Chapter 4

A few hours later, everyone was nearly prepared for dinner. I could smell the penne a la vodka coming from the kitchen as I was examining the dining room. Dad and Carol had hung some cheesy "Welcome back!" decorations around the first floor. It was nice, and it made me feel wanted.

I heard a knock on the front door, and as I started to pace towards it, Finn cut in front of me. It must have been his girlfriend, Rachel. She and Kurt's boyfriend would be coming over for dinner to meet me. Burt had said that they might as well be included, since they spent so much time at the Hummel-Hudson household, they were practically family anyway. I had no objection. I could use any new friends I could get.

Finn said, "Hey, you look great!" He leaned down and gave her a kiss. Once he moved out of the way, I could see her. Long, dark brown hair. Short. Very short. She had big, chocolately brown eyes. Her lips were full, and she had a slightly large nose.

It wasn't long before I realized that she was staring back at me as well. As Finn began to introduce us, she let out an ear-piercing squeal, and ran towards me. I had never been so afraid in my life.

"Oh my god! You're Kurt's sister! You're from New York, aren't you? We are going to be best friends! You have to tell me all about New York! I mean, I've only been there once, but that'll all change after graduation! Oh, you, me, Kurt, and Finn can all be on Broadway together!" She was squeezing the life out of me now while I looked at Finn in panic. Did this girl just say Broadway? Obviously, Kurt had said nothing about what kind of person I was. I was about to seriously burst this girl's bubble.

I pushed her off of me gently, and said, "Sorry, but before I decide to become life partners with a girl I just met, I like to get to know her a little bit first." I had delivered the statement with a smirk on my face. Rachel's mouth had curled into an O of embarrassment, and she turned to look at Finn. I did the same.

He was laughing hysterically, and said in between breaths, "Holy crap, this year is gonna be fun!" He walked passed us, patting me on the back. Rachel followed after him, and I decided to walk around the house.

Before I took one step, I heard a second knock on the door. Seeing as no one else was going to answer it, I turned the knob and was faced with a boy about 5'08". He had what seemed to be crazy curly dark hair held down by what could have been a gallon of gel. His eyebrows were somewhat triangularly shaped. He had gorgeous hazel eyes, and in all honesty, the guy was ripped.

"Um, Juliana?" he questioned with a smile.

"Yeah, you're Blaine, right?" I asked. Well, damn, my big brother have good taste. It wasn't even just the looks alone. From everything Kurt had told me over the phone about Blaine from the day they met, he was a stand-up guy. Blaine nodded, and I moved aside, gesturing for him to come in.

"Kurt! Your boyfriend's here!" I bellowed up the stairs.

"But I'm not done moisturizing!" he yelled back and Blaine and I just laughed. We walked into the dining room, now casually getting to know each other.

"You're from New York, right?"

"Yeah, and are you from here? Or did you move?"

"I've been here my whole life. I used to attend this other school, Dalton, so Kurt and I didn't meet until he transferred there."

I remembered then the day that Kurt had tearfully explained to me over the phone that he had to leave all his friends at McKinley and transfer to Dalton because some douchey homophobe was bullying him.

Kurt scurried down the stairs, sporting a pair of stonewashed skinny jeans, and a sweater, which, I was pretty sure, came from my closet. Oh, well. It looked better on him anyway.

"Hellooo." He greeted Blaine with a kiss on the cheek and joy welled up inside of me. My brother had found love. This was a historical day for me.

Kurt turned to me; his arm now slung around Blaine's shoulders, and said, "Shall we go to the dining room, Mademoiselle?"

As the seven of us sat around the table, all eating, laughing, and talking, I made a realization that Dad wasn't kidding when he said that they were all like a family. A family was something that I hadn't been apart of in a few years, and now that I was, I couldn't take my mind of the reason why.

Just then, as if she was a telepath, Rachel asked, "So, Juliana, why did you leave New York?"

I felt my stomach tie itself into a knot, I went pale, I swallowed, and started with, "Oh, well, um…"

Carol, Dad, and Kurt all went tense. Even Finn, who I had met for the first time today, stopped chewing his food. Kurt must have told him. Blaine sensed the change in atmosphere and looked around, confused. The only person oblivious to the tension was Rachel. She sat looking at me incredulously, awaiting an answer. Kurt leaned over, patted her hand, and quietly spoke, "We'll talk about that another time."

The truth was that I felt like I wasn't fast enough, or strong enough, on the strip. I had trained harder than ever before, ate less, and deprived myself of much needed sleep. I was like a zombie. At one point, I had considered a 3-mile run a warm-up. I thought of an energy bar as a whole meal. I figured I could power through the day on only 3 hours of sleep. I was wrong about everything. I had been so weak, and torn apart, that one day, fencing another girl on my team, I collapsed. I was asleep in the school's hospital for 4 days. I could barely walk on my own for a week afterwards. When Dad and Carol got the call from school, they talked it over, and decided that I needed to be home with a support system. I spent the rest of the summer in Master's therapy program, learning the right portions, appropriate amounts of exercise, and the proper amount of sleep required nightly.

Now I was here at home. Of course, I didn't want to give my life story to Rachel or Blaine, so I politely answered her with, "Um, I became overwhelmed with life taking care of myself, so I'm here to be with my family." She nodded.

Kurt would tell her the whole story. That was ok. It saved me the trouble, and if I was going to be friends with this girl, she may as well know the truth about me.

Dinner continued on a happy note. We got back into other discussions, and Blaine mentioned that I should join Glee club along with the rest of them. I politely declined, explaining my last experience in a glee club, and said that for now, I would be focusing on my grades as well as some fencing. I knew that I couldn't over-do it. If I tried, I'd screw things up all over again.