Chapter One

It was the first day of school and Kurt was already ready for it to be over. It was his senior year and nothing has changed, if Karofsky shoving him against his locker and dumping a grape slushy over his head was anything to go by.
"Welcome back, homo!" Karofsky yelled in his ear. "Here's a little something to remind you where your place is."
Cackling, he and Azimio sauntered down the hall, fist-bumping as if they'd done something worth being proud of.
Shivering from the chill of the gooey, sugary syrup and shaved ice, Kurt picked up his satchel and hurried to the boys' bathroom. Once he was inside, he locked the door and walked over to the sink, trying his best to get out as much purple slush out of his hair, off his face and out of his clothes without staining them too much.
Too late.
Defeated, Kurt slumped his way back to the main hallway, trying his best to remain calm and get to class without any more harassment from the Neanderthals who apparently thrived on making his high school years miserable and lonely.

Blaine was lost. Yup. That was it.
He was late, already went into three wrong classrooms and still had no idea where he was headed. He tried stopping people on the way, but they either didn't care or were freshmen still gathering their bearings.
Why did his parents have to up and move to Lima for his senior year? Couldn't they wait till he graduated? Couldn't they maybe send him to California, to live with Cooper
Blaine sighed, trying his best to understand where, in this maze of concrete, lockers and bored teenagers, where his next classroom might be.
"Are you lost?"
His head perked up and he saw a petite pretty girl looking at him inquisitively. She had a hideous reindeer sweater, a headband placed perfectly in her hair keeping it from her face, and Mary Jane shoes that encased her feet in knee-high socks. Blaine hoped she was at least nice.
"Excuse me?"
The girl looked slightly annoyed at his slow comprehension. "I said, are you lost? You've been circling this hall for like ten minutes already and class is about to start in five. Are you lost?"
"Um, yeah. Do you know where Mr. Schuster's classroom is?"
Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Ohmygod, you're in the same homeroom as me! I'm Rachel, by the way, we're going to be best friends, I can tell. Come on!"
"And without further explanation, she tugged his arm and yanked him after her; Rachel was maneuvering her way through the hall expertly, not giving Blaine a chance to really understand where in the hell they were going, or whether or not he even wanted to be her friend.
They finally made it to the classroom and Blaine managed to extract his arm from her vice-like grip.
"We're here!" Rachel announced excitedly, and bounded into the classroom and took a seat right in front of the teacher's desk.
Great, Blaine thought belligerently, a teacher's pet.
He was at least hoping to make friends that would keep him from the bottom of the food chain. But, alas, his luck was as shitty as it has always been. Resignedly, he made his way to the teacher's desk, where a man in his early thirties, wearing a sweater vest that did not in any way make Blaine feel better, and a mop of light brown curls, was sitting trying to sift through a high stack of papers.
"Um, sorry. Are you Mr. Schuster?"
The man looked up and smiled warmly. "Yup, that's me. I take it you're Blaine Anderson? The new transfer from Westerville?"
Blaine nodded shyly.
"Welcome to McKinley, please take a seat…. Uh. Well, I guess you can sit next to Kurt, over there."
He pointed at the back of the classroom. Blaine's breath stilled in his ribcage as he turned to look at the person Mr. Schuster was referring to.
The boy, Kurt, was nothing short of ethereal. His skin was pale, his hair was chestnut brown and perfectly styled – albeit being sticky with some sort of purple goo – and his eyes, despite being downcast on his desk at the moment, captivated Blaine in a way none have for a long time. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he noted gratefully that Rachel's face was crestfallen that he wasn't sitting next to her. He couldn't cope with her excitement this early in the day.
Oh yeah, there was the other reason that Blaine's parents transferred him. He was gay.
In his previous school, he was bullied for taking another boy to the school's Sadie Hawkins Dance, and beat up pretty severely. His parents weren't exactly concerned, but they definitely decided that this was no environment for Blaine to remain in; so here he was, at McKinley High, starting afresh for his final year of high school.
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Back in the present, Blaine slowly made his way to the young man in the back of the classroom, silently hoping that maybe this year will be different.
He sat down quietly, trying not to startle the boy, but he merely kept his eyes on the wooden desk, not even acknowledging Blaine's presence.

"Welcome to McKinley, please take a seat….Uh. Well, I guess you can sit next to Kurt, over there."
Fantastic, Kurt thought, just when I thought this year couldn't get worse.
From his peripheral vision, he noticed a pair of loafers making their way to what used to be his desk, and his desk only, but didn't even want to look at the new kid. He was just another person who would ignore him or harass him this year, better not to make himself an easy target.
Homeroom period was over and they were expected to leave for their first classes, so Kurt quickly stood up and began his way out, but was stopped by a hesitant hand on his arm.
"Um, sorry. But I was kind of hoping that you could show me where my next class is? I have English Lit., any idea where that is?"
Kurt was forced to look up and he nearly passed out from lack of breath.
The boy was short, but not too short to warrant any midget jokes, he wore the brown loafers on his feet that Kurt noticed before, but inside those were no socks – what the hell kind of a person doesn't wear socks in their shoes? – But Kurt kept on inspecting this new arrival; his brown pants were really tight and left very little to the imagination, and were paired tastefully with a green polo shirt that was also really tight and clung to his muscles. His face, though, was what really knocked the air out of Kurt's lungs. His skin was slightly tanned, his eyes hazel, warm and extremely expressive – now expressing hope, confusion and helplessness. He reminded Kurt of a lost puppy. His hair was black and curly, and was plastered to his head with an alarming amount of gel that, if Kurt had been allowed, would be washed away to see what they would look like without it.
"So do you?"
Kurt was snapped out of his reverie and looked confusedly at the new kid.
"Do I what?"
The boy was startled to hear his voice for the first time, but shook his head and asked again, "Do you know where English Literature is?"
Kurt flushed, having been caught, and nodded. "I have it, too. So you can follow me.
"Cool." The boy said happily.
"Yeah, cool," Kurt said softly. And with that, Blaine followed a very shocked Kurt out of the classroom. Maybe this day won't be as horrible as I thought.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey guys. So yeah, I started a new story. I really hope to finish it this time. It's AU, so basically I'm in new waters here. First time for everything, right? Oh man. Okay. Basically, I need to know if you guys like where this is going and if you want to see some more. I can honestly promise 100% devotion right now seeing as I'm unemployed, bored, and not a student or anything. So, let me know - favorites, reviews, etc. Looking forward to hear from all you lovelies! Muaaaaah!