A/N: Hello Thank you to anyone reading, especially PetrastellaX and 19MyFictionalRomance95 for your lovely reviews. Please bear with me for this one more chapter, we are just reaching the action.
The next Monday found Blaine in far too good a mood to even notice the ugly glares he was getting from the jocks as he walked to his locker. The New Directions had won sectionals and he'd actually had a really good time with Rachel. Once he'd finished stowing and organizing his books, he noticed something missing. He closed his locker, threw his bag over his shoulder, and paused to look back and forth down the hallway for a familiar red uniform.
It was sort of funny how strange he felt as he failed to find Amanda considering he'd only known her for a little over a month. He did suppose she'd been a constant presence for much of that time. With a slight frown, Blaine turned and headed for his first period without the brunette. He suddenly realized he hadn't actually seen her at all the whole break. He was just beginning to conclude Amanda was avoiding him for some reason when said cheerleader latched onto his arm.
"Hi Blaine! I'm so sorry I've been AWOL." Blaine smiled at her gushed apology.
"Don't worry about it. How was break?"
"Eh, pretty good. Lots of family time and Cheerios practice." Blaine nodded. "How about you?" Blaine didn't get a chance to respond before Kitty pranced up. He tensed, getting ready to pull Amanda out of the way should it prove necessary, but Amanda released his arm to accept a hug from Kitty.
"Sue says she can meet us after first period," Kitty announced happily. "When we show her this routine she's going to worship us for the rest of high school."
"It's all your vocals," Amanda replied in the same excited tone. Kitty all but preened at the complement.
"But it was your amazing idea," Kitty replied after she'd basked enough. "I have to go but I'll see you soon!" With that, Kitty gave Amanda a pat on the arm and disappeared back down the hallway. Blaine stared at Amanda.
"What…"
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Her eyes sparkled mischievously as she grinned.
"You sure you want to do that?"
"I'm dealing with a mean cheerleader," she dismissed his concerns. "You're the one taking on every jock in the school. Now, I want to hear about Sectionals."
*GLEE*
"Dude, where is everyone?" Blaine shrugged in response to Sam's question. The two boys were standing by the entrance of Lima's mall where they were supposed to be meeting the rest of the New Directions. "I mean, Brittney said she'd be late because of practice. But where's everyone else?"
"What's this about everyone else?" Artie called out as he rolled over, Joe pushing his chair and Finn walking next to them.
"We were starting to think no one was coming," Sam replied.
"You were early." Finn protested. "We're right on time."
"I'd check your watch Finn," Blaine countered. "We said 5:30."
"It's only…" Finn trailed off as he realized it was not, in fact, 5:15 but 5:45. He went for the subject change. "Why are we here before the girls? Weren't they the ones who wanted to come to the mall?"
"It was this or Breadsticks," Sam recalled. "Why didn't we go to Breadsticks?"
"The girls wanted to come here," Artie reminded them.
"Mostly, Sugar wanted to come here," Jake teased as he and Ryder came over.
"Don't judge." The girls arrived shortly, Tina and Sugar leading, Unique and Marley trailing behind. The girls quickly integrated themselves into the group then took charge, leading them all off to the food court. Blaine found himself actually enjoying himself immensely. He was wedged between Sam and Tina at the two tables the New Directions had seized and overcrowded. The group was noisy, loud and joking: it was like being with the Warblers before they, well, nearly blinded him and tried to blackmail him into coming back to Dalton.
"SURPRISE!" Sam spit out the sip of soda he'd just drunk onto Artie as Brittany seized him from behind, announcing the cheerleaders' arival. Brittany stopped and looked confused. "Is the soda that bad?" Blaine tried not to die laughing but Sam must have noticed his conflict because he shoved the shorter senior. Blaine didn't really have room to move though so he wound up crashing into Tina and they both fell onto the floor. This made everyone else laugh harder.
"Thank you," Brittany offered to Amanda, who had accompanied the other cheerleader, before she sat down next to Sam and whispered in his ear, "Amanda used her magical powers to let us sit together. I need to tell you about Lord Tubbington."
"Blaine?" Tina protested meanwhile as they both got to their feet.
"It was Sam!"
"SAM!" Tina rounded on the blond, who quickly adopted a fearful expression and managed to get himself up so he could run as Tina chased him around the table, the rest of the New Directions cheering on one or the other. Blaine smiled over at Amanda.
"How was practice?"
"Fine." He dropped his smile- Amanda was sort of out of it and didn't look good. She quickly waved a hand in dismissal of his concern. "Tough practice. I'm just tired." Blaine nodded and gestured for her to take the seat next to Brittany. She flashed him a smile before sitting down.
Artie managed to knock Sam over as he ran from Tina. Appeased, she took the last empty seat while laughing.
"No fair!" Sam protested.
"Ladies first," chirped Tina. Sam pouted. "Come on, Blaine's being a gentleman about it." Blaine stuck a tong out at Sam from where he stood behind Amanda. Sam responded in kind.
"Blaine's special, he's a bird and a fish." No one let on the strangeness of Brittany's comment show.
"We should head for the movie now," Jake observed as he glanced at his cell phone. The rest of the group muttered in agreement and began to gather their stuff. Soon, they were on their feet and they began making their way in a massive clump towards the movie theater on the other side of the mall.
"Which movie are we going to again?" Ryder asked. Three people quickly responded with three different answers and the debate began.
"Aww hell no," Unique rounded on Blaine as he and Brittany had reached a consensus. "There is no way you are advocating Rise of the Guardians over Twilight."
"Twilight? There's only one good thing about those movies and it's Taylor Lautner."
"He is damn fine," Unique agreed. "And what does Rise of the Guardian's have going for it?
"I love kids movies!" Blaine turned to locate Amanda, who had been trailing behind him. "What do you- Amanda, what's wrong?" Amanda was stowing her phone in her pocket and looked like she'd pass out on her feet.
"You aren't looking good," Unique agreed. "Did something happen?" Amanda shook her head feebly.
"I'm just… I've been getting sick. I think I need to go home and sleep." Blaine nodded and stepped forward to help guide her towards the exit.
"Come on, I'll drive you-"
"I just got off the phone with my mom," Amanda countered, shrugging off Blaine's hand (though weakly). "She's on her way. I'm going to head out to meet her."
"We can wait with you," Unique offered. Amanda shook her head.
"I'll be fine. You guys go enjoy the movie. Don't worry about me." The pair watched the brunette for a few seconds before she flashed a reassuring smile and shoed them. Unique and Blaine exchanged a look before reluctantly waving and catching up with the group as Amanda headed for the door.
"What's up?" Artie questioned as they returned- this quickly drew the attention of the rest of the New Directions.
"Amanda's not feeling well," Unique explained.
"Is she okay?"
"Her mom's coming to get her," Blaine offered. "She told us to enjoy the movie."
"Okay. So we're watching Skyfall," Sam started only to have the club erupt into argument again. Blaine glanced over his shoulder then back at the group before he turned to Marley (the nearest person).
"I'm going to go make sure she gets home okay," he informed her. With that, he headed back for the exit at slight jog. As he hustled through the crowds, he scanned for Amanda. He exited the building without seeing her. Blaine stopped, looking around at the few people outside: two teenage boys, an older couple, a mom and two little kids. He blinked- there was no way Amanda had been moving faster than he was. He was reaching into his pocket to text her and ask if she was okay when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye to the left. He hurried after it, out of the light. He came to the mouth of an alley and turned in, glancing around to discover that Amanda was not there- it occurred to him that the idea that a sick girl would go hide in an alley was ridiculous. His mind must have been playing tricks on him or something.
Blaine turned to head back to the mall, pulling out his phone to text Amanda like he should have done before running off. Suddenly, there was a hand on his back and he was yanked backwards before being thrown forward and slammed face first into the alley wall.