AN - So originally I hadn't planned on continuing this, but by request I have! I have the whole thing planned and it's taken a different turn than my original idea, it's now a little darker...but I hope it still works out.
Warnings - I'll be appropriately warning each chapter as they come (to avoid spoiling my own story) but really overall I'd warn it as teacher/student relations, swearing, severe bullying and possible triggers.
Hope I warn correctly, hope you enjoy this chapter and genuinely hope you stick around 'till the end! Enjoy :)
The noise of a Monday morning bustled all over the grounds: door slamming, car horns ringing loud, names hollered across the football fields and the chants of the cheerleaders' morning drills. Blaine smiled sadly as he prepared himself for another week of keeping his head down, and hoped for the best as he locked his car door and trudged into the building.
"Blaine!" an overly-energetic body topped with a mop of blonde hair bounced up next to him, "Good morning!" he chirped, far too eager for the time, falling into step with Blaine.
"Morning, Sam." Blaine grinned, happy to see his best friend.
"So?" Sam prompted, "How'd it go?" he asked, shoving Blaine's shoulder lightly.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Blaine feigned innocence, smirking as Sam made a face when he didn't continue.
"Oh come on. I didn't have to perform a 'save Blaine from his ridiculous family' mission and you didn't even call me once so I'm guessing either technology failed you or you actually enjoyed yourself!" Sam gushed, grasping Blaine's shoulders and grinning excitedly.
"I…okay. Yes…I may have enjoyed myself," Blaine sighed, "I missed Zach so much more than I even realised."
They reached Blaine's locker and he began to fill his bag with the necessary books for his first classes. Sam watched with a loving smile, genuinely feeling his heart warm at knowing Blaine felt that way.
"Would you stop looking at me like that? It's creepy." Blaine eyed Sam as he took out his calculus textbook. He scrunched his eyebrows together when Sam began to flail.
"Shit! Calculus!" he exclaimed, his face the picture of horror.
"Yeeeeeees…" Blaine drawled, nodding slowly.
"No, I-" Sam huffed, "Look Blaine, as much as I really want to hear about your weekend, I do actually prefer my head attached to my shoulders." Sam frantically ran back down the corridor, "Left my calculus stuff in my locker!" he yelled over his shoulder.
Blaine could only laugh to himself as he turned back to his locker. His eyes drifted to the photograph of his brother Zach and him he always kept pinned to the door. Blaine allowed his fingertips to carefully brush over the picture and thought back over his weekend…
When Zach walked through the door to the Anderson household late Friday night, Blaine felt like his world exploded with joy. No sooner had Zach taken off his coat and Blaine had thrown himself onto his older brother and gripped so tightly he left Zach choking form laughter and lack of oxygen. Zach had returned home for a while from New York whilst he had some time off work and demanded his family clear their weekend schedules for him. Blaine had no problems at all in doing so; sending Sam a quick apology text explaining Zach was home and he'd have to bail on their planned marathon of Star Wars the following evening – Sam understood though, so everything was fine.
Growing up, Zach was more than a big brother to Blaine. He was Blaine's role model, his shoulder to cry on, his scheming partner, his threat to people picking on him. Zach was always there for Blaine no matter what, and their relationship remained ridiculously strong as the years passed. So, understandably, when Zach sat down to dinner one evening and announced he was moving to New York with his girlfriend, Blaine was lost. Zach stuck to his promise however, calling every second night and still being there for his little brother whenever he needed him.
When Blaine began to come to terms with his sexuality, he was afraid to tell Zach. Somehow the thought had gotten into his head that his brother would be disappointed in him; would think less of him and their bond would be broken forever. But after coming out to his parents first, and one hysterical argument later, Blaine told Zach. To this day the words his brother said over the phone to him never fail to make him smile.
"So? You're still my little brother, Blaine. It just means any guy that wants you has to have my approval. Now, when do you want to visit?"
And that was it. No fussing, no remarks – much unlike his parents. Zach accepted Blaine and his sexuality as easily as he would a morning cup of coffee.
So having Zach home again was a huge relief and joy to Blaine. They had happily spent the whole weekend together doing the same old things they would do when Zach still lived at home. Dinners were less awkward too, with Zach having plenty to offer up for conversation, but still never failing to include Blaine.
Basically, Blaine really fucking loved his big brother.
Happily sighing, Blaine zipped up his bag and stepped back to close his locker over, only to be slammed face-first back into it.
"Sup, ladyboy!" cheered a passing group of jocks in letterman jackets.
The force of the collision set Blaine off balance, and he slid to the floor in a painful heap just in time for the contents of his locker to topple on top of his head. Blaine hung his head in defeat as he slowly gathered up his surrounding papers. Ultimately, the only thing Zach didn't know about Blaine was the extent of the torturous bullying he was forced to endure daily – no one knew. Well, that wasn't entirely true. People knew - they could see clearly, just never seemed to really acknowledge it enough to help.
Blaine filled his locker again and rested his forehead against the cool metal for a second, scrunching his eyes shut before steeling himself and heading to first period calculus.
Blaine's day went pretty much as expected: explaining every second thing written on the board to Sam during calculus; locker shove on the way to chemistry; target for paper balls scrawled with insults during history; more locker shoves and more insults and of course, the daily slushy.
What Blaine hadn't been expecting however, was for the slushy to come at the end of his lunch period, unlike the usual beginning.
And that's how he ended up practically running to his English literature class, already ten minutes late after cleaning himself up to the best of his ability. Much to his horror, he discovered he had no hair gel left. So instead of his usual semi-controlled hair, it was left free to curl wildly. Blaine tried to put it out his mind - there was nothing he could do now.
Knocking lightly on the classroom door, Blaine pushed it open as little as possible and slipped inside only to pause when he noticed the position of the only available seat. The last empty desk of the class was directly in front of Bradley Hunter – one of Blaine's tormentors. Swallowing hard, he locked eyes with Sam, who could only shrug and offer him a sad smile.
"Mr Anderson, is there a problem?" Mr Hummel's light voice brought his attention to the front of the room.
"No, sir. My apologies for being late." Blaine muttered, sliding into the desk and pretending not to notice the huge smirk Bradley wore which could easily rival that of any super villain.
"It's quite alright. Just try to catch up." Mr Hummel offered him a smile, which Blaine minutely returned. Blaine thought back to the previous Friday, on which he was attempting to escape his second slushy of the day when Mr Hummel had stepped right into the fire line and taken full force of the iced drink. Although Mr Hummel had been positively fuming, threatening to melt the ice dripping off his head, the culprits had only received a week's detention.
But then Blaine thought back to the moment they shared afterwards. He chewed on the end of his pen thoughtfully, wondering what had actually passed between them.
He didn't have much longer to think though, because suddenly he was being roughly shoved forward in his chair, jerking him back to reality.
Oh, right. That.
Blaine felt the weight of Bradley's foot press heavily against the back of his chair before a rough kick threatened to project his whole desk to the front of the room. But Blaine could only sigh and grip the table edge a little harder as he tried to ignore the string of whispered insults he could here Bradley mutter under his breath.
Kurt looked up from his laptop at the sound of a chair scratching against the floor, but when he saw no one on their feet he shook his head and returned to typing up reports. A second, louder screech made him look around the room this time, inspecting the hunched forms of his students scrawling notes until he reached the front row and set his eyes upon Blaine Anderson.
Blaine sat strangely still, one hand gripping the edge of the desk and the other clutched so tightly around his pen Kurt was marvelled at how it hadn't snapped. But what really caught Kurt's attention were Blaine's wild curls. His usually tamed hair now sat atop his head, every single strand freely and perfectly twisted and curled, falling lightly over the top of his oddly triangular shaped eyebrows.
Kurt didn't like to say he was staring, just more…paying attention. Ever since the incident with the slushy and Blaine and that feeling deep inside of him, Kurt couldn't help but wonder about Blaine more than he probably should. He began to become more aware of Blaine whenever they passed in the hallways. Blaine either kept his head down, arms wrapped securely around himself and his books as he walked quickly, or was accompanied by a tall energetic blonde Kurt thought he recognised as Sam Evans. With Sam was the only time Kurt would see Blaine smile in school.
Kurt became far too curious for his own good and, using school records ('this is not creepy, I'm simply checking up on a student' Kurt had told himself) he discovered Blaine's age, his grade averages and that he could sing. But Kurt also discovered a rather long list of harassment reports Blaine had made to teachers within the school. They started about a year into Blaine beginning high school and continued regularly right up until recently when they stopped suddenly.
Watching Blaine carefully, Kurt wondered why he stopped reporting the bullying that was still happening if the incident the other day had anything to say about it. He wondered what he could do to help Blaine, if he could help Blaine.
Sighing to himself, Kurt sat up straighter and went to turn his eyes back downwards when Blaine's form was roughly shoved, chair and table sliding forward. He looked at Blaine, who only hung his head lower and gripped the table tighter causing his knuckles to turn white. Behind him a booted foot rose against his chair again and Kurt followed the foot to its owner, eyes landing on the smirking face of Bradley Hunter. Bradley pressed against Blaine's chair pushing forward a little as his eyes bore into the back of Blaine's head, and finally Kurt understood.
"Mr Hunter. Is there a problem?" he said sternly, mouth set in a firm line as he stared at Bradley.
"No, sir. Not at all." Bradley's face shifted expertly into a charming grin directed at Kurt as he tried to play the innocent card.
"Well keep your feet on the floor please, thank you." Kurt returned, watching Bradley for a second longer before the bell sounded. "Blaine, could you stay behind a second please?" Kurt requested, rising to his feet slowly and not failing to notice the worried look shared between Blaine and Sam or the narrow-eyed glare Bradley sent Blaine as they left through the doorway.
Feeling his stomach tighten in an uncomfortable knot, Blaine drifted slowly toward Mr Hummel's desk where he stood tidying up papers until the last student left. After the room emptied, he walked briskly to the door and closed it shut, blocking out the bustle from the hallway before slowly facing Blaine and looking at him worriedly.
"Is…something wrong Mr Hummel? If this is about me being late to class today-" Blaine started to babble, pretending he was clueless as to why he was here.
"No it's not that." Mr Hummel sighed, "Blaine, I know I may not be able to understand the teenage mind the way I used to, but I can still understand the way someone looks when they're being harassed." he said softly, the sincerity of his words displaying in his grey-blue eyes.
Blaine swallowed hard, fidgeting nervously. He couldn't tell, wouldn't tell. This was his problem and his problem alone – he'd learned that the hard way. Previously telling anyone about the bullying had had little to no effect on his situation, and more often than not would have disastrous consequences for him and others. The last time he tried to report anything, Sam's locker had been horridly vandalised and Blaine had suffered a horrifying week of extra abuse during PE. He'd figured it would be better to just stop all together.
So as Mr Hummel looked over him with those eyes full of concern, Blaine pulled on his mask and tried his hardest to give him a positive smile. "No no, nothing like that's going on." Blaine lied.
"Well okay then," Either Mr Hummel bought his excuse, or just decided he wasn't worth the effort because suddenly he stood a little straighter and moved aside to let Blaine leave. Before Blaine passed him however, Mr Hummel cautiously placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a small smile. "If you ever need help with anything – anything at all – you know where to find me."
Blaine nodded and hurried out of the class, closing the door behind him and leaning against it heavily, sighing deeply.
From inside the class, Kurt leaned against the wall and thumped his head harshly on it, fighting against the constricting feeling inside his chest.
When Blaine pulled on that smile…that smile that obviously was an attempt to cover up mounds of pain, Kurt was smacked painfully in the chest with the exact image of his seventeen year old self. Broken, hurt and feeling so alone even in a room full of people.
That recognition was more than enough to eliminate Kurt's curiosity in Blaine and replace it all with determination – determination to make Blaine's life a hell of a lot easier than his had been. Kurt would help Blaine, no matter what it took.
Thank you for reading! And of course, reviews are encouragement ;)