Wow, guys, I'm a bit overwhelmed! Thank you SO MUCH for all your reviews, favorites and alerts! I didn't expect such a huge response to this! I hope I can live up to the expectations with chapter two. ;)

BTW, in this story I picture Blaine's family situation like this: Blaine is an only child. He lives with his parents in a town a one hour drive from Lima. His mother – Elaine – works as a journalist/editor for a magazine (but no, sadly no fashion magazine). His father – Howard – is a busy lawyer.


Freedom

"Of course there will be some rules," Mr Schue shouted over the chattering of fourteen excited teenagers. "As for the song selection, there are only songs allowed by dead artists!"

"No!" Kurt whined along with some other glee club members who groaned in dismay. "Why do you have to limit our options so drastically? This means no Gaga! No Britney!" Kurt grabbed Mercedes' arm for emphasis and both of them shared a look of horror and sighed in unison, "No Whitney!"

Santana steepled her hands and with a smug smile on her lips she send a prayer to heaven, "Amy, I never loved you more!"

"Ewww, Santana, that's morbid!" Tina made a face.

"I'll honor your memory," Santana added. "I promise I'll do you proud!"

"Shit," Puck murmured next to Blaine. "This means we can't do Metallica! We can't even do the freaking Rolling Stones. They're all still alive, aren't they?"

"We can do Nirvana," Finn suggested with a shrug. "Kurt Cobain's definitely dead."

"Also, I want to see some dancing!" Mr Schue raised his voice again. "So boys, this means I don't want to see any of you with guitars. And Finn, don't get too cosy behind the drums."

Finn rolled his head back into his neck and gave a very annoyed sounding grunt.

"And to make things even more interesting, there will be a prize!" Mr Schue waited until everybody was cheering at his announcement, before adding, "The loser group takes the winner group for dinner to Breadstix!"

"Mr Schue, you do realize that that's not really a prize, do you?" Artie piped up and shoved his glasses up his nose. "It's more like a punishment for the losers."

"So the guys have to pay dinner for us? Nice!" Santana grinned wickedly and the girls laughed while the boys booed.

"Just you wait, Santana!" Sam shouted over to his ex-girlfriend.

"Who are the judges?" Rachel asked with her eyebrows sceptically raised high. "And don't say it's Mrs Pillsbury and Coach Bieste again. As much as I appreciate both of them, they're really no competent judges for a show choir performance."

"Well, after Sectionals I talked to some of the other show choir teams," Mr Schue explained, "and I came up with the idea for this and asked some of them to be our objective judges."

"You've invited our competition to watch us perform?" Rachel shrieked, clearly at the edge of outrageous. "They just accepted your request because this was the perfect opportunity TO SPY ON US!"

"Not at all, Rachel. In fact two teams were so amazed by the idea of a friendly match that they decided to compete against one another, too. So you'll get to see performances by them and you get to judge them in return. We've agreed upon a date for the performances to take place on Saturday in two weeks, so please mark that date in your calendars."

"Would you care telling us who those teams are?" Rachel asked with her arms folded in front of her chest.

"Well, I hope you're excited to hear that the Unitards and the Warblers agreed to it."

Blaine listened up and a smile spread on his face by the prospect of getting to see his Dalton friends again – and to judge their performance. Immediately he looked over at Kurt and their eyes met. Kurt was smiling back at him, apparently just as pleased by the news as he was.

"Girls! We need to discuss this," Rachel announced as excited as one Rachel Berry could get. "In private! If you don't mind, Mr Schue, we're off to brainstorming in the auditorium."

"Sure, you do that, girls."

Blaine watched the girls and Kurt leave the choir room. Kurt had his arms linked with Mercedes and they were putting their heads together, whispering to each other and giggling while they followed Rachel's lead.

Mr Schuester cleared his throat. "In fact I have an important, uhm, appointment with Mrs Pillsbury to discuss, uhm, you know, school stuff, so I'm off for now, too. I think you guys can look after yourselves for the remaining time of class?" With no more than a wave of his hand Mr Schuester hurried away and left the boys alone.

The moment the door was closed, Finn gave a drum-roll and yelled, "Freedom!"

Instantly the song by George Michael popped up in Blaine's head and without thinking about it he started singing the chorus out loud,

"I won't let you down, I will not give you up
Gotta have some faith in the sound
It's the one good thing that I've got!"

"Awesome, dude!" Finn grinned over at Blaine and continued to give the beat to the song. Blaine grinned happily back. Ever since they'd settled their difficulties – well, ever since Finn had admitted his insecurities to him – they got along surprisingly well.

But still, the moment Kurt left the room Blaine felt a bit left out and, yeah, abandoned. So Blaine did what he always did when he was feeling insecure: He burst out into song, because it was the only thing that made him feel like standing on solid ground.

"I won't let you down, so please don't give me up
Because I would really, really, really love to stick around!"

Artie, Rory and Mike applauded him and Blaine bowed to them. Then Puck grabbed one of the guitars. "The song's not finished yet, Anderson. Go on!" And with Finn on the drums and Puck – soon followed by Sam – accompanying him with guitars, Blaine launched further into the song.

"Heaven knows I was just a young boy
Didn't know what I wanted to be
I was every little hungry schoolgirls pride and joy
And I guess it was enough for me"

Mike started dancing next to him, making funny phantomimics matching to the song lines, making everyone laugh. Blaine danced across the room, hopped on a chair and walked over the line of chairs, doing what he did best, showing off in the way his teammates at the Warbler's had loved about him.

"To win the race, a prettier face, brand new clothes
And a big fat place on rock and roll TV
But today the way I play the game is not the same
No way – I think I'm gonna get myself happy"

Encouraged by the cheers of his new fellow glee clubbers Blaine put all he got into the lines. Sure enough he knew this song by heart. It was one of his favorites which he sung a lot in his bedroom in private, putting all his deepest fears and all his hope into it.

"I think there's something you should know
I think it's time I told you so
There's something deep inside of me
There's someone else I've got to be!"

It was kind of weird to sing this song in front of the boys. It felt like giving away a part of himself, but then again it was just a song and nobody knew the real meaning it held for him and how it felt like he was putting his heart on display.

"Take back your picture in a frame
Take back your singing in the rain
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man"

Suddenly his father's face popped up before his eyes. Standing in the doorway of Blaine's bedroom late at night, watching him dance and belt out this song, until Blaine noticed him standing there and froze on the spot, his heart racing, anxiously expecting some mean comment. But his father just shook his head slowly and moved on to get to the bathroom. No 'turn down the volume', no 'don't you have school tomorrow?', no 'stop behaving like a child and grow up', nothing. Just a shake of his head.

"All we have to do now is take these lies
And make them true somehow
All we have to see is that I don't belong to you
And you don't belong to me!"

Blaine caught his breath while shaking the image of his father off. He stumbled over the next few lines, but no one noticed, because all the boys were now belting out the chorus along with him.

"Freedom! Freedom!
You've gotta give for what you take!"

Blaine knew he had been living a beautiful but surreal dream at Dalton. Those walls had protected him from harm, but a part of him he had always been aware that Dalton was just an illusion of safety. Once he left the school grounds, there was no denying that the real world was a cruel, dangerous place.

"Heaven knows we sure had some fun, boy
What a kick, just a buddy and me
We were living in a fantasy"

Yes, everybody in Dalton had been his friend – because due to zero tolerance bullying policy nobody had been allowed to hate him. And although he had been close to David and Wesley, they were both on the Warbler's council and they liked him, because he had taken their group to the road of success.

"We won the race, got out of place
I went back home, got a brand new face
For the boys on Mtv"

Before Blaine had come along, no one at the Warblers had put as much passion and devotion into the act of singing and performing as he did. He had been a natural at enthusing a crowd and soon he had become their little star and he'd bathed in the fame. But that's all it was. Fame. Smoke and mirrors. A sweet, sweet fantasy.

Only when Kurt had come along, Blaine had finally woken up.

"But today the way I play the game has got to change"

And who the hell was he to preach courage to him, when he of all people had no idea what courage was? All of a sudden Blaine had realized that he had to burst the comfortable bubble he'd been living in for so long if he wanted to be strong and reliable and real for Kurt.

If he wanted to be with Kurt.

"Oh yeah, now I'm gonna get myself happy!"

"I'm gonna get myself happy," Blaine finished in a murmur to himself. After all, that's why he had transfered to McKinley. Ignoring his father's protest and disapproval, ignoring his mother's arguing over the ever increasing price of gas. Not caring about anything really. He just wanted to be happy for a change. And if he had to drive an hour to school each day for that, he didn't mind. So he had claimed his freedom and after struggling for a while his parents had let him be.

The boys hooted and shouted and made a lot of cheering noise, patting Blaine's shoulders and giving him high fives.

"Hey, can we use this song for the competition?" Finn asked excitedly, but Blaine shook his head, still trying to catch his breath. "I'm afraid George Michael is still alive."

"Shit," Finn cursed which made Blaine laugh. "Hey, no death wishes, okay? He's an awesome singer!"

Blaine looked around the room and for a moment he took everything in.

Now, if this was a Warbler's council meeting, everyone would sit down all mannered on the couches, no crinkles in their blazers, their ties neat and shoes polished. Wesley would moderate the discussion with excessive and most of the time unnecessary use of his gavel. If you wanted to make a suggestion you would have to raise your hand and wait until you were addressed by the council. Any kind of interjections were met with annoyance and if the council was pissed off by you, you would notice soon enough.

But this was no Warbler meeting and Blaine couldn't help but notice the main difference.

The New Direction boys were uncoordinated, in clear lack of discipline, apparently enjoying any kind of freestyle and just having a blast. At Dalton even impromptu performances were practised weeks in advance.

Left by themselves the New Direction boys squad immediately started goofing around. Not that the Warbler's didn't enjoy a good joke, but they were subtle in their humor.

The New Direction guys cracked up at silly stuff like Mike dry-humping the piano, just to be joined a moment later by Puck who stood behind Mike pretending to be doing it like dogs. While Sam and Rory doubled over laughing, Blaine wasn't sure whether he should laugh, too, or run and hide, or point out that they were supposed to brainstorm ideas for the girls vs boys competition.

Soon Blaine realized that they wouldn't come up with any constructive ideas today. Instead Finn completely lost himself into the play of his drums, Puck now slumped into a chair and closed his eyes to get some sleep. Mike was dancing in Michael Jackson style across the room while Rory, Artie and Sam got themselves into an argument about hot and not actresses.

And Blaine felt a little bit lost.

"The last time we did a girls versus boys, we sent Kurt to Dalton to spy on you guys," Puck suddenly said and Blaine turned around to face him.

"I guess I should thank you then," he said with a smile and sat down on the chair next to Puck. "That was the day Kurt and I met."

"He wanted to sing a Diana Ross medley," Puck continued his story, leaving no doubt in his voice that this was no good thing. "And he was freaking us out with his ridiculous outfit ideas. So the best way to get him off our backs was to send him to that gay school of yours where he'd blend in perfectly."

Hearing this Blaine was scandalized.

Of course he remembered the emotional shape Kurt was in back at that time. Being bullied by this Karofsky-guy without anyone noticing, not even his friends and fellow glee clubbers. "That's awful, Noah," Blaine said with a little shake of his head. "Didn't you even stop to think of his feelings?"

"Feelings?" Puck snickered. "He sure as hell didn't think of our feelings when he suggested we guys should wear feather boas for the gig!"

"I'm just glad Mr Schue let Kurt join the girls this time," Artie said, having overheard their conversation and wheeling next to Puckerman's chair.

"Why's that?" Blaine asked with a frown. Why didn't the boys want Kurt in their midst?

"Because he always has objections on the songs we wanna do," Artie explained with a shrug. "And his own ideas are just totally out of space. I'm sorry, but I really can't relate to anything involving exotic bird feathers."

"And you know how he is when he doesn't get what he wants," Finn added. He left his seat behind the drums and joined the circle of chairs. "He just mopes around all the time."

"But don't you think that having someone in the group with a different sight on things is of great value?" Blaine asked carefully, turning all serious on his teammates. "It would be plain boring if everyone agreed on just everything. It's much more exciting to have new ideas tossed in. I mean, we're all individuals. I can't believe that all of you have the samelikes and dislikes. So why did you use to turn Kurt's suggestions down? Don't you think this might be why he rather groups up with the girls than with you guys?"

"Look, he's always doing stuff with the girls," Finn said like it was a written law. "It's not like we kick him out or something."

"But you don't really include him either, do you?"

"It's not that we don't want Kurt around," Artie held up his hand to protest. "We're just saying that it's kind of tiresome to have him around. I mean, he's kind of constantly alienating himself. How am I supposed to connect with a guy who gets all excited about doing a Lady Gaga number and making his own costume for it?"

"Oh yeah, that was what got him into trouble with Karofsky in the first place," Finn said with a roll of his eyes. "And I never understood why he insisted in wearing that silly costume instead of just keeping his head low and not provoking trouble. And I had to go and beg Mr Schue to allow us boys to do a rock number instead of this Lady Gaga crap."

Blaine didn't say anything but he was a little bit shocked to hear Finn say so easily 'us boys' and excluding Kurt.

"I still believe he wants to be a chick himself," Puck said, smirking.

"Come on, guys," Finn said now, criticizing his friends. "You're talking about my brother here."

"You sure he's not your sister?" Puck snickered and some of the guys laughed along. Finn looked at Blaine and just shrugged apologetically.

Blaine imagined being grouped with the New Direction guys who looked down on him as a matter of principle and made stupid remarks about his outfit choices and song ideas. It dawned on Blaine just why Kurt rather stuck with the girls.

Blaine inhaled deeply and decided not to comment any further.


After glee rehearsal (or better after an hour of fooling around) Blaine hurried down the hallway to catch his boyfriend before the next couple of classes started. Of course he knew Kurt's schedule by heart. Kurt's next class was French, so he would have to go to his locker to get his textbooks. Sure enough, when Blaine turned the corner he saw his boyfriend heading towards his locker.

For a second he took in the appearance of Kurt's backside, because, boy, he had a way to move his hips in those tight jeans that made Blaine sweat just from staring...

"Hey, wait up!" Blaine quickened his pace.

Kurt gave him a flirtatious smile and a flutter of his eyelashes. "For you I'd wait a thousand years, Blaine Warbler," Kurt said with a deep rolling voice.

"Will you ever stop making Breaking Dawn references?" Blaine said with a playful annoyed sigh and bumped into Kurt's side, accidentally of course.

"Nope," Kurt answered short and sweetly, enjoying the way their arms brushed against one another.

"And you can really skip the Warbler by now. There's no more warbling for me. I'm a New Directions stud now!" Blaine swelled his chest proudly as he walked beside Kurt down the hallway.

"Really?" Kurt said and arched his eyebrows at Blaine questioningly. "But I thought they say, Once a Warbler Always a Warbler?"

For a second Blaine was taken aback. He didn't know why, but hearing Sebastian's words out of Kurt's mouth was somehow bothering him. A little nervous laugh escaped his throat. "Where have you heard that line?"

"Wesley said it to me when I left Dalton, remember?" Kurt answered and brushed the back of his hand over Blaine's arm.

"Oh right," Blaine slapped his forehead. "It's Wesley's standard line actually." How could he forget that these words were originally from Wesley? Now he couldn't help but hear Sebastian's alluring voice in his head along with these words.

"Is something wrong?" Kurt asked when they arrived at his locker.

"No, I just... Never mind," Blaine shook his head and laughed. There was really no need to mention Sebastian's name in front of Kurt.

"You know what's funny, though?" Blaine asked now and adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder. "Do you remember what you said when you tried to talk me into transfering?"

Kurt laughed that beautiful tinkling laugh of his and shot Blaine a quick look before he opened his locker. "I guess I said a lot of things to get you to finally transfer! So no, I have no clue what you're going at."

"Well, you said you didn't want us to be competitors," Blaine reminded him with a smug smile tugging at the corner's of his mouth.

"Oh, right, that!" Kurt pulled some books out of his bag to stuff them in his locker.

"You do realize that we're competitors again, my love?" Blaine said with a flirty tone in his voice as he leaned against the locker next to Kurt's.

"Not really, no," Kurt replied all confident. "It's beyond any doubt that the girls and me will beat you. And I can't wait for you to pay for me at Breadstix, baby."

"Oh no, you'll pay for me!" Blaine countered, grinning widely at his boyfriend.

"Nah, I don't think so," Kurt teased back. "The girls are very ambitious!"

"I was wondering…" Blaine said along with another nervous laugh. "Why did you join the girls anyway?"

"What do you mean?" Kurt asked, his tone careful. "Are you saying that it was odd for me to want to sing with the girls?"

Blaine shrugged awkwardly to show that he didn't mean any offense, but he wished he hadn't said anything when Kurt turned cold eyes on him.


Just so you know, today I've been named the Queen of Cliffhangers! *applause* And to do my name justice I will leave you with this ending. Ha, ha, ha! (Evil laughter echos from the walls forever more...)

OK, I hope this chapter doesn't sound like I'm dissing on the Warbler's or on Dalton! I really love those blazer-crazy boys! But in this story I imagine them to be quite fond of Blaine, but not really close friends of his.

BTW if you're into Blangst, please check out another new story called "White Blank Page" by normallyweirdm. Please find it on my favorites list! Maybe if you give her some well-deserved love, she's going to hurry up with writing chapter two. :)


Songs in this chapter:

George Michael – Freedom

Reviews are very, very, very much appreciated! :D