Blaine would be lying if he said he wasn't impressed by the way Carmel High School put the spotlight on nothing but their Glee club – Vocal Adrenaline. Sure, Dalton liked to show the Warblers off too, but they weren't the only thing that mattered to the school.

Maybe if this year, the Warblers would at least advance to Regionals (something that hadn't happened in years, thanks to, yes, Vocal Adrenaline), their school would at least feature them more prominently on the front page of their website. That wasn't too much to ask for, right?

Either way, the Warblers had managed to get tickets for Vocal Adrenaline's start-of-the-year showcase to see what they were up against. Blaine had been told that there wasn't much hope for them yet, but maybe next year, once Jesse St James, Andrea Cohen and the other most talented members of the group graduated (that was, if Carmel let them graduate), they might have a shot at beating them.

After sitting down in the auditorium, Blaine looked around. There were a lot of people in suits, but a lot of high school kids as well – probably all from Carmel.

As soon as performance began, Blaine felt his friends at both his sides slump back in their seats. There was no way the Warblers could do something to top this. The rest of the audience loved it, though, so Blaine dutifully got up after their competition was done, and applauded for them.

He was one of the few Warblers who did that, so he sat down pretty quickly. There was still a lot he had to learn about being a Warbler, it seemed.

When they arrived back in the main hall, everyone was chatting excitedly about the performance they just witnessed – except for one group. A man and a woman were quietly talking, and five teenagers were huddled together near them

" – we might as well give up now," a dark girl said miserably to her companions.

"I agree, there's no way we can ever beat Vocal Adrenaline," a boy in a wheelchair muttered.

"You're a Glee club as well?" Tom, one of the council members, asked a tall boy who was standing there awkwardly.

"Uh – yeah," he replied, but at that moment, a small brunette came marching up to the group. Blaine noticed the other students roll their eyes, but the girl didn't appear to notice.

"We are the New Directions," she announced, shaking Tom's hand pompously. "From McKinley High in Lima. And… you are?"

"The Warblers," Colin, Tom's best friend and a fellow council member, replied proudly. "We go to Dalton Academy in Westerville. You?"

"I don't remember competing against you last year," Wes told the four other teens in the meantime, and Blaine quickly turned towards them as well.

"We're new," a boy in a rather expensive looking coat informed them.

"R-Really new," an Asian girl added.

"There's only six of you?" Blaine asked, looking around. None of the other people in the hall seemed to be part of this group as well.

"Yeah, why?"

"There have to be twelve of you to compete," David replied, looking (and sounding) apologetic.

"That's it, we're done for," the dark girl said, and she marched off towards the two adults, presumably to tell them what she'd just heard. The Asian girl and the boy in the wheelchair followed suit, but before the other boy could join them, Blaine grabbed him by the sleeve of his coat.

"Wait," he just said as the boy – who actually looked quite young, but Blaine didn't let that bother him; he had to at least be in high school to be here – just frowned at him. "We didn't even get the chance to introduce ourselves. Hi, my name is Blaine, and this – "

"Wes," David introduced himself with a large grin.

Catching on immediately, Wes also shook the boy's hand. "David."

Blaine rolled his eyes at his friends before telling the boy, "Don't mind those idiots."

The boy just looked from Wes to David (or, in his mind, from David to Wes) and shrugged. "I'm Kurt. Nice to meet you, I suppose."

"So you said you're a new club?" Wes asked with interest. "How new, exactly?"

The boy thought for a moment. "I think about a week."

"And you're planning to give up already?" David asked, shocked. "Why? I'm sure you'll get much better over time."

Kurt pulled a face. "Possible. But the whole minimum of twelve members is also going to be a problem."

"How so? Just hold auditions," Blaine suggested with a smile.

After staring at him for a few seconds, Kurt rolled his eyes. "The auditions were last week. Everyone who auditioned got in. Oh, and Finn." With that, he nodded towards where the tall boy was still standing, trapped between the small brunette and the Warblers' council members. "But I think Mr Schuester blackmailed him or something."

"Only five people auditioned?" Blaine was sure David's jaw had almost hit the floor when Kurt was talking, but apparently, his friend was capable of talking now. "How is that possible?"

"Glee club is not cool at our school," Kurt replied, not appearing too put off by this. "Singing and dancing around is considered… well – stupid and… stuff."

There was something he wasn't saying, but Blaine decided not to push the matter, and neither did Wes and David.

"Public school is so weird," David commented, shaking his head. "At Dalton, we're like rock stars."

"Rock stars?" Kurt repeated, looking at David incredulously. "You're kidding."

"It's true," Blaine told him. "Everybody wants to be a Warbler."

"Maybe if we actually manage to get enough members to compete and win Sectionals, we'll be more popular too," Kurt said, though it didn't sound very convincing. He, and the Warblers as well, looked over towards his team mates for a moment. They seemed to be getting ready to head back to whatever town they came from. "I should go," Kurt said. "It was – nice, talking to you guys, and maybe we'll meet again at some or other competition someday."

Blaine grinned and was about to say something when David hissed, "Just do it. Go for it."

"You know you want to," Wes added, and Blaine's eyes widened. Luckily Kurt hadn't heard them. Those two were absolutely ridiculously crazy, but… they were also right.

"Do you maybe want to go out some time?" Blaine therefore asked Kurt with a hopeful smile. He had never done anything like this, but, like Wes and David insinuated, this seemed too good an opportunity not to seize. "Or just – have coffee together, or lunch, or whatever you want?"

For a moment, Kurt stared at him with an unreadable look in his eyes. He carefully looked around at the other people, at his friends, at Wes and David, and finally, he turned back to Blaine. "I'm not – you know," he muttered almost pleadingly.

"Out?" Blaine guessed.

Kurt smiled grimly. "I was going to say 'gay', but I suppose there's more truth in your guess than in mine."

"Right, sorry," Blaine promptly apologised. "We can always go somewhere where you don't know anyone?"

Kurt eyed him disbelievingly, before glancing at Wes and David. "How did you – ?"

"Know?" Wes finished for him. "Blainey here has an excellent gay-dar. One of the perks of being gay, I guess. Still, yours seems to be a bit off."

Instantly, the other boy's head whipped back towards Blaine. "You mean you're… "

"He wouldn't be asking you out if he weren't gay, would he now?" David replied with a grin. Kurt muttered a quick and quiet apology and stared at the floor instead.

"So what do you say?" Wes asked when Blaine didn't make an attempt to continue the conversation. "Give him a chance?"

Blaine smiled in what he hoped a persuasive way, and Kurt hesitantly smiled back. "Sure, I guess." He looked around at his team mates once more. "How do I know this isn't just some sort of joke, though? I don't even know you, for all I know you're just messing with my mind and – "

"No, we wouldn't," Blaine said hastily. "Listen, Kurt – I may not know exactly what the kids at your school are like, but I went to public school for a while as well, and it wasn't fun. We wouldn't do that to anyone. That's just cruel. We're not like that."

"Okay," Kurt said, seeming a little more at ease now. "So where do you suggest we meet up?"

Now, Blaine grinned widely. "How about the Lima Bean in the Westerville Mall? Saturday, around noon?"

"I'll figure out a way to get there," Kurt answered the question Blaine was sure one of his friends was about to ask him. "I mean, I have a car and a licence, and navigation. It shouldn't be much of a problem."

"Great," Blaine said, his grin even wider than before. "I can't wait already."

"You're such a thirteen year old girl, Blaine," Wes complained, but at least Kurt was smiling.

"I'll see you around then," he said. "I should really go now. They're – oh. They must've already gone outside."

This comment made Blaine, Wes and David looked around as well. "Hey," Wes spoke up, "where are the others?" As they followed Kurt outside, they were met by an almost empty parking lot.

"They left," Kurt muttered to himself, looking around frantically. "They just left."

"They left you here?" For some reason, this made Blaine angrier than it should, considering he'd met the other boy less than half an hour ago. "Why would your friends do such a thing?"

Kurt shrugged. "They're not really my friends, not yet at least. We barely ever talked up until a week ago, and even then, it probably doesn't mean much."

"We'll give you a ride," David promptly decided. "We drove here ourselves, and Lima isn't that far of a detour for us."

"No, that's alright," Kurt replied quickly. "I can't – I'll just call my dad, he'll pick me up."

"That could take hours, and we're headed towards Ohio anyway," Wes said as he and David linked their arms with Kurt's. "You're coming with us, whether you like it or not. Besides – this way, you can get to know Blaine here a little better before your date next week."

"Ignore them," Blaine told Kurt (again) as they reached David's car. "I know I want to more often than not."

Kurt just shrugged. "It's okay. It must be nice to have such accepting friends."

Right. Blaine wanted to smack himself for being so inconsiderate, but he managed to hold himself back. God knows Kurt would think he was a lunatic if he truly did that. "I'm sure your team mates will accept you as well," he said in the end.

For some reason, Kurt snorted at this. "Yes, Rachel might. I'm not so sure about the others."

"Rachel?" Wes asked, obviously eavesdropping.

"The small brunette with the loud voice," Kurt replied, rolling his eyes. "She's annoying, but she's a good singer. And she has two gay dads, so she would accept me. But I don't really like her."

"Two gay dads? In Ohio?" David mused. "That's not something you hear about very much."

"If all their kids turn out like Rachel Berry, I don't think that's such a waste," Kurt muttered.

Once they were driving, David put on some music. Normally, Blaine would happily sing along, but now, he had other things on his mind – like getting to know the boy sitting beside him in the backseat of David's car.

This proved to be easy enough once Kurt got over the idea that they were maybe actually kidnapping him and going to dump him at the side of the road sooner or later, and for that, Blaine was grateful. He was aware that perhaps, they would both be more open if Wes and David weren't present, but it was a start.

By the time they arrived in Lima, Ohio, Kurt had loosened up quite a bit, and, to be fair, so had Blaine. It was a nice feeling. Far too soon, they reached Kurt's house.

"I'll still see you next weekend?" Blaine asked, just to make sure.

Kurt blinked. "Yeah, of course. Why, did you think I changed my mind?"

"You did get to spend some time with him now," David pointed out, grinning. "We wouldn't have blamed you if you would've backed out of the date, or whatever it is."

"Oh, right," Kurt said, frowning at David a bit. "Well, no, I didn't, so I'll see you then."

"He'll probably bombard you with texts this week, though," Wes warned him. Somewhere during the ride, Wes had somehow pestered Kurt and Blaine into exchanging phone numbers – something that would've undoubtedly happened anyway if next weekend's meeting went well. "Be prepared for that."

"I think I can handle that," Kurt replied, smiling at Blaine. "Thanks for dropping me off, by the way. You really didn't need to do that."

"It's only a polite thing to do after your friends left you there," David told him sternly. "Do us a favour and demand an explanation from them when you see them again, will you?"

Kurt shrugged. "Sure, I was planning on doing that anyway."

At that moment, the front door of the house opened, and a tall man stepped outside, narrowing his eyes at the car. Blaine had to admit, he would never want to get on this man's bad side – he didn't look very friendly, but maybe that was just him. One glance at Wes and David, however, told him that it was not just him.

"Oh, there's my dad," Kurt said suddenly, blinking at the man. "I should go inside. He won't be happy to hear that I was left behind at Carmel's parking lot." With a sigh, he opened the door of the car and hopped out. Instantly, the man's facial expression changed from distrust to shock and confusion. "I'll see you next week, Blaine. Wes, David, thanks for the ride." With that, he walked towards the man, and David drove away.

"Did you ever even tell him that you two didn't state your real names when introducing yourselves?" Blaine wondered out loud as they sped through the streets of Lima.

The two wicked grins he got in reply told him all he needed to know.