Trigger warning for brief mention of non-violent non-con in the small section between these symbols:
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Late Sunday morning, Quinn returned with Nick, Nina, and Jeff in tow. Judy, Dave, and Kurt were finishing up packing up the food when they arrived.
"Mom, this is Nick and Nina Duval. And this is Jeff Sterling. He's Nick's best friend."
"Judy Karofsky. It's nice to meet all of you. Please call me Judy. Paul should be back inside in just a minute. He started loading the Navigator."
Kurt looked at Nick and Nina, and now that they were standing side by side, he definitely saw the resemblance. Although Nina's face was definitely more round, they had the same skin tone, eye color, and very similar noses. Nina's hair was the same color. She wore it parted on the side and past her shoulder blades in the back. It wasn't layered and she didn't have bangs. She was just slightly taller than Quinn, but with a similar build.
Paul came back into the kitchen. He stopped long enough to meet the teens.
"This is my dad, Paul Karofsky." She pointed. "Nick and Nina Duval, Jeff Sterling."
He reached out and shook hands with Nick and Jeff. "Call me Paul. It's nice to meet the three of you."
"You too," they said in near unison.
"If you'll excuse me, we'll get the rest of this loaded and head out. Dave, can you and Kurt grab the cooler?"
"We can help too," Nick offered.
"Sure," Paul said. "Just grab the stuff on the table."
Nick and Jeff took things from the table and followed the others out to the driveway.
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They spent most of the afternoon out on the lake, swimming and sunbathing. Kurt read a book some of the time when the others were swimming. Paul taught him to drive the boat too. Everyone but Kurt showered at the lake before they came back.
After they got back, everyone helped unload the Navigator. Once they finished, Quinn led her guests into the studio.
"Oh, wow. This is amazing," Nina said. "I love the purple sofas. So, who plays the piano?"
"That would be me," Kurt said.
"He and I are in the Advanced Ballet class, so we'll use this room to practice in. We're also taking Drama."
"I'm in the Advanced Ballet class as well," Nina said. "Nick's taking Drama this semester too. Jeff decided to take an art class for the fun of it. He's been in Drama with us before, but he's abandoning us this year." She batted her eyes at him and play sulked.
Jeff rolled his eyes. "Screenprinting sounded cool. I'll be able to make my own t-shirts and hoodies and stuff."
"It does sound cool, but I am a terrible artist," Nina said.
Quinn said, "Do you want to go upstairs? Or do you have to go home?"
"Not yet," Nick said.
"Sure, let's go up," Jeff said.
They all went out the door into the hallway, and then up the stairs to the apartments.
"This is my place. And that's theirs."
Their three guests looked confused.
She unlocked her door. The three guests followed her in.
"Oh, they're apartments," Nina said. "That's a really cool idea. You can spend time with your parents, but you also have your own place."
"Yes. It was either buy a big house for all of us to share or buy this small house and add on to it. This just made a lot more sense. We had these built with the future in mind. We all decided that three 2-bedroom places were a better idea than a large house that we all shared since the three of us are starting college next fall. So, this is my place." She gave them a brief tour. "We just finished everything this past week, so it's still new to us. I haven't been out looking for things to hang on my walls in here yet. We didn't hang everything we brought with us, so I might just pick a few of those to hang up until I find something I love."
"That makes sense," Nina said.
"When you come over from now on, you can just text me when you pull up and I'll come down to the door you saw at the end of the hallway by the stairway and I'll let you in. That's where we go in and out."
"Sure," Nick said. "Could I use your bathroom?"
"Yeah, go ahead. You saw where it is."
Nick left the room.
"I don't have any video games or anything, but Kurt and Dave do. Or we could play a regular game. I think all of the board and card games are at Kurt and Dave's though."
Nick came back in. "We can go look and pick one."
Kurt opened the door and stepped out onto the landing and unlocked their door. Everyone followed him in.
"Oh, wow," Nina said. "Your place looks totally different from Quinn's. I like it too."
"Thanks," Kurt said. "The games are on the shelves over there." Kurt pointed to the lower shelves to the right of the TV.
Nick went over to look. "How about Trivial Pursuit? I haven't played that in ages. It's a good game to play when you want to talk more than strategize."
"Sure, just grab it," Dave said. "We'll grab two chairs and follow you back to Quinn's."
They got the board set up and the chairs around the table, and then started to play.
About 10 minutes into the game, Kurt got up and got a glass of water and sat back down. Dave picked it up and took a drink and put it back down and took Kurt's hand.
Jeff looked at them. "Okay. That's a little too weird for me not to say anything. I didn't ask anything earlier because your parents were around, but I'm confused."
"About what?" Quinn asked.
"At first, I just chalked your slightly above normal touchy-feely-ness to being from somewhere where family members are more demonstrative with their affection. But Dave is holding Kurt's hand."
Kurt laughed. "Wait. You thought that I was Dave's brother?"
"I thought all three of you were siblings. I actually thought that Quinn and Kurt were twins like Nick and Nina and that maybe Dave got held back a year or you and Quinn were both juniors. None of you actually said what grade you're in or your last names, at least not that I remember. I mean Nina has been known to sit in Nick's lap occasionally, or even mine, especially if guys start hitting on her and she gets fed up. And when we met your parents, I just thought Dave looked like Paul and Kurt and Quinn looked more like Judy. Brothers and sisters don't always resemble each other."
Kurt shook his head and laughed. "I'm Dave's boyfriend. My last name is Hummel."
"Well, that answers one question and creates so many more," Jeff said.
"How about this?" Kurt said. "I'll tell you the part that I consider to be open-to-share information for now."
"Alright."
"My name is Kurt Hummel. I'm 18. My birthday was…11 days ago. Dave's was four days ago. We've been dating for almost two years. It will be two years on the 18th, two weeks from now."
"That's a long time," Nina said. "Happy early anniversary."
"Thanks. Honestly, I'm not sure what else to share. We're not familiar with how people around here view gay couples and our story is unusual."
Quinn added, "Our last school wasn't a good place to be gay or different at all really. And gossiping was a favorite pastime."
"Wait. I have one more nosy question," Jeff said. "You two are 18 already?"
"Yes."
"Were you two held back a year at some point? Is that how Quinn and Dave are in the same grade?"
"Technically that's three questions, Jeff," Kurt teased.
Dave answered. "My birthday was last week and hers isn't until late next spring. According to birthday cut-off rules where we lived before, I would have had to be born four weeks earlier to be a grade ahead."
"As long as kids turn five by the end of the year, they start kindergarten here," Jeff pointed out.
Dave said. "Well, then we're a year older than other people in our grade with August birthdays. Where we lived, we had to be five by August 1st. School starts in mid to late August there."
"That makes more sense as to why you two are in the same grade then. Here you two would have graduated last May. She would be a senior like us. None of us are 18 yet. Our birthdays are all after January 1st."
Dave thought about it for a few minutes. "That means given an equal distribution of birthdates across the year that 1/3 of the students that are seniors are 16 still."
"In theory, yes," Nick agreed. "But a lot of boys get red-shirted so they'll have a better chance at sports. And sometimes it's just because they're small. And I've even heard my parents talk about people doing it because they just think their kid doesn't need to go to Kindergarten when they're four."
Nina said, "I think you'll find most of the kids born in August did go ahead and start school right after they turned five, but quite a few of the kids whose birthdays are after September got held back by their parents. So, the closer you get to the end of the year, the more kids who will be turning 18, rather than 17."
"That just seems weird to me," Kurt said. "Going to college when you're 17 would make it hard to participate in a lot of stuff. You'd need a parent to sign permission slips still. If I had a kid while living in New York, I think I'd red-shirt the kid if their birthday was after August 31st. That way they'd be 18 when they started college."
They played a few rounds of the game.
"Back to what you were talking about earlier – the gossip," Nina said, "I think gossip is just part of life everywhere, but the response to being gay or different is not going to be the same. No one in Singspiration is going to care that the two of you are gay. Several other guys in the group are gay or bi. We're at the top socially at the school, up with the sports teams, so I really don't think you'll have to worry about whatever kinds of things went on at your last school. Plus, the school staff won't put up with bullying."
"That's promising," Kurt said. "We'll just have to see. Dave and I should have been at the top socially, if it only had to do with sports skill, but being gay was enough to push us down to slightly above bottom feeder."
"What sport did you play?" Jeff asked.
"I played football and hockey. Kurt just played football. But those were the two big sports at our school."
"Are you going to play again this year?"
Kurt shook his head. "I'm not. I want to study theater and I have no interest in playing college football."
"I'm just going to play hockey. I only played football because Kurt did. Do any of you like to skate?"
"I do," Nina said.
"I can skate around the rink without breaking my neck, but that's about it," Jeff said.
Nick agreed. "Same for me."
They went around the table taking their turns again.
Jeff's curiosity got the better of him again. "So, you moved here with Dave instead of staying with your own family?"
Kurt answered, "Yeah."
"I'm trying not to be nosy, but not succeeding," Jeff said and laughed.
"I'm not sure what to say other than maybe I'll tell you more some other time, but in case you think I was being abused or something, I wasn't."
"Okay. I'll try to let it go for now. I'm just terribly nosy. Sorry. I'm not a gossip, but I know you don't know that."
Kurt took a deep breath. "I've known since I was a kid that I was gay. As we mentioned, where we lived was not a gay-friendly place. I turned 18 and I moved here of my own free will."
"I guess it's not that much different than someone moving away from home to go to college," Jeff said. "I'll be six months older than you are now when I go to college."
Kurt nodded. "Why don't you three tell us something about yourselves that we don't know."
"I'm older than Nina," Nick said.
She play smacked him. "He always says that. He's older by ten minutes. It just so happens that those ten minutes were five minutes before and after midnight, so we don't have the same birthday."
Kurt chuckled. "That's definitely something unusual. Twins with different birthdates."
Nick said, "We don't have any other siblings."
Jeff said, "I'm an only child – something my parents say that they grateful for."
Nick rolled his eyes. "His parents love him. Don't get the wrong impression."
"Nick and I have been best friends since we were in Kindergarten."
Nina spoke next. "I might as well be the one to tell you. It's not like everyone at school doesn't already know. Nick, Jeff, and I were gossip fodder last spring, when in a surprise turn of events, Jeff's boyfriend Jackson and Nick's girlfriend Juliette, who was my best friend, turned out to be seeing each other and let it slip when they both got into Stanford. Juliette and I had been best friends for nearly as long as Nick and Jeff."
"So, Jackson is bi and was seeing Nick's girlfriend?" Kurt asked.
"Is seeing…" Nina answered.
"Right, IS seeing," Kurt corrected himself.
Jeff said, "The part about Jackson being bi was news to me, well, to all of us. So, when Juliette would sit in his lap and flirt and hang on him and whatnot, none of us thought anything about it. It was going on right under our noses for pretty much the whole school year."
"That's terrible," Quinn said.
"It was surprising for sure," Jeff said. "Both being cheated on and the fact that it was with a girl. Not that I have anything against being bi because I am, but Jackson had only ever dated guys and he never told me that he was bi, even though he knew that I was. Everyone does. I dated a girl before I dated Jackson. She moved at the end of sophomore year and we broke up. We'd only been dating about three months. I started seeing Jackson that summer. We knew each other before, but we ended up as roommates at a music camp we went to in upstate New York for six weeks that summer and we started dating at the camp."
"We obviously broke up with them when we found out," Nick said. "And they're in California and still together. Juliette and I were not as serious and Jeff and Jackson were. She and I dated socially more than seriously, but we had agreed to be exclusive, something she clearly did not know the meaning of."
"Why didn't they just break up with the two of you and see each other openly?"
"Ah, well Jackson is not up to the standards that Juliette's parents have for her. Obviously, she doesn't agree with their standards."
"Which were?"
"Ah, a manly haircut, being nice and polite, dressing nice, following social rules. They wanted her to date someone like Nick, so she did."
Jeff added. "Jackson was the bad boy type. Longish hair, skateboard style clothes, had his ears pierced, and he sort of came across like he didn't do well in school, but he did. He was smart and good-looking. He just rubbed people like Juliette's parents the wrong way."
"And what about you, Nina? Boyfriend? Or girlfriend?" Kurt asked.
"Oh, my boyfriend goes to Yale. His name is Braden. He's a freshman this year. He went to school with us. He was actually Jackson's best friend. 'Was' being the operative word. After Jackson cheated with Juliette for 7 months, he couldn't believe it. He didn't know that Jackson was bi either. And he had no idea that he was cheating on Jeff with Juliette. The whole thing was a huge mess. At least they're both gone, so there won't be anyone taking sides. The four of us just went 'no contact' with the two of them. It made things hard for the last 6 weeks of school last year, but it's over now."
"They left in June and the four of us had the summer to work on our issues, so I think we're all in a decent place now," Nick said. "Jeff's dad is a psychologist and we went to some sessions with a colleague of his as a group – all four of us, as well as some individual sessions over the summer. I just have to make sure that my next girlfriend isn't interested in Jeff's next girlfriend or boyfriend."
They played through several turns each while talking about the questions more than themselves. They eventually got to where Nick and Dave were in the center battling it out for first place.
Nina said, "A group of us go to this open mic place once or twice a month on Fridays. Do you three want to go with us this Friday?"
"Sure," Kurt said.
"This week's theme is 80's love songs," she said.
"How does it work? Is there a band or do people bring their own musicians or play for themselves or what?"
"There's a small band – a drummer, a bassist, a guitarist, and a pianist. But people can play for themselves as well or with part of the group. So, since you play piano, if you know the piano part, you can play it and the others would play along."
"Sounds fun," Kurt said. "Alright, we're going to end this differently than the rules say. Can you get them a piece of paper, Quinn?"
Quinn brought a notebook back and gave them each a sheet of paper and a pencil.
"I'm going to pull one card and read the question from each category and you both have to answer all of the questions. Whoever answers the most right wins."
Ten minutes later, the stalemate had ended with Dave victorious by a single question.
"Good game," Nick said.
"You too," Dave replied.
"I hate to run out because I am enjoying this, but we have to go shopping. I need a mini coffee grinder and they're on sale at Best Buy. We also need a coffee pot and they're on sale at Target. If anyone wants to go shopping, feel free to follow along. School starts in two days and I'll need coffee and going to coffee shops on a daily basis is not in my budget. I'll break even in less than two weeks, other than the ongoing purchase of coffee beans. But at least I'll continue to save money over buying it from a shop."
"Need?" Jeff teased.
"Definitely," Kurt said. "Plus, we need to do some back-to-school shopping. Notebooks and I have to get some kind of new school bag. We only had to take PE freshman and sophomore year and we had assigned lockers in the locker room. We took a t-shirt from the stack and threw them in the laundry at the end of class. And we took ballet on the weekends, so I didn't have to take that stuff to school with me. Anyone interested?"
Quinn said, "I hadn't thought about needing a new backpack. I'm in."
"Sure, why not?" Jeff said. "We'll tag along and maybe we can grab something to eat before we head home. The food court at the mall has some decent places."
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Monday morning, Dave woke up first. He lay completely still basking in the comfort of Kurt's relaxed body pressed back against his. He thought back to how hesitant Kurt had been and how he had pushed through so much self-doubt. And how he had done the same. He couldn't imagine anything being any better than having Kurt by his side. It was better than he had imagined and he never wanted to lose it. The conversation where he had mistakenly thought Kurt was asking him his thoughts on marriage popped into his mind when he had told Kurt that he did want to get married some day. A smile grew across his face and lit up his eyes as he thought about how they could get married whenever they wanted to. After Kurt had brought it up, he had looked it up online and found that it was a minimal fee for the license and a 24-hour waiting period before a ceremony could be performed. No other restrictions. He wondered what kind of ceremony Kurt would want. He was lost in his thoughts when Kurt began to stir.
"Morning, handsome." Kurt stretched a bit and scooted back even closer than he had been before.
"Mmm. Mornings have been significantly better recently. You're back in bed with me."
"I agree. Even though I had the bed, it's more comfortable when you're in it with me."
Dave laughed. "You know that's not scientifically possible."
"Of course it is. Comfort involves peace of mind too. I definitely sleep more peacefully with you in the bed with me."
Dave kissed along Kurt's shoulder up his neck. "You're right."
Kurt chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"I was thinking about how Jeff thought we were brothers."
"I think we're going to have to reconsider our comfort level of PDA. I already had to stand there while Chandler flirted about as blatantly as he could possibly get away with given that he probably thought your parents were standing there with you."
"I don't want Chandler. I want you."
Dave kissed the back of his neck. "I know that, but it was super uncomfortable to be a part of. We went to the party with Quinn's idea of just being our separate selves and meeting people, but we obviously gave people the impression that we're siblings, not boyfriends."
"Well, no more of that then. I'm not used to people flirting with me or being nice to me unless they're trying to sell me something, which Chandler was. What you took for flirting, I took for typical retail behavior of being super nice to the customer to insure a sale. But you're right. It was my mistake because I totally didn't get that he was flirting with me. I have zero flirting skills and flirting detection skills."
"You're a huge flirt. HUGE."
Kurt pushed back so Dave would scoot back. Kurt turned over and faced Dave. "I'm a big flirt? I'm sorry." His concern was evident as he was clearly trying to think how he had been flirting.
"What? No, Fancy, don't be sorry." Dave reached out and ran his thumb along Kurt's jaw. "No, not with other people. Just with me. You flirt all the time."
Relief washed over his face. "Oh, okay. But I love you."
"I know and I love you too. And I love it when you're flirty. I just don't like it when other guys flirt with you. I just realized how much I would dislike it when Chandler started to do it. I hadn't seen anyone else flirt with you, except Puck sort of, but he did that just to rile me up. You know, saying things about me flunking school because you had shorts on and I couldn't pay attention in class. He'd say things that were compliments about you as a way to tease me about how head over heels I am for you, but he wasn't doing it to get you to like him. I didn't know the breadth of my jealous streak until Chandler started flirting with you."
Kurt moved like a giant cat, and quickly pinned Dave on his back in the bed. "David Allen Karofsky," he said, as he stared down at Dave intently.
"Yes?"
"There is zero need for you to be jealous. None. Not one bit." He leaned down and started to kiss all along Dave's neck and down his chest. He looked up, asking before he continued. When Dave nodded, Kurt moved lower.
While Dave was catching his breath, Kurt kissed up his ribs again and across his chest up to his ear. "Just remember that I'm not weak willed or easily swayed. I'm committed to you. Only you. When you tell me that you feel jealous that other guys flirt with me, it makes me feel like you think I might be lured away from you like a weak-willed guy with no loyalty. That's not me. I love you, David. I won't cheat on you, no matter how enticing someone tries to be. I'm committed to you. Either it's your insecurities telling you lies that I might want someone besides you, or you don't think that I'm strong-willed enough to resist temptation. What you need to realize is that other guys are not a temptation to me. Why would I ever want a burnt grilled cheese sandwich or a cold hot dog on a moldy bun or a day-old smashed donut when I have a gourmet meal right here?" He very lightly bit Dave's ear and then licked the area sending shivers down Dave's body. "Never doubt that you're who I want." He relaxed and slid his knees back and propped on his elbows, sliding his forearms under Dave's shoulders. He continued to kiss along Dave's neck and up to his other ear. "Never doubt that I'm yours." When Kurt barely bit and then licked his ear, Dave bucked up. "Already?" Kurt teased and rolled his hips.
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Kurt lathered Dave's hair and rinsed it gently before going back to Dave's favorite shower activity for the second time.
"What's with you today, Fancy?"
"I just thought maybe a whole morning of showing you just how much I want you will give you plenty of things to think about when your mind tries to make you feel insecure when other guys talk to me at school." Kurt pushed him back until Dave sat down in the corner. Kurt stood in front of him, giving him a full frontal view. "That. That only happens for you. I don't feel attracted to anyone but you."
"This is a great use for this seat." He wrapped his hands behind Kurt's thighs and got him to scoot a little closer. "As useful as the built-in vanity for after I do your face moisturizing, which is definitely happening when we get out."
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Kurt finished putting the last of the dishes in the cabinet, hung the dishtowel up, and then went over to the futon and sat in Dave's lap. "Lunch was really good. Thank you." Kurt pecked him on the lips and propped his forearms on Dave's shoulders.
He wrapped his arms around Kurt. "You're welcome."
Kurt rotated his arms a bit and began to run his fingers through the hair at the base of Dave's neck. He leaned forward and kissed him again, this time more than just a peck, but still chaste. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He pressed his forehead against Dave's. "I love you." He pulled back and looked around. "Our place is amazing. It's finally sinking in completely. This is our place. We worked together on the furniture and the decorations and the colors and the floor plan and it's us. Both of us." He leaned forward and gently kissed Dave again. "Your gentleness mixed with my crazy and our happiness together. It's all in here. I can feel it." He kissed him gently again. "Have faith in us, okay?"
Dave nodded. "I love you so much. And I do feel what you're describing. The place is new, but it's been months in the planning and design. It is amazing. And I happen to love your crazy."
"Let's take pictures now. Everything is how we want it. We told Puck and Azimio and everyone that we'd send pictures after we got settled in." He kissed Dave once more before he climbed off of his lap to get his camera. "We'll use my camera for ones we'll keep for us for a memory book or something. You can use your phone to take the ones to send to everyone."
They spent the next half-hour taking photos. They photographed the study last.
"I'm glad we stopped at Ikea while we were in the City Saturday. I love the stainless magnetic strips across the wall above our desks. And I really like that stainless rail with got the cup and clips and hooks that hang from it that we put above the sewing machine. I think that will be super helpful when I'm working on a project. I can hang all of the things I need specifically from it and not have to get up and down to get things or have things on my sewing surface in the way. It was a little pricey, but I think it was a good use of my birthday money from my dad. And the metallic silver accents, like the poster frame, and the desk lamps we got and the magnetic strips break up the monotony of the white walls and the white furniture."
"I'm glad you like how it turned out. I like our desks and the room overall. I think the only thing that we might want to get still is another mirror for the back of our bedroom door since you hung the one you had in here to use for your projects. I think it would be nice to have one in our room too."
"We'll get one then." He looked through the photos he had taken. "I think that's it. I'm going to put all of them on a CD, and then email some of them to my dad. You can text the photos you took to whoever you want." Kurt sat down at this desk and turned his laptop on and pulled a blank CD out. "Before I send them, let's go sit on the futon and take a selfie together to send as well."
"Sure."
They went out and arranged themselves so that the half of the room with the kitchen could be seen behind them. When they finished, they went back into the study. Kurt worked on transferring the photos from his camera to the CD and Dave sat down next to him at his own desk and made sure that his phone was connected to the WiFi before he started to send any photos to anyone.
"Why don't your text your dad and Judy to come up? Everything is actually done now."
"Alright."
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About fifteen minutes later, Paul and Judy knocked on their door. Dave went to let them in. Kurt stood outside the study door. Judy started to look around carefully.
"What is this?" She pointed to the wall-mount bar with fold up hooks that was mounted on the wall across from the laundry closet door.
"It's a place to hang things like bags or jackets if someone keeps theirs on when they first come up. Watch." He flipped one of the hooks down.
"That's very clever. It's not in the way all the time, but it's very useful. I like it." She continued to move through the room. "I like the mirror. And the photos."
"Kurt took those when we went to that nature preserve the morning of my birthday."
"I see that a coffee pot has made its way to your kitchen. I like that one. It's compact." She looked around more. "Stainless dish drain. Nice." She turned back around. "The room looks warm and lived in now that you've gotten all of your personal stuff on the shelves." She stopped in the doorway to the study. "I like the additions in here. That poster is nice. I like the metal accents. It's sort of like Quinn's room." She looked into their bedroom from the doorway as well. "I like that print you have over the bed. It's really calming and the colors look great with the room." She turned back towards them. "I think it looks like a combination of the two of you. I really like it. What about you two?"
Dave smiled. "We love it."
"Well, I think the two of you did a great job," Paul said. "We finally got our office planned out and our bedroom finished. Actually we have an extra printer if the two of you have room for it. We've chosen a set up to make our office work efficiently for us."
Judy said, "We're actually wondering if you two would be willing to build us some shelves as well. We need deeper ones than Quinn's. Either 10-inch shelves like yours or maybe even 12-inch shelves. You can see what we're wanting when you come down."
"Sure," Kurt said. "We can go down with you now and look to see what we can do."
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Judy pulled up the Ikea website on her phone. "So, these are the desks that we've picked. We're going to put them facing each other under the double window. We'd like two built-in bookcases on the wall the window is on. It will give each of us an L-shaped office area where we can reach what's on our shelves while sitting in our chairs. All of our other configurations just didn't give us what we wanted. We're going with these long, narrow desks because being able to spread out what we're working on is better than having more square-ish rectangle desks like Paul had in his office at work and I used to have in my office. I can slide my chair from left to right to see everything easier than standing up to look at what's been pushed to the back of my desk."
"That makes sense," Kurt said. "I don't see a reason why we couldn't do the shelves. I'd suggest that you go ahead and paint the wall white so that they look built-in like Quinn's do. I doubt we'll have that much homework the first weekend and we won't have any performances this early, so the sooner the better I think. We can go ahead and measure everything. Once I have a basic drawing, we need to figure out how far apart the shelves need to be so that we get the right amount of wood. I'd suggest holding off on getting the desks or at least hold off on putting them together until we get the shelving done. It will be a lot easier to move around in here with it empty. I like the pale cornflower blue paint you've chosen for the walls."
"Thanks. We'd also like you to make a shelf for the space under the window so that we can sit the printer on it. I found these drawers that can fasten to a shelf and I want to get a few of them to hang from the shelf." She pulled up a photo of the hanging drawers.
Kurt nodded. He sat down on the floor and did a sketch of the area. Dave started measuring the area and Kurt took down the measurements.
Dave said, "I need to see the printer, so we can put the shelf in low enough that it doesn't block the bottom of the window."
"It's in the closet right now. It's the larger one. Paul's is smaller and only prints in black, but if you two think you can use it, you're welcome to take it upstairs after dinner."
Dave opened the closet and measured it. Kurt continued to work on the sketch.
"To put a shelf that wide in the center, it's going to have to have support of some sort. It will have to have an angled brace of some sort in the middle, mounted into a stud. That printer is heavy and you want drawers to hang from it too."
"That's fine. Let's go eat. I'm sure the timer's going to go off any minute."
Quinn came down a few minutes later. They all served themselves the enchilada casserole that Judy had made and sat down at the table.
Judy said, "Quinn said you got your school supplies. We still need to go get the ballet clothes and the choir clothes tomorrow after school. I looked and they're both open until 7:00, so we should go at 6:00 when we would normally eat dinner. We'll eat when we get back."
They all nodded.
"This is good," Dave said. "Thanks for making us dinner."
"You're welcome. I want us to still spend time together and I figured if I make dinner for all of us four times a week that works out pretty evenly on meal preparation for everyone. Paul is going to cook for the two of us each weekend. And you three will be on your own for five meals and breakfast each weekend."
"That sounds reasonable," Kurt said.
Paul asked, "Did you three decide on some clubs to try out this week?"
Kurt was the first to answer. "I've picked four. The Harmonichords, which is an all-male a cappella group. The Set Design Club, the Drama Club, and the Costume Design Club. I'm going to go look for a job that I can just work Mondays and maybe Saturday mornings."
"Kurt we talked about you not needing to get a job," Paul said.
"I know, but I can't. I'm sorry. Please don't be angry with me."
Paul responded with care. "Kurt, I'm not angry with you. Not at all. I do understand that you feel like you need to take care of yourself. I'm going to say what I did before. If you feel that you have to do this for yourself and not for me, then I won't stop you, but please don't work more than 8-10 hours a week. I really want you to be able to enjoy this year of high school."
Kurt nodded. "I understand. I'll wait until this weekend to go look. That way I will have been to all of my classes twice and I should have a decent idea of what is going to be expected of me."
Paul nodded. "The three people Quinn brought home the morning after the sleepover seemed nice."
"We think so too," Quinn said. "They invited us to go out with them this Friday to a place that has an open mic night."
"That sounds like fun," Judy said.
Quinn said, "They told us that the teachers won't put up with bullying, which was good to hear. And that Singspiration, the show choir we were placed in, is at the top of the social ladder, up with the jocks. So, hopefully none of us will end up on the receiving end of any bullying."
"I hope not," Judy said. "The school where I'm teaching made a big deal of not allowing bullying, so I think these kids haven't been allowed to behave that way in the schools here. My classroom is so nice." She took her phone out and pulled up photos. "Look at all of the books in our in classroom library. They're from the school's library. I was allowed to go check out a whole shelf full of them. I have to return them each Friday and I can pick new ones for the next week. That way all of the kids get a chance to read them."
Quinn said, "That's really cool. I see your Thinking Time activities shelf. I'm sure the kids here will love that too." She passed the phone to Kurt, who passed it on to Dave.
"The room looks really welcoming," Kurt said. "I think the kids will love it."
Judy smiled. "I hope so."
When they finished eating, Dave and Quinn cleaned up while Kurt worked on the bookshelf plans more with Judy. When the dishes were done, Dave took the black ink printer upstairs. Kurt went up a few minutes later after finishing up the plans with Judy.
[][][] – [][][][] – [][][]
Tuesday morning dawned sooner than Kurt felt ready, but he rolled over and kissed Dave on the cheek. "We have to get up, sweetie. I'm going to go start the coffee." He went back in their room and Dave hadn't moved. He went ahead and started to get ready. Once he was dressed, he went back out to make their coffee and breakfast.
A few minutes later, Dave came out of the room half dressed. He sat down at the table and began to drink his coffee. Kurt put a plate of eggs and toast in front of him and he ate. He started to come to life.
"Thank you."
"Did I kick you? I woke up from unpleasant dreams several times."
Dave stood up and wrapped his arms around Kurt. "You did wake me up, but I'm not upset, just a little tired still." He kissed Kurt tenderly. "Whenever I'd kiss the back of your neck, you'd relax and fall back asleep. I'll do that as many times as you need me to." He kissed him once more before pulling away. "I need to go finish getting ready."
Kurt put their plates and mugs in the dishwasher. He dried the skillet and put it back away. He went through his new messenger bag one last time before he went to the bathroom to fix his hair and brush his teeth.
They finished about the same time. They had decided to drive separately. Kurt kissed Dave at the bottom of the stairs before they left.
"I'm doing my best to have positive thoughts."
"I know. Just try to relax. We have our first three classes together and then lunch. You can do this."
[][][] – [][][][] – [][][]
They had been assigned lockers in the same general area. Kurt had used his phone to take a photo of the map of the school that was in the papers they had been given when they enrolled and had send it to Quinn and Dave that morning. He consulted his map and they headed to the choir room after stopping by their lockers to make sure they could open them.
Mr. Maxwell was standing outside the door. "Sit in your section, please. Pick up a binder from the table inside the door."
They walked past him, grabbed a black binder with the Singspiration logo on the front, and split into their sections. Kurt sat at the back of the tenors and observed as people came in and sat down. Quinn sat next to Sugar. Dave sat with Wes and David and Mr. Maxwell distributed sheet music that already had holes punched in it. Everyone put the sheet music into their binders.
"For our new members, this copy of the sheet music is yours. You may write on it with pencil. Do not lose it. If I have to print another copy for you, it will cost 10 cents per page. Binder replacement fee is $5. Please make sure that you put your name in the business card slot inside the binder. Now, on to the more fun parts of this class. We're going to sing through the first song. Please arrange yourselves in the aisles next to your seats. Tallest in the back as usual."
Kurt moved out into the aisle and stepped down a row. Quinn was in the middle of the altos, and Dave was in the back row of the baritones. They ran through the music a few times with the pianist playing their parts. The pianist switched to playing the accompaniment the next time through. They spent the rest of the class time doing the same thing with the other pieces they had been given.
[][][] – [][][][] – [][][]
The next period, all three of them had Economics together. Mrs. Moore went over the semester syllabus, handed out the books, and then had the students introduce themselves. After that she gave them an anonymous pretest where she had each of them write the name of an animal and a number at the top. Once they finished, they were allowed to start on the assigned reading.
[][][] – [][][][] – [][][]
The three of them headed to the locker rooms, not really knowing what to expect. They stepped inside and found that both locker rooms were clean and orderly, but that was to be expected with it being the first day.
Once the bell rang, the PE teacher came into the guys' locker room. Two assistants came in a couple of minutes later. The three of them introduced themselves and explained the rules.
"Each day, you'll come in, scan your ID, and pick up a lock and a key from the table. Put the stretch bracelet around your wrist or ankle during class so you don't lose the key. Put your stuff in the locker of your choice during class. When you finish, place the lock with the key in it on the table on your way out. Showering is optional, but suggested. Towels are on the table near the showers. Take a towel with you on your way into the showers. When you've finished with it, toss it in the laundry bin on the other side. Each of you was given a schedule of what's offered during your PE session. If you are unhappy with the choices, see someone in the guidance office and asked to be switched to the second PE session. Since it's our first day, no one will be required to participate today, but it will count towards your minimum of two sessions per week. We know that some of you are new. Please feel free to look around the locker room, the weight room, and the gymnasium areas today. We'll be wandering around if you have any questions."
Some of the guys headed for the lockers and changed. Kurt and Dave hung back a bit, but went and ahead and changed to stick out less. They toured everywhere and caught the end of the yoga class before going back in and redressing. Once they were dressed, they left the locks and keys behind and headed to the cafeteria.
[][][] – [][][][] – [][][]
Kurt and Dave got in line together. They saw Quinn sitting with Sugar, Nina, Nick, Jeff and some other people in Singspiration. After they went through the line, they went to sit with them as well. They enjoyed their lunches. They observed more than they participated in the conversations. When the bell rang, Kurt followed Dave to his locker and wished him luck at the college.
[][][] – [][][][] – [][][]
Kurt headed to AP French. Madame Delacroix went over the syllabus, distributed their books, and gave out a pre-test like the Economics teacher had, with the exception that it was not anonymous. She had the students start on their first reading assignment in their textbooks while she graded the pretests. She spoke entirely in French.
When she finished grading them, she stood up. "Everyone please pick up your belongings and stand along the walls. When I call your name you need to move and sit in your assigned place."
Everyone got up and moved as they had been told.
"Sebastian Smythe and Kurt Hummel at this table please." She went through the rest of the class roster. "The person you are sitting with will be your partner for the paired assignments in this course. Your first assignment will be to prepare the two-person short play that I will be handing out. Each section is marked with numbers. There are 10 pairs. Kurt and Sebastian are Group 1. The rest of you should be able to figure it out from there. Next, I am going to hand out blank index cards. Please write one unusual piece of information about yourself on the card, preferably something that no one in this room knows about you. Tomorrow during class we will play a game that will utilize this information, so please do not write anything that you do not want the whole class to know about you. Once you have finished writing something on the card, you may return to the reading assignment. One word of caution – the novels and plays that I distribute in class need to stay in the book covers they are in. If I see them out of the book covers, you will lose access to the book until you bring the book cover to class with you. You will not write in the books or dog-ear the pages. I know this sounds dramatic, but the books are ordered from France for the most part and I need them to last for as long as humanly possible because they are quite expensive and I paid for them myself because they exceed the cost limit of books for this class. If anyone wishes to purchase their own copies to be able to write in them or use them without a book cover, please see me after class and I will provide you with the contact information of the bookstore where they can be ordered." She handed out the cards, and the short play. "One last thing. You will be expected to speak in French at all times, unless you are having a medical emergency." She repeated that statement in English to be sure to get the message across. The rest of the period was silent.
[][][] – [][][][] – [][][]
Spanish 4 was a lot more lively than French had been. Señor Artino allowed them to choose their own seats. Sebastian sat down at the table with Kurt. Once everyone was seated, Señor Artino explained the rules to El rey mudo, which turned out to be a basic version of charades. The first student to guess right got to be the mute king. They played for about 10 minutes before he stopped the game.
He handed out a syllabus, went over the class rules, and asked them to stay in the seats they had chosen. He went around the room and took attendance and filled in his seating chart. He gave everyone a pretest as well. Once they finished, he let them work on the next day's assignment until the period ended.
[][][] – [][][][] – [][][]
After school, Kurt headed to the room listed for the Harmonichords. He went inside and a lot of the guys from Singspiration were already there.
"Kurt! You came!" Wes said excitedly. "Welcome."
"Thanks."
"I think you've met most everyone."
Kurt looked around and nodded. He took a seat next to Jeff. A couple of minutes later, a few guys came in that Kurt didn't recognize along with Sebastian.
"Alright, everyone. Have a seat," Wes said. "I think 80% of the people know 80% of the people, but we're going to introduce ourselves for the people who don't know everyone. So, stand up, state your name, your grade, and what part you sing. I'll go first. I'm Wes Montgomery. I'm a senior and I sing baritone."
"I'm Richard James, but most everyone calls me Beatz. I'm also a senior and I'm the group's beatboxer."
"I'm David Thompson. I'm a junior and I sing baritone."
"I'm Kurt Hummel. I'm a senior and I'm a counter tenor."
"I'm Jeff Sterling. I'm a senior and I'm a tenor."
"I'm Sebastian Smythe. I'm a senior and I'm a tenor."
"I'm Nick Duval. I'm a senior and I'm a baritenor."
"I'm Thad Harwood. I'm a junior and I'm a baritenor."
"I'm Trent Nixon. I'm a sophomore and I'm a baritenor."
"I'm Flint Wilson, sophomore, baritone."
"Luke Wright, junior, bass."
"I'm JT Kirk. I'm a junior and I sing bass."
"And with the return of Sebastian and the addition of Kurt, we have enough people to compete this year, if we decide to do that. At the end of the spring semester, the council was chosen. David, Thad, and I are the council members. We have typically gone with a single lead or double lead, but our lead singer from last year graduated. So, anyone interested in auditioning for the lead, can sign up on the sheet on the piano on the way out. We normally only meet on Tuesdays, but with auditions, we have passes to use this room for third period, which is PE and lunch, so plan accordingly this week." He handed out the passes. "Sebastian and Kurt if you could stay after for a few minutes, that would be great. Our returning members practiced during PE today and we're going to perform for our new members just to give you a feel for what we do."
Eight members of the group moved to the front and faced the other four. They sang "Since You Been Gone" with Wes singing lead an octave lower than Kelly Clarkson's original. When they finished, everyone except Wes sat back down.
"So, we are a vocal band. We don't typically do Barbershop style music, but if it were part of a medley or something, we might consider it. For anyone considering auditioning for the lead, please prepare two songs. One that shows off your voice and one that shows your potential as a lead singer for an a cappella vocal band. We'll work on "Since You Been Gone" as our first song for the semester. I will obviously not be singing lead. That was just for today." He picked up a clipboard and handed it to David. "Put your name, email address, and phone number on the sign-up sheet. We'll work on having music ready to hand out on Friday at the auditions. Once you've signed in, you're free to go for today. If you know anyone else interested in joining, they need to do so by next week. Learning the songs takes time and we can't continually adjust the arrangements to accommodate new members. People can join again next semester."
The clipboard got passed around and the guys left as they finished. Kurt and Sebastian waited.
"Alright," Wes said. "We have hoodies like the other show choirs, but we also have burgundy vests with blank pin stripes that we wear for competitions, which you can order from the same store you have to get your Singspiration outfit from. The hoodies are $25. Once you pay, I'll have one printed for you and bring it to school the next day. We also have the $5 club fee for the sheet music and a $5 binder fee normally, but we won some money at a competition last year, so we've used some of it to offset those costs. The vests are $20 I think. We have both regular ties and bow ties that we wear with them, but those belong to the club and the members just wear them and return them to the choir costume closet."
Kurt took his wallet out of his pocket and gave Wes $25. "I'm assuming the store knows which vest I need when I tell them the name of the group."
"Yes."
"I'll add it to my order this evening."
Sebastian handed Wes $25 as well. "My hoodie from year before last won't fit anymore."
Wes put the money in his wallet. "I'll go have those done this afternoon and I'll bring them to school tomorrow. Meet me at the main office five minutes before the first warning bell. I'm glad you've returned to the group, Sebastian. And I'm glad you decided to join us, Kurt. We've not had a counter tenor in the three years I've been in this group." He opened his backpack and pulled out two binders with the Harmonichords logo on them and handed one to each of them. "I'll see you tomorrow morning."
Kurt turned to Sebastian. "Would you like to come over to my place for coffee? We can work on that French play."
"Sure. Let me text my mom. She wasn't going to come until 5:30. My car was making a weird noise and she didn't want me to drive it until I get it looked at."
"Just tell her that I'll take you home later. You're welcome to stay for dinner if you want. We're going to the shop to order the choir stuff at 6:00 and eating dinner after we get back. You can order your stuff while we're there and save a trip later this week."
"Yeah, sure." He texted his mother.
[][][] – [][][][] – [][][]
They packed up their stuff and headed out to the parking lot while they waited for her to text back.
After he read the text, Sebastian said, "It's fine."
Kurt walked to the Navigator and Sebastian followed along. He unlocked it using the remote.
"Nice." Sebastian said.
"Thanks."
Neither one of them said anything on the short drive. Kurt pulled into the driveway and got out. Sebastian followed him around the side of the garage. Kurt unlocked the door and relocked it behind him. Sebastian followed him upstairs. He unlocked the door and let Sebastian step inside. Kurt closed and locked the door and put his bag on the futon. He washed his hands and started the coffee.
"Is half regular, half decaf okay?"
"Um, yeah, sure." He put his bag on the other end of the futon. "You have an apartment?"
"Yes."
"So, when you asked me over for coffee and homework, you were actually asking me over for coffee and homework?"
Kurt turned and looked at him, quite confused. "Yes."
"Oh." He took a deep breath and sat down at the table. "I thought you were asking me out."
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to be misleading."
"You weren't, but you're all kinds of hot and I had my hopes up."
"I have a boyfriend."
"He's a lucky guy."
"Is this going to be a problem?"
"Nope. I don't do boyfriends anyway – nothing serious."
"Oh."
"Judging?"
"Nope. Your life, your choices. So long as everyone is old enough to consent and actually consents, it's not my place to judge."
"This place is really nice. How long have you lived here?"
"Not quite two weeks. The day after tomorrow it will be two weeks."
"You must already be 18 to live on your own."
"I am already 18. My birthday was the day before I moved in. And as for 'on my own', if you mean without my parents, then that's true, but I don't live here in this apartment by myself." He poured the coffee into two mugs and turned the machine off. He walked over toward the bookcase. He picked up the photo from Junior Prom and took it over to the table. "That's Dave. He's in Singspiration too. He's a baritone. He's my boyfriend and we live here together. His parents live in the main house. His sister lives in the other apartment – the other door on the landing. We have a dance studio downstairs that Quinn and I use to practice ballet."
"That's nice. How do you speak French so well?"
Kurt busied himself with getting out the cream, sugar, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. "Well, my mom had studied it in high school and college and she taught me when I was young, but when she died, I didn't have a way to learn anymore until I got old enough to convince my dad that I needed a computer. I watched videos and used a computer program. I had the chance to take it in 8th grade and I jumped at it. We had the opportunity to get a French pen pal, so I signed up. We wrote emails back and forth for a while, and then we got sneaky and set up Skype accounts. We only used the audio feature. His English was perfect and he really drilled me on my French pronunciation. I could already read fairly well, but I didn't have anyone to talk to before then. He had lived in the US when he was younger, but moved to France when he was 8."
"Eli?"
Kurt's turned quickly eyes boring into Sebastian's. "Why would you say that name?"
"You're Eli. I'm Thomas."
"No way. Yet, there's no way for you to know that if you aren't. I never told anyone about any of this. I knew my dad would have a cow if he found out that I was voice chatting with a boy in France." He put items on the table in front of Sebastian.
"Well, now you're chatting with me in person. Sebastian Thomas Smythe."
"Kurt Eli Hummel."
"So, you came out and found yourself a cute bear cub."
"I did come out almost two years ago."
"And how long have you and the cute bear cub been together?"
"Almost two years. And his name is Dave."
"Dave, right. I know you said his name earlier, but my brain short-circuited back around the part when you started talking about the French pen pal."
"The middle of the summer after 9th grade you stopped answering my emails and you vanished from Skype. I was really worried, but I didn't have any other way to get in contact with you."
"I'm going to be honest with you. Only my parents know this about me, but based on our past history, I'm going to trust you."
Kurt nodded.
"I repeated 2nd grade when we moved to France. I needed to learn to read better. No one ever knew. I was the same age as the other kids in my class anyway. I'm 18 now as well. So, back to what I was saying – I just turned 15 right after school ended at the beginning of July at the end of 9th grade. I had an early growth spurt and got a fake ID. I was never 'in the closet', but that summer I began acting on the fact that I was gay and started going out to gay clubs. "
"How did you get an ID at 15?"
*!*!*!*!*!*
"Legal drinking age is 18. With me already being so tall, it was easy enough to pass for older. I met a few guys and started hanging out with them. An older guy took an interest in me. It was very flattering at the time. He was 21. He had just finished college and he had his own place. He asked me to be his boyfriend. I was thrilled. Here was this gorgeous 21 year old who was my boyfriend. I started spending almost all of my time with him. He was gentle and sweet. We went out for picnics and to small concerts and stuff. We'd go out with some of his friends in the evenings and go dancing. We'd drink, not a lot though, and then go back to his place. At first it was just kissing and cuddling while we watched a movie or listened to music, but we moved on from that pretty quickly. And we'd go back to his place and fuck all night. The age of consent in France is 15, and I had told him how old I actually was and he was fine with it. He was never rough and he made it good for me. As time went on, he'd get me drunk when we got back to his place. And I'd wake up hungover and more sore than I was used to, but I just chalked it up to fucking a few too many times in one night. The short version is that about a month into it, he began slipping drugs into my drinks and sharing me for a price – paid to him of course."
"Oh, God."
Sebastian continued to drink his coffee as he told his story. "My mom got worried because I wasn't coming home some nights. She had me tailed and the PI managed to get pictures of what was going on. It about killed my mom. She confronted me when I came home one morning. I didn't believe her. My boyfriend was always so kind and sweet. We looked like the poster couple for gay happiness. She took me to the hospital that morning and had a drug panel run and a rape kit processed. After the drug test came back positive and the test showed that I had had sex with multiple people, she showed me the photos. I was broken. The man I loved was pimping me out. She filed charges and the three of them went to jail, but she wanted me away from Paris for a while. She brought me back here to live with my dad. That summer after the 9th grade was the first time we had spent summer break in Paris. The previous years we had come here to spend those two months here with my dad. But my mother had taken a special assignment that July and we had stayed in Paris. I'm sure I just said things that don't make sense on some level. I went to school at Roosevelt for 10th grade, but I missed my friends in Paris and I begged to go back. My parents agreed, but my ex-boyfriend and his friends managed to 'behave' in jail and they're getting paroled in October. Two years." He didn't say anything for a few minutes and regrouped. "My mom took a 1-year assignment here and we're both living with my dad. Maybe some time I'll try to explain that, but let's just leave it at my parents love each other and they love me and they've been doing this weird living together, not living together thing since I was eight. In Paris, my mom and I lived with my grandparents. We're going to family counseling now, so maybe I'll actually figure it out and understand it myself. So, needless to say, the fun conversations the two of us used to have about books and movies and music moved from 'fun' to 'childish' in my mind as a 21-year old pimp groomed me. Honest to God, I wish I had kept talking to you about those 'childish' things and I had never gotten that fake ID."
*!*!*!*!*!*
"Wow. That's really a terrible thing to have happen. I don't really know what to say."
"There isn't really anything to say. I'm pretty sure that you said you lived in Ohio, not New York."
"Please keep that to yourself. None of us is really saying where we moved here from. We just want a clean start."
"Got it."
"But you're right. We all lived in Ohio until this summer when Paul and Judy bought the main house and construction began on this new section."
"I got the impression that you and your dad got along. What happened that you've moved several states away with your boyfriend?"
Kurt explained the basics of what had happened when he and Dave started dating, and then how things changed once Burt moved Carole and Finn in. While he talked, he put their mugs in the dishwasher and cleaned the coffee pot. When he ran out of things to clean and put away, he moved to the futon and they sat facing each other while Kurt talked. When he finished, he said, "I only told you because you opened up about what happened to you. I'm not sure what, if any, of that I will be telling people here."
"Some of what you said doesn't make any sense."
"I know, but telling you my story is different than telling everyone's story. Maybe as the year goes on, everyone will feel more like sharing, but the other four have to tell their stories when they're ready. Their stories aren't mine to tell."
"I respect that. So, we'll just move on and never talk about what we've told each other this afternoon. We're both in New York. We were friends for nearly two years, maybe we can be again."
"I'd like that. Is it going to bother you to be around me and Dave?"
"Honestly, I don't know. I've avoided spending time around couples and stuck to my no-strings-attached lifestyle the past year. I guess we'll see how the counseling goes and how I feel when he's around. I refused to go to counseling when I was in Paris but I'm ready to deal with things and I want to be ready to move on and not have it affect me so much, if that's even possible. One question. When we spent so much time talking before, why did you never tell me about the bullying?"
"You were this one small part of my life that I didn't tell anyone about. You were like this fairy tale friend that didn't judge me because I was gay and if I had told you I was being bullied, you would have asked why and I was afraid of losing you if you hated me for being gay like the guys at school. And in the end I lost you anyway."
"I lost me too. And you."
"It's not like you told me that you were gay either."
"I guess I never thought about it. Being gay where I lived was no big deal. We didn't talk about who we had crushes on or anything and I never thought to mention it for the exact opposite reason you didn't mention it. It seemed of no consequence to our interactions – something that had no bearing on anything that went on between us. You saw it as the exact opposite. For me it was of no consequence and for you it was a potential end to our friendship."
"We can pick up where we left off if you want."
"I'd like that. When I went to Roosevelt for 10th grade, I kept to myself mostly. I participated in the music classes and clubs and the related events and competitions. I didn't put any effort into becoming close friends with anyone, but I wasn't antisocial."
"We can talk more, but for now I think we need to practice that play we have to read in class on Thursday. Paul and Judy will be home soon and we'll need to go to that shop to order our choir and ballet stuff when they get here because the store is only open until 7:00."
"Right." He opened his backpack and pulled out his French folder and pulled out the play.
Once Kurt had his out, they started to read through their parts. About halfway through their second reading, they stopped when they heard a key in the door.
Dave opened the door and came in. He was surprised to see someone sitting in the living room with Kurt. "Hey. I'm sorry I didn't catch your name this morning, but I saw you in the choir room."
"Sebastian Smythe."
"Dave Karofsky." Dave walked behind the futon, heading towards their study.
"Sebastian and I got paired in AP French. We have to do part of this play the day after tomorrow in class. I invited him over for coffee so we could work on it. Madame Delacroix seems quite exigent. She speaks only French in class. How was your class?"
"I liked it. I think it will be pretty interesting."
"Dave's taking two college classes in the afternoons."
"Cool."
"How was the ice rink?"
"It's really nice. I'm definitely out of shape though. I definitely need to start going several times a week." He put his backpack next to his desk and came back out. "I didn't see another car outside."
"That's because mine was making a weird sound. My mom dropped me off at school this morning."
"He's going to go to the shop with us and order his choir stuff. Judy said he could stay for dinner, and then we can take him home."
"Okay. I'm going to go see if I can get through the reading for this class before we have to go."
"Sebastian and I will go down to the studio so our rehearsing won't bother you." Kurt stood up, grabbed the script, and headed toward the door.
Sebastian picked his backpack up and followed Kurt into the studio.
"When you said 'studio' I didn't imagine a room this big."
"We can hold Harmonichords rehearsals here if we ever need to." Kurt plopped down on the sofa.
Sebastian sat facing him and looked at his script to find his place.
"Is it okay with you if I tell Dave that we were pen pals in 8th and 9th grade? I won't tell him anything about what happened to you. I would only tell him the part about us figuring out that we were pen pals."
"Sure. Do you care if other people know that?"
"No. I don't really think anyone is going to ask either one of us why we quit being pen pals. I'm not going to tell anyone what you told me upstairs."
"I believe you. I won't tell anyone what you told me either." He looked back at his paper and began to read his part.
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Paul and Judy texted everyone that they were home at 5:45. The four teens left in the Navigator and Paul and Judy took Judy's car. Sebastian's parents ended up meeting them at the shop. Introductions went around until Claire and Andrew Smythe had met everyone.
The teens were quickly measured for their outfits. The guys were getting black slacks, black button up shirts, black, burgundy and gold brocade vests and matching bow ties. Quinn was fitted for a burgundy 50's styled sleeveless dress with a high v-neck with a full skirt that came right below the knees, a black crinoline, and a waist sash that matched the guys' vests, as well as a pair of knee length leggings.
While their orders were being written up, the teens except Sebastian tried shoes on. As soon as they found what they needed, the teens headed to the dance shop to get started on what they needed there. By the time Paul and Judy arrived, Kurt and Quinn were ready to check out. While they had been at the other shop waiting in line to pay, Paul had invited Claire and Andrew to eat with them as well. Everyone headed to the Karofsky's.
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Sebastian stopped behind Kurt when he was getting the bags from the dance store out of the back of the Navigator. "I told my mom that you are Eli. She knew about you. She will have told my dad on the drive over here. I told her not to talk about it at dinner – to give you a chance to tell Dave."
"Thanks." Kurt shut the back and they headed around the side of the garage.
Sebastian walked past the apartment entrance down to the porch of the main house, while Kurt went in and upstairs and put the dance clothes in the washer. He set his phone timer to five minutes before the washer was due to stop and went back downstairs to join everyone in the kitchen.
Dave and Quinn had finished setting the table by the time he got downstairs. He took his seat between Dave and Sebastian.
Judy was the last to sit down. "My apologies for our first time having you over that we're serving pizza. With planning to go to get the clothes the kids needed and it being the first day of work for me, I had decided to pick up pizza for dinner rather than trying to make something after we got back."
Claire said, "Don't worry. Really. It was just really nice of you to invite all of us over. Sebastian and I have only been back here for a couple of weeks and we've spent that getting ourselves moved in and settled. We've had Chinese, Indian, and Mexican delivery several times."
"We've all been here together for not quite two weeks, as well," Judy said. "I've been here most of the summer, but everyone else arrived over time. So, our getting settled has been a long process." She talked about bring the cars and their belongings over as the summer went on. "But we're all settled in now. The kids got their apartments finished over the weekend and all we have left now to finish is our office, which should be done this coming weekend."
Andrew said, "Apartments?"
"Yes," Paul responded. "We moved here to provide the kids with a better education and because we wanted to be closer to them. They all wanted to move to the East Coast for college and afterwards. So, we built two apartments above the garage so they can live here during college without having to share kitchen and living room space with us. It was a lot more cost effective to build the apartments than for them to live with us in a large house for a year and then move out and have to rent some place, leaving us with a large house to sell or keep up with just the two of us living in it. This give all of us the privacy we need, while allowing us to still spend time together easily."
"I see," Andrew said. "It's an interesting idea."
The adults continued to talk to each other after they finished eating and the teens excused themselves and went into the studio to do their assigned reading.
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Kurt hung the dance clothes up to dry when he went up to get his books. Dave followed him up and grabbed his business class textbook. He stopped Kurt before they got to the door and kissed him.
"So, you've made a new friend already."
"He's actually an old friend." Kurt explained quickly.
He shook his head and chuckled. "Small world." He kissed Kurt again before they went downstairs.