Kurt was emotionless today.

Sometimes the medicine did this, and other times it seemed like it didn't do as much, but today was one of the days he was completely numb and hardly responded to people.

Since it's the first day, there's no reason for him to be alert anyway, and, since the teachers know why he's there- which he hates- they don't make him introduce himself, they don't say anything at all in fact, and Kurt feels like this year will be just like last. Great, just great.

He doesn't even know what class he's in right now, or what period it is, but when he feels a tap on his shoulder he turns around slowly and is faced with the face of a pretty black girl, who smiles at him largely before offering him a hand, which he shakes with caution, slowly, before she introduces herself.

"Hi, I'm Mercedes."

"Kurt." He says slowly

"I just wanted to say welcome, since you're new here, and I noticed you didn't look very excited, I have you for third period Calculus by the way."

Kurt gives a questioning look. He doesn't know why she's being so nice, or why she's talking to him at all. No one talks to him.

"Anyway I just wanted to introduce myself," she said after an awkward moments silence "have a great first day, Kurt."

"Thanks," he says before turning back around in his seat.

The rest of the day goes by in a slow blur of students, teachers, and colors, and soon he's putting all his newly acquired books into his locker at the end of the day.

He lives much closer to the school now, so he can walk home (he has a feeling his father did that on purpose, not that he's really complaining) and as he leaves the schools' parking lot and heads off towards his new house he feels better than he has all day.

About 2 minutes of walking later and he realizes his pockets feel too light, so he checks them, and it turns out to be his lack of keys, so he makes to turn back around to head for the school, when he runs into another body- a hard body- and he begins apologizing profusely while trying to fix this guys jacket, which he finds oddly nice when he discovers the cool fabric of the leather. He looks at the face of the person he ran into and sees a head of dark, curly hair, tan skin, and hazel eyes.

"I'm really sorry I just turned around so fast I didn't know anyone was behind me-" he knew talking wasn't always the best thing to do, but he couldn't shut his mouth up

"It's whatever." The guy says, and shrugs and continues on his path.

Kurt stands there, dumbfounded. That's it? ‘Whatever' and move on? Maybe this school wasn't that bad.

He shakes his head and heads to the school, where he finds his keys in his locker- he must have accidentally put them there and been to out of it to remember to pick them up again- and makes his way home yet again.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The next day he feels better, not great, but better. He's more alert and feels like functioning today, instead of lying down and doing nothing while looking at a white wall like he did yesterday. He gets ready for school and then uses his spare time to make sure his hair is just the way he wants it, feeling braver from his encounter yesterday with curls- yes, curls- that people here are at least a little more open-minded, or at least don't care. As he heads to the school, he starts to feel even better. Maybe it's the fresh air.

He looks at his first class for the day- French- and makes his way there quickly and happily, he loves French, and finds a seat in the middle.

The class goes by as expected, boring, first day stuff again, so they don't do much, or speak much French.

His second class is Chemistry, which he is considerably less excited for, and finds an empty seat in the back row. As the class starts to fill in, some people looking at him curiously, his anxiety increases. They won't do anything. They just don't know you. New kid shock, that's all. He tries deep breaths, closing his eyes, imagining he's somewhere else, but it doesn't help. He can still feel peoples' gaze on him. They hate you already- NO! Kurt shakes his head, trying to clear the thoughts. The new school changes nothing. People are still the same, they hate you. He squeezes his eyes shut, desperately wishing for the thoughts to go away. Is this what it was like yesterday? Why can't the medicine work like it did yesterday? He sees more people start to stare at him, and worries even more. The girl in front of his turns around, and that's the last straw. He stands up swiftly and hurries out of the room.

Only when he's out does he notice that he is breathing heavily, panting almost, the unshed tears in his eyes, and- wow his throat his dry.

He stumbles, and his hands shoot forward to soften the blow his body is about to take to the floor, but his hands don't land on the cold, dirty tiles, but instead on the cool press of leather. He looks up and comes face-to-face with the same curly hair and hazel eyes- hazel eyes that are so much more beautiful than yesterday's foggy mind could comprehend.

Kurt prepares an apology, but then the boy is looking at him with a smirk on his face.

"If we keep meeting like this I'll have to assume you like ramming into things. Of course if you like things ramming into you, I could help with that." Kurt's face turned bright red, and the boys smirk grew even wider.

"I- I've gotta go." Kurt attempts to move around him, but a hand catches his arm, and then warm breath is ghosting over his ear.

"The names' Blaine. You'll want to know that for later" The boy- Blaine- pulls back and winks, which only causes Kurt to blush again, and walks in the direction Kurt came from.

About a minute later Kurt realizes two things; one, he's staring after the boy, so he jerks his head forward, and two, he doesn't even know why he's out here, so he heads back to the Chemistry class, entering quietly and heading to his abandoned seat quickly.

"Are you following me, or just trying to get my attention?"

Kurt jumps at the voice close to his ear, and he looks to the left, coming in contact with the gorgeous hazel eyes yet again.

"I- I uh-"

"It's perfectly fine if you were. In fact, why don't I try to get your attention at my place?" Blaine was smirking- seriously was his face stuck like that or something?- and Kurt's eyes were wide open, in shock or fear he didn't know. "Don't be so tense, babe" Blaine slipped a hand on Kurt's thigh, which after being able to process what was happening, Kurt slapped it away.

"I- no! I'm- I'm not... interested."

"You sure about that, babe?" Blaine once again had his hand on Kurt's thigh, but this time Kurt was able to move it faster.

"No! I- I mean yes, I'm sure."

Blaine turned back around in his seat "Sure you don't."

Kurt let out a relieved sigh, happy that Blaine was leaving him alone. Unfortunately that happiness didn't last long, as he was left to his thoughts. Why was Blaine even talking to him, let alone flirting- could it be considered flirting? Kurt knew he wasn't attractive, this was probably all a stupid game the popular kids decided to pull on the new guy. This guy Blaine probably wasn't even gay, he was likely straight as a stick and this was all really funny for him and his friends. It would explain why he was talking to him. No one talked to him. No one had talked to him in a casual conversation for almost a year, besides his father of course, and... the nurses... but they had to, it was their job. This had to all be a game and Blaine was just braver than the rest of the jerks. Blaine with the golden eyes that looked so interesting and simple at the same time. Blaine with the smooth voice that makes Kurt want to listen to it all the time. Blaine that- wait. Oh crap. He was staring at Blaine, and Kurt didn't even know how long Blaine had been looking at him too. Kurt jerked his head forward, blushing again.

Why was he paying so much attention to him anyway? Because he's the only person showing interest in you his mind supplied, which Kurt shook his head at. He didn't need to be like all those people that think they're in love in high school, he didn't need a relationship, he didn't need anyone. He was just fine by himself. Being by himself meant that no one could hurt him. No one would break his heart or leave him with no explanation. He could take care of himself and then his life wouldn't be complicated. That was it.

This guy wasn't going to do him any good. Only make him think he had a chance, make a date, stand him up, and the next day he would be the laughing stock of McKinley. Well Kurt wouldn't fall for it. No matter how handsome he was, how his eyes just seemed to lure you in until there's no point of return... he was staring again. Damn he needed to stop doing that.

The bell ending class stopped his thoughts from progressing any further and Kurt began packing up his books into his bag slowly.

"You looked pretty distracted there, babe. Want me to help get whatever it was off your mind?" Kurt turned behind him to where Blaine was standing; black tote bag hanging off his left shoulder, hazel eyes staring at his, and smirk on his lips. But Kurt stayed silent. He wasn't going to play whatever game this was. He wouldn't let them win.

"Goodbye, Blaine." He turned around and began heading for his next class- Home Ec.

He made it to the class on time and found a seat in the back corner- he learned early on that sitting at the front got you called a teachers pet, and things thrown at you, sitting in the middle made people say that you wanted to be in the popular crowd and things thrown at you, and sitting in the back made it harder for people since they would have to turn around, and would see the things they were about to throw at him, so most people gave up. Sitting in a corner just helped his case.

They didn't do much, just introduced the new section and lesson they would be working on for a few weeks, and when the bell let out for lunch, Kurt was glad to leave.

He had lunch next, so he headed for the cafeteria, got his lunch in the over-crowded line, and was able to find an empty table near the back.

About five minutes after sitting down and taking small bites of his salad, there was a shadow above him. He looked up to see the same girl that introduced herself yesterday- what was her name? Oh that's right, it was Mercedes.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked shyly

"I- sure sure." First she talks to him, now she wants to sit with him at lunch. There is clearly something going on.

"Why are you sitting here, with me?" he asks after a moment. She looked shocked, a bit hurt even. "I- I'm sorry that came out wrong. Why are you sitting with me? I'm sure you have friends you'd rather have lunch with."

"You looked lonely, and I didn't know if you had a friend here and I thought that maybe I could be that friend."

"You want to be my friend?" Kurt asked skeptically

"Yeah I mean, everybody needs somebody."

"No I don't." he shot quickly, instinctively. "If this is some pity party you can just go." He was shutting down. Closing the walls. It was good. She couldn't hurt him if he didn't trust her. They say trust is something great, and maybe it is for people who don't break it, but everyone he was around broke his trust. He wouldn't let that happen again.

"This isn't a pity party, Kurt, this is me, and maybe it's just me wanting another friend, but this is just me and it's not under an ulterior motive to try and pity you. You may think you don't need anyone but I think you do."

"You don't know anything about me."

"I know that you think you're better off lonely, but I also know that friends can be great ok and-"

"I wouldn't be a good friend anyway. You wouldn't want me as a friend."

"You don't know that."

"Look at me! We're fighting and we aren't even friends, we hardly know each other! How is that a good thing? How could we be friends?"

"You'd be surprised." She spoke softly "Look," she spoke louder now "just try ok. Try for yourself. You never know what something is like if you've never tried it."

"I've had a friend before." Kurt said bitterly "And it didn't exactly turn out well."

"Ah but you see, you haven't had me as a friend. Everyone is different, Kurt."

"I don't know about that." He mumbled, mentally revisiting some of the more violent times of last year.

"Fine, whatever." He agreed finally.

"So, Kurt tell me about yourself." Mercedes said after a few silent moments between the two

"What do you want to know?" Kurt tried to get back to at least partially happy, at the very least he didn't want to be angry like this, he didn't even know why. This girl didn't do anything to him, he should give her a chance.

She thought for a while, but finally came up with "What's your birthday?"

"October ninth. You?"

"March fifteenth. You ask a question."

"I just did."

"No," she disagreed with a wave of her hands "a different question."

Kurt sighed "Um, favorite color?"

"Purple, you?"

"Blue. Your turn."

"Favorite movie?"

Breakfast at Tiffany's "Star Wars" he let the lie slip easily off his tongue. He had come up with answers that weren't too gay as soon as he found out that he was transferring schools.

"Hmm. I'll admit, I'm a Tangled fan."

"Disney's always good. Book?"

"Hmm... I don't know but I can tell you it's definitely one of the Harry Potters'."

"Nice, me too."

Mercedes put her head in her hand and looked off into the distance. Kurt didn't disturb her, she probably just didn't want to be here with him. It was quiet for a few short seconds, before she whispered "What do you like in a guy?"

Kurt froze, eyes wide as he stared at her, who obviously hadn't noticed his distress. He didn't know how she knew, but he knew that he should stop looking so guilty before a group of guys came over when they found out what they thought was true.

She looked at him a moment later, and realizes what she said. "Oh! I'm so sorry I didn't mean to say that it's just this guy I really like that barely knows I exists just came in and I'm so used to talking with the girls I didn't meant to say that you like girls I get it I really didn't mean it." She took a deep breath and looked at him with pleading eyes when he still wouldn't move "Please say something."

"I-" he couldn't "I- uh" he wouldn't. "I-" he coughed "It's fine. Honest mistake, we all make ‘em." Good. Safe.

"Oh thank goodness! I'm really sorry it just slipped out and I'm used to talking to girls."

"It really is fine, Mercedes"

Lunch after that goes pretty smoothly, Mercedes attempts small talk, which dies out when he ends up giving as little answer as possible, until they are dismissed for the next class.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Kurt walks into Geography without bothering to look up, things have been going pretty good for him. Sure it's only been two days, but his father has told him to be more optimistic, and that's what he'll do.

He manages to get a seat in the back again, and takes out him books to prepare for the lesson, when a certain hazel eyed beauty walks through the door.

"Well you're not following me. Did you steal my schedule then, babe?" Blaine said as he brushed past Kurt into the seat beside his, and Kurt forgets to answer the question, finding himself lost in the shorter boys' eyes.

The teacher- Ms. Williams he sees as he looks at his schedule- comes in the room and takes roll. Kurt keeps his head down, raises his hand when he is called, and then is silent as the lesson continues on.

While Ms. Williams droned on about geography, there's a sound of a pen scratching across paper and then a second later, a small, folded piece of paper is being slid onto his desk.

He's scared to look at it, it could be anything; a threat, a simple remark from someone too scared to say it to his face (not that he would ever say that) an- address.

Well he certainly hadn't been expecting that.

Underneath, with neat handwriting is ‘the offer still stands, babe'.

Kurt chances a glance to the right, to see Blaine staring at him, almost not blinking, mouth in its usual upward tilt, and a pen being spun around his fingers.

Kurt looks away again, staring intently down at his book, not wanting to look at that boy again. With the stupid curly locks of hair and honey eyes and near flawless skin and his persona that just seems to emanate a feeling of danger and excitement that Kurt knows he can't get himself involved in. It would only lead in getting hurt.

He could still feel the long-gone bruises as if they were telling him something.

Stay away. Kurt thought stay away and don't bother anyone. If they can't see you they can't hurt you.

By the time the bell rang, Kurt was tired, angry at himself and others, and just wanted to go home.