The day Kurt transferred to Dalton Academy should probably have been one of his happier ones. After all, he was leaving behind the halls of McKinley that had haunted him for so long now, the insults thrown in his direction wherever he went, the locker slams, the general disgusting attitude his fellow students had shown towards him. And he most certainly wouldn't miss leaving the school building every day feeling humiliated and degrading and like the biggest freak to ever wander the surface of the planet.

But Kurt was nervous, so very nervous, and that tended to do things to him. Things he wasn't necessarily proud of. Things he'd been taunted for at his old school.

Things like hiding under the kitchen table, his tail swishing behind him and his ears laid back, hissing at his dad as he tried to convince him to get out so they could start the long drive to Dalton and be there in time for Kurt to not miss his first class.

It wasn't that Kurt was in any way slow or dumb. In fact, he was much more intelligent than pretty much 90 percent of his fellow students at McKinley (admittedly not that much of an art) and his marks were perfect. His teachers had loved him, he had a quick mind and he was witty. But when he felt emotionally overwhelmed, his cat side got the better of him and there was nothing he could do about it.

Being a cat hybrid would always be a big deal wherever he went - hybrids were pretty rare and just because he was partly an animal people liked to domesticate they seemed to see it as an invitation to try and pet him like they would with an ordinary cat - but it had been decidedly hard at McKinley. And as much as Kurt would have liked being able to just keep his cool and don't give anyone reason to torture him further, he wasn't so lucky. Whenever the humiliation, fear or shame would get too much his cat instincts would kick in and leave him no choice, usually causing him to do something rather degrading that just was fuel to his tormentors' cruelty.

And while Kurt was sure that things would definitely be better at Dalton in the sense that no one would be able to get away with physically assaulting him, he was incredibly nervous about having to attend a school that hadn't seen a hybrid in its halls for two decades. Which resulted in Burt almost having to drag him out from under the table by his tail that morning.

Eventually though, he'd managed to calm Kurt down enough that his brain was able to rationalize again and they finally got in the car and drove off to Dalton. Kurt stayed silent for the better part of the ride, ashamed of his own behavior and too lost in his own thoughts about his new school to keep track of a conversation on top of that. When the impressive main building of Dalton Academy came into view, he had to take a few deep breaths in order not to panic and do something silly like refusing to get out of the car. It wasn't easy but Kurt managed to fight down his more animalistic instinct to run and hide and forced himself to walk up to the stairs and step through the entrance doors as composedly as possible.

Thankfully, they were quite early despite that morning's drama so no one was around when they made their way to the office. There wasn't really much paperwork left to be done and Kurt didn't get flustered apart from when the secretary proudly told them that the aid they had hired especially for his ‘special needs' had started working this morning and that they could go meet her before the school day started. On a rational level, Kurt was aware that it was better if someone was around who would know how to deal with his more... cat like moods for lack of a better word. But it still made him feel like even more of a freak and the wave of humiliation crashing over him did nothing to lighten his mood or alleviate his nervousness.

Reluctantly, he agreed to meet the aid with his dad before Burt would leave to head back to Lima so he could take care of the garage again. She was a young woman in her twenties almost fresh from college but with quite an impressing list of references and lots of experience regarding work with hybrids. Kurt didn't exactly love her but she seemed nice enough, didn't talk down to him and didn't even flinch when Kurt accidentally hissed at her when she approached too fast, immediately matching her gestures to what seemed to make Kurt the most comfortable around her.

The visit calmed his nerves a bit and he'd almost forgotten about most likely having to meet his new roommate as well until Burt stopped him in front of a door that looked exactly like any other in the dorm building.

"So, this is where you'll be staying most of the time, bud," Burt said, throwing Kurt a nervous glance. "I'm sorry that you have to stay here, I know it's not your favorite thing to sleep away from home. But you can't drive back and forth between Dalton every day."

Somehow, Burt's nervousness did wonders for Kurt's composure so he just smiled at his father and put a soothing hand on his arm. "It's okay, Dad. I'll have to move out eventually, anyway, might as well take this as practice. I'm sure I'll be fine."

Burt smiled back weakly, not looking entirely convinced. Before either of them could say anything more on the subject, the door was suddenly thrown open, revealing a rather short boy dressed in the Dalton uniform, frantically stuffing pamphlets and a handbook into his bag, the first curls escaping out of his neatly gelled hair already. He nearly ran into them before he looked up and realized someone was standing in front of his door, hazel eyes widening in question before his brain seemed to catch up and a smile lit up his face.

"Oh, hi! Sorry I almost ran into you, I'm in a bit of a hurry," he held up the pamphlets he'd previously tried to somehow fit into his overflowing bag "It's my first day as sort of a student tutor and I'm already a bit late because my alarm didn't go off this morning. You must be Kurt, my new roommate! I'm Blaine! Great to meet you but I really have to hurry now. Make yourself at home and maybe we can get a coffee after school to get to know each other a bit?"

He grinned at Kurt, every last inch of him practically oozing charm and all Kurt was able to do without making a fool of himself was nod and close his gaping mouth. Blaine smiled at him before holding his hand out to Burt and scurrying off as soon as he'd shook it.

"Weird kid," Burt mumbled under his breath before shaking his head and gently pushing Kurt into what would be his room for the next few months at least. Kurt nodded absentmindedly, not sure that that was his first impression of Blaine. In fact, he was pretty certain that he couldn't think past shining hazel eyes and an inviting smile and barely tamed curls and a smell more heavenly than anything he'd ever come across.