"Nice of you to join us, Mr Anderson." Mrs Campbell announced irritably as he walked in to the classroom, "I suppose you thought it better to turn up with five minutes left of the period than to not turn up at all?" She pushed her glasses down her nose and gave him a withering glare.
Blaine just rolled his eyes and trooped towards his seat at the very back of the classroom. He was not in the mood for the old hag's so-called "banter" today. As he glanced down at his seat he noticed that the usually vacant seat next to his was now taken by Kurt, the boy he'd seen earlier. The boy unmistakably titled away from him as he sat down. Blaine stared at him, unable to keep his eyes off Kurt's... hat.

"Mr Anderson! Will you please keep your eyes to the front. I am trying to explain this year's project." Her eyes lit up disturbingly and she seemed to swell with pleasure as she said the word "project". Every single year, without fail, the English department would come up with some sort of project to keep the students busy so the teachers didn't have to hand out homework assignments. The students hated this because it was done in pairs and unfortunately they didn't get to choose.
"As I was saying, this should take you all year and I will give you different tasks each week to complete towards the overall presentation at the end of the year. Now down to the exciting bit... partners!" Mrs Campbell practically sang. Blaine was pretty sure that the front row were sprayed in spit as he saw Brett wipe his face confusedly.
Blaine rolled his eyes again as the teacher brought out her top hat. Every year she filled the hat with their names and would one-by-one pick them out in an attempt to create tension and fear.

All eyes were focussed on the veiny hand as it plunged into the depths of the hat. The hairy arm seemed to stay in there forever when it finally surfaced, a single, crisp, white sheet of paper clasped in her paws. Her voice rang out shrilly in the silence as she called out the first name. Blaine felt his heart beating rapidly in spite of himself. She licked her lips. The tip of her dry tounge ran across her yellowing teeth. Before he knew it, her crackling voice had began to fill the air. Blaine couldn't listen to this.

"Kurt Hummel," She uttered, all eyes turned to the back to look at Kurt who was sitting perched on the edge of his seat, unable to take it any longer, "You will be paired with..."

The hand entered the hat again while the class sat with bated breath.

"Mercedes Jones."

Kurt looked around for his new partner and spotted a girl in a cheerleading outfit waving cheerily at him, a huge smile stretched across her face. Swallowing his disappointment, he waved back.

He couldn't deny it, he had wanted to go with Blaine. Even though the rebellious looking teen had blown him off earlier when he'd asked for directions, something about him intrigued Kurt. All those scars and bruises obviously weren't just for show -although they did seem to ward off the other students as Blaine had sat in the back row by himself until Kurt - so there must be some story behind it. A story that Kurt didn't think Blaine had ever told.

Once Mrs Campbell had picked all the names - Blaine had been partnered with some jock called Finn but neither seemed happy about this arrangement - she told them to mingle with their new partners and discuss the project.
Mercedes immediately bounded over to Kurt.
"Hey there!" She smiled widely at him, "I'm Mercedes."
Kurt extended a warm hand, "Kurt Hummel." he said. She grinned even wider, she surely was a happy bunny. She glanced up at his hat.
"Nice hat." She said.
"Thank you, nice shoes." Kurt replied, indicating to her purple converses.
She grinned at him again and Kurt got the feeling that they were going to get along well.

...

Blaine watched Kurt carefully from across the classroom. He was sitting on a chair with his feet propped up on the table with Finn sat on the table next to his feet, awkwardly swinging his hands to and fro like some stupid gorilla.
Kurt laughed loudly while Mercedes grabbed his arm, slapping the table and giggling uncontrollably.
Something must be funny, Blaine thought. Kurt and Mercedes both stopped laughing almost simultaneously and sub-consciously smoothed down their hair. This only made them burst out laughing again. Blaine frowned trying to remember the last time he'd laughed that hard. He couldn't help but wonder if he ever had.

"So..." said Finn, interrupting Blaine's thoughts. He titled his head towards Blaine who closed his eyes, a pained expression on his face.
"Are we, like, going to talk about the project?" Finn continued, clearly unable to see understand that Blaine wasn't in the mood for chit-chat.
"No." He replied. Everything was quiet with his eyes closed, except for Kurt's laugh tinkling across the room. He smiled to himself, then stopped because it probably looked weird.
"But how are we going to -" Finn started. Everything he said sounded stupid and boring and Blaine was tired.
"Fine," he snapped, swinging his legs off the table and turning to face Finn, a big, fake smile plastered on his face, "What do you suggest we do, oh-clever-one? Because, as everyone here knows, you don't like me and I most certainly do not like you. And I, unlike you, don't give a fuck about this class because I, unlike you, know what a load of shit this is. And I do not want to go through another year of-"

His rant was cut off by the bell which Blaine took as his cue to leave. He stormed out the classroom leaving an open-mouthed Finn sitting dumbstruck at the desk.

...

Kurt walked arm and arm through the hallway with Mercedes. He really liked this girl and he was especially had to have made a new friend by break because he couldn't face wandering around lost again. They had been nattering away to each other non-stop and Kurt felt although he'd known her a lot longer than ten minutes.
"I do love a bit of Beyonce myself, I'm always boppin' along to her tunes at home and I would really like to perform one of her songs at-" She broke off, biting her lip. Kurt looked sideways at her, it was the first time she'd literally stopped talking since she introduced herself. He tried to continue the conversation to fill the awkward silence.
"Oh, you sing?" He asked, she nodded warily, "I do too actually but I'm more of a show tunes kind of man."
"You sing too!" She burst out, clearly over her silent spell. Kurt internally rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I used to be in my old school's choir, The Warblers. It's an acapella group, actually. My friend Wes was the lead when we won Sectionals last year."
Mercedes eyes widened, "You. Won. Sectionals?"
"Yeah, it's not much compared to the likes of Vocal Adrenaline but we don't practise 25/7 like them so I'd say we did well on that level." Kurt continued.
"Hell," said Mercedes, "We can't even-" She broke off again, smiling awkwardly.
Kurt gave her a weird look, "Who can't even do what? When?"
Suddenly someone grabbed his arm and pulled him into darkness. He tried to scream but someone had their hand over his mouth and everything was pitch dark. Then, he heard the sound of a match being struck and the small cupboard he appeared to be in was filled with a flickering light, illuminating the face of a girl.

...

"Who the hell are you?" Kurt nearly screamed. There was a small scuffle and the girl squeaked as she was elbowed out the way, Mercedes appeared in the gloom.
"Rachel! Seriously? This is way too far!" Mercedes did scream this time.
The girl smoothed down her hair in a disgruntled fashion and spoke in an irritated voice, "Well, I had to be careful, anyone could be listening in." She turned to Kurt, "These are dark times-"
"Rachel, I swear to-"
"Everyday our lives face new dangers. We can barely walk down these halls without being slushied by those Neanderthals out there! We must hide our-" Rachel's speech was cut off again, this time by Kurt.
"Can someone please tell me why I'm stuck in, what looks like, a janitor's closet with some crazy girl I don't even know who's telling me all her woes?!"

Mercedes and Rachel looked at each other. They held each other's gaze for a few moments, their expressions serious. Then Mercedes nodded grimly and Rachel swallowed.

"Are you indeed Kurt Hummel?" Rachel asked suspiciously, she cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. The effect was creepy looking, like some old woman in a horror movie.
"Eh, yeah, why?" Kurt asked uncertainly, this school was weird.
"Is it true that you were a member of Dalton Academy's "The Warblers" prior to attending this school?" She was edging closer to him, the same deranged look in her eyes. Her head had bobbed suddenly when she said "The Warblers".
"How did you know about-?" Kurt asked, raising one delicate eyebrow.
"Is it true that you are a countertenor and have been known to sing Broadway classics such as "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and "As If We Never Said Goodbye", songs originally sung by women?" Rachel demanded.
"Rachel! Enough!" Mercedes interrupted the relentless questioning and turned to a speechless Kurt,
"What Rachel is trying to say is, we'd like you to join our Glee Club."
"SECRET glee club!"
"Our secret glee club." Mercedes said through gritted teeth.
Kurt raised his eyebrow again, "Why is it a secret?" He asked slowly, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.
Rachel and Mercedes exchanged a dark look.

"A few years ago, there was a glee club in this school, except it was different from the one that exists today. There were at least sixteen members and they were good, and I mean really good. They even won Nationals in New Freakin' York. Anyway, after some time, some strange things began happening to each member of the club-"
"What do you mean "strange"?" Kurt asked suspiciously.
Mercedes continued, "They began to disappear. It was difficult to notice at first. Some would leave town to move to another school, while others came down with a bad illness and wouldn't come to school for a couple of months. But sure enough, one by one, every single member of that glee club was gone by the next year.
"It was as if, once you were known for being in the glee club, you were cursed and were destined to be hunted down-"
"Cursed? Really guys? You believe in that crap?" Kurt scoffed.
"It's no laughing matter!" Rachel piped up after being silent for some time.
"Anyway!" Mercedes said, "After about a year, a few of us, the lucky ones, I suppose. We tried to get it started up again but no one would go near the club. We managed to get a few more members but they won't let anyone know they are in the club so it's sort of become a secret club. Mainly we are trying to shield ourselves from Blaine's gang."
"Blaine?" Kurt asked, his heart fluttered annoyingly as the mention of his name. Blaine had a gang? A gang that "cursed" the school glee club?
"Yes, Blaine Anderson, he is feared notoriously by our glee club," Rachel spoke with fear in her voice but Kurt was sure this was just for dramatic effect.
"His gang say they have to ensure that the legacy that their fore brothers laid out for them is kept and in doing so they have to stop the glee club."
"So, you want me to join this... this crazy, cursed club of yours?" Kurt asked slowly. He was trying so hard not to laugh.
Rachel and Mercedes nodded earnestly.
"By why do you need me? Why go to all this trouble just to... just to ask me?" Kurt asked, he was sure he was missing something.

"Our club only has five members," Mercedes said sadly, "Everyone we've asked is too scared to join and we need twelve members to qualify for competitions."

"Please say you'll do it Kurt, we need you like you wouldn't believe." Rachel gazed imploringly at him.

The bell rang for the next class. Kurt sighed, "All right then."