Blaine was nervous about the solos announcement, although he wasn't sure why – he'd never got this anxious before. He wondered if it was because Kurt looked so worried, wringing his hands and sitting bolt upright on the sofa. Blaine grabbed Kurt's hands and squeezed them.
"Please," he said, looking at Kurt, "stop stressing. There's nothing we can do about it now anyway, so just... relax."
That seemed to help a bit: Kurt sighed and leaned back. Blaine ignored the raised eyebrows that Stefan and Hugo exchanged.
Before Kurt could say anything, though, Wes stood up and the room quietened immediately.
"So this is just a quick meeting, guys," Wes said. "But we've counted the votes and are here to announce who will be hosting the Christmas fête!"
There were a couple of cheers and a smatter of applause.
"Now," Wes motioned for silence, "it same to a four-way tie, so the council has made the final decision. But, because of their great dynamics and clear ability to work together – " Kurt held his breath " – we have decided that the hosts of the fête will be Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson!"
The Warblers applauded like there was no tomorrow, and Blaine felt a hundred congratulatory claps on the shoulder. Kurt was speechless and turned in his seat to hug Blaine – a hug that Blaine immediately returned.
When the room died down, Wes said, "so we'll discuss the details next week. Congrats, guys. Okay, then, everyone feel free to go!"
A mass of boys leapt to their feet and headed for the door. Blaine and Kurt stayed sat down, as usual, until the room was a bit clearer, but this time Blaine waited until even the Warbler council had left.
"Well done," he said to Kurt.
"You too." There was a pause. "Do you want to go get lunch?"
Blaine sighed, and then laughed. "Yes. I do. But I wanted to ask your advice about girls first."
Kurt burst out laughing.
"No, I'm serious," Blaine said. "Because tonight I've got my rehearsal with... Nicole." He said her name through gritted teeth. "I've barely spoken to a girl since I transferred from my last school, so I was just wondering if you could give me any pointers."
Kurt smiled. "Well, I am definitely not the person to come to. But what kind of thing?"
Blaine sighed. "I think that she might try to have sex with me."
Kurt visibly bristled, the paused and laughed. "I've never had that problem personally," he said slowly.
"I know, I know." Blaine smiled, and said, "I just don't know what to do about it."
Kurt headed towards the door. "Eat some lunch to get your strength up?" he suggested.
Blaine laughed. "Alright, fine."
By the time Blaine was sat down in Maths, he'd stopped paying attention and started wondering why time always went faster when you were trying to put something off. He glanced up at the clock, double-taking when he saw it was twenty minutes later than it had been when he'd last looked. Where was the time going?
He sat back in his seat, pushing the chair onto its back legs and scratching the back of his neck with his pen. The equations in his textbook glared at him and he glared back.
Buzz. Blaine froze and set his jaw. If that's Nicole... he thought in exasperation. She been messaging him every so often with trivial – and often pointless – things:
Nicole: they wer plyin bby its col outside in 4eva 21!
Nicole: my frend sez ur cute 3
Nicole: can u b werin ur jaket 4 fri?
Before Blaine knew it, though, the bell had done and he was walking down the corridor, swept up in the sea of students.
It was nearly a fifteen-minute walk to Crawford Country Day, but it was a straightforward one. Blaine knew that the girls' school finished later than Dalton, so wasn't surprised when he saw a stream of girl heading out the gates as he arrived. As a boy (and in Dalton uniform, no less) he got several looks from the girls as he awkwardly loitered by the gates. He half-hoped that Nicole wouldn't recognise him and he could just go home.
No such luck. A slim blonde girl, taller than Blaine in her high-heeled shoes, broke off from the group of friends Blaine recognised from the Facebook pictures and marched over to him, flicking her hair over one shoulder as she walked. Blaine could see that she knew she looked good.
"Blaine Anderson," she said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. She held out her hand in such a way that said she expected him to kiss it.
Conscious of the group of her friends still watching them, Blaine smiled politely and shook the hand pleasantly. "Hi, Nicole."
Looking slightly put off by Blaine's disobedience, Nicole smoothed down her shirt slowly, catching Blaine's eye and saying, "let's go, then."
Blaine pursed his lips. "Sure." He motioned for her to lead the way, which she did after a backwards glance to her friends, who all giggled irritatingly. Luckily, none of them saw Blaine's eyeroll.
They walked to Nicole's house, which was about twenty minutes away. Initially, Nicole talking – fairly solidly, and about herself. Blaine made an effort to listen and "ah"ed and "oh"ed in all the appropriate places. After about ten minutes, Nicole finally ran out of things to say and silence fell, only to be broken with an evidently very staged, "so, Blaine, have you got a girlfriend?"
Blaine looked at her. He'd expected the question, he supposed, but even so...
"No," Blaine answered. "No, I haven't."
Nicole looked a bit too pleased with that response for Blaine's liking, but before he could say anything else, Nicole pulled out her phone and started typing. Blaine sighed, staring down at the pavement in desperation.
Nicole's house was huge. Double-garage, that you had to walk past to get to the front door. Front door with a giant lionhead brass knocker. Front garden with colour-coordinated flower beds and symmetrical arrangement of birdbaths. Hallway with rug, chandelier, umbrella stand, hat stand, mirror, cupboard and bookshelf. Blaine noticed that the bookshelf held trophies and no books. Nicole slung her bad in the corner by the door and motioned for Blaine to do the same. He leant his rucksack carefully by the hat stand.
"So, it's just you and your parents here?" he asked.
Nicole shrugged. "My brother comes to stay sometimes, but he'd got his own place cos he's a college in Indiana," she answered, leaning playfully on the stair banister. After a short pause, she said, "do you want to rehearse in my bedroom?" Blaine noticed slightly odd emphasis on the word "rehearse".
"Alright," Blaine replied. Nicole looked far too satisfied with that response, and led the way up the stairs. Blaine felt his pocket buzz, and glanced at his phone to see a text from Kurt.
How's your rehearsal going?
Blaine's heart wanted to text back immediately, but his brain said it would be rude and, with a sigh, he put his phone back in pocket and trudged up the stairs after Nicole.
Nicole's room was such a cliché Blaine almost laughed. The walls were a pastel pink colour, with a noticeboard covered in photographs of Nicole and various other girls, and there were cuddly toys everywhere. In the centre of the room against the wall was a queen-size bed with floral covers, which Nicole sat down on and motioned for Blaine to do too.
Blaine sat down but left a space between Nicole and himself. She kicked off her shoes and crossed her legs, pulling her skirt up so it no longer covered her knees and left a bit of her thigh exposed.
Blaine sighed. "Do you have a backing track?"
Nicole paused, looking slightly confused. "What?"
"For 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'," Blaine said, raising his eyebrows. "Unless you don't want one."
Nicole leant away from Blaine slightly. "Oh. Well, no, I don't."
Blaine smiled wryly and pulled the CD he'd used to rehearse with Kurt out his pocket. "Well, we can use this one, if you want," he said quietly, feeling like he was betraying Kurt. That was their track, and now he would sing with Nicole and spoil everything.
Nicole smiled at Blaine and snatched the disc out his hand, crawling across the bed to put it in her CD player. Blaine wondered whether she meant to stay in that position for as long as she did and came to conclusion that she probably did. He rubbed his eyes wearily as the music started.
To Nicole's credit, she was an excellent singer. Unfortunately, she had a terrible sense of personal space and consistently attempted to lean on, hug and dance with Blaine – in spite of the lyrics that she was singing.
Blaine tried to forget where he was, thinking about singing it with Kurt the day before yesterday. He heard her voice and tried to hear Kurt's. By the end of the song, he'd almost managed it, seeing Kurt's blue eyes instead of her brown ones. He sat down on the bed next to her just like he had with Kurt on the sofa in the Warblers' hall for the last line of the song.
Before he knew it, though, Nicole had leant in and pressed her lips to his. Blaine felt a cry of surprise rise in his throat but come out his nose as "mmm!". He pushed her shoulders, and leant backwards, wild-eyed. She smiled at him teasingly. "You alright, Blaine?" she asked, not sounding as though she meant to be concerned.
"No," Blaine replied firmly, shaking his head. "Nicole, I think we should keep our relationship strictly professional – "
"Professional, gotcha." She winked.
Blaine frowned. "As in, we just perform this song and we go our separate ways."
Nicole narrowed her eyes, trying to read him. "What?" she said huffily. "You don't think I'm hot?"
"What?" Blaine asked, bewildered.
"Is that what this is? That's a really dick move, Blaine! Sending me all those Facebook messages and then you finally meet me and you think I'm not as hot as I look in my photos! Well, screw you!"
Blaine opened his mouth to respond, but couldn't think of anything to say. "What?" he asked again.
"What?" Nicole said back angrily.
Blaine took a breath. "Nicole, I came here to rehearse a song with you."
She folded her arms stubbornly. "But you don't think I'm hot."
"I never said that – "
"So you do think I'm hot?" Nicole raised her eyebrows expectantly.
Blaine paused, not sure what to say. "Nicole... I... um..."
Nicole looked at him. "You like someone else."
Blaine stared at her. "How –?"
"Your face," she replied matter-of-factly. She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Does she go to my school?" she asked tetchily.
Blaine almost laughed. "No."
"Do I know her?"
"I doubt it."
"What's her name?"
Blaine paused. "Well, we've rehearsed now, I'd better be going – "
"What's her name?" Nicole almost shouted.
Blaine swallowed. "His name's Kurt."
Nicole looked horrified. "You're..."
Blaine waited for her to finish, but she didn't. "Yeah. I am," he answered anyway.
She sniffed self-importantly and looked down. "Blaine, I think you should go."
Blaine frowned, but stood up. "Alright," he said, fetching his CD, heading out the door, down the stairs, grabbing his bag and letting himself out.