The corner was every bit as boring as Blaine remembered it, and more humiliating. At least in his room he could just hide. Knowing his parents could look up from the kitchen and see him standing there made it worse somehow. He was totally having flashbacks to about second grade, a time when he was fully sure he was too old for this then too. He used to lean his head agaist the corner and whine "Mommmm... come on..." and she'd add to his time out for all the whining. His brother would taunt him there, saying "Shut up and be glad you're not getting a licking," to which ironically getting a swat for that himself. Blaine smiled, remembering how as a kid he'd reveled a little bit in any little bit of naughtiness Greg displayed. He worshipped his brother, but it was nice to see him taken down a notch sometimes. He was always the perfect one, the straight A student who actually cried the day his mom told him Blaine was going to go back to kindergarten again. Nowadays, of course, Blaine could laugh the whole thing off, his grades were fine now, he had a late birthday, he was just not ready for school yet, etc. – but there was something pretty awful about being five and a half years old and knowing you'd embarrassed your family. Later that same week Greg had gotten a spanking for saying Blaine was too stupid to go to first grade, and Blaine had felt conflicted between validation of "Yeah I'm not stupid, Greg's a meanie," and guilt that his brother had gotten in trouble for saying what he believed then to be the truth. His second kindergarten teacher had greeted him warmly saying, "Hello Blaine, I know your brother. You have a nice family." and Blaine had told her outright,, "Well I'm not smart like he is." The teacher was astonished, called his parents, and put in a lot of extra time encouraging Blaine after that. But Blaine hadn't said it to gain sympathy. He earnestly wanted to protect her from the disappointment he was going to be to her.

Trying not to be a disappointment was a running theme with Blaine. He was a people-pleaser, to a fault, and was only beginning to see where that might not always be the best idea. Maybe I could have helped Kurt some other way... Maybe this whole thing had happened because he just really wanted to be someone's hero. It killed him that his parents found out. Skipping school was the kind of thing juvenile delinquents did. What was I thinking? Still, he knew Kurt appreciated it. There was a time he would have given anything to have someone- anyone- who would stand by his side in front of a bully like that. Even Kyle would shut down in the hallways if someone called Blaine a faggot or made fun of his bowties. He was too wrapped up in trying to protect himself, Blaine reasoned. At any rate, it wasn't really fair to criticize, because back then Blaine wasn't exactly brave about standing up for other people himself. There were lots of times when the bullies of West Lima Middle School would surround some nerdy kid and Blaine would just hustle on by, afraid to get caught in the crossfire. He'd gotten more confidence since Dalton, and with the boxing lessons he'd gained some ability to defend himself so... probably he'd be a better friend if he was in public school now. He might disappoint his family sometimes, but he wasn't going to disappoint his friends.

Blaine stared up at the ceiling for a change of pace. He thought this whole stand-in-the-corner business was a bit much right now, but he supposed he shouldn't complain. It was childish, but it wasn't the worst that his parents could deal out- probably would deal out- and he probably should enjoy the quiet now while he could. He strained to hear his parents' quiet conversation over the radio his mom had left on. They were, no doubt, discussing exactly how to make his life miserable for the foreseeable future. He deserved it, he guessed. He would do it again- probably- but he'd let them down. He resolved that whatever the final sentence was, he wouldn't complain or whine, he'd just take it. His Dad might not say it, but he'd be proud if he manned up for this. Not that I'm much of a man if my daddy can still make me stand in a corner. Blaine sighed. They needed to hurry up and get this over with. The waiting was just making it all worse.