Chapter 2

"Five six seven eight!" The opening music started up again and I groaned. Mr Shue was being relentless today. Even Puck, who never stopped boasting about the number of reps he could do at the gym without breaking a sweat looked shattered. Finn, who struggled with the choreography on a normal day, kept crashing into people and messing up his words as a result. If anyone had been filming us they could have made millions selling it to blooper tape shows.

"And I owe it all to you!" I was making as much effort as I could with my singing, probably the most apart from Rachel, who having been demoted for this number was striving to be the most enthusiastic back up singer anybody had ever seen, but I could feel the tiredness in my limbs. We struggled through the song, the energy picking up a bit at the end when everybody was singing together and when it finally ended everybody collapsed onto the stage in a heap.

"Right guys! This is good! I want every practice to be like this – singing until you can barely stand!"

"That's ok for you to say Mr Shue, you just get to watch us." Artie said, his arms probably burning from wheeling himself up and down the stage ramps so many times.

"We've nearly got it too, just a bit more practice and we'll be there. See you all tomorrow." He shut up his folder and everybody groaned with relief, Rachel and Finn immediately staggering towards each other to keep themselves steady.

As we all packed up individually I glanced around the auditorium I now called home. It was weird to imagine performing out of here, but we'd have to do it. As I scanned the upper seats with their red coverings I saw a figure sitting at the back and dropped my books in shock.

"Kurt? Are you ok?" Mercedes asked, looking concerned. I looked down to the mess I'd created with my cheeks burning again. It couldn't be him. The nerve… When Mercedes and I had collected up all my things I looked up again and to my horror saw that it was him – Blaine had walked down from the top of the auditorium and was now metres away from the stage. He had that smile on his face again, the annoyingly charming one.

"Who is this?" Mercedes asked, a note of suspicion in her voice. Blaine walked up the ramp and without saying anything held out his hand

"I'm Blaine. Pleased to meet you." As they shook hands warily I cringed, still not quite believing he was here. It was clever, very clever, but that still didn't mean I liked it.

"How do you know Kurt?" Mercedes asked, still not buying the friendly aura Blaine was giving off. Her posture was tense, like he was ready for a fight at any moment.

"I don't know him that well really-" I started, my voice rushed and embarrassed. I moved to stand in between them both but Blaine put his hand on my arm and stopped me next to him.

"-We're friends."

"Oh. Ok then." I thought about asking Mercedes for help, but at the same time I wanted to have a serious talk with Blaine. About sneaking in on our practice for a start. "Do you want to walk with me?"

"Um, sorry Mercedes" I began, scratching the back of my head nervously as I spoke, "but Blaine and I should probably have a talk. About, stuff." Mercedes' expression fell slightly but she managed a smile.

"Well, see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, see you."

I watched her walk off slowly, rubbing the side of my face and feeling the hot auditorium lights beat against my skin. When he was a safe enough distance away I immediately spun around and launched my assault.

"What the HELL are you doing here?" Blaine laughed, obviously expecting such a response and I glared at him. "Well?"

"Don't I at least get a 'hi'?"

"No, you don't. Not when you're not supposed to be in here."

"Hey, I only wanted to prove to you that prep school boys can spy too. Although apparently much better." I didn't have time to stop my hand smack into Blaine's arm, but before I could apologise he laughed again. "Sorry, sorry – I know I shouldn't be here, but I was curious you know? I hear it's a common thing nowadays." I let out an exasperated sigh, looking at the ground. I couldn't argue – he was only doing what we'd done to them, but all the same it was still annoying that he'd probably seen the whole performance. Rachel would be furious.

"How did you get in?" I asked, still avoiding eye contact.

"Well, mixed school, no uniform, open auditorium – it's not exactly hard. Don't know why I've never dome it before to be honest." I felt like hitting him again but this time managed to steady my hand. Blaine let out another chuckle – it was annoying how nice it sounded when he did that.

"I was impressed though. Very impressed." With this I looked up again.

"You serious?"

"Yeah, totally. I thought your backing singing was exquisite." I gave him a sarky look thinking he was teasing, but he shook his head.

"Ergh. Mr Shue made us do that song 20 times. I think I'm not going to want to watch Dirty Dancing ever again."

"Well I thought you all sold the story very well. Even if that guy kept falling over all the time." He smiled and I laughed.

"You mean Finn? Yeah, he's probably the most un-coordinated guy ever, but he's a great singer."

"You seemed to be having a lot of fun. You two close?" I laughed, wondering how to phrase my reply.

"He's my step-brother. It was kind of awkward at first, but now we're cool. Normally him and Rachel get the solos, but they're so sickly at the moment Mr Shue thought it would be nice to have a partnership that had the right amount of chemistry, without making the audience want to vomit." Blaine laughed, but I could see relief on his face.

"Rachel? That's-" As if on cue, a shrill scream erupted that filled the auditorium and made me put my hands over my ears.

"YOU! GET OUT!" Rachel stormed down the steps until she reached us, her expression almost as livid as when she'd first seen how good The Warblers were. I saw Blaine go to laugh but I put a hand on his arm to stop him. Now was not the time for jokes.

"Follow me, now."

We legged it out of the auditorium and into the parking lot; breathless laughter gracing our lips occasionally as we swerved around corners and gradually heard Rachel's shrieks fade away into the distance. When I gauged us to be a safe enough distance away I signalled a stop, and for a couple of seconds all that could be heard was the sound of our heavy breaths, sometimes in sync.

"I see she still doesn't have a shine for us then?" Blaine joked when he was able to talk again. It was only now I realised fully that he was not in uniform, nor was his hair scraped into the perfect side parting I'd seen at Dalton. He looked almost normal.

"She's only angry because we might actually have some competition this year. You should have been in the car on the way back from our mission."

"Your mission eh? Do you think you succeeded?"

"Well, we wouldn't if you hadn't saved our butts. I never thanked you for that by the way." Blaine smiled, obviously thinking back to the 'brother' debacle and I cringed simply remembering it.

"No problem. I wouldn't be a gentleman if I hadn't saved a damsel in distress." I gave him a sarcastic look but then suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, if you're here spying on us, why didn't you bring your bodyguards?" Blaine looked confused.

"Bodyguards?"

"Yeah, you know, those two guys that follow you everywhere?" Realisation spread across his face.

"Oh! You mean Wes and David? They thought it was childish and stupid, so I went by myself. I also had ulterior motives." With this last line he grinned his most cheeky grin yet. I looked confused, the cold winter wind beginning to bite.

"And what might those be?"

"Do you want to have a coffee with me?" Immediately my reflex was to step back.

"Blaine! I barely know you, you're on the rival Glee club, I-"

"Ok, ok." He interrupted, putting his hands out so they almost touched mine. "Let's try it differently. Wait here." To my surprise he ran off towards the roadside. I tried to follow him but he waved his arms "Wait!" He ran all the way to the road and then causally began to walk back, looking around as if he hadn't noticed I was there. When he got to within a few metres he suddenly looked at me and acted surprised.

"Oh, hello there, I'm Blaine – pleased to meet you!" He held out his hand and I shook it cautiously, not really understanding what was going on. "Hey, look, I know this is a bit forward, but I was just going to get a coffee, and I have a thing about being in places like that on my own – I don't suppose you could join me?" The realisation hit and I felt like punching him again.

"Blaine!"

"Yes, my names Blaine – I'm so sorry how rude of me not to ask yours." He looked at me pointedly and I folded my arms in protest.

"You know what my name is."

"How can I, I've never met you before." I shook my head, not wanting to buy into the game. I couldn't believe he was doing this – not after all that had happened. Not after he'd seen me drop all my books and blush at his constant smiles.

"Come on, I'll shout you – I bet you've never just met a guy who'd do that." Eventually I realised I wasn't going to get away with saying no, so begrudgingly nodded my head.

"Ok, fine. But enough with the games. You're so lame."

"Lame rhymes with Blaine, I can work with it."