Chapter 23

It was very rare for the Principal to be seen outside of his office during school hours, in fact, it was rare to see any of the teacher at all. So when the Principal walked into Kurt's classroom, even the teacher fell into a shocked silence.

“I'm sorry for interrupting your lesson, but I need Mr Hummel to pack up all of his things and follow me to my office.” Every head in the room turned to look at Kurt who blushed at the attention but quickly stashed all of his stuff in his satchel before practically sprinting out of the classroom to meet the Principal. Before Kurt could ask why he had been pulled out of his lesson, the Principal began walking down the corridor and Kurt hurried to keep up so he could hear what was going on.

“Once again, I'm sorry for taking you out of your lesson but your father phoned and we had a discussion, but I think you are going to want to hear everything from him instead of me.” Kurt's mind instantly started to think of the worst possible scenarios as the last time he had been pulled out of school his dad had had a heart attack. The Principal could see the look of terror that had formed on Kurt's face. “Nothing is wrong Kurt,” he said and placed a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder, “something has just come up from your old school and your dad and I agree that it is serious enough to have you out of lesson to at least talk it over with him.”

Kurt was ushered into the Principal's office and was stunned when the head of the school pulled out his chair and gestured for Kurt to sit in it. He was told that his dad was still on the phone and was just reaching out to grab it as the Principal slipped out of the rom to give the boy some privacy.

“Dad, are you there?” Kurt hastily asked into the phone.

“Yeah Kurt. I don't want you to panic. Everyone is fine and nothing overly bad is happening.” Burt replied instantly.

“I don't like the sound of the ‘overly' if I'm honest.” Kurt said as his face began to morph into a frown.

“Well if you promise not to interrupt, I will tell you everything.” Burt took Kurt's silence to mean that he was willing to listen to everything he had to say and continued. “Well, I got a call earlier from your old cheerleading coach who has apparently stepped in as Principal because Figgins has some kind of flu. Anyway, she told me that the kid that was bullying you says he wants to talk to you and apologise for what he did. Apparently he's changed his ways and wants to prove that he isn't going to bug you if you transferred back to McKinley.” Kurt didn't speak out of pure shock. “You can talk now Kurt.”

“I don't really know what to say.” Kurt said, for once at a loss for words. “I can't just drop everything and go meet him so why are you calling in the middle of the school day?”

“Well I was considering putting it off until you got back but instead Carole told me it would be best to phone your Principal and see whether you could have some time off school to talk with the guy. Because your situation is so unusual, he said that you can have this afternoon off so you can come back to Lima early and if it's ok with you, meet with the kid and his dad with me and the coach later.” Kurt knew that he would never forgive himself if he didn't at least hear for himself what Karofsky had to say, so arranged everything with his dad before hanging up the phone and making his way out of the office when the Principal was waiting.

“I'm sorry that I kept you out here for so long sir.” Kurt said but was surprised when the Principal just smiled and once again put a supportive hand on his shoulder.

“It's no problem Kurt, everyone here at Dalton only wants what is best for all of the students and I had a feeling that this is something you would feel you have to do. You are allowed to say that you don't want to see him though.”

“I know that sir, but I think I need to at least hear him out that way I can't look back and think ‘what if'.” The Principal smiled and sent Kurt off to the dining hall.

“Just make sure you tell Mr Anderson and the other Warblers that you are leaving and will miss rehearsals okay?”

“Of course sir. Thank you.” Kurt walked down the hallway and joined the mass of navy uniforms that were beginning to leave their classrooms and head to lunch.