Chapter 3
A/N Thanks so much for the alerts and reviews. It is amazing to think that people are actually reading my ramblings. Please do keep reviewing so that I know how you think it is going.
"Disney songs… really?" Jack crowed scrolling through Blaine's Ipod.
It had been about a week since Jack had first agreed to come out of his room. They had set up a temporary ritual where Jack would spend the mornings that he was meant to be in class in Blaine's office. The teachers in the in-house education part of the residential had started sending up school assignments for Jack to do but mostly he would lounge on Blaine's couch, messing with his guitar and snarking about whatever came to mind.
Blaine rolled his eyes at the dig about his music preferences. "One day, little boy, you will understand the genius that is Disney."
"Little boy?" Jack groaned with a big smile on his face. "Loser, my seven year old sister loves Disney – you are meant to grow out of it you know."
"Well, consider it an ode to my inner seven year old girl then."
"You are a FREAK!" Jack stated delightedly.
Blaine realized that he had never heard Jack mention his sister before. He knew that Jack had a younger sister and brother, it was on his files, but Jack never mentioned home even in passing. Blaine filed this information away for use on another day.
"So Jack, let's talk about school."
"No". The atmosphere in the room shifted dramatically.
Blaine turned fully around in his chair and looked at Jack. Jack stared back at him with a determined look on his face, his guitar over his belly protectively, body rigid waiting for Blaine's next move.
He took a beat to think about his next words. "Can we just talk about options? I am not going to ask you to do anything today."
Jack just looked at him from hooded eyes. His light brown fringe had fallen over his face and he was currently using it as a shield to hide behind.
"I am not going to your stupid school," he said sharply.
"OK, I just want you to know what the options are." Blaine paused but felt it best to continue. "As you know we have educational facilities in the home and the teachers here will be able to tutor you easily to help you catch up on the school work you have missed …"
"I AM NOT GOING TO YOUR STUPID SCHOOL," Jack ground out slowly in a raised voice, with as much venom and force as he could put behind each word.
He suddenly sat bolt upright on the sofa and Blaine sensed that the guitar in his hand had become a viable weapon rather than his safety blanket. Blaine felt his heart rate speed up but kept his face carefully schooled and made sure to keep very still.
"Why Jack?"
"Because I am not. You can NOT force me." Jack voice was lower and he was hunched over on himself but the tension in his muscles suggested he could spring at Blaine at any time. Blaine struggled hard not to break eye contact but wondered where his radio was in case he needed it.
"OK. What about the local high school? It would be harder to catch up and I worry you would get lost in the crowd but…"
Jack's face drained of all color and he looked like he was going to be sick. He curled his whole upper body over his guitar and hid his face from Blaine.
Blaine allowed the silence to gather around them until he heard a sob coming from the boy. He could see Jack's back shaking as the boy struggled to hold himself together.
Blaine desperately wanted to move to the couch to comfort Jack but he was not sure how the boy would react to that. Instead he pushed a box of tissues across the floor and decided to wait him out.
"Please don't make me go to school." Jack's voice was pitiful and he sounded so young. Blaine was reminded of his sister's five year old son, whimpering in bed after a nightmare. His heart started to ache for Jack.
"Buddy, you are a smart kid. I would not be looking out for you if I allowed you to screw up your life by quitting school now."
Jack looked up at him, tears streaming down his face. "Look I'll do anything. I'll come here every day. I'll do all the work the teachers send up. I'll work in my room. I'll write the best essays and I'll get all my homework correct. Just please, don't make me go to school."
Blaine took a deep breath and tried to swallow the cold stone that had settled in his stomach. The kid looked as though he was pleading for his life.
"Help me understand Jack. What happened?"
Jack stared at him mutely and then lowered his head. Suddenly he jumped up and yanked the door open, charging out of the room, running as fast as he could. Blaine took off after him but slowed when he saw Jack open the door to the second floor dorms. By the time he had walked on to the floor he saw the door to room 21 slammed shut.
Blaine radioed for a counselor and asked them to just sit in the hallway to make sure that Jack was OK. He had a phone call to make.
Two hours later, Blaine was not feeling any better. He had tracked down the teacher, Mr. Gibbs who had left the handwritten note in Jack's file. The man had reminded Blaine of Mr. Schuester, a caring guy who had tried a lot, but felt that he had failed to keep a favorite student of his safe. They had talked for about an hour.
Mr. Gibbs described Jack in his freshman year as a stand out student. He worked hard on his studies and showed a natural aptitude in music and dramatics. His literature work was also top notch. He seemed to get on well socially and had a solid group of friends within the theatre group. He seemed happy.
Then towards the end of his freshman year a rumor circulated the school that Jack had tried to kiss a varsity jock named Trent. Mr. Gibbs said that things had gone south very quickly. He did not know many of the details as most of what took place happened outside of the teacher's influence.
Jack started showing up to school with bruises and constantly seemed to be harassed. There was a rumor of a YouTube campaign against him – something about a set up "Punk'd" style that the kids seemed very excited about. Jack just appeared to withdraw in on himself.
Mr. Gibbs said that after the summer he had been shocked by Jack's appearance. He had lost a lot of weight and his spark appeared to have died. He no longer signed up for the music or drama projects and had actually screamed at Mr. Gibbs to leave him alone when he encouraged him to participate.
Mr. Gibbs said that he had pulled Jack in to his room a few times to talk but Jack would not say anything or would insist that he was fine and that the bullying had stopped. Mr. Gibbs said that the bruises did seem to vanish and he did not see him getting as much hassle in the halls but this did not stop him worrying about the kid. Jack's attendance at school had dropped dramatically and he was cutting a lot of classes. His grades were also disastrous.
Then one day in May a girl came in to his office and said that she had seen Jack in one of the girls' bathrooms crying. She said that she also thought he had been sick. Mr. Gibbs had gone to find him immediately but Jack had not been on the school premises any more. He found a kid who had been a freshman friend and asked for Jack's cell number only to be told that Jack had stopped carrying a phone a few months before. Mr. Gibbs reported the boy missing to the police and his father and then heard nothing about him for three months until Trevor's House called for information.
Blaine asked about the boy's family. Mr. Gibbs' tone changed. He became increasingly irate as he described the lack of attention that Jack's father appeared to show. This had not always been the case, he reported. During Jack's freshman year his father had appeared at all the parent teacher conferences and seemed proud of Jack's accomplishments in the Christmas and Spring music revues.
In the summer when the bullying began, his father had been on the phone frequently. He had also stormed the head's office a few times demanding to know what they were going to do to stop the bruises. However when Jack returned for his sophomore year, it was as though his father had vanished. He never returned Mr. Gibbs' phone calls and seemed totally disengaged. When Mr. Gibbs called him to say that Jack was missing, his father expressed some initial concern and then thanked him for the information and finally said something about Jack making his own choices.
The disgust in Mr. Gibbs voice was clear. Blaine asked about his mother and Mr. Gibbs confirmed the file report that she had died of cancer when Jack was twelve. He said that Jack had never really spoken about any other family members and no one else stepped forward as an interested party when Jack seemed to struggle in school.
Blaine sat staring at his computer. He was not achieving anything today. The details were sketchy but the picture of Jack's last few years was frightening. He kept flashing to different memories of Karofsky and Kurt. He had always admired Kurt's bravery in standing up to Karofsky and returning to McKinley from Dalton so that he wouldn't be seen to be running away.
Blaine thought back to his own bullying in middle school and high school and the group beat down that he got when some boys found a George Michael CD in his backpack. The broken wrist that he had sustained in that attack had been the impetus that sparked his parents' decision to move him to Dalton.
He could still remember the sick feeling in his stomach when the jeering would start. The shouts down the corridor and the new insults being thrown around as his tormentors would follow him out of the school. He could still feel the adrenaline from the mad dash across the car park and the sprint for home which sometimes he would reach safely and sometimes he wouldn't. He remembered clearly trying to explain away different marks, bruises and black eyes to his parents as soccer injuries. But his sister, Laney, would know the truth, she always did and she would track him down after dinner and make him tell her what was going on. Then she would hold him while he cried. He would never forget that total feeling of helplessness. It was the same feeling that Kurt reflected to him after the fateful spying trip to Dalton.
His memories did not halt in high school. Later in college, in junior year, he had decided to run for president of the LGBTQ society at the same time as Kurt ran for vice-president for Arts and Culture in Student Government. Neither of them had been expecting the shit-storm that came their way. By and large, they had been well tolerated as an out gay couple in the student dorms and so it had never occurred to them that the politics of student government campaigns could get so nasty. Suddenly all types of hate campaign material started flying around, including slanderous accusations of infidelity, deeply unpleasant insinuations about their sexual preferences and off-campus activities, and finally bags of dog shit and eggs were thrown against their door.
Looking back, Blaine felt that the stress of that year marked the beginning of the end of their relationship. Mark soon appeared as a regular fixture in Kurt's life and Blaine felt the strands of their love begin to disintegrate one piece at a time.
After radioing down to the second floor to confirm that Jack was OK but still requesting to be left alone, Blaine contemplated the work on his desktop. He resisted the urge to google Kurt for the thousandth time. He knew it was never a healthy sign when he started to cyberstalk his ex. Instead he gathered his things and decided to call it quits early today. He hoped a date with a swimming pool might help him to process the difficult day that he had just had.
A/N: Sorry this story is turning quite angsty. I am realising that Jack's issues are going to be pretty massive. If you aren't up for reading about pretty serious trauma including mention of previous sexual assault (nothing explicit), I totally understand if you stop reading now.
On a better note Kurt will appear in the next chapter I think… and in my head there will be some great fluffy times coming down the pike. I just feel these characters have a lot more going on than I originally realized.
