Chapter 2

I never saw Blaine again until lunchtime. I knew it would be hard for him at lunch, because everyone at McKinley has their own little groups of friends,
they never socialized with anyone other than themselves. The cheerleaders always sat with the stars of the football team, the hockey team ate lunch
with whoever would put up with them and the New Directions? Well, we tried to make it through lunch without getting a slushie facial from one of the
neanderthals from the higher ranking tables. It was always the same routine, every day.

So, when I saw Rachel walk up to our lunch table, talking to Blaine, I was a little bit confused but also kind of relieved that he wouldn't be sitting
alone on his first day at McKinley. Puck was the first one to spot Blaine walking with Rachel.

"Who's the new guy?" he asked the group, pointing in the direction of Blaine and Rachel walking together. Everyone shrugged. How did Blaine manage
four periods without seeing anyone in the New Directions?

I spoke up, facing Puck. "His name's Blaine. He's in my Trig class."

There were a few nods from the table, obviously not caring for the boy.

"He's cute," Mercedes whispered to me once everyone had turned away and had their own conversations with the people sitting beside them. "I hope
he plays for your team, if you know what I mean," Mercedes winked at me. Actually winked at me. Was this some sort of 80's sitcom?

I sighed. "Cedes, does it matter?"

"Um, Yes?!" my best friend exclaimed. "If he's straight, the cheerleaders will be all over him. If he's gay, you should totally go for him. I hope for the
latter."

"What makes you think he's actually gay?"

Mercedes pointed directly at Blaine. "Have you seen him walk down the cafeteria?!" she exclaimed. "He hasn't stopped staring at you the full way
here."

"Shh, I don't want him to know we're talking about him," I whispered, my ears turning a light shade of pink as I tried to calm Mercedes down.

Mercedes looked smug. "Why not? You think he's cute, don't you?" Apparently, my silence was all that Mercedes needed to hear. "I knew it! You have
a crush on the new boy!"

"So?" I huffed. "It's not like you've never had a crush on someone before."

Mercedes looked like she was about to say something but I gave her a look that seemed to say 'we'll talk later' because Blaine and Rachel had just
sat down at our table.

Rachel practically beamed at the group of people sitting at the table and said, "Guys? Meet the newest member of the New Directions," and grinned
and pointed to Blaine, using jazz hands as if he was the Christmas present that we were just dying to have. Not to mention the fact that auditions to
join the glee club weren't until 3.00pm, so he technically hadn't joined the New Directions yet.

"Hi, Blaine," the group said in unison before going back into their own conversations, not really phased by Blaine standing amung us. Rachel didn't
look too pleased.

"Aren't you guys excited?!" she said, waving her hands in the air to try and catch everyone's attention. She really did act like a five year old at times,
it was quite shocking actually. "Blaine is a fabulous singer, I watch his YouTube videos all the time."

This seemed to catch our attention. Everyone in New Directions turned round and faced Blaine.

"Seriously?" Santana said.

Blaine looked so shy, I just wanted to go up to him and give him a hug and tell him that everything would be okay and - oh god, there was that
feeling in my chest again.

"Yeah," he said. "Me and a bunch of my friends would post covers of songs online sometimes, just for fun. And at my last school, I was in their school
glee club."

Rachel pulled up her phone and found a video on YouTube, then passed the phone around to everyone. It was Blaine and about seven other people,
all singing Teenage Dream a capella. Wow, they were all really good. Blaine was the lead singer, his friends were singing the melody behind him, like
some sort of backing track. They were amazing. Like, maybe even better than us.

When the video finished, Blaine looked like he was going to die of embarrassment.

"So?" Rachel asked, putting her phone back into her bag. "Can he join?"

"Um, I think I'm speaking for the full group when I say, Hell yeah!" Puck said, getting up from his seat and leaning over the table to give Blaine a
fist-bump. "Welcome to the pack, Broseph."

Blaine returned the fist-bump and smiled. "Thanks, man," he said. I noticed that Blaine was still standing, like he still didn't know if he was officially
'one of us' yet.

I decided to speak up. "C'mere, Blaine," I said, pointing to the empty seat to my right. "Sit with us."

Blaine smiled that stupid, goofy smile again, the one that made his hazel eyes light up. "Thanks, Kurt," he said and walked over to me, sitting down
beside me. "So, you're in glee club too?"

"Yeah," I smiled. "I have been for the last two years. But, you should know that you can't just expect to get up and join the club. You need to
audition first."

The smile on Blaine's face slowly disappeared. "Like, sing by myself? Do I have to?"

I looked at Blaine. It was painful to do so. His smile was non-exsistant and his eyes looked sad. "Yeah, sorry, but it's the rules of the club. Just do
what you did in that video." Blaine nodded his head but still didn't look too convinced. "You'll do great. Mr Schue will love you."

Blaine looked confused. "Mr Schue?"

I smiled. "He's the head of our glee club. But don't worry, he lets anyone into New Directions as long as they audition."

"Oh, okay." Blaine looked slightly more reassured.

"Don't worry about it. Auditions are on at 3. We'll all be there," I said.

"Really?" Blaine smiled slightly. "You-You'll be there?"

I laughed. "Yeah, all of glee club are there for the auditions."

This seemed to calm Blaine down a lot. "Oh, good," he said before starting to eat his lunch.

At 3.00pm, I walked from my English Literature class to the choir room with Santana and Quinn with high spirits for these New Directions auditions.

Mainly because of Blaine. He looked so nervous when I told him he had to audition. He had no reason to worry though, if he still sounded as good as
he did in the video Rachel showed us.

I went into the choir room and found Mercedes sitting one seat away from Blaine. "Hey, Kurt, I saved a seat for you!" she said, pointing to the chair
between her and Blaine. I sighed, and made my way to the seat.

Once I sat down, Mercedes nudged me then pointed her head in Blaine's direction. I looked over at Blaine. He looked, well, not even nervous any
more, more like terrified as hell. My heart felt so heavy as I watched him. His breathing was uneven, like he was a man that had just ran a marathon
with asthma, and his hands were shaking violently.

"Hey," I said softly, grabbing his hands to stop them from shaking so much (and wow, was that sparks I felt when i touched his hands? Yeah, I was
slowly but surely losing my mind). "You'll do fine, okay? Stop worrying."

Blaine looked into my eyes. Damn it. That was me. I was gone into some other place when he looked into my eyes. "I'm sorry. I just, y'know, haven't
really auditioned for anything before. Ever."

"Ever?" I asked him. He did tell me that he was in his old school's glee club, right?

Blaine probably knew what I was thinking. "I never had to actually audition for my last glee club. I just kinda joined. They needed more members. I
only made those videos with my friends because no one I knew would watch them. Until now, I guess," he said.

I was about to give Blaine yet another inspirational speech when Mr Schue interrupted me. He was wearing a horrible sweater vest (his attitude
towards fashion was appalling) and had a weird, enormous smile on his face. He entered the choir room with so much energy and enthusiasm. "Hey,
guys - I hope you all had a lovely Summer, I'm sure I'll hear all about it some other time. But we need to get down to business. Last year was a
great year for the New Directions. We flew all the way to New York because we made it to nationals-"

"But we didn't actually win, thanks to Hobbit and her boyfriend man-boobs," Santana snapped, glaring at Rachel, who was evidently hiding behind
Finn.

"That's enough, Santana, we've put it behind us." Mr Schuester said to her, then turned to face the full group. "No, we didn't win. But we weren't
ready for all the competition. Now, we know what we're up against. It's going to be a good year for the New Directions! Now, let's hope that the
people who come to this year's auditions will be ready for it, because we're going to train our hardest to win Nationals this year!"

Everyone cheered, because it was what Mr Schue liked best. Blind optimism. Except for Blaine. He looked like a deer in the headlights. Mercedes
obviously wasn't looking at Blaine in the same light that I was, because she took the opportunity to speak up after Mr Schue.

"Mr Schue, we have a new boy at our school, Blaine Anderson," she said, pointing to the boy that was sitting next to her. "He wants to audition."

Blaine's face didn't say the same as what Mercedes' did. Mr Schue caught onto this.

"Are you sure you want to audition, Blaine?" he said cautiously.

Blaine looked determined. "Yes, sir."

"Okay," Mr Schue smiled. "I won't say no to someone auditioning. What song are you going to audition with?"

I expected Blaine to have a good think about what song he would sing, considering as far as I was concerned, no one had told him that he had to
have a song prepared to sing, but I was surprised to say the least when he looked straight at Mr Schue and said, "I want to sing Use Somebody by
Kings of Leon."

I didn't know what Blaine was going to sing, but I didn't expect that type of song. Maybe something more bubblegum-pop-like, something along the
lines of Katy Perry or Lady Gaga.

"Okay, Blaine. The floor's all yours!" Mr Schue said, then took a step to the side, allowing all glee club members to see Blaine, who walked down to
the floor of the choir room and looked at me. I could see the fear in his eyes but I ignored it. I just looked at him and mouthed, "Don't worry. You'll
do great." He nodded slightly at me then gave a thumbs up to the band members, signalling that they could start playing the song.

And, wow.

Blaine could sing. Like, really sing.

I knew he could sing because of the video that Rachel showed us, but, wow.

His voice was so pure but had a certain tone to it, I couldn't explain. He had such energy when he was preforming, it was like he was an entirely
different person. It was an amazing audition. (And the fact that Blaine was constantly looking at me during the song made it slighty more awesome,
considering the lyrics of the song.)

After he had finished singing, every member of the glee club applauded Blaine. I'm pretty such I clapped the loudest. Mr Schue went up to him and
shook his hand.

"Blaine, I can safely say, welcome to the New Directions."

"Seriously?" Blaine asked. Mr Schuester laughed and nodded. "Thanks, sir," he said, still obviously really nervous after just preforming. I gave him a
huge smile and a thumbs up. He smiled back at me, then went back up to his seat.

I didn't know what to do when he sat back down, I mean, should I hug him as a way of saying 'well done'? Give him a pat on the back? Shake his
hand? No, the last one seemed too formal. I wanted to be his friend, not just an acquaintance. Instead, I just told him that I was proud of him and
that he sang amazingly. He seemed happy with himself, he hadn't stopped smiling since he stopped singing.

"You belong on a stage, Blaine," Finn said to Blaine from the other side of the room.

"Thanks, man!" Blaine replied but turned round to me and whispered, "Who's that?"

I laughed. It would take some times before he would know everyone. "That's Finn. He's my half-brother." Blaine looked surprised at that. "Finn is
dating Rachel, that girl who kept talking to you at lunch?" Blaine nodded.

"I remember her."

"Well, we lost at Nationals because of them. They broke up for a few months, then they kissed on stage during our performance. The judges didn't
like that. Neither did we."

"Is that what the black-haired girl was saying earlier?" Blaine asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, her name is Santana."

"That's terrible, losing a competition because of a kiss."

"I know," I replied. "Rachel can be, well, very demanding when she wants to. But she's a fabulous singer so we really do need her for competitions."

"Ahh, I get it. You can't hate her for messing up, because you probably wouldn't be there if it wasn't for her, right?" Blaine said for confirmation.

I smiled. "Yeah."

The hour of auditions was really boring. The only thing that made it tolerable was the fact that Blaine was sitting beside me, constantly talking to me

for the full hour. I had only known him for a day and I was already kinda head over heels. Great.

"So, you never mentioned what school you went to before McKinley?" I asked him at some point during auditions.

He smiled for what felt like the billionth time that day. Honest to God, he never stopped smiling. "I lived in Jacksonville before here."

I raised my eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yup," he replied.

I looked at him, carefully planning out what to say next. "No offence, but why are you in Ohio? I've never been before, but Jacksonville must be much
nicer than Lima, Ohio."

"Um..." he started, looking down at his hands. "My gran is really sick right now, lung cancer apparently."

I didn't know what to say.

"Oh, Blaine... I'm so sorry," I tried to say but Blaine just shook his head.

"It's fine, it's not your fault. Yeah, but anyway, she has no one to care for her here and my mom and dad just didn't want to leave by herself when she's sick, so they both managed to find jobs over here and now I've moved everything I own to a different state. And now here I am, with you guys, people I haven't known for a day, in a choir room, holding auditions for a Glee Club that I never knew about until lunch," he finished that sentence with a grin.

And I couldn't help but smile back. "And here you are," I echoed.

The auditions themselves were really quite boring. Only one girl actually auditioned. Her name was Sugar Motta and I'm sure that we'll all get on
great... (sarcasm). She couldn't sing, at all. It was horrendous. But she did audition, so we had to let her in. And her dad was super rich and we
couldn't risk getting sued or something, whatever. Blaine made the hour enjoyable. His quick remarks to Sugar's audition were hilarious and I
probably looked like an idiot, just sitting there crying with laughter at every little thing he said but I couldn't help it.

And when he walked me to my car when Glee finished, and told me that he'd see me tomorrow, and waited until my car started to drive away from the school before he got to his own car, my heart felt like it was going to explode.

I was a little bit in love with a boy that I had known for about 8 hours.

And I didn't regret it. Not one little bit.