Kurt Hummel was tired. He was tired of lying, tired of school, tired of life in general. But he wasn't going to give up- no, Kurt knew he was destined for better than what this small, backwards town had to offer. All he had to do was survive his senior year of high school and he'd be free from this- this hell.

The problem? He was gay, and everyone seemed to know it- other than his father. The other students treated him like literal garbage, throwing him face first into dumpsters and emptying their half finished slushies over his head without a second thought. Simply put, Kurt was not planning to confirm any rumors regarding his sexuality any time soon.

He needed some kind of plan to protect himself, something to put the rumors to rest at least until graduation. He was in the shower one morning when it hit him: he needed a girlfriend. But who would be willing to be his beard for an entire year? There had to be someone.

As he massaged shampoo into his hair, he listed out possible candidates. There were several girls in the Glee club that might not be completely opposed.

He ruled out several immediately; Santana Lopez was too obvious a choice and too full of herself to help anyone unless it benefited her. Rachel Berry was currently lusting over Finn Hudson (who wasn't?), and Quinn Fabray was- pregnant. Right.

That left Brittney Pierce, Tina Cohen-Chang, Devin Anderson, and Mercedes Jones.

I'll talk to Brittney in second period, he told himself as he rinsed his hair out. She's sweet and kind of an air head. She'll probably say yes.

…

She said no.

"I'm sorry, Kurt, you're just too fragile for me to handle. You're like a doll," she told him sympathetically, patting him on the shoulder as she moved past him in the hall. "But if you want to hook up a few times, call me. Your lips look softer than Lord Tubbington's tummy."

So there went Plan A.

Mercedes rejected him as well, claiming she had an eye on one of the football players. She did seem pretty sorry about it, though, and even told him he was still welcome to come over whenever he wanted.

That left Tina and Devin. Tina had been in Glee club just as long as he had, but she was constantly ogling Mike, the hot dancer. Not that he could blame her, the guy had the body of a god.

Devin it was. Kurt didn't know much about her other than that she was fairly quiet but had a killer voice. She'd transferred to McKinley toward the end of the last school year and immediately auditioned to be in the Glee club, despite the competition season being long over.

She was cute, Kurt supposed. If he was genuinely into girls, he could see himself being interested in her- she was all soft curves and had natural curls that were to die for, but she kept them wrapped up in a bun most days. Kurt had only seen her with loose hair a few times and even he had to admit: she was fairly pretty. Attractive, even.

Knock it off, Kurt rolled his eyes at himself as he walked through the halls toward the choir room. It wasn't like they were actually going to be a thing, he had no reason to be thinking about how pretty the girl was.

Speaking of, there she was. Kurt paused in the doorway to admire her outfit of the day, a white button down shirt tucked into a gray pencil skirt, paired with a navy and maroon cardigan, and topped with a matching bow. Cute.

He sat a few seats away from her, hoping to not be too obvious about his blatant staring. She glanced over at him as he took his seat and shot him a kind smile before returning her attention to her phone.

Kurt wracked his mind for some way to start a conversation, but was interrupted by Mr. Schue declaring that this week's lesson would be done in unlikely pairs. He perked up at that, immediately turning to ask Devin if she wanted to sing with him.

"Me?" She asked him with widened eyes and parted lips. "I- yeah, sure!"

"Excellent," Kurt beamed at her; her enthusiasm was definitely a good sign. Perhaps he'd be able to pull this off after all.