On the way down to Lakeview, Blaine explained that this was one of his parents' vacation homes, which they used during the summer. During the school year, when Blaine was at Dalton, they generally rented it out for a month or two at a time.

When they got there, Blaine gave Kurt a quick tour. Kurt saw that the Andersons' summer home was a little bit larger than his home. His house was also missing a couple of the amenities this house sported, like an in-ground pool, a hot tub, and a 20-foot boat tied up on its own private dock. Then again, Kurt realized, most of the house was missing the personal touches of Blaine's dorm room at Dalton, and Blaine's bedroom in Westerville.

When Kurt asked about that, Blaine pointed out that the Andersons didn't spend a lot of time there. "Four weeks a year, max. It just didn't seem to make much sense to keep a lot of personal stuff here. Mostly, it's just furniture."

"Well, at least you have a computer and TV here."

"My dad is a vice-president of a big company. Sometimes he needs to keep up with the news or take care of business quickly. My mom tried to convince him not to put WiFi here, but that was a losing battle."

So it was no surprise that Kurt and Blaine found Blaine's dad in the home office using his laptop. "Just checking the stock markets in Asia," explained Blaine's dad. "Oh, hey, Kurt," he added when he finally looked up from the computer and noticed Blaine wasn't alone. "You two can sleep in if you want. Blaine, your mother and I are taking the boat out for a spin in the morning."

"Oh, OK." Blaine looked a tad, well, green at that.

Blaine's dad laughed. "Ah, Kurt, did you know that Blaine gets awful seasickness?"

"No, I didn't, but it never occurred to me to ask, either." The corners of Kurt's lips edged upward a bit.

"Yeah, when he was twelve, we took him out along with his grandfather. He—"

"Thanks, Dad," sighed Blaine. "Now before you embarrass me further, I think Kurt and I will turn in."

"I can take a hint." Blaine's dad chuckled. "G'night, Blaine. G'night, Kurt."

When Blaine and Kurt headed to Blaine's sparsely-furnished bedroom, Kurt found it just as sterile as the rest of the house, except for the pile of CDs near the small black stereo on the nightstand. Kurt confessed, "Don't worry about that, Blaine. I get seasick, too. So I'm guessing there's no boat rides in our future. Dancing, yes; boating, no."

Monday morning, in Westerville . . .

Jeff pulled into Nick's driveway at half past eight in the morning, and pulled out his cell phone. Rather than knock on the front door, Jeff called Nick's cell phone.

Nick picked up on the third ring; he walked over to the window of his bedroom and waved as he said, "Good morning, Jeff. I'll be down in a minute. Let me just grab a couple of things." When he got down to Jeff's car, Jeff handed him a cup of coffee.

"You really like the uniform, don't you, Nick?"

Nick looked down and realizing he was wearing a navy T-shirt with a red collar and gray khaki shorts. "Hey, they were on sale." Then, doing his best sultry Blaine impression, added "And you know you love the blazer."

"I knew you were going to say that. Maybe I should just leave you here."

"And then who would you talk to on the drive to Lima?"

"Good point." Jeff started up the car, as Nick turned on the radio. It would figure that they'd be playing "Teenage Dream," thought Jeff. It'd be a lot easier to sing along with Katy if we didn't have to transpose this down for Blaine. . . . But, hey, no Blaine here, so I can sing the melody! After a few seconds, both boys were singing along with Katy (down a couple of octaves, of course).

A couple of hours later, in Lakeview . . .

Blaine lay panting on his bed, while Kurt stood above him. "Don't blame me, Blaine. This is entirely your doing."

"Yeah, I know, I know. But could you give me a hand here? I feel . . . indecent."

"Oh, Gaga, stop. It's not like you're naked or anything. . . ." Not that I'd mind if you were. . . .

"Haha. Very funny."

"Well, really, think about it for a second. You're the one who asked for these costumes. You should have thought about where everything was going to go."

"OK, so tell me, Kurt. Is there a 'glamorous' way to put on a leotard?"

Kurt blushed a little bit. "Sadly, no. But, seriously, did you think a shirt would stay in place like that?"

"It looked like a shirt to me. If I had known, I'd have asked the wardrobe for something a little bit different, OK? Now help me get into this thing."

Kurt smiled. Blaine had been trying for ten minutes to get the leotard on. Right now, it was halfway up his chest, but neither of his arms were in the sleeves. "It's called practice, Blaine. Do it a dozen times or so, and it'll get easier. But for now, I'll help you." It took another five minutes of Kurt standing over the Warbler, prodding and pulling. Blaine was thankful that his parents were on the boat, and that there was no around to take pictures of this.

In Lima . . .

Jeff pulled into Wes's driveway just as Wes and David were coming down the stairs of Wes's house. Luckily for Jeff, neither Wes nor David were wearing anything resembling the Dalton uniform. Then again, none of them make it work like Nick does. . . .

They all agreed to take Wes's car, as it was the more comfortable one. It meant a longer drive home for Nick and Jeff, but neither of them really minded. A few minutes after they left Lima, Nick started fishing in his pocket for something. Jeff noticed, but said nothing.

David noticed, but couldn't keep silent. "Dude, what are you doing?"

Just as David finished, Nick found what he was looking for, and pulled it out. It was a small device shaped like a pen. "Aha! This, gentlemen, is a miniature audio recorder with enough memory to record two hours of conversation. Who knows, maybe we'll need it."

"Nice," said David. "Where did you get this?"

"It was a gift from one of my uncles. He's really into these spy gadgets." Yeah, like the tie clip that has a built-in spy camera. . . . Maybe I should have brought that with me . . . then again, maybe I should just keep that little factoid to myself.

In Lakeview . . .

"Seriously? Brittany taught you this?"

"She's no Einstein, but the girl can dance. And so can her cousin Heather. Apparently, a couple of years ago Heather was a backup dancer for Beyoncé. She taught Britt, and Britt taught me and Tina. I taught the team. . . . and you know the rest."

"Yeah, I do." I'm glad the Wardrobe put nametags on these, or Kurt might have figured out my little surprise. . . . Shame I'll have to take it back to the Wardrobe tonight, though. "So how does this part go again?"

"It's not that hard. You put your hands on your hips like this . . ." Kurt couldn't resist reaching out and grabbing Blaine's hands, and putting them in the right spot. "Then you lift your right leg like you're about to hop, but then instead of hopping, you just kick it out . . . like this," Kurt added as he demonstrated the move. "See? Easy."

"Yeah, it'd be easier if I wasn't wearing these skinny jeans. But here goes nothing." Blaine's first attempt was a disaster, as he ended up on his butt, and nearly tripped Kurt on top of him. Kurt started laughing as he extended a hand to the floor. Blaine, just a smidge angry at Kurt laughing at him, decided to pull Kurt down to the ground instead . . . but then realized it really was funny, and decided to kiss Kurt instead.

It took a couple more tries, but Blaine finally got the hang of it. . . . at least for someone who wasn't as limber as Kurt.

Outside Blaine's house . . .

Wes, David, Jeff, and Nick all piled out of Wes' car. As they went around back to see if Blaine was enjoying the fine weather, they saw that the boat was gone, so they knew the Andersons were out on the lake. But when they got to the back door, they could hear strains of Beyoncé's "Single Ladies," so they knew that someone was in the house.

Nick was closest to the door, so he knocked on it. When no one came, he knocked a bit harder, to no avail. It took him a minute, but he put two and two together. "Our favorite countertenor must be up there with our favorite hobbit." He tried the door, and was surprised to find it open. He put his finger to his lips, and waved the other Warblers inside.

In Blaine's bedroom . . .

"And that's how you do the hip shake. Now you try it. One, two, three, four, go!" Blaine did, and fared much better his first time than he did with the kick. Yeah, but this doesn't require actually moving my legs that much. "Yeah, that's it, Blaine. You got it!"

After a few seconds Kurt joined in. Beyoncé was loud enough that the boys couldn't hear the Warblers coming down the hallway. . . . until they heard Jeff's voice at the doorway.

"Hey, Blaine, what's—what . . . the . . ."

Two Warblers and one ex-Warbler simultaneously went beet red. Jeff and Nick started fishing for their cell phones to snap pictures. "Blaine—Door—NOW!" Kurt said, causing Blaine to slam the door shut as Kurt brought a chair over to barricade it.

Author's note: There really is a Lakeview, Ohio, between Lima and Westerville. I claim no resemblance between that Lakeview and the one depicted here.

And, for what it's worth, singing along to Katy Perry's version of "Teenage Dream" is hard for me, because I keep wanting to sing it in the Glee version's key.