"Mercedes, have you seen Kurt?" Frantic Sam appeared in front of Mercedes on her way to next period. She eyed him warily.
"Yes, I just saw him at the beginning of last period." she said.
"Have you seen him since then?" Sam grabbed her shoulders, looking like he was refraining from shaking her.
"No, chill Trouty Mouth, we had different classes." Mercedes panicked slightly as he groaned, leaning against the lockers and sliding to the ground, "Sam, what's going on?" she asked.
"Right before last period, I was on the phone with him when I heard some people talking, then his phone went dead." Just as quickly as he sat on the ground, he pushed off it. "We have to find him. Something could have happened to him." Mercedes nodded.
"We'll skip next period. Call everyone. We need to find him." She was all serious now, knowing that there were some really, really bad homophobes in this school. They split up, collecting people from various classrooms and texting others.
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"This is so not good." Tina mumbled. They had checked the class Kurt was supposed to be in and he wasn't there. They had called and texted him, but had gotten no response.
"We need to search the entire school. Where's Dave?" Mercedes scanned the group, interrupting her own train of thought.
"Uh, I didn't call him." Sam muttered. Santana gave him a look, but for the sake of finding Kurt, they all mentally agreed to ask about it later.
"We split up." she continued, "Artie, Quinn, check the parking lot, see if his car is still there and if it is, check the parking lot as a whole. Sam, Santana, Brittany, check the east wing of the school. Me, Finn, and Rachel will check the west. Puckerman, Zizes, check the cafeteria. Mike, Tina, check the boys and girls bathrooms respectively. If anyone finds him, text me." Mercedes gestured to her phone.
"Should we let Blaine or Burt know?" Finn asked. They all shared glances.
"Not right now." Mercedes answered for them. They all knew that the two men would have very similar reactions: panic. "Okay, let's go."
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Quinn looked down at her feet, skipping slightly. She and Artie made their way to the parking lot. "I think Finn and I broke up." she blurted. Artie gave her a sideways glance, confused as to why she was sharing this with him. It wasn't like they were particularly close, or even friends for that matter.
"O...kay." he paused, "My girlfriend left me for another girl." he attempted to out do her.
"I have no chance at prom queen without him."
"I have no chance at dating anyone without her."
"I think I'm trying to get a homophobe to be my running mate." That caused Artie to stop rolling. He stared as Quinn continued walking until she realized he wasn't next to her.
"What?" Artie asked in disbelief. Quinn nodded.
"You know that guy who got pissed at Sam and Dave for being gay and got kicked off the football team?" Quinn asked, Artie shook his head. He knew him all right, but he couldn't believe Quinn had done that.
"Quinn, you can't do this to them. Or even if you don't care about Sam and Dave's feelings, Kurt's been there for you since the beginning. He was there for you when you were going through your pregnancy," Quinn winced at the reminder, "and now you're just going to drop him when he needs you?" Artie shook his head, "Well, I'm not going to vote for someone like that for prom queen." He rolled passed her, eyes scanning the parking lot.
"His car is still here." Quinn stated weakly.
"Well, then let's look for him." Artie rolled out into the parking lot, cold and detached from her. Quinn frowned miserably, following behind him.
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"What are you doing Sam!" Santana snapped, rounding on him the moment they were alone to search their side of the school. "I'm pretty sure Dave would want to know about this. If Kurt has been screwed with by some homofucks, then he'd be the best bet on knowing where he is."
"Are you implying that Dave would have done something horrible to Kurt." Sam snapped right back at her.
"He did do something bad to him, but he's sorry, so it's okay." Brittany nodded, fingertips skimming the row of lockers she was passing, "These mean people might not be sorry for Kurt." Sam nodded, crestfallen, but understanding her explanation.
"Well, now let's not interrupt him, classes have started." Sam nodded, happy with his excuse.
"You're just avoiding him." Santana accused. Sam sighed, but gave in.
"Yeah, I am, but isn't it more important to find Kurt now?" Sam gave her a smug look as Brittany nodded enthusiastically.
"We need to find my baby dolphin!" Brittany took off down the hall, leaving Sam and Santana to scramble to catch up to her.
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"So what is going on with you and Quinn?" Rachel asked Finn curiously. Finn, who was currently opening every unlocked locker in the hallway, as if Kurt could be in one of them.
"I think we kind of broke up." he mumbled. Rachel visibly perked up.
"Really? Well, that is a shame for you and her, but I think it is probably for the best. If she only cares about getting the crown of-"
"Rachel! Finn! You guys can figure out your relationships later!" Mercedes growled at them, "Kurt could be here somewhere, injured, or worse. Finn, he's your brother! Rachel, you have to know the risks with what your Dads have to go through. I thought you guys would care more about finding Kurt than chit-chatting!" Mercedes leveled them a death glare, "Maybe you two should just go back to class if you're not going to help."
"We're sorry Mercedes." Rachel did truly look apologetic and Finn nodded in agreement.
"We need to find him. Did anyone check the nurse's office? If he's hurt, he could be there." Finn actually pointed out something smart, and Mercedes and Rachel both smiled at him.
"Good idea, you go check there Finn, and ask if he has been there at all today." Mercedes hooked her arm through Rachel's. "We'll keep looking here." And so they all hurried to go find him.
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"He's nowhere here." Lauren came in from the kitchen, where she had also volunteered to check. Puck growled, punching the wall.
"God dammit! Where can he be? No one texted us! No one has found him yet." Puck muttered and mumbled things under his breath, cursing too. "I'm gonna kick all the homophobes in the world's asses." he added.
"No you're not juvie boy. Leave it to the hobbit." Lauren pulled her phone out, "We have to call him. He'll want to know, not to mention, who knows, maybe we're all overreacting and Kurt is just being badass and skipping to spend the rest of the day with his boytoy." Lauren said this completely monotone, but Puck knew she was trying to convince herself it was true, and that even if it wasn't, the feminine boy who had started to grow on her was completely fine somewhere. "Maybe there is some super sale at the mall he couldn't miss or something." she added, throwing more ideas out there.
"We should call him." Puck agreed. He dialed the number he had stolen from Kurt's phone...what? The little hobbit was good at football! "Yo, Blaine."
"...Puck? What are you doing? I'm in the middle of class." Blaine hissed at him, very, very quietly.
"Then, why are you answering?" Puck asked, knowing he was usually a stickler to the rules.
"Because I forgot to turn my ringer off, and there is a rule that if your phone rings during class you have to answer it and carry a conversation in the middle of the class." Blaine sighed, voice at normal level now
"Well, dude, I'm guessing since you're in class that Kurt isn't with you?" Puck questioned, already knowing the answer.
"What? No. Wait...you don't know where he is?" Panic filled his voice.
"Uh...no, but did he text you at all today?" Puck begged the Jewish god to have Blaine say, 'Oh, yeah, just a few minutes ago, said he went home with a headache' or something like that.
"NO. Oh my god, Puck I'm coming." A whispered -with added yelling- conversation followed as Blaine obviously talked to his teacher, before panting was heard. "I'll be there soon."
Puck opened his mouth to say it really wasn't necessary, but the line went dead. He sighed, waving the phone at Lauren.
"Well, I guess he knows now."
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"I'm not having this discussion with you now Mike! We need to find Kurt!" Tina snapped as Mike attempted to tell her about this new dance move he learned. Mike frowned at her.
"Tina, this relationship used to be fun. Now you don't want to talk about stuff that I like, and you're angry at me a lot more." Mike pointed out. Tina nodded, sighing.
"I don't know what happened Mike. But can we please talk about this later?" she begged. He shook his head.
"We already checked the bathrooms for him. We did our part. Tina, I think we should break up." Mike said the last part very quickly. Tina looked at him for a few moments.
"I think that's a good idea." she smiled though, "Hey, at least now, your Mom will be happy." she pointed out and Mike laughed.
"Yeah, she never really liked you. But we can still be Asian friends, right?" Tina rolled her eyes.
"No, we can be regular friends." she stated, deadpan. All or nothing. Mike sighed, before laughing and nodding. He threw his arm over her shoulder.
"Now let's find Kurt."
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R & R. Sorry you guys, I just realized that for some reason my usual dividers between scenes weren't working. I hope this works, but if it doesn't, let me know what you guys use as dividers, please? And thanks for Amythst Archer for giving me an idea, which I will explain later. I kind of combined the two ideas you gave me though... It was just what I needed. And thanks for everyone else for their feedback and ideas!