# Blaine
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"Blaine?" His mother poked her head into his room and found him still sitting on his bed holding his two favorite bowties in his hands. "Come on honey, we'll be late for school!" She said, walking back to the kitchen and closing the door behind her.  It was Blaine's first day of school and he couldn’t decide which bowtie he wanted to wear. Kurt suggested the green one while Dave looked unimpressed by both and thought that going without would be better before dragging them to the neighborhood playground. Blaine knew deep inside that his concern wasn’t entirely about choosing the wrong color of bowtie but he preferred to concentrate on that subject for as long as he could.

Ten minutes later he was seated at  the kitchen table wearing the brand new clothes his parents bought him, a white button up shirt and dark pants that he had to fold at the bottom because they were slightly too long. He completed the outfit with a dark green polka dot bowtie.

"You look lovely sweetheart," his mother smiled, straightening up his tie and pushing a few stray curls away from his face.

Blaine just kept his eyes on his plate, shoving his sunny side egg from one side of the plate to the other, mostly looking uninterested.

"Do you feel nervous Blainey?" She sat in front of him, pouring orange juice to their glasses.

Blaine shook his head, still looking at his plate. His mother leaned towards him and raised his head, kissing his forehead. "Today is going to be great. I promise you, love." 

"I just wish that Dave and Kurt could be there as well." Blaine finally said, pouting and tugging nervously at his sleeves.

"You know that they need to go back to preschool today," she said calmly. "But you will see them this afternoon and you will get to tell them all about the new things you've learned and the new people you’ve met." Blaine nodded and wiped his eyes with his sleeves.
"Oh honey," his mother exhaled and grabbed him to a tight hug.

That afternoon he met Dave and Kurt and just as his mother promised, he did have a lot of things to share with them about his first day. They had began hanging out at the park during the second week of summer when boredom had hit. It was perfectly located midway between the neighborhood Dave and Kurt lived in, and Port place, his neighborhood.

The boys, accompanied with Rachel, stood in a circle on the grass and tossed a bright pink ball, Rachel brought with her, between them.

"You must tell us everything!" Rachel clapped her hands excitedly and missed her turn to catch the ball, sending an apologetic look to Dave.

Blaine wasn’t sure what to say to them. There were a lot more kids in every class and there was almost no free time but he didn’t want to complain because he was mature now and older kids don’t really need as many breaks anymore and although it was different from preschool, he really did have a good time on his first day.

"We had some classes already! We've got lots of subjects to learn every day. Tomorrow is our first biology class and someone said that at the end of the year they will take us on a field trip to the zoo." The other three looked at him in awe. "Yeah… It's going to be awesome," Blaine finished with a nod and bright smile.

Rachel was the first to recover. "Are there any cute boys there?" She asked excitedly. The three boys answered with disgusted grunts. They were still in the age that boys thought girls had cooties while the girls simply found the boys to be disgusting creatures. These rules however, did not apply to Rachel Berry. Blaine knew that one day he'd find girls attractive but he was pretty sure that that day wouldn’t come anytime soon.

"Do you have music class?" Kurt asked, ignoring the pout on Rachel's face.

Blaine shook his head. "No… But we have sport teams." That met Dave’s approval and  Blaine nodded happily at him and added, "I think I'll join the basketball team."

Kurt looked puzzled at that. "But… you're so short." Dave and Rachel chocked a laugh under their breaths. Blaine knew he was shorter than most of the kids in his age group but his father said he could be great, just like Muggsy, whoever he was, and he really wanted to make his parents proud.

"Yes… But I'm the quickest," Blaine said triumphantly, not entirely accidentally throwing the ball to Kurt a little higher than necessary.

"You must invite us to your first game!" Dave said excitedly as he ran to grab the ball.

Kurt nodded agreeably but Rachel looked less excited. "How long is a game of basketball?" she quietly asked Dave who stood beside her.

"About an hour."

She seemed to consider it for a second and then nodded as well. "There might be cute boys there…" she said mostly to herself but it still triggered another round of grunts from the three boys.

Blaine grew to love school. He enjoyed most of the classes and met lots of new kids that he quickly became good friends with but his favorite time of the week was still the days that he got to meet his two best friends at the playground. He loved being the grown up. He tried to remember interesting things he learned in school so he could tell them later, sometimes playing 'class' and imitating things his teachers did.

The first time Blaine didn’t like being grown up was on the last day of summer that year.
The boys discovered that afternoon that their parents decided on doing a picnic together. It was the first time that all their parents had joined them at the park. They sat together comfortably ‎, each boy by his parents’ side, eating cold fruits that were perfect for the hot weather and talking about all the things they managed to do during the summer. Blaine held his mother’s hand and she sent him a warm smile in return. An hour later the boys went to the playground nearby. The school year started the next day and would be the first year for the two younger boys. They were very excited, trying to imagine what their teacher would be like and what subjects they'll learn. After a while Blaine turned around looking for his mother when he noticed that the parents were discussing something. Even from a far he could see the serious tone of speech and he suddenly felt tense. He rushed to his parents’ side noticing that their conversation came to a halt. They seemed sad and kept looking alarming at each other.

"Is everything okay?" Blaine asked quietly when he reached his mother’s side.

"Yeah honey!" She smiled at him and patted his hand. Blaine could tell that something was still bothering her though. "Go back and play," she nodded reassuringly at him.

He got back to the sand box, knowing that the other boys hadn’t noticed anything and wasn’t sure himself what he had picked up on back there but he knew that at that moment, he preferred the unawareness over the uncomfortable ‎feeling that settled at the back of his mind.

 A few weeks into his second school year, Blaine still hadn’t seen his best friends since the last time they said their goodbyes at the park. He sat at dinner table, telling his parents about the day he had at school and finishing with the same question he asked them every day that they deliberately avoided answering each time.

"Dad, when’s Kurt's mother coming to pick me up for the park this week?" He looked down at his plate, moving beans from one side to the other.

"Umm…" Blaine raised his head, catching his father’s worried look which turned quickly into a sad smile.

"Blaine," his father took his hand in his own, looking comforting at him. "Dave and Kurt can no longer meet you at the park in the afternoons."

"What? Why?" Blaine asked rashly, removing his hand from his hold.

"They are going to be too busy with school," his mother offered.

Blaine shook his head, feeling unshed tears on his eyes and his throat clenching in panic.

"Blainey," his father reached for his hand again. "Do you remember we told you about the laborers and the SOGs?" He continued without waiting for an answer. "There's a reason SOGs and laborers go to different schools.
Since Dave and Kurt are now considered grown SOGs, they are not allowed to be in friendly contact with laborers anymore. It's against the law."

Blaine wasn’t sure that he understood what his father said to him. Tears were now streaming down his face and his eyes unfocused.

"I know that they were good friends of yours, honey," his mother said as she patted his back.

Her words made him feel even worse. He wanted to correct her, tell her that they are his best friends, not were. After a few quiet minutes he finally spoke. "Can I say goodbye to them?"

His mother shook her head slowly but his father suddenly sat straighter in his chair, looking like he was considering something.

"You can… Write them a letter," he said, still sounding unsure of himself.

"I can?" Blaine said, his voice hoarse from crying, looking hopefully at his father.

"Yes," he said, more confident. "Write them letters and I'll send it to them."

Although it wasn’t exactly what Blaine wanted, it still made him feel much better and by the time the tears stopped falling down his face he already had a plan.

That night, Blaine started to write them the letters, keeping in mind that their first grade vocabulary was a little more limited than his. The first letter he wrote to Dave, telling him about his first game of basketball of the season and his new class subjects that he knew Dave would like to hear about. In the letter to Kurt, he told him about the new people he met in his new classes. He finished both letters with two sentences about what his parents told him and asked them to meet him in the park in a week's time. He wasn’t sure how he would get there or even convince his parents to let him leave the house but he knew he had to try, hoping for a chance to see his friends once again.