Blaine was nervous. Blaine never got nervous though. Well, he’d never had reason to get nervous, not in his eyes. As he stepped out of his car and into the parking lot he looked up at the doors leading into the McKinley corridors. He took a deep breath and sighed before he grabbed his bag out, slung it over his shoulder and started walking. He subconsciously fixed his bowtie like he always did when he was anxious before reaching the school doors. He really hated having to start at a new school, especially a public school, but he knew things could be worse. He reached into his pocket to find the slip of paper he placed there earlier that morning with the number of his locker and the code on it. He reached his locker and looked up only to find Sam there.

“Blaine, finally! I’ve been waiting here forever man.” Sam said as he reached down to hug Blaine. It had been a few months since Sam had moved here from Dalton so they hadn’t seen each other much but Blaine was just glad to have someone here that he knew.

“Uh, yeah. There was a long line up at the Lima Bean this morning. Wasn’t going to skip out on coffee on today of all days though.” He looked up at Sam to see him with a sad smile on his face, knowing all too well what Blaine was going through. Their Dad’s both worked at the same hospital, but with the amount of cutbacks they’d been having, Blaine was lucky enough that his Dad had stayed at the hospital for as long as he had. Sam wasn’t as lucky.

Unfortunately for Blaine, he didn’t have Sam in his first class. Most of his classes were AP classes except for physics which they had together after lunch before they went to glee club for Blaine’s audition. Sam showed him his classroom before they parted ways leaving Blaine clueless as to where to sit. Glancing around he could already see other people in the room sitting with their friends leaving only one seat right in the middle, free for him to sit.

Blaine felt more comfortable once class was started. He didn’t have to worry about everyone else around him. He could just focus on his teacher and the lecture she was giving them about Atticus Finch’s views on good and evil. This part of the day was easy for Blaine. He knew he’d have no trouble with the course work seeing as Dalton’s classes are much harder and push their students further there than they do here. He took his homework from his teacher with a smile just as the bell signalled the end of class. He packed his books away and looked up towards the door just as the back of messily coiffed hair turned the corner and out of the room.

Blaine’s classes up till lunch had all been the same. He had Sam show him where all his classes were and then was left once again to find a seat among the rest of the students. He just couldn’t get the feeling of being watched out of his mind. He guessed he was just being paranoid, still a little fearful of being back at public school again after what had happened at his school before Dalton, but let that slip from his mind as he entered the cafeteria closely following Sam.

They sat with the other few glee kids that had the same lunch period as them and even though Blaine had never met any of them before he immediately felt welcomed by the few that were there. All day he’d been comparing McKinley to Dalton, most of the time not even realising it, but couldn’t help but laugh a little at just how different the people from the glee club here were. On his left was an Asian couple, whose names he couldn’t remember, who kept making out with each other while across from him was the boy in the wheelchair, Artie, who was being sung to by some girl who really couldn’t sing, Sugar. Was she actually in glee club or does she just not have other friends? Blaine knew he’d have to ask Sam about that later. Then off to the right of him and Sam were too girls fighting over who deserved the solo at their next sectionals performance, Mercedes and Rachel if he remembered correctly, while Sam spoke to Finn, Rachel’s boyfriend. He couldn’t get over how loud they all were and that they kept talking over the top of each other but it seemed that no one minded at all. He had half an idea of filming them interact and sending it to Wes to show him what life outside of the Warblers was like. He quickly thought better of it knowing it would be rude to start filming these people who were practically strangers to him, he also knew that Wes would possibly have a heart attack over all the chaos.

He was looking forward to physics, knowing he actually had someone to sit with in that class. He sat down next to Sam at the back of the room and shortly after Finn arrived with some guy with a Mohawk, he really needs to get that shaved off, and next to Mohawk guy was another boy with the same messily coiffed hair from earlier that day. Blaine couldn’t stop looking at him, from his chestnut brown hair, eyes whose colour kept changing depending on the light, down to his black, fitted leather jacket, white T-shirt and the skinniest black ripped jeans Blaine had ever seen in his life.

“That’s Kurt you’re looking at and the other guy is Puck” Sam started whispering in my ear. “If I were you, I’d stop drooling over Kurt, yeah he’s gay but he’s the biggest player. Not what you want man.”

Blaine heard what Sam said but he just couldn’t stop looking. Sure Kurt was hot, any guy would be an idiot to think he wasn’t, but it wasn’t just that. Kurt was gorgeous. Finn went and sat on the other side of Sam while Puck sat in front of him and Kurt sat right in front of Blaine. Blaine just continued to stare and before he knew it he was face to face with Kurt.

“Like what you see?” Kurt was smirking at him making Blaine realise he wasn’t being as subtle as he thought.

“You’re not too bad yourself for some preppy school boy. How about we get to know each other a little better back at my place later on? Or I could just fuck you senseless in the back of your car right now if that’s what you’d prefer.” That last part was barely even a question, more like a statement, as if he was just thinking out loud.

“Uh w-what?” Blaine could barely believe what he was hearing. He knew what Sam said and saw the way Kurt had the whole ‘I don’t give a fuck’  look about him going on but he still didn’t expect him to be so blunt.

“I said we could-“

“I know what you said. I’m just not interested thanks.” Blaine could almost hear Jeff making fun of him for being  ‘oh so dapper’ as he and everyone else around Dalton always liked to say.

Before Kurt could even open his mouth again he was being scalded at by their teacher for not facing the front and then class started.

“I told you he wouldn’t be you type.” Sam pointed out as they made their way to glee practice after physics. They were the first ones in the choir room and sat down at a couple of chairs on the middle step.

“I’m pretty sure hot is anyone’s type, Sam. Besides I’ve never really been with anyone, how do I know if I even have a type?” Sam just stared at Blaine at this and obviously chose to ignore him.

“So how’s your first day been so far? I know you were pretty nervous about starting here.” Sam had always been such a good friend. He wasn’t just asking to help pass the time, he actually cared about what Blaine had to say. He couldn’t help but be pretty annoyed at himself at this. He and Sam had been close at Dalton but drifted a lot once Sam left. He knew it was mainly his own fault for not trying harder to keep in touch but knew it wouldn’t do well to dwell on it and was just glad he had a close friend back.

“It’s been okay I guess, I haven’t been beat up yet so I’m taking that as a good sign.” He laughed bitterly at this, being taken back to that night..

“Come on Blaine, let’s just go” Eric, Blaine’s date to the dance, looked down at him with wide fearful eyes. Blaine could tell he was frightened but Blaine was sick of always being scared. He wanted, no needed to stand up for himself.

“No, Eric. If we just run every time we see bullies in our lives they’re going to think they’ve won! We cannot let these ignorant excuses for human beings think that they’ve won!” Blaine could see they were getting closer, they also looked a little drunk. He knew this wasn’t going to end well but knew he had to fight back.

“I don’t care if you stay Blaine, I’m not going to be some sitting duck. I’m getting out of here!” And just like that Eric had took off, leaving Blaine alone to stand up for what he knew was right.

Sam just looked at Blaine knowing there was nothing funny about what he said and just waited for him to continue on.

“I just feel like I’m always being watched, you know? Like at any moment someone is just going to attack me from out of nowhere and there’ll be no one to help stop it.” Blaine was always such a confident person but moments like these he felt so weak and hated feeling so helpless. He didn’t want anyone else’s help but he also had to admit that he was a little scared. Not necessarily scared of someone jumping him but scared knowing that people could make him feel like this. Make him feel like he needed help.

“Look, Blaine. I’m not going to say that everyone here is perfect because I know there are some real homophobic  jackasses in this place but no one is going to hurt you. Not since what Kurt and Puck did last year.” But before Blaine could ask what happened last year other members of New Directions started rolling into the classroom and Sam had turned to start talking to Puck.

Huh, I didn’t think Puck would be in glee Blaine couldn’t help but think. He looked around and saw some of the people that he sat with at lunch and also saw some other faces he didn’t recognise. That’s when the glee club teacher, Mr Schuester, walked into the room announcing to everyone that they had a new member auditioning and invited Blaine to stand up front.

When he had been looking for a song to audition with Sam had helped him out by telling him that it was boys verses girls week but the boys had to do songs traditionally sung by girls and vice versa. This made Blaine’s choice easy. He straightened his bowtie but not because he was nervous. No, he definitely wasn’t nervous. He was about to perform, how could he ever get nervous when this was the most natural thing for him to be doing. He just wanted to make sure he was looking his best. He sat up from his chair and made his way over to the piano. He’d wanted to do the original version of the song but wanted to try out an acoustic version and there was no time like the present right?

Just as he started to play, the door swung open and revealed Kurt who walked straight over to Puck, sitting down and propping his feet up on the back of the chair in front of him. Blaine was surprised to see Puck was here but was even more surprised to see Kurt in glee club. He didn’t know why he should be surprised really but suddenly he felt a small wave of nerves flow through him at the thought of performing. At the thought of performing in front of Kurt.

He looked around and saw everyone waiting on him so he began to play.

“You think I'm pretty without any make-up on
You think I'm funny when I tell the punch line wrong
I know you get me, so I let my walls come down, down

“Before you met me, I was a wreck
But things were kinda heavy, you brought me to life
Now every February you'll be my valentine, valentine”

He looked up to see Kurt’s blue orbs boring into him as he sang. He expected to see the same smirk on his face as before but instead an unreadable expression faced him as he continued on.

“Let's go all the way tonight
No regrets, just love
We can dance until we die
You and I, we'll be young forever”

Blaine could feel Kurt’s gaze on him still and that feeling of being watched from earlier sweep through him again. He still couldn’t understand why he was so nervous but that made him sing with more emotion than he ever thought possible.

“You make me feel like I'm living a teenage dream
The way you turn me on, I can't sleep
Let's run away and don't ever look back
Don't ever look back

“My heart stops when you look at me
Just one touch, now baby I believe
This is real, so take a chance
And don't ever look back, don't ever look back”

Blaine finished the rest of the song and looked up to find everyone applauding him with such excitement on their faces. With a little bow and a glance in Kurt’s direction before sitting back next to Sam he couldn’t help but keep the grin off of his face. As he turned to look straight ahead he came face-to-face with Rachel, a massive grin on her face.

“We haven’t been formally introduced yet. I’m Rachel Berry. Co-captain of the New Directions and head soloist for all of our performances. On behalf of everyone here I would like to congratulate you on making it into our little family. It’s very hard for me to find people who can keep up with me vocally but I think that you would make a great addition to our back up vocalists and would do very well in making me stand out-“

“Rachel! It’s his first practice, don’t scare him off yet. Sorry dude, she gets kind of excited.” Blaine was so thankful for Finn in this moment. He had seriously considered leaving the room and never looking back if this Rachel girl was always going to be like this.

“Thank you Rachel, for your… welcoming words.” He quickly glanced at Finn and mouthed a thank you as he heard Sam whispering in his ear “oh so dapper.” Yeah. Blaine had missed Sam.