A week later Kurt walks into the kitchen to eat his traditional first day of school breakfast. It's one of the only times Burt actually cooks and while he's not as good as Kurt, he does make a mean egg sandwich.

"You seem extra peppy this morning," Burt comments when he notices Kurt humming as he makes himself coffee.

And Kurt is extra peppy. He hasn't seen Blaine since last week's dinner but today he is sure to at least catch a glimpse of him at school. Kurt is notorious for his extra fabulous first day of school outfits but this time he spent even more time picking it out than usual. He finally decided on black skinny jeans, a tight maroon collared shirt with three quarter length sleeves, and knee high grey boots. It is more casual than his previous outfits but it was still too hot for any of his favorite jackets or scarves.

"I could say the same about you," Kurt responds.

Burt and Sally had gone out twice more and Kurt is pleased they seem to get along so well. He hasn't seen his dad this happy in a long time. Kurt is happily enjoying his egg sandwich when Burt says he needs a favor from him.

"You remember Blaine right? Sally's son?"

Kurt nods, his mind going a mile a minute trying to figure out what Blaine has to do with anything.

"Well his car broke down yesterday and Sally has to drive Maria to her school so I told her you could give Blaine a lift to school."

Kurt chokes on his coffee. "I wait, what? Why didn't you give me any warning!" Kurt panics. He had expected to see

Blaine at school, maybe have a short conversation, but not to be alone with him in a car for ten minutes. What would they talk about? And surely Blaine doesn't want to be seen with him on his first day. New kids already get enough trouble so hanging out with Glee club members on top of that is practically social suicide.

Burt looks taken aback. "Sorry kid, I didn't think about it. Besides, you two seemed to get along well the other day." Then Burt's eyes darken for a minute. "Wait he hasn't given you any trouble or anything for being gay right? Because if he has so help me God I will-"

"No, no, it's nothing like that dad," he interrupts. "Actually… Blaine is gay himself."

"Oh," he says, slightly taken aback. "Well then that's good?"

"Yes everything's fine dad. I was just a little surprised, that's all."

Kurt finished his breakfast quickly and runs upstairs to put the finishing touches on his hair.

"Come on Kurt!" his dad yells from downstairs. "I don't want you making Blaine late on his first day."

After giving himself one more glance over in the mirror he runs downstairs and out the front door.

Blaine's house, like most of the others in the area, is almost an exact replica of Kurt's. Whoever designed the neighborhood obviously didn't have a very active imagination. One thing that did strike Kurt however, was the giant willow tree in the front yard. Willows had been his mom's favorite type of tree and during the summer they would often go to the local park and have picnics under this giant willow tree. Kurt hadn't thought about that in years, and hadn't been back to the park since his mom died. It holds too many memories.

Kurt is so caught up in the memory that he didn't notice Blaine until he was knocking on the car window. He quickly unlocks the door and apologizes as Blaine climbs in.

"No worries! Thanks so much for the ride Kurt!" Blaine practically gushes.

The gel is back, Kurt notices, and it's accompanied by a tight black polo, bright red floods, and black oxford shoes without any socks. The outfit is absolutely adorable and Kurt's glad to know his wardrobe goes farther than the jeans and t-shirt he was wearing before.

"So let me see you schedule," Blaine requests.

At Kurt's confused look, he laughs and says, "That way I can see if we have any classes together."

"Oh right, of course," Kurt mumbles and wills himself not to blush. He pulls the schedule out of his pocket and passes it to Blaine.

After a moment Blaine announces, "Darn, we only have physics together."

Kurt's heart speeds up. Blaine made it sound like he wanted to have more classes with him. Could that mean… but before Kurt finishes his thought Blaine continues, "It would have been nice to see a friendly face in more of my classes."

Friendly. That's all they were, just friends. Kurt deflates a little but still, friends can always lead to something more right? They chat about this and that for the rest of the ride, what they did over the summer mostly, and a little about glee club.

"So there is a meeting after school today?" Blaine asks.

"Well yeah, I mean usually new members don't come to the first only because they don't know about it yet but I'm sure it would be fine if you came."

Blaine smiles and says he'll be there. Once Kurt parks the car he cuts the gas but doesn't move.

"You don't have to, um... walk in with me…" Kurt says looking everywhere but at Blaine. When he eventually does looks he sees that Blaine looks hurt.

"No! I mean it's not that I don't want to," he quickly amends, "It's just that as I told you I'm not the most popular guy in school and so people might give you an extra hard time if they see us together."

"Kurt," he says softly turning to face him, "we're friends, aren't we?" When Kurt nods he continues, "Well I'm not going let anyone else stop that. I meant it when I said you weren't going to be the only out kid this year, I'm not going to hide who I am."

Kurt smiles but feels his chest tightening with nerves. As nice as it will be to not be the only out kid, he's scared for Blaine. He just doesn't realize what people are like at McKinley. When they get to the front doors Blaine immediately turns to go to the office.

"They told me to stop by before first period," he says with a shrug. "See you fifth period!"

Kurt waves and goes the opposite direction to his locker. His first period is AP English and when he walks in, he goes to sit next to Tina. They hadn't seen each other too often over the summer so they have a lot of catching up to do. Tina and Mike are still going strong and Kurt can't help but be a little jealous that she has so obviously already found her soul mate. Once class starts it actually goes by pretty quickly and before he knows it the bell is ringing.

"Don't forget to get your copy of A Tale of Two Cities!" Mrs. Hooter calls as they leave.

As soon as Kurt steps into the hallway, he notices a difference in the atmosphere. Everyone seems to be whispering and there are about twice as many girls putting on makeup at their lockers than usual. Kurt turns to say goodbye to Tina and walks over to his locker. About five seconds later he hears someone bang into the locker on his left side and he flinches on instinct.

"Sorry," Rachel says, slightly out of breath. "Didn't mean to scare you, but I just heard the most delicious gossip!" she finished excitedly.

"And what would that be?" he asks as he closes his locker.

"There's a new kid, Blaine something or another, and he's absolutely gorgeous!"

Kurt freezes. He hadn't told anyone, not even Rachel, about Blaine. It was silly but he liked having Blaine all to himself; being the only one that knew about him. Plus, once Rachel found out he was gay, she would have a field day trying to get them together, and Kurt knew that could only end in embarrassment on his part.

"Um... yeah I know." he says sheepishly. "He's the son of the woman my dad is dating and he actually came over for dinner the other night."

"What!" she shrieks. "How could you not tell me that!"

"I don't know, it never came up." Kurt offers lamely.

"Kurt Hummel that is crap and you know it. You were just trying to keep that boy all to yourself. And I'll admit, if I wasn't hopelessly in love with Finn, I would definitely be interested."

Kurt can't help but snort. "Well I don't think he would return that interest. He's gay."

When Rachel's eyes light up Kurt knows he's made a grave mistake. Sure enough, the discussion all the way to their next class revolves around Blaine and how he is perfect for Kurt.

"Hope this seat isn't taken," Blaine says as he plops down next to Kurt.

Kurt grins but before he can say anything the teacher, an older man with a thinning brown hair and glasses, calls the class to attention.

"My name is Mr. Willis and this is an introductory physics class. I run a tight ship but if you follow my rules I'm sure we'll all get along."

He then proceeds to list exactly thirty-seven rules that they must never, ever break. When he finally finishes Kurt turns to Blaine and raises his eyebrows and his mouth quirks up before looking away. About halfway through class Kurt tosses a note on to Blaine's desk.

I would like to inform you that your tapping your pencil is a direct violation of rule 26

Blaine's mouth turns up again but he looks nervously at the teacher and immediately stops tapping his pencil. His behavior is adorable and Kurt doesn't quite stifle his laugh in time.

"Is something funny Mr. Hummel?" Mr. Willis asks.

"No, sorry sir," he says ducking his head.

A few minutes later the notes flies back on to his desk.

Looks like I'm not the only rule-breaker in this classroom

Kurt groans inwardly. At this rate, he's going to be head over heels in love with Blaine in no time.

When Kurt walks into Glee, there are only two other people there. Rachel is talking animatedly to Mr. Schue about something and Finn who is watching them and looking slightly uncomfortable. Kurt takes a seat in the back row and pulls out his phone as he waits for the rest of the kids.

Within five minutes, everyone but Blaine has arrived and Mr. Schue is getting ready to start. When Kurt glances at the door for a fifth time Mercedes nudges him and shoots him a questioning look. Kurt just shrugs and looks up at Mr. Schue who has started talking.

"…this really is going to be our year guys, I can feel it! Now we are going to need some new members now Lauren and Quinn are no longer her-" Mr. Schue stops because there is a tentative knock on choir room door. He walks over to open it and in steps Blaine.

"Sorry I'm late, I didn't know where the choir room was."
"That's alright Mr.…"

"Anderson. Blaine Anderson. Kurt invited me to come today," he says and smiles at Kurt. A couple people glance at Kurt including Rachel who gives him a not-so-subtle wink.

"Great well, welcome to Glee club Blaine! Why don't you go have a-"

"Wait a second," Santana interrupts, "are we just going to let this hobbit join without even hearing him sing? I thought we were getting serious this year."

"Santana!" Mr. Schue barks. "You know we never turn anyone away from Glee and besides, I'm sure Blaine has a great voice he'll be willing to share with us once he's has time to prepare."

Blaine, who had frowned slightly at the hobbit comment, perked back up.

"Actually I'm fine to sing now if you want," Blaine says.

Mr. Schue nods and Blaine goes over to talk to Brad. Mercedes takes the opportunity and turns to Kurt with a huge smile on her face.

"So, within the course of one day you convinced an attractive new boy to give up all hopes of popularity and come join Glee club? You must very persuading…" she says with a giggle.

Kurt crosses his arms and scowls at Mercedes before saying, "My dad is dating his mom so we talked for a little while last week. He was in the Glee club at his old school so it didn't really take much to convince him."

"Well do you know if he's gay? Because if he is you totally need to get on that." she says while giving Blaine a once-over.

Kurt is about to retort that just because Blaine is gay doesn't mean he's going to pursue him (although he will) but he stops himself. Blaine had said he was going to be out but Kurt still feels weird talking about it. He let it slip to Rachel but he decides to wait and see if Blaine says anything before telling anyone else. Just then Brad starts playing and Blaine begins to sing.

So scared of breaking it that you won't let it bend
And I wrote two hundred letters I will never send
Sometimes these cuts are so much deeper then they seem
You'd rather cover up, I'd rather let them be

Kurt stares in awe because Blaine, a small guy at only 5'8, has one of the biggest stage presence he has ever seen. He's singing and dancing and moving around like he's performing at Madison Square Garden instead of in some choir room in Ohio.

So let me be, and I'll set you free

I am in misery
There ain't nobody who can comfort me, oh yeah
Why won't you answer me?
The silence is slowly killing me, oh yeah

Blaine's voice is fun and infectious and by the end of the song everyone, Kurt included, is singing along. Blaine receives a big applause and even Rachel looks impressed.

"You were the leader of the Warblers!" Puck suddenly shouts from the back of the room. He looks quite pleased with himself for having figured this out.

Murmurs sweep through the room and people's faces begin to light up with recognition.

"Isn't that the school for dolphins?" Brittney asks.

Kurt shakes his head. Honestly, he loves Brittney, but he doesn't know where she gets this stuff half the time.

Blaine looks thoroughly confused until Santana says, "She means gay guys. See, she thinks dolphins are just gay sharks."

Blaine still looks confused but smiles and says, "No, not everyone at Dalton Academy is gay, but I am."

Puck whoops loudly at this confession and Kurt turns to see Sam scowling and handing him a five dollar bill.

"I told you, my gaydar is never wrong!"

Mr. Schue finally steps in, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention, and walks over to Blaine.

"That was amazing Blaine. It's good to have you in Glee. Go ahead and take a seat so we can get started."

Blaine looks around for a second before making his way over to sit next to Kurt.

He opens his mouth to say something but before he can Kurt says, "Wow Blaine that was fantastic. Seriously, your voice is great."

Blaine's whole face lights up and he responds, "Thanks! I can't wait to hear you sing. I can already tell you're going to blow me away."

Kurt smiles and ducks his head.

"Also," Kurt begins cautiously, "I just wanted to say it was really brave of you to say that up there. I know it isn't easy."
Blaine's eyes darken for a minute as he says, "I've had some hard times in the past, but I figure if I can't accept myself how can I expect others to? Plus," he says in a lighter tone, "I'm hoping that by telling these guys to rumor mill will do its job because I've already had to turn one girl down today."

Kurt laughs at that, now realizing why all the girls were trying to look their best today. He looks over at Blaine and their eyes meet for a couple seconds before Kurt turns away blushing slightly. Yeah, there is no denying it, he is falling for Blaine Anderson.