A/N: Sorry for such a long wait. Hopefully people are still following this story. I'll try to post again soon. A lot of life has been happening recently though. I apologize for any errors. I only proofread once. Thanks for reading!
The weekend went by as usual. Kurt practiced the piano, still trying to perfect the piece his teacher had challenged him with. It wasn't going as smoothly as he would have liked. He may have slammed his hands down on the piano making a loud and unpleasant sound followed by throwing his music on the ground. When he was able to collect himself he cleaned up the papers and tried again. His dad came in after the first time he heard the commotion, but after he saw what was going on he didn't check up on Kurt when he did it a second and a third time. Feeling it was best to leave Kurt alone when he was so wrapped up and frustrated with a piece.
When Kurt would take a break from his practicing, his thoughts roamed to Blaine. He would day dream about his perfect first kiss and how their hands just fit like puzzle pieces. Yes, Kurt knew this all sounded so cliché, as if it was out of a movie, but honestly he didn't care. He was so excited for his date with Blaine next week; he didn't know what a couple of fourteen year olds would be doing, but he was excited none-the-less.
They had been texting almost non-stop except when Kurt would tell Blaine that he was going to practice piano. When he was done, he immediately started up a texting conversation again. Nothing was really official between them. They were trying to not jump the gun too much like most high school relationships. They knew they had a physical attraction to one another, but conversation was still very limited. Kurt still didn't know too much about Blaine like what his parents did, where he lived, where he had gone to school previously. He was still a complete mystery. None of their conversations were too deep, just a bunch of flirty texts and small talk through texts and notes. Kurt was very excited to be able to go more in depth during his date on Friday even if his hands cramped from all the writing.
Even though he wanted to know Blaine more, he didn't necessarily want to reciprocate. Kurt still felt a little inadequate like he wasn't good enough and he didn't want to reveal his story to someone who probably would never understand.
It was Sunday evening and Kurt was trying to get the rest of his homework done before the school week started. Normally he would be done by now, but Blaine had become quite the distraction, and completing his work was going slower then usual. He finally did get it all done though and began his nightly routine and headed to bed, oddly excited about the school week ahead.
Kurt was woken up by his alarm per usual. He got out of bed, showered, then put his clothes on that he set out the night before along with a brooch to complete the outfit. He wore black pants with faint pin stripes, his favorite pair of boots, a grey button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbow, and a piano brooch. After his careful assessment of his outfit and hair, Kurt made his way down stairs with book bag in hand to grab a quick breakfast before the bus. His dad of course was down in the kitchen greet him with toast already prepared for him with his favorite strawberry jelly.
"Good morning, Kurt. Trying to impress Blaine or something?"
Kurt began to blush. He wasn't trying to look obvious. He always tried to look fashionable, but he did choose clothes that were more form-fitting than he usually would choose for school. Kurt tried to play it cool. He didn't want to add any fuel to the fire. His dad had barely mentioned Blaine this weekend, and he thought he was going to get away with not being teased by his dad for having his first boy over. So Kurt tried to wipe the blush off his face and act normal as he replied to his dad.
"I'm always fashionable Dad. I'm not trying to do anything."
Burt smirked at his son's response and simply replied, "If you say so."
Kurt looked at the clock and noticed he had only 3 minutes before the bus would arrive. He grabbed the toast his dad prepare for him on the counter, thanked him, and ran out of the door.
The bus took him to school, and Kurt was hoping that today would just be a good day and this week a good week. After grabbing his books from his locker and checking his hair in the mirror in his locker, you never know what a hot and smelly bus ride will do to your hair, his locker was suddenly slammed shut. Kurt jumped back, and tried to keep silent. He hasn't heard his voice in years, so he tries not to make noise when he's around his peers. Only his dad has heard his voice since the accident. Kurt quickly turned around, scared to see who would be his tormentor today.
Kurt was shocked to see not just Dave Karofsky and Azimio Adams, but a few other football players. One week must have been enough time for the freshman football players to turn some of the player, who he's never met, against him. This was not how his day was supposed to start. Other than his locker being shut, no one had made a move yet. They were just looking at him with a menacing expression on their faces. Kurt didn't want to look like he was affected so he raised his head a little higher and tried to squeeze through the small space that separated him from the jocks.
When Kurt started moving, one of the players he never met before slammed him into the locker and began speaking harshly to him. Kurt began to read his lips, curious as to why this person he had never met before had it out for him.
"Hi freshman, Karofsky here told us a little about you, and we realized we didn't get a chance to give you a McKinley welcome." The boy looked at his team mates then with a fake surprised face stated, "Oh wait you're deaf, you can't hear a word we're saying. Guess we're going to have to say welcome in a different way." Kurt looked at the guy confused briefly, and then looked at the rest of the guys behind him. Each one of them had a cup full of some mysterious liquid. The stranger who spoke to him nodded at everyone and grabbed a cup himself from another player. All the sudden freezing cold and icy liquid came crashing down on Kurt. It was so cold; he had to gasp for air. Kurt was so scared. He couldn't see. The dye from the drink making his vision blurry and his eyes hurt. He already had one of his senses taken away and it was absolutely terrifying having another one impaired. He felt so exposed, anyone could do anything to him and he wouldn't be able to defend himself.
Kurt finally was able to wipe his eyes enough his vision began to clear. When he looked down the hall the boys were high fiving each other as if they had done a good deed. Several students were looking at Kurt, but not doing anything to help. He even saw a teacher peak her head out to see the commotion then went right back into her classroom, not willing to help out.
The lights flashed, signaling classes would start in five minutes. There was no way Kurt could make it to class in time. He needed to clean himself off. He couldn't let Blaine see him like this; it was pointless to even try to look good today. He had never had anything like that thrown at him before, causing pain and ruining his clothing. He didn't have an extra set of clothes, unprepared for the attack. If he was old enough to drive he would have skipped the rest of school and driven hope so he could cry in the privacy of his own home. This wasn't the case, however, so he did what he always did, covered his pain the best he could.
Kurt walked briskly to the closest bathroom, checked to make sure no one else was in there and locked the door. He unbuttoned his shirt, and thankfully his white T-shirt went unscathed due to the fact he buttoned his shirt all the way up to his neck. He removed his shirt and began rinsing the multi-colored fluid from his clothes. There were only a few spots on his pants. The jocks aimed for his face so what hit his pants were from where the fluid ran down his body. His hair and face though was another story. His face felt sticky, and his once immaculate hair was soaked, sticky, and flopping on his forehead and the side of his head.
There was no way to totally fix his hair. Kurt turned the water back on, splashed the water on his face, and scrubbed to get the sticky residue off. Then he stuck his head under the water to rinse his hair. When he was done, it wasn't a perfect job, but it felt and looked better than what it was. Kurt rapped his shirt up in multiple paper towels, picked his back pack up, and looked at the mirror again intently as if he was given himself a little motivational speech in his head to not let the bullies get him down.
He walked out of the bathroom and walked as fast as he could to his first class, thankful that his homeroom was replaced by biology class, which Blaine was not in. Hopefully, by the time he saw Blaine at lunch he would stop looking like he had a nightmarish morning. He didn't want Blaine to pity him, or feel bad for him. Kurt hated to feel like he couldn't take care of himself. It was the worst feeling to feel helpless.
When he entered the class, he saw Andrea at his usual spot, and tried to enter as quietly as possible. Once he found his seat, the teacher, Ms. Brown, looked over to him, gave him a disapproving look and then started to speak to him since he was now close to his interpreter.
"Good of you to join us Mr. Hummel. Do you have a pass to excuse you from your tardiness?"
Kurt shook his head no in response after looking to Andrea to make sure he saw correctly what she was saying.
"No, pass? Then you must not have a good reason to be late. If you do, please state that here in front of the class that you're rudely interrupting."
Kurt's cheeks flushed a bright red. He didn't want to be center of attention, and what was he supposed to say anyway. Teachers saw him in the hallway being harassed and did nothing. She wouldn't care. So Kurt just shook his head no and signed "Sorry" to Ms. Brown.
Ms. Brown huffed. "Sorry isn't going to cut it. Since it's your first tardy, I won't send you to the administrator, but you will be getting an after school detention."
Kurt looked up suddenly to the teacher with a shocked look on his face. He had never been in trouble before at school. No one ever paid attention to him. It wasn't even his fault! He would miss his bus then his dad would have to get him, and it would take away his scheduled practice time for piano. Kurt felt like he should try to defend himself.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be late. I won't do it again. Please, can I not have a detention? I'm really sorry for interrupting class." Andrea spoke what Kurt was signing to his teacher with the same emotion Kurt was signing. The expression on Ms. Brown's face never changed however.
"No, you will have a detention just like I would do any student coming late and unexcused into my classroom. Just because you have a disability doesn't mean you get special treatment. You're already getting notes pre-made for you which gives me extra work, I'm not doing anything else for you." Ms. Brown grabbed a pad off her desk and wrote the detention slip and gave it to Kurt. Andrea looked at him sadly, but it wasn't her place to defend him. He just put his head down and tried to follow along the rest of class, not wanting to get in trouble again. This day needed to end and it needed to end fast.
Kurt was almost relieved when lunch rolled around, but panicked when he realized he had no idea how he looked after his attack this morning. Quickly, he rushed to the bathroom. During his assessment of himself, Kurt realized he missed a few spots and the colors were still in his hair. He washed his hair again and finally removed all the coloring, but no matter how he tried to style it; no strand was staying in place. His shirt didn't look nice enough for the pants either. He couldn't be seen like this by Blaine. No way was he going to make the guy he liked look at him in this state. So Kurt did was he was used to doing when he would avoid the bullies, went to the library.
Last week he had noted the location of the library, but since things seemed to be going relatively okay, and Blaine befriended him he didn't utilize the library. However, today he felt like the old Kurt, the one that needed to hide and isolate himself from the rest of his peers in order to protect himself. He entered to library, and found a table in a quiet corner and pulled out his lunch. Kurt was finally enjoying his peace and quiet. Halfway through lunch his phone was vibrating, notifying him of a text. Of course it was Blaine. Part of Kurt wanted to ignore the text, he didn't want to explain himself yet, but he did have a class with Blaine after lunch and he was going to have to come clean soon.
Blaine texted, "Hey, don't see you at lunch. Did you come to school today?"
Kurt replied, "Yeah, I came to school. Just wanted to be by myself for a little bit. This day hasn't been going too well."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Came Blaine's reply. "Would you like to talk about it?"
"No, thank you for the offer though. It's nothing really, people just being their horrible selves. I'll be okay. I always am." Kurt typed back. He really didn't want to go into detail. He was also still quite embarrassed about getting a detention. His dad was going to be disappointed in him.
"OK, I'm sorry to hear about your day. I'll still see you in the next class though right?"
"Yes, of course. Can't get behind on my studies." After Kurt sent the final text he saw the light flash telling him lunch time was now over. He packed up his possessions and made his way out of the library and towards his class to try and end his day.
Blaine was already in the classroom, waiting for Kurt with a notebook already open. Kurt gave a slight smile to Blaine and a little wave. Blaine beamed up at Kurt noticing his smile wasn't as big as he had seen it and it didn't quite reach his eyes. However, he didn't want to push Kurt into sharing with him what happened. Truthfully, Blaine already knew. The entire school was talking about the slushie attack. Blaine had never heard of anyone doing that before and thought it was very cruel, especially to Kurt. Blaine had noted that Kurt tries to be quite private about his past and what he has had to go through. Although, they were still going through the getting to know you phase so he couldn't blame Kurt for not confiding in him yet. He hoped that would change though, and soon.
Kurt took his seat and began looking at his notes for the class. Blaine had already put the notebook on his desk saying hi and trying to start a conversation, but he just wasn't into it. He politely wrote to Blaine that he just wanted to focus on class today. Blaine nodded his head looking a little sad but he didn't challenge Kurt. When the class was over, Kurt and Blaine waved to each goodbye and went off into their separate classes.
When the school day was over, Kurt headed over to Ms. Brown's classroom for his detention. He wasn't looking forward to it, and hoped his teacher wouldn't try to give him a speech. His translator wasn't there and he didn't feel like trying to read her lips as she tried to exaggerate every word she was saying since Andrea was not hired to work after his school hours. Thankfully, she just motioned for him to sit and he was able to take out homework to work on. It could have been worse, he thought.
Finally, he was dismissed from detention with another stern look from his teacher, as if telling him not to be late again. He put his head down under her scrutiny and quickly exited the room. As he was walking, a bunch of people came out a classroom and bumped into him. It was Blaine and few others from the Glee club including that girl Rachel.
Rachel noticed him and of course tried to talk to him. He tried to read her lips and caught bits and pieces here and there, but nothing she was saying was making sense. Kurt looked to Blaine with a slight panic in his face. Blaine then interrupted Rachel, and officially shut Rachel up. Blaine grabbed a notebook quickly and a pen and wrote to Kurt.
"What are you doing in school so late?"
Kurt looked at Blaine not really wanting to share why he was here still. But he felt obligated, so he wrote back.
"Ms. Brown gave me after school detention after I was tardy to her class this morning." Kurt gave Blaine the notebook back.
"That sucks." Blaine wrote. "Did you tell her why you were late; maybe she wouldn't have given you a detention."
Kurt rolled his eyes at this. It's not like it would have mattered.
Kurt responded, "No, I didn't think it would matter, I didn't have a pass excusing me. I apologized, but she told me just because I was deaf doesn't mean I get special treatment and wrote me the slip."
"What a witch." Blaine responded.
Kurt just shrugged and wrote back, "It is what it is. I have to go. My dad is waiting for me and I have to practice. See you tomorrow."
Blaine gave a smile back to Kurt and nodded. Rachel then took that as a cue to begin talking to Kurt again. Blaine told her, "Rachel, Kurt has to get going. He also can't understand when you talk so freakishly fast."
Rachel replied, "I'm just trying to be friendly!"
"Yeah, well you can be friendly at another time." Blaine stated.
Rachel just huffed. Kurt gave Blaine the first sincere smile since he's seen him today and mouthed to him "thank you."
The rest of the week went smoothly enough for Kurt. He and Blaine went back to their normal routine of note writing and texting. He still didn't tell Blaine why he was late to class that Monday morning, but Blaine just figured he would open up eventually.
Friday was here though and Blaine had made plans to take Kurt out to a cozy restaurant. Blaine had some connections and had set up a reservation to a place in Columbus since he figured Kurt wouldn't really feel comfortable in public if they were still in Lima where they could run into anybody from school. Blaine was very excited to begin to woo Kurt, and really get to know him more. He had a feeling Kurt could definitely be someone Blaine could fall in love with. He knew he was only fourteen, but honestly, what does that matter? They had plenty of time to build a relationship, and Blaine was just a romantic at heart.