Chapter 2: Back to School

Kurt

Kurt hadn't been exactly dreading the first day of the new school year, because if you had no expectations you couldn't be disappointed. He knew it would be more of the same – dumpster tosses, slushies, locker shoves, getting locked into janitor's closets – you name it and it had probably been done to him. Unfortunately for him some of his tormentors looked even bigger when he returned to school in the fall and Kurt knew he would have another hard year in front of him, but another one that would bring him closer to getting out of Lima.

He didn't even make it inside the school before a big arm yanked him back and pulled him over to the dumpsters. To his surprise Mohawk boy and his friend weren't standing with the football team anymore, and Kurt briefly wondered what made them stop joining in on the 'fun'. Kurt shuddered when he felt Karofsky's hands on his body as he was lifted off the ground and thrown into the dumpster.

He groaned as he hit the ground hard, the dumpsters still being practically empty the first day of school, and heard the jocks laugh about him outside. "Welcome back, fag," someone yelled, and Kurt thought it sounded like Karofsky, hating that the jock was running around throwing insults and punches when he wasn't any better than Kurt.

He waited his usual five minutes to make sure the football team was gone before starting to climb out of the dumpster. He had gotten better at it over the year, but could still remember the day it had first happened his freshman year. He had slipped multiple times while trying to climb out and got rescued by the lunch lady who as soon as he was out had started yelling at him for stealing their food.

Climbing out too soon only got you pushed down again and you definitely didn't want that when the dumpster was empty. This particular school property had caused him more sprained wrists and ankles than his father over the years. Staying in too long meant you wouldn't be able to get rid of the smell without a shower and the locker room was the last place Kurt ever wanted to take a shower in. He didn't have to attend P.E because his parents were afraid someone would see the bruises and had given him a fake doctor's note, but at least that meant he really had no business in the locker room.

Before the second bell rang, Kurt quickly ducked into an empty girls' bathroom and changed his clothes, putting the first set into a plastic bag. As long as he got home straight after school, he would be able to wash them before his mom could see, because she always went over to a friend's house in the afternoon.

Satisfied with his outfit, not that is was more than jeans and a t-shirt, he walked over to the principle's office to collect his new class schedule, hoping he wouldn't have to share any classes with the Neanderthals at the school. For once someone must have listened to his prayers because most of his classes were A.P classes and the others weren't classes you typically found jocks in.

He was on his way to his first class, trying to dodge anyone who could cause him harm, when he heard his name called out and a girl with brown hair and a hideous sweater stopped him in the middle of the hallway, either not knowing that you didn't talk to the school freak in public or not caring and Kurt honestly hoped the second, though Rachel could get on ones nerves.

"Wait up, Kurt," she called out and Kurt grabbed her hand to pull her into the bathroom he had just exited a few minutes earlier.

"Do you have a death wish? You can't be seen with me," Kurt glared at her but Rachel just laughed.

"You might be an even bigger drama queen then I am," she joked but Kurt didn't have time for that. He needed to get to class because good grades were the only way to keep his parents of his back and his way out.

"What do you want?" He knew he should probably be nicer to the only person who had been trying to talk to him for the past to years, but he couldn't believe she didn't have a hidden agenda and if he hadn't seen the pictures he would have believed she made up the stories about the two dads to get him to talk to her.

"I just wanted to invite you to our performance in the cafeteria today. Maybe if you see how good we have gotten you'll change your mind and reconsider joining," she told him and Kurt sighed. It wasn't like he didn't want to join, had actually wanted to since the new club had been founded, but singing was not an acceptable hobby in the Anderson household.

Rachel had caught him 'spying' on Glee practice a few weeks after New Directions had been founded and at first he had gotten away with telling her that he wanted to join but sucked badly. Unfortunately he had given into the pull of the music one day and had snuck into the empty auditorium where he sang 'Rose's turn' which was met with applause from none other than Rachel who had followed him into the auditorium when he was done.

He had been busted and so he had just told her that he had other things to do, more important things, but Rachel had been trying to get him into Glee ever since.

"I'm sure you are going to be great and also covered in food, but I can't sorry," he told her before ducking out of the bathroom and heading to his first class before she could catch him and tell him again how important it was for her future career to have a gay best friend. Kurt didn't do friends anymore, let alone best friends, and so he always tried to stay clear of Rachel.

When he finally got to his homeroom, his teacher glared at him and Kurt rushed to the back, trying to keep his head down like he always did when he had to share a room with the McKinley sports population. When he passed Karofsky on his way, he felt the hair on his arms stand up and he shuddered when he realized where Karofsky's gaze was fixed on his body. He had been lucky a few months back that school was nearly over and Karofsky had kept his distance for a bit after the forced kiss in the locker room, but it seemed like Karofky was amping it up now, even going as far as leering at him in public.

Why couldn't a nice boy like him? It had to been his chief tormentor who seemed to be into him, unless that was a new strategy by the football team. He had no idea what they would gain from that, but at this school everything was possible. At least Karofsky and most of the other morons would graduate this year – well if they actually managed to do it. He was all for making them suffer through the humiliation of being held back, but if it meant getting rid of them, he'd gladly tutor them himself.

By the time his French class came around he was in his third outfit of the day, one that fit the worst because he didn't have time yet to alter it, not that it mattered at all what he wore. Regardless of whether it was nice looking jeans he had managed to find in the local second hand shop or rags he'd been wearing for years, he was always the school freak.

He was in his own world as soon as he sat down, tuning out the incessant chatter of the other students as he read through the list of books required this year, going through a list of bookstores that might have them used. Up front, Mrs. Moreaux was introducing a new student and when Kurt looked up his breath caught in his throat.

The boy was gorgeous and Kurt forced himself to look away immediately lest he'd be caught staring. Boys usually didn't appreciate getting checked out by other boys and Kurt always did his best not to look at other boys. Not that there were any who would have reciprocated or that Kurt wanted to.

For a moment Kurt thought he had seen him before, but he shook it off. The boy looked confident, unafraid to face the McKinley student body, and Kurt was sure he would have remembered him, had they met before.

He tried to concentrate on the lesson then, mentally cursing himself for not having caught the new boy's name, but he caught himself staring a few more times. At one time their eyes met and it was as if there was a flicker of recognition in the other boy's eyes, but Kurt quickly looked away and hid under the bangs that were falling into his eyes again.

He couldn't get a crush on the boy, because if he couldn't really bring friends or regular students back to his house, he sure as hell couldn't hang out with a boy he found remotely attractive. He was supposed to keep his depravity out of the house and Kurt was not keen on finding out what would happen if he went against his dad's rules.

Blaine

Blaine was fucking nervous on his way to McKinley because his last experiences in a Lima public school hadn't been exactly pleasant. But he had decided to face his fears headfirst, so here he was, sitting in the new Navigator his dad had given him for his sixteenth birthday a few months back, staring at the front entrance as if that alone would get him going.

To his right a bunch of football players were congregating around a dumpster and Blaine looked at them in distain, because seriously that's where they hang out? Girls in short skirts were milling around as well, but Blaine didn't really care about them. He knew chances were slim that there were any other out gay students but maybe he'd get lucky this year and meet someone he could actually imagine dating.

No one stopped him on his way inside luckily or called him any names and he made his way to the principle's office unharmed, having to ask for the way only twice. Thanks to Dalton's curriculum Blaine ended up in only A.P classes, but he was sure they wouldn't be as hard as classes at Dalton.

On his way to his homeroom, he passes a board in the hallway where various clubs were advertising. Blaine stepped closer looking at the different sign up sheets. The one for the cheerleaders was already three pages long and the one for the football team wasn't much shorter.

"You're looking to try out for the team?" a voice asked behind him and Blaine spun around coming face to face with a big woman.

"Excuse me?" he asked confusedly. "We're looking for a new kicker and you seem to be the right size. Got any talent?" Blaine nodded dumbly. Dalton hadn't had an official football team, but he had played often with friends who had played in schools before.

"Great. Four pm sharp in the locker room," what Blaine assumed was the football coach told him before approaching a student who had just pushed another student's books to the floor. The student ran off when he saw her and Blaine wondered if public schools were finally starting to do something about bullies.

As expected his classes were fairly easy that morning, but Blaine was intrigued by the sad looking boy in the too big clothes who was in all of them as well. He reminded him of someone he used to know, but he brushed it off. He was sure he would still be able to recognize his former best friend, so it couldn't be Kurt. Kurt's eyes would never look this dead. He caught the boy staring at him a few times, but when Blaine tried to smile at him he immediately turned away.

Lunch was interesting to say the least. The school's Glee club suddenly took over the cafeteria and started performing on the tables. Blaine was mouthing the lyrics along with the song, set on talking to someone from the club after the performance about joining.

He was lucky to escape the cafeteria with only a few splashes of tomato juice on his arm, and followed the members of the club who were wearing what had been on the menu that day. Half an hour later, after a rousing rendition of his favorite song 'Teenage Dream', Blaine was officially a member of New Directions and possible competition of his former Glee club.

"You and I, we are going to make excellent duet partners," the girl who had introduced herself as the lead of New Directions told him. "Do you have a girlfriend? I know we just met, but if you are single and I am single then I think we should get together because our music could surely benefit from such a union."

Blaine just stared at her not knowing what to say. Was she serious?

"Back off Berry, he is obviously out of your league", a dark haired girl came up to him and ran her hand up his arm suggestively. "If you want to join Brit and I for some fun, let me know. I'm Santana. So you know whose name to scream."

Blaine blushed furiously before shaking off her hand. "I'm sorry," he mumbled, "but I don't play for your team," he added hoping their reaction wouldn't be bad.

The Latina just shrugged before linking pinkies with a blond girl, Blaine assumed was Brit. "Your loss," she told him before walking off. Blaine looked at Rachel but she looked more excited than disappointed.

"That's great. I've always wanted to have a gay best friend and you can be that now. We can go shopping and have sleep overs," she prattled on and Blaine didn't have the heart to tell her that shopping wasn't really his thing and he didn't know anything about sleepovers with girls after spending two years in an all boys school and never having spent much time with them in the past. So he let her go on, occasionally nodding, just glad her reaction was what it was.

Shortly before four pm he followed some of his new glee mates to the locker room as there was apparently a lot of crossover between Glee and football at this school. Not many students had shown up for the kicker position and Blaine was confident that he had a shot.

Just as he was about to head back to the locker room to shower and change, coach Beiste stopped him, clapping him on the back and announcing him the new kicker. After many high fives with students, Blaine was sure wouldn't even want to be around him if they knew he liked guys, Blaine finally returned to the locker room.

"I heard you turned down Lopez today?" one of the players asked him as he was pulling his t-shirt back over his head. "How come? Don't tell me you have someone hotter." Before he could answer, Puck did it for him. "Anderson's into dudes."

Blaine froze, trying to keep the memories away from the last time some jocks had found out about him. To his utter confusion the jock shrugged. "Keep your eyes to yourself and don't screw up on the game. But if we lose it's open season, got it?"

Blaine nodded frantically, immediately turning back to his own locker, determined not to look at anyone until he was done. Suddenly an arm was around his shoulder. "That wasn't like a secret was it?" Puck asked. "Because if it was I'm sorry dude. I don't care who you screw as long as you get laid," he added and Blaine tentatively bumped his fist against Puck's offered one.

"Cool," he said, not knowing what else to say. Maybe public school wasn't so bad anymore.

xXx

The week flew by after that with football practice and Glee and Blaine couldn't believe that he was suddenly popular even though it had spread like wildfire that he was gay. Girls wanted his advice about boys and boys thought that he had some secret knowledge about girls and those who might have had a problem with him didn't dare do or say anything while he was under coach Beiste's protection.

He was glad that his classes weren't too hard now that his afternoons were filled with afterschool activities and helping his dad get the shop he bought running.

He had tried to catch the sad looking boy's eyes again, but he was always the last to get in and the first to leave and when he was in class he kept his head down. The girl he was sitting next to couldn't give him a name but told him that no one ever really talked to him, because he would just ignore you or say something mean about your clothes if you said something that wasn't related to what they were doing in class. He apparently always worked on group projects alone as well, convincing his teachers to let whoever got partnered with him to switch.

Blaine was intrigued, but had no idea how to approach him. He didn't think his clothes were worth mocking, unless the preppy look was something bad, but he still didn't want to be on the boy's bad side.

Apparently someone in the universe was on his side when Mrs. Moreaux announced a group project at the beginning of his second week at McKinley, saying she would partner them up with the people who sat next to them. A girl from his A.P English class usually sat between him and mystery boy, but she hadn't been in class this morning and Blaine was hoping she wouldn't come to this class either.

Finally, Mrs. Moreaux started to call out names, but stopped briefly when she reached Blaine. "I see Ms. Slater is absent today," she observed before she turned her head to sad boy, who seemed to tense under her stare.

"Let's give this another try then, Mr. Anderson. I want you and Blaine Hummel to do this group project together and when I say together I mean together. Are we clear?"

Blaine wasn't listening to Mrs. Moreaux any longer because as soon as he had heard the name Anderson, his heart started to beat faster.

Two pair of eyes met over an empty table and widened in recognition, before one of them abruptly turned away and its owner ran out of the class room. Blaine remained frozen in his seat as he watched the pair of eyes disappear he hadn't seen in seven years.

Up Next: How will the boys react to suddenly being in one another's lives again.