Chapter 5

The remainder of the week continues as normal until Friday when Blaine picks Mel up from school. He was early having received a call requesting if he could be early. Miss Story greets him.

"Hello Blaine. It's good you could come here early"
"Thanks, is Kurt here too?"
"No. I asked but he had a meeting today that he couldn't rearranged but told me I could talk to you and you would pass on any valuable information."
"Of course."
"So Mel is a lovely student. Very gifted with regards to music and art, but also excels in other subjects like English and science. She says you help her with homework?""I explain things to her if she's unsure but she does the rest on her own. I just monitor her work"

"Do you correct her work for her?"
"When she makes a rare mistake, I ask her to do it again but I rarely have to as she sails through the homework normally. The only thing I have to do is supervise as she is a bit of a dreamer" Blaine said with a fond smile "So just needs prompting to continue if she gets distracted"
"Excellent to hear. I know about the dreamer part and I have done some observations in school. An example being we were doing our 3 times table and we were chanting. She appeared to drift off part way through. I then asked her what 3 times 6 was as this was when I noted the change. She answered 27. I then chanted the table again as some of my other students seemed to get a few things confused and she was able to answer the questions after"
"That is strange, as I know she enjoys number work"
"Hmm..there have been a few incidents like this, I out them off to day dreaming as a fair amount of students have periods like, which is why I encourage extra breaks. I don't want to jump ahead here, I mean this could just Mel but I planned on getting my TA to record these and I would really like to ask you to do this at home. If you notice she is sitting their almost in gaze or twiddling with a piece and isn't responding to your requests"
"I will, though I do hope what you are thinking is wrong"
"Like I said Blaine, we'll just monitor her and as you seem to know the road I am going down, I think record keeping will be invaluable."
"Of course"

"But saying that, she is still one of my brightest. She loves to learn. I hear she plays schools when she's home?"
"She does and her teddies and sometimes my partner or me are her willing students" Blaine said with a smile
"I do have one more thing I wanted to discuss, have you noticed any changes in her behaviour at all?"
"Like what?"
"Well normally she is the first to put her hand up to answer a question but now she chooses not to unless asked. Also she seems to have created a game called be "Quiet as a mouse" which she plays with her friends. Each starts with 5 stones. You need to be quiet for an unspecified amount of time. If you talk you lose your stones. The person with the most stones is the best but if you have the least stones you can't play the next game as your grounded."

"I have never heard of such a game. She doesn't play it with me..."
"Well when I asked were she learnt about this game she said 'Pa plays it. Now I know Kurt is busy with work, and I wondered if it was some kind of variation they played so Kurt could get some work done?"
"Kurt didn't generally bring work home with him. He said when he left the office it was family time. I don't know if his doing it now, I really don't spend that much time with him"

"OK. I am embarrassed to ask this, as I know this isn't your week but could you pay for the school dinners this week? Mel didn't turn up Monday with a lunch so we provided one for her using the IOU system. We called Kurt about it in the evening, and he said she was to be on school dinners for the rest of week, and he'd pay at the end of the week but obviously..."
"...His not here. Yeah that's not a problem." Blaine said
"And if she is to continue with this after the holidays the office will need to be informed and it be paid in advance"
"Of course. I will do that now."
"Thank you Blaine, it's been good talking to you. If I have any other issues I will let you know. Have a great week. Mel has been talking about going to the zoo?"
"Yeah. She's one very diverse young lady. Animals are the latest craze"

Blaine went to pay then returned to collect Mel. Mel came out of class and threw herself at Blaine

"Hey Munchkin! Hows your week been?"
"It's been great Dad. At school we played with toys this afternoon and I read a new book. I am on the next colour books now"
"Wow that's brilliant news. So it's been a good day?" Blaine finished with a smile

"Yeah."
The drove home quietly, Blaine thought about everything the teacher had said and started to wonder whether Kurt was really OK. Kurt wouldn't let he have school dinners at the beginning because of the unhealthy food she could be eating. He was obsessed with healthy diets. There were always chicken salads with fruit or sandwich made on whole wheat bread. Mel complained about it haf the time. Blaine was more lenient though with her food intake. This game was the other thing that bothered him slightly. He had never seen Mel pay this game. Maybe he would speak to Sebastian tonight after he called Kurt to give him the update. He also wondered to himself as they drove in silence about the day dreaming and whether it was something more sinister. His heart told him it wasn't, but his head and knowledge spoke otherwise. He would have to wait, observe, and record to find out the solution to this problem.

Hey Guys,

So I am deviating a little and have changed the plot slightly. This story will be longer because I am adding in a few more things around Mel. Kurt is going to struggle and Blaine is going to help him, but Mel will play a major role too. Sebastian s going to be there to support Blaine and Mel in whatever capacity they require but may have a limit of how much of an impact Kurt has on their life.