Hello to all of you! I really don't have anything to say. Thanks for reading, though!

"Are you alright?" I checked again. Kurt looked pale and shaken, but he nodded. "You're sure?"

He nodded again. Kurt was about to perform Defying Gravity for the 'diva-off' and he was nervous. Like really fucking nervous. He'd actually been quiet all day which shocked me. I'd only been friends with him for about a week, but I knew him being quiet meant something was seriously wrong.

"You can do this," I said earnestly. And I knew that he could. From what I'd heard from Artie, Kurt was really good. No high F was going to stop him.

Kurt just nodded again. None of the other New Directions kids had arrived yet, it was just the band setting up, and Kurt wanted to get there early to make sure we knew what we were doing.

"We always know what we're doing," Dean scoffed.

"Really?" Kurt had seemed hopeful at this.

"Well no, not at all," Dean admitted, but I gave him a significant look. "But this time we do! We've had the music for more than 24 hours. That's a new record."

A bell rang, and any minute the others would all start pouring in. Kurt just got paler.

"C'mon, man," I said. "This isn't like you. Where's the diva?"

Kurt smiled. "Sorry," he said. "This is just… hard."

"Is something else up?"

Kurt nodded, but said nothing else so I didn't press the issue.

"Hey, Kurt," Mr. Schue greeted him as he walked in. "You ready for the big solo? This is your moment!"

Kurt gave a weak smile.

"Andre, c'mon, your stuff's not gonna set itself up," Dean urged, getting his music stand tangled up in his bass lead.

I nodded, and gave Kurt a bear hug. I didn't think Kurt was the touchy feely type, but screw it; I was. My hugs are the stuff of legend. Or, at least, that's what I liked to think. I can't do those high-five-man-hugs though… that is one skill that may forever evade me.

"You're going to break my spine," Kurt choked into my shoulder, laughing.

"You can borrow my chair if that happens," Artie drifted in, with a smirk on his face.

I'd noticed that both Artie and Kurt had very dark senses of humour about their situations. It made things kind of awkward sometimes, but I supposed it helped them cope. Yesterday, Kurt and I had been arguing about who got to have the last piece of a cake Mercedes had brought in. Kurt had won by saying that he was older than me and therefore deserved cake, and I had replied with the age old taunt of 'well you're older than me so you'll die first!', complete with childish tone and a stuck-out tongue. (Kurt was, in fact, only two months older than me, but the taunt still applied.)

He'd laughed hollowly at that and said with a dark smirk, "I'll probably be found dead beaten up in a dumpster in a few years, so yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll die first."

I had had no idea how to react, so I just stared at him.

To avoid these situations, I'd started making a mental list of things to never, ever mention around them. It currently consisted of spines, death, and Tony Awards (but that was for a different reason… Mercedes and Kurt liked to compare their acceptance speeches whenever possible).

Anyway, I headed over to the jazz band so as to not have to react to Artie's joke. "I can't believe we have to play this twice," Lisa, the tenor sax player, moaned.

"It's not that bad," I said. "Well OK it is, in my part there are more bars rest than there are notes to play."

"The only person with an interesting part is that beardy piano guy…" Dean commented vaguely.

"Is he even a teacher here?" Ivan the drummer asked.

"I don't know… he seems to live in the choir room," Lisa muttered.

Said piano dude walked in and waved at us. We gave a wave back.

"I think I'm scared of him," Lisa said, ducking behind me.

"Oh come on," I said. "He's a harmless beardy piano guy."

Dean shushed us, and Rachel walked up to sing first. And, of course, she was amazing. She was so intense when she performed; it was almost a little scary. She wanted this nearly as badly as Kurt did. I sort of dozed off up until the chorus after the initial shock of Rachel's voice had sunk in, and I came in at the end. Killer trumpet part. I played a total of 8 notes. I added some grace-notes to make it slightly more interesting, which got an approving look from Dean. The next verse started again and I sat back. It was a short song, but Lisa was impatient. She had challenged me to a game of naughts and crosses on the back of the sheet music. I won (of course) and was halfway through my victory dance when we had to play again. Shock notes. Woo. Rachel nailed the high note (of course) and finished well. Kurt looked sick.

"Ok!" Mr. Schue said. "Well done Rachel, next in our diva-off is Kurt!"

I actually paid attention this time.

Something has changed within me,

Something is not the same.

I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game.

It could have just been because I was biased as Kurt was my friend, but it meant so much more when he was singing it. And Artie was right – he was extremely good. I'd never heard a guy sing like that before. The performance was completely his own – just like Kurt was completely his own person. I kind of admired him for that, being so brave. I spent the better part of four years being too afraid to be myself, but Kurt just did it without question. I was sure it was hard for him. Hell I'd seen how hard it was for him. He was mocked everywhere he went, every day, but that never changed him.

It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap.

It's time to try defying gravity.

Kiss me goodbye I'm defying gravity,

And you won't bring me down.

Ah Kurt, I thought, one day I'll be as confident as you. He was pretty inspiring for me – not that I was struggling with anything major, just struggling the change in going from the top of the heap to the bottom of the heap, and the fact that it was my choice to do that. Now that I had control over who I was and wasn't being forced to be or do anything, it kind of scared me sometimes. I sort of felt like after pretending not to be me for so long, I didn't know who I was. I'd lost myself somewhere along the way.

He totally nailed the next verse, and the next chorus. At least I think he did, I was playing rather loudly. I got nervous for him when I knew the note was coming up. The chorus repeated. It was the last line and, oh no. He missed it. Rather badly. Poor Kurt.

I got up and left the jazz band to go congratulate him when the song ended. Dean looked appalled. For some reason he didn't like us drawing attention to ourselves during the glee rehearsals. I didn't care – I'd already crossed a line by sitting with Artie's friends at lunch every day instead of with the band, and they all didn't seem to mind at all. Dean had all these rules and etiquette about the jazz band, but often he was the only one that followed them.

I got to Kurt once he'd finished with everyone else. This glee club was so huggy! "Well done, man," I said, giving him an affectionate pat on the back. It was possibly a little too affectionate because he nearly fell over. With a huge grin, I added, "I had no idea you were that good. Why didn't you tell me you were that good?"

"Sorry," he laughed mockingly. "What was I supposed to say? 'Hi I'm Kurt Hummel and I'm amazing. It's nice to meet you'?"

"Oh yeah cos that's totally weirder than what you actually said. 'He's wearing a purple bow tie so he must be gay'," I laughed sarcastically. Kurt tried to scowl at me, but ended up grinning that great grin he did, where you could see his teeth and he sort of shone a bit. "But seriously, well done. You were amazing."

Kurt smirked at me and gave me a shove. "Thanks," he smiled.

Tina, who had just hugged Kurt, smiled at me as well. There was quite a crowd around us all, so I thought I could get away with giving her hand a squeeze without anyone noticing. She looked surprised, but smiled and squeezed back. I went back to the jazz band where I belonged and prepared to play more naughts-and-crosses with Lisa, with not so much butterflies but albatrosses in my stomach. I found myself staring at Tina whenever I had the chance, and spent the rest of the day with quite a grin on my face.

I'd been at McKinley for about four weeks now. Artie and I were completely best friends. We hung out every day at school and every weekend. He lived quite close to me so I could walk over to his house whenever I wanted and we'd have Halo marathons or jam sessions. It was at these jam sessions that he learnt that I could sing. Well - I also learnt that I could sing. I mean, I knew I sounded good in the shower, but I didn't think anyone else would think it sounded good. Also, as a band guy, I'd rather not be classed as a singer. That was one of Dean's little rules that I happily accepted. I'd feel naked on stage without an instrument. Anyway, Artie'd been asking me to join the Glee club at every possible opportunity.

"No," I said, one day in the cafeteria. He'd got Kurt on board too, and it was just the three of us at lunch that day because the girls were off doing something else.

"Come on," Kurt said pleadingly, pouting. "For me?"

"No!" I said.

"For me?" Artie said, imitating Kurt's pout.

He was harder to say no to, but I still refused. "No fucking way."

Kurt looked offended. "Why not?" He pouted again.

"Because I'll get kicked out of the jazz band," I exaggerated. "And I already have to spend all of my free time learning the brass band songs and finding an audition piece for the orchestra."

"We have an orchestra?" Kurt asked.

I nodded. "They're amazing."

"Wow…"

"Kurt," Artie said seriously, "One day you're going to get out of your little diva-bubble, and realise that there's a whole world out there that you don't know about."

"Deep," Kurt said sarcastically. "One day you're going to get out of your little-nice-guy bubble and realise that I don't care."

"Ooooh!" I egged them on, glad that they'd dropped the topic of Glee club.

Kurt opened his mouth to continue, but my ringtone shut him up. Artie and I danced in our chairs to the Super Mario Theme, then I checked my phone and, even though I knew it was highly illogical as she was in the same building as me, I hoped it was Tina. We hadn't been alone since that time in the nurse's office, and we hadn't touched since the Diva-Off, and I wanted desperately to ask her out. Or at least, have her say something directly to me without being interrupted by Mercedes or Rachel (who sat with us sometimes, and was very loud).

Oh shit. It wasn't Tina. It was my ex, Miranda. She refused to believe that I'd broken up with her before I left my old school. I remember when I told her, she just laughed and said 'you're so funny!', then continued to act as if we were dating until I left. Now, she wouldn't stop calling me. I'd tried to break up with her numerous times (I even told her I was gay – among other desperate lies) but she had just laughed again. She was a cheerleader, gorgeous, looked kind of like the pregnant girl (but not pregnant) and was as ditzy as she was bitchy. I suppose she was a cross between the two top cheerleaders here, Brittany and Santana. She'd never been broken up with before, so she had seemed to assume it was impossible for someone to want to break up with her.

"Who is it?" Artie asked.

"Ugh," I mumbled, and I pressed the hang up button. I knew she'd ring again in 5 minutes, and I had to come up with an epic break up plan in that time. (My last attempt was 'zombies ate my face so I won't be able to kiss you anymore'. She didn't buy that… I wasn't really surprised, but I had been desperate.) "Ex-girlfriend won't stop calling me. She still thinks we're together."

"Been there," Kurt commented jokingly. I laughed, and then it hit me-

"Kurt!" I yelled excitedly.

"What?" he looked worried.

"My girlfriend refuses to break up with me no matter how often I try," I began.

"And?"

"And I tried telling her I was gay, and she thought that was hilarious and said I'm the straightest guy she knows."

Kurt raised an eyebrow. He and Artie knew all about my jock past now, but this still seemed to shock him.

"Yeah…" I said awkwardly. "She never saw my bow-tie collection. Or my Johnny Depp calendar…"

"Ah…" Kurt said understandingly. Artie laughed.

"Anyway," I continued. "I was thinking; you could pretend to be my boyfriend!"

Kurt and Artie's jaws hit the table.

"Nothing else will stop her," I pleaded. "And I need to stop her calling me so that I can…" I trailed off. I hadn't told them about how I felt for Tina, even though I'm pretty sure they both knew.

"Well," Kurt said, recovering from his initial shock. "I'm always pleased to tear an attractive guy away from a girl."

"Thanks, Kurt. I owe you one."

"What should I do?"

"She'll call again soon," I said. "I'll text her to make sure she video calls and then… I don't know. Act gay…?"

"Act?" Artie said incredulously.

"Shut up," laughed Kurt.

"OK, texting her now," I said. "Here we go." I felt a small pang of guilt at being this mean and lying to her, but I brushed it aside.

We waited a tense minute before she called. Artie and I shuffled around so that Kurt and I were next to each other, and then we heard it. Super Mario theme began.

I clicked the answer button and put her on loudspeaker.

"HI BABE!" came Miranda's voice. Both Artie and Kurt jumped at the sound of it. "It's so good to see you!"

"Don't call me babe," I said seriously. I knew I was being mean to her, but I'd broken up with her nicely 24 times, so it was time to get mean.

"You're so funny!" she cackled. "Anyway, how's it going, sexy?"

Artie mouthed the word 'sexy' at me from across the table before erupting into giggles.

"It's going pretty well," I said. "Just hanging in the cafeteria with my boyfriend."

There was a small pause before she laughed again. "Oh yeah," she said sarcastically, "Cos you're gay now. Right."

I ignored her. "Wanna say hi?"

"What?"

I handed the phone to Kurt, who had his head on my shoulder. "Are you the bitch who won't stop calling my boyfriend?" he snapped. Oh Kurt, I thought. If there was ever a moment for your diva ways it's this one.

"Be nice, honey," I said to Kurt, wrapping an arm around him.

Kurt beamed at me and we turned back to look at Miranda, who was staring open-mouthed at us.

"What the fuck, Andre?"

"What?" I asked. "I told you before. I broke up with you precisely 24 times for several reasons, including," I looked down at Kurt again and he smiled up at me, "this one."

She stopped looking offended and started looking dangerous. "Fine," she said. "I'm just going to have to tell all your friends about this now. Hope you like hate mail." She sneered and hung up.

I sat there, slightly in shock.

Kurt removed my arm from his shoulder. "Well that was fun," he laughed but then he saw my face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I said. "I just…" I trailed off. I knew now that I'd burnt all the bridges and the lie I'd been living would end. My old jock friends would stop sending me messages promising to visit, and would just start sending me hate mail. I told this to Kurt and Artie, not knowing how I felt.

"Do you regret it?" asked Artie seriously.

I thought about it, then smiled. "Not at all." A small voice in my head screamed FREEEEEEEDOOOOOOM!

The celebration in my head was interrupted by a horrible, sudden freezing sensation, blasting me in the back of the head and slowly trickling down my neck.

I stood up and turned around. "The fuck?" I yelled.

It was Puck and Karofsky, both holding empty slushie cups. "Get a room, homos," Puck taunted.

Karofsky thought this was hilarious. "Yeah! A gay room!" he chimed in. They walked off, high fiving each other.

I gaped at them, still in utter shock. "What was that?" I asked Kurt, who was blue.

"They must have seen us before," Kurt said.

"Well," said Artie. "You're officially not a jock anymore. How does it feel?"

"Sticky."

Kurt groaned. "They ruined my new shirt!"

Tina and Mercedes came over, arm in arm giggling about something. They stopped short when they saw Kurt and I. Mercedes thought it was hilarious, while Tina went and got napkins and fussed over me. Kurt stalked off to the bathroom, muttering angrily to himself.

"I don't think the napkins are working," I said after a while, with one of them sticking to my cheek. She giggled and pulled it off, and my stomach did a backflip as she touched my face.

"I'll take you to the bathroom," she offered. I smiled and got up to follow her. I was slightly nervous about being alone with her, and afraid that we'd have nothing to say to each other. Whenever we hung out it was in class or with everyone else, and it was easier to talk to her when I had other people around. I told her the story of how Kurt and I got 'slushied', and about my crazy ex-girlfriend. She laughed, and I began to feel more comfortable.

She really wasn't that shy once she got to know you. She was really nice, and she shone when she smiled. There seemed to be no end to what she'd do for her friends; she'd go shopping with Mercedes if Kurt wasn't free and vice-versa, she always picked up Artie if we were going somewhere, hell she even hung out with Rachel when the latter was feeling down. And me? Well… she tried to clean slushie off me. That counts, right?

"Oh no, it's this way," she grabbed my hand as I turned down the wrong corridor. My stomach did a back flip. She didn't let go of my hand until we reached the bathroom, and I didn't let go of hers either. She didn't really notice until we stopped outside the bathroom door, at which point she looked slightly horrified with herself. I gave her hand a squeeze and smiled. She blushed shyly and looked down, her hair falling in her face. I moved closer to her, and tucked her hair behind her ear. My heart beat went from Andante to Allegro, and then to Prestissimo when she looked up at me and moved closer to me as well.

With our faces nearly touching, I felt like I should say something. "Your hair is… blue," I tried awkwardly. Oh well done. Your skill at moment ruining astounds even me, my mind scolded me.

Tina laughed, then without a moment's hesitation she stood on her toes, wrapped her arms around my next and kissed me. I kissed her back, and curled my arms around her waist. She pulled away from me and laughed again. "You taste like slushie," she smiled.

I laughed back at her went in to kiss her again.

And then Kurt came through the bathroom door.

DAMN IT, KURT!

"Oh my god," he said, his face a hilarious mix of amusement, shock, horror and embarrassment. "Oh my god!" he said again.

"Oh your god indeed, Kurt," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Kurt!" Tina scolded, sounding like an annoyed sibling.

Deeming the moment sufficiently ruined, I decided to go clean myself up. "I don't owe you one anymore," I murmured to Kurt, pushing past him to get to the bathroom. My face was sticky, and my black and white t-shirt was now black white and blue.

"OH MY GOD!" I heard from outside. I couldn't tell if it was Tina or Kurt.

"SHUT UP, KURT!"

"OH MY GOD!"

"SHUT UP!"

"OH MY GOD!"

"GO AWAY!"

The next "OH MY GOD!" sounded slightly further away.

After a minute of trying, but failing, to get the blue off my shirt, I went out to meet Tina again. She was on her phone, texting with a strange expression on her face. I stood next to her, placing an arm around her shoulder.

"It's Mercedes," she said. Showing me the message, that simply read "OH MY GOD."

My phone vibrated too. It was Artie. He had at least surpassed the um… eloquence… of Kurtcedes and had written a real message. "Nice work, bro! Get yo ass back to the caf so I can man hug you."

I showed Tina, and she laughed.

"So," I said, after a minute's silence. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Of course," she smiled, and practically jumped on me to kiss me again.