"Why are we in a costume shop?" Kurt asked suspiciously as Tina dragged him through the door with slightly more force than he was used of her. "I haven't dressed up for Halloween in years. Have you?"

"We're here for our Rocky Horror costumes," Quinn replied, already glancing around the store.

Kurt frowned. "Wasn't Ms Pillsbury going to make those for us? Wasn't that sort of her task in this whole project?"

"She said she wouldn't have enough time to make all our costumes before opening night," Quinn responded with a shrug. "It's more work than she'd expected, apparently."

That Kurt could understand. "It took us a couple of nights to make most of our Lady Gaga outfits too, last year."

"That's true," she conceded. "Anyway, she told us to assemble the costumes we'll be wearing as Transsilvanians in a store, so here we are."

"But why are we here?" Mercedes, who was still standing by the entrance, asked.

"You can help us pick out stuff," Quinn replied. "The sooner we're done here, the sooner we can go back to normal clothing shops again." She wrinkled her nose. "Anyway, let's start."

As they searched for the costumes, Kurt almost felt his skin itch as a result of being around so many artificial materials for too long. Finding wigs to wear was, in itself, not too hard for the girls, but it took a while to find good ones. It probably didn't help that Mercedes seemed to be in somewhat of a giggly mood and tried on every wig and every other accessory they came across – and after a while, Tina helped her find some of the most outrageous items the store was selling.

Kurt, in the meantime, wanted to get out of the shop as quickly as possible. If the girls didn't stop anytime soon, they might get thrown out. While he didn't care much for the costume store, just the idea of being thrown out of a shop was unacceptable to him.

While Quinn tried on wigs in various shades of green, contemplating the pros and cons of buying a wig she might have to alter later, Kurt glanced around the store once more. There were hardly any people there, and the clerk was just lounging behind the register; it actually wouldn't surprise Kurt if he'd fallen asleep. He wondered why this was the case for a few seconds – it was only about a week until Halloween, after all – before he realised that he didn't care much.

"Can you go and see if you can find appropriate shirts to go with these wigs and jackets?" Tina's question shook Kurt out of his thoughts. Tina and Quinn were each holding a small bundle of clothes, including several wigs – Tina seemed to appreciate the blue ones the most, whereas Quinn had, in the end, chosen for a pink wig – and were looking at him and Mercedes expectantly.

"Sure," Mercedes said, apparently having quieted down a bit by now. "Come on, Kurt."

As they walked off, Quinn called after them, "See if you can find small hats to go with them, too!"

"It's crazy how many stuff goes in here," Mercedes commented as she stared at some of the baskets of random Halloween items.

"The shop's not even that big," Kurt said, agreeing with his best friend. "Well, let's get started."

They decided to start searching at the two different ends of the shop. Since the space in between the racks wasn't exactly big, that was a much easier way of going about finding stuff than constantly having the other in their way.

Kurt had been looking through a basket full of little hats for less than half a minute when he somehow felt a presence behind him. Hoping that it was not Karosfky – and if it was, hopefully he wouldn't actually be stupid enough to try to pick a fight in the middle of the mall – Kurt hesitantly glanced around and almost jumped.

Behind him was a boy, slightly shorter than him, fighting with a red and yellow striped tie. He wasn't looking directly at Kurt, who figured that it must've been the fact that he'd thought the store was deserted that had made him react the way he did.

Once the boy was done attempting to tie his tie, he glanced up and caught sight of Kurt staring at him in the mirror. He, too, seemed surprised to see anyone else in the shop. As he turned around, Kurt frowned slightly. The boy looked around Kurt's own age, but his costume was nothing like the things Kurt knew most people their age put on.

"Hi!" the boy greeted him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Kurt replied curtly. "Fine. What are you supposed to be?" Honestly, the long black coat and the striped tie didn't really ring any bells.

The boy, however, looked scandalised. "I'm Harry Potter!" he exclaimed, gesturing at his tie. "What did you think?"

Kurt shrugged. "I don't really know. You're kind of missing the rest of the uniform. And the hair, the scar, the glasses…"

The boy grinned – he actually grinned. Happily, too. "I know, but I've already got shoes and pants and a white shirt to wear underneath this. I don't really need to buy all that, right? I mean, white shirts are part of our school uniform, so they're not really hard to come by. And I've got glasses in my dorm, a pencil to draw the scar with, and… well, if I don't gel down my hair like this, it kind of looks like Harry's hair."

"School uniform?" Kurt repeated. "Dorm?"

Again, the boy flashed him a grin. "Yeah, I know what that sounds like. We often hear that Dalton reminds a lot of people of Hogwarts. A gay Hogwarts, since it's an all-boys school, but a Hogwarts nonetheless. I'll take what I can get."

"A gay Hogwarts?" Kurt asked incredulously. He huffed. "That's pretty offensive."

The boy regarded him silently for a moment. "Yeah, I guess it is," he conceded. "You get used to it after a while, though. You'd be surprised by the amount of straight boys walking around, though. I don't believe that's very different from public schools."

Kurt nodded. As amazing as it would be to have a school full of gay boys somewhere near Lima, he knew that that must be virtually impossible as well. "So you're dressing up like Harry Potter for Halloween?" he asked, perhaps somewhat redundantly.

The boy nodded enthusiastically, though. "Yeah! Dalton's hosting a Halloween party for all students – and the students of our all-girls sister school. It's a lot of fun."

"I bet it is," Kurt muttered. After all, what teenage guy – especially private school boys who hardly ever got to see girls – wouldn't like to be surrounded by scantily clad girls?

The boy shrugged. "Yeah, I don't really see the appeal either. What are you going to dress up as?" He glanced at the hats in Kurt's hand. "I sense that it's something involving a hat. Am I right?"

Kurt, somehow rather amused by this stranger's comments, shook his head. "I'm not doing anything for Halloween this year," he explained, and he didn't miss the look of horror on the other boy's face as he said this. "We are, however, putting on a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Some of my friends needed help with their costumes, which, apparently, involve hats."

"You're not doing anything on Halloween?" the boy asked, and it didn't surprise Kurt that that was the only part of Kurt's response that he seemed to have heard. "In what kind of dreary, boring world do you live?" He paused for a moment before smiling apologetically. "Sorry, sometimes I get a little melodramatic. My friends tend to bring out the worst in me."

"I've seen worse," Kurt assured him. "And I'm not doing anything… well, mostly because I don't like Halloween all that much, but also because I don't get invited to any parties anyway, and I'm definitely too old to go trick and treating."

The boy grinned widely. "You should come to Dalton! I can get you in! It'll be awesome, you can even bring some friends!"

Kurt sent him an incredulous look. "I don't even know you," he said flatly, causing the boy to extend his right hand at him.

"I'm Blaine Anderson," he informed Kurt.

As he shook the boy's – Blaine's – hand, Kurt replied, "And I'm Kurt. Kurt Hummel."

Blaine beamed at him. "Awesome. So, now that you do know me… have you changed your mind about coming yet?"

"How were you even planning on getting all of us in?" Kurt asked sceptically.

Blaine looked thoughtful for a moment, before replying, "A lot of my friends have girlfriends at Crawford – that's our sister school – so they won't need to bring a plus one, or whatever you'd want to call it. I'm sure I could find enough people to get all of you in."

"Get who in where?" Suddenly, Mercedes appeared at Kurt's left, and she looked from Kurt to Blaine curiously.

"Get us in at… Dalton's Halloween party," Kurt replied, not knowing whether to be grateful or not for Mercedes' interruption.

Mercedes' eyebrows rose as she shot Blaine an interested look. "Dalton? You mean Dalton Academy, practically the most prestigious private school in Ohio?" She poked Kurt in the ribs. "You weren't declining, were you, Kurt?"

"Well – " Kurt started, but he didn't get a chance to finish.

"What's in it for you?" Mercedes asked Blaine, and yes, that was a very good question. Why on earth would the boy invite a bunch of strangers to what appeared to be a rather exclusive party?

Blaine spluttered. "I hadn't really thought about that," he admitted.

"But the offer still stands?" Mercedes inquired, and Blaine nodded hesitantly.

"I suppose… You don't seem like the type of people to cause a lot of trouble," he answered, and Mercedes nodded.

"Alright, we're in. We'll ask our friends if they want to come, and we'll let you know how many of us will be there," she told him. Turning to Kurt, she said, "I managed to find some things for Tina and Quinn, but they're still – oh, you found some hats for them! I'll go give them to them; can you finish here? Exchange contact information, and the likes?"

"Uh – sure," Kurt replied, but Mercedes was already gone.

When he glanced at Blaine, the boy was giving him a conflicted look. "Look, Kurt," he started, "I totally get if you don't want to come, but I swear, I'm not… trying to prank you here, or anything. No one's going to harm you, there's a lot of supervision and Dalton and Crawford have pretty strict anti-violence and anti-bullying policies."

"What makes you think I'm worried about that?" Kurt asked stiffly.

"Just a hunch," Blaine replied. "I just thought – you're gay, right? If your situation is anything like mine was before I arrived at Dalton, you must have some big trust issues. But I promise, nobody will give you, or any of your friends, any trouble, and if they do, they'll be the ones to get in trouble with the school. It'll be fun."

Why was it that this boy he'd just met read him better than most of his friends, at least, when it came to stuff like this? Glancing away from Blaine, Kurt mulled his words over for a few seconds. Yes, that was mainly what he was afraid of, and no, to be honest, the words of a stranger didn't do much to acquiesce those worries. But still…

"We'll be there," he replied, as confidently as he could.

"Great," Blaine said, his grin back on his face. "Just give me your phone, and I'll give you my number." As Blaine did just that, Kurt cast a look towards where his friends were. Quinn and Tina still seemed to be trying on clothes, but Mercedes just shot him a thumbs-up.

Only then did Kurt realise that a boy – who might very well be gay – was voluntarily giving him his number. Well, there was a first for everything, right? He just hoped he wasn't blushing too much – not necessarily because of Blaine himself, but because of this new realisation.

After Blaine had inserted his number into Kurt's phone and then called himself with it, he handed Kurt his phone again. "Just let me know how many of you are coming," he told Kurt again. "I'll make sure you can all get in."

Kurt smiled hesitantly. "Thanks, Blaine. I guess I'll see you… whenever this party is. When is it even?"

As Blaine was about to reply, Kurt heard his name, and Mercedes was waving him over. "You know what? I'll just text you the details," Blaine said. "Take care, Kurt, and I'll see you around."

Kurt hadn't come to the mall today with the expectation to be invited to a Halloween party by a complete stranger, but now that it had happened, he wouldn't have had it any other way.