Authors Note: I'm gonna apologize now for this chapter being politically incorrect. Please don't kill me because I know that this is probably NOT how US schools are ran, but having only ever attended British schools my knowledge is limited. I've done my best to google as much info as i can but it's not great. So sorry! xoxo
Things were starting to look up, nothing more had been mentioned about the Anderson's move to the other end of the country and Kurt was hoping it wouldn't happen after all. He'd still taken to wishing on the brightest star in the sky every night before going to sleep and wishing really hard on every rainbow he saw. Just in case
Pam had taken them shopping for new school clothes, because everyone kept telling them how important it was to make a good first impression, Burt had agreed to drive both boys in on their first day and Cooper had even gave them some much needed advice, or at least he'd told them it was much needed. It had happened on a hot afternoon while both Kurt and Blaine had been sitting out on the grass reading magazines together in the Anderson's back yard. They'd both squealed and covered their heads with their arms as Cooper lept over them with his long legs and sat in front of them.
"Blainers. Kurt" He nodded "How does it feel to be starting High School in a few days?" Cooper asked
"It'd feel better if you quit sneaking up on us" Blaine huffed glaring at his older brother
Cooper rolled his eyes "Yeah whatever, Mom thinks I should talk to you about starting High school, she thinks I can give you some much needed advice"
"Make it quick then, we're busy" Blaine groaned, he knew what Cooper's talks were usually like and they were never fun
Cooper rose his eyebrows not believing him, he then cleared his throat, sat up straight and clapped his hands together before starting
"Alright, so High School, it's just like Middle School, only bigger, with upperclassmen and more freedom. If there's one thing you have to understand about High School it's drama, there's gonna be a lot of it. And if there was ever a time for the two of your to start standing up for yourselves it's now, that's definite, because Freshman are often underestimated and therefore looked down upon a lot. And the teachers, they won't care. They're going to start separating you based on intelligence now though so you need to keep your grades up or you'll end up at the bottom of the food chain and that's the worst" He gave both boys a serious look "Long story short, the weak get picked on, so stick with the people you trust because all the kids you've known since 1st grade?" he waited for them to nod "They won't even look at you or speak to you anymore. The bullies? They're gonna be bigger and older than you. And let's face it, neither of you are what we'd call High School ready"
He gestured at Blaine first "You're more like an overexcited puppy or a toddler that's had too much sugar, I've not yet decided, most of the time and over the Summer everyone will have had their growth spurt, just look at Kurt, he's had his. And sorry but, you haven't Squirt"
"I can't help that I've always been short for my age!" Blaine protested folding his arms
Cooper ignored Blaine's out burt and carried on, gesturing to Kurt too "You, I'm worried you're gonna get crushed by the gorillas you'll be attending school with. Do you think we've got time to fatten you up a bit before Monday? Give you some meat to protect your bones"
Kurt glared at Cooper, trying to silently murder him with his eyes
"I'm just saying" Cooper quickly added holding his hands up in surrender "Otherwise you'll both be dead by the end of the year"
Kurt and Blaine looked at each before staring at Cooper with mouths hanging open, neither knowing what to say. Or whether they should be taking him seriously or not. Why did he have to tell them all that days before their first day?!
"Don't look so worried, you'll be fine!" Cooper said with his smirk "That's so long as you don't look at anyone. Talk to anyone. Or get noticed of course" He listed off counting on his fingers
"So it's simple really, just be yourself and people will like you" With that he squeezed both of their shoulders before standing up and disappearing back instead. Leaving both teenagers terrified and confused.
"I bet he's just trying to scare us" Blaine finally said, not believing himself
"Well it's worked" Kurt said quietly
"Just ignore him" Blaine replied knowing it wouldn't be that easy
"Right" Kurt nodded.
"High School eh?" Burt asked folding the newspaper up
"Hhm" Kurt hummed around a mouthful of toast, his dad always picked the worst moments to start up a conversation
"Where does the time go?" Burt mused "I still remember dropping you off for your first day of Kindergarten..."
"Please, not this story again, dad" Kurt groaned
"Alright, alright" His dad laughed, deciding to hold off with the embarrassing stories for now "How are you feeling about it being your first day of High school?"
Kurt thought for a moment. Sipping on his orange juice. He supposed it was kind of exciting in some ways but who wants to be stuck in a school full of morons anyways? And on the other side the thought of it was scaring him as well. The bullies were still gonna be there and would probably be twice as mean. And Cooper's advice hadn't exactly helped.
"Fine I guess" He finally settled on with a shrug
"Don't worry too much, Buddy, you'll be fine. I bet you'll love it" His Dad smiled at him, Kurt tried to return it.
"You ready to go?" Burt asked brushing the toast crumbs from his chest
"Yeah, I think so" Kurt nodded glad to have something to do to distract his thoughts.
About half an hour later Kurt found himself stood at the school entrance with Blaine by his side. They'd picked him up from his house, after he'd fought off his mom who kept hugging and kissing him, Blaine spent the entire drive to school babbling about anything and everything. His anxiousness making him more talkative than usual.
"Ready?" Blaine asked biting nervously on his bottom lip
"As I'll ever be" Kurt nodded taking a deep breath and smoothing his clothes down.
There'd been an assembly first where the Principal had introduced himself as Principal Figgins and thanked them all for choosing to attend William McKinley High School, he'd then proceeded to babble on about the importance of school and all the other boring stuff that no one but the teachers really bothered to listen to.
Next the two found their way to Homeroom which was already half full. They just had to pick a seat and from the looks of everyone already there, Cooper had been right about at least one thing so far, they needed to choose wisely. A group of loud girls were already giggling together near the back and a few of the boys were discussing their Summer family vacations over the other side. Sounded like they'd had a much better time than Kurt had. His thoughts were broken when one of girls already sat at the back of the classroom pointed at them and let out a high pitched laugh. She had a pretty blue dress on and her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Kurt recognised her as Valentina Dangora, she'd never been nice to either of them, she came from a big family and was spoilt, she knew how to get anything she wanted and made sure she got it.
"Look at them!" She screeched and everyone turned to look, some frowning in confusion, wondering what they'd missed. Kurt jumped as though he'd just received an electric shock and looked down at what he was wearing to see what may be wrong.
"Kurt and Blaine sitting in a tree..." she began singing and laughter filled the room, a few of the others quickly joining in with her song and Blaine groaned, they'd not even been at school five minutes and the taunts were starting. Kurt ducked his head as heat spread across his face.
"K.I.S.S.I.N.G..." they went on and Blaine felt his face glow red with embarrassment too
Kurt quickly sat at an empty desk at the front of the classroom, dragging Blaine with him by the sleeve of his new shirt, Blaine sat in the seat beside his best friend making sure to avoid everyone's gaze. They could hear the others all still sniggering behind them, "So much for staying unnoticed" Kurt sighed.
"Cooper two, us zero" Blaine huffed "He was right, they're turning on us and we've not even been here a day!" Kurt was interrupted from saying anything back as their homeroom teacher arrived asking them all to be quiet. She seemed alright, Kurt mused, she wasn't all that old, her blonde hair tied back and her grey eyes covered by a pair of glasses.
"Hello class! Take your seats please, I'm Miss Dixon. Hush, I want you all to remember those seats because you'll be sitting their everyday. It's the only way we'll learn names." She spoke turning to write on the blank whiteboard. They spent their entire morning stuck in her classroom receiving their schedules, maps of the school, locker numbers, text books and going through ice breaker activities to get them all talking and sharing information about themselves. To make new friends Miss Dixon had said. Kurt however just wanted to vanish, he hated it. He had Blaine, he didn't need anymore friends, and the others didn't understand him or his higher pitched voice, they all giggled every time he spoke. By lunchtime Kurt felt really humiliated but at least most of the whispers and glares had disappeared. Entering the cafeteria they quickly found out that it was quite possibly one of the cruelest places on earth, Cooper hadn't mentioned that in his little speech Blaine thought storing the piece of information away for later. Everyone was pushing and shoving in the lunch line like they'd not seen food for about 5 years and if you weren't quick enough in choosing a table you'd end up sitting with the morons who talk with their mouths full and chew with their mouth open.
"It's literally like feeding time at the zoo" Kurt said scrunching his nose in disgust, not feeling all that hungry anymore. The rest of the day passed in a blur and after what felt like years their first day was finally over with.
The following few days went slightly better, the two boys only got lost a couple of times and the teasing seemed to be minimal. The bullies were laying low but Kurt knew it wouldn't last long and made sure to keep a look out for them. And Blaine was starting to realize that he needed more than just Kurt as his friend, because they weren't in all the same classes and he kept finding himself sat alone. By the end of the week the meat heads had indeed started up with their teasing, constantly making fun of Kurt and Blaine in the hallways. Whether it was about their clothes or how short Blaine is or how skinny and feminine Kurt is. They ignored them for the most part but it wasn't always that easy. Kurt and Blaine are slowly slipping to the bottom of the heap, the place Cooper had warned them about. But neither really knew what to do to get back up and asking Cooper for advice was out of the question because he'd just laugh at them too.
Things were really starting to turn bad by the end of Friday. Friday had turned into the worst day of Highschool so far, they'd had gym last period and anyone that knows Kurt Hummel knows how much he hates sports. He always has.
"Come on, it'll be fine" Blaine told his scowling friend as they made their way to the boys locker room. After some fuss everyone got changed into the required school colours of black shorts or sweatpants, which Kurt opted for because no way was he showing off more skin than he had too, and a red school shirt before heading out to the field where their coach was waiting. He blew a whistle as they all neared and encouraged them to hurry up. He had blue eyes and light brown hair, he only looked to be in his early twenties but was at least six foot tall Blaine guessed tilting his head to look up at him.
"Alright boys! Gather round, gather round." He shouted gesturing everyone over. "I'm Coach Jenkins and I am your gym teacher. I eat, sleep and breath physical education and I will not put up with slackers"
There was a quiet murmur of "Yes Coach"
"Do we understand?" He shouted
"Yes Coach" they repeated a little louder
"Good enough. We'll work on it, let's warm up!" He yelled instructing them through some stretches to loosen the muscles in their arms and legs before having them run two laps around the track. Kurt is hopeless at running and, as expected, was near the back most of the time. Blaine who is great at running and usually found to be in the top five for both laps hung back and jogged beside his best friend the whole time.
"Thank you" Kurt panted when they finally finished. Blaine just shrugged his shoulders with a grin.
"Okay. Not bad. But not great either. We'll fix that over the next few weeks though" Coach Jenkins spoke still jogging on the spot, he hadn't been joking when he said he ate, slept and breathed physical education. "Right! Now I want two teams, and I'll be choosing" there was a ripple of unhappy groans and several boys moved so they wouldn't look like friends in hopes of being put onto the same teams. Coach quickly split them all not wanting to waste any time, but he hadn't split the group of boys up equally though. He had all the tall, muscular kids on one team and the other team consisted of the short bony kids.
Kurt was still trying to catch his breath from running and didn't care what was happening next but asked Blaine anyways. "I don't know" the short boy shrugged, Blaine didn't know why they'd been split into teams, he hadn't been listening and didn't have a chance to find out either because Coach Jenkins had just asked them to run lengths of the football field to start off with but the bulky kids had turned it into a game of chase and if you didn't get out of their way quick enough they'd either trip you or shoulder check you. And Coach was either blind to it or just didn't care because he didn't say a word about it, well at least not to any of the meat heads. Their team, the one that consisted of misfits got yelled at countless times for being 'hopeless' and 'useless' He seemed to think they didn't know how to run properly and kept tripping over their own feet.
"We're going to keep going until some of us have learn't how to run properly, you're all looking like headless chickens!"
But if Coach didn't stop them soon someone was gonna end up with broken bones. And Blaine wasn't gonna stick around to find out if it were him. And poor Kurt looked about ready to pass out.
"Come on" Blaine hissed grabbing Kurt by the elbow and quickly pulled him behind the bleachers where he'd decided they'd hide for the rest of the lesson.
"What if they saw us?" Kurt gasped as he peeked through the gaps to see if anyone had noticed them leaving.
"Don't worry, they're too focused on chasing that poor kid with the braces. We aren't going back out there though, I'm not playing that game, it's not fair, he hasn't split the teams equally and..."
"It's completely barbaric" a voice finished the sentence from behind them. They both quickly turned around finding a dark skinned girl their age sitting cross legged reading a book. "This place is a wasteland but I guess it's nice to finally find someone who actually has brains around here" She spoke again.
"What are you doing hiding?" Blaine asked her
"Same as you" She shrugged "Avoiding the pain"
"Don't you girls just get to jump rope and stuff? That's easy" Blaine quizzed
"It's not easy being different!" She snapped glaring at him "All the pretty girls, even the ones you thought were your friends, like to laugh and make fun of the way you look or the fact that you can't run as fast as they can" She continued
"There's nothing wrong with being different" Kurt spoke quietly tugging at the bottom of his shirt which was damp and sticking to him with sweat
"I like you" the girl smiled pointing at him. "I'm Mercedes by the way"
"I'm Kurt, this is Blaine" he replied returning her smile
"You're welcome to stay and hide if you want" she gestured to the grass besides her
"Thanks but I think we should probably get back before someone notices we're gone" Kurt mumbled, fidgeting from foot to foot.
"Don't be silly. We're not going back out there. We'll stay thanks" Blaine smiled and sat with her, Kurt anxiously joining them, he'd never skipped class before and his Dad would be mad if he found out, the three of them quietly talked until they heard Coach Jenkins blow his whistle announcing the end of class
"Will I see you on the school bus?" Mercedes asked as the three stood up
"No, my Dad is picking us up" Kurt explained feeling bad
"That's alright. I'll see you next week then?" She asked with a smile
"Yeah. We'll save you a seat at lunch if you want" Kurt smiled back
"Great! You boys signing up to any clubs?" Mercedes asked and the two boys stuttered, making her giggle, they'd not thought about it.
"We'll meet you at the notice board at the end of the day, we're still undecided" Blaine nodded pulling Kurt back off towards the locker rooms to get their things
"I don't know about this Blaine" Kurt bit his lip "Aren't those clubs just for the geeks and nerds? Aren't we supposed to be staying unnoticed?" He asked
"It's a brilliant idea Kurt! We'll be able to meet people like us! People who will be our friends, people like Mercedes who don't mind being different and standing out, we can't end up at the bottom Kurt, we've got to get popular somehow"
Kurt thought about it as he got changed and decided it wouldn't hurt trying, they didn't have many other options and just writing their names down on a few sheets seemed easy enough. So he agreed and the two went to find their new friend before going to meet Burt
"Oh hey, Blaine! Are you signing up for football too?" A tall boy who was already writing his name on a sheet asked.
"Hey Finn" Blaine smiled back. Finn was one of the alright guys, he didn't make fun of them "I don't know yet" he shrugged "Maybe not"
His Mom had been on at him about it, she really wanted her son to join the school football team, to follow in his father and brothers footsteps, she'd been insisting he do something sporty to keep him active since school started up. And he had considered it until the meat heads who also enjoy playing football grew into gorillas
"Why not? You were on the team in Junior High, you're awesome dude!"
"Thanks Finn" Blaine grinned "But look at me. I'm tiny, I'd get crushed playing football with the likes of you" He pointed towards himself and then to Finn who was twice his height
"You wouldn't. You'd be great! You'll be able to easily sneak past all the players and you run pretty quickly for having such short legs" Blaine chuckled knowing Finn had his own way of giving compliments
"Hudson! You coming or not?" Finn glared at the impatient person shouting down the corridor to him "Don't let the dweebs infect you"
"I'll think about it" Blaine told him with a half smile not wanting the other boy to feel like he had to stay
"Cool. Well I'll see you later" He said giving them a small nod before leaving
"Jerk" Kurt huffed
"Don't let it bother you" Mercedes told him linking her arm into his "So which clubs are you interested in?" she asked
"There's so many" Kurt mused looking over all the different coloured sheets
Before any of them could say anything else someone rudely shoved their way past them with a high pitched yell
"Out of my way!"
"Watch it Berry" Mercedes scowled
Blaine recognised her from from his math class but he couldn't remember her name
The brunette hair girled eyed them before turning towards the notice board "I wouldn't bother signing up to anything if I were you. I'm obviously going to be the best. I'll make sure of it, you'll see me on every page of that year book by the time summer arrives. You watch" She pulled a pen from her bag and began signing up to almost every available club. Placing a gold star sticker after it each time.
They silently watched her. Not daring to say anything or try to get close enough to sign their own names just yet
"There" she said with a smug smile once she'd done "And you can laugh all you want but one day I'll be really famous and none of you will" and with that she flounced off
"What is her problem?" Blaine asked
"And who was that?" Kurt asked
"That, was Rachel Berry, and her head is too big for her body" Mercedes huffed taking out her own pen and signing up to the god squad and glee club
And some slight persuading from Mercedes the boys copied and put their names down for glee club too, Kurt deciding it would help him to follow his dreams of one day making it in New York.