Blaine Anderson couldnt remember the last time hed been relieved to get to school. This year, he was. A lifetime of classes at McKinley High, one hundred eighty days a year, and a thousand times of wondering if it was all worth it led him up to this, here and now, his senior year and being on top of the world. Well, McKinley High wasnt exactly the world, but it was his world, so he was on top of it. Star quarterback, hottest girlfriend, wildest friends, best parties. Oh yeah, he most certainly had it all. Grinning to himself as he strode into the school, he instantly encountered Karofsky and Azimio by the drinking fountain, threatening any kid who wanted a drink to just walk on by. "Hey! Karofsky, Azimio. Back in high school, senior year. Were gonna rule this place!"

Karofsky threw his hands apart, "Well, look who it is! The biggest asshole this school has ever met! Guess what we have to deal with, Anderson? Three kids transferred over. Freshmen, I think. And a foreign exchange student... our grade. Now we can cuss him out in two languages!"

Blaine laughed, tossing his head back. He noticed, for a brief second, Karofsky staring at his exposed neck, but he ignored it and uncomfortably cleared his throat. "Yeah, if either of you were smart enough to know a second language. You guys hanging out after for practice? I know neither of you got off digging for video games over the summer to actually practice."

Azimio slugged him on the shoulder as they started walking to first period, their peers splitting apart to open a pathway for them, "And, I know you, Anderson, didnt stop digging after Santana over the summer. You would think that after Quinn scared you with that baby boom last year you would have joined that dumbass celibacy club hosted by the queen slut herself. I bet Pucks having a good old time cleaning up that mess in his pants. I cant believe that girl would tell you that you were the baby daddy for money. Man, thats why I stay single. Girls cant be trusted."

Karofsky snorted, "And youre sure its not just because girls think youre as pretty as a piece of shit?"

"Oh, sure, but Shirley Temple over there gladly picks up all the chicks." Azimio frowned at Blaine, who in return grinned from ear to ear as he fondly stroked his heavy curls.

In that second, Azimio parted ways with them to go into the biology room. Karofsky, who took English first period with Blaine, continued on with him after departing from his extra limb, Azimio. Blaine, as they walked, glanced around himself at the refreshed, smiling faces chatting amongst themselves; freshmen scurrying to their classes, girls embracing and chatting amiably over summer flings, and... no Santana running up and smacking him with one of her wet, cold, and slimy kisses he found more frightening than a horror movie marathon. Frowning at the thought of his girlfriends disappearance, Blaine followed Karofsky into the English room where they picked their usual seats in the back, far from the teachers desk, miles from the chalkboard, and away from the majority of the other students.

The students trickled in one by one or in herds, every time leaving alone the empty seat beside of Blaine. No one really wanted to sit there because of his reputation and also because when Lumbly assigned group projects he assigned the groups by rows, and everyone knew that Blaine and Karofsky were renounced for threatening peers into doing all the work for them then giving them the credit for it. But it was a dog eat dog world. Every high school student had to either accept the food chain or be eaten. Simple as that.

Suddenly, the bell blared through the room, temporarily deafening Blaine, and Lumbly trotted in with arms full of books and papers that were beginning to slip free. No one bothered helping him because if the books slipped, that meant ten minutes of organizing and ten less minutes of listening to Lumbly drone on about why a period at the end of a sentence should not be compared to a womans bodily functions, thank you very much, perverted high school boys.

Blaine slumped over his desk and slouched down into his seat, reaching for his phone to text Santana the moment the door burst open again, alarming everyone into alerted silence. In rushed a small boy who was very pretty, and he stopped in the center of the room and panted as he glanced around at a few whispering faces. Lumbly, startled by the dramatic entrance, arched his brows at the pale boy, "Do you have an excuse for being late, young man?"

The porcelain boy, otherwise the most beautiful thing Blaine had ever laid eyes on, brightened in his cheeks, his blue eyes round with either terror or shock. Abruptly, a bell-like sound rang from the boys pink mouth, words that Blaine couldnt understand. Beside of him, Karofsky snorted and shook his head in disbelief, "Is this kid for real? Does he even speak English? French is a dead language!"

Realizing why everyone was laughing at him, the boy clapped his hand over his lips, "Oi! Im so sorry, I was-"

Lumbly sighed and rubbed the nape of his neck as though annoyed with the kids show, "You must be Kurt Hummel, the foreign exchange student from Paris. Well, welcome, Kurt. If this class moves too fast for you, just let me know. Im sure I can find a program for you to help you with your English."

"Yeah, special education classes." Karofsky coughed, and Blaine ignored him, his eyes held captive by the French boy. He seemed perfect to Blaine, warm and gentle, his features so refined, porcelain, delicate glass. His pretty hair was coiffed, a dark blond. His eyes were very round and so blue, a color that almost looked painted on. His lips, a soft pink, were so plump and pouty. A multi-shaded blue scarf hid his neck from view, and Blaine wanted to take it off of him and admire his silky neck. A white jean jacket wrapped his skin up tightly, and a cherry red belt was looped around a pair of white capris. A pair of white saddle boots cut off at the ankle finished his outfit off.

The kid-Kurt, the lovely one-followed Lumbly to his desk to discuss a plan for the year since his English was so choppy, giving Blaine a chance to ogle the way Kurt swayed his hips side to side as he walked, his elbows partially bent and his hands swinging casually-and, damn, had Blaine only seen Kurt from behind and didnt realize that his chest wasnt exactly a womans chest, Blaine might have mistaken him for a very attractive woman.

And when Blaine admitted that, it was pretty damn obvious that McKinley had a gay on its hands.

"Dude," Karofsky smacked him on the shoulder, "youve been staring at that kid and chewing your pencil for the past ten minutes. Cut it out, you look as gay as his hair."

Widening his eyes, Blaine slapped his pencil down and tore his eyes from Kurt because, damn it all, Karofsky was right. Hed checked another guy out, head to toe, and that was something this Blaine Anderson simply didnt do. Something else dawned on him a minute later, and he scanned his eyes over the room when he realized that the only open seat was the one right next to him. At first he wanted to believe that Lumbly would recognize this misfortune and put someone else beside of him, someone who knew how to fight, but he just as eagerly wanted to get the language-disabled kid off his hands and send him to the seat exactly two feet away from Blaines.

Kurt demurely slipped into the chair, giving Blaine a coy glance from under his thick, long, blond lashes and-damn, did he smell nice, like hed rolled around in a meadow before school. Blaine curiously watched Kurt unpack his bag, three sharpened pencils appearing, two English books, a French-English dictionary, and, oddly enough, a bottle of perfume. Kurt spritzed his wrists and Blaine found himself smothered in the scent, unsure whether to get sick or breathe it in until it coated his lungs like a candy shell. All he knew was that the longer he smelled it, the more his stomach rolled, his skin itchy and sticky-

"Ack," Karofsky covered his nose, revealing that the flowery scent had reached him. "What is that? Hey, new kid, you mind not spreading your fairy dust? You dont own the air so save the French perfume for an orgy with your boyfriend or whatever you do with him."

Kurt lifted his eyes from engraving the perfume on his wrists by rubbing his thumbs back and forth across them, and he glanced past Blaine to Karofsky, "Oi, Im sorry. I didnt mean to upset you. I thought it was a lovely perfume."

Karofsky narrowed his eyes in a glare, "Well, I am upset. A lot. So, just keep your fairy dust off of me. I bet you wouldnt like it if Blaine and I ripped that pretty little scarf off your neck and showed off that hickey underneath, now would you?"

While Kurt touched the side of his neck with wide eyes, Lumbly cleared his throat noisily enough to bring back their attention, "Mr. Karofsky, this is not a free day just because its the first day back. Those words are not synonymous, and if you actually paid attention in this class you might know what that word meant. As I was saying, this years project will be about showing appreciation for someone who changed the culture of America and you personally. But, instead of forcing an essay out of you about some politician none of you care about, I thought Id broaden your selections to doing whoever it is you idolize, even Miss Lady Gaga if she is what will get any of you to work hard. I expect you all to use this period to brainstorm on people to do for the project. Alright, in your groups, everyone. I expect progress!"

Karofsky glared cynically after Lumbly, "Sometimes I think that man gives these projects just so he doesnt have to teach." Rolling his eyes, he arched his brows at Kurt, "Alright, fairy boy, get on it. I want this project done well."

Kurts little mouth fell open, and then he closed it, "Im so sorry... Id like to help you, but... I dont know any American pop culture. You want me to write on... Lady Gaga? I know a little of her work, a few of her more famous songs..."

Silently watching the boy struggle through this, Blaine thought of how hilarious this had been when doing it to Jacob Ben Israel or one of those glee brats, but to do it to a foreign exchange student as naïve as Kurt seemed almost cruel. Blaine cursed himself as he swiftly interjected, "Karofsky, no. Weve got to put in some effort this time. My dad threatened to take my car away if my grades start to slip. And having a foreign exchange student do a project on American pop culture definitely wont get me the grade. So... we should probably meet up after school and give Kurt some names of people to research in his free time."

Karofsky started sliding out of his seat when the bell rang, "Whatever. Blaine, youre sounding really gay right about now, so Im just going to head to science and try telling myself that youre straight, okay? Even if its to save your car, I still wouldnt meet up with him after school like were hanging out."

Blaine waited until Karofsky was gone to glimpse at Kurt, hoping the kid wouldnt take any of this as Blaine coming onto him. Even though he had rescued Kurt this time, this most certainly would not become a habit. Brushing a hair behind his ear, Blaine worried that his lie didnt sound convincing enough to Karofsky, who was able to see right through him. His dad wasnt around enough to notice his grades, but he didnt want football taken away from him.

Kurt, dragging him out of his thoughts, shyly smiled at him and two dimples popped onto his pink cheeks. Blaine was startled by that look on his face, wondering how Kurt could look so adorable with dimpled cheeks and those round, soft, blue eyes. "Thank you for defending me... Blaine." He said that last after a moment of hesitation, as if he wasnt sure if that was his name or what Karofsky called him. "That was very sweet of you."

He nibbled his bottom lip, and Blaine suddenly wanted to rub his thumb across the damp lip. Leaning closer to Blaine, Kurt puckered his mouth as if he wanted to kiss Blaines cheek, but then his eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Oh, dear." He softly whispered, pulling away from Blaine. "Im so sorry. I need to go. Perhaps well see each other in the hallway, Blaine."

Watching as Kurt spun away from him and swished to the door on light toes, Blaine stared after him, wondering why Kurt had wanted to kiss him. And why he wasnt bothered by it.