Kurt's first week at Dalton had flown past. The classes were more interesting and challenging, the teachers actually knew what they were talking about, all the students were friendly, and Kurt found himself relaxing more as the week went on.

The Warblers were completely different to New Directions; they were run by a council of three senior students (Wes, David, and Thad) rather than by a teacher, nobody generally spoke much during meetings (other than the council), except when they were discussing something, unlike in New Directions where people were constantly arguing, and everyone took part in the a cappella unless they had received a solo from the council. Kurt loved being part of a team like he was with the Warblers, unlike with New Directions where he had sometimes been forgotten or ignored. He quickly became friendly with the other Warblers, but still spent most of his time with Blaine. They had a few classes together, sat together at meal times, helped each other with their homework, and hung out in the common room or watched a movie in one of their rooms during their free time. It was always at the back of Kurt's mind when he and Blaine were together that he needed to be careful of how close they were getting, but Kurt couldn't help himself. Blaine was smart, funny, caring, sweet, and great fun to be around. They liked the same movies, shared a love of Vogue and musicals, and loved singing along to the radio. Distantly, Kurt knew he was falling for Blaine, but he forced himself not to think about it.

On Friday evening, Kurt's father Burt called him, suggesting he spend the weekend at home. Kurt tried to refuse at first, saying he had a lot of homework and needed to use Dalton's library, but Burt wasn't having it.

"Kurt, when have you ever let homework pile up so you have masses to do on the weekend? Never, you'd never do it just in case there was a sale on at the mall that you needed to go to."

Kurt sighed, "Yes, but Dalton is different from McKinley, Dad. They give you a lot more homework for over the weekend."

"We have internet at home you can use, everything is on the internet these days, I'm sure you can find what you need on there." Burt paused, "Don't you want to come home and see your old Dad?"

Kurt leaned his head back against the wall, he did want to see his Dad, but one of the reasons he came to Dalton was to distance himself from him.

"I guess I have no choice then, you're just going to argue with me until I say yes."

Burt said nothing to this, too used to how his son behaved.

"I'll see you later tonight then."

"I suppose you will." Kurt replied, before hanging up and tossing the phone down onto his bed with a groan. He hated having to act this way towards his Dad, but he had no choice. Mentally cursing his thirteen year old self, he began to pack some of his things that he'd need for over the weekend.

Kurt was just zipping his bag shut when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!"

The door opened and Blaine strode in, a wide smile on his face.

"Hey, Kurt! What are your plans for the weekend? Want to go grab a coffee tomorrow morning?"

Kurt desperately wanted to say yes and was glad he had an excuse not to go, coffee sounded too much like a date and Kurt couldn't date anyone, especially Blaine.

"Sorry, my Dad wants me home for the weekend." He swiped his phone off his bed and slid it into his pocket. "I'd better leave now before it gets too late."

Blaine quickly hid his disappointment, "No problem, enjoy your weekend at home and I'll see you when you get back."

Kurt slung his bag over his shoulder and snatched up his car keys, following Blaine out of his room.

"See you Sunday!" He smiled and returned Blaine's wave before heading downstairs and out to his car.

"How was your first week?"

Kurt stared down into his tea, swirling it around the mug.

"It was fine," He shrugged, "Better than being at McKinley."

Burt took another gulp of tea. "Made any new friends?"

"Yeah, a few, everyone's pretty friendly."

Burt resisted the urge to roll his eyes, having a conversation with Kurt these days was like trying to draw blood from a stone.

"What are your friends like?" He persisted, "What are their names?"

Kurt sipped his tea for a moment. "There's Wes, Nick, Jeff, David, Thad, Blaine..."

Burt didn't miss the small smile when Kurt said Blaine's name. "Tell me about this Blaine kid."

Kurt's head shot up and for the first time since they had sat down, he looked at his Dad. "He's just some guy in my English class and another member of the Warblers."

Burt smirked, "Oh, I think he's more than just 'some guy'."

Kurt slammed his half-drunk tea down on the coffee table and leapt to his feet. "Once again, Dad you are completely wrong. Blaine is just a guy I'm becoming friends with, just like I am with the rest of the Warblers. I've had enough talking for tonight, I'm going to bed."

He strode across the room and ran down the stairs to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him and throwing himself down on the bed. He hated having to pretend to be someone he was not around his Dad and he hated that his Dad was right about Blaine.

Blaine sighed as he crossed out another set of incorrect workings for the Chemistry problem he was trying to solve. He couldn't stop thinking about Kurt, which was stupid seeing as he hadn't even known him for a week. But there was something about him that was different, and Blaine found himself crushing on the older boy. He was glad he'd been able to skip a year of school due to his excellent grades; otherwise he wouldn't have been in any of Kurt's classes.

'And they'll put you back to the year you're supposed to be in if you let your grades slip because you're daydreaming about Kurt, Blaine. Focus!'

He sighed again and started working through the problem another time, he was half-way through when he realised the numbers weren't making any sense.

"Dammit!" He threw his pen down and dropped his head into his hands.

"Having trouble with your homework, Blaine? Never thought I'd see the day."

Wes dropped down onto his desk chair and moved closer to Blaine's desk so he could see what he was working on. "Chemistry? But you got 100% in your last test! How can you be-?"

Wes broke off, a smirk spreading slowly across his face. "Oh."

"Oh what?" Blaine mumbled into his hands.

"I see what the problem is," Wes couldn't wait to tell the others so they could tease him. "You've got a crush."

Blaine's head snapped up, his cheeks turning pink. "No I don't, I'm just tired and can't concentrate properly."

"Then why are you blushing?"

Blaine turned his face away, pretending to rummage through his bag for something, his cheeks flaming.

"I'm not blushing; it's just warm in this room."

Wes's smirk widened, "Uh huh, sure it is."

Blaine continued to search for nothing in his bag for a few moments.

"Missing Kurt?"

Blaine spun around to face Wes, his cheeks still flushed. "What? Wh-why would I?"

"No reason." Wes got to his feet and walked over to the door, "See you later, lover boy!"

Kurt was sitting at the kitchen table staring moodily into a bowl of muesli and fruit when his Dad walked in.

"Morning, Kurt!"

Kurt grunted in reply.

Burt poured himself a coffee and made toast before sitting down across from Kurt who was stirring his cereal.

Burt took a bite of toast, "What do you want to do today?"

"I assumed," Kurt poked at a piece of strawberry with his spoon, "that you would be going to work in the garage and leaving me alone all day. That's what you do every other weekend."

"Kurt," Burt said warningly, "drop the attitude."

"This is not an attitude, this is the truth."

"Kurt-"

Kurt stood up, "I'm going for a walk."

Abandoning his cereal, he pulled on his coat and stepped outside, slamming the door shut on his Dad's voice calling after him.

Kurt strode blindly down the street, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his coat, and his eyes on the ground. He wished he had come up with a better excuse to stay at Dalton. He knew he wouldn't be able to get away with never seeing his Dad, and he couldn't bring himself to do that anyway, he would never see his Mom again and he didn't want it to be the same with his Dad. But, if he spent too much time with his Dad and stopped acting like he didn't care about anyone, then he would never see his Dad again...

Kurt lay panting on the dusty attic floor, the thing that he had taken to be a demon, had vanished, leaving a rancid smell of hot, rotting garbage behind. Its words still echoed in his head.

'It can't be true,' Kurt told himself, as he shakily pushed himself up into a sitting position. "I'm just hallucinating; it is really hot up here. Just hallucinated...

He was woken up in the middle of the night by his Dad's howls of grief. Heart thumping in terror, he followed the sound to his parent's bedroom. His Dad spotted him and pulled him out of the room, closing the door behind him, but not before Kurt caught a glimpse inside.

What the demon had said had come true, his Mom was dead.

Wiping at the tears that were running down his face, Kurt ducked off the street into a small park and staggered over to the trees, collapsing to the ground at the base of the largest one where he was hidden from the view of the street. He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, dropping his head onto his knees and not caring, for once, that his tears were staining his jeans.

He wasn't sure how much longer he could cope with this. The only thing that kept him going was the thought that when he was eighteen and had left school, he could move away for college. He had always wanted to go to New York, and there he could live by himself and he would be miles away from his Dad; he would be able to get away with just a phone call every now and then. In just over a year's time he would be on his own, the way he had to be.

"Kurt! I wasn't expecting to see you back until later!"

Blaine had glanced up from discussing possible Sectionals songs with Wes, David, and Thad to see Kurt heading towards them, weaving his way through the couches and tables scattered throughout the boarder's common room.

Blaine ignored Wes nudging him with his elbow as Kurt sat down next to him.

"How was your weekend?"

Kurt shrugged, "Nothing special. How was yours?"

"I mostly did homework," Beside him, Wes sniggered, "So my weekend was nothing special either."

Blaine glared at Wes until he stopped smirking suggestively at the pair of them and went back to discussing set lists with David and Thad.

"Want to go get that coffee you couldn't manage yesterday?"

Kurt stared at him, his expression unreadable and just when Blaine was starting to panic that Kurt was going to say no, Kurt smiled at him.

"Sure, let's go."