Chapter 2
Meet Blaine
Every night starts the same way.
I'm playing with my friends, it feels so nice. We're running, and tackling and it seems like today will never end, until it happens. We see a car in the distance and run into the grass like our parents tell us to. We're still pushing each other and tugging to fight but keep our eyes on the road to watch as the car goes by to see who it is. As it get's close we see it's my fathers car, something everyone hated.
Dad was coming back to take me to dance class. My friends looked at me with empathy then ran off for me to be taken from this fun and be placed in a tortuous class. Not today though. I'm not going to dance for him, I'm going to have fun.
So I start running, I'm running fast and nothings in my way. The road is clear and if I kept running dad wouldn't be able to catch up.
Without looking, I could tell he was chasing me, but there were more then just him. There were also all of those girls from my dance class who would fight over who got to dancing with me. If they caught me I'd have to go, and they were faster then my dad, so I ran faster.
And faster…
And faster…
They chased my down the street. Over the horizon I could see the end of the cul-de sac and beyond there were trees.
There was no where else to run...I should just give up.
No, I can't give up. I will never dance with those girls.
I ran faster concentrating everything on my legs. I didn't have to breath anymore or think about getting away, my legs were doing all the work.
I looked up to the oncoming trees. They're not going to stop me, not today though, nothing will stop me today.
Back to my legs, I lunged forward and jumped high, over the trees and soon, I was above it all.
The trees were under me and my legs stopped moving. I was in the air now, above the houses and the girls and dance class. I'm free now, in peace. All I have to do it fly up now, to the sun and beyond.
Looking up to the sun, it's rays both warmed and blinded me, but it's okay. I know where I'm going.
"School~~~!"
I opened my eyes to the rays of sun shinning through the open window and warming my body.
"Come on, Blaine. First day of school, you can't be late."
My groggy eyes tracked my father as he circled through my bedroom. From the windows he went to my closet and picked out clothes for me to wear then placed them on my dresser. I tucked my elbow under my body to prop myself up and watch him as he fiddled with the clothes.
"I want you dressed and downstairs in twenty minutes for breakfast."
He stated before turning to me.
"Come on, up." He motioned with his hands for me to get out of bed so I didn't go back to sleep. Fighting it, I threw the blankets over my feet and stood up from the bed. I glared at him for waking me up, but he only smiled and walked out of the room.
"Twenty minutes." He announced then shut my door leaving me to get dressed.
They started letting me get dressed by myself like Rachel around summer time, but they still wouldn't let me pick out my own clothes. So, instead of something comfortable today, I have to wear: ironed khakis, a blue button up shirt, an itchy sweater vest and a bow tie. Gross.
I took off my clothes and went over to the mirror in my room to look at my body. I was skinny, skinner then mostly all of my friends and when I flexed my arms in the mirror nothing happened. Accepting my small body, I grabbed the clothes on my dresser and started putting them on in the way my dads showed me. Pants, tucked in your undershirt, tucked in the button up shirt, button your pants and zip your zipper then put your belt on. Easy.
I could just go to school in this. This isn't weird, and it actually looks kind of cool, but then there's the sweater vest. It's thick, and itchy and gross but my dads make me wear it. It slides over my shoulders fine, but it's tight and grips to my body making it hard to breath or stretch.
Turning back to the mirror, I looked at my incomplete outfit. It looks weird now, but I look weird in general.
Over the summer my dads cut my hair so I wouldn't get sweaty when I went outside, but when it grew back it wasn't straight anymore. It's started to do weird curls that just made me look strange. And on top of my curly hair, my eye brows are starting to look weird too. They look like caterpillars now, all fuzzy and thick.
My eyes went over to the left over objects on my dresser, a bow tie and a comb. Not wanting to suffocate yet, I picked up the comb and started going through my hair. I brushed it straight and held it there for a second wanting to look like the old me, but when I let it go, it bounced back in place. I hate my new hair, and I hate these stuffy clothes that get too warm in class. Bu this wasn't something I could fight, it's something my dads tell me to do.
The bow tie was a clip-able because I couldn't tie one myself yet. It matched my clothes, I guess, but everything was just blue. I wanted to wear something brighter, or with more colors. Really I wanted to wear clothes like the other boys in school. They wore jeans and shirts with pictures on them, dads wouldn't buy those shirts for me though and I only had one pair of jeans that I was allowed to wear on Saturdays when it was cold outside. Rachel's allowed to wear fun colors though, she's even allowed to pick out her own clothes at the store. They let me pick sometimes too, but it was in between things like shirts or shoes.
"Blaine?"
One of my dads shouted up the stairs. Twenty minutes probably passed, but I can't tell, time is weird. Like there's sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour then twenty-four hours in a day and then 7 days in a week. Things like that always confused me and it raced through my mind as I walked down the halls.
Downstairs in the kitchen, there was food waiting for me, along with Rachel and my two dads. My dads say that usually when people get married they share one name, but they wanted to keep theirs and that's why me and Rachel have two different last names. They're married just like a man and women too, or a women and women, they say it's normal and I shouldn't care that they're married when most boys marry girls. They say that I'm probably going to marry a girl one day too.
"What are you thinking about there, Blaine?"
I looked up from my plate. Over the thought of my dads being married and time, I guess I got to the table.
"Why are there sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour but twenty-four hours in a day? Why can't there be sixty hours in a day?" I questioned.
My dads were smart, just like my teachers, and they could probably tell me why.
"Because, Blaine." I looked over at Rachel who started talking in her "know-it-all" voice.
She started talking, but I didn't want to listen to her, so I looked back down at my breakfast. It was pancakes, but I didn't like pancakes. They tasted plan and my dads would add berries in them. They wouldn't let me use more then 5 seconds on syrup on each one either so they had no sweetness, just bitter from the berries.
I started moving the cut up pieces around with my fork to make it look like I was eating. My dads weren't interested in me not eating, they were listening to Rachel explain time.
Getting the pieces with the most syrup on them in one corner and then dry ones in the other corner, I ate a little then drank my milk.
"May I be excused?" I asked my dads like they told me to when I wanted to leave the table.
Rachel stopped talking and my dad, Hiram, looked at me.
"Yes, Blaine. But it's rude to interrupt someone when they're talking." He told me.
"Sorry." I muttered and pushed my chair out from the table.
"Make sure you brush your teeth." He reminded me. I nodded and left letting Rachel continue to my dads.
Brushing my teeth was weird now too because over the summer my teeth started falling out.
Getting on my step-stool, I smiled into the mirror and looked at my teeth. From the three that fell out only one grew back. It was in the top front of my mouth and was huge compared to my other ones. It wasn't smooth either, it had grooves on it and the bottom was wavy.
If I tilted my head up so I could see a little white dot right next to my monster tooth where my other monster tooth was going to grow in. It hurt a lot so my tooth doctor gave me special-yucky toothpaste that made my mouth tingle. The other tooth that I lost was on the bottom and it made it hard to eat without having it there.
My dad's said that having big teeth run in the family, just like my new hair. They say that I get it from my dad, Leroy, just like my hair. I didn't like that because his hair was turning gray and I like the color of my hair.
After a couple of minutes of looking at my mouth Rachel came into the bathroom with a grin on her face. She got on the stool next to me and started to brush her teeth.
"If you don't brush your teeth they're never going to grow back, Blaine. And then your going to look like a baby when you get older."
I froze in fear with the thought of having no teeth. I'd look even weirder then I would with these monster teeth. Quickly, I grabbed my toothbrush and started brushing.
Rachel giggled to herself and started brushing. Today was one of Rachel's favorite days, the first day of school. She said she liked it because it was the day she got to tell the class all about herself and meet new people. I feel sorry for the people in her class though, because she doesn't let anyone talk but herself.
As Rachel brushed, I watched closely being sure I was doing this correctly. It was still hard for me, brushing my teeth, like many other things Rachel could do extremely well.
She could sing, dance, and play the piano. On top of those three things I couldn't do, she also did well in school. She made straight A's and never had to ask dads for help with her homework well I'm still having a hard time writing my name correctly. She could do everything and she knew it, that's probably why my dads liked her so much.
But this year, now that I knew her secret, I'm going to get dads to like me. This year I'm not going to need anyone's help and learn how to play the piano, just like our dads want.
Eager to get started, I spit into the sink the scampered out of the bathroom to find my dads.
"B-l-a-i-n-e- A-n-d-e-r-o-n."
I stood proudly in front of my dads ready for them to praise me for remembering how to spell my name. They looked up. Yes. They're smiling at me. I did it.
"You missed the S, Blaine."
One of them spoke up then came walking over to me with a name tag then pinned it on my shirt. I looked down at it.
Blaine Anderson
White Mini Cooper or Blue Saturn Astra
"Rachel!" My dad called out and she came prancing out of the bathroom to meet us. As he started to talk, his attention went to my hair.
"Goodness, you have LeRoy's hair." He chucked and combed it through with his hands parting it to one side.
"Now Rachel," He started, still messing with my hair.
"After school you go straight to the first grade drop off and get Blaine." He smiled at me.
"He might wander off. Now, who's your teacher?" He quizzed her.
"Mr. Todd." She answered.
"And yours?" He asked me
"Mrs. Prince." I smiled showing my teeth.
"Good." He grinned and straighten my sweater vest.
"Look how handsome he's getting, LeRoy!" I blushed when dad moved out of the way to show my other dad my outfit. His face lite up and he grabbed the camera beside him.
"They both look adorable. Come on, picture."
Dad scooted me and Rachel over to the center of the room. Rachel put her hands behind her back and smiled fluttering her eyes at the camera. I followed with my hands but refused to open my mouth like her, not wanting to show my monster tooth in a picture.
"Smile, Blaine." He encouraged behind the camera. A small smile appeared on my face but I still didn't showing my teeth.
The camera flashed and dad looked down at the picture.
"So, daddy's going to take you to school." He sat the camera down and looked over at dad.
"And we're going to bring you guys lunch today." He reminded us.
With our final prompt on the events of the day, it was time to head to school. Dad took me and Rachel, then Rachel walked me to class because I had no idea where my classes were and Rachel, loving school, practically had the whole placed memorized.
Unlike Rachel, I didn't care for school.
In fact, I hated it. Especially days like this, first day of school. Everything was new and scary. My dads would leave me alone with unfamiliar people and have me stay there all day away from them. From what last year taught me I'd be put in a room with twenty other kids. These kids were strangers, apart from the few that my dads made play-dates with or were in my class from last year. In school, I was the awkward kid no one wanted to hang out with. But, just like I told myself this morning, this year was different.
"Well, look at this hunk being walked into class by his girlfriend." A sweet voice spoke from the front of the room.
My eyes directed over to the tall women standing by the whiteboard. Before the whiteboard, sat the desks that were moderately filled with students who were now looking at me, thanks to the woman in the front of them.
Usually, when someone like my dads or those girls in my dance class would tell me I was cute I'd blush and run off. I hated the attention from them in that way because I didn't like them looking at me. This was different though, another adult said I was a hunk (better then being cute), everyone in the class was looking at me not just the girls and...I liked it.
Everyone in the class had their eyes on me and it made me cool. Like they liked me, and my new hair and my stuffy clothes.
A smile crawled on my face as I let the feeling of cool pass over me. The awkwardness from the fear of school left me allowing me to stride through the call with confidence.
"She's not my girlfriend." I grinned and walked to the group of desks that had our names on them.
"I'm Blaine Anderson." I announced to the woman in the front of the class and the rest of the kids. Their eyes stayed on me as I walked, so I kept my head up letting them look at me.
"Blaine..." The woman went down a paper in her hand.
"You're right here in the front of the class." She pointed to the first desk in the room and I gladly walked to it.
I'm an Anderson, I'll always be the first in my class.
That didn't mean something bad anymore though. I'm number one, just like Rachel is, all I have to do is show it.
The beginning of my day was awesome. Since I sat in the front seat I got to lead the class through the pledge and I didn't care scared or forget any of the words. When I introduced myself to the class I didn't stutter even though I was nervous.
I got a little nervous because of my clothes. Like I expected, no other boy in the class was dressed like me, but because of that I got more attention. When we had time to speak to each other a few girls would come up to me at a time. They said they liked my clothes and told me they looked nice. I was still a little shy, but I complimented them back because my dads told me to always tell a lady she looked nice (even if I didn't think so).
As a class we just talked and met each of for the first half of the day. The other boys in my class were in sports like T-ball and soccer.
When I told everyone I was in dance, piano and sing before, the girls seemed to like me more, but the guys thought I was weird. That didn't matter though, because I was making new friends, even if they were girls.
Lunch came quickly now that school was fun, and I couldn't wait to see and tell my dads all about my new friends. Instantly, I saw them when I walked into the cafeteria.
"Dads!" I shouted then ran from my class to my fathers who were waiting by the family table.
"Dads, guess what! I made like ten new friends today!" I exclaimed to them.
They didn't reply though, they just smiled at each other and sat down getting lunch ready. I sat with them and continued to talk about my new friends and how we were going to play together at recess. They listened as they ate for the first time in what seemed like forever until Rachel's voice sounded.
"Dads!" She called and skipped over to us from her class and sat down.
I expected for my dads to listen to Rachel again like at breakfast, I looked down at my food.
"Blaine?"
Shocked, I looked up at my father.
"Why don't you tell me more about Tina? She seems nice." He smiled at me and my face lite up.
"She told me she liked my bow tie, so I told her I liked her pretty green dress! And she told me she was in singing class- Oh yeah!" I was getting happy and jumpy. This made my dad smile.
"I want to rejoin singing class to sing with Tina. She said she's a really good singer and I wanna play with her more."
"Really?" My dad's eyebrows rose and my other dad who was talking to Rachel looked over at me.
"Yeah! She said we can do duets and stuff!"
Rachel was now looking at me. I didn't stop though.
"Oh! And I wanna go back into piano, because she said she sings to piano. I wanna play for her." I grabbed my sandwich and took a bite.
My fathers looked at each other happily.
We talked more about me going back into piano and singing until lunch ended. My dads told me they were happy I was going back into it and Rachel told me that we could sing and dance together after dinner.
When lunch did end, I got up to go meet with my class to go outside and Rachel left to go see hers too. Since I was in first grade now, I could go on the big playground just like Rachel and the other big kids.
The playground was huge, like one my dads would take me and Rachel to on Sundays and it had so much more things to play with. My eyes gravitated to the balance beam in the back of the playground.
"Tina, watch me! I can walk all the way across the balance beam without falling off!" I exclaimed and ran to the back with Tina following behind me.
In my old dance class we had a balance beam and it was the only thing I liked. I could walk across it and sometimes even run across it without falling of. My old dance teacher told me not many kids my age could do that.
The only problem was that I hadn't gone to dance in a year and I was afraid I'd fall off like I did the first time I tried to walk on it. With Tina watching I had to try though.
I stood on the end with one foot in front of the other. Starting to wobble, I spread my arms out and slowly began to walk. It was hard, but I knew that if I concentrated I could do it, so I looked down at my feet making sure they were going straight.
"Hey queer!"
A force from my side pushed my off the balance beam and I fell into the sand. It got into my mouth and under my clothes. Slowly, I started sitting up and scrapping the sand off my tongue to see who pushed me. Tina rushed over to me and started to whip the sand off of my shirt.
There were two boys on the other side of the balance beam looking down at me and at Tina. The boys were bigger then me, and looked like they could have been in fourth grade.
"Who were those people you ate lunch with?" One one them asked vapidly.
"My dads..." I replied confused.
"You have two dads?" The other one asked, but before I could tell him that I did have two dads he started to speak again.
"You're only supposed to have one dad and a mom! Where was your mom?"
"I-I don't have a mom..." His words upset me. My dads always told me that it was okay they were together. I believed my dads more then I did these meanies though.
"A-and I have two dads! And they're married just like any mom and dad!" I exclaimed repeating the words my dads told me before. Tina was looking at me weird.
"You have gay dads!" The first one yelled at me.
Bewildered by the word they just yelled at me I sat quietly.
"Yeah! Your dads are gay and they're going to go to hell! And your going to hell too!" He yelled.
I stayed there. I had no idea what gay was, but it sounded bad by the way they were talking. And hell?
"What's hell?" I inquired. They started laughing at me.
"It's where God sends people like you after you die. You're going to go there and burn in fire for forever!"
My mouth dropped a little. I didn't want to burn. I felt like crying. My mouth started to quiver.
"We don't believe in hell. We're Jewish." A familiar snarky voice exclaimed behind me.
"Your dads are gay and you're Jewish? You're really going to hell!" They yelled and put there fingers together to make a plus sign.
Rachel stepped forward to them, she looked angry.
"No we aren't!" She yelled back at them.
"And it's okay that our dads are gay! They love each other just like any girl and boy!"
Rachel kept yelling at them. Calling them names and saying she was going to tell a teacher.
"Don't ever tell my brother anything like that again!"
She shouted after them then turned to me. By this time, Tina had run away and from what I could see we were secluded.
"Don't listen to them Blaine. They don't know anything about our dads." She smiled at me, but I didn't want to smile at her.
In fact, I was mad. Not at those boys though, at Rachel. I stood on my feet.
"I didn't need your help." I stared her down. She always did this, when I could handle things she'd come in and do everything for me. This year I don't need anyone's help.
She looked at me strangely.
"Yes, you did Blaine. They pushed you in the sand. And you don't know enough about the Jewish to defend yourself to bigots like them."
More big words I didn't understand.
"I could to!" I yelled at her.
"I know enough about it! I know there's no hell!" I lied.
"And I don't need your help, so leave me alone!" I pushed her out of the way and ran to find Tina again who was playing on the swings.
I got on the swing next to her and we started talking again like nothing happened, but everything was still circling in my head.
I felt bad about yelling at Rachel, and afraid she was going to tell dads. She was by the slide though, with her friend Kurt who dresses like me and comes over the house a lot.
He hasn't been coming over that much though, and he's been sad more often. Dad's told me that when he comes over not to ask him why he's sad, but I'd listen to him and Rachel from outside of her room. He would go into her room and cry whenever he came over.
Dad's said they'd tell me later what happened, and to just accept Kurt was sad. He didn't seem sad now though, he looked happy and whenever someone talked to him he'd smile.
I wish I could be like Kurt and just smile even though I was sad like right now. I didn't want anyone to know I felt said, especially Rachel.
The writing will get better as Blaine get's older. I'm trying to keep it from a child's prospective. Do you enjoy the story so far?
