WHERE IT BEGINS
Thank you all for your wonderful reviews, favourites, and alerts! They truly made me as happy as Klaine's first kiss! Which meant I was squealing...a lot. Hehe, also note the change in rating to M. I've realized in this chapter that I might have to change is because of Santana's dream she has...Plus in the future I may just have a wee bit of Klaine smut in here in future chapters, plus in a future party scene where things get a little out of hand.
Disclaimer: I do not own Wake or Glee. If I did, then I would not be here...
When things are in italics, its symbolizes a dream sequence. When things are bolded underline, it means to state a point in time.
Words: 4,140
Evening, November 23, 2001
Kurt Hummel is eight. He wears a thin, faded red-print dress top with too-short sleeves, faded blue jeans, gray moon boots, and a brown coat that is missing two buttons. His short, dark brown hair stands up with static. He rides on an Amtrak train with his Mother from their home in Lima, Ohio, to New York to visit his grandmother. Mother reads the Globe across from him. There is a picture on the cover of an enormous man wearing a powder-blue tuxedo. Kurt rests his head against the window, watching his breath make a cloud on it.
The cloud blurs Kurt's vision so slowly that he does not realize what is happening. He floats in the fog for a moment, and then he is in a large room, sitting at a conference table with five men and three women. At the front of the room is a tall, balding man with a briefcase. He stands in his underwear, giving a presentation, and he is flustered. He tries to speak but he cannot get his mouth around the words. The other adults are all wearing crisp suits. They laugh and point at the bald man in his underwear.
The bald man looks at Kurt.
And then he looks at the people who are laughing at him.
His face crumples in defeat.
He holds his briefcase in front of his privates, and that makes the others laugh harder. He runs to the door of the conference room, but the handle is slippery and something slimy drips from it. He can't get it open; it squeaks and rattles loudly in his hand, and the people at the table double over. The man's underwear is grayish-white, sagging. He turns to Kurt again, with a look of panic and pleading.
Kurt doesn't know what to do.
He freezes.
The train's brakes whine.
And the scene grows cloudy and is lost in fog.
"Kurt!" Kurt's mother is leaning towards Kurt. Her breath smells like gin, and her straggly hair falls over one eye. "Kurt, I said, maybe Grandma will take you to that big fancy sports store. I thought you would be excited about that, but I guess not." Kurt's mother sips from a flask in her ratty old purse. Kurt would never go into a sports store. His mother knows that. He has never liked sports. They were in New York, what Kurt wanted to do was go to Broadway and what he wanted to see was 45 Seconds From Broadway.
Kurt focuses on his mother and smiles. "That sounds fun," he says, even though he doesn't like sports. He would rather have a new cardigan sweater. He wriggles on the seat, trying to adjust his worn out shirt. The fabric is stretched and the colour is horribly faded. He would love to go shopping but he knew that they couldn't afford the clothes that he wanted. He thinks about the bald man and scrunches his eyes. Weird.
When the train stops, they take their bags and step into the aisle. In front of Kurt's mother, a disheveled, bald businessman emerges from his compartment.
He wipes his face with a handkerchief.
Kurt stares at him.
His jaw drops. "Whoa," he whispers.
The man gives him a bland look when he sees him staring, and turns to exit the train.
September 6, 2004, 3:05 P. M.
Kurt sprints to catch the bus after his first day of sixth grade. Santana Lopez, one of the Lima's North Side girls, sticks her foot out, sending Kurt sprawling across the gravel. Santana laughs all the way to her mother's shiny red Jeep Cherokee. Kurt fights back the urge to cry, and dusts himself off. He climbs on the bus, flops into the front seat, and looks at the dirt and blood on the palms of his hands, and the rip in the knee of his already well-worn pants.
Sixth grade makes his throat hurt.
He leans his head against the window.
When he gets home, Kurt walks past his mother, who is on the couch watching One Life to Live and drinking from a clear glass bottle. Kurt washes his stinging hands carefully, dries them, and sits down next to his mother, hoping she'll notice. Hoping she'll say something.
But Kurt's mother is asleep now.
Her mouth is open.
She snores lightly.
The bottle tips in her hand.
Kurt sighs, sets the bottle on the beat-up coffee table, and starts his homework.
Halfway through his math homework, the room turns black.
Kurt is rushed into a bright tunnel, like a multicolored kaleidoscope. There's no floor, and Kurt is floating while the walls spin around him. It makes him feel like throwing up.
Next to Kurt in the tunnel is his mother, and a man who looks like a bald Jesus. But Kurt doesn't believe in God. Why should he? The man and Kurt's mother are holding hands and flying. They look happy. Kurt yells, but no sound comes out. He wants it to stop.
He feels the pencil fall from his fingers.
Feels his body slump to the arm of the couch.
Tries to sit up, but with all the whirling colors around him, he can't tell which way is upright. He over compensates and falls the other way, onto his mother.
The colours stop, and everything goes black.
Kurt hears his mother grumbling.
Feels her shove him.
Slowly the room comes into focus again, and Kurt's mother slaps Kurt in the face.
"Get offa me," his mother says. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Kurt sits up and looks at his mother. His stomach churns, and he feels dizzy from the colours. "I feel sick," he whispers, and then he stands up and stumbles to the bathroom to vomit.
When he peers out, pale and shaky, his mother is gone from the couch, retired to her bedroom.
Thank God, Kurt thinks. He splashes cold water on his face.
December 1, 2006, 7:29 A. M.
A U-Haul truck pulls up next door. Two men and a girl Kurt's age climb out and sink into the snow-covered driveway. Kurt watches them from his bedroom window.
The girl is dark-haired and pretty.
Kurt wonders if she'll be snooty, like all the other kids who call Kurt names at school. Maybe, since this new girl lives next to Kurt on the wrong side of town, they'll call her names too.
However, she's really pretty.
Pretty enough to make a difference.
Kurt dresses hurriedly, puts on his boots and coat, and marches next door to have the first chance to get to the girl before the North Siders get to her. Kurt's desperate for a friend.
"You guys want some help?" Kurt asks in a voice more confident than he feels.
The girl stops in her tracks. A smile deepens the dimples in her cheeks, and she tilts her head to the side. "Hi," she says in a small voice. "I'm Rachel Berry."
Rachel's chocolate brown eyes sparkle.
Kurt's heart leaps. He has finally made a friend.
"I'm Kurt Hummel." Kurt replied with enthusiasm and shakes her hand.
The two men come out and Rachel introduces us to them, "These are my dads, Leroy and Hiram." She said, as the two men shook his hand.
"You have two dads?" Kurt asked her.
"Yes, they are what people call gay." She said. "It means that someone of one gender likes the person of the same gender."
He was happy that there were people like him around. He was always teased for being gay. He didn't know why he was, he has just always know that he was.
"Why don't you two kids go play in the backyard for a while?" Leroy suggested to the two thirteen year old children.
Rachel grabbed Kurt's hand eagerly and dragged him to the back yard.
December 18, 2006, 7:34 P. M.
Kurt is thirteen.
He doesn't have a sleeping bag, but Rachel has an extra that Kurt can use. Kurt sets his plastic grocery bag on the floor by the couch in Rachel's living room.
Inside the bag: a hand-made birthday gift for Rachel, Kurt's pajamas, and a toothbrush.
He's nervous. But Rachel is chattering enough for both of them, waiting for Rachel's other new friend, Santana Lopez, to show up.
Yes, that Santana Lopez.
Santana of the Lima North Side Lopez.
Apparently, Santana Lopez is also the president of the Make Kurt Hummel Miserable Club. Kurt wipes his sweating hands on his jeans.
When Santana arrives, Rachel doesn't fawn over her. Kurt nods hello.
Santana smirks. Tries to whisper something to Rachel, but Rachel ignores her and says, "Hey! Let's do Kurt hair." he instinctively threw his hands up to his hair. Rachel knows that Kurt doesn't like it when people touch his hair.
Santana throws a daggered look at Rachel.
Rachel smiles brightly at Kurt, asking her with her eyes if it's okay.
Kurt squelches a grin, and Santana shrugs and pretends like she doesn't mind after all.
The three teenagers slowly grow more comfortable, or maybe just resigned, with one another.
Even though Kurt knows it's killing her. The girls put on makeup and watch Rachel's favorite movies of old Broadway Shows, some of which Kurt had never heard of before. And then they play truth or dare.
Rachel alternates: truth, dare, truth, dare.
Santana always picks truth.
And then there's Kurt.
Kurt never picks truth.
He's a dare boy.
That way, nobody gets inside.
He can't afford to let anyone inside.
They might find out about his secret.
The giggles become hysterics when Santana's dare for Kurt is to run outside through the snow barefoot, around to the backyard, take off all of his clothes except for his underwear, and make a snow angel.
Kurt does not have a problem doing that.
Because, really, what does he have to lose?
He'll take that dare over giving up his secrets any day.
Santana watches Kurt, arms folded in the cold night air, and with a sneer on her face, while Rachel giggles and helps Kurt get his sweatshirt and jeans back on his wet body.
They trudge back inside for popcorn.
11:34 P. M.
The noise level in the living room of Rachel's house fades along with the lights after Leroy stomps to the doorway and hollers at the three teenagers to be quiet and get to sleep.
Kurt zips up the musty-smelling sleeping bag and closes his eyes, but he is too hyper to sleep after that exhilarating naked snow angel. He had a fun evening despite Santana. He learned what it's like to be a rich kid (sounds nice for about a day, but too many stinking lessons), and that Finn Hudson is supposedly the hottest boy in the class (in Rachel's mind that is, and Kurt has to silently agree with his best friend), and what people like Santana do four times a year (they take vacations to exotic places). Who knew?
Now the hushed giggles subside around him, and Kurt opens his eyes to stare at the dark ceiling. He is glad to be here, even though Santana teases him about his clothes. Santana even had the nerve to ask Kurt why he never wears anything new. But Rachel shut her up with a sudden exclamation: "Kurt, you look simply stunning with your hair styled like that. Doesn't he, Santana?"
For the first time ever, Kurt's hair is styled a way he liked. Upward in a neat fashion. Rachel had given him one of her dads old hair gel containers that they keep in abundance at her house. She said how they enjoyed using it and figured that Kurt would like it too. Rachel had taught him how to style it by what she remembered her dads doing when they lived at their old house. He had loved it and only uses it on special occasions.
He has to pee, but he is afraid to get up, in case Rachel's dad, Leroy, hears him and he begins to yell at him again. He rests quietly like the other girls, listening to them breathe as they drift off to sleep. Santana is in the middle, curled on her side facing Rachel, her back to Kurt.
12:14 A. M.
The ceiling clouds over and disappears. Kurt blinks and he is at school, in civics class.
He looks around and realizes he is not in his normal fourth-period class, but in the class that follows his. He stands at the back of the room. There are no empty seats. Mr. Montgomery, the teacher, drones about the judicial branch of government and what the Supreme Court justices wear under their robes. No one seems surprised that Mr. Montgomery is teaching them this. Everyone knows of his obsession with law. Some of the kids take notes.
Kurt looks around at the faces in the room. In the third row, seated at the center desk, is Santana. Santana has a dreamy look on her face. She is staring at someone in the next row, one seat forward. As the teacher talks, Santana stands up slowly and approaches the person she's been staring at. From the back of the room, Kurt cannot see who it is.
The teacher doesn't appear to notice. Santana kneels next to the desk and touches the person's hand. In slow motion, the person turns to Santana, touches her cheek, and then leans forward. The two of them kiss. After a moment, they both rise to their feet, still kissing. When they part, Kurt still can see the face of Santana's kissing partner. Santana leads her partner by the hand to the front of the room and opens the door of the supply closet. The bell rings, and like ants, the students crowd at the door to leave.
The ceiling in Rachel Berry's living room reappears as Santana sighs and flops onto her stomach in the sleeping bag next to Kurt. Cripes! thinks Kurt. He looks at the clock. Its 1:23 A. M.
1:24 A. M.
Kurt rolls to his side and he's walking into a forest.
It's dark from shade, not night. A few rays of weak sunlight slip through the tree cover. Walking in front of Kurt is Rachel. They walk for what seems to be a mile or more, and suddenly a rushing river appears a few steps in front of them. Rachel stops and cups her ear, listening for something. She calls out in a desperate voice, "Beth!" Over and over, Rachel calls the name, until the forest rings with her voice.
Rachel walks along the high bank and stumbles over a tree root. Kurt bumps into her, falls, and then Rachel helps him up. She gives Kurt a puzzled look and says, "You've never been here." Rachel turns back to her search for Beth, her cries growing louder.
There is a splash in the river, and a little girl appears above the surface, bobbing and moving swiftly in the current. Rachel runs along the bank and cries, "Beth! Get out of there! Beth!"
The girl grins and chokes on the water. She goes under and resurfaces. Rachel is frantic. She reaches out her hand to the girl, but it makes no difference the bank is too high, the river too wide for her to come close to reaching her. She is crying now. Kurt registers her appearance: she has dark brown, curly hair and bright hazel eyes. She can't be more than eight years old.
Kurt watches, his heart pounding. The girl is still grinning and choking, falling under the water. She is drowning.
"Help her!" Screams Rachel. "Save her!"
Kurt leaps toward the girl in the water, but he lands on the bank in the same spot he took off from. He tries again as Rachel screams, but the results are the same.
The girl's eyes are closed now. Her grin has turned eerie. From the water behind the girl, an enormous Great White shark bursts above the surface, mouth open, hundreds of sharp teeth gleaming. It closes its mouth around the little girl and disappears.
Rachel sits up in her sleeping bag and screams.
Kurt screams too, but it catches in his throat.
His voice is hoarse.
His fingers are numb.
His body shakes from the nightmare.
The two friends look at each other in the darkness, while Santana stirs, groans, and goes back to sleep.
"Are you okay?" Kurt whispers, sitting up.
Rachel nods, breathing hard. She whisper-laughs, embarrassed. Her voice shakes. "I'm sorry I woke you. Bad dream." She says.
Kurt hesitates. "You want to talk about it?" He asks. His mind is racing.
"Nah. Go back to sleep." Rachel rolls to her side. Santana stirs, rolls a few inches closer to Rachel, and is quiet again.
Kurt glances at the clock. 3:42 a. m. He is exhausted. He drifts off to sleep.
3:51 A. M.
He is jolted awake when he falls into a huge, beautiful bedroom.
There are framed posters of Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner on the walls. At a desk sits Santana, doodling on the edge of her notebook. Kurt tries to blink himself out of the room. He feels himself sit up in the sleeping bag, but his motions don't affect what he sees. He lies back down, resigned to watch.
Santana is drawing hearts. Kurt walks toward her. He says, "Santana," but no sound comes out. When someone knocks on the bedroom window, Santana looks over and smiles.
"Help me open this window, will you?" she asks him. It's the nicest thing she has ever said to him, and this confuses him.
Kurt stares at Santana. Santana stares back, then points to the window with a jerk of her head. Kurt, feeling compelled, stumbles over to the window next to Santana and they open it. Rachel climbs in.
She is naked from the waist up.
And has breasts the size of watermelons.
The breasts sway from side to side when Rachel scrambles over the sill.
She walks through Kurt and stands shyly in front of Santana.
Kurt tries to turn away, but he can't. He waves a hand in front of Rachel's face, but Rachel doesn't respond. Santana winks at Kurt and folds Rachel into her arms. They embrace and kiss. Kurt rolls his eyes, and suddenly all three are back in Mr. Montgomery civics classroom. Once again, Santana is embracing someone in the aisle. It's Rachel. She leads Rachel to the front of the room. Kurt can see that no one else in the class gives an ounce of notice to the naked Rachel and her enormous breasts.
Kurt sits up in his sleeping bag again and shakes his head wildly. He feels his head banging on the ground as he falls backwards, but he is unable to remove himself from the classroom. He is forced not only to be there, but also to watch.
Santana glides to the supply closet and leads Rachel in there with her. Kurt, against his wishes, follows. Santana closes the door once Rachel and Kurt are inside, and Santana starts kissing Rachel on the lips again.
Kurt lunges in her sleeping bag blindly. And kicks Santana, hard.
And Kurt is back in Rachel's living room.
Santana sits up, hair disheveled, and scrambles around to look at Kurt. "What the hell did you do that for?" Santana is furious.
Feigning sleep, Kurt peers out of one eye. "Sorry," he mumbles. "There was a spider crawling over your sleeping bag. I saved your life."
"What?" She shrieked, frantically looking around her sleeping bag looking for the spider.
"Never mind, he's gone."
"Oh, great. Like I'm gonna get back to sleep now." She fumed and laid back down on her sleeping bag.
Kurt grins in the darkness. Its 5:51 A. M.
7:45 A. M.
Something nudges Kurt's legs. He opens his eyes, wondering where he is. Its pitch dark. Rachel turns the sleeping bag flap off Kurt's head. "Wake up, sleepyhead. The sunlight is blinding."
"Mmph," Kurt grunts. Slowly he sits up.
Rachel is balancing on her haunches, eyeing him, one brow raised.
Kurt remembers. Does Rachel?
"Did you sleep well?" Rachel asks.
Kurt's stomach twists. "Um, yeah." He gauges Rachel's reaction. "Did you?"
Rachel smiles. "Like a baby. Even on this hard floor."
"Ah, hmm. Well, that's great." Kurt scrambles to his feet and untwists from his pajamas. "Where's Santana?" he asks.
"She left about ten minutes ago. She was acting weird. Said she forgot she had a piano lesson at eight." Rachel snorts. "Duh."
Kurt laughs weakly. He's starving. The two teens fix breakfast. Rachel doesn't appear to remember her nightmare.
Kurt can't forget it.
As they munch on toast, Kurt steals a glance at Rachel's chest. Her breasts are the size of half an apple, each.
Kurt goes home, falls into bed, thinking about the strange night. Wondering if this ever happens to anyone else. Knowing, deep down, it probably doesn't.
He falls into a hard sleep until late afternoon.
Decides sleepovers are not for him.
They'll never be for him.
That's all she wrote guys! I do so hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Blaine will appear next chapter! Or should...lol. Please review as they mean the world to me!
Never step on a Hippogriff's hoof
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