Chapter 2: memories and mentors.

Mercedes and I sat on the big couch in the TV room at the train, staring at the flat black plasma, waiting for the Gleetol anthem to end so we could see our mentor for the first time. Our mentor is going to be one of the many victors of district 2, he or she going to tell us what to do so we will have a chance of winning this thing and go back home with pride and money.

"Do you have any idea of what we are going to do when we get there?" I asked Mercedes and she looked at me with raised eyebrow.

"Are you serious? Honey, we had been practicing for this thing since forever, first thing we learned was what to do when we get there," she chuckled and I felt like a complete idiot.

"In case you haven't noticed Mercedes, I only been a career tribute for 9 years…I only know how to fight,"

"Yeah, you know how to fight,"

"That wasn't a question," I laughed "so, as an expert, what am I support to do?" I asked and after a second of thinking she said…

"You need to be nice and cute and make people to love you and want to know more about you," she said "and you need to show how good you are at the training so the judges will give you a good score and you will get sponsors."

"This is all I need to do to get sponsors?" I asked confused.

"Yeah, pretty much," she said.

"So why do we need a mentor?"

"Now that you mentioned it…I don't really know," Mercedes said and a second later we saw our mentor on the flat screen.

It was a ginger, about 40 years old woman, with big brown doe eyes. She was sitting on  a white chair that looked like someone cleaned him for an hour with a tooth brush, in front of a desk which was perfect, all the pens fixed in one line, the pencils sharped and paper pile was on her side.

"hey there, Kurt Hummel and Mercedes Jonas," she said (actually, she read this from the cards in her hands) and continue" Im Emma Pillsbury," she introduced herself and looked at the camera, her eyes became even bigger (if it was even possible) "and Im going to be your mentor for the 109th Glee Games." she finished and looked at the cards once more to see what does she supposed to say next.

"Our mentor is Bambi," I whispered to Mercedes and she laughed. Why was I whispering?!There was no one here besides us…

"When you reach to the Gleetol, you will be taken to your stylists and get ready for the big parade, and then I will meet you and escort you to your rooms at the tributes building. Until then, I wish you happy and germs free Glee Games." the one called Emma said and put the cards back in place before spilling a whole bottle of hand sterilizer on her hands and rubbing carefully. Then the video ended.

"Is it just me or that she looks kind of crazy?" Mercedes turned to me and asked.

"totally," I agreed." but she doesn't look familiar at all which isn't a normal thing, we met every district 2 winner at least one time, on the street or the mall….or at special classes at school, Ive never seen her before…"

"Maybe she is drunk and drugged like a non-career winners," Mercedes entered to my out loud thoughts.

"She doesn't seem like that at all," I said and she nodded in agreement, then she stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"we will have plenty of time to discuss those games, right now all I want to do is get some tots and watch reality shows, are you coming or not?" She asked and smiled at me.

"We only have a few days before we enter the arena, so its not plenty of time. And yes I will be there in a second." I said and sent her a small smile back. She left me alone.at the moment she left my sight I ran to the opposite direction, to my room. I crashed on my bed and pressed play on the remote controller. The video from yesterday played again. Ive watched that video at least 10 times at the last 12 hours, even though it made me feel terrible it made me feel amazing, even though it made me sad because I realized how much Ive lost it made me feel happy because I knew finely that I can love someone and maybe I shouldn't make such a big deal out of the fact that I couldn't be with anybody who wanted to be with me back at district 2….I knew, even though admitting it wasn't an option, I loved him. The next part was finding out if its real or not. But I did my best to leave it aside because…well…I had a Glee Game to win in.

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"Blaine! Blaine! Blaine!" I heard his sweet voice calling my name. I was at my house, on our new couch, my mom and dad getting ready for the reaping of the 100th Glee Games in their room and cooper was still sleeping. I was shaking, pale and sweaty, tears falling from my eyes. I looked down on the floor, closing my eyes, trying to relax when I felt a pair of arms pulling me into their owners lap; I knew who that was only by the smell of his new alexander McQueen sweater. He ran his hand up and down my back.

"Shh….its okay….everything is going to be okay…Im here for you…."he whispered into my ear making me nuzzle harder into him." Do you want to tell me whats wrong?" He asked softly. That was one of the benefits of having an older boyfriend; you can act like a baby when you need to. I nodded, my head still buried in his shoulder, my hands around his neck, stroking his perfect brown hair." you know you are ruining my hair, right?" He whispered and a small smile found its way to my face.

"Im scared, Kurt." I whispered, my voice was shaking." from the reaping."

"That is silly. Honey, you are not even 12 yet, you have nothing to be scared about." he chuckled and I let out a sigh.

"Im not afraid of getting picked….all the third grade pupils have to sing at the ceremony because this year, President Sue is here for the reaping." I whispered.

"That's because most of us are singers and musicians aside from the grains job….you have nothing to worry about," he said in a comforting voice.

"Kurt…I cant sing." another tear fell down my face.

"Of course you can sing you are one of the best singers I know!" He said and I smiled. That smile disappeared quickly.

"I cant sing in front of people." I said and Kurt hugged me tighter.

"Still? Its been a while…"he wondered and I just nodded "so whats you are going to do? You know you have to."

"But I cant!" I sobbed" Im going to screw up in some way or another or throw up all over the stage and make such a big fool out of myself….and then they are going to kill me or cut off my tongue…"as long as I kept thinking about it the sobbing and crying and shaking became worse.

"Hey!" he cut me off and held my face between his hands, wiping away my tears with his thumbs." Stop it! Nothing bad is going to happen to you, I promise, I wont let that happen." he said and I nodded.

"What am I going to do Kurt?" I asked, totally hopeless.

"You are going to go on that stage and sing." Kurt said "and if you feel sick, just look at me.it will be just like when we are alone at your room." He smiled at me and I bit my lip.

"I would see and hear all of the people around, it wont be the same." I said and after a minute of thinking Kurt had a plan.

"So don't sing." he said smiling like he just invented time travel.

"Do you mind explaining?" I said raising an eyebrow.

"Lip sync, there will be 50 more kids up there with you and thousands of people in the audience, no one will ever know." He said and now I was smiling too.

"Thats brilliant! You are amazing!" I yelled in excitement and hugged him even tighter then humanly possible.

"I know," he said, loving himself too much (as usual).

"Show off!"

"But you still love me," he laughed and l laughed too.

"I hate when you right…"I said and then I forgot how to breathe because Kurt was leaning closer to me, cupping my cheek, our faces were only inches apart…suddenly, Kurt wasn't so close anymore and I heard a camera flash. When I opened my eyes I saw a very annoyed Kurt and Cooper holding a new camera in his hands.

"That camera is awesome, now I can take pictures of myself! Thanks mom!" He yelled.

"You welcome sweetie!" I heard my mom yelling from her room and rolled my eyes.

"That's great Cooper and that why you are interrupting us?" I asked. My arms still around my boyfriend. I tried not to show it but I was really upset.me and Kurt never had a real kiss before Couse it was never the right time (I had no idea why right now was a good time and Kurt decided to kiss me but I wont complain….) and now Cooper ruined everything!

"Look at you two! So cute and in love, every romantic moment between the two of you just asking to be destroyed…"he chuckled to himself, I rolled my eyes and Kurt stood up.

"I think I will go home now," he said and leaned to kiss my cheek (the goddamn cheek!) but I held his hand.

"You don't have to go," I practically begged and he smiled at me.

"Goodbye cooper," he said politely and Cooper nodded." and you," he turned to me" meet me after the reaping and we can pick up where we stopped." he winked at me before leaving the house and me blushing like a tomato.

"oh…we can pick up where we started" he mimicked Kurts voice" please don't do it here, I don't want or capable of watching you make out on the couch." He laughed and I threw the nearest pillow at him.

"Shut up!" I yelled and we both cracked up. The picture he took that day 9 years ago, was the one I was looking at right now, at the train to the Gleetol I was blushing slightly, Kurt already pulled away and looked at Cooper who was obviously happy with himself, that day was the last day I saw Kurt.

Those games kind of ruined my plans, I always thought that when I will be 18, I will take a train and go to the Gleetol to look for him. I know he was close to president Sue so he probably living in a nice place in the Gleetol or in a good district, writing a musical or designing his own fashion line…when I dream about the day I find him, there are a couple of scenarios that can happen when he opens me the door, the first is: he says he missed me and that he never stopped loving me, we get back together. The second (and the better) option: we meet half way because he went to find me too, we start living together. The best option is: when he sees me we are both speechless but he just gives me the kiss I was so longing for, and a year later we get married. Of course there are the bad options as well…the bad one: he doesn't remember my name, but when he does he says that nothing of what we had wasn't real. The worse one: he is dead. And the ones I usually wake us screaming when I have them (the worst ones), he is not the one opening the door for me, its another guy. He is taller than me (everyone are taller than me) and have a beautiful hair (not Medusas hair like mine) he hold in his arms a little boy or a girl that have Kurts eyes. Then Kurt comes and by the look of his eyes I know that he does remember me, he just chooses not to and the door is closed in my face.

I will never know which one of those happen unless I will be the last one alive in this stupide game and its pretty unlikeable so yeah, I will never know. And it made me feel even more pathetic. even though, deep inside me I knew that even if I will make it out alive, I would probably wont be sane, so I didn't know is I wanted to win.

"Blaine…?"I heard the only voice I have heard in the last 24 hours, Rachel.

"What?" I closed the clock so she wouldn't see the picture and looked back at her.

"The tape our mentor filmed is ready, are you coming to watch?"

"Sure." I said and we walked to wherever the TV was as watched out mentor appear on its screen.

A man, he looked about 40 years old, curly brown hair, blue eyes and a big smile. I realized who it was when I heard his voice…

"Hello, Blaine Anderson and Rachel berry, Im-" Will Schuester, I thought at the exact time as he said his name. He was the one who won the 79th Glee Game, 30 years ago. He had a lover name Terri he met at the game and they fall in love. she was 14 years old and from district 6 and he was 12, when they were in the last 4 survivors she tried to kill him, she chased him in the arena for 5 days, until one of the most insane tributes of the games history, lighted up a fire that burned everyone besides Will (he was too far) so he won. No one have seen him ever since, even the victory tour was cancelled that year, the whole country thought he committed suicide but I guess it was just a rumor because there he was!" and I will be your mentor for the 109th Glee Games. You interactions for now are…"he looked at the piece of paper he was holding and read(what was probably written there)"reach to the Gleetol, they will take you to your designers and I will be there to really meet you by the time you are ready" he said and smiled. He looked completely sane. The winners rarely stay sane." I wish you happy Glee Games." He said and the TV screen became black again. Rachel and I sat there in a complete silence for a few long minutes until she spoke up. She always had to speak…

"Do you have any idea who he is?" She asked and I nodded. Not everybody watched the games 5000 times like you, I thought to myself. After I explained it to her she looked at me with wide eyes." How do you know all that?"

"Well. Im kind of a Glee Games addicted; I know most of the games by heart." I said and she raised her eyebrow at me.

"Are you that depressed?" she asked and I chuckled.

"Its not the depressed." I said "maybe a little, but its mostly because of the fact that this way I get to know a lot of strategies and Gleetol tricks…I think it will be sort of helpful when I will be in the arena."

"but thats no gonna make you win…"she said and then a sly smile covered her face" what other tricks do you have in mind?"

"Oh no…Im not gonna tell you all of my secrets."

"You are actually very nice Blaine, I just want you to know that Im sorry for what I did to you," she said and I nodded.

"Thats fine Rachel, its been 9 years, and they didn't kill me at the end so its fine." I said and she looked down.

"But you didn't deserve this, you almost got killed because of me and Kurt has been taken away from you…."

"Life sucks." I agreed and we both were silence for a few more moments before she stood up and left to the room.

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I heard someone running down the hall, then my door opened and Mercedess voice said:

"We are here!" I pulled the blanked to cover my head. I hated waking up in the middle of the night, especially when someone else is the Couse.

"Would you do me the honor of turning off the lights?" I asked and she giggled.

"You can sleep later! We need to go meet our future fans!" she yelled in excitement and now my head was under the pillow while I desperately trying to block the sounds and coming back to sleep.

"They are not our fans; they are just excited to see us die…"

"Stop being so negative and get up! You don't want to get out of this train with your hair messed up don't you?"

"Fine…I will be ready in about 50 minutes…"I yawned.

"Honey, the train stops in 5 minutes," she said and I jumped right out of the bed and into the bathroom. About 6 minutes later I heard her voice again" come on Kurt you have to see this!" I pulled on my best smile and fixed my tie before stepping in front of the window.  What I saw was amazing, Thousands of people waving hello to us, blowing kissing at the air and screamingcheering at us. Mercedes and I waved back. We always knew one day we will be very famous and will be surrounded by adoring fans, we just  thought it will be because of our talent and not because of those reasons…(you are so cute and we cannot wait to see you get murdered by people who used to be your friends while we eat popcorn…)

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I looked at the mirror. After 3 hours of making me beautiful, the stylists finely left the room and left me and Rachel alone, waiting for our mentor. We both stared at the new us in the mirror. Rachel was dressed as a rock star, pink line in her hair and dark make up. I…was the complete opposed .I wore a dark blue blazer with blue and red tie and gray pants with black elegant shoes.my hair was gelled and I had no idea what they tried to crate out of me. On my blazer there was mockingjays pin.

"Do you have any idea what am I supposed to be?" I asked Rachel.

"You dressed like one of the warblers," and before I could ask she answered "they were an a cappella group. Those were their uniform besides the fact that they wore warblers pins and not mockingjays."

"Im really going to miss those creatures." I said. Mockingjays were a normal thing back at district 10, you could meet them everywhere and singing with them was fun. Sadly Im never going to be able to do it again.

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 "What do you think she is going to be like?" Mercedes asked me while we drove at the black windowed car, the same one that brought us here to get ready. We are dressed as if we are going to senior prom which I probably never going to have. Oh great…now Im thinking about what if, and who am I going to take? I don't think Blaine will come all the way from district 10 only to go to prom with me…why was I thinking about him?!well…maybe it wasn't so bad thinking about you lost love that you never saw or talked to in 9 years and that you are never going to see again but you shouldn't care because you don't remember him because you have no memories…right?

"We are here, boo." I heard Mercedes and understood that I probably was lost in my own thoughts for a moment or two.

"Sorry, I was in another world, you were saying?" I said and sent her and apologetic smile.

"Thats fine, Im used to you doing that." he smiled at me and then a tracksuit guy opened my door and I came out of the car into the night. Then I saw her. Emma Pillsbury. She was weird, a sweater, cotton scarf, puffy ginger hair and she looked even cleaner than in the tape.

"Its so nice to finally meet you," Mercedes walked toward her and offered her hand for a shake. Emma didn't take it.

"You too," her voice shake a little and she took a step back from us looking Disgusted. "This is your carriage, white horses which I arranged to get cleaned for 5 hours with electric toothbrushes, now its safe to be 10 feet away from them." She said with her shaking voice.

"Are you serious?" I asked and I stopped laughing when I saw the look on her face.

"Hygiene is no laughing matter, I will tell you all about it in our time together." she smiled and I was scared.

"What about our game strategy?" I asked.

"Keep yourself clean. The arena is a very dirty place…"she said and her body shocked, a look of terror in her eyes.

"What else?" Mercedes asked.

"Nothing." Emma answered simply and then turned to one of the tracksuits guys." take me to the closest shower. Now." She said and he nodded and they both walked away. Mercedes and I stood there with our eyes wide before saying together.

"We are doomed."

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"Hello, Im Will Schuester." he said and I shook his hand.so far, no sign for insanity.

"Im Rachel berry," Rachel said and shook his hand as well.

"Im Blaine Anderson." I introduced myself to the smiling guy.

"That so nice to finally meet you," he said "I must say you two look very good together, we can work with that." he said the last part mostly to himself.

"Im sorry, what do you mean?" Rachel asked and he giggled.

"Well, to win this thing you need to be fast, strong and smart, but most of all, you need to get sponsors." he said and we both nodded in agreement." and maybe if we can sell you two as a couple, you will get a lot of money, people here on the Gleetol loves love stories, especially ones which ends with tragedy."

"Im fine with it, if it will make me win." Rachel said and flipped her hair back.

"Well Im not." I said and they both looked at me. I couldn't take the risk that Kurt will see me with somebody else on national television. Especially not with a girl. Particularly not with Rachel.

"We will talk about it in a second; we have more important things to do now." he said and pointed at our carriage." Climb on up, we are about to start. Remember, Make people love you, be confident, president sue said this game is going to be different so whatever changes you need to look like nothing bother you and everything is fine. Understood?" he said and we nodded. "You guys look amazing." he said impressed and we smiled." Now, we have 2 minutes to talk about your appearance." he said. "Maybe you can kiss at the end, people would love that…"

"I don't mean to be rude to any of you but Im not doing anything that is going to make me and Rachel look like a couple." I said firmly. Will rolled his eyes.

"And why is that? Dont you want to win?" Will asked.

"Yeah I do but, I have been in love with someone for almost 12 years and I don't want to take the risk that he will see it and think Im dating someone else and that I forgot about him."

"Wait a minute…you forgot about him…? You are gay?" He asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah…does it make any difference?"

"Does you boyfriends currently living at district 10?"He continued interrogating me.

"No, I haven't seen him for 9 years."

"You were together ever since you were 6?"His smile grew wider.

"He was 6; I just had my 5th birthday when we started dating but we knew each other since forever….why do need to know?" I asked, really confused. He answered me after a few long seconds of thinking.

"We have to find that boy."

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Mercedes and I were on the carriage .tracksuits guys were whispering all around us. The carriage that was in front of us was district 1s; when I looked at the tributes on it I was really unhappy because I knew one of them. Quinn Fabray. her beautiful blonde hair was short now, I guess she cut it off since the last time I saw her, she was wearing a golden some kind of cat suit and on her face there was a golden tattoo that says district 1 in curly handwriting, I really hoped it wasn't permanent... the last time I saw her was last summer, she came to visit her daughter. She gave birth to her while she was 16 and she came visit every year ever since. This game just becomes worse Couse I need to kill her as well. Next to her, in a matching outfit, was a boy (who looked like he is 30(I know it wasn't possible but still!)) he had black Mohawk which was probably supposed to make him look tougher but he doesnt fool me. Behind our carriage there were the district 3 tributes, a very tall boy and a blonde girl (kid of tall herself) both of then covered in black powder or paint, their hairs standing in the air with the same black thing, The concept was probably that they were electrified since district 3 was the one that produce the electricity for the entire country. Both of them were staring with blank eyes at some point in the sky. I could see the carriages of districts 4 and 5, district 4 wore swimsuits made out of seaweeds and were 2 sizes smaller then they should have been. Wasnt a pretty sight for me, especially because another familiar person was on that carriage, Tina Cohen Chang. District 5 tributes were dressed as waitress. We waited for a few minutes until we got our Kew and the carriages started moving. I heard screaming, cheering, applause and a few more familiar sounds from the moment Mercedes and I left the train.be confident, I thought to myself and took a deep breath, you can do this. I looked at Mercedes that looked completely comfortable, waving and catching kisses from the crowed.

"Im about to faint," Mercedes whispered and I laughed, even Mercedes is nervous…I waved back to the screaming people. All of the carriages stopped in a moon shape in front of a tall blond annoying woman name Sue Sylvester. She haven't changed at all in the 9 years that past since the last time I saw her, the same short blonde hair, mean blue eyes and thin lips. There she was, the president of the Gleetol wearing blue tracksuit dress .she raised her right hand and everyone became quit. Then, she spoke...

"Hello people of Gleenem, Im President Sue Sylvester, and Im here at this boring pathetic ceremony to tell you that in the next Glee Game, things are going to change a bit. the first change is that we are going to make a behind the scenes reality show called the glee club that is going to air tomorrow at 8.pm., so tributes, don't let the cameras disturbed you, just act like they are not there….the second and more important announcement will be said in 3 days, one day before you enter the arena." she said and the crowd cheered in excitement. I wasn't in love with the idea…not only I had to spend 2 weeks in the horrible place called the arena and kill Quinn, Tina and Mercedes ,now, I cant even go the restroom without the whole country knowing about it. "May the odds be ever in your favor," she said and then added "nice to see you again porcelain. you too, young Burt Reynolds," she said and disappeared. Young Burt Reynolds. That sounded extremely familiar. I remembered a spring day, around noon, in our back yard, my mom sat on a chair drinking coffee with sue Sylvester who came to visit us that day, me and Blaine were playing together, I was about 6, I didn't really heard what they were talking about but I heard them saying porcelain and young Burt Reynolds a lot. I was porcelain so young Burt Reynolds had to be…

I looked around me and then (why was it happening to me?!) I saw him. The same dark brown curly hair that was gelled now, still shorter than me, and his eyes…those beautiful big golden hazel eyes that now were staring right back at me.

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Pale porcelain skin that won him that nickname, perfect wavy brown hair that now had gentle blond highlights in it, still taller than me (but it wasn't so bad)and the glasz eyes that I  drowned in so many times beofore.it was him.it was kurt.my Kurt. And he was standing right in front of me, looking at me with those dreamy eyes of his...what the hell I should do!?Do I need to ran and kiss him? Or let him come to me? Or ran and hide? Should I forget about it? Or-

"Blaine? Are you okay? You are staring at the guy from district 2,"rachels voice me Shakes out of my thoughts.

"Yeah I know, Im just…"I kept staring at Kurt who was still staring at me and I could see by the look on his eyes that something was wrong. What could have been wrong? Yeah…a lot of things…the first, we both were a few days away from potential death. The second, we are competing against each other and one of us (if not both of us) will be dead at the end. The third, its been 9 years! What if he doesn't remember me? What if he doesn't love me anymore? One thing I knew for sure…it was the time to find out.