Author's note: I'm sorry for the very quick update, I didn't have much time but wanted to get this part out of the way. Plus, I kind of forgot about this fic because I'm hardly getting any comments at all. Anyway. This chapter has a small warning for bullying and homophobic language.

-x-

It wasn't easy, being the new kid. Blaine had a newfound respect for Kurt who had managed to adapt to Dalton so quickly. He'd been at McKinley for over a week now and he still felt as if he'd landed on a completely different planet.

Take the classes themselves, for example. Blaine had chosen the same subjects he studied at Dalton, naively thinking that the only thing that would change would be the teacher and maybe the level of difficulty. After the third Spanish class in a row had been canceled (this time because Mr Schuester was arguing with Santana over the set list for Regionals) he realized that maybe things were more different than he'd imagined.

Without Kurt, he didn't know how he'd have managed. After the first day Kurt had even started to show up at Blaine's in the mornings to lay out his clothes for him. Blaine was in equal parts embarrassed about being seen with his horrible bed hair and grateful about not having to choose what to wear every day. Given the looks he'd got on his first day it was probably for the best.

Kurt even walked him to classes as often as he could, making sure he wouldn't get lost in the hallways and giving him other invaluable pieces of information such as: don't agree with Mr Schue when he wants to do a Journey song, don't let Brittany make out with you for the sake of her perfect record, don't get chicken for lunch on Tuesdays and never look at Coach Sylvester in the eyes, you might be turned into stone. (Blaine wasn't sure about some of these but after his first meeting with Coach Sylvester he decided to follow Kurt's instructions to the letter.)

As much as he wanted to, though, Blaine couldn't spend all of his time glued to Kurt. They didn't have all of their classes together and they were both adamant on the fact that, despite what everyone else might think, they would not turn into one of those sickening couples who went everywhere together.

Something else that Blaine didn't want to admit to anyone was that he didn't want Kurt to walk him around like a bodyguard. He hadn't had any close encounters with the school's resident bullies so far but he knew it was just a matter of time, and when it happened he wasn't going to be hiding behind his boyfriend. He was done with running.

He still couldn't stop his heart from catching in his throat the first time Karofsky cornered him and slammed his fist into his locker by way of a greeting.

"Hello," Blaine said, channeling years of training into making sure his voice didn't break. "Er. Could you move? I'm late for my Physics class."

"Hello, faggot," Karofsky replied. So much for hoping he might have come around. "You know what this is?" he said.

Blaine tried not to grimace as the slushie hit him in the face. Kurt had warned him about the welcome he might get from McKinley's bullies, but actually getting that stuff in his hair felt much more gross than he had imagined.

"Is that all?" he asked, wiping his face with the sleeve of his already-ruined sweater. He liked that sweater.

"All?" Karofsky repeated, lowering his face so that it was level with Blaine's. "That was just a warning. I don't know what you're used to where you come from but don't you try doing anything disgusting in front of me."

"Disgusting?" Blaine repeated. He doubted there could be something more disgusting than a slushie to the face.

"Don't act dumb," Karofsky replied. "If you try to... to hold hands with Hummel or make out with him or act gay..."

Blaine winced as Karofsky shoved him against the lockers. He'd have been offended by those words if he hadn't been terrified of what might come next.

"Well, just don't do that," Karofsky said. "Or I will hurt you. You and Hummel. I already made him run away once, I can do it again. I can do worse."

Blaine pushed him away. He didn't know which one was more surprised by the sudden gesture, Karofsky or him, but he couldn't take it back even if he wanted. And he didn't want to. He could feel his heart beating madly in his chest.

"I don't care about what you do to me," Blaine said. "I don't care if you throw stuff at me and push me around and threaten me." He glared at the taller boy. "But if you as much as touch Kurt, I swear I'm going to make you pay."

He swallowed and braced himself for an upcoming punch, or worse. Instead Karofsky blinked at him, looked at some point over Blaine's shoulder and walked away without saying another word.

Blaine leaned back against the lockers and took a moment to marvel that he was still alive and in one piece.

"Who'd have thought it," said Coach Sylvester who was passing by just then. "As they say: beware the quiet ones. Though personally I prefer to say: beware Sue Sylvester. Girls' bathroom is down there on the left, Sugarplum."