked again at the two students lagging behind her, and could tell by their faces that they were somehow roped into this.

"Of course!" The secretary rummaged in a drawer to produce a key for the girl. "You three are juniors this year too, correct?" When they nodded, she continued, and Blaine realized she was going to introduce them. He wondered how his hair looked, and glanced down at his shirt again. "Rachel, Mercedes, Kurt, this is Blaine Anderson. He's from Chicago and was in a glee club there, so I imagine you'll be seeing a lot of each other."

The three of him looked him up and down and Blaine had never felt more scrutinized. He hadn't used his Dippity-Do this morning, and his hair was kind of fluffy. He hadn't realized he would be meeting fellow students today and he didn't feel as if he was making a good impression.

"Are you good?" the brunette (Rachel?) finally asked.

"I like to think so," Blaine replied, smiling at them. They smiled back, the girls with toothy grins, but the boy (Kurt?) – his smile was more subdued, though his eyes were gleaming. He definitely smiled with his eyes. Blaine tried not to stare, but his eyes were interesting. He couldn't quite pin down the color.

"Care to show us?" Rachel asked, twirling the key around her finger, and he glanced at his mother. She nodded and informed him she'd finish up the paperwork.

Rachel talked a mile a minute as they wandered down the hallways, telling him all about their twelve member glee club. Blaine's school had never actually competed, they just sang for fun and school events, so he was able to ask plenty of follow up questions. Kurt and Mercedes just watched the two go back and forth, and Blaine kept finding himself catching Kurt's eye. They would maintain eye contact for a while, and then Kurt would look away towards Mercedes. Blaine could see a small smile forming on his lips.

They finally reached the choir room and he glanced around. Again, it was older and run down, smaller than his old choir room, but there was a piano and a set of drums. The chairs were maroon this time.

"Well?" Mercedes said, after he'd glanced around the room enough for her liking.

"Is this my audition or something?" Blaine's voice didn't waver, but he shifted from foot to foot nervously.

Kurt laughed and said dryly, "Everyone who tries out gets in, no audition necessary."

"We're just curious, you know," Rachel said, flashing that smile of hers again. "You won't have any backing since the band isn't here, but …"

Blaine glanced over at the piano. He silently thanked his mother for making him take all of those lessons when he was younger, and his last piano teacher, Brian, who taught him pop songs as well as classical. "I can play the piano." He got more smiles from Mercedes and Rachel and a quirked eyebrow from Kurt. He sat down on the bench and wondered what to play.

After glancing at his own shirt for the tenth time that day, he started playing out the melody to Hungry Like The Wolf, and started to sing along. He was making a good impression, he could tell, and he threw out meaningful glances to each of them (possibly more to Kurt). Burning the ground I break from the crowd, I'm on the hunt I'm after you. I smell like I sound. I'm lost and I'm found and I'm hungry like the wolf. Blaine could feel Kurt's eyes burning into his skin when he looked away, knew he was still watching.

When he finished, he received applause from all three, plus smiles, and Kurt again with his eyes. Rachel started rattling off duet ideas for the both of them, until Mercedes interrupted and pointed out that Rachel's boyfriend might not be too happy with that idea. Blaine ignored the two and watched Kurt, who seemed bored by their exchange. He finally looked up from his fingernails and met Blaine's eye. Caught staring (again),he refocused his attention to Rachel, and just as he had, his mother appeared at the door.

After his goodbyes, when he was walking out, Kurt caught his arm. "Nice song choice," he said quietly. "I like Duran Duran."

-

Blaine had never really liked girls. While most boys he knew had advanced past the cooties stage by the time they made it to Roosevelt High, Blaine didn't. He still didn't believe in the cooties part, per se, but he really didn't have any desire to kiss a girl. His father would ask at their Sunday night dinners if he had a girlfriend yet, and it was easy enough to say he was too busy for one. His dad liked that line, calling him a ladies' man like his brother, though Blaine knew how far that was from the truth.

He had explained all of this to his mother once – the cooties without cooties – and she had just told him he was a late bloomer.

So, he lived with hope that one day he would wake up and magically start liking girls.

It never happened. He did wake up one morning with a revelation, the day after he met Kurt Hummel.

He didn't like girls. He would never like girls, because he liked boys.

The thought had crossed his mind, of course, before he met Kurt. It's just that boys were supposed to like girls, and vice versa. He knew from playground teasing and Sunday school lessons that boys weren't supposed to like boys, it wasn't normal. In every other aspect of Blaine's childhood he was an average, all-American kid. His parents were plain old ordinary people. All they ever wanted for him and his brother was for them to be normal.

So, Blaine thought if he just ignored it long enough, it would go away and he'd wake up one day and girls would be it. Until he met Kurt and he couldn't ignore it anymore. Kurt was the first person Blaine had ever met that he was instantly drawn to; wanting to learn everything he could about the boy.

Now that the flood gates were open, he didn't know what to do.

-

Blaine was still reeling with his revelation by the time school started. He was different at McKinley. He was still his usual friendly self, but he was also subdued. He had been fairly popular at Roosevelt, but at McKinley it seemed as if you were only popular as a guy if you were a football or hockey player. Blaine wasn't any of those things. He could sing and dance, and loved to watch sports – he probably knew the rules of football better than most of the kids on the team. He sadly just didn't have any athletic ability, so popular he was not. He didn't let anyone get close to him the first few weeks – especially Kurt Hummel. He sat next to Kurt every day in the choir room, with one seat in between them as a buffer, but small talk was the extent of their interaction.

It was early October when he walked into the choir room one day to Finn and Rachel fighting in front of everybody. He took his usual seat two down from Kurt and leaned over the empty chair.

"What happened?" Finn and Rachel were talking so fast Blaine couldn't keep up.

Kurt leaned over the other half of the empty chair, so their faces were just inches apart. Despite the scene before him, Kurt being so close to him gave Blaine butterflies. He was playing with fire, but he didn't care.

"Rachel found out that Finn slept with Santana last year." Blaine glanced over to the cheerleader, who was watching with a smug smile on her face. "If you ask me though, it was doomed already. Rachel already has her sights set on someone else."

Blaine forced himself to look back at Kurt. "Really? Who? Puck?" Blaine might be new, but he got caught up on gossip pretty fast.

Kurt gave him one of his deadpan looks, which just confused Blaine more. "You really don't know, do you?" When Blaine shook his head, Kurt just whispered in an amused voice, "It's you, Blaine."

Blaine stared at the fight again. Of course it was him. Rachel had been planning their future duets ever since she'd heard his voice.

"You do like her, don't you?" Kurt asked, picking at his imaginary cuticles. "You two would make a cute couple."

Maybe he could try to like Rachel. Just to be sure. He looked back at Kurt, and said honestly, "I don't really know."

Mr. Schuster finally broke them up to start practice, and of course, Rachel had a song to sing about it. While she sang Love Is A Battlefield,she looked directly at him the whole time, which just added credibility to Kurt's observations. He must have looked terrified after, because Kurt was staring at him, an amused expression on his face. "Good luck, tiger," he said with a smirk.

-

Blaine didn't think it was a coincidence that he just so happened to have a meeting with Ms. Pillsbury that afternoon. It was like the universe was giving him a sign to ask for help. Especially after the standard 'how are you coping' questions, when she asked if there was anything else he wanted to talk about.

He hesitated and she must have picked up on it. "Blaine, honey, you can talk to me about anything, that's what I'm here for." Her eyes got wide, almost as if they were egging him on silently.

"I think," he started and stopped for a moment. "I don't think I like girls."

"Oh!" Ms. Pillsbury squeaked. "Well, Blaine, puberty comes at different times for different people –"

"No," he cut her off. He didn't want a repeat conversation of the one with his mom. "I like boys instead."

"Oh." The squeak was much quieter this time. "Well, how long have you thought this way?"

"A while, I guess. I don't know – I never liked girls. I never liked anyone. But when I came here … there's a boy I like, and the more I thought about it, I really do like guys. I just never realized I was allowed to think that way. I never … I tried to talk to my mom once, but it didn't come out right."

Ms. Pillsbury smiled at him, and reached for her keys to open a file cabinet. She took out three pamphlets and handed them to him. Gay or Confused?one read. Blaine was pretty sure he was both. Someone should make a pamphlet titled that.

"Blaine, how you are feeling is entirely natural. There is nothing wrong with you at all, and you shouldn't let anyone tell you otherwise. That being said," she turned her eyes to the pamphlets and continued, "there are many people who disagree with that, especially in high school, especially in Lima. It's my job to get you to graduation unharmed."

She hadn't outright said it, but Blaine's mind flashed to the things he saw in the hallway. Kurt being slammed into lockers and having slushies thrown in his face. Each time, he'd wanted to rush out and defend Kurt, but those football players were like a foot taller than him. Kurt was bigger than him, and if he couldn't defend himself, how could Blaine help? Blaine wondered if Ms. Pillsbury tried to help Kurt, if she even tried, or if she gave him this same speech?

Ms. Pillsbury had obviously seen the frustration in Blaine's face, because she quickly continued. "Blaine, I'm not telling you to not be who you are. I'm just saying this is Ohio, not New York City, or even Chicago. Certain expectations should be had." She paused to sigh. "Read through the pamphlets and we'll meet again, okay? Should I make you an appointment, or can I trust you to come back to me when you're ready?"

Blaine didn't want to get signed up for weekly therapy sessions with her, so he agreed to do what she said. He shoved the pamphlets to the very bottom of his backpack, and walked out of the office.

-

Blaine usually ate lunch with a group of boys from his Algebra class, since he had Algebra right before lunch. It was easy enough to fall into the pattern of walking to the lunchroom with them, and they were nice enough, he supposed. They were similar to the friends he had in Chicago, but it seemed as if he needed something more now. He glanced over to the other side of the lunchroom and saw Kurt, Rachel, Mercedes, and Tina sitting together.

"Hey, guys, I'm going to sit elsewhere today." The four boys followed his gaze to the table and Tony started laughing.

"Dude, you're leaving us to sit with a bunch of girls! Lame!"

Billy followed suit. "Man, that's totally gay." Blaine tried not to wince, all of Ms. Pillsbury's words ringing true in his head.

Michael was the one who saved him. "No, guys, I heard Berry broke up with Finn yesterday. I bet Blaine just wants to get himself a piece of that."

He turned to their eager faces. It sure was easier. He nodded and shrugged. "You know it." They high fived him and he walked over to the table. He hadn't thought about the Rachel angle, in fact, he hadn't thought much at all. He realized he would be leading Rachel on, but that empty seat was next to Kurt …

"Hey, can I sit with you guys?"

They all looked at him, kind of dumbfounded, and finally Rachel said, "Tina, move over so Blaine can sit next to me." She batted her eyelashes at him, and damn, he was in so much trouble.

"No, no, it's okay, I'll just sit here," he said quickly, pulling out the seat next to Kurt. Kurt just looked at him curiously and went back to eating his salad.

He sat with them every day the rest of the week, and all of the next. Blaine made a point to talk to Kurt at least as much as Rachel and the other girls. Blaine was surprised Rachel hadn't made a move. She was probably expecting him to, being a gentleman and all. Well, he wasn't planning on doing that any time soon.

Finally, it was the end of the week, and Rachel was looking at him excitedly as he sat down. "I have a heads up on the assignment that Mr. Schuster is going to give us this afternoon. I may have suggested it."

"Oh yeah? What is it?" Blaine asked as he cracked open his soda, the rest of them looking on curiously.

"Duets!" Rachel screamed, waving her hands wildly in the air. "And I would like you to be my duet partner, Blaine." She grabbed his hand, and at the same time, Kurt kicked him under the table.

"Uh. Great!" Blaine smiled widely at her to try to match her enthusiasm, but his mind immediately went to duets that he and Kurt would be great at. "Do you have any suggestions?" he asked, since he knew Rachel would, and then he could keep thinking about duets with Kurt. He took a sip of his soda.

"I was thinking Don't You Want Me," Rachel said sweetly, which caused Blaine to choke on his drink. Kurt gave him another swift kick and out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kurt covering his mouth with his hand to hide the laughter.

"Rachel, have you ever actually listened to the lyrics of that song?" Kurt asked, still visibly amused.

"Just … the chorus," Rachel scoffed at him. "I thought it would be a fun change."

Maybe it was best if they didn't pick a lovey dovey song anyways. "Sure, Rachel that sounds fine," He replied, grinning at her.

"Great! Maybe you can come over to my house tomorrow night to practice?" Rachel looked at him with those fluttering eyelashes again, but all Blaine could think about was how Kurt had much nicer eyelashes. Unable to formulate words, he just nodded and figured it was better than spending Saturday night in his room playing Centipede.

"Speaking of fun changes, I thought I might ask Sam to do a duet with me." The way Kurt spoke, it was almost like he was expecting their resistance.

He knew them too well, apparently. "Kurt, do you really think that's a good idea?" Tina asked.

"Sure. There's thirteen of us now, someone's going to have to double up. He can still do a duet with a girl to prove his straightness, or whatever. I'm just kind of sick of singing with you ladies, no offense." Kurt picked at his salad, and Blaine had eaten with him long enough to know that pretending to eat instead of actual eating meant he was pissed.

"How many options would you guys have, anyways? I can't think of any duets for two guys," Mercedes pointed out.

"I think there are plenty of songs two guys could sing," Blaine said, a little too quickly. His face burned unconsciously, and he knew Kurt had turned to stare at him. He kept looking at Mercedes. "I mean, I'm sure they could find a few songs to work."

They sat in silence for a few moments and then the bell rang. The girls got up to throw away their trash and Kurt turned to Blaine. "Thanks," he said quietly, that same quiet voice he used the first day in the choir room.

"No problem," Blaine said, returning his quiet nature and smiling. Rachel appeared at his side then, offering her hand. Blaine realized she wanted him to hold it, so he got up and they walked out of the lunchroom with their hands entwined. His Algebra buddies were making kissing faces at him, which he tried to ignore. He turned his glance back to their table and realized Kurt was watching them. Kurt smiled and waved, playing it off like he meant to, but Blaine knew he just realized he had been caught.

Eight weeks. He'd known Kurt Hummel as an acquaintance for eight weeks and he felt like he knew Kurt better than anyone else at this school.

So what was he doing holding Rachel Berry's hand?