Blaine walked with Kurt to his locker before first period, where Rachel found them.
"Blaine you have to be my lab partner today. Jacob Ben Israel's been hassling me asking why I never partner up with him."
Blaine nodded sympathetically. "Sure, Rachel. I don't know anyone else in that class real well anyway. Honestly getting to hang out with you is about the only thing I like about that class."
"AW, you're the best." Rachel hugged Blaine. "Hey, what was your answer for that last part on the homework last night? I spent like a half hour on it and finally gave up."
"Uh—I d-don't remember exactly, but probably if you didn't get it no one did." Blaine hedged.
"Well we should at least compare answers so—"
"Don't forget to meet me by the gym after school today, Blaine." Kurt interrupted.
"Right." Blaine smiled, relieved for the disruption. "No Glee this afternoon, I'll remember. And we can go back to my place and study for history after." Blaine offered.
Kurt smiled. "Can't wait. Gotta run, I can't be late for French."
Blaine and Rachel waved goodbye to Kurt and headed towards class. Rachel started rambling on about something Finn had said to her on the phone the night before and didn't Blaine think that was romantic? But Blaine was only half-listening. He hoped the teacher wouldn't make a deal of him not having his homework.
Rachel grabbed Blaine's arm as soon as they entered the class, pulling him to a table as far from Jacob Ben Israel as she could.
"Everyone settle down!" Mr. Erickson was saying. "We have a lot to do today. Take out your homework packet and exchange it with a partner. We'll go over the answers and they'll correct it and then you can use it to study for the test at the end of the week."
Blaine bit his lip. Fuck. He watched as Rachel slid her homework over to him and blinked, feeling her look on expectantly.
Slowly, Blaine opened his bag, making a show of rummaging through his notebooks.
"Uh… Rach—I think I left mine at home." he whispered.
"What?"
"It's gotta be sitting on my kitchen counter right now. I can't believe I—"
"Is there a problem over there?" Mr. Erickson asked, annoyed that students were talking.
Blaine looked up, his face feeling hot.
"Uh, Mr. Erickson sir, I must have forgotten my packet at home. I totally did it, spent like an hour on it yesterday- it's just—"
"Then you can take a zero for the assignment." Mr. Erickson replied curtly. "If you bring it in tomorrow I can average the grades but that's all I can do."
Blaine's face fell. So even if he got a 100 on the homework he'd still have an F? How was that fair?
"That sucks." Rachel whispered to Blaine.
Blaine shrugged, not looking at her. Not the best way to start the day.
"Everyone look at number one on the packet…" Mr. Erickson said.
Rachel caught up with Kurt in the cafeteria later so she could tell him in excruciating detail about Finn and how romantic he was being lately, to Kurt's general annoyance.
"I was just going to invite you over for dinner with us tonight but if you and Finn are going to be all lovey-dovey I'm not sure…" Kurt teased.
Rachel grinned. "We're so young to have already found our soulmates, Kurt." She said dramatically. "Wait I thought you were studying for history with Blaine after school today."
"We are. I meant after. But we're both doing fine in history anyway, it's mostly an excuse for some together time."
"Well he does need a pick me up. I felt so bad for Blaine today in Physics, oh my god."
"Ouch, he hates that class, what happened now?"
"He totally did his homework but he forgot it on his kitchen table or something. And the teacher made us all switch packets so he basically got called out for not having his homework in front of the whole class."
Kurt raised an eyebrow. "He didn't have it?"
"Poor guy, he went through like his entire briefcase looking for it."
"Huh." Kurt nodded, his expression unreadable as Rachel returned to talking about herself. He chewed on his pasta, wondering what he should do with this information.