Alright, this is where the Glee universe timeline starts to get screwed up. The finale of season four is Regionals, which should happen in mid-March (at the latest). So, everything that happens between now and the end of the season has to wedge into the January, February, half-of-March timeline. Which is difficult because three episodes from now is Valentine's Day and then we have to somehow fit the remaining eight episodes into four-ish weeks. IT DOESN'T WORK. So, let's just be really flexible with the timeline and pretend it makes sense. ;) Things are gonna get really confusing next season if they try to do the final few weeks of the school year in the September-December first half of the season. I don't want to think about it. :D
Also, brace yourselves. This is the start of insane Tina. This episode isn't actually SO bad in that regard... pretty awkward when she sings to Blaine, but also kind of hilarious. But this is just the beginning of her crazy, so...
(I do not own Glee or any of the characters, dialogue, or songs from the show. It's all just for fun!)
BLAINE
On the first day back to school after winter break, Blaine was trying to read his history book in the library after school when Sam suddenly appeared and shoved the textbook away so hard that it flew off the table.
"Dude, look at this!" Sam demanded, placing an iPad where Blaine's book had been. "This is Hunter Clarington two years ago. Look how skinny his head is!"
Blaine tried to recover from the surprise and focus as he glanced down at the photo of Hunter. Sam sat down in a chair across the small table.
"Okay," Sam continued as the photo morphed into a more recent photograph of the new Warbler, "this is him now. Look how much thicker his head is!"
"So, maybe he started working out," Blaine assumed.
"What, doing skull-widening exercises?" Sam scoffed. "Dude, human growth hormone! HGH! Same thing happened to Mark McGuire and Kirstie Alley and Drew Carey and Star Jones and Aretha Franklin and Cedric the Entertainer..."
Blaine stopped listening as he watched Sam. He was so cute when he got overly excited about conspiracy theories. And his lips were so...
"Blaine? Blaine!" Sam called his name, snapping him out of his fantasy. "Dude, this is serious!"
"Uh– yeah, I, um, I don't know," Blaine admitted his doubt about Sam's theory. He glanced at a clock on the wall and realized that they were almost late for the week's student council meeting. He stood up, and Sam followed his lead.
Blaine picked up his book off the ground and put it in his bag as he and Sam left the library.
"Look, I'm telling you, it's been keeping me up at night," Sam argued as they walked. "Something weird's going on with the Warblers. They're doing all those weird flips and superhuman jumps at Sectionals –"
"Exactly," Blaine interrupted. "That's why they won."
"And where was round-faced Warbler?" Sam questioned, undeterred by Blaine's skepticism. "You said he was there when you went back to Dalton, but come Sectionals? Poof! He's gone."
Blaine had noticed Trent's absence at Sectionals. But maybe he had been sick? Blaine had scoured his Dalton friends' Facebook profiles for clues after the competition, but he hadn't found anything suspicious. Trent hadn't posted anything for the three days surrounding Sectionals. He must've been ill.
"So, what're you saying?" Blaine asked.
"I think they cheated at Sectionals," Sam said urgently.
"Sam, you can't make accusations like that without any kind of evidence," Blaine smiled at Sam's enthusiasm.
"Well, then I'll find some evidence!" Sam declared. "Do you have any lip balm I can use?"
"What?" Blaine said, turning to see that Sam had stopped a few feet away and was standing in the middle of the hallway, waiting.
"Conspiracy theories make my lips get all chapped," Sam explained as he walked toward Blaine. "Come on, dude, it's not weird. We're like brothers."
As Sam spoke, Blaine barely heard him because, suddenly, all he could focus on were Sam's lips.
He recovered quickly as he realized that Sam was waiting for him to share his lip balm. "Yeah, um, sure," Blaine said hurriedly. He had some chapstick in his pocket.
"Thank you," Sam said as he took the lip balm and smeared some on his lips. "Mmm."
Blaine just stared at him.
"Guys, you're late!" Tina's voice broke him out of his infatuated stupor. What was wrong with him? He loved Kurt. He missed Kurt. And Sam was straight, anyway, so having a crush on him was a waste of energy.
"I know," Blaine agreed, taking the lip balm back from Sam and hoping that he didn't look as flustered as he felt.
They walked into the classroom where the rest of the student council was already waiting.
"Sorry," Blaine apologized as he sat down. He picked up the gavel and cracked it on the sounding board. "This meeting of McKinley High's student council is now in session. First order of business: Secretary Cohen-Chang, will you please read the minutes from last week?"
"Sam did a Daniel Craig impression for forty-five minutes," Tina reminded them.
"I'll have it shaken and stirred too," Sam said in Sean Connery's voice.
"That was fantastic," Blaine complimented. "Thank you, Secretary Cohen-Chang. Treasurer Motta, if we could go through the budget appropriations we were going through last –?"
Tina raised her hand.
"Yes, Tina?" Blaine said.
"It is now officially a hundred and forty-two days until prom," Tina explained, "where all the hot girls get immediately snatched up by all the hot guys and the sort of hot girls get asked out by the sort of hot guys. And then all the rest of us have to sit around and wait for all the nerds and the freaks and the burnouts and the losers to work up some courage and ask us out to the most awkward night of heavy petting we're likely to get until we wake up in a nursing home getting groped by an orderly."
Blaine didn't know what to say.
"Okay, well, for the record," Sam spoke up, "I think you're totally, sorta, hot. Like, if I was, like, in a bunker with you I would totally hit that."
"Tina, what are you suggesting?" Blaine asked.
"I propose the first annual McKinley High Sadie Hawkins dance," Tina announced.
Blaine froze.
The first, and last, time he had attended a Sadie Hawkins dance, he and his date had been beaten up for being gay. Blaine had spent the night in the emergency room having his broken wrist and multiple bruises and cuts attended to, and it had scared him so severely that he had decided he couldn't go back to school. It was the reason he had transferred out of public school to the safety of Dalton.
"It's what you call a dance where the girls ask the guys," Tina clarified as Blaine reminded himself that things were different now. Attitudes were slowly changing, and he was stronger now. More capable to defend himself.
But the idea still made him uneasy. He didn't want to spend the whole night remembering what had happened in his past.
Plus, who would he go to the dance with?
His mind suggested Sam, and Blaine pushed back. No. Sam was straight.
"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Blaine said, hoping to stop the idea so he wouldn't have to be stuck at a Sadie Hawkins dance with nothing but his bad memories and an empty chair by his side.
"Why not?" Tina asked. "It was the topic of discussion at the last meeting of the Too Young To Be Bitter Club."
Blaine couldn't articulate the reasons why he didn't want to have a Sadie Hawkins dance, so he just shook his head and hoped that Tina would drop the idea.
"All in favor of a dance where the girls ask the guys?" Tina asked the room.
"Wa-wait," Blaine protested. "Wait a second. H-Hold on, just one –"
"It's official!" Tina said as everyone but Blaine voted to have the dance. "Get ready for the first annual McKinley High Sadie Hawkins dance!"
Despite his hesitancy, Blaine also found amusement in the fact that he had just been overruled. He looked from Tina to Sugar to Sam.
"Sorry," Sam said.
Blaine shook his head and resigned himself to one night of misery to satisfy his friends.
They moved on to other topics. They determined that they were on track to stay on budget for the year. They explored the idea of trying to find healthier cafeteria food, but quickly realized that it would cost them more money than the school had to offer. They briefly discussed possible prom themes, but the conversation quickly morphed into a brainstorming session for the Sadie Hawkins dance.
"If someone's already been asked to the dance," Sugar wondered, "can I pay them to leave their date and go with me?"
"We should make 'empowerment' the theme," Tina suggested. "It's about time the guys at this school found out what the girls are made of!"
"Wait," Sam asked, "if this is, like, a reverse dance, does that mean everything's reversed? Do guys have to wear, you know, dresses and wrist flowers and stuff?"
Blaine couldn't stop the laugh that escaped from his lips as he imagined Sam arriving in a dress while his date wore a suit. His laugh triggered the rest of the group to laugh with him, but Sam just looked confused.
And really adorable, Blaine couldn't stop himself from thinking.
"No," Blaine reassured him as the laugher died away, "it's not like that."
Sam looked relieved, and Blaine took the moment of silence to end the meeting.
"I'm sure Tina will come up with something amazing," he said, shooting Tina an approving glance. He picked up the gavel and struck the sounding board. "Meeting adjourned."
"Dude," Sam whispered to Blaine as they left the room, "what're we gonna do about this Warbler thing? Maybe we should break in again and draw some of Hunter's blood while he's sleeping? I bet we could find a recipe on the Internet for some kind of gas that would knock him out without killing him."
"No," Blaine said immediately. "No. Too risky. We need to do something covert."
"A secret mission," Sam approved.
"I'll call Trent," Blaine decided. "And we'll see where it goes from there."
KURT
Kurt's first day at NYADA was a whirlwind. Blaine texted him that morning, wishing him good luck, as did his father and Carole. He arrived on campus right on time and, despite thinking that he knew the space fairly well after visiting Rachel there for months, immediately got turned around and almost missed the start of his first class. After that, things went more smoothly, but Kurt quickly realized that college wasn't much different from high school.
As a new student arriving in the middle of the school year, Kurt stuck out. Everyone else had already found their group of friends. Their thing at NYADA.
Kurt knew after his first class that he wasn't going to find friends through his actual classes. Everyone was nice to him, and he liked most of his professors, but there was always the air of competition in NYADA classrooms. They were all training for the same thing, and there weren't enough roles in the world for them all to be equally successful. It meant that they were all in competition, all the time. So, Kurt decided that he should look into joining a club or two so he could find people with similar interests outside of the competition zone.
He had assumed that Rachel would fold him into her group of friends, but she was too wrapped up in Brody to spend much time with Kurt in any setting. She had returned from her holiday cruise with a tan and an attitude that Kurt recognized as Rachel on a mission. She wanted Brody and had quickly let him, and everyone else, know. Kurt had planned to ask her if she and Brody were dating one afternoon during the first week of the year, but he had come home from grocery shopping to find them making out on the couch, so there was no need.
Kurt and Rachel still spent some time together when they were both in the apartment, but it consisted mostly of Rachel gushing about Brody and occasionally asking Kurt something about NYADA when she remembered that he was just starting at the school of their dreams.
Kurt tried not to let her attitude hurt his feelings; she was infatuated with Brody. Of course she wanted to spend time with him. But Kurt wished that she would make more time for her best friend, too.
"Alright, Brody has an audition for Magic Mike: the Musical," Rachel said as she and Kurt hurried up the stairs in one of NYADA's main buildings one afternoon during the first week of the new semester, "so I'm gonna go help him – I'll see you at home later and I love you!"
She kissed him on the cheek and ran away.
As Kurt wandered, alone, toward the door, he noticed a bulletin board with "NYADA HAPPENINGS" printed across the top. He paused to look at it. Maybe joining a few extracurricular activities would help him feel more at home at his new school.
He read a few of the flyers. The Elizabethan Society. The Grand Guignol Club. The Tennessee Williams Play Reading Group.
And the Adam's Apples. The flyer had an image of a guy singing on it, so it drew Kurt's attention.
"What's Adam's Apples?" Kurt wondered out loud.
"NYADA show choir," a cheerful voice piped up from behind him. "You should join; it's super fun!"
Kurt glanced behind him, but the man was already walking away. Kurt turned his attention back to the Adam's Apples flyer.
Did he want to do show choir in college? He did miss New Directions. He didn't miss high school, overall, but the camaraderie in glee club was something he wished he had appreciated more. Especially now that he had very few friends around.
But, Kurt argued with himself, show choir had been his thing in high school. Maybe it was time to branch out and do other things.
He didn't sign the flyer on the bulletin board, but he kept the Adam's Apples in the back of his mind as he walked away.
BLAINE
The next morning, Blaine put his phone on speaker and called Trent on the way to school. Trent sounded happy to hear from him and, at first, Blaine asked him about casual things so it wouldn't feel like an interrogation. After Trent told him about the new renovation of their old dorm building and about one of Blaine's favorite teachers at Dalton leaving to teach at a university in California, Blaine knew he had to get to the point.
"So," he said, "I'm sorry you were sick for Sectionals."
"What?" Trent asked.
"Sectionals," Blaine repeated. "You weren't there."
"Oh," Trent said, and Blaine knew that Sam was right. Something was going on.
Blaine waited.
"I quit the Warblers," Trent admitted.
"Why?" Blaine asked intently.
Trent told him that the Warblers were using testosterone shots to bulk up so they could do more acrobatic stunts at Sectionals. It was Hunter's idea, but everyone else had gone along with it.
"I just couldn't!" Trent explained after he explained the situation. "It's not the honorable thing to do, and was scared of what it might to do my body."
"You did the right thing," Blaine reassured him. "Now, I need to ask you a favor."
"Okay," Trent allowed.
"If the show choir board hears about this, and we can prove it, the Warblers will be disqualified for cheating," Blaine explained. "But we're going to need proof."
"You mean me," Trent realized.
"I know it's a lot to ask," Blaine admitted. "The Warblers..."
"I'll do it," Trent said.
Blaine told him that he and Sam would look into the situation more now that they knew the details of the Warblers' cheating. Maybe they wouldn't need Trent's testimony and he could stay out of the whole thing. Blaine was worried that Trent might become a target at school when the Warblers realized he had been the one to call them out.
"Why don't you come to McKinley on Saturday," Blaine suggested. "We're having a dance that evening, so there will be plenty of people around. You can just slip in, unnoticed. And it'll be dark, too, so you're even less likely to be seen."
"Okay," Trent agreed. He sounded sad.
"Hey, man," Blaine said, "thanks so much for doing this."
"I'm glad you called," Trent said. "See you Saturday."
Trent ended the call, and Blaine finished the rest of the drive to school in silence. It felt good to know that New Directions would have another chance to prove themselves at Regionals, but it felt horrible to know that the Warblers were irreparably broken.
BLAINE
By the end of the school day, Blaine was feeling better about the situation. Sam had been excited when Blaine told him about the phone call with Trent. And, at lunch, Blaine had managed to get behind the cafeteria counter and grab some extra tater tots for Tina. It had been a good day, overall.
Glee club was meeting in one of the science classrooms that afternoon, so Blaine met up with Tina and Sam to walk there together.
"I want to sit under Venus!" Sugar exclaimed as she walked into the room just ahead of Sam and saw the planets of the solar system hanging from the ceiling.
"I want to sit under Uranus," Sam commented.
Blaine and Tina laughed.
"What's so funny?" Sam asked, confused. Nobody answered him.
"So," Finn said from the front of the room, "this week in glee club, it's ladies' choice. Inspired by the Sadie Hawkins dance."
"Which I thought of," Tina reminded the group. "It was my idea."
"Yes, thank you, Tina," Finn acknowledged. "And every girl will sing to whoever they want to take to the dance," he explained the week's lesson.
"Well, I, for one, love this lesson," Kitty said from the doorway. "I've got a song I wanna sing to somebody."
"Good," Finn approved. "Good, that's what I want to hear! Sadie Hawkins is all about empowerment, so don't be shy, okay?"
"Oh," Kitty said as she walked into the room and sat down next to Marley behind Blaine and Tina, "I won't be."
Something thumped behind Blaine, and he turned to find Marley with her head lying on her folded arms on the table.
He considered asking what was wrong, but he decided against it. She probably didn't want to talk about it in front of the whole group, anyway.
"Also," Finn continued the discussion about the Sadie Hawkins dance, "we're going to perform at the dance, as usual... so, I'm thinking the boys should do a number and the girls should do a number."
"Maybe they could be songs about female empowerment?" Blaine suggested.
"Yes!" Finn pointed at him. "Great idea! And then, also, if any of you want to sing solos, that'd be cool, too."
KURT
The next morning, Kurt was in a good mood. He had decided that he was probably going to join the Adam's Apples, and the idea of making new friends lifted Kurt's spirits. He was tired of relying mostly on Rachel and, sometimes, Isabelle and his co-workers at Vogue dot com, for all his social interaction.
"I can sing high and sing low," Kurt sang to himself as he made breakfast and poured himself some tea, "I can sing high and sing low..."
Rachel emerged from her room as he was getting ready to carry his tray to the living room. She was whispering something Kurt couldn't understand as she tied her hair back.
"Would you like some tea?" Kurt sang.
"Yes, I would," Rachel agreed, "but shhhh!"
Kurt suddenly realized what she had been whispering at him. "He's still sleeping."
"Brody's here?" Kurt gasped. "Did he spend the night?"
"Yes," Rachel whispered, excited. She and Kurt walked together to the living room, and Kurt glanced into Rachel's room as they passed but couldn't quite see Brody sleeping in her bed. "We had dinner last night at Balthazar," Rachel explained, "and he insisted on taking me home. And, you know, the train ride back to Manhattan is really long, so I just invited him to stay over!"
"Rachel Berry, I am scandalized!" Kurt teased, but he was a little surprised. He was glad he had been asleep already when they got back to the apartment.
"Well, I just... I seized the moment!" Rachel said as they sat down on the couch. "I really– I like him and I'm tired of second-guessing something that feels so right."
"Mmmmhmmm," Kurt hummed.
"Mmmmhmmm," Rachel echoed happily as she sipped her tea.
"Well, as long as you're happy and I have a white noise machine," Kurt allowed, "I guess I'm happy, too."
"How are you?" Rachel asked, "How was your first week?"
"I was good," Kurt allowed, although the week wasn't over yet. "You know, a little lonely. But, I was thinking, to meet people, I would join the show choir called the Adam's Apples."
A small part of him hoped that Rachel would jump at the chance to join with him – giving them something to do together – but, instead, Rachel looked horrified.
"Oh, no, no, no," she scolded. "No. Listen to me. There is a very rigid performing arts hierarchy at NYADA and show choir is, like, it's the lowest of the low. It's beneath stage managers and carpenters. That is social and career suicide."
"But," Kurt protested, "at McKinley..."
"We're not at McKinley anymore," Rachel scolded. "And we're done being underdogs. If you want to join a club, just do anything but the Adam's Apples. That's what all the future chorus kids do. If you do show choir in college, alright, you might as well be doomed to a life of playing a dancing teapot at Disneyland."
Kurt let out a disappointed sigh as he took a sip of his tea. He hated social hierarchies. Why couldn't he just be in show choir if he wanted to be in show choir? And why did people at NYADA look down on students who wanted to sing and dance for fun?
"I guess I'll do the Tennessee Williams Play Reading Group," Kurt mumbled.
"Yes!" Rachel approved. "That's very respectable."
Respectable, Kurt thought, but not what he really wanted. Maybe it would be fun, though. At the very least, it would help him improve his acting skills.
He and Rachel settled into silence while Kurt ate breakfast and Rachel drank her tea. One he was finished eating, Kurt glanced at the time and decided to go ahead and leave for class before Brody woke up. He wasn't in the mood to watch Rachel and her new boyfriend acting all couple-y when Brody woke up.
"See you later?" he asked Rachel as he picked up his bag.
"Yeah," she agreed, smiling at him from her seat on the couch. "Probably kinda late, though, because I think we're going to try this place on the Upper East Side for dinner."
Kurt nodded his understanding and stepped out the door before rolling his eyes. He was never going to see her again at this rate.
BLAINE
With the Sadie Hawkins dance fast approaching, the girls of New Directions were all excited about singing to their potential dates. At the start of glee club the day after the assignment had been given out, New Directions gathered in the men's locker room for rehearsal and, Blaine assumed, for at least one Sadie Hawkins proposal. He knew Marley had a huge crush on Jake. And he wondered who Sugar was going to ask. Or maybe Brittany would ask Sam. Blaine hoped that he wouldn't have to be around for that particular serenade. It made him feel a strange twist of jealousy in his stomach that made him feel embarrassed and a little insane.
To his surprise, it was Tina who stepped to the front of the room with Finn.
"Alright, so, Tina is ready to present her solo and make her choice," Finn informed the group. "Gentlemen, prepare yourselves for Tina Cohen-Chang."
"Thank you, Finn," Tina said as Finn sat down with the other students. "For my song, I will be performing I Don't Know How To Love Him from Jesus Christ Superstar. It's about the pain of unrequited love, and –"
Finn interrupted her, reminding her that they didn't have the room for long, and Tina halted her explanation and began the song.
"I don't know how to love him. What to do, how to move him. I've been changed. Yes, really changed. In these past few days, when I've seen myself, I seem like someone else."
Blaine listened intently as she sang, happy that she was getting to ask whoever had clearly been on her mind when she suggested the Sadie Hawkins dance in the first place. Halfway through the song, Tina stepped closer to where Blaine was sitting and made eye contact with him, and Blaine smiled encouragingly.
But she didn't look away. She continued to sing the song to him, and Blaine started to feel a little awkward.
She turned and walked away after a moment, and Blaine thought she was probably just nervous. She had glanced at Artie briefly, and Blaine knew Tina and Artie had dated a few years earlier, so maybe she had just temporarily lost her confidence.
"He scares me so. Oh, I want him so. I love him so."
As Tina finished the song, Finn immediately started clapping. "Okay, let's hear it for Tina!" he exclaimed. "Yeah!"
The group applauded, and Blaine leaned toward Artie. "That was great, right?" he asked happily.
"Yeah," Artie said, sounding more confused than impressed.
Tina walked up to Blaine.
"So, Blaine," she said, "will you go to the dance with me?"
Blaine's brain went completely blank with surprise. She wanted to go with him? But she knew he was gay. If she had wanted to go with him as a friend she would've just asked him before instead of singing a song about...
Oh, Blaine realized. A song about unrequited love. About him. Tina had a crush on him and he hadn't even noticed. But she knew he was gay. Why was she asking him to the dance like this?
"Oh, uh..." Blaine tried desperately to think of something to say. A way to let her down gently. "Wow, uh, Tina..."
He could feel himself blushing, and he glanced around, wishing that someone else would say something. Crack a joke or ask someone else to sing or something.
"I don't know what to say," Blaine admitted. "Um... no. Thank you, but... no– no, thank you."
Tina's face fell as he rejected her offer, and Blaine felt guilty and embarrassed.
The door flew open and the football team started to come into the room as Tina stared at him.
"I'm sorry," Blaine added as the rest of New Directions remained silent.
"Well, uh, looks like rehearsal's over for today!" Finn said quickly over the noise of the arriving football team.
Blaine stood up and opened his mouth to apologize again, but Tina turned and rushed away.
"Whew!" Artie laughed nervously, and the rest of the group seemed to share his secondhand embarrassment. Blaine could tell that everyone was staring at him.
He turned and rushed out of the room.
How had he not noticed that Tina had a crush on him? They had been friends since Blaine's first week in New Directions, when they had been partnered together for You Can't Stop The Beat. Everyone had known that day that he was Kurt's boyfriend. Everyone knew he was gay, so he had never even considered the idea that any of his girl friends had serious feelings for him.
It felt strange to realize that she had planned the whole Sadie Hawkins dance as an excuse to ask him to be her date.
Blaine walked to his locker and started packing his books into his bag as he wondered how he had ended up in this situation. He had a crush on someone who would never return his feelings, and he was also that person to someone else. All at once. It was not a good feeling.
As he looked at the photos of Kurt on the door of his locker, Blaine missed Kurt more than ever. Things had been simpler when he and Kurt were dating. At least it felt that way now that everything was so complicated.
He was lost in thought when Tina suddenly appeared behind him. "I owe you an apology," she said. Blaine turned to look at her, surprised.
"I also think you sort of owe me an apology," Tina continued, "because that was maybe the most humiliating moment I've experienced in glee club. And that's saying something."
Blaine didn't know what to say. He was sorry, but he had been uncomfortable, too.
"But still," Tina added, "I'm sorry. I forgot that story you told about your old school. How the whole reason you transferred to Dalton was because you got bullied at a Sadie Hawkins dance. No wonder you don't want to go. I apologize."
Blaine had always been vague about what had happened at the Sadie Hawkins dance with his friends in New Directions. He didn't want everyone to always know him as the boy who had been beaten up at a Sadie Hawkins dance. Only Kurt knew the whole story of what had happened. Everyone else just thought that "bullying" at the dance had been the last straw that had pushed him toward a more comfortable environment.
"Thank you, Tina," Blaine accepted the apology as he turned back to his locker, "but that's not why I can't go to the dance with you."
"Then what is the reason?" Tina asked, her voice shifting from apologetic to suspicious.
"I... I can't tell you that," Blaine dodged as he put a book into his bag. "It's– it's really embarrassing."
"I swear to God I won't tell anyone," Tina declared.
She had put herself out there to ask him to the dance, so Blaine decided to be honest.
"I have a crush on somebody and I don't want to go to a dance where everyone's going to be romantic there but me," he blurted as he turned back around to face her. He leaned back against the row of lockers.
"Who?" Tina asked immediately.
Blaine reached over to close his locker. He was not going to tell her. He hadn't told anyone. He didn't want anyone to know because it was never going to be real, anyway. It was, and always would be, all in his head.
"Who is it?" Tina pressed.
"It's a guy and he's straight and he doesn't know that I like him..." Blaine tried to explain.
"I swear to God I won't tell anyone," Tina continued to insist.
"I'm not some predatory gay," Blaine stressed, "so nothing's gonna happen –"
"Who is it?" Tina asked. She was upset. "Tell me, Blaine. You can trust me."
Blaine slid down against the lockers until he was sitting on the floor.
"It's Sam," he confessed, embarrassed.
Tina look surprised, and Blaine braced himself for her judgment.
"It's so stupid," he whined. He felt stupid. How had he allowed himself to develop such an uncontrollable crush on a guy who, Blaine thought, was rapidly becoming his closest friend in Ohio?
"No, it's not stupid," Tina said as she sat down beside him on the ground. "I know what it's like to have a crush on someone who's never going to love you back."
Blaine considered that. She had a crush on him. He had always had to navigate girls flirting with him and expressing interest, but none of his friends had ever confessed to having a crush on him. It was strangely flattering and also a little weird. Blaine wasn't sure how to process everything he was feeling, but he knew that he would never be able to reciprocate Tina's feelings for him.
"I know it's all just a fantasy," Blaine said, talking about his crush on Sam. "I mean, I'm proud of our relationship. I'm proud the gay guy can be friends with the straight guy. I'm proud of showing the school that. I just– I don't want to jeopardize our friendship, you know?"
He felt like there was no way to win in this scenario. Either he confessed to Sam and risked ruining their friendship and maybe the friendships he had formed with the other guys of New Directions, or he kept his mouth shut and went home feeling lonely and confused every night. He had just started to get past the crushing loneliness of Kurt's absence, and now this.
"Blaine, you miss Kurt," Tina reassured him. "You need some place to put your love, right?"
"I guess," Blaine agreed. He had never thought about it that way.
"And then there are those lips," Tina added as if she couldn't help herself.
"Those lips," Blaine agreed, smitten at the thought. "Yes, those lips. And when he does all those impressions?"
"It's like pure crushable crack!" Tina laughed.
They sat in silence for a moment.
"Okay," Tina broke the silence and stood up. "Here's what we're gonna do about your very human and moving dilemma. We're going to the Sadie Hawkins dance. Together. We'll go as best friends and we're gonna have the most fun night ever. Okay?"
Blaine looked up at her. He didn't want to go at all. But maybe he should. And what would it hurt to indulge Tina's crush for one night? She knew he loved Kurt. That he had a crush on Sam. That he was gay. Blaine's worst nightmare was for Sam to find out about his crush and to think badly of him for it, so Blaine wanted to make sure that Tina knew that he didn't judge her for her crush.
"Okay," he agreed as Tina helped him up.
The next day, Blaine had to endure a steady stream of good-natured teasing from his friends about accepting Tina's proposal after so awkwardly turning her down in front of the group. He brushed off the jokes and tried not to let himself feel embarrassed about the whole situation, but, by the end of the day, he was ready to go home and just be alone.
After finishing his homework, Blaine cleaned his room and rearranged a little. Mostly, he was excited about moving all of his photos of Kurt to his nightstand so he could see them every morning when he woke up and every night before he fell asleep.
As he lay in bed that night and stared at the photos, he wondered what Kurt was doing. They had been texting casual messages back and forth, usually just once or twice each day, about Kurt's new classes at NYADA, but Blaine was actively trying to say as little about his own life as possible. What was there to say? "I miss you like crazy but I've also developed a severe crush on Sam, which is very confusing." "Tina has a crush on me and we're going to the Sadie Hawkins dance together." "Oh, and, by the way, we're having a Sadie Hawkins dance and it makes me miss you more than ever because I want you to be here to go with me."
He couldn't say any of those things. So, he tried to be content with hearing all the new things Kurt was experiencing at NYADA. His first acting class. His first dance class since he was a little boy. It all sounded amazing to Blaine, and he tried to reassure himself with the thought that he would be there in less than a year.
Even if NYADA didn't work out, Blaine knew he was going to New York after graduation. And he was going to find a way to earn Kurt's forgiveness so that they could start again. And everything would be perfect.
KURT
Despite Rachel's warning about the Adam's Apples, Kurt couldn't stop thinking about it. At the start of his second week at NYADA, he paused by the bulletin board again after class and looked at the signup sheet.
He had casually asked a few of his classmates about NYADA's show choir, and most of them had reacted neutrally. He had only gotten two enthusiastic responses; one positive, from a girl whose older sister had been in the group the year before, and one negative, from a boy who told Kurt that the Adam's Apples was where the losers of NYADA went to die.
But still, Kurt thought, plenty of people had said that kind of thing about New Directions. And it would be so fun to sing in a casual setting again.
"You're thinking about signing up, aren't you?" the same blonde young man who had commented about the Adam's Apples the week before suddenly appeared beside Kurt. His face was friendly and Kurt was intrigued as he realized the stranger had a British accent.
"Oh, uh... maybe?" Kurt allowed. "I... you are?"
"Adam," he introduced himself. "A senior and founder and fearless leader of the Adam's Apples, the group you are very seriously considering joining."
Kurt smiled and extended his hand.
"I'm Kurt," he said.
"Kurt Hummel," Adam clarified. "Your winter showcase performance was breathtaking."
Kurt couldn't believe that the head of the NYADA show choir knew who he was. He was feeling more and more comfortable with this new acquaintance with every second.
"And now you're here," Adam continued, "and you're wondering where you fit in. And how can college be so much like high school? And you want to join my group, but you're worried that it's a step backwards. And no, I'm not a mind reader. I'm just astute, like you. We need you. We. want. you."
He was so friendly. He was everything Kurt was hoping to find in a new friend. But Kurt couldn't shake Rachel's warning out of his mind. He didn't want to put himself back at the bottom of the social food chain. He was a Vogue dot com intern and a full time NYADA student. He was finally a respectable person.
"Well, I'm very impressed you said that all in one breath," Kurt teased, turning to walk away, "but I don't think I'll be joining."
"Man, a hard sell!" Adam exclaimed, following him. "I respect that, but I'm not willing to go down without a fight!"
Kurt turned and started down the stairs, but he paused to let Adam finish.
"Come hear us sing," Adam asked. "No strings attached. No secret timeshare condo Ponzi scheme. Just our voices and your ears."
Kurt couldn't resist.
"Okay," he agreed.
"Excellent!" Adam said, smiling widely. "You're on the right track; our auditorium's downstairs. Lead the way!"
They walked down the stairs together, and Kurt had a delayed realization.
"You spoke to me at the Winter Showcase," he realized. "That was... thank you."
"I meant it when I said I would've voted for you," Adam complimented as they reached the floor and Kurt let Adam lead the way. "You were a standout."
Kurt blushed and dropped back a few steps as they reached the auditorium.
"I present to you," Adam said as they walked through the door and Kurt saw a group of students waiting for them on the stage, "the Adam's Apples!"
Their song was an acoustic version of Baby Got Back, and Kurt was charmed. He found a seat and laughed his way through the performance and realized that it felt good being in the room with the students of the Adam's Apples. It felt like a group that didn't take itself too seriously, which was something Kurt was missing. He liked the competitive vibe of NYADA – it was great motivation to work hard – but he wanted friends. Somewhere to belong where he didn't have to prove himself all the time.
"Bravo!" Kurt applauded when the song was over. Adam and the others bowed dramatically and Kurt couldn't stop smiling.
"So," Adam asked as he wandered over, "what do you think? Are we the biggest bunch of losers you've ever seen in your life, or what?"
"Possibly," Kurt agreed with a smile. He stood up.
"Well," Adam said as he turned and strolled purposefully back toward the stage, "I'm sorry you feel that way..."
Kurt had to swallow a nervous lump in his throat before he stepped into the aisle and followed Adam.
"Change of heart?" Adam teased without turning around.
"You're all very endearing," Kurt said.
Adam turned around, and Kurt's heart thudded irregularly in his chest as the other boy smiled at him.
"Welcome to the Adam's Apples, Kurt Hummel," he said, extending a hand.
Kurt shook his hand, but, when he tried to pull his hand back, Adam didn't let go.
"Sorry," he winked. "It's a tradition."
Suddenly, the whole group was around him, crushing him in a group hug. Kurt couldn't even manage to feel embarrassed that he was crushed against Adam's chest as the warmth of belonging washed through him. He had found a place to belong. To make friends. Suddenly, everything about NYADA felt brighter and more worthwhile.
BLAINE
As the week progressed, Blaine found himself looking forward to the Sadie Hawkins dance less and less. He was fine with going with Tina as her friend, but he wished that he could go with Kurt.
Or Sam.
He couldn't get the fantasy of going with Sam out of his mind. Sam was on his mind all the time. His eyes and his lips and his body and his impressions and his enthusiasm.
But Sam was going with Brittany. His girlfriend.
Then, while Blaine was feeling particularly sorry for himself one afternoon, he got an unhappy text from Kurt.
You're having a Sadie Hawkins dance this weekend? Are you okay? Why didn't you tell me?
Blaine couldn't decide if he wanted to feel good about Kurt's concern or annoyed about the question. Maybe because you're not my boyfriend, Blaine typed into his phone and immediately erased.
I didn't want you to worry, he sent, instead. It's fine. I'm going with Tina, as friends.
Are you actually fine or just saying that because you don't want me to worry? Kurt replied.
Blaine thought about it. The real answer was "a little of both". He didn't anticipate that he would have a huge meltdown or any kind of incapacitating flashbacks, but he still felt uneasy about going to the dance. Partially because of his past and partially because of the loneliness he knew he would feel when he was dancing with Tina all night when what he really wanted was to dance with someone he loved.
Actually fine, he reassured Kurt. It'll be weird going to a dance without you, though.
Blaine thought it was probably an overstep of their "just friends" rule, but he had to say it.
It'll be fun with Tina! Kurt replied after a few minutes. But text me during the dance if you need to, okay?
Okay, Blaine texted back. Thanks.
He added a smiling emoticon and sent the message.
Since Christmas, he had stopped saying "I love you" at the end of every conversation. He wanted to – he meant it every time – but now he was always very aware of what Kurt had said to him at Christmas about feeling pressured to decide about their relationship. They were friends now, at Kurt's request. Nothing more. And Kurt and Blaine had never tacked "I love you" to the end of their text messages before they had started dating.
Every so often, though, Blaine let himself type the three words t the end of his messages. So Kurt wouldn't forget.
KURT
Telling Rachel that he had joined the Adam's Apples didn't go well for Kurt. She scolded him and told him that he could possibly be flushing his entire career down the toilet. Then she got teary and her anger turned to worry. And then she got angry again before finally settling into a state of denial.
Fortunately for Kurt, Rachel had other things on her mind to distract her from Kurt destroying his career. Specifically, Brody.
"Okay," Rachel said as she read a text message from her new boyfriend as she and Kurt walked down the sidewalk after class one afternoon, "so Brody said he's gonna meet me at the library to go downtown. Do you want to come?"
"Oh, no thanks," Kurt declined. "I don't want to be a haggy third wheel on you guys' date."
"No, you won't be!" Rachel protested.
Kurt shook his head. He would be and they both knew it.
"Alright, you know what I can't wait for?" Rachel said as they walked. "I can't wait for you to find the new man of your dreams and then me, you, him, and Brody can all go on double dates together and it will be so much fun! I really feel like it's gonna happen soon."
Kurt imagined him and Adam on a date with Rachel and Brody. He could see it, and it made his heart pound with nervousness and excitement.
"Actually," he confessed, "there is someone that I have my eye on."
"Oh my god, who is it?" Rachel gasped. "Raul Esparza?"
Kurt laughed. "No, I wish," he teased.
"Because that would be great," Rachel commented.
"No, he goes to school with us," Kurt explained. "But, I don't know. Lately, things have been happening and I'm just kinda trying to figure out if he likes me."
"Oh my god," Rachel clutched his arm, "all the details. Now!"
"Well," Kurt explained, "I was waiting for class the other day, just sitting on the ground reading Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and he walked by... and he said I would be perfect for Brick."
Kurt felt a flattered blush on his face as he remembered. "He said I looked like a young Paul Newman."
"He did not!" Rachel squeaked, delighted.
"There's more," Kurt admitted, trying not to get too carried away. "I was practicing after dance class yesterday and he came in and complimented my form. Twice."
"Oh my god, he is totally crushing on you!" Rachel exclaimed. "What is his name?"
"I don't want to jinx it, okay?" Kurt admitted. "I mean, he's twenty two, sophisticated, handsome... there's no way he wants to be with me."
"Oh god, Kurt," Rachel scolded. "You are a catch, okay? And now that, you know, things with you and Blaine are good and you're finally over the break up, I think it's really time for you to put yourself out there, you know?"
Kurt wasn't sure. Things were definitely over between him and Blaine. Kurt was comfortable with their current friendship. Without the pressure of a romantic reconciliation. He still had feelings for Blaine, but that was to be expected, right? They had dated for so long. Kurt had been closer to Blaine than anyone else he had ever known.
And Kurt had never dated anyone else. Adam seemed interested, so, why not? They were both single. They could go out on one date, at least. Kurt couldn't stop thinking about it.
"Look, if this guy doesn't want to ask you out, then you ask him out!" Rachel stressed as they paused by a crosswalk where Rachel was going to leave him to meet Brody. "I promise you, it will be worth the risk. There's nothing like being in love in New York!"
She kissed his cheek and brushed past him to cross the street toward where Kurt saw Brody waiting for her.
"Love?" Kurt said skeptically. "Already?"
"What can I say?" Rachel called over her shoulder. "Things move fast here. It's not like high school."
"Says the girl who almost got married before graduation!" Kurt had to shout back at her.
"Seize the moment!" Rachel called back, ignored his teasing. "Do it! It'll be worth it!"
Kurt thought about it as he watched Rachel run across the street and into Brody's arms.
He deserved to be that happy again. With someone. And he hadn't felt this way about anyone since he first met Blaine. Somehow both shy and bold all at once. Tongue-tied and very physically aware of the other boy's presence.
Kurt spent the night tossing and turning in bed, trying to decide what to do. He had been to a few Adam's Apples rehearsals. Everything was going really well. It was as comfortable as Kurt had imagined, and it was nice to be singing again in a space that wasn't a classroom with a teacher and a bunch of fellow students sizing him up. And Adam was flirting with him. So, why not?
He had never asked anyone out before.
On Friday morning, as he rode the train to Manhattan, Kurt decided that he should go for it. This was New York. He had come here to find himself and to better himself. It was time to push past his shyness and just ask. Adam was so nice; if he didn't want to go out, he would just decline and that would be that.
And, Kurt thought, this would help him move past his feelings for Blaine. It was time to mend his broken heart and move on with his life. If things went well with Adam, he would know that he could live without Blaine. If things didn't go well with Adam, he would consider whether or not Blaine deserved a second chance.
Kurt couldn't concentrate in his morning classes. All he could think about was what he should say. Should he admit his crush and then ask if Adam wanted to go out? Should be pretend he was just casually asking Adam if he wanted to hang out and see how that went before saying something that suggested a date?
By the time his third class of the day ended and Kurt walked out of his classroom and saw Adam talking to someone a few feet away, Kurt had decided to just say whatever came to his mind. It was just a question. Kurt tried not to think about how rejected he was going to feel if Adam turned him down.
Kurt knelt down to pretend to tie his shoe and wait for Adam to finish talking to whoever he was standing with.
"Oh, hey, Kurt!" Adam's voice preceded his arrival as he rushed over to where Kurt was kneeling. "I was just thinking about you."
Kurt stood up.
"Thoughts on a Sondheim super mash-up?" Adam asked. "Like, epic to the power of epic. We'll all probably die while singing it. You in?"
"I'm in," Kurt agreed, absorbing some of Adam's energy.
As Kurt opened his mouth to ask Adam if he'd like to grab a coffee together sometime soon, Adam turned and started down the stairs.
"Hey, Adam?" Kurt was proud of himself when he called after Adam instead of panicking and shutting down.
Adam stopped and turned around at the bottom of the short staircase.
"I was wondering," Kurt said, "would you ever want to get a drink or a coffee sometime?"
Adam smiled. "Yeah, that'd be great!" he agreed.
"Great," Kurt echoed, trying to hold in the excitement that was suddenly surging through him.
"Here," Adam suggested, stepping toward Kurt, "let me give you my number."
Kurt handed Adam his phone and Adam added himself as a contact before handing the phone back to Kurt with a smile.
As he watched Adam's retreating form, Kurt allowed himself a silent squeal of triumph. He had just asked a guy out. An older guy. A sophisticated, popular, British guy. And Adam had accepted.
Adam wanted to go on a date with him.
Kurt had to run to get to his dance class on time, but he welcomed the exercise. He was giddy with nerves. How did this work? He had Adam's number but Adam didn't have his, so it was clearly Kurt's move. How long should he wait before texting Adam to set up their date? A day? Or was that too long? Maybe he should text him in a few hours so it was clear that he was interested. Or would that make him seem too clingy?
He decided to wait until that evening when he got home. That way it would seem like he had been busy all day but was eager enough about their future date to text as soon as he got home.
Coffee this weekend sometime? – Kurt, he sent as soon as he walked through the door to his and Rachel's apartment.
To his delight, Adam responded almost immediately. Sunday? he asked. I can come out to Bushwick, if you like. Haven't been out there in ages!
Kurt couldn't stop smiling as he replied. Sounds perfect. Meet you outside the station in Bushwick at noon?
He wasn't sure if he was ready to have a date in the apartment yet. They should try coffee first.
Perfect, Adam sent back. It's a date!
BLAINE
On Saturday evening, Blaine got dressed up and drove to Tina's house to pick her up for the Sadie Hawkins dance. He complimented her on how beautiful she looked – not a difficult task, because she did look gorgeous – and posed for a few photos for her parents before they headed to school for the dance.
Blaine had a hard time finding any enthusiasm until he and Tina walked through the door to the gymnasium.
"Tina, these decorations are incredible!" Blaine gushed as he saw the way everything was decorated in white and blue, like a snowy winter wonderland.
"Well, Sadie Hawkins dances are sometimes called snow balls, so that's where I got the idea for a snowflake theme," Tina explained.
Blaine was delighted. "I'm really glad that you invited me to this," he said. The atmosphere was light and fresh. It felt good.
"No post-traumatic stress disorder from before?" Tina asked.
"I thought there might be," Blaine admitted, "but no."
"I'm thrilled," Tina replied.
Blaine was thrilled, too. He had been through a two proms since his Sadie Hawkins incident, and he realized that surviving those dances, with Kurt, had really helped him to put the whole thing behind him. As much as he would ever put it behind him. He wondered if he would ever go to a big, glitzy event without thinking of his first Sadie Hawkins dance.
Tina offered her hand, and she and Blaine walked through the crowd toward where the rest of the guys of New Directions were gathered on the stage.
"We'd like to dedicate this song to all the strong, proud, and empowered ladies who stuck their necks out to make this happen," Artie said into his microphone. Blaine squeezed Tina's hand.
"This week," Artie continued, "you showed us what it feels like to wait anxiously by the phone that never rings. The horror when all your friends get asked to the dance and you don't, and you have to sit there and –"
Blaine let go of Tina's hand and hopped onto the stage to join the other guys. He grabbed a microphone headset and interrupted Artie.
"Alright, cool, thank you Artie," he said. "This one's for all the powerful women out there."
Blaine slipped his suit jacket off as the music began, and he had a blast singing No Scrubs with the other boys of New Directions. The crowd loved it and, by the time the song ended, Blaine could hardly remember why he had ever not wanted to attend the dance.
After the song, he and Tina got some food and drinks and sat down to eat and so Blaine could cool off.
"You look so cute when you're sweaty, though," Tina complimented as they ate.
Blaine laughed. "Well, thank you," he smiled at her.
They finished eating and Blaine slipped his jacket back on before offering a hand to Tina.
"Shall we?" he asked formally.
She giggled and accepted, and he led her to the dance floor as the music picked up from a slow song to something with more energy.
"This is so nice!" he admitted as they danced. This was the kind of dancing that was fun with anyone. Nothing romantic.
"It is, isn't it?" Tina said, "I told you this would be fun!"
"You were so right," Blaine agreed. "You know, I love your new attitude these days. It's so empowered!"
"I love your... everything," Tina said. "You're perfect."
"Oh, Tina Cohen-Chang," Blaine teased as he dipped Tina. "Where have you been all my life?"
"Right here," Tina said as they stood up.
She looked really happy, Blaine thought as she stared at him. This had definitely been a good idea.
Suddenly, he felt someone grab him from behind, and Sam's voice was in his ears.
"We need you!" Sam demanded. "Huge breakthrough in the case! Let's go!"
Blaine turned to follow him, wondering if he had missed a text from Trent.
"Wait!" Tina protested. "Blaine and I were just about to –"
"About to what?" Sam asked.
"– to keep dancing," Tina said sadly.
"I'm sorry, Tina," Blaine said. "This is bigger than all of us. I've gotta go."
"Did you not hear me?" Sam shouted, urging him to hurry up.
Tina started to say something, but Blaine decided he would talk to her about it later. After they talked to Finn about the Warblers.
"Let's go!" Sam called.
They rushed away from Tina and out of the gymnasium into the hallway.
"Trent!" Blaine exclaimed happily as he saw the Warbler waiting for them. He hurried over for a hug. "Thanks so much for coming."
"If you had just come back to the Warblers, none of this would've happened," Trent whined.
Blaine shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry," he said. "Thanks for trusting me enough to do this."
Trent nodded.
"Okay," Sam whispered loudly, "I texted Finn and he's waiting for us in the locker room. Round-faced Warbler, you wait in the shadows. We will let you know when the moment is right."
Trent nodded again, and Sam led the way into the locker room. Blaine patted Trent on the back briefly before he and Sam continued into the room without the Warbler.
Finn was there waiting for them, straddling a bench with an iPad in his hands, and Sam explained the whole situation. The Warblers' crazy acrobatics at the competition. How much bigger they looked than photos from just a few months earlier.
Finn was skeptical.
"Look at the pictures, Finn," Sam urged. "It's not just Hunter! Half the Warblers have gained ten pounds of muscle since they joined the team!"
"I already looked into this," Finn explained. "This is a weight training regimen that they stole from Vocal Adrenaline."
"You can't just go from being a twig to Jean-Claude Van Damme in a few months," Blaine countered. "Tell him, Sam."
"Look, the average male gains up to two pounds of muscle per month," Sam informed Finn. "Fact!"
"And that's without cheating," Blaine clarified. "We looked it up online."
"Also," Sam said, throwing his leg over the bench to sit down across from Finn, "look at this cell phone video that Artie and Joe Hart took down at the Lima Bean the other day."
He showed Finn a video on the iPad of Hunter Clarington having a raging meltdown over Splenda in his coffee.
"Now that is 'roid rage and you know it!" Sam announced when the video ended.
"Look... chapter seven, sub-section sixteen, rule four, line nine," Blaine said, bringing the show choir rules book over so Finn could see it. "'Any team using performance enhancing drugs – including amphetamines, anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, or Four Loko – will be automatically disqualified from competition.'."
"The rule is retroactive," Blaine explained. "So, if we can prove that they used at Sectionals, they'll have to forfeit and we'll win! Glee club is back!" He turned to Sam for a high five. "Blam!"
"Guys, what you are asking me to do here is beyond serious," Finn said. "The Warblers are, like, one of the most respected glee clubs in the country. To accuse them of this when all we have for proof is photos of some dudes' heads and a cell phone video? Look, I want glee club back just as much as you guys, but this isn't enough. We need more real proof."
"We have some," Blaine informed him.
He looked at Sam, and they snapped their fingers simultaneously.
"Me," Trent explained as he walked into the room from behind Finn.
"I knew when Trent didn't perform with the Warblers at Sectionals that something was up," Blaine said as Finn twisted around to look at Trent.
"Yeah, he is kinda like the sunshine of the group, isn't he?" Finn recalled fondly.
"Isn't he?" Blaine agreed.
"Blaine and I joined the Warblers together," Trent explained. "It was a band of brothers. A group joined by harmony and honor. And then Blaine left and Sebastian came. Then Hunter. They just chipped away at everything that was good and special about us. Winning was everything. You took the shots or you didn't perform. Singing with the Warblers is my life, but I couldn't do it. My hormones can't handle heroic doses of testosterone. I don't even shave yet! The Warblers mean everything to me, and it's killing me to betray them like this."
"You're not betraying them," Blaine reassured him. "Hunter betrayed the Warblers. You're saving them."
"Yeah, that's what they said about Brutus. And Cassius," Trent said. "Look, if I go public with this, then the Warblers' reputation? It's ruined. Forever. Years of honorable melodies and harmonies all forgotten."
"Look, the Warblers' reputation was ruined the second they decided to cheat to win," Sam countered. "Fact!"
Blaine could see the hesitation in Trent's eyes, and he understood. It pained him, too, to know that the Warblers were going to suffer as an organization because of this crazy scandal.
"So, what do you say?" Finn asked. "Will you do this? Will you testify against the Warblers?"
Trent took a deep breath and looked at Blaine.
"Yes," he agreed.
"Yeah!" Sam cried, throwing his hands in the air in triumph. "We're totally going to Regionals! Sorry dude," he added, realizing that Trent had just been stripped of that opportunity.
Blaine walked over to Trent. "Thank you," he said. "You're doing the right thing."
"We miss you," Trent told him. "And I know you're not coming back, but I wish you could."
"Let's just remember the good times," Blaine suggested, "okay?"
Trent nodded.
"You want to come to the dance?" Blaine smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "It's beautiful in there, and –"
"Dude, no!" Sam interjected, walking over to stand with them. "This is still a covert mission. If any of the Warblers find out Trent was here, they'll have a head start at figuring out a way to lie themselves out of this!"
Blaine turned an apologetic gaze on Trent.
"It's okay," Trent agreed. "I should probably get back, anyway. I told everyone I was going to dinner with my parents, so they'll probably start to wonder why I've been gone so long if I'm not back in the next hour or so."
Blaine hugged him goodbye, and then he, Sam, and Finn returned to the dance.
"Hey, dude," Sam said to Blaine as they re-entered the gym, "you up for some dancing?"
Blaine's heart thudded in surprise and he snapped his head to the side to look at Sam.
"What?" he gasped.
Sam motioned at the room. "Let's dance the night away!" he said loudly.
Blaine laughed nervously and tried to calm down. Of course he and Sam weren't going to dance together. That fantasy was going to have to stay in Blaine's mind.
Sam turned and walked away, back to Brittany, and Blaine looked around for Tina. He saw her standing by the punch bowl and rushed over.
"Tina!" He called as he approached. "Excuse me," he added to a couple as he bumped past them.
"Hey," Tina greeted him. "I thought you split."
"No," Blaine reassured her. "No, not at all. We were just dealing with some glee stuff."
"Anything good?" Tina asked.
"I'm not sure yet," Blaine said. "But, if it works out, we may have just saved the glee club."
"Is there anything you can't do?" Tina smiled.
Blaine ducked his head before returning his gaze to her face. If her crush on him was anything like his crush on Sam, she wanted to dance with him. So he should let her live in her fantasy for one song.
"I know I can't possibly leave here without having at least one slow dance with you," he said.
He stepped toward the dance floor and held out a hand. Tina took it, and Blaine led the way into the crowd.
They ended up directly beside Sam and Brittany and, as Blaine pulled Tina into his arms for the dance, he felt a pang of loneliness.
He had a crush on Sam. He wanted to hold Sam's hand and maybe kiss him if Sam wanted to and to be able to let their bodies touch when they were doing stuff for the Secret Society of Superheroes club. It was a fantasy, and Blaine knew it. Knowing that he would never have any of those things, even for one moment, was a lonely feeling.
And missing Kurt felt like someone had torn part of his heart out and taken it away.
Coming to the dance with Tina had been fun. Dancing with Tina was lovely. But it was nothing like being wrapped up in Kurt's arms. Holding Kurt close to him so they both felt safe and at peace and loved. He imagined how excited Kurt would've been for this Sadie Hawkins dance; a chance for Blaine to fight the last of his lingering demons from his past and an excuse to dress up. And Kurt would've been insulted at the idea that people saw him as the "girl" in their relationship and the expectation that, as a result, he should ask Blaine to the dance. Kurt would've refused to sing a song to ask Blaine to the dance, but, when they were alone, he would've giggled and gotten down on one knee to propose that they go together. And Kurt would've been proud of Blaine for helping to find a way to save the glee club.
When he got home that evening after the dance, Blaine fell into bed and texted Kurt. It was after midnight, but he knew that Kurt could just ignore the message if he was already in bed.
Sadie Hawkins Dance: complete! It was nice. Tina did a beautiful job planning the whole thing. Hope your evening has been wonderful!
To his surprise, his phone lit up almost immediately with a phone call from Kurt.
"Hello?" Blaine answered.
"Hi!" Kurt said, and Blaine closed his eyes as he heard the smile in Kurt's voice. "Sorry I didn't call earlier, before the dance. I've been at work all day; I've taken on a lighter load at Vogue dot com now that I'm full time at NYADA, but Isabelle said it would be helpful if I come in sometimes on Saturday and do some of the organizational stuff when nobody else is around. It's actually kinda fun to be alone in the office," he laughed.
Blaine smiled. "Don't work too hard," he teased.
"Tell me more about the Sadie Hawkins dance," Kurt requested. "It was all fine?"
"It was," Blaine confirmed. "No flashbacks or anything. But it was so gorgeous. All white and blue and snowflake themed. You would've loved it."
"Yeah," Kurt agreed.
Blaine wanted to say how much he missed Kurt. How the dance hadn't been the same when he couldn't dance with the love of his life. But he didn't. Something in Kurt's voice was so upbeat that Blaine didn't want to bring up anything that might dampen his mood. And he had promised that they would just be friends. Truly just friends, so Kurt could decide if he could live without Blaine.
"Where are you?" he asked, instead.
"Just about home, actually," Kurt said. "A perk of agreeing to work on Saturday: Isabelle pulled some strings so Vogue dot com will pay for me to take a cab to and from the office."
"Nice," Blaine approved.
"So you're really okay?" Kurt asked, his voice soft and concerned. "You'd tell me if things hadn't gone well, even a little, right?"
"Yes," Blaine said, "I would. But everything was fine. Don't worry," he teased gently.
Kurt hummed an affirmative.
"Oh... uh, and" Kurt said, his voice suddenly taking on a nervous tone, "there's something I wanted to tell you."
Blaine waited.
"I, uh... joined NYADA's glee club," Kurt told him.
"Really?" Blaine smiled. "What're they called?"
"The Adam's Apples," Kurt said. "I've been going all week, but I didn't, uh, want to mention it until I was sure I was going to stick with it."
"That's great, Kurt!" Blaine approved. "Should be a perfect way to make like-minded friends, right?"
"Right," Kurt agreed.
"Speaking of glee club," Blaine remembered, "Sam and I may have found a way to get us back into Regionals!"
"What?" Kurt gasped. "But the Warblers won at Sectionals."
"Exactly," Blaine agreed. "But they cheated."
"They cheated," Kurt responded skeptically.
"They did!" Blaine said vehemently. "They've been using steroids to bulk up so they're more acrobatic. At first I didn't believe it, either, but Trent wasn't at Sectionals... so, I asked him if we could talk about it. And he confirmed the drug usage."
"Are you serious?" Kurt asked.
"Unfortunately, yes," Blaine replied.
"Wow," Kurt commented. "But... now you get to go to Regionals! That's great!"
"As long as we can get the show choir board to hear us out," Blaine clarified. "Finn's going to submit the paperwork on Monday morning."
"Well – yeah, this is it. Yes, thank you – sorry, I'm home," Kurt explained, "I hope it works out! Too bad Nationals aren't in New York this year. I'd be fun to see everyone."
"We haven't even made it past Regionals yet," Blaine laughed.
"I know," Kurt teased, "but you're going to make it to Nationals. I just know."
"I appreciate your vote of confidence," Blaine smiled.
"Well," Kurt said, "I should go. I'm home now and it looks like the lights are on in the apartment, so Rachel must still be up..."
"Okay," Blaine agreed. "Thanks for calling."
"I'm really glad tonight was a good time," Kurt said sincerely. "Put those demons to rest."
"Yeah," Blaine nodded even though Kurt couldn't see him. "Goodnight, Kurt."
He heard the apartment door sliding open as Kurt said "goodnight" and ended the call.
KURT
Rachel was sitting at the table as Kurt came through the door. She was on her laptop, typing furiously.
"Hey," Kurt greeted her. "You're up late."
"Hi!" she smiled widely. "How was work?"
"Fine," he allowed. "I'm gonna sleep all day tomorrow, though."
She hummed her acknowledgement, distracted by her laptop. Kurt got a glass of water and an apple and sat down across from her at the table.
"You know," Rachel said out of the blue, "if we had a third roommate, our rent would be so much less per person. Six hundred instead of nine hundred."
"Congratulations on your math skills," Kurt teased. "But let's not. This is our calm, safe haven and throwing a stranger into the mix..." he shook his head.
"Well," Rachel said, too casually, "maybe we can find someone who we know?"
Kurt looked at her and knew that something was up.
"What did you do?" he asked, already cringing as he waited for her response.
"I asked Brody to move in with us," Rachel confessed with a huge smile that Kurt knew was an attempt to make him excited about the idea.
"You what?" Kurt snapped.
"Well, I mean, he's here all the time," Rachel argued. "And it's a long train ride and I know you like him just fine so don't look at me like that!"
"Like what?" Kurt said, getting angrier with every passing second. "Like you just invited a guy to move in with us without even asking me? Rachel!"
"Oh, don't act all horrified," Rachel said, returning the anger. "What about how you want Blaine to move in here next year? So that's okay, but –"
"One," Kurt interrupted, "that was before we broke up, and, two, that's not even remotely the same! This isn't Finn or Blaine or someone we know really well. You hardly even know this Brody guy!"
"How would you know?" Rachel retorted. "You're not with me every second of every day. Just because you don't know him very well doesn't mean that I don't! We've known each other for four months!"
"Do you hear yourself?" Kurt shouted. "You've known him for four months. That's great – be his girlfriend – but you're talking about moving in together! After four months!"
"It's not like that," Rachel countered. "We can make a third room between yours and mine and he'll just be a third roommate!"
"No," Kurt said.
"I'm not asking," Rachel snapped.
"You cannot invite someone to live here without my permission!" Kurt informed her.
"Yes I can!" Rachel shouted, jumping out of her chair and slamming her laptop closed. "And, if you don't like it, you can just move out!"
She turned and marched into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. Kurt stood up, abandoning his apple on the table, and stormed into his section of the apartment, pulling the curtain closed behind him.
He was overwhelmed. Everything at NYADA was so new. He was experiencing attraction toward another guy in a way he hadn't since he first met Blaine. He had just joined a new glee club.
And now Rachel had asked her boyfriend to move in with them without even consulting Kurt first.
He liked the idea of a third roommate in terms of the money situation. Paying less in rent would mean more money for tuition and textbooks and food and possible plane tickets home to Ohio to see his father. He had been nursing the idea of another roommate for a while.
But he didn't want their third roommate to be Rachel's boyfriend of less than two months.
Or did it really matter?
Kurt sat down on his bed and dragged his hands through his hair in frustration. Brody was around a lot, anyway. And he seemed nice enough. The only major problem for Kurt would be avoiding listening to Rachel and Brody's sexual escapades, but he could invest in a huge bag of earplugs and turn his white noise machine to its top volume.
The alternative was to force the issue with Rachel and cause a huge fight, which Kurt really didn't want. He liked feeling comfortable in his own apartment.
But would he feel comfortable with Brody living there? He wasn't sure.
He heard Rachel emerge from the bathroom and decided to attempt a compromise.
"Okay," he said as he shoved the curtain aside and walked back into the kitchen where Rachel was waiting for him, "here are my conditions. No sex on any surface that isn't your bed. My room is off limits at all times. And he better keep the bathroom as spotless as it is right now."
"Kurt," Rachel breathed happily.
"And," Kurt added as Rachel walked over and threw her arms around him, "if he's not actually going to spend every night in his own bed, I'd rather you two just share your room and save us all the trouble of hanging another curtain."
"Okay!" Rachel beamed at him. "Well, he's gone back to Manhattan for tonight, but let me call him and I'll see if he can bring some of his things tomorrow..."
The fact that Rachel invited Brody to move into the apartment without even asking Kurt. Not okay.
Alright, let's talk about Adam. I like him. I like him a lot, actually. Such a sweetheart! Obviously, I want Kurt and Blaine together again. Eventually. But, what happened between them was pretty much the heaviest thing that can happen to a relationship, so, more than anything else, I'm glad to see that Kurt is clinging to his self-respect and is having a really hard time actually forgiving Blaine. From now until the end of the season, I think Kurt is waging an internal war between the part of him that knows that Blaine is the love of his life and the part of him that is desperately trying to protect himself from more pain. So, he convinces himself that he's cool with being "just friends" with Blaine because he needs to believe that in order to pull himself out of the emotional black hole that Blaine's infidelity threw him into. Which brings us back to Adam. I think Adam's great for Kurt. If Blaine had never existed (GASP, I KNOW), I think Kurt and Adam could be very happy together. But, Blaine does exist, so poor Adam doesn't really stand a chance. They only date for maybe a month and a half-ish (assuming they're separated by the finale).
All of that said, if you freaking hate Adam and that whole storyline, that's fine! But it's canon, so we're going to try to make sense of it here. :)
Up next... 4x12: Naked!