Kurt gave himself a quick once over in the small mirror he had in his locker before closing it with a shaking hand. In less than ten minutes he would be auditioning for glee club, and he decided that if he was going to fail miserably he wanted to at least look good while he did it. Finn and Kurt had practiced for his audition until almost one in the morning, much to their parents displeasure, and though Kurt was sure he was up to par with the other members of the glee club, he was terrified that his raging nerves would get the best of him. Finn's coaching the night before had helped Kurt a great deal in understanding how his voice worked and what his strengths and weaknesses were. At first Finn had been wary of coaching him after he showed him the song he wanted to sing for his audition.

"Um, Kurt, you know a girl sings this song right?"

"Yes, and it's my favorite song, and I want to sing it."

It turned out that Kurt's high pitched voice complimented the female harmony of the song well. After a bit of practicing Finn assured Kurt that he was shoo in, as long as he didn't let his nerves get the best of him.

Kurt took a couple of deep breaths until he felt himself calming down, forced himself to smile, and began walking towards the choir room. He reached the empty room and looked over his surroundings in confusion. The usually packed and cheerful room was blanketed in darkness, resembling an eerie memory of what was once a room filled with joy. It made sense that the room was empty. Kurt had last period free that day, as he didn't have to take gym, and decided to stroll over to the choir room early to practice his audition piece one more time, for good measure. He shrugged off his messenger bag, which fell to the ground with a loud thunk , and switched on the lights. Kurt smiled at the brightly lit room, which had already begun to regain its cheerful atmosphere now that it wasn't consumed by darkness. His smile immediately fell when he felt a hand clamp around his wrist. His wrist was twisted behind his back as he was pushed up against the wall of the choir room. Kurt felt as thought it had heart had dropped into his stomach when Blaine's face suddenly came into view. He'd ran into Blaine in the hallways at least four times that day and Blaine hadn't so much as brushed shoulders with him.

Even at lunch, Kurt caught sight of Blaine and his pink haired companion walking towards the football field. Blaine had several opportunities to give him the beating he'd promised, but he hadn't even so much as glanced in Kurt's direction. Yet there he was, breathing and pressing Kurt against the wall of the choir room, prepared to beat him into a senseless oblivion. Kurt felt tears begin to well up in his eyes. He'd actually allowed himself to believe that he was safe. What a stupid, stupid thought, he said to himself. Blaine leaned in close to Kurt, their cheeks brushing slightly, Blaine's light stubble scratching the smooth skin of Kurt's cheek. Chills ran down Kurt's spine as he felt Blaine's hot breath against side of his neck, a valley of goose bumped flesh appearing as his breath glided across Kurt's chilled skin.

"Run," Blaine whispered. Kurt immediately obliged.

"I haven't seen you around all week. What's the matter, did your aunt force you to wear that electric shock collar she bought you last year?" Quinn Fabray linked her arm through Blaine's, pulling him towards the football field.

"Stop, Quinn, I have to go to lunch."

Quinn snorted before crossing her arms and standing in front of Blaine, blocking his path.

"Blaine, we haven't gone to a single lunch period this entire year. Now c'mon, some guy from the swim team got these wicked cigarettes that have color changing smoke. He's selling them under the bleachers, but only this period, so we have to get to them before he sells out."

"I-I can't, I'm on probation from Coach Beiste. If I get in trouble again I'm off the football team."

A devilish smirk played on Quinn's lips. She linked her petite hand through his and continued to pull him towards the football field.

"Stop worrying your pretty little head, Blainey, we can talk about this under the bleachers while puffing out multicolored smoke."

Blaine rolled his eyes as he begrudgingly allowed Quinn to pull him away from the cafeteria. He caught sight of Kurt watching them from a distance, his bright blue eyes wide with fear. A low growl emitted from the back of Blaine's throat as the lithe boy disappeared from his view. The thought of shoving his tiny body into one of the lockers in the football locker room had haunted him the entire morning, and the fact that he couldn't act on it made his blood boil. If it weren't for Kurt and his potato sack of a brother, Finn, he wouldn't be on probation in the first place and he could whatever he damn well pleased.

Blaine remained silent as Quinn led him to the crowded area under the bleachers, serving as her body guard of sorts as she bargained with the unfamiliar boy from the swim team for the cigarettes. After she threatened to cut off the boy's testicles while he slept he surrendered the cigarettes to her and ran back into the school at lightening speed. With a smile of triumph Quinn led Blaine to their usual spot on the grass of the empty football field. She lit one of the cigarettes, blew a cloud of blue smoke up to the sky and rested her head on Blaine's lap.

"So, tell me what's been bothering you, pretty boy?"

Blaine began to absentmindedly run his fingers through her pink hair as he looked up at the sky, taking note of the different forms and shapes the clouds took on.

"Hello, earth to Blaine." Quinn blew a ring of fresh smoke towards the sky once again, light wisps of the purple smoke tickling Blaine's chin.

"It's that stupid new kid?"

"The mute one?"

"Yeah, him. I sent him some stupid texts just to see if I could get a rise out of him, so he sent his brother to get up in my face, since he was too much of a punk to do it himself."

"So, just shove the new kid into a locker, kick him around a bit and give him a couple of good punches and he'll never come near you again."

"I can't because of that stupid fucking probation."

Quinn lifted her head from his lap and gave him a look of disapproval before speaking plainly, "Okay, we both know you don't give two shits about being on the football team, so why care about getting kicked off? Just show that freak not to mess with Blaine Anderson, and everyone'll be so terrified of you that no one will even care that you were kicked off the football team."

"But-"

Quinn placed a ring-adorned finger against Blaine's lips, blowing a light cloud of pink smoke in his face jokingly before continuing.

"Would you rather get kicked off the football team, or have everyone at McKinley know that Blaine Anderson is the mute kid's bitch?"

Blaine groaned, laying down on the grass of the field. He clenched his eyes shut as he pondered his options. In the end he knew there was only one real option. Quinn was right, fuck football.

Blaine released Kurt and allowed him to scrambled out of the room, watching as the terrified boy nearly tripped on his way out. As Kurt ran as fast as his tiny legs could carry him his father's voice began to ring in his ears.

"Remember, Kurt, under no circumstances are you to overexert yourself physically. It is very dangerous for you to do so in your condition. So please, please promise me you won't overexert yourself."

At that time Kurt had laughed off his father's grave warning, assuring him with a lighthearted smile that he was too lazy to ever have to worry about overexerting himself. Yet there he was, running faster than he'd ever ran before. His heart racing faster than he thought possible. His heart pounding impossibly loud in his ears, his vision blurring and his breath racing at an all time high.

He weaved his way through countless hallways, hoping to confuse Blaine enough so that he would give up his search for Kurt. He knew the chances of him escaping a beating from Blaine were slim to none, but he refused to go down without a fight. After a minute or so of what felt like endless running something changed. Kurt began to feel strange. His heart raced even faster, which he thought was physically impossible at that point. His mind raced until he found himself unable to process new thoughts, and then the walls around him began to melt into swirls of pale pastel colored waves. Everything around him began to slow down at an alarming rate until, suddenly, everything stopped. No more heart pounding, no more dizziness, no more distorted vision. Nothing. He felt nothing. And in that moment Kurt fell to the ground in a nearly lifeless heap, his father's warning becoming barely a whisper in the back of his mind.

Blaine felt the warmth of Kurt's body slide away from him as he began to run down the hallway. Blaine pressed his clenched fist against the wall, pressing down until his knuckles turned a sickly white color. He silently counted to ten before taking a deep breath and launching out of the room. He didn't know what direction Kurt had run off in, but he'd hunted down enough trembling prey in the pass to know that he probably hadn't made it very far. He was most likely trying to confuse him by turning at every possible corner, which would only lead him to run around the school in circles. It was the oldest trick in the "How to Get Away from a Blaine Anderson Beating" book. Blaine calmly began to sprint down the hallway, carefully choosing which corners to turn at until he soon caught sight of Kurt turning a corner a few feet away from him. Blaine went into full sped mode as he attempted to catch up to Kurt. He had almost reached him when Kurt suddenly stopped running, and in the blink of an eye, collapsed to the ground. Blaine immediately fell into a panic.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," he muttered under his breath.

The bell was going to ring in a matter of minutes, thus massive crowds of students would begin filing out of the classrooms and all they would see was Blaine standing beside the unconscious body of a student he was known for having a vendetta against. Blaine was 110% sure that if he didn't do something quick getting kicked off the football team for breaking his probation would be the least of his worries. He scooped Kurt's limp body into his arms, surprised at how unusually light he was, and began to frantically search for help. He was sure to check every couple of seconds that Kurt's chest continued to rise and fall with every shallow breath he took. Blaine silently prayed to a God that he didn't believe in that Kurt would be ok, because as much as he couldn't stand the kid, he refused to let him die. No one deserves to die this young, he thought to himself as he ran towards the principals office.