For most kids, the beginning of a school year was another chance to find a better spot on the food chain. It was a chance to start over and forget what happened the year before. It was a chance to show that you changed over the summer and deserve to fit in.

For Kurt Hummel, it meant nothing but trouble.

As he sprayed the last piece of hair into place, a soft knock came on the bedroom door. "Come in," he called, as he continued to make sure his hair looked perfect.

His father, Burt Hummel, stuck his head through the door and said, "are you about ready to go? Finn's downstairs waiting. He said he wanted to leave a little early to pick up Rachel."

He rolled his eyes at this. If Rachel was going with them, it meant that he had to spend the entire car ride listening to her talk. She'd either discuss the new songs she wanted to sing for glee club that year, or how she was sure her and Finn's relationship reached a new level over the summer. it made Kurt flinch just thinking about it. He said, "I'll be down in a minute."

Burt nodded, "unless you'd rather have a ride from me on my way into the shop."

Standing up, Kurt moved across the room and picked up his bag. "No, that's okay, dad. it's only a couple weeks, before my car gets fixed, right? I can handle Rachel's insanity until then."

Truthfully, he didn't want Burt to take him, because he was positive someone would be there to throw a slushie in his face the moment he got out of the car. Burt had dealt with enough anxiety from Kurt's bullies. He didn't need to get that stressed about it the first day.

"Okay, call me if you want a ride home, alright?" Burt told him. He didn't sound convinced, but they trusted each other. If Kurt said he was fine, his father did his best to believe he was right. He went to shut the door, before he swung it open again and said, "and Kurt?"

Kurt stopped to look at his father, "yeah?"

Stepping into the room, Burt stopped in front of him and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Have a good first day, okay? You're better than all of them."

Kurt looked into his eyes and saw nothing but worry. He wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was concerned for Kurt, which made his stomach ache. He couldn't do this to his father, not after everything that happened the previous year. He had to put on a brave face, and show his dad that he wasn't just as worried about the bullies at school.

Giving Burt a weak smile, he said, "I'll be fine, dad."

After fidgeting with the combination on his locker for five minutes, Blaine Anderson let out an exasperated sigh and placed his forehead against the cool metal. This was beyond frustrating. Why couldn't he open the stupid door? He didn't want to carry all of his books around the entire day. Pulling his backpack off of his aching shoulders, he reached inside to look for his cell phone.

A sudden weight crashed into his side and he was shoved against the locker. His bag was knocked from his hand and a tall, large boy stood in front of him. He leaned into Blaine, pressing his shoulder into the locker. Glaring at him, he said harshly, "Welcome to Mckinley, new kid. I'd slushie you, but I haven't made my rounds yet. Fair warning." He took off, laughing.

A few people nearby stared at him and Blaine felt his cheeks burning. He continued to watch the boy, until he joined three other jocks a ways down the hall, before he turned away and reached for his bag, tossing it over his shoulder again.

He glanced down at his watch and decided to make a quick dash for his car to get his phone. He had a couple minutes until class started.

When he reached his car, he flung the door open and searched for his phone. He knew it had to be in there, he had just talked to his mother before he arrived that morning. After he hung up from her, he put it on the seat.

The bell rang as a warning, and Blaine decided he would have to find it later. He went to shut the door, when he spotted it on the floor in front of the passenger seat.

Once he retrieved it, he went back toward the school, before he noticed, not only the jock that had slammed him into the locker, but the other guys he had met up with. They were standing in the front entrance to the school, which made Blaine stop in his tracks.. He wasn't sure what to do. He could either face them and hope nothing happened, wait for them to head to class and risk being late, or...

His eyes darted to the corner of the building. 

Quickly running, Blaine sprinted for the back entrance. It was the only way he could get there without being late.

That is, until he heard a loud thumping sound that came from his left. He stopped, resting his hand on the side of the building and listened. 

Someone was talking. "can't believe I didn't bring an extra one... So stupid..." A loud bang came after that. "Ow. Shit."

Blaine turned in that direction and saw a light brown bag being tossed from inside the dumpster. It hit the ground and Blaine just stared at it for a moment. A pair of hands popped up on the top of the dumpster. A second later a boy's head appeared and he pulled himself into a seated position. He stopped then, eyes locked on Blaine.

They stared at each other for a long moment. The boy's bright blue eyes were wide and full of fear. The corners of his mouth were turned down, and he just wouldn't stop staring at Blaine. He seemed hesitant about doing anything, before he shook his head and swung a leg over the side of the dumpster.

He didn't know what caused him to do it, but Blaine left his bag by the wall, ran forward and extended a hand to him. "Let me help you," he said softly.

The boy's eyes narrowed, as he examined Blaine's outstretched hand. "i don't need your help," he said shortly, his voice cracking..

The final bell rang and Blaine groaned. Perfect, he was late. He turned his attention back to the boy in the dumpster, "look we're already late, you might as well take my hand."

Again the boy hesitated, before he swung his other leg around the edge, so that he was seated properly. He took both of his hands in Blaine's and let Blaine slow the jump he made. Brushing off his white, tight pants, he muttered, "thanks, I guess." He picked up his bag and made his way toward the back entrance, nose in the air.

"Sure thing," Blaine said, grabbing his bag off the ground as well.

"What were you doing back here anyway?" the boy asked, pushing the door open and holding it for Blaine.

Slipping by him, Blaine replied, "ah, avoiding the idiots in the front of the school. I've dealt with bullies enough to know when I should avoid them."

Raising his thin eyebrows, he said, "if you're new here, which i'm assuming, since i've never seen you before, you're smart. It usually takes people a while to figure that out,"

Blaine glanced at him, aware that the boy was watching him, "I am, and I only figured it out because one of them already shoved me against a locker today. He wanted to welcome me here." He paused, noticing the boy wasn't next to him anymore. He had started turning one of the locks on what Blaine assumed was his locker. He walked over to him and leaned against the set of lockers next to him. Blaine watched him for a moment, catching the pained look in his pretty eyes. "Are you okay, by the way?"

Swinging the locker door open, he said, "oh, i'm fine. Quite used to it, really. I'm just angry with myself for leaving my extra set of clothes at home. Fair warning, if you don't plan on joining the football team, just bring an extra pair of clothes. You're lucky a shove into a locker was all you got this morning. Next time expect a slushie."

Watching the boy pull books from his locker, Blaine said, "So, he was serious about that? Um, thanks for the heads up."

Shutting the door, he hugged his books close to his chest, and told him, "I'm Kurt."

Extending a hand, he replied, "Blaine." 

With a small smile, Kurt awkwardly shook Blaine's hand, while he clung to his books, "well, Blaine, I believe you're really late to your first class. I guess I should also warn you that the teachers don't really like that here."

Tearing his own eyes away fron Kurt's, Blaine realized he was right. "I almost forgot... I guess I'll see you later?" He took off down the hallway, ignoring the fact that he still hadn't even gotten into his locker yet. And totally oblivous to the blue-eyed boy watching him run to his first class, a smile on his lips.

Kurt watched as Blaine made his way across the lunch room to an empty table. He felt kind of bad that he had to sit by himself. kurt knew all too well what that felt like, but he didn't know how weird Blaine would feel if he asked him to sit with him. After all, he only knew Blaine because he had pulled him out of a dumpster.

There was just something about his gorgeous, hazel eyes that made Kurt glad that Blaine had been there to pull him out, even though Kurt hated when someone tried helping him.

"Hello?" Rachel snapped her fingers in his face. "Are you even listening to me?"

"What?" he looked around, pulling himself from his thoughts. He looked over at Rachel, who was scowling at him. "I'm sorry, Rach. What did you say?".

Rachel sat back, tossing her long, brown hair over her shoulder. She folded her hands, "I said, we need to start thinking of song choices. Just because we won Nationals last year, doesn't mean we need to slack off until right before Sectionals. I'm prepared to confront Mr. Schue with a list of songs we should start working on now."

Mercedes groaned next to Kurt. "Rachel, give it a rest. You've been on this all summer, right? We have more than enough time to discuss songs, and we can do it when the whole glee club is together."

Kurt motioned towards Mercedes, "exactly. That'll give you more time to find a sweater that doesn't have a creepy animal on it," he smiled.

Rachel narrowed her eyebrows at him, as she crossed her arms over her chest, hiding the horses on her sweater. "If you're not going to take this seriously-" 

"We're not," Mercedes informed her.

Rachel waved her hand and started rambling on. Thankfully, Tina was listening so that Kurt didn't have to.

His eyes darted back to the table Blaine was sitting at. He watched as Blaine pushed his food around his tray lazily, not really bothering to eat it. His left hand was resting under his chin, and he kept his head down. he looked so out of place and alone.  It left an ache in Kurt's chest, thinking about the days he had done the same thing. The only difference was that Kurt never would have bothered rescuing anyone else from the dumpster, because he was afraid of getting tossed in himself.

He was so curious to know why Blaine bothered to help him. No one had ever done a thing like that for him before. Well, except for his step-brother, Finn, who once dressed up like Lady Gaga to protect him. So why did Blaine do it? He didn't even know Kurt. Blaine, at least, must have known that someone tossed him in there. Surely, he didn't think Kurt had climbed in there by himself.

"What are you looking at?" a deep, familiar voice said behind him, making Kurt shiver. He knew that voice too well, and every time he heard it, it sent chills up his spine.

Kurt turned his head to see David karofsky standing behind him, slushie in hand.  "Not trying to find a way to spread your lady germs across my cafeteria, are you?"

"oh, is it yours now? If I had known that, I wouldn't have even bothered being in such a filthy place," Kurt said and turned away from him. He could sit there and make remarks at Karofsky all day, but his new jeans and vest were already a mess, and Kurt didn't want to damage any more of his outfit.

Kurt didn't usually hate people, but he wasn't very fond of David. Last year, David had cornered him and kissed him. He then threatened to kill Kurt if he told anyone. Kurt stuck to his word and didn't say anything, not even to his father, but the bullying had only gotten worse since, and Kurt knew he was in for a rough year,

"It's only horrible when you're here," David smirked, high-fiving the jock next to him. He took the slushie he was holding and dumped it over Kurt's head. He let out a cold, hard laugh. "Here's to another year, Lady Hummel."

Kurt's jaw dropped and he felt anger running through his entire body, his heart beating quickly in his chest. He was already so fed up with David's games, and it was only day one. "What the hell was that for?" he shouted, jumping up from his seat to face David.

The room seemed unusually quiet, but Kurt didn't care if the entire school saw this. David didn't seem to care either, because he smirked and said, "I was hoping to drown your awful lady hair. Seriously, no one's hair should stand that tall on their head."

Mercedes jumped up and grabbed Kurt's arm, just as he moved toward David.  She mumbled, "he's not worh it." Then spoke louder for the jocks standing around them to hear, "get out of here, asshole, before I dump something on your nasty head." She grabbed Kurt's hand and pulled him out of the cafeteria, "come on, baby, let's get you cleaned up."

"You look terrible," Blaine heard a girl next to him say, as Kurt walked in to his final class that day.

She was right. Kurt's hair now stuck to his head. The hair style he had that morning was now flat, and Blaine felt bad, because his hair looked like it took at least an hour to do. His clothes were stained, partly from the dumpster, partly from the slushie incident everyone had seen at lunch. He looked miserable, and Blaine felt uneasy.

Did stuff like that really happen every day here? Would he be the next victim?

He gripped his pen tightlly, as Kurt flopped in the seat in front of her and said, "i don't even want to talk about it, Tina. I'm cold and sticky, I look horrible, and I don't have a single thing to change into. I don't know what I was thinking when I left the house this morning."

She sat forward in her seat, eyes full of concern, "are you okay? I'd let you borrow something, but the extra outfit I brought might draw too much attention."

He turned to face her and said weakly, "i'm fine."  His eyes shifted in Blaine's direction. His eyebrows furrowed and Blaine quickly looked down at his desk. "What?" Kurt asked, sounding irritated.

"i..." Blaine paused. "Nothing." He didn't even know Kurt. He had to stop acting like he was so ciurious. He had a hard enough time avoiding Kurt's eyes at lunch, when Kurt caught him staring at him more than once. he couldn't help it, he just wanted to know more about Kurt. Why was he getting tossed in dumpsters and slushied over the head? What had he done that the jocks disliked so much, when they probably hadn't seen him since last school year?

And how long would it be, before they made Blaine a target?

Kurt looked back at Tina and said, "I'll need notes from our previous class, please. I wasn't there, because it took forever for Mercedes to get some of that junk out of my hair."

"Of course," she said. "I figured you would. I'll get them to you before you head home."

"i'll be here a while anyway... Finn wants to stay late, something about football." Kurt rolled his eyes, "and my car's still in the shop," Kurt made a sour face. "Unless I can get a ride, i'm stuck for a while."

Tina bit her lip, "I'd give you one, but I'm going over to Mike's house from here." She blushed.

"Do you, uh, want a ride?" Blaine asked, before he even realized the words were coming out of his mouth. Why did he ask that? He looked away almost immediately.

Tina and Kurt both just glared at him, before Kurt pulled himself together and said, "No, thanks... I think you've done enough for me today, Blaine." At first he just stared into Blaine's eyes and then he smiled, "but I appreciate the offer." He shifted in his seat, as he said, "I don't need you getting hit with a slushie on your way out. You've managed to avoid it for one day."

The small smile that played on Kurt's lips made Blaine's heart flip. His smile was so... so gorgeous. Blaine couldn't help but smile back. "Sure thing, dumpster boy."

Kurt's smile wavered for a moment before he blushed and turned around in his seat, just in time for the bell to ring.