Blaine fidgeted in his chair excitedly across the table from the Principal of William McKinley High School, Figgins. They had been discussing matters which the male could only wait to share with his boyfriend, who would be the most excited to hear the news, he was sure. Smiles were exchanged and that only urged on Blaine's enthusiasm.
"Mr. Anderson, you may join your fellow…" Principal Figgins hesitated. He was all about relating to the students and in this moment he was picking out a slang term in his mass internal collection of pop culture vocabulary. "Bros," he seemed to have picked carefully but not effectively. It resulted in a less than comfortable exit by Blaine, and just a moment later, after handshakes and finalizations, an exit by his mom, as well. His mom was shorter than him, surprisingly, or not, you might say, and she was precious woman with the best hopes for her son.
"Okay, I hope you have a good…second, first day," she said with a smile. She was proud of her son's decision to stand up for something, even if it meant starting again at a new school. She reached her hands out to straight his bow tie. He pulled back just the slightest bit and she dropped her hands.
"Ma, I'll be fine. Promise." Blaine said genuinely. Little did the mother and son know, just down the hall was one of the reasons Blaine was transferring in the first place. The slender male had seen his boyfriend in the office with his mother before the tardy bell, and decided to stay in the hallway, because any opportunity to see his boyfriend would have to be taken. Kurt continued to idly mess with various objects in his locker.
"Look, I'll have Kurt, and Rachel, and Quinn, and Mercedes, and everybody I told you about." He assured her, causing a smile to turn up on her face. She nodded in approval.
"Alright, if you say so. Have a good day, sweetie," she said and put her hands on his cheeks and pulled him down to place a kiss on his forehead. He just laughed softly.
"I will, Ma," he said, the goofy grin leaking into his features. She gave hi and hug and then reluctantly left the school building, glancing over her shoulder to see Blaine standing and watching her every few moments. He gave a small wave and she finally made her way to where Blaine was out of her line of vision.
He sighed and pushed his hands into his pockets before turning on his heels. Immediately his eyes fell on Kurt, legs clad in designer pants extending past the edge of his locker. He walked over to his boyfriend a small bounce in his step.
"Well, speak of the devil," Blaine said with a smirk, leaning against his boyfriend's neighboring locker, foot put up on the lower set.
"Have I ever told you how precious your mom is?" Kurt stated almost dreamily, because he loved the homeliness that she possessed in almost all of her actions, wherever she may be.
"A million times."
Kurt nodded, glad that was clarified before his eyes fell on the picture of Blaine hanging in his locker. Blaine followed his gaze and spotted the letters neatly arranged above it, as well.
"Well, who is that dapper fellow?" Blaine said, pulling a hand out of his picture to reach up and tap the frame. "Looks like somebody has a crush," he commented teasingly. Kurt closed his locker and attempted to hold back the smile that was forming on his lips.
"You're an idiot," he said, eyes wandering across his boyfriend's outfit for just a moment, figuring the less time he was submitted to viewing it, the better the chances were that he wouldn't say anything.
"Your idiot, though," Blaine pointed out and leaned forward to give him a short peck on the lips, catching him off guard. When he pulled away and resumed his spot against the locker, Kurt hurriedly looked around.
"Blaine…" he whined in almost a hushed whisper. Anybody could have seen them.
"You better get used to it," Blaine stated confidently.
"Wait…what do you mean?" Kurt had already spent generous amounts of time "getting used" to Blaine's kisses so it was an odd phrase to hear from him.
"What? You think I make my mom drive me all the way across town just to visit my boyfriend's school? Come on, Kurt, I'm all for romanticism, but when it comes to things like this. There's the fact that I was talking to the principal that you have to keep in mind." Kurt blinked away his frustration from moments before, trying to clear his head and decipher what he was hearing.
"Blaine, what are you saying?"
"I'm saying, that for the remainder of my high school career, I will be going to William McKinley High School," Kurt opened his mouth to speak and Blaine cut him off out of sheer excitement.
"And before you ask, I've already talked to Mr. Schue. In fact, I should be in glee club right about now." Kurt's heart seemed like it would burst. Not only did he have a wonderful boyfriend, now he would get to sing and dance and do everything he loved with the person he loved.
"Blaine, you didn't have to come here…" Kurt trailed off, not finding much of a reason to push Blaine back to Dalton when an undeniably stronger force was pulling him away.
"It's not just for you, thought that's a big part," he admitted and shrugged. "It's for me, too. When I left my old school, I never really felt like I tried to stand up for myself. The world isn't like Dalton Acadey," he stated, as if that was the simplest concept in the world.
"Blaine…" he said, trying to find some reason in his mind that what Blaine was doing was wrong, but he couldn't. He shook his head, as if to tell him without words that he didn't have to prove himself, but his argument didn't get past the back of his teeth.
"Blaine, nothing. You're late for class and I need to make a good first impression. Only have one of those," he confirmed. "So, I was thinking a big entrance." Kurt's smiled formed, even as hard as it was to believe, he was happy.
"Well, they have already met you," Kurt pointed out.
"They met rival me, Dalton me. Now it's time to meet McKinley me, Kurt's boyfriend me," he said, looking as though he was literally about to start bouncing off the walls.
"Whatever you say," Kurt said with feigned annoyance and turned to head towards the choir room.
"You're just mad because you liked the blazer!" He said to his back with a cocky smirk. Kurt just rolled his eyes and continued walking.
"What? No comment on my attire?" He challenged playfully, to which Kurt stopped but didn't turn around. He sighed heavily and the shook his head, refraining from laughing.
"Wear socks tomorrow."
He finished his trek down the hall and entered the choir room and immediately paved his way to sit beside Mercedes and Quinn, pulling the strap of his messenger bag off of his shoulder and hooking it over his chair. Crossing his legs, he shot a knowing glance in Schuester's direction as the man finished up writing out the word of the week on the white board. Kurt wondered if that board white board had ever been used for anything other than Schuester's messy scribble. He turned his attention back to Mercedes, who was talking the karaoke night she had had with her father and her newest potential mother in law the night before.
The little conversations that had been taking place around the choir room ended once Mr. Schue cleared his throat and turned to face his class, his arms folded and a bright smile set across his lips. The smile made most occupants of the red chairs in front of him weary, as those smiles always seemed to mark the beginning of nothing but a troubling week.
Eyes wandered to the white board, some catches glimpses of the four lettered title to their first assignment of the year.
"Now, first off, I want to welcome you all back to—"
"I've heard this welcome speech five times in the last six hours, and I really don't want to hear it again, so can you get to the point of this meeting?"
Some rolled their eyes at Santana's comment, and others pursed their lips to keep back their chuckles and giggles, but they all agreed with her. The first day back to school had to be one of the most repetitive of the entire year, even with all the new faces and the changed atmosphere, the protocol was almost always exactly the same. It got tiresome after a while.
Will breathed out a tired sigh before shaking his head and complying with Santana's orders. "Right then, before anything else, I want to introduce to you our newest member."
The door slowly opened a few seconds later and all eyes were focused on the shadow that was lingering on the tiled floor before the door shoot open completely, showing a familiar face and a brown bow tie perched upon the boy's neck. He jogged up to Schuester's side after kicking the door closed, as if running up on stage to have an interview with Ellen or Oprah, and clapped his hands together as he bounced slightly on the balls of his feet.
"Hey guys! I'm Blaine, and I'm really, really excited to be here!"
There was a heavily awkward pause as the others looked on with furrowed eyebrows and questioning stares, some put off by his chirpy greeting and others wondering how in the world he allowed himself to walk out of the house looking like that. Kurt ran a hand down his face with an amused smile planted upon his lips. So much for a dramatic entrance, he thought.
For the most part, they were trying to figure out where exactly they had seen this guy before, with the exception of Mercedes, Kurt and Quinn who had seen quite a bit of him over the summer, and Santana who simply scoffed as she looked up from her manicured fingernails, immediately regretting bothering herself to look at her newest team mate.
His entire outfit appalled her. His introduction appalled her. He appalled her, period. But in a way he reminded her of Brittany. With his outgoing and friendly demeanor and a smile that never seemed to leave his lips. Plus, he had to have a heck of a lot of confidence to be spotting that horrendous get up without even a hint of shame in his eyes. She respected confidence. She decided it was her job to break the silence, before Rachel spoke up the two of them went off being annoyingly chipper together.
"I didn't know five year olds were allowed to frolic around here now."
Not too harsh, not too nice, the comment gained her a few chuckles, and his clueless expression coupled with a wavering smile was priceless. Her job was done, and she returned to examining the work she had done on her nails during English class the period before with a small smirk on her lips.
With the atmosphere lightened somewhat, Will rested a hand on Blaine's shoulder s he continued his introduction. "This is Blaine Anderson, who came to me earlier today and asked to join the club."
"Wait," Quinn interrupted. "Weren't you one of those singers in blazers at Regionals last year?"
"The Dalton Academy Warblers, yes!" Rachel chimed, lifting her head from Finn's shoulder. "You placed forth!"
"And we placed second, but I don't really see what his old choir's placing has anything to do with this."
Rachel folded her arms across her chest as she shot a glare in Mercedes' direction, Mercedes simply giving the girl a small shrug before sitting back and turning her attention back in Blaine and Will's direction.
William adjusted his tie with a small nod. "Uh, yes, that would be correct, Rachel—"
"And you're letting him in?" Scoffing, Puck rolled his eyes as he rested the back of his head against the wall behind him. "It's like Jesse St. Douche all over again, only preppy with more hair gel, and without the leather jackets and the freakish resemblance."
"How is your son doing, Mr. S?" Brittany asked, tilting her head with a glimmer of innocent curiosity in her eyes. The club groaned, save for Santana who chuckled under her breath.
"Burning in hell with all those tacky black shirts and the stupid National's trophy, I hope." Kurt murmured, earning him a light elbowing to his side from Mercedes.
"I agree with Puck," Finn added in. "We can't trust this guy. Once a Wombat, always a Wombat."
"Exactly," Puck reward Finn with a high five before settling back into his seat with a smirk, happy with Blaine's obvious discomfort. Blaine, who was shifting his weight from one foot to the other, considered trying to correct Finn but decided it would be best if he simply stayed quiet, haven't learned from his mistakes in the past when it came to correcting people who seemed to want nothing to do with you.
Mercedes took in Blaine's shrunken appearance and shook her head, keeping her eyes away from his direction and looking up at Puck as she decided to speak up. "So basically, once you're a good for nothing Lima loser, you're always a good for nothing Lima loser, right, Puck?"
The color from his face seemed to drain immediately, just as his expression sobered and he turned his head to Mercedes who had disgust and disappointment written across her face, even though her lips were curled in the most sickening sweet smile the girl could muster. Puck's eyes drifted off to Quinn and then landed on Mercedes again before he swallowed thickly and turned his head away, remaining quiet as he dropped his eyes to the floor.
"I'll take full responsibility should he turn out to be trouble, but I can assure you, he won't be." Schuester gestured for Blaine to find himself a seat, and he walked over to Kurt and his camp with caution, taking his place beside Kurt with Mercedes leaning over Kurt's lap to get Blaine's attention and give him a reassuring smile. Kurt carefully took the boy's hand into his own, giving it a light squeeze before releasing it.
"Right, now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can continue with today's meeting." Mr. Schue stepped to the side to allow everyone a better view of the white board, "DUETS" written in the center of it. "We're staring our first week off with a competitive assignment, and by far one of my favorites, duets! Once again, I've brought along a hat which contains all of your names. The boys will be coming up to pick their partners. We'll go in order of sitting position, so Puck, you're up first."
Puck got out of his seat, unnecessarily shoving his way between Rachel and Finn's chairs as he made his way over to the top hat Mr. Schue had put on top of Brad's piano. He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt before digging his hand into the hat and fishing around for a name, flicking the paper once he pulled it out and reading the name on it. He internally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Artie."
Finn got out of his seat next and his hand lingered within the hat a little longer before he pulled his hand out and read over the paper, crumpling it up when he saw his own name and digging again, this time glancing up at his peers before looking at the paper in his hand.
"Tina." He announced with a grin as he made his way back to his seat. Tina subtly fist pumped the air, causing Mike to chuckle and squeeze her shoulder lightly. Finn tilted his head back to get a better look at her, draping his arm around Rachel's chair, an excited gleam in his eyes. "We're totally playing Guitar Hero before we practice. I demand a rematch."
She simply laughed, the aspect of him beating her at Guitar Hero – after the humiliating defeat she served him in the summer when the club was hanging out at the Puckerman household, humoring her greatly.
"Prepare to get your ass kicked, Hudson."
Mike followed, and picked Santana out of the hat, much to the relief of the rest of the boys that had yet to get themselves a partner. Matt got himself paired up with Rachel (everyone sent him pitying looks as he made his way back to his seat, Rachel still fuming that she hadn't been paired up with someone she was positive had shared more chemistry with; in other words, Finn), Kurt was with Brittany and Blaine snagged himself Quinn Fabray. Quinn couldn't particularly say she hated her partner, and at least Blaine was somewhat familiar with her, so neither could really complain.
Mercedes folded her arms over her cross, running her tongue over her lips. "So, me and my chocolate thunder are going this alone?" Schuester immediately tried to formulate a solution, or remember the one he had thought up when he was writing down their names during his free period, and Mercedes had a hunch she would end up his partner in the end of it, and there was absolutely no way she was going to do that to herself. "It's alright, I'm cool with it." She would focus on the upsides of this, like her being able to work at her own time and not be disturbed or irritated by a pest of a partner. Her eyes glanced at Matt as the corners of her lips turned downwards. Poor guy.
After Blaine got himself back into his seat and Will had seemed to calm down from his minor panicked frenzy, the occupants of the chairs around Rachel groaned and rolled their eyes as they noticed her hand shooting into the air. She didn't bother to wait for Schuester's verbal permission to speak.
"This is a competition within the club, am I right?"
"Yes, Rachel."
"And competitions usually result in the winner getting an award, correct?"
"Correct."
"What exactly it is that we're winning?"
This caught the rest of the club's attention, and all eyes were on Mr. Schuester, minds racing with possibilities and ideas as to what the prize could be. It comes to his mind that he hadn't actually thought this entire project through, not that he had that much time to anyway. But he wasn't about to make them promises he wouldn't be able to keep.
"The feeling of knowing that you bested the rest of the club for a week?"
Most of the club went back to slumping in their seats, only half paying attention to what the man in front of them was saying. Their bubbles of excitement deflated. Rachel was one of the few (Kurt, Mercedes and Quinn being the others) that thought the award was music to their ears.
"Is it possible that I could get that in the form of a trophy for my trophy cabinet?"
"Who says you're winning this thing, dwarf?" Santana asked, her smirk and slight annoyance oozing into her words. Will smiled at this, for it showed that the project hopefully wouldn't be a mess of precious time. He got the top hat off of the piano and walked over to the white board, dismissing them all with words of luck.