Oh. Blaine watched as the boy stormed down the hall. His face was frozen in a half-smile from where he’d tried to be friendly and apologetic for bumping into him, but it wouldn’t stick. He’d only been in this school for not but twenty five minutes, and already, there was someone who was seemingly out to get him. After a moment, Blaine blinked himself back to consciousness and pulled his glasses off. He rubbed them on his polo shirt, then put them back on before whipping out the map again. He realized that he’d been walking the wrong way from the staircase, and turned around, trying to put the mystery of the rude stranger behind him.

Seven minutes and a hall monitor later, Blaine had finally found his way to room 14A. He was thankful for the fact that his English class was an hour and a half long, because he was at least fifteen minutes late to class. Blaine opened the door as quietly as he could, but the hinges creaked, and he found himself attempting to shrink back into the door frame as he walked into the classroom to the gaze of ten or fifteen male students. The teacher stopped her lecture and looked at Blaine expectantly, so he rushed to produce his transfer slip for her to sign. “I’m Blaine Anderson,” he murmured to the teacher, squeezing the trap of his bag until the teacher handed him back his slip and pointed to a seat on the left hand side of the classroom toward the back. Blaine sighed. He’d have to get to class early to get a seat in the front next time.

When he sat down, the classroom seemed to return to normal. The teacher was talking about the many themes in Edgar Allen Poe’s Telltale Heart, and Blaine pulled out his notebook, scribbling down what the teacher was saying as she spoke. He nodded softly when she made a point he agreed with, and even managed to answer a question correctly when she’d called on him, earning him a soft smile of approval, like he’d passed one of her tests. Only then did he let himself look up from his note-taking and glance around. Many of the boys weren’t paying attention, bored and staring off into space, as if they couldn’t care less about the lesson. The few that were paying attention were writing in their books, something that made Blaine cringe. He’d gotten about halfway around the room when the door hinges squeaked again, and Blaine froze. It was the boy from the hallway, and he looked none too happy, being practically carried in by what Blaine could only assume to be another teacher.

Oh, did this boy scream trouble.

Eventually it happened as it always did. Another teacher came along and found Kurt in the hall without a pass. He didn’t put up much of a fight at that point. Anyhow he did in fact have work he could turn in. Not that he would admit that in a thousand years. No. He let all his friends think he just barely got by like the rest of them, but in truth he kept hold of his A average like it was a lifeline. It was really. Maybe the other guys had other options, came from money or whatever, but Kurt understood, even from a young age, that good grades were the ticket out. So he made it to class often enough to get assignments and take tests and that’s why, he suspected, he was never actually expelled.

So with an hour left to the class he allowed Mr. Kline to haul him in by the collar as was his duty and Kurt just smirked at the teacher before taking a seat in the back. “You can see me after school”, the teacher said absently as he sat. Kurt would get out of detention though, because it was Warbler practice today and they were given so much slack it wasn’t funny, except it was. He was just grinning to himself about this very thing when he realized that he was looking directly at the back of that kid that had crashed into him in the hall. Oh hell. Not this guy again. He groaned inwardly as his eyes took time taking in the precisely gelled hair and the perfect line of his hair cut over the back of his collar. Miss Manners even seemed to be taking notes or something. He wouldn’t last around here, Kurt thought. No, he stuck out like the sore thumb he was and there was just something about him that was irritating, even at this distance.

David seemed to have noticed him too because he was making faces and crude gestures toward the boy and snickering not five minutes later. Kurt just chuckled. He couldn’t wait to tell everyone what a loser this guy was. For now he satisfied himself with throwing a wad of paper at the back of Mr. Perfect Hair’s head and then feigning innocence when the teacher looked his way. David was trying to control his laughter and Kurt was feeling much better about the whole day in general. It could be fun to teach the new kid about the pecking order around here.

As the troublemaker got settled into his seat, Blaine noticed that he had friends. He turned his head a fraction of an inch to try to see how many were in his posse, but was stopped by a nagging feeling that making eye-contact with them, accidental or otherwise, was probably not a smart idea. Instead, he turned to face forward again and started up his notes.

That was when he felt it. Blaine tried to keep his face neutral and passive as he felt the sharp edges of paper hit the back of his head and tumble down onto the chair. He leaned forward just far enough to pick up the piece of paper and held it in his hand. Apparently, accidentally running into people in hallways at this school was cause for high school level warfare. Blaine set the piece of paper at the corner of his desk and tried to ignore the pulling feeling of discomfort in the pit of his stomach. He was going to do good things at this school, he was sure of it. He just had to find a way to avoid upsetting people.

Slowly, he started to formulate a plan. What if he went up to the boy after class and sincerely apologized for bumping into him? The more he thought about it, the more of a good idea it started to sound like. Sure, they’d gotten off on the wrong foot, but if Blaine introduced himself and apologized and tried to make friends, then surely he could avoid this from happening again. That put a smile on his face as he jotted down another note from the teacher and flipped the pages in his book to keep up. Everyone had the potential to be a friend. Right?

Kurt managed to hit Blaine once more before class was over and David had been called out twice for disrupting class which was hilarious because Kurt was the one doing it. For his part Blaine just ignored him, but this didn’t bother Kurt in the least. If anything it was making Kurt concoct other ways to draw a reaction out of him. He was in the middle of writing what he believed was a very interesting poem about hair gel and helmet hair when the bell rang signaling their dismissal. He tucked the note away for tomorrow with a wicked grin. Immediately David was by his side.

“Holy hair gel Batman!” David said, not too softly.

“Oh you have no idea!” Kurt replied as they made their way toward the door.

The teacher raised an eyebrow as the boys walked by, but Kurt just waved goodbye to him in a completely overzealous manner.

Blaine managed to get through the entire class period without saying anything about the paper ball, even when a second on had joined it. He’d simply waited in silence, his plan to make friends with the boy only getting stronger. He just wanted this to stop, to have an ally, or something at this school, and he figured that the one surefire way to do it was to try to make friends with him.

When class was over, Blaine packed up his things in a hurry, both because he wanted to make his move, and because he had biology next period and had no idea where the science labs were. He made sure that he had his transfer slip in his blazer pocket for next period and shot out of his seat.

He heard the comments about his hair, but he said nothing. He’d heard a couple of those comments before, in his other school, but they’d stopped when they realized that Blaine wasn’t a bad person. Plus, he hadn’t exactly been the person of the hour, what with running into one of his friends in the morning. “Hey, wait,” he called out softly as he followed after the trio. He started to put his hand out to touch him, then thought better of it and stopped. “Um,” he started when he thought he had the ringleader’s attention. “I’m really sorry for bumping into you earlier this morning. I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m thinking we got off on the wrong foot or something. My name’s Blaine Anderson. I’m new here, which is why I was such a mess this morning. But, yeah, I just wanted to let you know that I really didn’t mean to run into you. I was hoping maybe we could, I don’t know, talk or something.” Blaine raised a hand out, hoping for the other boy to take it, shake it, or something.

Kurt could feel his eyebrows rising of their own accord and his mouth falling open in shock at the kid as he turned around. David was already snickering but Kurt shot him a look to shut up. He wanted to hear everything the little snot was saying. It was actually kind of incredible and Kurt found himself confused as to whether or not he should slam his fist into the kid’s smarmy mouth or laugh at him. Either one, seriously. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Blaine Anderson. What the actual fuck? Who even talks like that? Kurt let a smile slip across his mouth, a cruel smile.

“Wow, did you work on that all through class?” He waited a second and then narrowed his eyes at Blaine. “Oh my god you did.” He guessed, his laughter bubbling up faster than he could stop it.

Kurt closed the distance between them and leaned down a little to get at eye level. Blaine’s eyes were too wide and way too innocent for Kurt’s liking. It sort of riled him for some reason. “Listen, Anderson.” He started. “I’m only gonna say this once. You don’t talk to me. You don’t look at me. You certainly don’t chase after me in the hall. I don’t give a shit about you or your first day jitters. Stay out of my way.” Kurt stayed close to Blaine’s face for just a second longer than was absolutely necessary and then he turned to fist bump David as the two of them walked away.

Disbelief. Incredulity. Embarrassment. They were all emotions that ran through Blaine, no doubt racing across his face through his eyes, as Kurt told him exactly how things were supposed to go. He’d seen movies where people had been this mean, but he hadn’t thought that people like this actually existed. The hurt on his face was evident as Blaine dropped his hand back to his side. He’d only wanted to apologize, make amends, maybe a friend, but it was obvious that the other boy wanted nothing to do with him.

Hurt gave way to stunned silence as he was told off, only moving once to give a jerky nod to show that he understood what was being said to him. Blaine blinked, and then held his breath when there was silence between the two of them. He’d never had his face this close to another boy’s before, and instead of being intimate like Blaine had hoped someone being this far into his personal space would be, it was nerve-wracking, and Blaine felt his heart sink in his chest when the boy and his friend walked away, leaving Blaine scatter-brained and alone. A bell rang somewhere, and Blaine forced himself to pull out the map and go to his next class.

While he was walking, a very familiar sensation started to bubble in his chest, and it sank lower until it was a big pit in his stomach, gnawing away at him as he walked to biology, which, with the help of a student who didn’t seem so antagonistic, he’d learned was across the hall and to the left. He opened the door cautiously, eager to find that the room was still mostly empty, and he snapped a seat in the front row. Blaine, unconsciously, found himself wishing that the bully wouldn’t be in his class. Every time the door opened, Blaine’s head shot to the right, making sure that it wasn’t Kurt as he registered exactly what he was feeling: fear.