A/N- This challenge both amused and confused me. Then gave me the perfect idea for a story! Woohoo! This 50 word challenge (OMG I ACTUALLY MADE IT TO 25 CHAPTERS WHY THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE LIKE ME SO MUCH) is for catfishii, who sent in: adept (expert) adverse (unfavorable in effect) affect (to act on; to produce an effect) agoraphobia (fear of being in open areas) ambiguous (open to several meanings; unclear) ambivalent (feeling of uncertainty, usually caused by the inability to make a choice) arcane (mysterious) asinine (stupid; foolish) averse (strong feelings of opposition) banal (lacking freshness) bowdlerize (to removed parts of a written work deemed vulgar/objectionable) cat (meow) chauvinist (someone with biased devotion to a group/cause) clandestine (private; done in secrecy) contingent (conditional; uncertain; possible) copying (imitating; reproducing) deleterious (harmful) disinterested (not interested; unbiased) dictionary (book containing various information about words) draconian (cruel) effect (something produced by a cause) eminent (prominent) erotic (arousing) ersatz (used as a substitute; artificial) esoteric (understood by a select few people) exotic (unique; strikingly different) flaunt (to show off) flout (to mock) frenetic (frantic) imminent (likely to occur at any moment) imply (to suggest without specifically saying) infer (to conclude from evidence) inverse (reversed in some way) ludicrous (laughable) martial (associated with war; warlike) mesmerize (fascinate; spellbind) mordant (biting; sharply sarcastic) narcissism (excessive self-love) nascent (in the early stages of development) nebulous (confused; cloudy) protean (can quickly assume different personalities/characters) quixotic (impulsive) salient (conspicuous) Spartan (brave) spurious (not authentic) stentorian (loud/powerful in sound quality) subliminal (operating below the level of consciousness) thesaurus (a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms) unique (singular; the only example) viable (workable). I've put the meaning next to each word, I know how annoying it is to not understand because the words are crazy and confusing. Then I alphabetized them because I have OCD. Credit must go out to the best online dictionary in the world, without which I would've been royally fucked. And just for your information, I've been working on this for two whole weeks. That's an excessive amount of time for me.
"Define asinine," Blaine said, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he stared at the dictionary through the darkness.
"Hmmm... Studying vocabulary words?" Kurt replied with his mordant wit.
Blaine shook his head and moved on. "What's the difference between affect and effect?"
"Which one is which?" Kurt asked. "I thought they were the same thing."
"Ummm... the one that starts with 'a' is the verb, the other one is the noun." Blaine shuffled through the dictionary, checking to see if he was right. He was, of course.
"Oh. Okay. Well, you keep answering those questions for me and I'll be over here." Kurt turned away from Blaine to type on his iPhone, attempting to bowdlerize his next text message to Mercedes.
"Kurt, stop it." Blaine rolled his eyes at his boyfriend. "I'm trying to help you study here, you can't just go into your SATs without looking over some vocabulary words. "
"But this is boooriiing!" Kurt flopped back on his bed and groaned despite Blaine's protests for him to keep quiet. It was already past curfew, and Kurt's stentorian noises were going to get them caught. Then they could never again have one of their clandestine meetings in the middle of the night. "I don't wanna sit here looking at words that are just..." Kurt picked up the thesaurus and started looking through it for the right word. "Aha! These words are just ersatz crap used to replace simpler words. I don't understand why there's even a test about this."
"It doesn't matter why, what matters is you have to take it. And with my help you might actually do well on it."
"Woah! Tone down the narcissism, Mr. I Can Do Everything!" Blaine opened his mouth to protest, but Kurt cut him off. He didn't want to argue, he was just tired. "Can we just stop? I just wanna sit here and cuddle with my boyfriend, not stare at words all night."
Blaine sighed. "Yeah, alright. We'll need to study more tomorrow though." He pulled Kurt into his arms and layed down, getting comfortable while Kurt kicked the books on the floor.
"Blaine, I don't learn from studying. I need to do hands-on stuff!"
"Hmmm..." Blaine thought for a moment. What was the best way to help Kurt? "Okay then, tomorrow I dare you to use your vocabulary words in everyday conversations."
Kurt nodded. "That could work. Do I get some kind of reward for using them?"
"For every one word you use, I will buy you a new scarf."
Kurt rolled over to face him, eyes wide. "Seriously?" Blaine merely grinned, making Kurt squeal with delight. "Yes! Alright, I'm gonna get a shitload of scarves out of this." He gave Blaine a quick kiss and rolled over again, cuddling against his boyfriend. "Good night, Blaine."
"Good night, Kurt." Blaine closed his eyes, trying to ignore thoughts of his imminent loss of money.
"Get up!" Kurt snapped the blankets off Blaine with one quick tug, leaving the boy shivering. Blaine attempted to pull the covers back over his body, but Kurt laughed and kept them from him.
"It's Saturday! Can't we sleep in?" Blaine whined.
"Nope. We have a Warblers meeting at eleven, remember?" Blaine groaned. Yes, he did remember, but he was ambivalent about going. On one hand, he could go to the meeting like a good boy who deserved solos. On the other, he could sleep in with Kurt under his arm. Kurt seemed to be in favor of the first one though.
"You need to get up now, sweetie. I don't mean to make you frenetic, but we need to leave in twenty minutes." As Kurt finished his thought, an arcane look crossed his face. He whipped a small blue notebook and a pen out of his back pocket and made a small notation on the first page.
Blaine gave the notebook a nebulous glance. "What's that for?"
"I'm writing down all of the vocabulary words I use today," Kurt said with a draconian smirk. "I need to keep track of how many scarves you'll be buying me."
"Oh, crap. I completely forgot about that." Blaine rubbed his eyes and sat up, putting on his uniform from last night. He desperately hoped the wrinkles weren't too salient.
"Too bad." Kurt grabbed his messenger bag and began stretching like a cat. It was much too early to be awake. "By the end of the day I will be adept-" Kurt paused to make another notation, then giggled at the thought of more scarves. "I'll be adept at vocabulary and you'll be poor."
"I doubt that'll happen, Kurt. How many words could you possibly use?" Blaine shrugged on his jacket and stepped toward the door.
"Well, I don't know about poor... This will definitely be deleterious to your wallet though. Poor is only a contingent outcome." Kurt made two more marks in the blue book left his room, Blaine close behind.
"What do I get out of this?" Blaine asked. He fluttered his eyelashes and gave Kurt a pout, hoping to send him a subliminal message. They rounded a corner and went down a flight of stairs, where Kurt stopped just below Blaine so the older boy had the chance to look taller than him.
"Well... Let's just say I'll study with you any time you want. Any subject too!" Kurt gave his boyfriend a wink, and Blaine suppressed a blush at Kurt's protean personality. One minute he was sweet, the next he was the Head Bitch in Charge. Then there were those rare moments, the ones that only he was allowed to see, where Kurt was a sexy god who could mesmerize him at the drop of a hat. "We could study math, history, anatomy..."
"Oh, I- ummm... Well that's just... Yeah, okay. I guess I can handle that." Blaine blushed scarlet and ducked his head, trying to hide his expression. He really hoped Kurt meant for him to infer something completely unrelated to school by that ambiguous statement.
Kurt giggled and gave Blaine's hair a quick ruffle. The the two continued walking, Kurt getting far ahead as Blaine remained in a daze a few paces behind him. "You're so cute when you're flustered. I should be erotic more often! Speaking of erotic..." Kurt made another scribble in his notebook..
"Woah, wait a minute! Erotic is NOT one of the words in your SAT book."
"Yes it is, sweetie. Look it up." Kurt smirked as he looked at the notebook. "Five scarves already? I'm good at this game."
"I bet you won't be able to get many more though. It's not like you even talk much at Warblers meetings."
Kurt raised an eyebrow. They had finally reached the choir room, and Blaine was afraid of what Kurt might do next. But he merely nodded and said, "Challenge accepted," more to himself than to Blaine. The entered the room and all eyes turned their way. All of the Warblers were already seated and had apparently been waiting on the two lovebirds.
Wes gave his friends a martial glare. When the gavel was in his hand, he was all business. "Nice of you two to grace us with your presence. Warbler Blaine, Warbler Kurt, please take a seat so we may begin." The two blushed and found their place on the couch. Jeff gave Kurt a comforting pat on the shoulder, then went back to some hushed, esoteric conversation with Nick about numbers.
Kurt turned to Blaine and slid the notebook into his hands. "I'm gonna need you to take notes, I won't have time. Okay?" Blaine hesitated, but gave his boyfriend a confused nod and tried to ignore the fiendish smirk on Kurt's face.
"Alright, now we can get started. As you all know, we will not be moving on to Nationals this year. What I suggest is that we begin working on a set list for our next on-campus concert, and-" Wes was cut off by a loud yawn from Kurt's direction. He sighed. "Is there something you would like to say, Warbler Kurt?"
Kurt rubbed his eyes. "Oh, my apologies. I didn't mean to be rude, it's just that... that sound's extremely boring."
An echo of gasps filled the room, followed by murmurs. Wes banged his gavel as David and Thad shook their heads. As everyone began to quiet down, Thad addressed Kurt directly. "Are you attempting to flout the council, Warbler Kurt?"
"Well, yes, I suppose. It's just that, if I may, it seems like people are growing disinterested." Everyone shook their heads and began to talk again, but Kurt cut them off. "Everyone on campus has hear us a million times! These 'impromptu' performances have lost their unique quality, they're just banal talent shows at this point."
Wes looked ready to launch across the table and bite Kurt, but David looked intrigued. "What are you trying to imply, Warbler Kurt?"
Kurt smiled and took a deep breath. Finally, his opinion was being heard. And he was getting paid in scarves to give it! "I think we need to drop these spurious performances and start putting on shows outside of Dalton."
"That's ludicrous!" Wes shouted angrily. "It is not traditional for the Warblers to leave campus to perform, everyone knows that."
"Yes, but remember the Gap Attack and that concert at Breadstix? We've already broken tradi-"
"Just because we've broken tradition a few times doesn't mean we should continue to do so," Thad interjected, thinking this was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Agreed," Wes said, looking to David for confirmation. David merely stared at Kurt, so Wes continued. "And since when have we taken on inverse roles? We are the Senior Council, we are the eminent faces of the Warblers. Your nascent stay with us does not entitle you to our power."
Kurt huffed. It was very hard not to stomp his foot like a five year old. "I'm just saying, the Warblers need to get over this agoraphobia of ours and show everybody what we can do! If we did something exotic, something to get us known, we could dominate the competition next time around."
Everything was silent as the Warblers chewed Kurt's words. David was the first to speak up. "I see no adverse outcome to doing some more off-campus performances..."
"What?" Wes furrowed his brow, never suspecting that David wouldn't share his averse feelings towards the idea. "Are you serious, man?"
"Yeah, I think this could be a viable way to boost morale and make a name for ourselves."
Wes was still unsure, but he saw Thad nodding slowly out of the corner of his eye. He could never argue his point now. "Alright, we'll plan some off-campus performances." Kurt grinned from ear to ear and flopped back on the couch. He had almost forgotten the room was full of other boys, who were now staring at him with a mixture of approval and fear. "Would anyone ELSE like to start an argument?"
The boys looked around at eachother. Finally, Trent stood on shaky legs. "I- I have something to say."
This Kurt was causing a lot of trouble. You let one guy speak freely and everyone thinks copying his quixotic actions is okay. Wes sighed, but let Trent speak anyway.
"This council has a chauvinist mindset. You guys are obsessed with Blaine, who gets EVERY. SINGLE. SOLO." Trent began building up more courage as he saw the others nod. Even the council members and Kurt were nodding, leaving Blaine to blush awkwardly. "We need to start showcasing the talent this club has. And not as back-up singers! Really show us all off."
Everyone began clapping, leaving Trent a little confused. He smiled nervously and took his seat right next to Blaine, who fought the urge to glare at his friend.
"Alright then," David said, trying to get the meeting moving again. "Anything else?" The Dalton students remained quiet, and David took that as their cue to continue. "Okay, cool. So, let's ummm... do that."
The next hour passed without much excitement, especially on Blaine's part. It seemed like they were purposely ignoring him now, favoring the talents of his peers. Not that being ignored bothered him. Nope. Not one little bit, thank you very much. Soon it was time to head back to their dorms though. Blaine dragged Kurt away quickly, eager to go back to the inviting bed in Kurt's room.
"You know, that was rather Spartan of you in there. Standing up for yourself." Kurt nodded in thanks, blushing at Blaine's compliments. "And we get to perform outside of school now!"
"I know, it's great! But..."
"But what?"
"That's not really what I'm interested in right now." Blaine raised a questioning eyebrow, and Kurt reached into his boyfriend's jacket pocket in search of a tiny blue notebook. "How many scarves do you owe me?"
"Oh, right." Blaine looked over what he wrote down and sighed. "Eleven. I owe you eleven scarves."
"Really?" Kurt practically hopped up and down with excitement. "Well, there you have it! Looks like we're going shopping tomorrow." Kurt ran up the stairs and into his dorm room, ecstatic over the prospect of having new clothes to flaunt.
A/N- Oh my cheese and crackers, that was so hard to write! I hope it all makes sense, I started to droft off into my own little world as I was writing... Anywho, reviews are lovely! Still looking for sequels, future family stuff, shit like that. Whatever you want me to try, really. I'd love to take any challenge you throw at me. Proof? That giant thing I spent hours of my Spring Break finishing (not that I hd anything better to do...)