Chapter 2:
A/N: ok so to everyone who has put this story or me on alert – I LOVE YOU! Thanks so much to all the comments as well, they have been really nice.
Also to ILLK, again I'm sorry the info isn't all accurate, but I live in Australia, I only assumed the bus systems were similar – if it really bothers you that much– don't read the story, it's only a petty detail!
Also I don't know if American schools even have orientations, or what courses, or what the college set up is, for their uni's, but I know about ones in Australia and I can't find any info on what happens in New York, so I'm just going to make it up– so sue me ha ha
Still don't own Glee…dammit!
Kurt was shaken out of his day dream, that may or may not have been about Blaine, as everyone on the bus started to push and pull each other off, only a few of the business-clad people remaining. Blaine was the last person to get off as he struggled down the aisle. His guitar case kept bumping into the poles and getting caught on other people's clothing, so Blaine ducked into a seat about halfway down the bus and waited for everyone else to get off.
Meanwhile, Kurt was stuck behind a very, very fat man and was consequently was lagging behind him, unable to move off the bus very quickly. Kurt being the ordered he man he is, was worrying as he looked at his watch, it was seven minutes to 9 am, the orientation for his first class began at ten past. Kurt, forgetting all about Blaine in that moment, as he was looking down at his map trying to figure out the fastest way to get the College Lawn that was named as the meeting point for the orientation.
As Kurt turned to walk out of the large doors, giving a nod of thanks to the bus driver, he heard a large bang and the twang of guitar strings behind him.
Kurt turned around and saw Blaine Anderson kneeling down on the floor. Papers strewn across the dirty bus from an open bag, and a worn in guitar sliding down the bus' aisle. He had obviously fallen and instinctively he knelt down as well, and picked up the guitar which had stopped its journey right in front of his shoes. Kurt saw that two of the metal strings on the guitar had been broken and as he handed the guitar back to the smaller boy, Blaine muttered a hushed "Fuck, shit, crap-dammit…I just bought new strings"
Kurt was a little taken aback by the sudden use several profanities, as he didn't often use those kinds of words. Blaine was still surveying his damaged guitar, a look of pure distraught on his face – you could tell he loved this instrument. Kurt suddenly felt awkward, like he was intruding on something, as Blaine hadn't said anything to him, let alone acknowledged he even existed. So Kurt muttered something incoherent and stumbled to his feet and started to walk quickly out of the door.
Until he heard a loud "Hey, where are you going?" Kurt turned around so quickly the bus spun a little.
Blaine was still holding his guitar, but was looking at Kurt straight in the eyes as soon as Kurt faced him. Blaine looked as though he was about to say something, but was mesmerised by Kurt's vibrant blue eyes, he promptly shook himself out of it and said brightly "I didn't even get to say thank you…I was kind of distracted by my guitar. I mean I just bought new strings for the move to New York and now they're broken, and I'm broke as fuck, so I can't buy new ones…this sucks! Sorry I'm rambling…" he finished quickly.
Kurt was a little taken aback by the sudden burst of energy from this small man and stuttered out a broken "Oh, it's fine; I mean you just fell…and…you know your stuff…sorry about…you know…your guitar and everything". Dear Gaga, Kurt thought to himself, why did this man make him so impossibly inarticulate!
Blaine had now finished cleaning up his papers that he was trying unsuccessfully to shove violently into his bag. Kurt sighed and bent down, grabbed the papers from Blaine's hands and shuffled them into a neat pile and slotted them in the bag behind some sheet music that looked handwritten and some orientation booklets that were sent to Kurt in the mail also.
"Oh, thanks…um…" Blaine said quietly, obviously looking for Kurt's name.
"Kurt, my name's Kurt Hummel, and you are?" said Kurt, pretending that he wasn't practically stalking Blaine before when he was writing his name on the window.
"Uh, Blaine Anderson." Blaine said, while getting up with his backpack slung over one shoulder and taking a last distressed look at his guitar before putting it in its case and carrying it by his side.
The conversation stopped here, and both of them could feel it getting more awkward by the second.
They both started talking at the same time, muttering excuses about how it was only two minutes until orientation and stammering thankyous. Both boys took steps towards the door at the same time and Blaine's guitar got lodged in a cavity near the driver's seat.
"Jesus Christ you two, just get off my bus, I have other places to go!" the driver practically screamed at them, as Kurt and Blaine didn't realise that he was giving them dirty looks for the past five minutes and willing them to get off.
Kurt was now looking in awe at the large buildings with impossible amounts of windows that stood in front of him. Students were milling around him, frantically scurrying to their orientation group. Kurt reluctantly threw himself out of his reverie as he looked at his watch and saw he was already three minutes late, and he had absolutely no idea where he was going.
He walked quickly down a slim walkway and after about ten steps he found himself striding out into a wall of green. There were trees, weeping willows, big oaks, walls covered in climbing vines, the most vibrantly coloured grass Kurt had ever seen. Small pathways snaked through the large patches of grass, tiny wild flowers poking through the luscious ground, all the students were sitting on the grass or on benches in large groups.
Kurt glanced down at the orientation papers he held in his trembling hands, he wasn't going to lie, he was nervous as hell. It was a new city, new school, new people – because really the only two people he even just knew the name of were his roommate and this guy Blaine.
Kurt's eyes scanned the document and saw he was supposed to meet his orientation group to the right of the fountain in the far left corner of the grassed area. The orientation group was an assortment of people, collaborated on the basis of similar classes they took, so Kurt though he might be able to meet at least one friend from this group.
The tall boy didn't have a specific major, but he took three classes, Musical Theatre, Theatre Costume Design and Playwriting. Kurt definitely knew he wanted to work in musical theatre, most of all Broadway, so with these three courses he thought he would be well equipped to tackle any aspect of it was to come his way.
He used big strides to quickly reach his group and found them, a little breathless he practically panted out "I'm so sorry I'm late…is this orientation group 12?."
"Yeh, you're Kurt Hummel right." As Kurt nodded frantically, the older boy continued. "So, I'm Jaden, I'm going to be kind of your mentor, I guess, around campus, I'm a senior majoring in Musical Theatre. I'm finishing at the end of this semester, so I'll only be here a little while before I leave, but don't miss me too much." He finished with a friendly wink.
Kurt smiled at the boy who had green tinted, blue eyes, short, straight brown hair and was wearing a tight, vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt with an open dark blue and black plaid shirt over the top, paired with a pair of baggy, light coloured jeans and worn in converse. Kurt continued to look round the circle, there was about eighteen other people the majority were guys and Kurt could already tell about four of them were gay. He recognised one of them off of the bus.
The rest of the freshman's looked utterly bored, as it seemed they had already gotten this information, and Kurt felt a little bad, so he sat down instantly in the nearest open space in the circle he could find.
He felt a nudge on his shoulder, as the boy next to him gave him a welcoming smile and held out a tanned hand "Hey Kurt, I'm Nolan, don't worry about coming late. I only came about thirty seconds before you did…so I'm guessing this might be third time that everyone else has heard that little speech." Nolan gave a short and husky laugh, after his whispered introduction, as he didn't want Jaden to hear them.
Kurt took Nolan's hand; it was warm and soft. Kurt looked up at Nolan; he had impossibly dark blue eyes and a slightly crooked smile, straight jaw and messy, wavy brown hair with natural blonde sun streaks. He wore a loose V-neck, white t-shirt with a washed out denim jacket. He also wore Nike Airs with dark grey skinny jeans. He was fashion forward, but extremely straight, Kurt's gay-dar could tell.
"Hello" Kurt smiled back, "I'm actually very glad to hear you say that, I was worried I was too late. There was an incident on the bus with this guy, and then this place is so huge, it took me a while to even find the lawn." Kurt said with a small laugh, they turned their attention back to Jaden, as he was starting to talk awfully animatedly flailing his limbs everywhere.
About a half hour later, Kurt and Nolan were walking through to the other side of the College Lawn, through to where Jaden had directed them to where the cafeteria was. The conversation flowed easily, and both parties felt like they were making a really good friend out of this.
Kurt found out about Nolan's past, he came from Boston, he had two sisters, his parents were divorced and he moved to New York the second he got accepted into college.
"I hated my home life; it was too busy, too crazy. I like it better out here, where all the busyness is outside in the streets instead of inside of your house." Nolan's voice was mixed with exasperation and relief. "Oh jeez, I can't believe this..." Nolan said with a groan.
"What is it?" Kurt said, with a confused expression on his face.
"I do this all the time, like I've known you for what, forty five minutes at the most and I'm already talking about my home life with you!" Nolan's head hung a little; obviously he did do this a lot, though Kurt.
"Hey, no, it's okay. It's interesting, I mean bad, but not that I don't like listening to it." Kurt said with a smile on his face.
Nolan smiled and blushed a little. "I'm glad; people often find it a bit daunting." He said with another short, husky laugh.
They had now gotten to the front of the queue at the cafeteria and Kurt ordered a Caesar salad and some Minute Maid apple juice and Nolan ordered a Veggie Burger and a can of diet coke. They took their meals and went and found a table in the far right hand side of the cafeteria dining room, which was fairly large, half outdoors and the other underneath a vine covered wooden frame, which left little beams of sunlight drifting through the leaves.
"So", Kurt said, "A guy like you must have a girlfriend, you're quite a catch."
Nolan's cheeks reddened lightly, "Yeh, I do actually, I met her when I came to New York about two months ago. Her name's Lauren, she's so amazing. She goes to Juilliard, in the Dance Division, a junior this year and she's been showing me round New York a bit –and when she dances she's so happy and personally, I'm not objecting to the tight leotards." Nolan nearly doubled over in laughter at his own joke.
Kurt punched Nolan lightly in the shoulder and said "Oh my gosh, you're such a boy!"
Nolan and Kurt continued to talk to each other for nearly two hours. Kurt thought to himself as they were saying goodbye, I'm really glad I made a friend already, and he seems so amazingly nice. They found out that they were both in Musical Theatre and Playwriting together and Nolan also took Theatre Directing. So, they would be seeing each other the next day when classes started, Playwriting was first and Kurt was very excited, and he should have been considering who else was going to be in the class.