Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

A/n: And another chapter! Exams are over (hallelujah!), which means I'll hopefully be able to write more. Working retail is a lot less time consuming than school!

Blaine was tired of being stuck at home; he wanted nothing more than to get out of the house and go do something. But the fact that he couldn't put any weight on his broken leg for more than a few minutes and his inability to actually use crutches thanks to his broken arm severely limited his opportunities to get out and do anything. His friends were too far away to go anywhere with him, and getting out on his own wasn't an option. Which meant that Blaine was completely at the mercy of his parents and their ridiculous schedules, all of which was made even more complicated by the plethora of doctors appointments and visits from various therapists that he'd been enduring ever since he'd gotten home.

The chemistry worksheet sitting on the lap desk in front of him was the last thing Blaine really wanted to be thinking about. He knew that it was a lost cause at this point; there was no way Blaine was going to get caught up by the end of the semester, and he wasn't sure that even the summer would give him enough time to get back on track with his schoolwork. It wasn't for a lack of trying; Blaine had spent hours and hours working on trying to catch up, but he felt as though he was missing something. The grades he'd gotten back so far were nowhere near the grades he had been getting when he was actually at Dalton. Truth be told, his grades were dropping like crazy. He was still passing, of course, but barely. Blaine wasn't sure what he could do to fix this.

Blaine's parents didn't seem to be that concerned about his grades; whenever he said anything about it, they just told him that he shouldn't worry too much about it and changed the subject. It was annoying and Blaine had snapped at both his parents and Claire more than once over it. No one seemed to want to tell him what was going on or explain why it didn't seem as though his teachers were sending all of the schoolwork he was supposed to be getting through.

Blaine closed his eyes, letting the paper drop to the floor where he couldn't exactly reach it. Not that it mattered, really. He didn't know how to do the work, nor did he really care any more. "You dropped this." Blaine glanced up as Claire held the paper out towards him.

"Does it even matter? It's not like I'm going to be going back to school any time soon…"

"You don't know that, Blaine…" Claire began.

"I can't hear well enough for classes, and that's not even thinking about how the hell I'd get around. I'm starting to think that no one even thinks I'll be able to handle the work because I know they aren't sending me everything, and my grades have gone to shit because I just don't get all of it…"

"Blaine…"

"I'm just starting to think it isn't worth it to even try because no one expects me to succeed anyway. What's the point in actually working for something that I'm not going to be able to do anyway?" Blaine asked. He took the worksheet from Claire's hand and put it away inside the chemistry book that had been lying open on the bed next to him. He reached up with his good hand and rubbed at his eyes behind his glasses.

Blaine opened his eyes again as he felt the bed shift under Claire's weight, his younger sister scooting closer so that she could hug him. Blaine closed his eyes as Claire's arm snaked around his waist and she gently pulled him into a tight hug. "You act like this is the end of the world. It's one semester of school…"

"Dalton doesn't work the same way, Claire… I fuck up one semester, and I have to repeat the entire year…" Blaine began.

"Okay, so it's one school year. You'll repeat it and everything will get back to normal."

"Claire… do you have any idea how much this really fucks up everything? What decent school is going to take a kid that needed five years to finish high school and who can't hear anything?"

"Any school that would refuse you because of that isn't worth worrying about… you aren't the first person to have something like this happen and you aren't going to be the last. You'll get into college."

"But I won't be getting into an Ivy like Alex. I'm going to disappoint everyone…"

"Blaine, Mom and Dad will be thrilled no matter what schools you get into. And the grandparents will get over it if you don't get into an Ivy. They can't expect you to be perfect. Although my guess is that as long as you get your grades back up, the Ivies are going to be fighting over you… think about it. To overcome something like this is kind of huge. And I know you can do it."

"You can't know…"

"No one thought you were going to make it after those guys beat you up. You proved everyone wrong… you woke up, you're going to be fine once your bones heal, and you're doing really well learning to work with the hearing aids."

"I just…"

"You're worrying too much. You should forget about school while you can, focus on getting back on you feet. You have a free pass to not do homework again until August… take advantage of that while you can."

Blaine closed his eyes and let his head rest against the side of Claire's. "Thank you."

"Do you want some ice cream? I bet we can talk Mom into taking us to Cold Stone…"

"It's March, Claire…"

"So? Ice cream doesn't lose its flavor just because it's cold outside…" Blaine smiled, shaking his head.

"I can't believe I'm letting you talk me into this. Help me up, will you?" Blaine couldn't help but wince as he shifted his weight onto his broken leg.

"That still hurts?"

"I haven't been taking the pain meds for the past couple of days. Well, except at night… it hurts more then. But it's really only bad when I try to put weight on it…"

"Which is probably why you aren't supposed to be up on that leg unless absolutely necessary. What are you two planning?" Blaine glanced up and realized that their mom was standing in the door with her arms crossed. If it weren't for the smile on her face, Blaine would have thought that she was upset with them.

"Ice cream. Any chance we can go to Cold Stone?" Claire asked.

"Maybe later, once Blaine's friends get here." Blaine raised an eyebrow. "A few of the boys asked if they could come over this weekend. They should be here any minute…"

"Kurt didn't say anything about coming over…" Blaine began. He was surprised when his mother held up his phone.

"You keep forgetting this in strange places. I found it in the freezer… you missed a half dozen messages, mostly from Kurt. Which is why Kurt called me." Blaine raised an eyebrow as he took the phone from his mother. He didn't even remember being in the freezer that day.

"When did I put my phone in the freezer?"

"Probably last night when you got that popsicle," Claire replied. Blaine nodded, realizing that she was probably right. He'd forgotten about that.

"Right… I'd forgotten about that…"

"Just try to be more careful. You're lucky that a freezer won't hurt a cell phone, but I don't even want to know where else you might leave it." Blaine nodded, slipping the phone back into his pocket and grabbing the crutch that was leaning against the wall so that he could use it to hobble out to the couch. "And make sure you put that foot back up. You don't need that foot to start swelling…" Blaine nodded, sighing as his mother reminded him about his foot for the millionth time.

"I know, I know. You've only reminded me a couple of hundred times since I got home…" Blaine slowly made his way out to the couch, ignoring the way his mom and sister seemed to hover around him as he moved. "I'm perfectly capable of making it to the couch. I've done it plenty of times without any help."

"We just want to make sure that you don't fall and hurt yourself."

"I'm not going to fall." Blaine dropped the crutch on the floor next to the couch and sat down, lifting his leg up onto the couch and leaning back against the cushions. "See? I made it all the way out here by myself. At least I'm still capable of something…"

"Blaine…" His mother was cut off by the sound of the doorbell ringing and she sighed. "We'll finish this conversation later, after your friends are gone."