"Jeff! I didn't see you there!" Kurt called before realizing that they were still in a library. Then again, there was no one else there except for the two of them.

Jeff didn't even seem to notice. He was simply staring at the computer screen in front of Kurt with wide eyes. Kurt shifted his eyes between Jeff and the computer screen and connected the dots.

Sebastian isn't the only one who knows.

Jeff didn't tear his eyes away until Kurt minimized the window. After that, he finally met Kurt's eyes. He was blushing hard.

"Um, sorry, uh, w-what did you say?"

Kurt crossed his arms over his chest, doing his best to look determined.

"Do you know anything about the blue crest on some students' uniforms?" he started.

"Um- uh, I- it's…" Jeff stuttered, obviously thinking hard to come up with a lie.

"Sebastian told me it was some sort of association?" Kurt lied smoothly.

"Oh, yeah!" Jeff caught on, stepping right into the trap. He snapped his fingers and pointed a finger triumphantly.�"That's what it was! …Boxing."

"Funny, Sebastian said it was wrestling," Kurt continued cruelly.

Jeff started blushing harder.

"Um yeah, t-that's what I meant. Well, b-boxing�and�wrestling."

"It's strange that you say that," Kurt said, starting to get annoyed, "because Sebastian actually blamed it on old editions or a mistake in production or whatever he said it was."

"Oh."

Jeff shifted his weight between his feet restlessly. "Kurt…"

"So could the two of you just stop lying and tell me the truth?" Kurt said tiredly.

There was a moment of silence before Jeff clicked his tongue and took a seat by the computer next to Kurt's.

Kurt waited impatiently for him to speak. When he finally did, Kurt was disappointed.

"Look, we're only trying to protect you from all of this," Jeff sighed.

"Do you actually think I'll accept that?" Kurt asked.�"If none of you will tell me, there are always other ways for me to retrieve the information, you know."

Jeff sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. Kurt seemed to have dragged Jeff to the extreme opposite of his usual happy-as-can-be mood. And though it wasn't only Jeff keeping him in the dark, and Kurt had a feeling Jeff was only acting on Sebastian's orders, he couldn't't help it. He needed to know what was going on at the school he had to call home. If there was something he needed to be protected from, shouldn't he know what it was so that he could be on the lookout and stay away from it? Kurt tried posing the question to Jeff.

"It's not that simple," Jeff replied.

"How is it not simple? This thing you won't tell me about is either dangerous or it's not."

"Not everything is one way or the other," Jeff insisted. "Certainly not this. I'm not the most informed on the topic… but I've heard some very scary things about it."

"Will you just tell me? My curiosity is killing me!"

Kurt sensed Jeff hesitating, as if actually debating whether or not to tell him, so Kurt pushed on.

"Sebastian won't have to know that you told me."

Jeff scoffed. "Yeah, right. You say that now, but it'll be no way you could hide that you know."

"Wanna bet?" Kurt challenged.

"No," Jeff said sternly, closing in on himself. "I promised Sebastian I wouldn't tell you about them, so I won't. Even though I think you deserve to know."

Kurt sighed.

Is there really no way around- wait, he thought.

"Wait,�them? You mean the crests?"

The instant look of horror on Jeff's face as he realized he'd said too much was a clue to Kurt that Jeff was truly afraid of whatever he was hiding from Kurt.

"I should go," Jeff squeaked and sprang up from his seat.

But he stopped just as hereached the bookshelves, spinning around one-eighty.

"What were you doing when I first came here?" Jeff asked suspiciously, eyes narrowed.

Kurt raised an eyebrow slightly.

"I thought you knew. Based on the horrified expression you got it certainly seemed like it. Plus, the stuttering didn't exactly help with your cover."

But Jeff ignored the jibes.

"Did something… happen? Why were you looking at… those things?"

"I saw a symbol that I recognized and I wanted to know what it was," Kurt shrugged.

"A symbol?" Jeff questioned, "What kind? Where?"

Kurt almost laughed at the absurdity of it all.

"If you won't tell me, why should I tell you?"

Jeff ground his teeth together so hard that Kurt could almost feel shivers running down his spine.

"If you tell me, I'll tell you. Not everything, but a part of it."

Kurt gave him his best not-amused expression.

"Yeah, like I would fall for that."

"Do you have a choice?" Jeff smiled sadly.

Kurt bit his lip as he pondered on whether or not he should tell Jeff what he'd seen. A big part of him wanted to keep it a secret as revenge, but there was also a small part that felt the need to tell him. After all, he didn't exactly know what he had seen. Maybe Jeff would keep his promise and help him figure out what it meant. The whole thing had made him confused, and being who he was, he just wanted things to start making sense. All these secrets were becoming too much for Kurt to handle – he didn't want to be the last one in the know anymore.

"I was on my way to Chemistry," Kurt finally confessed, "and everythingl seemed… normal."

As normal as it gets around here, he added in his head.

"But when I got there, a student told me the class was cancelled. He... was acting weird and he was wearing a blue crest on his uniform."

Jeff nodded sympathetically, but then he frowned.

"Acting weird, how?"

Kurt didn't even know how to begin describing the behavior of some of the people who walked the Dalton grounds, let alone the guy he'd run into in the Chemistry building.

"He seemed occupied, like he was in deep thought, and he was rude and… he was poking a stick into the fire."

"He was turning the firewood," Jeff concluded. He sounded dumb-struck.�"I was expecting something more odd, to be honest," he added with a relieved laugh.

"No, he wasn't turning the wood," Kurt continued, and Jeff grew wary again.�"It looked like he was heating the stick. The stick… with the symbol."

This got Jeff's attention like nothing else had. His eyes grew wide as saucers, and he took quick steps back to Kurt's side, grabbing him roughly by his shoulders. Kurt yelped, more in surprise than pain.

"What was the symbol?" Jeff bellowed. "What was it?!"

"I don't know; I was trying to find it online when you came in but I didn't know what to look for. It looked like a cross, but not just a cross... and I'd seen the symbol before, but I can't remember where, and�pleaseletmego," Kurt rambled.

Jeff sighed, but obliged. He released Kurt's shoulders and let his arms hang lifelessly by his sides as he slumped down onto the floor. It seemed like he was going through different ways of dragging the information out of Kurt's brain in his head. However, if that was really what he was thinking about, he seemed to be giving up.

"I'll see you later, Kurt," he said, "But please tell me if you figure out what the symbol is: it might be important."

"I will," Kurt promised, nodding.

He watched as Jeff rose from the floor in front of him, struggling goofily to untangle his long limbs to stand. Once he was upright, he dusted off his blazer mindlessly with one hand.

Kurt finally remembered his promise.

"Now it's your turn to tell me! Tell me about the crests! Who are they? Why are they acting so strangely?"

Jeff grew sad again and slowly started stepping backwards.

Kurt sensed what he was doing and flew out of his seat. "No! You said you'd tell me if I told you!"

Jeff shrugged as he stepped between the bookshelves.

"I'm sorry. It's for your own good," he murmured, but he didn't look convinced.

In a moment, he was gone, and Kurt was left to wonder once again. He was starting to doubt that he'd ever find out the truth about the things going on at Dalton, but then he remembered something Carole had said. Whenever they were chatting back home, Carole with new adult gossip and Kurt with fashion trends, Carole had at least taught him one thing: big secrets don't stay hidden.

Especially not with a Hudson-Hummel around.

000

While walking back from lunch with Casper and his friends, Kurt notice a coonstant uneasiness hanging over him. Sure, he really wanted to know what the secret was, but there was another thing as well: why had Sebastian told Jeff (and perhaps the others too) not to tell Kurt anything about the secret? Jeff said it was to protect him, but why? And from what?

That was how his mind had been working all day, and it was driving him insane.

"Who's lucky enough to be on that mind of yours?" Casper teased, finally turning his attention away from his friends, Ali and Duncan, and their oh-so-intriguing conversation about a comic book event in Columbus two weekends from now.

Oh yes, Kurt had also found out that Casper was bi. It was a little earlier during lunch when Kurt joined their table. The three of them had quieted when Kurt came up to them, yet insisted that he was more than welcome to join them. After a few minutes of silence, Kurt offered to leave so that they could carry on with their conversation. That was when Duncan burst and hysterically started laughing while telling him how Casper had been gushing about a guy for weeks and how "he totally likes me, I know it,"only to find out he had a girlfriend. After that, Casper grunted and muttered something about keeping to girls from now on.

Kurt blushed slightly at the comment, but waved it off. "No one, really. I just have a lot on my mind."

"After only half a day in school?"Casper asked. "Well, that's Dalton."

Kurt smiled, not wanting to correct him. But it did feel strange. A lot of things had happened in one day, and it wasn't even halfway over yet.

There was also another thing he kept thinking about that didn't make sense. He'd asked Casper and his friends during lunch if they knew what the blue crest meant. To his surprise, they didn't. Kurt had thought it was something everyone knew about but him, as the new kid, but he'd been wrong. They hadn't known; they only repeated "what the masses know", as they said – that those students were bad news.

So Kurt was at a loss. If he ever wanted to know the truth, he'd have to pry it out of Sebastian (not likely), Jeff (more likely), or go straight to the source; a student with a blue crest. He wasn't sure if he'd dare to do that, afraid of what he'd find out. However, his curiosity would get the best of him eventually, he knew.

Just as he thought this, he saw Sebastian again.

This time, it was from across the hallway. There were no students hindering Kurt's view, and he could see clearly how Sebastian was tossing that same wooden coin. The wood was worn and almost black, but the mere sight of the thing instantly brought Kurt back to his examination of it the first time he had seen it.

Suddenly, Kurt had a realization: the symbol on Sebastian's coin was the same as the one on the metal stick that the blue-crested student had been holding on to.

Kurt couldn't say for sure, since he was so far away, but he was fairly certain that the coin was where he recognized the symbol from. If only he could see the coin closer…

"I have to go," Kurt announced to Casper, Duncan and Ali, who looked surprised by his sudden outburst. "I'll see you later; it was really nice meeting you!"

Kurt hurried off without waiting for a further reply, moving over to where Sebastian was standing by a tall window. There was a vertical crack in the glass along the entire height of the insides of the frame.

Sebastian saw Kurt coming and quickly caught the coin once more, sealing it tightly in his now-fisted hand. He seemed to grow wary, obviously still tense from their earlier conversation (or more accurately, the lack of one).

"Sorry about before," Kurt said as he came up to Sebastian sidling over to lean against the wall next to him.

"I didn't mean to come off so harsh, I was just curious."

The faked apology seemed to loosen Sebastian up slightly.

"That's fine."

For a moment, Kurt waited him out. Sebastian seemed to be very restless, trying to come up with an excuse to leave even though there were over thirty minutes left until next period. He continuously shifted from foot to foot and inhaled sharply as if he was about to say something.

Kurt breathed steadily as he watched a few students pass them by.

"What was that coin thing you were playing with?" Kurt asked. He watched from the corner of his eye as Sebastian froze his nervous movements and turned his head to look at Kurt.

"Can I see it?"

Hesitating, Sebastian lifted his fist for Kurt to see, and unfolded his hand to reveal the coin.

Kurt took it from Sebastian's hand when Sebastian nodded his ascent and held it up to his eyes, turning and twisting it. It was heavier than he'd thought it would be. One side had narrow stripes on it: not exactly lines, but a variation of short and long lines and small dots. One of the lines looked like an exclamation point. The other side had a symbol on it. Upon closer inspection, Kurt could definitely see that it was the same one he'd seen before.

"What's the symbol?" Kurt asked, feigning indifference.

Sebastian, watching him suspiciously, didn't budge.

"Why?"

"I just think I've seen it before," he shrugged, running his thumb over the detailed carving.

"You think you've seen it before?" Sebastian asked doubtfully, not even bothering to hide his suspicion.

Kurt had to clench his jaw to not scream out loud at Sebastian to just spill it already as he put on a faked innocent tone.

"Yeah. I saw one of those students, you know,�with the old crest, and he had the same symbol. He was playing around with it in the fire; God knows why."

Kurt finished off with a slight shrug and watched as Sebastian's eyes widened – much like Jeff's had – when he got this information.

"What do you mean he played with it in the fire?" Sebastian demanded sharply. His eyes were dark and his jaw was set firmly.

The edges of Kurt's mouth twitched and drew up into a cocky smile as Sebastian lost control. Now Sebastian couldn't pretend that there was nothing going on with the symbol like he'd probably wanted to; it was painfully obvious that it actually held some sort of significance. And the shocked look on Sebastian's face told Kurt that he'd realized how much he has just revealed.

"Want to tell me again what the symbol means?" Kurt asked with a mischievous smile.

Sebastian leaned away from Kurt but still watched him closely.

"This is not a game," he said quietly.

Kurt cocked his head to the side. "You're only saying that 'cause you're losing."

Sebastian heaved a deep sigh.

"Are you listening to yourself?!"

Then he glanced at his watch.

"If you wanna run off again, sure," Kurt said calmly, examining the nails on his hand (he couldn't deny that this game was rather fun), "but you know I'll always find you. It's only a matter of time until you talk."

Sebastian took the coin again, holding it between his index finger and thumb with the symbol facing Kurt, right in front of his eyes.

"The symbol is called�the key of life," Sebastian explained. Then he twisted the coin so that the strange lines filled his sight. "And these are lifelines."

He put the coin back into his pocket.

Kurt was amazed. The key of life. But what did it mean?

He was just about to ask when Sebastian beat him to it.

"Now, will you tell me what the guy was doing with the symbol and the fire?"

"The symbol was on a metal stick that he was poking around with in a fireplace," Kurt told him. "I saw it when he lifted it from the flames, and it was glowing red and yellow."

Sebastian's jaw was tense again, and his face was hard, but he was nodding. "And who was doing this?"

Kurt bit his lip. He had absolutely no idea of who that guy was – he'd never seen him before. But should he tell Sebastian this and lose the last piece he has for blackmail?

"Tell me what the blue crests mean," Kurt countered with.

Sebastian sighed in frustration. "Not this�again! You just need to tell me the name, I need to know."

"Sorry," Kurt said without sounding apologetic, "no truth, no name."

They were having a staring contest, and if he had let it play out, Kurt was sure he would have won. However, he knew it was a waste of time – he'd get nothing out of it anyway. So he started to walk around Sebastian to get to his next class.

He was shocked as a hand grabbed his arm tightly and spun him around. Sebastian was practically fuming as he stared at Kurt, and it scared him a little.

"Tell. Me.�Now."

"No," Kurt said, cursing internally for not sounding as brave as he'd hoped.

Sebastian still let him go, and he stalked off in a different direction than Kurt was heading in.

Oh, yes, Kurt thought,�the truth will definitely come out soon.

000

When Kurt had about ten minutes left of his last class on Monday, he still hadn't made up his mind. He was sitting with Casper's friend, Ali, in the back of the classroom for AP History, reading a thick-as-a-brick book about American history. He had also spent a large part of the class watching Blaine interact with his friends with a question repeating in his mind:�should I ask him?

The encounter Kurt had had earlier with Sebastian was a clear motivator for the�ask him�side of himself, while Carole's promise that truth would always find a way out argued for the�don't ask him�side. With all of this going on in his head, Kurt had barely been paying attention the whole class. He was too preoccupied by those little voices in his head, telling him to do one thing or the other. Now he only had ten minutes left to decide, and he was just as clueless as when he'd started thinking about it.

The only question was how long it would take until the truth would come out by its own accord, and if Kurt was willing to wait that long. But in all honesty, what was the rush? Sure, he was curious, and it was starting to consume him, but why couldn't he wait? Then again, it would be easier to just know the truth so that he could stop thinking about it and actually focus in class like he should be doing right now.

As Kurt looked up from the history book in front of him again, he caught Blaine watching him over his shoulder. Blaine was sitting a few benches in front of him, and he was looking extra fine today, Kurt couldn't help but notice. His hair only had a little bit of gel in it, which created volume, but tamed the bushiness of the curls. He was also wearing a black cardigan instead of a blazer, and Kurt had easily concluded during his long stares that black was definitely Blaine's color.

But now Blaine was looking at him, too, and he was�smirking�like he did. Kurt blushed and buried his head in his book again. A few moments later, when Kurt finally dared to look up again, Blaine was still watching him.

This time, Kurt challenged Blaine by keeping eye contact. This seemed to intrigue him, as he tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. Kurt's eyes flew down to where he licked his lips wetly, and quickly up again to Blaine's eyes. But the slight movement had been caught by Blaine, who gave him an utterly sultry look and a big wink before turning back around in his chair.

With less than a minute to go, Kurt had made his choice. He wouldn't just go up to Blaine and ask him – Jeff wouldn't have warned him about his safety for nothing. No, Kurt knew these boys were some sort of trouble, and therefore, he decided to follow Blaine after class to see where it would lead them both.

The bell rang loudly, making Kurt jump a little in his seat. Blaine was one of the first ones to take off, so Kurt had to rush out of the room before the teacher Mrs. Sullivan even had a chance to tell them about homework. If the secret behind the crest was good, Kurt thought it would all be worth it.

So Kurt took off, on a mission to follow Blaine even if it would lead him all the way to the end of the earth.

With a little luck, the secret at Dalton would be hidden no more.

At least not to one Hudson-Hummel.