Blaine blinked. He looked away, and then back again. The boy was still there.

Frowning, Blaine turned towards his team mates to see if they noticed the boy as well, but they weren't even looking at him. Then, he figured that only a few Warblers would recognise him anyway.

There was a boy standing with a group of people that looked about to perform – well, after the Hipsters, Blaine assumed, and the Warblers, that was. They had to be New Directions. But that boy… he was being hugged and chattered to and high-fived and fist-bumped and whatnot, while another guy (a very, very tall one) just looked on with a wide grin on his face.

Blaine was sure that this in itself wasn't too unusual, if it wasn't for the fact that he was sure that this boy had been in his classes this whole week. Not at whatever school New Directions was from, no, at Dalton. And there he was, acting as if he was part of some other group.

Not that he was a Warbler, because then, Blaine would at least know his name. He was all for welcoming new students to the school, and would definitely have tried to talk to the boy at least some time during the week if it hadn't been for this – Sectionals. He'd been so busy that he hadn't had any time left to spend with the new kid.

He wasn't sure if said new kid would've appreciated that, but still.

New kid wasn't a boarder, he knew that as well – he was never at breakfast or dinner, and Blaine had seen him rush out to the parking lot last Wednesday after their final class. During lunch, he sat alone and never tried to talk to anyone. In fact, Blaine felt like he tried to avoid everyone the best he could.

Oh God. What if he was a spy?

Blaine's blood ran cold as he stared at the new Dalton student in horror. New Directions probably knew exactly what the Warblers were going to do and they were going to use it against them and –

"Blaine? Are you coming? We're all checked in now, let's go to our green room."

Wes interrupted his train of thought and Blaine trudged after his team mates, glancing at the new boy one last time. He looked happy and carefree, which was just about as far from how he seemed at Dalton as was humanly possible.

"Blaine? Are you okay?" David looked at him with a concerned look on his face, and Blaine nodded quickly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "Just a little nervous."

David smiled at him. "You'll be great, we know you will. Otherwise we wouldn't have picked you to sing lead, right?"

That was true. Blaine decided not to mention his shocking discovery to his friends – they might not appreciate that very much.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Blaine didn't think about the potential spy anymore until it was the Warblers' turn to perform. The boy wasn't wearing his Dalton uniform (which might've been a good idea, as someone was sure to have mistaken him for a Warbler if he was), but somehow, Blaine still found him immediately. He was sitting a row up from the New Directions kids, next to what seemed to be the director of the other group.

Briefly closing his eyes, Blaine forced himself to snap out of this. Now, he had to perform. He had to sing. He could worry about the new kid later.

As he sang, he was surprised to find the boy smiling widely and moving to the beat in his chair. Glancing around, Blaine concluded that none of the other people in the audience reacted that way. And when they were done, the boy – and after him, the New Directions students, and then, the rest of the audience – jumped up, clapping – so in the end, they even got a standing ovation. Blaine didn't think this had happened before during a competition. Not to the Warblers.

Almost immediately after the Warblers, New Directions went on, and the Warblers sat in the seats previously preoccupied by their rival group. It totally wasn't Blaine's fault that he was sitting directly in front of the boy and the director – it really wasn't. He had just stalled a little too long and hey, all the other seats were already occupied. Not his fault at all.

"Are they going to come in through the back again?" the boy asked the director, and Blaine assumed that the man must've nodded, as the boy continued, "Isn't that trick getting old, Mr Schue? I mean, we did that for Sectionals and Regionals last year…"

We. So the boy had been part of New Directions at some point. And apparently, the transfer back hadn't been handled quickly enough for him to go on stage with his old team now. Blaine smirked slightly to himself, but then, music started to play, and, true to what he'd just heard, two students, a boy and a girl, came in through the back. Blaine thought it was a good move – except, of course, if the group had done the same thing twice before. Then it was just repetitive.

Still, the group was good. They had good vocals and some great dance moves – it seemed like the Warblers weren't going to win this as easily as they'd originally thought they would. Like the rest of the audience, he got up to clap for the group when they were done, and then – they had to wait for the judges to make up their minds.

The atmosphere in the green room was strange. On one hand, Wes was trying to cheer up everybody by telling them that they were much better than the other two groups, and that it was more than obvious that they were going to win. On the other hand, half of the group was lamenting their loss before the judges' decision had even been made.

Soon, Blaine was fed up with this. The results probably weren't going to be in for at least ten to fifteen minutes, so he decided to go for a walk. Nobody even noticed that he left.

At first, he didn't know where he was going, but when he ended up in the cafeteria of the hotel where Sectionals was taking place this year, he figured he might as well get himself something to drink.

He had barely sat down when someone sat down next to him and greeted him with a cheery, "Hey!" He glanced to his left and found, to his surprise, the new Dalton student (a.k.a. the spy) smiling at him. So much for him being shy and introvert, it seemed. When he smiled back hesitantly, the boy asked, "You're Blaine, right? The lead singer of the Warblers?" Before Blaine could reply, the boy continued. "Stupid question, I know, I just saw you perform, but…"

"Yeah, that's me," Blaine replied. "And you're… the new kid, right?"

"Guilty as charged," the boy said, still smiling. "I'm Kurt."

Blaine merely nodded at this. Normally, he would try to be the well-mannered gentleman he liked to think he was, but he wasn't in the mood for playing games right now. "Any idea for how long you're going to stick around, Kurt?" he asked, perhaps a little more aggressively than he intended. "Now that the competition is over soon, I bet you can't wait to transfer back to your old school."

The other boy looked baffled for a second. "What?" he asked incredulously. "What makes you think I'm going back to McKinley? I just escaped that place!"

"You're a spy, aren't you?" Blaine continued, ignoring Kurt's last comment. "Just admit it. It's not like we'll be seeing each other again soon."

"I'm not a spy," Kurt protested. "If I was, don't you think I would've tried to join the Warblers or something? Or maybe transferred a little earlier than a week before Sectionals?"

"Maybe that's all part of your master plan," Blaine said with a shrug. His parents, as well as his friends, would be shocked to see such behaviour from him, but he couldn't care less at the moment. "I noticed you hanging around those New Directions kids the whole time. I heard you refer to the group as 'we'. I saw you never talk to anyone at Dalton this whole week."

Kurt took a few deep breaths before replying. "Okay, not that it's any of your business, but of course I was standing with them, they're my friends! That doesn't mean that I'm telling them all your secrets. Not that I even know any of those secrets, by the way. Of course I referred to the group as we – I was part of it until about a week ago! And in case you don't know, which you probably don't – the workload at Dalton is much heavier than that at a public school. I didn't talk to people much because I needed to pay attention and catch up. Plus, if I'd gone around, asking everyone about the Warblers – don't you think that would've been incredibly suspicious?"

Well. Blaine hadn't thought about it like that. "What did you mean by escape?" he asked in a small voice.

Kurt let out a hollow laugh. "Let's just say most kids at my old school weren't all that nice to me." As if in an afterthought, he added sheepishly, "Maybe that's why I haven't really talked to anyone yet. I guess I was afraid that I'd be treated the same way at Dalton."

"There's an anti-bullying policy at Dalton," Blaine pointed out, even though Kurt probably already knew that. If he wasn't a spy, he had to be at Dalton for another good reason. "And I get it. I needed time to open up too, at first." At Kurt's questioning gaze, he elaborated, "The students in my middle school didn't exactly like me a lot, so when it was time to choose a high school, my parents sent me to Dalton."

That was all. Neither of them asked for anymore details, unsure if they could do that already. They sat in a not necessarily awkward silence for a while before Blaine spoke again.

"Look, Kurt – I'm sorry for assuming that you were just at Dalton to spy. I get – that it doesn't make much sense. It's expensive to enrol there, and all that money, just for a heads-up in the competition? That was stupid."

Kurt shrugged. "It's alright. I understand that it may have looked suspicious, me acting all chummy with your competition, but – I had barely seen them all week, which is a lot, after spending so much time with them in the past year."

Only then did Blaine remember how they had even ended up in this conversation. "Was there something you wanted to ask me?" he asked, watching the other boy smile a bit.

"As a matter of fact, there was. I don't know much about the procedures at Dalton, or in the Warblers, but do you think I could possibly audition for the Warblers some time? If that's only once a year, I'll just wait until then, but – I was just wondering."

"You want to audition for the Warblers?" Blaine was caught off guard for a moment. "Seriously?"

Kurt nodded. "Yeah, why not? I was in my old school's Glee club, as you'd already figured out, and I like singing. The only reason why I didn't approach you or anyone else about this before was that Sectionals was so close." He frowned for a split second and then said, "You see, at McKinley… the Glee club isn't what you'd call popular. In fact, it's not popular at all, not like the Warblers are at Dalton. It was so hard for us to get enough people to join to be able to compete last year, and when one of our members transferred at the start of the year, we had a really hard time, again, to find a replacement. You probably noticed that there were only twelve people on stage – that's the most we can get. So me transferring a week before Sectionals… that could have been the final blow for them, but they did find a new member, somehow. I didn't want to… betray them twice not only by leaving them so close to the competition, but also by joining one of the rivals clubs."

Blaine was silent for a moment. He had never heard of a school where the Glee club wasn't at least remotely popular. "That makes sense," he finally managed to croak out. "I'm sorry you had to leave so close to Sectionals."

"Not your fault," Kurt muttered. "Anyway, I figured I'd ask now, instead of after the judges announce the winning group – it wouldn't seem sincere."

Blaine nodded, fully agreeing. "I'll ask," he promised. "We don't usually hold auditions in the middle of a year, but nobody ever wants to join in the middle of the year. But since you have some experience singing in a show choir, I don't see why you couldn't join."

Kurt beamed at him, and Blaine wondered – no, never mind. "Thanks, Blaine," he said. "That would be great."

"Are you going to talk to people now?" Blaine asked, more joking than serious.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "I suppose I'll have to, won't I?"

"Just – " Blaine started. "What are you, exactly?" When Kurt stared at him as if he'd gone mad, he explained, "When singing, I mean. What's your range?"

"Oh," Kurt said, seeming a little embarrassed for not catching on. "I'm actually a countertenor. But my voice can go very low as well."

Blaine grinned at this. "A countertenor, huh? I don't think I'm supposed to tell you this, but we haven't had one of those in ages, from what I hear, so I don't think anyone's going be opposed to you joining the club."

Now, Kurt grinned as well. "Awesome. But – hey, shouldn't you go back to your green room? I think the judges – "

At that moment, Wes appeared behind them. "Blaine, come on. We're going to be late, the winners will be announced soon! You can flirt later."

Flirt? Blaine didn't think that accusing someone of being a spy and then discussing the possibility to join the Warblers a few months into the school year constituted as flirting, but Wes had always been a little weird.