Chapter 1

Blaine hadn't wanted to move or leave his school but desperate times called for desperate measures his father had told him and they all had to make sacrifices now. Since his dad had been made redundant, he found himself moving to a smaller law firm in Lima and the whole family had moved too. Blaine had left his private school in Westerville Ohio, austere building, art adorning the grand rooms, to start at McKinley High in Lima, dank, grey and scary. He was appreciated at Dalton, understood and confident. He could be gay and it wouldn't make a difference – he was accepted and revered for his singing and leadership. They admired him.

He walked the corridors of McKinley High at the start of the new year and found he was ignored and not appreciated at all. Looking back he would much rather it had remained that way as he was greeted by purple ice to the face as he made his way to his first class.

"Welcome to McKinley, new kid!" Some jock shouted in his face as he walked away, a manic laugh greeting his ears and ice freezing his face. He had never wished for Dalton and his friends more.

As he attempted to scrape the ice from his face and check the damage to his clothes, he saw him, the blue eyed angel standing by his locker. He looked so sympathetic it almost made Blaine want to cry as he stood alone in the middle of the corridor. The blue eyed boy walked his way timidly and Blaine could see his lips moving before he registered he was talking softly.

"Are you ok?" The boy repeated and when he didn't get an answer, he led Blaine to the boy's toilets. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Blaine couldn't speak but feeling foolish for just watching this boy's chestnut hair, coiffed to perfection, his blue eyes so sincere and his tight black jeans, shaping his figure so perfectly, he decided to start helping himself. Blaine let the boy remove the larger chunks of purple slushie as Blaine tried to salvage his hair.

"Is this your first day?" The boy asked.

"Yes, I'm a junior I've just moved from Westerville."

"Oh right, I'm Kurt by the way," he said, extending his hand, "I'm a senior and unfortunately I have always been here." He shrugged and smiled, trying to make Blaine feel at ease.

They soon cleaned up Blaine as best they could, Blaine not having a new set of clothes. Purple stains still remained on his white collar but luckily couldn't be seen through his dark blue polo shirt. His favourite bow tie was ruined though, which caused a silly tear to appear in Blaine's eyes as he hastily wiped it away.

"I'd better get back to class, do you know where you're headed first?" Blaine nodded. "See you around then Blaine."

And with that he was off, leaving Blaine believing he had seen an angel.

xXx

Blaine spent the rest of the day trying to stay out of harm's way, trying to remain unnoticed which seemed to work. He managed to find most of his classes and seemed to understand the work he would need to do. Dalton had set him up well for learning he soon found out and here he would be able to take a step back from all the pressure and still be able to keep up. Although he knew where he was, could learn quite quickly how to get around, he felt incredibly lonely, no one really wanting to reach out to the new kid. He joined a few clubs in the hope he would make friends and on finding out there was a glee club he signed up straight away. He walked home that day, determined to make a go of things here but feeling a bit depressed that it hadn't happened so easily on its own.

As days wore on Blaine felt more settled. He joined the clubs, made a few friends in his lessons and learned well. As he was trying to remember his locker combination one morning he was greeted by a small dark haired girl in a pink dress and white long socks who had nearly pounced on him.

"Blaine Anderson, I understand?" She extended her hand, "I am Rachel Berry the lead singer in our Glee club. I understand you wish to join and I want to warn you that we intend to win nationals this year so you had better come prepared to audition, to really show us your talents. Competition will be fierce this year." And with that she stomped eagerly away down the corridor, Blaine not sure who he had just met but dread now starting to creep around in his stomach.

"Don't worry about her," said a voice behind him and on turning Blaine was greeted with those blue eyes again. "She's got far more of a bark than a bite, you just need to drown out her ramblings every so often and you'll fit right in."

"Ok," Blaine said, thinking about what song to choose.

"Are you planning to audition today?" Kurt asked.

"Yes but maybe I should leave it for a week…" Blaine whispered.

"No don't let Rachel worry you. Did you belong to the Glee club in your old school?"

"Yeah, the Dalton Academy Warblers – we were like rock stars!" Blaine smiled excitedly as he remembered all his friends.

"Well we're the lowest of the low at this school," Kurt smiled sadly, "But what would you have sung at your old school?"

"I've got a few songs up my sleeve but I don't know what would be best."

"I think a popular tune would be best or a song suited to your talents. Do you want to practice before you audition?"

"Yeah," Blaine said eagerly, "That would be really nice, thank you."

And practice they did as Kurt sat on a stool in the auditorium after he led Blaine to the stage. Blaine felt such a relief that he would have a friend in Glee club when he joined and he watched Kurt carefully as he sung, noticing his reaction to different song choices.

"I would definitely go with Teenage Dream, your first song, you were amazing."

"Thanks Kurt," he said as they made their way to the choir room.

And sing Blaine did. Rachel's gaping mouth and giggle once he had finished, told Blaine he would be accepted and a round of applause was greeted him as he sat amongst the others in the choir room. Kurt patted him on the shoulder affectionately as he sat above him, and Blaine started to feel accepted in his new school.

xXx

Blaine felt more settled in McKinley as the weeks wore on and was more accepted especially amongst the Glee club. He would sit with them at lunch and share food, he would walk to classes with them but he still felt lonely. He had best friends at Dalton, people constantly surrounded him, wanted his presence and his leadership skills. At McKinley he was a small fish in a big pond, no big fish here. He would see Tina, Artie, Mike, Brittany and Sam at the mall on the weekends but all of them were too worried about their own issues and love lives to care about Blaine's. No one took the time to get to know him, no one knew he was gay and no one asked. He suspected Kurt might be gay when he overheard him admiring Sam with Mercedes in the choir room and perhaps he could try to speak to him more often.

Kurt would often try to engage him in conversation but Blaine was so in awe of Kurt and his eyes that he could only stutter out short responses and Kurt ended up being more concerned about NYADA applications and trying to beat Rachel at becoming senior class president.

His mum inadvertently gave him his best idea that night at dinner. As they both waited for his father to arrive before they started dinner, Blaine's mum asked how school was getting on and if Blaine had made any friends.

"Yeah Glee club is excellent mum, they've made me feel really welcome, I just miss Dalton, it's not quite the same."

"Do you still keep in touch with that boy in Thailand, the one you wrote all those letters to? Maybe he might be someone you could confide in?"

"No mum, I lost his address and haven't written to him in months."

"Well I'm sure you'll make true best friends soon Blaine, these things take time."

"Yeah, I know mum, thanks."

Blaine started thinking about letter writing then. If he couldn't write to Annan in Thailand maybe he could write to someone else but secretly. No one need to know that he was writing letters, it was considered such a dorky thing to do he was sure to get extra slushies for it if anyone found out but he could write to someone, someone that might understand what it was like, someone perhaps like Kurt.

xXx

He wrote a letter that night, a short note explaining why he was writing and not speaking to Kurt and that he shouldn't try to work out who it was. He planned to slide it into his locker the following day, maybe really early or late so no one would see him. He wanted to be able to see Kurt's reaction but thought perhaps it would be better if he didn't give the game away.

Dear Kurt,

I hope you don't mind me writing to you. You always seem such a kind compassionate sort of person so I think that's why I decided to write. You see I'm kind of lonely here and don't have anyone to talk to. I have friends but no real friends and you look like you would be the perfect friend.

I hope I don't scare you with this letter, I'm really not a stalker and I'm not scary. I just need a friend and I used to write to a friend in Thailand before I lost his address so I thought this would be a good idea.

You don't need to try to find out who I am, you do know me but I would rather be a secret. If you don't mind I'd love to share more about myself, my secrets with you in my letters and hope that won't creep you out. I really am not a stalker.

Thanks for being a friend,

X