"Kurt!" Kurt's head swiveled to find the voice, and his eyes landed on Blaine, who was waving to him, school supplies spread all over his desk. "Come sit with me!"

The fashionable boy smiled widely and skipped over to his friend.

"Hey, Blaine!" he said, putting his bag on the chair at the desk he'd selected.

"I didn't know you were in this class!" Blaine said excitedly, moving his crayon box from his dinosaur backpack to his desk.

"Me neither!"

The two boys sat at their desks and talked animatedly about their summer vacations—Blaine had gone to France—for a few minutes before the bell rang. Other students continued to file into the classroom, some on their own, others in pairs. Soon, all of the desks were filled, except for the one to the left of Kurt. That was when the last child to arrive entered the room: Dave Karofsky.

Kurt hadn't noticed though, because Blaine was telling him all about the Eiffel Tower, and how it did really light up at night, and how you could see a million stars in the sky.

"It was really pretty. We even saw a shooting star one night!" Blaine was saying, arms flying with his excitement.

"That sounds amazing," Kurt sighed, his head resting in his chin as he imagined the scene Blaine had laid out for him.

"Maybe next time you can come with me!" Blaine smiled wider, and Kurt smiled back.

Kurt finally noticed Dave as he sat down next to him, pointedly ignoring the smaller boy. Kurt's eyes widened to the point where he was afraid they might fall out of his head. No, he couldn't sit by Dave. Not the kid who'd picked on him all of last year! It was bad enough just to be in the same class as him again!

"Hey, Kurt!" Blaine was whispering, tugging on the taller boy's sleeve. Kurt turned his head towards his friend, a little afraid to not be able to see what Dave was doing behind him. "Isn't that the kid who pushed you over at the butterfly garden last year?" Kurt nodded, and Blaine looked at him for a moment.

"Are you scared?" he whispered again.

"A little," Kurt admitted, sure to be quiet enough so that only Blaine could hear. He bit his lower lip.

"Hey," Blaine said, taking his hand. "It'll be okay."

"Thanks," Kurt mumbled, a little surprised at the gesture. He'd never had anyone besides his mom and dad hold his hand before.

"Okay, class!" Mrs. Harris said, standing at the front of the room, a stack of note cards in hand. "I hope you all brought your crayons, because your first assignment is to write your name on one of these cards to be a name tag for your desk," she held up the note cards, then began passing them out. "I want you guys to be as creative as you can. Try and use every color in the box."

Kurt reached into his desk and pulled out his box of crayons, stealing a glance at Dave as he did the same.

"Thank you, Mrs. Harris," Blaine said as he was handed his note card, sending her the most charming smile she'd ever seen on a six year-old's face.

"You're very welcome, Blaine," she replied as she moved onto Kurt.

"Thanks," Kurt mumbled as she placed the card on his desk, earning himself a pat on the head. Startled, Kurt's hands flew up to his head to make sure every hair was in place.

"What color are you going to make your name, Kurt?" Blaine asked him, poking his tongue out of his mouth as he concentrated on a blue 'B.'

"Uhm..." Kurt looked at his selection of fourteen crayons. "My name is going to be red, but the rest of it's going to be blue, with yellow on the outside," he said, beginning on his name tag intently. His eyebrows knitted together as he worked, doing his best to get every swirl swirly enough and every line straight enough. He practically forgot about the rest of the class, including Dave, as he twisted his wrist this way and that to make the R in his name just right.

When he was done, he sat back a little and appraised his work. His first name was written in large, curly-Q letters, and there was a swirly yellow border around the whole card, all enveloped in a sea of blue.

"Wow, Kurt," Blaine said in awe. "That's totally awesome."

"Thanks," Kurt said shyly and raised his hand, indicating that his card was ready to be taped to his desk.

What Kurt didn't see, however, was the way Dave looked over at his note card with wide, appreciative eyes that quickly turned into those of jealousy and frustration before he turned back to his own card. The green 'Dave' suddenly seemed inadequate.

XOXOX

Kurt decided that recess was his favorite part of the day. Mrs. Harris' class had recess with Ms. Westerman's class, which Mercedes was in.

"Mercedes!" he called to the girl when he saw her on the monkey bars. He ran over to her excitedly, tackling her with a hug.

"Hi, Kurt!" she hugged him back happily.

"I missed you today!"

"I missed you, too!" The two first-graders continued to talk and play, happy to see each other again.

Then, as Kurt was leaning over to grab the closest bar, Dave crossed the platform on the play equipment and 'bumped into' Kurt, effectively pushing him over into the sand. Dave continued walking with a mean smile while Kurt lifted himself off the ground, spitting out the surely germ-infested sand. His eyes began to tear up and he rubbed at them with his sleeve, which only made it worse.

"Kurt, are you okay?" he looked up to see Blaine leaning over him.

"Y-yeah," Kurt sniffled.

"We should go tell a teacher," Mercedes said, climbing down from the play equipment.

"Yeah," Blaine said, offering his hand out to Kurt, who allowed the other to help him to his feet. "C'mon, Kurt. Dave's just a big meanie, anyways."

XOXOX

At the end of the day, Kurt's class was packing up their folders and All-About-Me books when Blaine turned to him.

"Hey, Kurt, you should come over to my house this weekend," he said, pulling his backpack over his shoulders. "We can watch Aladdin and my mom might let us make cookies and I have this totally awesome tree house in my backyard and..." Kurt listened as the other boy rambled on about all of the things they could do that weekend while they walked out of the building to wait for their cars. The boys continued to chat about parents and pets until Blaine's mom arrived to pick him up.

"Bye, Blaine!" Kurt waved after him as the smaller boy disappeared into the backseat of his car.

Kurt stood on the lowest step by the doors, a smile on his face while he waited patiently for his dad to arrive. Dave walked by and knocked Kurt's bag off of his shoulder, pencils and markers spilling everywhere. In his attempt to catch these, Kurt ended up tripping over his shoelaces. He fell over for the second time that day, landing on his hands and knees. His palms were scraped up, but not quite bleeding, and when Kurt looked up, Dave had disappeared.

Noticing his dad's car pull around the corner, Kurt hurried to pick up his things and put them back in his bag before running over to his ride. Opening the door and climbing into his booster seat, Kurt was surprised to find both his mom and his dad in the front.

"Hey, baby!" Elizabeth Hummel said to her son. "How was your first day at school?"

Kurt told his parent's all about being in the same class as Blaine and seeing Mercedes at recess. He told them about the name tag he made for his desk and showed them his All-About-Me book. He told them about how Mrs. Harris let him be the line-leader when they went to the cafeteria for lunch and about Blaine's adventures in France.

"You must have had fun at recess," his mother commented. "It's been a long time since I saw you so dirty."

"Oh," Kurt mumbled, looking down at his clothes. "I slipped and fell off the monkey bars and landed in the sand."

"Are you alright?" Burt asked him, stealing a glance at his son in the rear-view mirror.

"Yeah, Dad. I'm fine."