CHAPTER 13: Getting to know you

It had been three weeks since that fateful weekend when it had been decided that Kurt was allowed to stay in Lima, and according to the doctor his injuries were healing up nicely. Kurt had joined Glee Club again and while he still wasn't allowed to do any dancing while they were busy preparing for Sectionals, he was beyond happy to have music in his life again.

Finn had joined them in Lima a week later and to avoid having to share a room with him, he'd finally given Carole permission to sleep in his mother's bedroom so Finn could take the living room. The giant teen had been nicer to him than he'd ever been before, but he was still avoiding being alone with him or Blaine.

Blaine, ever the people pleaser, had been trying to bond with Kurt's stepbrother by offering to play video games with him, but Finn had refused the offer each time so far, saying he had to catch up on school. Kurt knew Finn definitely needed to catch up, but more often than not he heard Finn play on his own when he thought everyone else was asleep.

Finn had tried to join the football team as soon as he had started at McKinely, but to Kurt's immense relieve coach Beiste had told Finn to come back when he had decent enough grades. It was nice for a change that Finn was miserable because nothing was going the way he wanted instead of Kurt.

Unfortunately, Finn's confession had been useless. The paramedics weren't able to identify his attackers and in the end it had been his and Finn's word against the four jocks' who had given each other alibis. Finn had been the only one who had looked guilty because of the text he had sent Kurt, but wasn't charged with anything, because Kurt had told the officer in the hospital that Finn hadn't participated in the beating.

Burt had gotten Finn to tell the principle about all the stuff he and his friends had done at school and after his father had threatened the school - Kurt had been beyond surprised to hear that - the principle had suspended Patrick, James and four other football players for a week. Kurt hadn't been surprised that was all the justice he got.

His father was still in Austin but had told them he would come up in a few days for the weekend before Halloween to help them move into the house Carole had found for them. It had five bedrooms, one bathroom in the master bedroom and one in Kurt's room and two additional ones on each floor so that no one had to share.

Even Kurt had to admit that he liked the new house with the big backyard and spacious kitchen, even though his room was smaller than the basement had been. They had bought some of the living room furniture from the previous owners, but Carole had promised to let him redecorate once he was healthy enough.

So far everything had gone relatively well, but who knew what adding his father into the mix would mean.

Finn Hudson didn't like Lima. The city was a lot smaller, he didn't know anyone apart from Kurt and Blaine, who were surprisingly civil, and he didn't have his own car anymore and had to drive to school with the other two boys every morning, but at least they didn't make him take the bus.

He had tried to join the football team but the coach hadn't even let him try out after she had seen his transfer papers. The classes, fortunately, weren't any harder than those at McCallum and had some hot cheerleaders in them. He just didn't understand why some of them hung out with Kurt and Blaine. There was no way that those two were actually popular at school.

The football players mostly left the other students alone and when Finn asked about that, he was told that two of the worst bullies had finally managed to graduate last year and the others were either in Glee or afraid to be kicked off the team for bad behavior. Apparently the new coach was hell bent on the destroying the natural order of things in that school.

He had tried to join other sports teams, but was told he wasn't a good enough player to be let on during the school year and to come back next year. He felt oddly naked without his trusted letterman jacket and girls fawning over him.

He had asked out a pretty blond cheerleader the first week who had flat out laughed in his face. Maybe Kurt had been talking shit about him, because girls were always flattered when he paid them attention.

His mom had asked why he didn't join Glee with his stepbrother and Blaine so they had at least something in common, but Finn couldn't stand to lose any more of his popularity than he already had. Not that he was popular at his new school. He was just the new kid, but other than that he wasn't any different than anyone else. His mom said that was a good thing, but he didn't get what was supposed to be good about being a nobody.

At least Burt would arrive in a few days and help them move the rest of their stuff into their new house. His room was nice, but he had been forced to take the one between Kurt and Blaine. He just hoped they weren't gonna be really loud all the time.

The Friday before Halloween, the doorbell rang a bunch of times while he was making himself a sandwich in the kitchen. A few moments later he heard a lot of girls entering the house. Maybe one of them would be interested in him.

He walked out into the living room and came face to face with the blond cheerleader, Quinn, who had rejected him. "What's going on?" he couldn't help but asked. Kurt stepped around a few girls before answering.

"The glee girls and I are going to have a pre-Halloween sleep over in the basement to work on our costumes." Finn noticed that a few of the girls gave him strange looks. "That's my stepbrother Finn. He just moved here from Texas with his mom and my father." At least he didn't receive any hostile glares from the girls after Kurt introduced him. Kurt must have kept his mouth shut about him after all. If the situation were reversed he would have bitched to his friends about his brother or he would have, had they been interested.

"If it's a girls sleep over, what are you and Blaine doing here?" Finn couldn't help but ask. His mom would never allow him to have a bunch of girls in his bedroom. "I'm considered honorary and Blaine's going to entertain the Glee guys with mindless video games. I guess you can join them if you like." Kurt turned away from him and led the girls to his basement bedroom.

Maybe he should join the guys. At least this time he wouldn't have to be alone with Blaine and some of the guys in Glee club were on the football team, so they had to be cool. Although, on second thought, would they even hang out with Blaine? He could probably just hang around in the living room and see who would show up.

Thirty minutes later, the living room was filling up. Finn was surprised to see that even the tough looking guy with the Mohawk had shown up and they all seemed to be buddy buddy with Blaine. He didn't get it. At McCallum, members of the football team would never have hung out with losers and nerds and here they seemed to be best friends.

Tired of not having any friends at his new school, he immediately agreed when Blaine asked him if he wanted to join them and he did end up having a pretty good time. Puck, the guy with the Mohawk, Artie, a dude in a wheel chair and the two jocks Sam and Mike all stayed over as well and Finn and the guys had their own sleep over in the living room.

His mom was already up the next morning, preparing pancakes for all the teens in her house when Finn went into the kitchen, woken up by the delicious smell. "Did you have fun last night, honey?" his mom asked when she saw him. "It was cool. The guys were fun." Surprisingly he did have a good time. "Maybe you should reconsider joining their glee club. You had a nice voice as a child and you'd probably make some friends fast."

It would be cool to hang out with those guys more often. "I'll think about it." "Great, maybe Kurt and Blaine could help you with your audition song." Or not. They would probably try to get him to sing show tunes. "When's Burt coming in?" Finn couldn't wait to move into the new house to have his own room again. "He should be here in three hours. Why don't you go and wake up the others for breakfast." Finn smiled. His mom's pancakes were the best.

Burt had spent most of the weekend unloading the van they had rented to transport all their stuff to Lima and by Sunday night their new house looked livable. The weekend so far had been good, apart from the small hiccup when he had asked his son why he was wearing a dress, but Kurt had assured him it was just part of his Halloween costume and that he would never wear a dress in real life.

After a talk with Carole he had decided to let Kurt continue wearing his own clothes because so far they hadn't caused any trouble at McKinley. He'd been surprised but then Finn had told him how things worked at his new school.

He hadn't had much time to talk to Kurt this weekend because he was mostly helping Carole unpack the kitchen and living room because he wasn't allowed to do any heavy lifting yet, while he and the rest of the boys had moved the furniture around. He and Blaine had gotten along surprisingly well, talking about the Buckeyes and the improved McKinley football team, which thanks to a new coach was finally winning.

He'd gone to school with Ken Tanaka and had been surprised to hear that the guy who had nearly always been benched was coaching a football team. It was easy to talk to Blaine, because they shared interests, but he didn't know how to talk to Kurt. All he knew was that the kid liked fashion and music, and could become a decent mechanic if he tried just a little harder.

Carole had told him she would take him to a PFLAG meeting - he hadn't figured out yet what that stood for - to learn how to make things better with Kurt. What he needed was a dictionary: Gay teen – Straight dad. Unfortunately no one had such a thing laying around.

They were all sitting around the dining room table Sunday night for the first time in their new house. Burt would open his new shop Monday morning and until he had hired enough mechanics the kids would have to help out again. Judging by the clothes his son wore, he could use a job.

"I need some help in the shop in the afternoon. Anyone up for a little extra money? Kurt you could help out in the office." Finn nodded, while Kurt kept his eyes on his plate. Surprisingly it was Blaine who spoke up. "I'd like to if you could teach me some stuff. I like cars and you wouldn't have to pay me, because you're already letting me live here."

His son was shooting a glare at the other boy. What was the problem? Blaine must have seen it too because he immediately backpedaled. "Or I could just get a job somewhere else to help out."

"Blaine, no. All you have to do is help around the house like Finn and Kurt, okay." Carole said while patting Blaine's shoulder. His own son was focusing on the plate in front of him again.

He was on his way to bed when he heard raised voices coming from Kurt's bedroom. He didn't mean to eavesdrop but there were clear rules against shutting bedroom doors and he just wanted to tell them that the closed door was unacceptable. When he got closer he could hear Kurt and Blaine arguing. He couldn't really hear what was being said, but his son sounded upset.

He'd expected some fighting but not from those two and he didn't want their first night together to end in a fight. He didn't want to send Blaine back to Elisabeth's house, because Carole would be against it, but if the boys were fighting already he might not have another choice.

He opened the door without knocking, it was his house after all, and saw Blaine sitting on Kurt's bed while Kurt stood in front of him his hands balled into fists. "Break it up, other people live here too. And if I catch you with the door closed again, you can forget being in each other's bedrooms in the future." Kurt glared at him, but Blaine immediately stood up and nodded, before wishing Kurt a good night and telling him they'd talk in the morning.

Kurt was still standing in front of the bed staring at the space Blaine had just occupied. "What's up with you two?" Burt asked. He had promised Carole to try harder with Kurt after all. "None of your business," Kurt shot back. "Okay, okay." He raised his arms in surrender. "But if you … ah … need to talk, you can. I mean I don't know anything about gay relationships, but, ah, yeah."

Why did his son suddenly look even angrier? He was doing his best here, even going as far as trying to be supportive of their relationship. "It's a relationship. My relationships aren't any different than those of my friends. I know I'm gay. Doesn't mean you have to call everything I do gay."

Burt didn't understand all that. Carole had told him that saying gay was okay, but not the other words he had used to describe his son. And now his son told him, he couldn't say that either. His head hurt and he had a long day of work ahead of him. He told Kurt to go to bed and went to his own bedroom. Carole was sitting up in bed reading a book when he entered.

"What's going on? I thought I heard shouting," she asked. "Kurt and Blaine were arguing, but I don't know about what because Kurt wouldn't tell me. And then he said some other stuff I didn't understand either. How do you do it? How do you make sense of what they're saying?" Carole put her book away looking smug. "It's a mother's gift. But seriously, that's why I want us to go the a PFLAG meeting. Maybe you'll get your answers there."

Burt certainly hoped so, because right now he felt like living with an alien and even if Kurt made good on his threat to move out after he turned eighteen, they would still have another seven month together. Maybe it was time to swallow his pride and ask for help after all.