A/N: Any familiar or recognizable characters aren't mine. i'm simply using them to do my bidding.

If you haven't read the Intro and Explanation, I would. Just so you know what's going on.

I will take suggestions for situations. Canon preferably. From season 2. Maybe season 3. We'll see.

So yeah. Read away.

"Watch out, loser!"

Kate jumped sideways, narrowly avoiding the idiot on his skateboard racing past her. She was slightly distracted watching the boy weave his way through the hallway that she missed Blackly coming up behind her.

"Welcome back, loser!"

The football player hip checked her roughly into the lockers as he passed. Imbecile. She caught herself against the cold, metal doors, narrowly avoiding knocking her face into the lock, and then straightened up. God, she hated this school. Couldn't they come up with better insults? 'Loser' had lost its shine at the end of last semester.

Kate wove her way through the crowded hallway, ducking under a few basketball players' elbows, slipping around a couple making out against the wall, and finally reaching the south hall. The crowd was thinner, which meant she wouldn't have to shove people out of the way to reach her books. As she spun the combination dial on her locker, another vicious insult caught her ear.

"Hey, queer!"

Kate's hand froze on the second number of her combination. She recognized the snarl. She didn't turn around, just listened to see what would happen next. The call had come from down the corridor, which she found strange. Usually they waited until they were close enough to hit her before opening their big, dumb mouths.

She heard a crash, the familiar sound of a body hitting the lockers.

"Stay out of the men's room! If you're gonna act like a girl, then use the girl's bathroom!"

Another familiar noise followed quickly after. A book bag hitting the tile floor. From the sliding, she imagined the books spilling out of it. Three, if she had heard correctly. Laughter echoed in the nearly empty halls as the hockey player and his cohorts turned the corner. After they disappeared, Kate released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding and slowly turned around.

A boy was squatting near the ground, picking up the books, papers, and pens that had flown out of his bag when it had been tossed less than ceremoniously beside him. His head was bowed, his shoulders hunched forward a bit, as if trying to disappear into thin air. Kate sighed. Maybe he was.

His brown hair, maybe more reddish-brown, flopped into his face, obscuring Kate's view, but she was fairly certain that she hadn't seen this boy in the two years she had been at the school. After all, William McKinley high school had nearly three thousand students. She walked past faces she didn't recognize every day.

She shrugged her own backpack higher onto her shoulders and then made a beeline for the boy on the ground. Kate noticed his phone laying facedown a few lockers away, so she picked it up. The boy stood up and Kate held the phone out to him.

"Thanks," he mumbled, snatching it from her and shoving it into his bag.

"You're welcome."

Kate's brown eyes met the boy's. They were a shade of blue-green, more blue today because of the sweater he was wearing, and watery. He blinked hard a couple of times to clear his vision. His face was soft, rounded, boyish…and very attractive in a mildly feminine way; but the features were twisted into a look of determination – or constipation. Kate wasn't sure. But as she recalled the words the bullies had said, attached them to a face, and realized the boy was quite possibly the best dressed student she'd ever seen at the school, she couldn't stop her mind from making the jump. Gay.

No. Kate forced her mind away from the assumption, knowing that looks and appearances weren't to be trusted, and also knowing the pain that came from people making those assumptions.

"I'm Kate," she managed finally, holding out a hand.

He frowned at it for a moment, eyes narrowing, probably trying to determine whether she was serious or not. After a few awkward seconds, he reached out and tentatively took her hand. His skin was soft, but his grip was firm as they shook once.

"Kurt," he answered.

"Nice to meet you."

"Sure, you too." He didn't sound like it was nice to meet her as he glanced around the empty hallway. "I have to go."

Without waiting for an answer, he darted around her and hurried down the hall, disappearing into a classroom at the far end. Two words came to mind as she watched him: scared shitless.

"…is negative 'b' plus or minus the square root of…"

Kate continued to doodle in the margins of her math notebook, her mind wandering forward to soccer practice later that afternoon and the drills she would be running the team through. Quick run around the track, high knees, lunges, -

" – 36? Kate?"

Kate's head snapped up at the mention of her name as her heart leapt into her throat. "Um, I'm sorry, what was the question?"

"On part two of the homework assignment, if we plug in 36 for 'a', what does that give us?"

She glanced down at her notebook, realizing she had nothing but ninja stick figures invading a pirate ship drawn on the paper. "Two hundred?" she guessed.

"Close," the teacher said, turning back to the board. "Did you miscalculate something? The answer is two hundred and twelve."

"Oh, yeah, I must have," Kate mumbled, picking her pencil up and pretending to scribble something down.

The pirate ship now had a name. USS Math Sucks.

Her gaze wandered towards the open door of the classroom, where she could see a small section of hallway. It was empty. She continued to stare, though, contemplating the event of that morning and the boy she'd met. Kurt. Kate had definitely never seen him around, although he did look young, so it was possible he was a freshman, or maybe even a sophomore. But then again, that could just be another false impression. He was tall, and seemed to know his way around, or maybe that was just an impression he gave off to keep people away. One thing she knew for sure, he was one of the most interesting people she'd met at this school in a very long time.

Someone passed by the door of her classroom, but by the time she realized it, whoever it had been was long gone. A trail of red liquid had been left on the ground outside the door. It was watery and there were still chunks of ice in it. Slushy. Whoever it was had been slushied, probably courtesy of the knuckle-dragging athletes. Granted, she was an athlete, captain of the soccer team, but overall she avoided being classified with the rest of them. She particularly avoided being classified with the varsity male athletes and the cheerleaders; they were the worst. Instead, she did her best to identify with the varsity female athletes, a rowdy, obnoxious bunch, but harmless for the most part.

The sound of the bell signaled the end of third period, so she shoved her notebook into her backpack, closed her math book, and left the room, following the path of red that had already been smeared by the crowds of other students rushing to and from class. The trail ended at the girls' bathroom, where the notoriously vulgar and unbelievably unpopular self-declared "official" high-school reporter was at the door, his arm stuck into the bathroom, probably holding a microphone, while he pressed his face to the opening and called questions inside. Kate grabbed him by his hair – a large, blond, curly mass that most people, himself included, referred to as his "jew-fro" as if that wasn't racist – and yanked him forcibly away from the door.

"Get lost, scumbag."

He yelped in pain, probably a combination of Kate's hair pulling and knocking his wrist against the doorframe as he was jerked backwards. "That wasn't nice!" he squeaked. "I was just getting an inside scoop about –"

"I said, get lost."

She spun him around and gave him a firm shove to the back, knocking him into a group of stoners, while she slipped into the bathroom, leaned back against the door, and turned the lock. She'd seen plenty of people get slushied before, hell, she'd been slushied herself on numerous occasions, so she expected to find a girl probably using the handicapped sink with the faucet head that rose up and then curled over, which gave ample room to get a head underneath, to wash the ice and food coloring out of her hair. What she didn't expect was to see the boy she had met that morning. She also didn't expect to find him in the middle of changing his shirt.

Kate's eyes went wide as she met his again. They stared at each other for a minute, Kate taking in the fact that there were trails of red running down his face, ears, and neck, while he studied her. His expression was unreadable. It surprised her, but she wasn't sure why. Maybe she'd expected him to be angry, or upset, but instead, he almost looked…resigned. Like he knew it was just part of his life and there was nothing he could do about it. Something about that broke her heart.

"I, um, got rid of Jacob Ben-Israel…" she mumbled.

"Uh, thanks," he answered.

Another awkward silence fell between them. More red ice slid down his forehead and he shivered. Kate stepped forward. He stepped back. Gun-shy.

"Do you, maybe, want some help?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but a pounding at the door made both of them jump.

"Kurt! Boy, let me in! It's Mercedes!"

In the split second Kate had taken to glance at the door, Kurt's face had hardened. "No, thank you. I'll be fine. Although I would appreciate it if you would let my friend in."

His voice was cold. Kate nodded slowly. "Okay, um… see you around, I guess."

Kate twisted the deadbolt on the door and pulled it open, revealing a curvy black girl with a look that could kill.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped.

"I was just going." Kate slipped around her and hurried away, feeling the girl's – Mercedes'? – stare piercing her back.

That was one scary girl. One fabulously dressed, scary girl. Kate rounded the corner and leaned back against the wall glancing down at her own outfit. She'd never felt underdressed at school in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt before, but if she kept meeting such fashion-forward students, she might just have to put more than a couple minutes of work into her outfit each day.

It was like fate had them connected. Or maybe she just hadn't paid attention before. Either way, Kurt seemed to appear wherever she was. Tuesday she'd gotten in line for lunch with one of her friends from the soccer team, only to realize that Kurt and his black, diva friend were a few people ahead of them.

Laura continued to talk strategy for the scrimmage they had coming up, but Kate's eyes and mind had wandered over to follow the good-looking boy and his friend as they got their lunches. They were laughing over a girl named "Rachel" and her wardrobe choices, although the way Kurt's eyes kept scanning the cafeteria, as if he were watching for something or someone, made Kate uneasy. What made her even more on edge was the fact that his friend didn't even seem to notice.

"Kurt?"

Kurt's head flicked back towards his friend as she stared up at him, a slightly confused look on her face.

"What? I'm sorry."

"I asked if –"

"Kate?"

Kate jumped and spun to face her friend. "Sorry, girl. I was a little distracted."

Laura followed the previous direction of Kate's eyes. "By the gay kid and Mercedes?" Laura's face read skepticism.

"Yeah. Yesterday I –" Kate paused, picked up a tray, and then gave her blond friend a serious look. "He's gay?"

Laura pushed her bangs behind her ear and scoffed. "Are you kidding me? The kid couldn't be anymore flaming unless he was actually on fire."

"Oh."

"Wait," Laura said as Kate took a plate of what looked like sludge from the cafeteria lady. "You didn't know?"

Kate kept her face averted in case the emotions that made her stomach hurt were apparent on her face. "I suspected," she admitted. "I wasn't sure."

"Well, your suspicions were right, although you might want to have your 'gaydar' fixed. I almost feel bad for him. Poor guy never gets a break."

Now Kate's stomach really hurt. She grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler at the end of the line and paid the lunch lady before turning to face her teammate. "Almost?"

Laura shrugged as she handed the lunch lady a five-dollar bill. "I don't have a problem with him being gay, but does he really need to rub it in everyone's face? I mean, come on…"

Wow. Kate had never realized just how prevalent homophobia was in this school. Especially among the jocks. No wonder he flinched away. She'd been wearing her letterman's jacket yesterday. He probably thought she was there to torment him too.

"Hey, Kate! You coming?"

Laura waved at Kate from halfway across the lunchroom.

"That's what she said!" a large jock, probably a hockey player, called, glancing between the two girls.

"Dude! Gross!" his friend chided, clapping him on the shoulder, laughing.

And there it was. Another shot at homosexuality. Jesus, this school had problems.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming," Kate muttered, hurrying to catch up with Laura who didn't seem fazed at all by the dig.

Kate's stomach churned a little more and she had a sudden eerie feeling. Something's going to get out of hand someday. Someone's going to go too far and someone's going to get hurt. Kate took one last, quick look around the lunchroom before following Laura into the courtyard, but she didn't see Kurt or his friend. She sent a quick prayer skyward. Please, God, don't let Kurt get be the one that gets hurt.