A/N: This chapter got a little long, so I had to split it. Sorry about the cliff hanger!
Happy St. Patrick's Day: this is my favorite holiday of the year!
The time finally rolled around to go pick up Kurt and Blaine at the school from their Cheerios competition. Carol decided to go with me; since she had missed them so much and apparently couldn't wait the extra ten minutes it would take for me to drive them home. We pulled into the parking lot to see a group of girls running around the bus screaming, but no Kurt or Blaine in sight. We got out of the truck to walk over and look for them and were greeted by Coach Sylvester, who did not look happy.
"We won first place, mostly because of your boys. But during room checks I walked in on something I can never again un-see. I have been scarred for life. Even a 7th national championship couldn't erase the horrors that I walked in on." Sue said to us with a solemn expression on her face. You'd think she would be happy about winning nationals.
"I'm very sorry about that Coach Sylvester. We'll be sure to talk with the boys. Where are they?" Carol asked her.
"I had to forcibly separate them on the way home. They were sharing a single bus seat. I don't know what goes on in that house of yours, but those boys act like they are auditioning for a porno. I used to think it was just people who dressed like librarians, but now I know it's also anyone with a bowtie addiction that is secretly a sex addict. There was almost a sex riot at the hotel pool because of them. I had to make Curls wear a shirt in the water, because all the girls were going crazy. They didn't even care that he was obviously sucking face with Sweet Porcelain." She said. Clearly the boys got up to their usual antics.
"I get it. They need to behave in public. I've been try to tell them that for a while. Where are they?" I asked her. I was really getting sick of hearing about what they got up to. I know first hand how bad it could be, I didn't need anyone to tell me.
"Curls is still on the bus. Porcelain is sitting behind my LeCar. You can take them home now, I'm sick of looking at their faces." I looked at Carol and looked over to Sue's car. She got the message and walked over to get Kurt while I went to the bus to find Blaine. I found Blaine sitting in the back row of the bus. I went and sat next to him. He didn't say anything, just continued to sit and stare at out the window.
"So Curls, I hear congratulations are in order. National Champions is pretty impressive." I said to him.
"I've never been so humiliated in my life. And I've performed in theme parks." He said, near tears.
"Oh, it didn't sound that bad. You've done some pretty embarrassing things. Trust me…" I told him, trying my best to console him. I was used to having to calm Kurt down, but Blaine could usually self regulate when he got upset.
"No, this was mortifying. It was just one thing after another, it wasn't just one incidence. It started with Coach Sylvester walking in to our room without knocking, and ended with her literally picking me up and throwing me into the back row of seats. She let Kurt walk up to the front of the bus. And Santana spent the entire trip making fun of me." He said.
I guess it sounded bad, but no worse that what's happened to him in the past.
"I'm sure you're just blowing it out of proportion. Let's get home; you can hide in your room for the rest of the day. But you need to stop sulking by tonight; we're going out to dinner for Finn's birthday." I grabbed his bag for him and started to get off the bus. He was still sitting there, so I yelled back. "If you don't get off the bus right now, you're going to have to walk home." He finally joined me at the front of the bus and slowly walked down the steps. As soon as he stepped off the bus, the cat calls started from the girls. Blaine ran for the truck, but by the time I walked over, I heard enough of the comments to realize that at some point this weekend, all the Cheerios saw much more of Blaine than he wanted them to see. Carol and Kurt were already in the truck when I got in. They were both laughing, but at least they were trying to keep it quiet. Blaine's head was buried in his arms. We pulled out of the school parking lot and headed home.
"So what actually happened?" I finally asked to break up the awkward silence.
"I really don't want to talk about it. It was just awful." Blaine said, but it was a bit muffled since his head was still buried.
"All the Cheerios were having a pool party since our hotel had an indoor pool. We were swimming and started kissing a little while we were in the deep end. All the girls started yelling about Blaine having a six pack, so Coach Sylvester said she wasn't going to have yet another sex riot, so she grabbed Blaine and pulled him out of the water. She said he had to put a shirt on, but she didn't realize we had been making out for a while. Wet swimsuits do a very poor job of hid any problems that… arise. So Blaine's swimsuit left very little to the imagination, and all the girls saw. Santana proceeded to comment and proposition him the rest of the week. I don't know who it was, but someone must have had a cell phone out, because there's a picture floating around too. It was pretty embarrassing for me too…" Kurt finished.
"You! Embarrassed? Everyone didn't see your penis!" Blaine shouted.
"Yeah, because Sue told me to stay in the pool because she didn't need any more proof that I had a vagina!" Kurt shouted back.
"Ok, let's just agree you both had a terrible week." Carol said, trying to calm everyone down.
"Actually, the week wasn't that bad. We won, that's something." Kurt added, trying to smile at Blaine. By the time we pulled into the driveway they were holding hands. As we walked into the house, Finn came downstairs to greet us. Rather than say hello, he greeted the two boys with a strange question.
"Why did Rachel just text me a picture of Blaine's junk?" Finn asked with a dumb expression on his face. Blaine dropped Kurt's hand and ran up to his room.
"Where did Rachel get that picture from?" Kurt asked him.
"She said Santana sent it to her, so she sent it to the whole glee club, since she needed a way to get back at Blaine." Finn explained.
"Oh my god!" We heard Blaine scream from inside his room. He opened the door with enough force to dent the wall that the door hit and ran down the stairs, grabbed his keys and tried to run out to his car. I grabbed him before he could make it outside.
"Let me go! I need to go murder Rachel Berry!" He said while trying to wiggle out of my grip.
"Why don't we all calm down for a little bit. I'm sure you're just blowing this all out of proportion." Carol said while locking the door so he couldn't escape as quickly when I let go.
"She's posting the picture all over facebook. Right now, everyone in New Directions has it as their profile picture. She did this. Now I have to kill her! Please? I promise I won't get caught or arrested. I'll do it discreetly and sneak out. I'm small; I can climb out the window and hide in the bushes! Please?" He practically begged.
"No, we are not giving you permission to murder anyone, no matter what they did, or how wrong it was. Everyone get ready, we're going out to dinner for Finn's birthday. When we get back, Blaine is going to learn how to repair a wall, since he's responsible for fixing that hole he just made from his door. Now Blaine, give me your keys." I said while holding my hand out. He reluctantly handed the keys over, although I know he was already scheming other ways to kill Rachel. I'll have to remember to hide Kurt's keys too, so he couldn't borrow them.
We had a nice dinner out at one of those chain restaurants that have obnoxious waitresses who wear too many buttons. They sang to Finn when they brought out dessert. All in all, it was a calm, relaxing night. This was mainly due to the fact that Rachel wasn't invited. Originally, we planned on having her join us, but when decided not to mention it to her when we realized that Blaine would most likely poison her food.
The next Monday, the boys had to wear their Cheerio uniforms to school. Part of their deal with Sue was that they wouldn't have to wear them outside of competitions, but since they were national champions, the whole squad had to wear the uniforms and the gold medals they had won. At first they were really against the idea, but finally decided that after winning, they should be safe for the day. They were wrong.
I was home early from the shop, so I was already sitting on the couch when they walked in. Blaine's cheerios uniform, face and hair were covered in various colors of slushies. He went straight up to the bathroom and slammed the door. Kurt followed him inside and put his bag down before sitting next to me on the couch. He had splashes of color on his uniform too, but it was obvious he wasn't hit with one. It must just have been what splashed off of Blaine.
"There's a good side to all of this." He said. "Coach Sylvester completely snapped and started yelling and screaming about her Cheerios deserving respect. She grabbed a baseball bat and smashed the slushie machine. She then made an announcement that there would be no more slushies in the school, and anyone caught with one would have to deal with her. I guess all it took to stop the slushies was a Cheerio uniform getting stained. We did pretty well for most of the day. After school got out, we were standing at our lockers getting ready to go home and a couple of jocks came up to us and made some comment about Blaine trying to steal their girlfriends. Apparently that picture from the pool made its way around the school and all the girls are obsessed with it. I mean, why wouldn't they be. He's got amazing abs." I cleared my throat a little to remind him to stay on topic instead of day dreaming. He finally continued. "After they slushied him, one of the guys decided it would be funny to shove us into the lockers too."
"Wow… at least there aren't going to be any more slushies." I told him. "Why don't you go check on Blaine and see how he's doing. I'll get dinner started. I know it's his night to cook, which means you'll cook, but I'll take care of it."
"Thanks Dad, but what are you going to cook?" He asked me. The answer to that was easy.
"My specialty: I'll order us some Chinese food. Carol's working late and Finn is out with Rachel, so it's just the three of us tonight."
Kurt smiled and walked upstairs.
An hour later we were sitting on the couch eating Chinese food while watching one of the Harry Potter movies. Once the slushie dye was cleaned off his face, I could see that Blaine had a black eye. I would be calling the school first thing in the morning to find out why nothing was done about someone hitting him. After Blaine's terrible week, we decided that he could pick the movie. Carol usually didn't let us eat in front of the TV, but since she was working late, we figured what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her. Once the movie was over, we started the next one, since apparently it was one book that was broken into two movies. I had no idea what was actually going on, since I didn't really pay that much attention to the first one. By the time the movie was over, Kurt was sound asleep. Blaine had his arms wrapped around Kurt and was staring into space.
"Hey Blaine, you ok?"
"Yeah… I was just thinking. I've had a really rough few days. First I had to deal with Sue, and now everyone at school spent the day harassing me. It just reminded me of the last time things got this bad. In my old school before Dalton, when I got beat up after the dance, it was bad. I told you that I moved to Dalton because of that. Actually, my dad made me go back to school once I got out of the hospital. It was terrible. I only made it three days before doing something about it. I had considered it before, it wouldn't be that difficult. I was home alone all the time anyway. I was moved to Dalton after I tried to kill myself. I just couldn't take the shit anymore." He said. I could see he was crying while telling me this.
"Blaine, if you ever think about something like that, I want you to talk to me or Carol. Please don't do anything that can't be reversed." I said to him. I wanted to yell it, but I also didn't want him to be scared or think that I was going to be one more person telling him he was wrong.
"Oh no. I would never do anything like that now. I was just thinking about how if I had Kurt back then, none of that would have happened. I would never give up the chance to spend my life with Kurt. It's so much easier to handle the shit they throw at you when you have a family supporting you. I don't know what I would do without Kurt. Or you and Carol. Or even Finn. I've had a terrible week, and maybe a few years ago it would have gotten to me. But I'm ok now." He finished. I knew he was telling the truth.
"Does Kurt know about this?" I asked him.
"Of course. I tell Kurt everything. I know everything about him too…" Blaine said, referring to Kurt's own rough patch back in freshman year. Before he had glee club, Kurt didn't have a place at school. He was being bullied and beat up on a daily basis. I caught him writing a suicide note. I brought him to the hospital for suicide watch before he could actually try anything. That glee club really did save his life. And through it he found Blaine, whose life was also saved. I guess glee club was a really good thing.
"Why don't you get Kurt upstairs to bed? If you really want to, I guess it wouldn't be terrible for you to miss one day of school." I offered.
"No, I need to go tomorrow and face everyone. As soon as something else happens, everyone will forget about bothering me. It'll be ok." He said as he woke Kurt up and they started up the stairs. I saw them go into the same bedroom, but I let them go. Sometimes they really needed each other.
The next morning, Carol walked in just as the boys were getting ready to leave for school.
"What happened to your face?" She shouted, pulling Blaine into a hug. I'll admit his eye looked pretty bad, much worse than it did last night. I probably should have made him put some ice on it.
"Just some bullies. And a half dozen slushies. I should have expected it. What was I thinking wearing a Cheerios outfit around school all day? Especially after my week being tortured by the other Cheerios and Sue." Blaine explained.
"You don't have to go to school today if you don't want to Blaine." She turned to me then. "Why are you making him go to school?" She demanded. I held my hands up in front of me and tried to tell her I suggested the day off, but Blaine beat me to it.
"I want to go. Don't worry. I'll be fine. Besides, with this shiner, no one is going to want to hit me. If they get caught, they'd get blamed for this too." He said, suspiciously calm.
We should have just made him stay home. It would have saved us a whole lot of trouble.