"So… again?" Blaine asked, frowning slightly. "I still don't think I completely get it."

Nick waved his hand around impatiently. "Jeff's girlfriend's cousin goes to some public school called William McKinley High, apparently. Apparently, they've got a Glee club there too, but from what I've heard, they're not very popular. As in, the entire school hates them. Anyway, rumour has it that they're performing a Britney Spears song at the homecoming assembly, and that cousin knows how much Jeff loves Britney Spears."

Oh, Blaine knew that very well, seeing as he'd been Jeff's roommate for an entire year last year. It had been… interesting.

"Don't act as if you don't love her too," Jeff, who'd been quiet for the biggest part of the conversation, accused Nick.

"Yes, we know, that's how you became friends in the first place," Blaine said, rolling his eyes. The story about the beginning of Jeff and Nick's friendship was an infamous one among the Warblers. "But what's the problem?"

"We want to go see the performance," Nick answered promptly, as if he'd been waiting for Blaine to ask this particular question.

"So go," Blaine said as neither of his friends continued speaking.

The two exchanged looks. "We want to… but we don't have a driver's licence," Nick told him, pouting.

Finally, it began to dawn on Blaine what was going on here. "Neither of you has a licence," he repeated, growing more suspicious every second.

The other two shook their heads, nearly in sync. "But you do!" Jeff exclaimed happily. "You could drive us there and watch the performance with us! You like Britney too, right?"

"There are other people here who are allowed to drive and like Britney Spears," Blaine reminded them.

"Yeah, but they're not as cool as you are," Jeff said, smiling a little too brightly.

"Wes and David and Thad, for example, would give us a half hour speech on how it's not right to spy on potential competition," Nick elaborated.

"And with that, you mean you've already tried asking them," Blaine deduced. Not much was out of the question where Nick and Jeff were concerned.

"Unfortunately, yes," Jeff replied.

"And then we remembered that you have a licence too!" Nick continued. "and we know how much you love us, so you can't say no! It's perfect!"

"I may be gay, but not for you," Blaine informed them, and Nick pouted again.

"But you like Britney, you just said so yourself!" Jeff protested. "And you don't really get out often enough. It's about time we got you outside the Dalton premises for a change."

"Guys," Blaine sighed, "I love your enthusiasm… and your concern, but there's a reason I'm at Dalton, remember? I don't want to go to another public school, even if it's just to visit, and bring back bad memories."

"We'll protect you," Nick said confidently, and Blaine figured that his two friends really didn't know what public school was like. Seeing as both boys were also straight (he knew many people doubted that, though), they had never experienced gay bashing either. He didn't doubt they meant well, but he feared that they wouldn't be able to stop anyone from attacking him.

"No offence, Blaine," Jeff said after a moment as Blaine didn't reply, "but you're not exactly the gayest person I know. Unless you're planning on walking around there with a sign stating your sexual preference, I don't think anyone's going to know you're gay. You should relatively safe there, don't you think?"

Blaine contemplated this for a moment. Jeff was right, he wasn't the most flamboyant guy around. The kids at his middle school had only found out when he'd confided in his so-called best friend, who subsequently told the entire school about Blaine's secret. He reckoned that, if Nick and Jeff kept quiet about it while at McKinley, he should be safe enough. If not, he was just going to hide away at Dalton forever.

"I'll come," he gave in eventually, hoping that he wouldn't regret it later. Nick and Jeff cheered happily, almost smothering Blaine as they hugged him tightly – leaving Blaine to wonder as well if these guys were really as straight as they claimed to be. "You're paying for the gas, though," he added in an afterthought. Not even this, however, could bring his friends' moods down.

o-o-o-o-o

A couple of days later, Blaine had almost forgotten about Nick and Jeff's crazy plan. Of course, that was when they struck, coming out of nowhere and ambushing Blaine as he was about to leave his room for rehearsal.

"Warblers practice is cancelled for today," Jeff informed him gravely.

Blaine frowned. "Are you sure? Wes told me just this morning to be on time for rehearsal this afternoon."

"Wes lost his gavel," Nick informed him. "He doesn't want to hold practice without it for some reason."

"He told you that?" Blaine was still not all too sure about this.

The two boys nodded. "You can ask him yourself if you don't believe us," Jeff said.

Five minutes later, Blaine sped back to his own room, having been thrown out of Wes' by the distressed gavel seeker. When he returned, Jeff and Nick were still in his room, and Jeff was on the phone, it seemed. The call ended before Blaine could ask who it was, and his friends exchanged almost manic grins.

"The assembly is today!" Jeff tod Blaine happily.

"What?" Blaine asked, completely baffled.

"The assembly at McKinley! The Britney Spears performance?" Nick reminded him. "It's in a few hours. If we hurry, we might make it to Lima just in time!"

"That's today?" Blaine asked. "Okay, well, I guess we can go… but shouldn't we put on some casual clothes first? People don't usually wear uniforms in public schools."

"We'll meet you in the parking lot in five!" Jeff told him as Nick already ran out of the room.

Five minutes? Blaine hastily opened his closet to find some clothes to wear to this assembly. He didn't have much of a choice, as he usually wore his uniform on schooldays (and sometimes even during weekends) in, but also out of, the school. Still, he managed to put some kind of outfit together that didn't make him look either homeless or too preppy, hoping that it would do.

When he arrived at the parking lot, he realised that Nick and Jeff, apparently, had even less clothes to choose from. "Do you think we'll stand out very much?" Nick asked doubtfully, glancing at their clothes.

"We're in Ohio. Most public school kids probably dress like this," Blaine replied, thinking back to his old school. Bad memories.

With both boys sitting in the back of the car, Blaine felt like he was driving a couple of toddlers around. Only after he told them to be quiet, or he'd turn around, right back to Westerville, they stopped being so loud and annoying.

It was only when they were almost in Lima when Blaine realised something. "You knew that this assembly was today, didn't you?"

"What?" Jeff asked, sounding surprised for some reason.

"This performance. You knew it was today, and you're the ones who stole that gavel from Wes because you know how anal he can get about the thing, and holding meetings without it. You planned this, didn't you?"

His two friends grinned evilly now. "We've got the gavel right here," Nick replied, pulling something out of his bag. Looking closer, Blaine realised that it was, indeed, the gavel.

"We honestly thought you'd catch on much earlier," Jeff added.

Blaine shook his head. "No. Why did you have to bring that thing along? Why couldn't you just leave it in your dorm at Dalton?"

"We had a feeling that it would freak you out if we brought it," Jeff replied, shrugging. "And we were right."

Blaine had never loved his friends more.

When they arrived at the school, Jeff and Nick eyed the building in distaste. "This is what public schools look like?" Nick wondered out loud.

"Do they actually dare call this thing a school?" Jeff added, shuddering.

Rolling his eyes, Blaine locked the car up and started walking towards the school; within seconds, Nick and Jeff came running after him, declaring that he shouldn't just walk away from them. "So this is McKinley High," Nick said, looking around as they walked in.

"Home of the Titans," Jeff added. When seeing his friends' confused looks, he pointed at a poster of sorts, declaring just that. "Probably the football team."

Blaine nodded, hoping that he'd have no run-ins with any football players. They may not know he was gay, but that didn't make him any less antsy. Nick and Jeff seemed to notice this as well, as they started walked a little closer to him, each on one side.

They had walked around the school for ten minutes when a voice rang out through the intercom, alerting all the students about the assembly once more. Only a minute later, the bell rang, and the three Dalton boys were faced with hordes of public school kids who were all heading one way – and Blaine and his friends were, naturally, walking in the opposite direction.

They managed to stick together, though, and as they followed the throng of students into what looked like the gym, Blaine glanced around timidly. Yes, he was very glad he didn't go to school here.

They managed to find some empty spots not too far from the stage (which wasn't difficult, seeing as most students sat away from the stage as far as possible), and then they waited. Luckily, they didn't have to wait very long – it appeared that this school didn't want to spend (or waste?) too much time on these things. Blaine couldn't understand how so many people could dislike show choir, as he'd always thought it was a lot of fun. Maybe this group was very bad?

Well, if Blaine had understood the small Indian man's announcement, the ravioli, at any rate, must be worse.

"Looks like that guy could use some pep himself," Nick muttered, obviously not impressed by the principal's ability to lull the entire audience to sleep within minutes.

"So this group made it to Regionals last year?" Blaine wondered out loud, though quietly. If that was the case, they couldn't be as bad as he thought, right?

"They came in last," Jeff countered.

Blaine shrugged. "They probably had to compete against Vocal Adrenaline, so that doesn't say much."

The students in the gym, it seemed, needed some pep as well, as their applause wasn't exactly enthusiastic. Then again, Blaine supposed that this was pretty logical if the club was as unpopular as Jeff claimed it to be.

The curtains opened, and boys and girls dressed in black and white were revealed. Jeff snorted behind his hand before saying, "Hey, Blaine, you could've fit in with them – the guys are even wearing suspenders!"

Blaine didn't know why he'd ever let slip that he had a fairly big collection of suspenders hidden away in one of his drawers, only to be used for extra special occasions.

And, okay – what on earth had they gotten themselves into? Yes, Blaine had known beforehand that the group would perform a song (or more than one song?) by Britney Spears. He just hadn't expected… this. Somehow, it didn't seem appropriate for a high school. Still, Blaine couldn't really complain; not when there was a group of boys on stage wearing black button-downs with white suspenders, with hats placed in front of their… crotches. Blaine had to admit, the girl's singing barely registered in his mind at that point. But who was the guy in white with the tie? Blaine frowned for a moment before deciding he must be this group's director.

When the chorus began, the students in the audience grew more and more enthusiastic, even cheering for the group. Which was weird, Blaine realised, if this group was truly disliked so much.

Some students, however, were louder than the rest of them, and it was also highly annoying. Blaine glanced around to see where the shouters could be, but he didn't see them. He just wished they'd shut up.

Seeing his face, Nick nodded sadly. "They're just heightening the level of inappropriateness of this performance, aren't they?" Blaine nodded.

Jeff, in the meantime, looked thoughtful. "You both know how much I hate to sound like Wes when he's in Warblers council mode, but… how did they compete at Regionals last year? There are only eleven of them, and the older guy…"

Blaine shrugged. "Maybe some people graduated, and others joined? Competition season is still a little while away, they've got the time to find more people."

Trying to block out the excited screams of certain people, Blaine concentrated on the performance again. That was not too hard, he realised, as the students on stage were manhandling their hats like they were born to do it. And, well, the inappropriate guy was right about one thing – it was immensely sexy.

Everyone went crazy when the song ended, cheering excitedly and obviously approving of the performance. Then it all went to hell – the fire alarm went off. It was too much of a coincidence for there to be an actual fire, so Blaine wasn't quite sure why everyone panicked like that.

He got up slowly and moved down to the floor steadily. Blinking, he turned to his left, to his right, and then looked behind him. Where had Nick and Jeff run off to? He tried to look through the crowd, but he couldn't find his friends anywhere. Now he was also stuck among a bunch of students who were just running around like they'd lost their minds, and thus, it was no surprise that Blaine ended up hitting the floor with a thud. Hoping that nobody would trample him, he kept his arms close to his body and squeezed his eyes shut. Maybe when he'd open them again, it would all turn out to have been a dream, because this definitely reminded him of the nightmare that had been his old school.

He didn't know how long it had been, but suddenly, someone was shaking him. "Are you okay?" a concerned voice sounded, and Blaine was brought back to the present. So it hadn't been a dream, sadly enough.

He heard more footsteps approaching him, and he shot up, bumping the back of his head into something. He winced and rubbed his head; he was bound to get an enormous headache later. But what had he –

Oh. He'd hit someone's face. "I'm so sorry!" he exclaimed, shuffling closer to the boy who was now massaging his chin with a pained look in his eyes.

"Boy, what was that for?" the girl who was standing next to the boy demanded from him.

"I'm sorry," Blaine repeated. "I just – panicked, I guess."

He noticed that the boy and girl both had been in the group that had performed, but as he looked around carefully, there was nobody else around anymore.

"Where did everybody go?" he asked. "What happened?"

"Someone pulled the fire alarm," the boy kneeling down next to him replied, still not letting go of his chin. "Everyone ran out like the mindless idiots they are, and you must've fallen. So, are you okay?"

"I suppose," Blaine replied, his voice small. "Considering the circumstances, that is. How's your chin?"

The boy shrugged. "I'll be fine."

"That was quite a reaction to a simple question," the girl commented. "What made you panic like that?"

Blaine stared down at the hand that was not rubbing his head. "Bad previous experiences with public schools, I guess."

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside, and the three of them glanced around to find its source. "Oh no," the boy muttered, his eyes widening.

Without realising what he was doing, Blaine wrapped his arms around the other boy's waist and buried his face in his right shoulder. He hadn't expected himself to be this emotionally scarred from his previous high school experiences, but this was all the proof he needed. As all the students who'd previously run out of the gym ran back in (and out, through the opposite door), Blaine was all but paralysed with fear.

When everything grew quiet around him, he dared to look up again. He hadn't been trampled, or shoved, or kicked. Nothing. He took a deep breath before letting go of the boy who was staring at him confusedly.

"Look, I have no idea what happened to you at your old school, but if it was so bad, why did you come to this assembly? Yes, it was kind of mandatory, but I'm sure they would've understood it if you couldn't come. You just should've brought a note from your parents," the boy told him, and Blaine swallowed.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. "I'm not – I don't even go to this school. My friends wanted to see your Britney Spears performance." He hesitated for a moment before adding, "And I haven't really been to public school in two years. I didn't think I'd react like this."

"Come on," the boy said, getting up from the floor. "Let's get you to the school nurse, alright? Maybe you can calm down there, and she could give you some ice for your head."

Blaine nodded slowly before standing up as well. While the boy told the girl to go back to the choir room, where (supposedly) the other members of their Glee club were as well, Blaine looked around the gym once more. Now, there were a couple of people loitering around, but Nick and Jeff were nowhere in sight.

As Blaine and the other boy walked out of the gym, the boy asked, "Did you really come here to see a Britney Spears performance? Where are you from?"

Blaine grimaced. "We go to school in Westerville. Now that you mention it, three to four hours in the car is a bit much for a two minute performance." Seeing the other boy's incredulous look, he added, "My friends are big Britney Spears fans. They're slightly crazy."

"You're kidding," the boy muttered, rubbing his chin lightly.

Luckily, the nurse had already returned to her office when they arrived, and they were both given icepacks for their heads; Blaine also got a glass of water after the other boy had explained what had happened (but not telling her everything that had gone down, for which Blaine was grateful).

When they were released again, Blaine realised that his friends must be wondering where he was by now. "I should really go," he said, surprising himself a bit. "Thanks for – helping me out."

"That's fine," the boy replied. "High school can be terrifying, especially this one." He looked around in disdain. "But there's nothing we can do about it, right?"

"Unfortunately not," Blaine said with a small smile. "Anyway, thanks again. Perhaps we'll… meet again someday."

The boy raised a challenging eyebrow. "Who knows," he responded, giving Blaine a small wave as they both turned around to go their respective ways.

Just like he'd predicted, Nick and Jeff were waiting by the car, pacing and panicking, or at least, that was how it came across from afar.

"Blaine!" Nick exclaimed loudly when they saw him coming. "Where have you been? What happened to you?"

"What happened to your head?" Jeff corrected him, inspecting it thoroughly; there was probably a lump forming there already.

After ushering them both into the car, Blaine tried to tell them the story as swiftly as possible. He didn't think he could concentrate both on talking to his friends and paying attention to the road. Normally he could, kind of, but the headache he'd predicted earlier was setting in, and it was not a good feeling.

All of a sudden, he realised that he didn't even know the name of the boy who'd helped him out. Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel in annoyance, he sighed. There was nothing he could do about that now, right?

When they finally arrived at Dalton, Wes was already waiting by Nick and Jeff's room, obviously having realised who the culprits were. The two boys quickly handed over the gavel before sprinting away, afraid as they were for Wes' wrath. Exchanging looks with Wes, Blaine realised that those two would not be getting any solos anytime soon.

As he lay down on his bed, Blaine suddenly realised that he could find out the mystery boy's name – he was in a Glee club, after all, and Blaine knew which school he went to… Deciding that now was as good a time as ever, he stood up again and grabbed his laptop. He sat up with his back against his headboard and a pillow behind his head and started searching.

It shouldn't be this easy to find a random person you'd just met, Blaine realised with a start. Putting that thought aside to mull over at a later time, he pondered for a moment about whether it would be weird to add the boy (Kurt Hummel, according to a picture and an article about last year's Regionals competition on the school website) on Facebook or send him a message of sorts.

Deciding that yes, that would be pretty weird, Blaine stared at the boy's profile picture for a few seconds longer before closing the page and his laptop again.