Wes didn't even try to cover up his gasp as the group of Warblers watched various members of Vocal Adrenaline chuck raw eggs at the small girl in their midst. Wes' gasp was followed by quiet mutters and some (only slight, of course) cursing, and eventually, when Jesse St James cracked his egg on the girl's forehead, cries of outrage were heard from the uniform clad group.

Not that they were heard by the other kids in the parking lot, as they stood quite a distance away. Therefore, the Dalton boys had no idea what was being said either. They did know one thing, though – throwing eggs at people, especially ten against one, was not cool.

When the Vocal Adrenaline members all got in their (identical) cars, the Warblers started moving. They had planned on doing so before, but they had been held up when they noticed Vocal Adrenaline there, seemingly waiting for something.

"Do you think we should've cut in?" Blaine asked David anxiously as they approached the girl, who was still standing there. If put in her place, Blaine didn't think he'd be able to move for a while either. "We might've been able to stop them…"

"Or they would've thrown eggs at us too," Thad replied, catching up with them. "Vocal Adrenaline is ruthless, we all know that from experience. This year's Sectionals was a nightmare – "

Yes, they all knew that. But none of them had had eggs thrown at them by an opposing team. Wes quickly cut in, appearing at David's other side. "We know they're ruthless, but this was even crueller than before. I never knew they could sink this low…"

By now, they were within hearing distance of the girl. Her face snapped up and the four boys could clearly see the tears – mingled with raw egg – running down her face. Blaine's heart went out to her – he knew, after all, what it was like to be bullied, but thankfully, his former tormentors had never gone as far as to throw food at him like this.

"Who are you?" the girl asked, her voice quivering just slightly. "Are you here to laugh at me? To finish their job?" She held her head up high. "Go ahead. Laugh at me all you want. I can – "

"We're not here to laugh at you," David told her, stepping a little closer to the girl, who was watching them with distrust. "We just… want to help."

"Help?" the girl asked, clearly not believing them. "I don't need your help, I – "

"Let us at least help you get cleaned up," Thad suggested. Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.

"Y-You're just a bunch of perverts," the girl managed to choke out, before turning towards the entrance of the school resolutely.

"We're only trying to help," Wes called after her. Together with David, he stalked after the girl and the boys each grabbed one of her arms. "If it helps, we have a grudge against Vocal Adrenaline as well."

As it turned out, that was an even more wrong thing to say.

"You have a grudge against them as well?" the girl repeated suspiciously. "Does that mean you're a Glee club as well? Are you here to spy on us? Help – "

Wes firmly put one of his hands over her mouth. "We're not here to spy – not really, at least. We – "

The girl started trying to wriggle out of the boys' grasp, and Thad turned to Blaine with a long-suffering sigh. "Please remind me why we always feel like we should jump to everyone's aid, even when they clearly don't want our help?"

Blaine shrugged. "We've been taught too well, I reckon."

When the girl started shouting something about bathrooms and possible nudity, the two boys exchanged weary glances. "So that means we have to help out Wes and David as well, right?" Thad asked. Blaine merely nodded; he didn't like it one bit either.

"Just calm down, would you?" David told the girl firmly, and she glared at him. "We're not trying to see you naked, for God's sake! We have girlfriends – well, most of us do."

"Are there no bathroom stalls in this school?" Thad asked, eyeing the building with obvious discomfort.

Blaine repressed the need to laugh out loud – it was obvious that none of his friends had ever attended public school if their knowledge about this sort of stuff was so limited.

"Of course there are bathroom stalls, Thad, don't be ridiculous," Wes scoffed. "And again," he continued, turning to the girl, "we only want to help you get cleaned up. That's all. We're nice like that, believe it or not."

"And if it really makes you so uncomfortable, we can just send Blaine with you," David added thoughtfully.

"What?" Blaine almost yelped. "Why me?"

David rolled his eyes. "You're gay. She won't have to fear you attempting to sexually assault her in the bathroom or whatever it is she's so afraid of."

The girl huffed. "Well, excuse me for being a little suspicious of four guys acting all chummy when my ex-boyfriend and his teammates just threw eggs at me, knowing that I'm a vegan!"

"You dated Jesse St James?" Blaine asked disbelievingly. "Why?"

The girl just sent him a menacing look, but not as menacing as her previous ones. "Did you say you were the gay one? Fine. Help me out then, if you still feel inclined to do so."

She marched towards the school, and the Warblers hurried after her. As she pushed open the door to the nearest girl's bathroom, she pulled Blaine, whose protests about even going in there went unheard, along and instructed the other three boys, "You three, can you go to the choir room and fetch Kurt? He should have some shampoo we can use."

Wondering why on earth someone would bring shampoo to school (a public school, Thad reminded them), the three boys set off in search for the choir room.

"So this was Rachel?" David asked as they walked through the deserted corridors.

Wes nodded slowly. "It has to be her. She's short, dated Jesse St James, and has an incredible set of lungs."

"Do we know who this Kurt is?" Thad asked, frowning. The other two shook their heads.

"No, we don't," David said unhappily. "The chat rooms I've seen we're all going on and on about Rachel and St James and some guy named Finn… not many other people were mentioned."

"Is this it?" Thad asked, nodding towards the room to their left – the only room they'd come across that still had students in it. "The choir room?"

"Looks like it," Wes muttered. Approaching the room slowly, they were met by a sight that surprised them all. Unlike the Warblers themselves, who, naturally, wore the same uniforms all the time (even now, on their not-really-spying mission), and Vocal Adrenaline, whose members were always recognisable as a group as well, this Glee club appeared to consist of individuals who didn't like to be told what to wear. Everyone looked different, apart from the two cheerleaders in the back.

"Uh, hi," David greeted the group, grinning sheepishly as they stepped inside. "This is the choir room, right?"

The students in the room eyed them apprehensively. "Are you here to spy?" a guy with a Mohawk demanded. "Because if you are, I'm going to – "

"Puck, sit down," the man standing in front of the students told him. So, apparently, New Directions had a director. Most show choirs did, of course, but it was still information worth storing away. "Now, boys – I sincerely hope you're not here to spy on us, as we've had some major issues with Vocal Adrenaline recently. So, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"We were told to fetch Kurt," Thad blurted out. "So… it would be awesome if he would come with us."

The entire group turned towards a boy in a cheerleading uniform they must've overlooked before. "Why?" the boy asked suspiciously. "Who sent you? If it was Azimio and Karofsky, tell them thanks, but no thanks. They've already pushed me around enough for one day, I'd think. I'm not exactly in the mood for more."

"Uh – no," David answered, slightly shocked at the answer they got. "But it was kind of an emergency."

"Then who was it?" the boy asked. "Strando? One of the other football players?"

"Why is everyone at this school so stubborn?" Thad wondered aloud. "Why can't anyone just accept that we only want to help?"

"Short girl, brown hair, previously dated Jesse St James," Wes interrupted Thad – again. "She said she would need your shampoo."

The whole club started talking after that, but at least the boy called Kurt stood up. With a glance at their director, who didn't appear to notice, he grabbed his bag and walked towards the Dalton boys. "Fine," he said, sounding slightly annoyed. "Where is she?"

In the meantime, Blaine was having some major issues with Rachel. The worst one? She kept talking about how big a star she was, how she would lead New Directions to a win at Regionals and, after that, Nationals. How she was going to go to Broadway and astound everyone with her talent – after that, he was slightly ashamed to say he'd stopped listening. The fact that she wouldn't sit still didn't make his attempts to wash the eggs out of her hair any easier.

He sagged down against the opposite wall just as the door opened, and another boy walked in. Said boy didn't seem to have a problem with being in the girl's bathroom; at least, he didn't look freaked out just from being in here.

"Kurt!" Rachel exclaimed. "Finally!"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Rachel," he acknowledged her. Wincing at the state she was in, he added, "Didn't we all tell you that this wasn't going to end well?"

Rachel gave him a sharp retort, but it was lost on Blaine because… holy crap was that a cheerleading uniform? From his position on the floor, Blaine had an exceptionally good view of… certain parts of the other boy's body.

Cursing himself silently for letting his dapper façade slip for a moment there, Blaine quickly looked away and caught Rachel's eye instead. The girl was looking at him suspiciously – at least that wasn't new. But could she blame him? He may be gay, but he was still a sixteen year old boy with (at times) raging hormones.

"Oh – " The other boy seemed to notice Blaine sitting on the floor only now. He pulled a face, and for a moment, Blaine was afraid that he'd already made a bad impression. Fortunately for him, that didn't entirely seem to be the case. "Why are you sitting on the floor?" the boy asked, wrinkling his nose in distaste. "Do you know how many times a year they clean the bathroom floors here? I don't, but it doesn't appear to be very often."

Needless to say, Blaine wasted no time getting up. Deciding that he definitely should make up for sitting on the floor, he moved to wash his hands first, before extending his right hand to the boy. "Hi," he greeted him cheerfully. "I'm Blaine. I've been trying to get her to cooperate, but she wouldn't let me help."

"You could be a spy," the girl pointed out. "I don't trust you."

"What would he be spying on if he was helping you wash your hair?" the other boy asked, shaking his head. "Besides, it's not as if he could've made it worse." Smiling apologetically, he turned to Blaine and managed to shake his hand before Blaine dropped it. "I'm Kurt," he introduced himself, even though Blaine had already figured that that must be his name. "I'm sorry about Rachel. She's not very good at interacting normally with people."

Ignoring Rachel's indignant reply, Kurt pushed her back on the stool that had been conveniently standing in the corner of the bathroom earlier. As the other boy then walked towards his bag and searched through it, Blaine stood there awkwardly. "Do you still need me here?" he asked, looking from Kurt to Rachel (which, admittedly, wasn't the greatest change of view).

"Actually, yes," came Kurt's reply. "If you don't have anywhere else to be, of course." When Blaine shook his head, Kurt continued, "Could you hold Rachel's shoulders in place then? As you probably already noticed, she doesn't exactly sit still when we need to wash her hair, so a little extra force is needed to make sure she sits still."

This time, Rachel only huffed in response, and Blaine shrugged. He supposed he could do that.

As he set to work, Kurt asked Blaine curiously, "Why are you here, though? You obviously don't go here, so what brings you to McKinley?"

Blaine thought about his reply for a few seconds before answering, "Well – to be honest, we came here to see the Glee club. We weren't spying per se, we were just curious."

"Ha! I knew it!" Rachel cried out, but as Kurt threatened to leave her to her own devices, she (fortunately) shut up.

"Curious about the Glee club? That doesn't happen very often," Kurt remarked as he carefully ran his fingers through Rachel's hair to make sure there weren't any dry spots left. "

"Yeah, well," Blaine started, "some friends of mine – the ones who came to get you – are avid followers of what Vocal Adrenaline is up to after they trashed us at Sectionals again this year. Not because they like them, but because they want to be the first to know if anything threatens their position as top show choir of the country."

"So you're in a Glee club as well?" Kurt asked, smiling slightly at him. It took Blaine a couple of seconds to gather his thoughts.

"Yeah, I am," he responded. "I'm in the Warblers, and we're the Glee club of Dalton Academy. It's in Westerville."

"It's a private school?" Kurt asked, eyeing Blaine's blazer.

"Yes, it is." Blaine felt slightly embarrassed to be talking about this here, so he changed the subject swiftly. "Anyway, during David's latest session at the Ohio show choir chat rooms, he came across a message that Vocal Adrenaline might actually lose Regionals this year, and that it was all thanks to a new show choir called New Directions."

Kurt sent him another small smile, but Rachel sighed. "But now that Jesse's back in Vocal Adrenaline, they have more of a chance again."

"That's true," Kurt admitted, a little sullenly – a look Blaine decided he didn't like much on the other boy's face.

What was wrong with him?

"We've been in a funk ever since we found out that Jesse transferred back," Rachel told Blaine. Now that she found out that the Warblers had already been beaten by Vocal Adrenaline and, thus, didn't like them much either, she didn't appear to be so adamant at distrusting him anymore.

"We'll root for you," Blaine promised.

"So you came here to see what exactly we were made of, to be spoken about so highly in the Ohio show choir chat rooms?" Kurt asked a minute later, sounding vaguely amused.

"Pretty much, yeah," Blaine replied. "Though we were hoping to maybe catch you in the middle of a performance, to get an idea of what you're like."

"We feel honoured," Rachel told him. "Ow! Kurt! Be careful, would you? That hurt!" Kurt shrugged, obviously not really caring about Rachel reprimanding him, and the girl frowned. "I'll have you know – oh! Hey! But if you're from Westerville, we might just have to compete against you next year at Sectionals or Regionals! So technically, you are here to spy!"

Blaine sighed. "That's exactly what Wes' angle was," he admitted. "But I'm sure you're not doing anything about your Sectionals set list yet, right? So you're safe."

Kurt snorted. "Considering we haven't even started on our Regionals set list, that's very true."

"Kurt!" Rachel hissed at him. "Don't tell him that! He could use it against us!"

"I'm sure he won't," Kurt told her, rolling his eyes. "And if he does, we'll just tell Puck and Finn and they'll do something about it." Glancing at Blaine, he added, "You know what they did when Vocal Adrenaline TP-ed our choir room a few days ago? They slashed the tires of all their cars."

"I won't use it against you," Blaine said instantly. "I promise." He held up his hands in defence, causing Rachel to start moving again, which caused shampoo to fly all around the bathroom. Kurt frowned, and Blaine hastily grabbed Rachel by the shoulders again and pushed her back against the sink – perhaps a little too forcefully, but neither of the boys paid much attention to that. "We're mostly here to see if the rumours were true," he repeated. "And sure, it might give us an idea of what to expect from you in the future, but I'm sure some of our performances are on YouTube, so not all would be lost for you."

Rachel muttered something – Blaine suspected it had to do with said performances and YouTube – and Kurt started washing the shampoo out of her hair, after making sure that his uniform didn't have any stains on it.

Soon enough, they were done, and Kurt handed Rachel a towel (claiming he'd taken it out of his locker when he heard Rachel was in need of his shampoo – Blaine wondered why someone would have to bring shampoo and a towel to school). "Let's go back to the choir room," he decided when Rachel was done.

"Is he coming too?" Rachel asked as they walked out of the bathroom, nodding at Blaine, who, just to be safe, was walking on Kurt's other side.

"His friends are probably still there as well," was all Kurt said to that.

And indeed, Wes, David and Thad were still there too. They did wish, however, that they could be anywhere but there at the moment. Most of the club was glaring at them, or at least looking at them as if they couldn't be trusted. All they had done was tell them the same story Blaine had told Rachel and Kurt. Needless to say, most of the group shared Rachel's reaction to what could actually be defined as 'Warblers bowing down to New Directions, and putting all their faith in them'.

It wasn't quite the reaction they'd been hoping for.

At least New Directions' director was there, so the group probably wasn't going to attack them.

"What happened to Rachel?" a tall boy suddenly asked out of the blue. As everyone turned to stare at him, he shrugged and said, "They said they saw her at the parking lot and they told Kurt that she needed his help."

Naturally, at that precise moment, the door to the choir room flew open again. "They egged me," Rachel announced with a huff. When everyone went back to glaring daggers at the Dalton boys, she quickly clarified, "Oh, not them. Vocal Adrenaline."

Now that caused an uproar the likes of which none of the Warblers had seen before. A couple of guys – two of whom Blaine suspected to be Puck and Finn – started making war plans to bring Vocal Adrenaline down once and for all. It seemed like they played a lot of computer games, as some of the scenarios turned out a little unrealistic. But Blaine was sure that the boys would easily be hired by a game designer.

When their coach tried to calm them down, Kurt snorted. Looking beside him, Blaine realised that he'd almost forgotten that the other boy was there, which was odd. He raised his eyebrows, and Kurt told him, "A few days ago, he suggested stealing Carmel's school statue to get back at Vocal Adrenaline."

"Your director?" Blaine was shocked. This school was much weirder than the public school he'd attended before coming to Dalton had been. "He's not really setting a great example, is he?"

"We're quite used to that at McKinley," Kurt informed him, shrugging.

Before Blaine could respond to that, Wes, David and Thad had quietly made their way over to them. "Should we just… leave?" David asked uncertainly. He glanced at the wild mess at the other side of the room.

Nodding, Blaine turned to Kurt. "Mind showing us back to the parking lot?" he asked, smiling apologetically. "I'm afraid I don't quite remember how to get there."

Plus, it gave him an excuse to talk to Kurt (or hear him talking) for a little longer. But he wasn't about to say that. Nevertheless, David smirked knowingly at him.

"Did we catch you on a particularly bad day?" Wes was asking Kurt now. "It looked like chaos in there."

"No, not really," Kurt replied pleasantly, like it didn't even bother him. "We've always got some drama going on."

David and Wes exchanged glances, clearly fully losing the hope they had that New Directions might beat Vocal Adrenaline at Regionals.

When they reached Wes' car, David grinned wickedly at Blaine before turning to Kurt. "So, maybe Blaine can give you a call some time?" he asked.

Blaine groaned and vowed to himself that he would make David pay for this. Kurt, meanwhile, had turned a deep shade of red that went perfectly with his uniform. As he caught Blaine's eye, Blaine sent him a small smile.

"I'm sorry, they're idiots," he apologised.

"I'll say," Thad muttered, climbing in the backseat of the car, just to get away from the craziness outside.

"Don't worry, he's gay," Wes told Kurt, clapping Blaine's back. "Wait – you are too, right?"

"Sorry, we just assumed," David continued.

"No, that's fine." Kurt seemed to have finally found his voice back. "Most people do. But yes, I'm gay. And I suppose you can do that," he added, directing the last bit at Blaine with a shy smile.

Blaine grinned widely. "Great. Awesome! So… what's your number?"

After Kurt recited his number, Blaine sent him a quick text to make sure Kurt had his number as well, and soon after, they were on their way back to Westerville, not too hopeful about Vocal Adrenaline finally getting destroyed at Regionals, but much wiser about the goings-on in the McKinley High Glee club.

The next day during Warbler rehearsal, Blaine got a call. He managed to slip away without the council noticing before picking up.

"Kurt?" he asked worriedly. "What's wrong?" They hadn't really been in touch since the day before, which made Blaine wonder why Kurt would call him now, in the middle of the day. Wouldn't he have rehearsal himself?

"Nothing's wrong," Kurt quickly reassured him. "Apparently, Mr Schue – our director – came up with a great idea to get back at Vocal Adrenaline, and for some reason, he invited you lot to come as well. Just the four of you, though, not your entire club – and no video cameras, or anything like that. Friday, three o'clock, our auditorium. It's called the April Rhodes Civic Pavilion, though, just so you know."

Blaine grinned. "We'll be there," he told Kurt, glancing at the door nervously. "Hey, I'd love to chat some more, but I really need to get back to rehearsal before anyone notices I'm missing."

"Yeah, me too," Kurt replied. "So I'll see you then?"

Blaine's grin grew even further. "I can't wait."

When Blaine and his friends entered McKinley High for the second time that week, they managed to find the auditorium fairly quickly. The other Warblers knew what they were going to see, and while slightly disappointed that they couldn't come as well (Blaine was certain that they'd get kicked out if they all went), they relied on them to inform them of what had gone down in the McKinley High auditorium in detail.

"I wonder what they'll do to get back at Vocal Adrenaline," Wes commented, looking around curiously as they entered the auditorium.

"From what I've read in the chat rooms, Vocal Adrenaline showed them a pretty impressive performance," David said. "It must be tough to beat that."

Noticing the members of said show choir already in the front seats, Blaine quietly suggested sitting somewhere in the middle – not too close to Vocal Adrenaline, but not too far away from the stage either.

Soon after they'd all settled down in their seats, Rachel walked on stage, looking decidedly different from what the boys had seen earlier – both when she had eggs in her hair, and afterwards. She gave a short introduction (which made Blaine wonder why Vocal Adrenaline even had an escalating dispute with a show choir that hadn't existed a year prior), and behind the screen, the other New Directions members (or rather, their shadows) could be seen. It looked pretty cool, Blaine thought, but he wasn't sure if Vocal Adrenaline thought the same way. They didn't seem very impressed.

Then someone started singing –

"You know, after hearing him speak, I didn't expect Kurt's singing voice to be so low," David told a completely shell-shocked Blaine, who hadn't quite seen this coming either.

"They're doing a funk number," Thad muttered, intrigued. "That's interesting…"

Interesting indeed, Blaine thought. The students on stage were all dressed differently (from each other, but also from how they had when Blaine had first met them), but appropriately, and even the girl who looked ready to give birth was dancing along enthusiastically.

Blaine just had to smile at the students' antics when they started free styling a bit; that was something the Warblers would never do, especially when trying to best their competition. For New Directions, however, it worked.

At the end of the song, New Directions appeared to be fully confident of their abilities to win Regionals once more, while Vocal Adrenaline, contrary to what Blaine had expected beforehand, seemed sufficiently impressed. Even though he had absolutely not reason to, Blaine felt a little smug.

Hastily, the boys scurried out of the auditorium. Right when Blaine began to wonder if maybe, he should stick around, to wait for Kurt, he received a text message.

Sorry I can't talk right now – we're at a post-performance high and the others want to go celebrate our impending win at Regionals.

Smiling, Blaine quickly sent a text back, telling Kurt that they could talk later. After all, summer was coming up, and Blaine would be damned if he wouldn't take that as an opportunity to get to know Kurt better.