The next few weeks at Dalton was odd. Or to be more exact, Blaine was being odd. Whenever they were in Warbler practice together, he would sulk, even more so when they were working on songs that he didn't have the lead in, though Kurt suspected he would have sulked anyway about that. Kurt did his best to not let it affect how he behaved, and for the most part felt like he succeeded. But then, suddenly, some rumors started going around the school. The first ones he heard, they all laughed about. But then one day at dinner, one of Tristan's classmates sat down next to him and whispered something in his ear. Kurt looked on curiously and saw the exact moment his boyfriend's face turned from confusion to shock.

"What?!"

"Yeah, I know, I tried to put them right, but they swore they had heard it from someone who had seen it."

"That's ridiculous, I wouldn't!"

"I know, man, but I wanted you to be prepared in case something came from it."

The boy left the table, and by now Kurt and all the boys around them were incredibly curious. Tristan looked up at Kurt, clearly hurt and confused, and Kurt made an executive decision that dinner was over.

"Want to go up to your room and talk?"

Tristan looked at him for a few seconds before nodding. "Yeah, and could Idra and Fred come to?" He nodded towards his two best friends. They started gathering up their empty plates, and Danny stopped them with a shake of his head.

"We'll take them, just go ahead."

"Thanks."

The four boys left the room in silence, Kurt holding onto Tristan's' hand, and having his squeezed hard. When they came to the dorm room, Tristan lay down on the bed with a thud and looked up at the ceiling. Before anyone could say anything, he broke the silence.

"There's a rumor going around that I'm dealing drugs."

Something in Kurt's brain froze. What? Tristan? He felt stuck to the floor and couldn't seem to move or make a sound. Thankfully, the two others in the room didn't seem to have that problem.

"What?" "From where?" "Who would even start a rumor like that?" The two boys talked over each other, but when there was no answer, Kurt somehow managed to focus again to see that all three boys were staring at him.

"Kurt?" Tristan's voice was timid, and Kurt realized what his reaction looked like. Like he would ever believe that about Tristan.

"I... I am literary shocked speechless. I ... I don't even. What?"

The conversation slowly moved onwards, and when, after a few hours, the three older boys had to leave to go to a class group study, Kurt messaged Danny and Robert to see if they were available for a talk. The three of them sat down in the cousin's dorm, and Kurt told them what had happened.

"And the worst of it is that Tristan is here on a scholarship. If they think he's been selling drugs, they can withdraw the money whether it's proved or not. And it could go on his record, ruin his future! I just don't know who would do something like this! And why!"

Danny and Robert looked at each other, and with a small nod between them, Danny started to talk.

"We think we know who it might be. We're pretty sure it's Blaine."

Kurt sat up. He had considered it, of course, but he didn't think the other boy would sink that low.

"It's time we told you why we don't like Blaine. We have another cousin, Andy. He was also here last year, he's a year younger than us, so the same age as Blaine. There were only singles left when Blaine showed up, so when he transferred here, it was Andy's job to show him around. Blaine started flirting pretty early on, and we all thought they were going to start dating. Andy came to us to talk about it, said he really liked Blaine, and it seemed, to all of us, that Blaine liked him too.

"There was a winter dance that year at this club, it's gone bankrupt now, but we would meet girls from Crawford there for date nights and so on, and Andy decided to ask Blaine to the dance. He did it in the common rooms, but quietly on a couch so only the two of them could hear.

"Blaine turned him down. And not only that, he made it into a big thing, got everyone's attention and basically called Andy a pathetic hang-on he hadn't been able to get rid of, and that he wasn't interested in dating someone who might as well be a stalker. Which he wasn't! We saw them together; it wasn't like that! And more people knew and liked Andy than Blaine, so thankfully, most of the school didn't believe him.

"But then Andy's mom, our aunt, got a great job opportunity in Washington, and so during the Christmas break, they all moved. When we came back, and Andy didn't, Blaine started all these rumors about Andy. At first it was all about how he couldn't handle being turned down and ran away. Then he started saying all these things about Andy stalking him, and maybe he should get a restraining order, and how the 'pathetic baby gay' had thought he had any real chance with Blaine. It was horrible. And people started to believe it.

"Thankfully, it petered out fairly soon, as Andy wasn't here himself, but it was horrible. I asked Blaine once, why. Why he had started those rumors, why he had flirted with Andy and turned him down. He just said, 'everyone wants to be liked', and walked away, like he hadn't done what he did."

Kurt sat in silent shock, tears in his eyes for this Bedivere cousin he hadn't gotten to meet. The anger was also starting to build underneath the sadness. It was easy enough to see what Blaine was trying to do. Get Tristan out of the way. Never mind that he would ruin Tristan's life with it, that didn't seem to factor into it at all.

He wiped his tears and looked at the two cousins. "Guys, I'm so sorry you and Andy had to go through that and thank you for telling me. I'm gonna... I'm gonna plan. I'm going to figure out a way to solve this somehow, so that if it does reach the administration, we'll have something to take to them."

Robert leaned in, an idea seeming to form for him. "Well, what if you did..."

"Blaine, what do you think you're doing?"

Blaine turned around at the voice and saw a steely eyed Kurt. The rest of the music room was empty, and Blaine had just finished practicing the piano.

Blaine took a second to fake confusion before asking back. "What do you mean?"

"The rumors you made up about Tristan. You think I wouldn't realize it was you?"

Blaine bit the inside of his cheek to hold himself back. He had hoped it wasn't about that, hoped Kurt somehow wouldn't figure it out and would instead believe the rumors and break up with Tristan for it.

"I don't know what you mean." He wanted Kurt available, not available and pissed off at him.

Kurt gave him a sarcastic smile, and Blaine's stomach tightened.

"What, you think I don't know how much you like to spread rumors? You think I don't know about Andy?"

Blaine tightened his jaw in anger. Andy had been a mistake. He was so sweet and helpful when Blaine met him, and Blaine had felt like here was someone he could date, who would do whatever Blaine wanted and be happy with that. But then Andy had asked him out, and it had been all wrong. Blaine was the one who was supposed to be in charge, Blaine should be the one to ask. When Andy had asked him, he had taken the upper hand, and that just didn't work for him. So, he had rejected Andy. Loudly. So that everyone knew that Andy was the loser and Blaine was the winner. And when Andy had moved away, it had been the perfect opportunity to make up some lies and make it seem like Blaine had been the leader, the man in charge the whole time. And it worked too, because he got the lead in the Warblers the next year.

And then Blaine met Kurt, and once more he thought he had found the perfect, willing boyfriend. But Kurt had cut off their contact. Blaine still didn't know why, but if Kurt knew about Andy, it was probably from Robert and Danny, who still hated Blaine for what he did to their cousin.

"Andy... Andy was a wimp and a loser, and, and, and a stalker and" Blaine's temper was building, and he was losing the control he had held onto so tightly.

"And Captain for the lacrosse team at his school, and dating a great guy a year older, and doing great. Without you." Kurt's dry voice broke the last semblance of control.

"NO! I win! I made sure everyone knew that he was a nobody and a nothing, just like I'll do to your boyfriend!" He spat the last word out, and he could feel his head boiling. He smiled cruelly at Kurt.

"The rumor is already spreading to the administration, and when they hear, they will kick his ass out of Dalton, and when he leaves, I'll be there to sweep you off your feet."

"But you know he didn't do it! He didn't do any drug selling, and he wouldn't!" The panic in Kurt's eyes fired Blaine up more.

"That doesn't matter. A rumor is enough to make people doubt, and when they doubt... well, it won't be long now."

"So, you don't care that you might be ruining a person's life? That he would be carrying a mark the rest of his life for something he didn't do?" Kurt seemed almost desperate, and Blaine took it all in, enjoying it.

He shrugged. "Not really, why should I? It's not my life. And to think, if you had just agreed to go out with me, none of this would be happening."

With a look of superiority on his face, Blaine shouldered his bag and left the room, leaving Kurt to his panic.

Kurt landed the last somersault with a steady 'thud' and lifted his hands in the air for the final pose. The crowd screamed and cheered, and his grin grew as he and the rest of the cheerleaders around him held the pose for a few more seconds before they ran off to the side. They were at Carmel, cheering on the Lacrosse team, and Kurt felt as if he was high on all the adrenaline. This is what he loved in performing, and why he had stuck it out with the Cheerios when Mercedes quit. It had been worth the rigorous training for him, to get to have that feeling, but at Dalton it was even better. They had to train, sure, and Kurt did learn some new tricks he hadn't known. But next to Coach Sylvester's insane training regiment, Dalton was nothing. Which meant that Kurt got the joy of performing without working himself to the bone.

The game started up again, and Kurt and the others cheered on the team. Sometimes, Kurt wished that Tristan was playing for one of the Dalton teams, just so they could go on these things together. He knew and understood why he wasn't, but it would have been fun to cheer his boyfriend on. There were a few guys Kurt knew in the team, but none of his close friends. Thankfully, neither was Blaine.

After their confrontation just a few days ago, Blaine had gone from being sulky to giving Kurt looks that weirded him out. At the Warblers meeting yesterday, Blaine had been visibly angry the whole way though. Apparently, he had wanted to perform something, and he had been pissed when the council and the teachers had been fully focused on working on what they wanted to do for regionals. As he had left the room, Kurt had overheard Blaine complain to Wes, asking him why they were trying to stop Blaine from expressing his feelings. Frankly, Blaine was acting like a child who wasn't getting his way, and Kurt was just hoping he and Tristan could get away from Blaine's crazy in one piece.

A few hours later, the two buses carrying the team and the Cheerleaders turned into Dalton, celebrating their victory on the way. Kurt had sent off a message to Tristan, letting him know he was back, and followed the girl in front of him off the bus. They were laughing about something as they walked off, but as he stepped into the parking lot, Kurt instantly felt uncomfortable. With a vary look, he cast his eyes around the lot, but it was dark and hard to see the corners. Something though, didn't feel right. He did his best to stick with the other boys, as the girls veered off to the minibus that would take them back to school, calling out goodbyes. Still, he hadn't been quite careful enough, and suddenly someone grabbed his shirt and pulled him into a dark corner, and a big hand covering his mouth.

Kurt's heart rabbited in his chest as he looked into the dark eyes of Dave Karofsky.