Sleeping in his old bed was extremely strange for Kurt. For some reason, all he could think of was Blaine lying next to him, head on his chest, waking each other with kisses.

At one point he actually thought he could smell him.

His phone buzzed at 3am, and he was relieved to see Chandler's name lighting up the darkness of the room, the way he lighted up Kurt's life.

'Thank God you called,' Kurt answered. Hello's weren't necessary. 'It's so weird being back here, my head's doing weird things.'

'I'm missing you loads, baby,' Chandler answered, a hint of sadness in his voice.

'You too,' said Kurt. But he felt somewhat guilty - until this moment, he had been too wrapped up in thinking about Blaine to miss his fiancee... Kurt made a silent promise to himself to put all thoughts of the dark-haired boy from his mind from now on.

'So how's being back in Ohio? Must be weird.'

'It's insane,' he replied. 'It's awesome, too. But insane.'

'You start work tomorrow?'

'Nope, the day after. But I go for a kind of open day tomorrow to get to know the staff.'

'Good luck.'

'I wish you were here,' Kurt blurted out, unthinking. 'I really wish you were.'

'I wish I was, too,' Chandler replied, and Kurt could have sworn he heard his voice crack. 'When are you coming home?'

'As soon as I can. I promise.'

'I love you.'

'Yeah, you too.'

Kurt pulled the phone from his ear and hung up as fast as he could. It hurt, knowing how long it would be until he saw Chandler again.

Especially because his mind was already wandering places he didn't want it to go... Places he had promised himself he would never go again.

Making a mental block against all unwanted thoughts, Kurt lay back in his bed and forced his eyes shut. What was even the point of thinking about that stuff? He had no idea where that boy would be in his life now - they hadn't talked for over two years, so what did it matter? It's not like Blaine was still stuck in Ohio. He would be long gone by now.

Kurt awoke the next day with a splitting headache.

Jeez, why didn't I try harder to sleep last night? he thought, forcing himself out of bed and stumbling downstairs, hair messy around his face.

'Morning Kurt,' Carole smiled from the kitchen. She walked over him and kissed his forehead affectionately, before leaning back a little, as if to get a better look.

'Your hair needs cut,' she observed. 'Desperately, actually.'

He tried to flatten it with his palms, but she only laughed at him.

'Oh, hey Kurt,' called Burt from the table. 'Sleep okay?'

'Yeah,' Kurt lied smoothly. 'Totally fine.'

'Weird being back here?' Wow, thought Kurt, he knows me too well.

'A little,' he admitted. 'But I can adjust pretty fast.'

'You got your open day type thing today? I was hoping we could spend the night in, get a take out or something. Would be good to catch up properly.'

He smiled. 'Yeah, Dad. That would be great.'

He grabbed some toast and tried to head back upstairs, but Carole stopped him.

'Uh, Kurt, you can't just take that up to your room.'

He gave her a confused look, mouth already full of toast. 'What, why?'

She sighed, and Kurt heard the half-exasperated half-amused tone to her voice. 'Well, at least take a plate. You're not an animal.'

He grabbed a plate, somewhat reluctantly, and headed back to his room.

Kurt opened his suitcase and let the contents spill out across the floor. Precariously, he filed through the shirts, suits, and ties, looking for something suitable for the day ahead.

Finally he found a boring, black suit that looked suitable enough, and he put it on as fast as he could, because he knew he had slept in past the time he really should have.

Hurriedly, he sped down the stairs and embraced his father briefly before walking to the door. 'Bye Dad. Carole.'

'Good luck,' they chanted. I smiled and left.

The first time I heard his voice, I didn't recognise it. I heard some angry student and a teacher in a classroom down the hall, but I barely hear it and I don't see the source of the voice behind closed doors.

'Who's that, then?' I ask, with some curiosity.

My guide - a young female teacher with golden eyes - rolled her eyes at the classroom where the noise was coming from. 'There's this kid in the senior class.'

I raise an eyebrow. 'Go on..'

'Well, you'll be teaching him, that's for sure. You're the new drama teacher, after all. He's pretty good at... drama.'

'You mean he's melodramatic.'

She gave me a look. 'You can't blame the guy. Didn't graduate when he was supposed to, you know. This school has held him back for the last three years.'

I stare at her. 'What? Are you serious? So he's, what, twenty?'

She nods curtly.

'But... why? Is he just... not bright?'

She laughs bitterly. 'Oh, no. You'll find out pretty soon that this school values itself highly on its continuous three-year in a row championship at Nationals for showchoirs.'

I nod. 'Yeah, I know that. Kind of why I applied here.'

'So, this guy, he's like, the star of the club. The teachers are literally failing him on purpose to keep him here.'

'Are you kidding?' I said, not sure whether to laugh or not.

She shook her head. 'Deadly serious. Got the idea from another Glee Club... Vocal Adrenaline, or something? I dunno. But anyway, it's working, the boy's a genius.'

Kurt looked back down the hallway, becoming more and more curious. He definitely wanted to find out more about this Glee Club.

The rest of his day passed somewhat boringly, Kurt went to his classroom, set out his things, met the other members of staff, but the whole time his mind was elsewhere. He couldn't stop thinking about the boy in the hallway. Subconciously, Kurt was already beginning to form a plan on how to convince them to let him graduate.

'Hey, Mr. Hummel? You're the new drama teacher, right?'

A stocky, balding man made his way towards Kurt, smoothing down his small amount of hair with the palm of his hands.

'Please, call me Kurt,' said Kurt, smiling at him pleasantly.

'Nice to meet ya, Kurt, I'm Shane, but the students know me as Mr. Brown.'

Kurt shook his sweaty hand, smiling as widely as he could stretch his cheeks.

'I meant to talk to you sooner or later, Kurt, because I don't know if you know but I'm the director of the showchoir here.'

This immediately sparked his interest, and he nodded vigourously.

'I heard you've been on broadway shows, studied at NYADA, am I right?'

Kurt nodded again. 'Yeah, only left last year.'

'Well, I knew you'd want to get involved with this club. So, here's a little proposition for ya. Why don't you come along to our meeting tomorrow after school?'

Kurt's eyes widened, shocked at how quickly the oppurtunity had come.

'I know it's pretty fast,' Shane said, 'but these kids need some serious motivation this year. Last year, we were forced to let some of our biggest stars go, and the new kids just aren't up to the task. They need training, inspiration, and I honestly can't think of any better man for the job.'

Kurt smiled. 'I would love to.'

'Great,' Shane smiled. 'It starts at four in the choir room. You want me to show you it now?'

He gestured out of the staff room door, and Kurt nodded. 'Sure, let's take a look.'

They walked down the hall, side by side, making aimless conversation. Kurt couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement at going back to a choir room... It wasn't quite Mckinley, but it was still going to be the starting point for so many young students, just like himself. And maybe, just maybe, he could become a part of that world again.

'Well, this is it.'

It was about double the size of the Mckinley choir room. Decorated with sparkling trophies, a beautiful piano, and an expensive looking drum kit in the corner, Kurt couldn't have felt more out of place.

Shane seemed to notice his shock. 'Oh, don't worry, it's not always so... expensive-looking... Just wait until the kids get in here, it'll dumb it right now.'

Kurt grinned at him, walking into the room a little nervously.

'It's nice,' he said, his voice slightly higher than usual. 'Real nice. The kids are really lucky.'

'Yeah,' Shane agreed. 'They are. They have a real good time in here, even though the competition's tough, but they will literally stop at nothing until they win.'

'And...,' Kurt hesitated, wondering whether he should ask, but valiantly ploughing on, '...I heard some rumours about one boy.'

Shane looked round at Kurt. 'Rumours?'

'Rumours about his... age.'

'Oh, that,' Shane shook it off. 'You gotta understand how big a deal this showchoir business is. Our school is practically running on the money we've been bringing in from it. And, well, the boy's a star. He'll go far, when he eventually gets out of here.'

'I... don't know if that's -'

'Fair?,' Shane laughed bitterly. 'The kid doesn't even care. He's been agreeing to it for years. We fail him, he stays here where he feels safe and he's okay with that. It's crazy, but hey, the guy has no common sense whatsoever.'

I shrugged, not wanting to get into a full-blown argument, especially with the guy who had just offered me to come and sit in his glee club and get a feel for it.

'I guess that's okay then,' I lied smoothly.

We left a few minutes later, and the rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully. Kurt got home and practically fell into bed, exhausted after only one day.

He couldn't stop his mind from wandering to the adult in the school, trapped in his senior year at high school, unable to escape, unaware how wonderful life can be after you've got out. He couldn't help but feel excited for the next day, when he would finally meet the infamous boy, or man, or whatever he was.

The excitement rose into his chest as he fell asleep, the all-too familiar bed sheets wrapped tightly around his body.

Sorry about the lack of drama in this chapter, I guess it was a bit of a filler. The real excitement starts in Chapter 3. Thanks for reviewing/favouriting, special thank you to Mairi for being perfect. To clarify, this story is T rated for now, but it may go up to M depending on which direction I take it, and whatever I'm comfortable with.