Blaine was 19 years old when he got accepted into Juilliard.

Music has always been his passion: Ever since he was a little boy at the age of five asking his parents for piano lessons. They complied after some deliberation, in the end Blaine's mother convinced his dad it would benefit their son's education.

By the age of eleven Blaine had not only perfected the piano, but took up guitar, too - much to the dismay of his farther who still thought of it as a cheer waste of time. Mr. Anderson had certain expectations of his son and spending his time with something as ridiculous as music simply didn't fit in with his plans of Blaine studying law and working in the family business. However he kept his mouth shut as long as Blaine had a perfect grade score, he really couldn't care less about how he threw away his free time.

At age fourteen Blaine realized that he was different and it threatened to destroy his carefully held together life....

See: Blaine didn't dream about girls like all the other boys at school, no, Blaine's dreams consisted of broad shoulders and strong hands holding him protectively to a firm chest. Unfortunately for him, the other boys at school had noticed Blaine never looking after any of the girls and began put the pieces together.

That's when it all went downward for Blaine. One afternoon - he was just walking home from one of his music lessons - when he was suddenly cornered by several jocks from his school...

He doesn't really remember what happened:

They surrounded him. Told him they knew that he was a disgusting fag and that they wouldn't let him infect their school with all his gayness. After that followed several other nasty comments which Blaine couldn't really process over the pounding of his heart and the rush of blood in his ears. He couldn't do anything but stand there, dumbfounded.

They found him out, just like that... Was he really that obvious? He didn't think so. But maybe he hadn't paid enough attention? Oh god, they were probably going to tell everybody! He couldn't handle that, couldn't handle his parents finding out - his dad finding out what a big disappointment his son really was.

His frantic train of thought, however, was interrupted by one of his confronter's fists colliding hard with his face - he had obviously taken Blaine's unresponsive behavior as a personal insult. Blaine tumbled backwards and clutched his cheek, horrified. It all want downhill from there on...

That first blow seemed to have set something of in the other jocks because Blaine suddenly found them all exchanging suggesting looks before they began to crowd in on him on the floor, several spurting evil smirks and an unsettling gleam in their eyes.

After that it's all just a blur of blows and kicks, shoves and insults thrown his way - until he finally fell a blissful darkness surround him.

When he woke up again it was to the sound of his mother crying at his bedside. Looking around himself Blaine quickly realized that he wasn't in his bedroom, but was lying in a hospital bed with several machines hooked to his body and Band-Aids covering most of it. After getting over the shock of seeing her son finally awake again, Mrs. Anderson promptly engulfed her son in a desperate hug (mindful of his broken body). Once everyone had calmed down again and the doctors had checked up on Blaine - now that he was awake - his mother fell into the tale of what had occurred while he was out:

Apparently, he had been unconscious for a total of five days. He had been found abandoned and beaten up on the sidewalk by a passer who phoned for an ambulance and the police. The hospital had called his parents and told them that their son's life was in danger and he would need immediate surgery due to a heavy head injury. While his mother was waiting anxiously for the surgery to end, his father was pressuring the police to find out who did this to his only son. The operation was successful but because of a temporary lack of oxygen to his brain, Blaine fell into a coma. The doctors told his parents all they could do now was wait and hope for the best. Mrs. Anderson never left her son's bedside if not absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, Mr. Anderson (who as a very successful lawyer held a certain amount power) got the police to look into his son's school for answers - and while they didn't come up with any information on the identity of Blaine's attackers, they could determine that apparently the boy had been the victim of a hate crime because of his homosexuality. Hearing this Blaine's father became very enraged and threatened the police to file a lawsuit against them for defamation. That was when Mrs. Anderson intervened and sent the police away, she tried to ease her husband into the possibility that their son might actually be gay (she had always had her suspicions - a mother just knows things like this). Mr. Anderson however didn't want to hear anything about it and left.

"That was two days ago and he hasn't come back since...", she finished frowning worriedly.

By the end of her explanation Blaine was in tears. He had been outed against own will and his father had left disgusted by the idea of having a gay son. But there was also his mother who accepted him and told him she had known all along but loved nevertheless.

It was too much to process all at once and he was still exhausted. So he sent his mother home (not without many protests from her side - promising her countless times that he was okay. And in the now quiet room simply went to sleep trying not to think too much about his the mess his life seemed to have become in only one short week...

When Blaine woke up the next morning it was still quite early - judging by the dim light creeping into the room from the window on the side. He didn't see him at first. Until a throat was cleared in one of the far corners of the room and a figure moved to the foot of his bed. The air suddenly felt charged.

There were no greetings exchanged, only one question filled choking silence of the room:

"Is it true? ", Mr. Anderson asked in an impassive voice. His eyes were trained on the form of his son lying in the hospital bed, while he waited for him to answer.

Blaine met his father's stare determined not to seem weak.

"...yes. " It was supposed to come out strong, but just barely managed to speak at all.

"Then you are no longer my son", Mr. Anderson simply stated, seemingly unaffected by his son's confession. With that he turned around and left.

Mr. Anderson was much too concerned about his reputation to file for divorce but he was also too narrow-minded to stay with his wife when she was supporting their son's unacceptable lifestyle choices - so he just packed up all his stuff and left. His mother didn't take it well - she loved her son and accepted him, but she had also loved her husband - and on more than one occasion in the following years Blaine would find her passed out in the living room with several empty bottles of wine in front of her.

That's when music became his escape from everything - was it the anxiety attacks he still had whenever he left the house, the hurt of his father not accepting him or the dreadful feeling he always got from the fought of going back to school in the fall - he just let it all flow into what he was playing. But when even that wasn't enough anymore - the panic attacks came more and more frequent - his therapist suggested him trying out some self-defense classes. So Blaine took up boxing (which helped him immensely) and he began to fight for himself.

And when school came around in the fall and he had start his freshman year all over again - having missed too much while recovering to catch up on - he had built up a new confidence and embraced his own sexuality.

After he made his statement for the police they were actually able to arrest the jocks that beat him up because apparently one of them had made a cellphone video of the whole incident.

So Blaine went back to school and didn't hide anymore bit showed them all who he was. He even joined the fight club and started a chapter of PFLAG - that's how he learned that he wasn't the only gay kid at school and other the next few years and even went out with a few boys, but it was never too serious. Blaine loved romance and he was just looking for the right person to share the important things with, so he never went further than a few coffee dates or the few times he actually went to the local gay bar to dance.

Because of his likable personality and his positive spirits he managed to get quite the big circle of friends, with whom he spend most of his free time (when he wasn't at music or boxing lessons) - his life was finally back on track...

When Blaine turned sixteen he had decided that he wanted to work in the music industry. He knew it would be hard but he was talented and that he could do it. He had always loved playing and after he started to write songs - to try and process what happened to him - he couldn't imagine doing anything else with his life. He had fought on and had seen that life really does get better and he hoped that his music would be able to show others who might be stuck in a familiar place like he was just last year.

The letter from Juilliard came as a shock to Blaine. Of course he knew that they would have to write him - he applied to the school after all - but he never thought they would actually consider him, let alone for a partial scholarship. He almost couldn't believe it when his music teacher suggested him trying out for the school in the first place - he always wanted to study in New York (it was is childhood dream), but he thought he would simply apply to the music program at NYU (it was pretty good after all) and not the best music program at the best art school in the country. And they actually thought he was that good - he couldn't believe it.

So May - three weeks left before finals - found Blaine in the auditorium of his high school sitting in front of a piano purring all his hopes, dreams, strength and emotion into his music. There was never a question as to what to play in this moment - he just knew. After showing the full extent of his abilities with some classical pieces, he moved on to his guitar and played one of his own songs, one he had written just after the attack and which had always helped him get out of bed again when there was seemingly nothing that would change. When nothing seemed to get better with his mother constantly passed out drunk or himself lonely and plagued by oh-so-frequent panic attacks. And the now that he finally had friends, who he knew loved him for who he is, held a whole new meaning to him...

After the last notes of "Not Alone" echoed out in the almost empty auditorium Blaine put his guitar down and held his breath. The Juilliard representative congratulated him for his technically flawless performance and complimented the passion with which he had sung and played, then she just left. All Blaine could do now was pack up his things, go home and wait...

It wasn't until barely a week before graduation (wherefore Blaine had been chosen as main speaker since he was this year's valedictorian) that he got another letter with the Juilliard stamp in the mail. He opened it with shaking fingers and his eyes began to water slightly when he read that he had not only been accepted for the next school year but he would also receive a partial scholarship which would help him to better cope with his planned double major.

That was one of the happiest days of Blaine's life. He had never given up and always kept on fighting for his own right for happiness in a world which was irrationally cruel to him just because he liked boys instead of girls. Even though he was slightly worried about leaving his mom, he knew she would be ok - she had finally admitted her problem and decided to look for help.

Blaine felt like he had finally won.

What he didn't know yet was that in just a few months his life would become more complicated than ever before. And he would have to fight all over again, albeit for completely different reasons...