Later that day...
He should have known better, even if Blaine was on the football team.
Kurt sighed as he continued to wipe red ice crystals from his face, wringing out his stained washcloth in the sink before repeating the process.
At least the long haired jocks of the hockey team were bright enough to give him the color slushie that would match his stoplight color, though his shirt was now ruined beyond repair.
Yeah, he should have known better.
The upside of the situation was that he didn't have anything important going on for the rest of the day. It was sixth hour, Glee had been postponed on account of half of the members putting in extra practice for the game at the end of the week, and the girls were taking the opportunity to get manicures and pedicures. He had already excused himself from those activities to go home and prepare dinner for the family; both Burt and Carol were putting in extra hours over the next few days in order to be able to take the night of the Homecoming game and the day after off. He could just go home, take a shower, put on a soundtrack and sing along while making his famous baked ziti.
Kurt paused and looked at himself in the mirror. His face was red and splotchy from the ice hitting his face, making him look like he walked outside in a brisk winter wind. His ears were still red and slightly sticky, red rimmed around his eyes from the burning sensation that cherry caused, and his scarf and white shirt were dried to his lower neck and chest from absorbed sugar. He didn't even want to look at the red and tangled mess that was his hair.
No amount of rubbing without better soap and a waste bin for his clothes was going to get this off of his body.
A frustrated groan left his body as he threw the washcloth into the garbage. He might as well pack up his things and go home. If he left now he could avoid the awkward questions and the rage that would no doubt wreck his friends' afternoons if they knew. The girls would feel like they would need to hang out with him and provide comfort, while the boys would be out for revenge, and Kurt did not want himself to be the reason that Coach Beiste cancelled the football game.
No. He would just go home and not tell anyone what happened.
An hour later he was sitting at his vanity vigorously rubbing moisturizer into this face after a thorough shower. His discarded shirt and scarf were hanging out of his trash bin, and he wondered briefly if the hockey team would be apt to slushie him again if they knew how much losing those pieces was going to cost him. He had at least two hours before anyone returned home, and even longer before Blaine would go home, eat, shower, and call him to see if they would be doing anything for the evening. It would give him more than enough time to cook dinner and get through his homework for the night.
Once he was finished, he brought his iPhone downstairs with him and began pulling the ingredients out of the fridge and pantry to make his dish.
First, he took a fresh pound of lean hamburger and began rubbing various spices into it. Rosemary, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper, and sage. Then, he washed his hands and diced half an onion along with two fresh cloves of garlic. These he spread out evenly over the top of the meat before putting the whole concoction into a large frying pan and setting the heat to medium. While the pan began warming, he filled a large pot with water and set it on a back burner to boil. Next, he set about cutting fresh tomatoes and more spices to begin making his homemade pasta sauce. While he did occasionally use Prego or another store brand, Kurt liked making fresh sauce whenever he could to avoid all of the sodium for the benefit of his father. He left the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and set about checking the meat and status of the boiling water. He also switched the main oven to preheat for the hot dish to come and pulled out a chunk of fresh mozzarella cheese out of the fridge to shred.
Kurt liked cooking. It gave him a way to think and cope with stress in his life. At first, he took up the practice because it became apparent after the raw chicken incident that his father had not cooked a meal himself since his mother was around. As he got better and better, he tried to teach his father the things he learned, usually ending up causing one mess or another, but it gave the two something to bond over. Now, Kurt was thankful for his skills. He could provide something to the family when it seemed that he didn't contribute; Finn played football, Burt and Carol worked, and Kurt cooked.
It was better than saying to himself that he was the gay kid at home that needed to be protected.
As the meat finished cooking, Kurt began stirring in the sauce and letting it simmer. He put two boxes of noodles into the pot (Finn would be good for almost a full box on his own), and set the timer for them to cook. He finished shredding the mozzarella in between stirring the noodles and pulled a large casserole dish from the cupboard. When the noodles were done, he drained the pot and put them into the large mixing bowl. He slowly added the sauce and meat mixture, carefully stirring the noodles so that they didn't break while making sure they were all coated. The thing about pasta, especially baking it, is that it absorbs liquid like crazy. Kurt always made sure he made a little extra sauce in this situation so that when it came out, there was just enough sauce to cover the whole dish. He spread the entirety of the bowl within the pan and began feathering the cheese on top of it. Finally, he covered the dish with foil and put it in the oven, resetting the timer for another forty-five minutes.
As the dish baked, he quickly wiped the counters down, filled two pitchers with ice water and set them in the fridge to keep cool, and mixed together a salad of simple greens and a light dressing. He set out four places, keeping an extra plate and silverware on the counter (Puckerman was known to show himself for random dinners on occasion), and retired to the living room to work on his homework.
It wasn't long before he heard the puttering of Finn's truck in the driveway that signaled his brother's return home. Kurt scribbled something in his English notes before tucking the notebook in his bag for the day. Once Finn was home, there was almost always no point in working on homework because there was always something loud and distracting going on, ranging from his brother being a klutz and knocking things over to playing his Xbox 360 into all hours of the night. He returned to the kitchen, opened the oven, and gingerly checked on his dish before pulling out a loaf of bread and slicing it into large pieces.
"Hey man," Finn greeted as he kicked off his shoes in the entry. His hair was still slightly damp from showering after practice. "Man, Beiste is trying to kill us before Friday with all of the conditioning we're doing this week," he groaned. Kurt stayed silent as Finn mumbled nonsense about practice drills while reaching around in the small space to retrieve an empty glass for milk. "Dinner smells really good bro. How much longer?"
"Maybe ten minutes- Don't eat those!" Kurt cried as he shoed Finn's hands away from a package of Oreos. "They'll spoil your appetite! Go watch some T.V. until Dad and Carole get home." Kurt placed the sliced bread on a pan in the oven to warm in the remaining minutes. "Is anyone else coming for dinner?"
No one could ever accuse him of acting like a mother hen...
"No," Finn called, the sounds of ESPN already drowning the silence in the house. "Blaine told me to tell you he'd call you later. His mom called and told him he had to be home for dinner tonight."
Kurt's sigh was inaudible from the living room as he finished the final preparations on dinner.
When did his life become so boring?
Soft music played from his iPhone as Kurt splayed across his bed. After dinner, Finn had logged onto his game machine and began playing matches with some of the other guys on the football team. He had invested in this big headset that made it impossible for him to even watch him play because it routed the sounds of everything he was doing into his ears. The idea was for the benefit of Burt, who nearly had a second heart attack at hearing the explosions on Call of Duty in the middle of the night, but it also served to help Finn block himself off from the rest of the world, with the exception of when things weren't going his way...
"SHIT! Dudes, that guy is totally camping! Dammit dammit dammit I just lost my attack helicopter because of this douche bag!"
Yeah. Noises like that. Kurt would have rather have listened to the game.
The girls had invited him out for dinner and coffee, but he hadn't felt the energy to join them after today. The fact that he had already cooked dinner provided the perfect excuse.
Burt and Carole left for a school PTA meeting, no doubt being scared by Principal Figgins about the dangers of underage consumption and sex going into Homecoming. They were planning to follow it up with an impromptu date night at the movie theater.
Blaine sill hadn't called him.
"You make me, feel like I'm..."
Speak of the devil.
Kurt smiled as he picked up his phone, swiping his thumb across the answer button. "Hey."
"Hello beautiful," Kurt could practically hear Blaine smiling on the other end. "I missed you today after school. Did you leave early or something?"
Crap. He forgot in his haste to go home and clean off the stickiness that he usually met Blaine at his locker before he went to practice.
"Oh," he said, trying quickly to think of an excuse. "I thought I heard Finn say something about you guys starting early? I figured you wouldn't be able to meet and the girls were leaving for the nail salon so I just came home," Kurt shrugged to himself. The action was completely unnecessary, making it for his own benefit in getting the lie through. "I must have misunderstood; sorry I missed you."
"Nah it's fine. Coach Beiste does have us starting early just about every day this week, but I should still have a couple minutes every day to meet before we have to get to the field."
"Alright. I heard that she's trying to run you in circles until you all fall down."
"Something like that," Blaine chuckled. "I can say that my legs have not been this sore since hell week during tryouts."
"I can help you with that. Want to come over? Finn's lost in cyber-violence and Dad and Carole are out until at least ten. We can just relax and pop in a movie?" Kurt smiled brightly at the prospect of filling his night with quality boyfriend time.
"I would love to babe, but I'm swimming in homework right now. I never finished the science lab on Friday and I need to get the report done so I can turn it in tomorrow."
"Procrastinator."
"Your fault."
"How is it my fault?"
"You know exactly what happened that caused me to not finish it last Friday."
Kurt could feel his Adam's apple bobbing. He certainly knew what activities took place that afternoon... "I-I resent the implication. I am nothing but a morally upstanding boyfriend," he tried to sound smug and condescending, he really did.
His voice wavering at the thought of the afternoon in his bed probably gave him away.
Damn hormones.
"Besides," Blaine continued. "We should probably try and work ahead a little bit so we can enjoy the bonfire tomorrow, not to mention this weekend with the dance and everything."
"Honey, this isn't Dalton. I guarantee you're putting more work into these assignments than most other students do in a full year of school."
"I can't help it. It's not like I can just turn a switch off on my study habits."
"Well you can... If Friday was any indication."
Wow. He could hear Blaine's throat constricting through the line. Kurt knew exactly where his boyfriend's thoughts were in that moment.
Both boys let the silence ring for a few moments before one of them cleared their throat.
"So, tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow. I'll bring coffee."
"You always do."
"I love you, Kurt."
"Love you. Night."
So, I've decided I do want to make this story go the full week of Homecoming. I'm not sure exactly where I want to end it yet, but I've got some solid ideas forming. I'll try to update as much as I can, but let's just say that my July is not without multiple out-of-state trips for family functions, and nothing is worse than being stuck in the middle of ND with no freaking internet for miles around. Happy to see the family, but will be really cut off from the world for a while.
I really really need help from all of my readers though. I only had one review last chapter, and I asked that people (if willing) would tell me some of the things that you did during your school's spirit week. Special dress up days, traditions, etc. Right now I'm basing everything off of my high school experience, and my student council was lame enough to decide "dress up day" was a good idea. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a review with hopefully some good criticism of my work, but also what you did. It really helps to keep the ideas going and to flesh out so that Kurt and Blaine have a full high school experience.
Thank you to the review who helped last chapter. I liked that your school got so into it during those last days, and even the middle school. I bet it makes kids really excited to finally go to the high school and be part of the bigger action, you know?
Thanks for reading and I really look forward to hearing from people!
Snow