Chapter Three.

Back at Dalton.

"So, Blaine, who was that guy you've been hanging round with all day?" Blaine's best friend Wes asked.

After Kurt had gone home, Blaine really hadn't stopped smiling, he had a great time showing Kurt around the building, and he found it so easy to talk to someone like Kurt.

Blaine often found it difficult to open up to people, in fact, the only people he actually had opened up fully to where Wes and David, not that he and Kurt had talked about such in depth subjects as of yet, but Blaine felt that if they did, then he probably could tell him almost every aspect of his life, he already knew that Kurt wouldn't judge him– and he had only met him no more than a few hours ago.

"Oh, he's just some new kid, Kurt– he seems nice." Blaine smiled at Wes.

"Well you seemed to get on with him well, getting a little cosy where we?" David mocked.

"NO! – I mean, c'mon, I only met him a few hours ago, he seems nice, that's all."

"Mmhumm." Wes hummed sarcastically.

"Hi Guys!" The three boys heard from directly behind them and jumped.

"Crap, where the hell did you two come from!" Blaine turned around to see the twins, Justin and Jamie, who had apparently appeared out of nowhere, this was something that nobody had gotten used to, it just happened.

"Oh, we were just passing–"

"–Heard you guy's talking–"

"–And thought we'd say hi."

The twins took it in turns to answer Blaine, Wes and David just looked at them, the two pairs of identical eyes staring at them right back, the vibrant green shading in them just showed how vibrant they where themselves– Very.

"How do you guy's even do that?" Blaine looked at them bewildered and utterly confused by them.

"Do what?" they said together

"Like…pop out of nowhere." David elaborated

"Ah, that is for us to know," Jamie started.

"–And for you to find out." Justin finished

Blaine honestly did think that the twins where great, he had Biology with them, so he knew them quite well, or so he thought, and they made his day most of the time, they cheered everybody up.

"We'll be going now."

"Bye, we have to go and annoy Seb and Ryan." And with that they just popped out of nowhere again.

"I swear they are on something." Wes laughed once they had left.

"Their harmless, but yes, I do agree."

"So, about this Kurt boy." David continued, resuming the previous conversation.

"What about him?" Blaine said

"Well for one you're even making googly eyes at him now, and he isn't even here."

"I told you guy's, it's nothing, he's just new and I'm looking after him."

"Funny, I haven't been informed of any new student's."

"Okay, now that is odd." Blaine said looking confused, he knew that if their had been a new student, that Wes, being a prefect, would have been told.

"I knew there was something weird about it, I mean, did he even have any reason why he had moved? Did he tell you?"

"No, of course he didn't tell me– I only met him a few hours ago! He's not exactly going to tell me his life story now, is he?"

"He might have, I was just asking."

"Come to think of it," Blaine began to think back. "There did seem something odd about it all, I mean, not that's he's odd or anything, but I mean, like it seemed that there was another reason he came– you don't think he lied about being knew here, do you?"

"I think it's a possibility, I mean, like Wes said, he would have been informed by Mr Hawthorne himself."

"Yeah, and as head teacher, it is his duty to inform me."

"Wait, I have his number, do you think I should text him?"

"Yeah, find out what's going on."

So Blaine pulled out his phone and began to tap a message to Kurt.

"Hey. Have you guys seen my Gavel?" Wes asked in a sudden panic, frantically looking around the room and patting himself.

"Nope." Blaine and David said together both laughing, they of course, hadn't stolen it, but all three of them knew exactly who had taken it.

"JUSTIN, JAMIE!" Wes shouted running out the room to go and find the tweedles, leaving Blaine and David in fits of laughter.

Once Kurt had gotten home that night from Dalton Academy and wrote in his journal, he had finally gotten himself comfortable in bed ready too sleep.

He reflected on his day and how it had pretty much gone from really dull and depressing, to amazing and…yeah– amazing.

The Warblers were something else, yeah their harmonies were second to none and when they sang, their was not a note out of tune, but there was something else about them, their bond and relationship with each other seemed very strong– as if they were all one big family, not like the New Directions where their would be drama's and fall out's pretty much every single day of the week.

The thought of maybe possibly attending that school really appealed to Kurt, the non-bulling policy especially, he was determined to get away from Karofsky.

Kurt scrunches his eyes as he sees the light from his phone go off, indicating he has a message.

Hey, Kurt, It's Blaine. I was just wondering if you maybe wanted too meet for a coffee or something tomorrow– that is if you are a coffee type person, if not, we can do something else :) –B

Kurt smiles at this– Blaine remembered him, he wasn't completely sure why this made him smile like an idiot but it did, someone was making an effort to be with him, to talk to him.

Yes, of course, coffee sounds great. I'll meet you at the Lima Bean after school? –K

Cool. I mean that sounds great! Is it alright if I bring my friends David and Wes along? Its okay to say no, I understand if it make's you feel uncomfortable –B

No– that's fine with me, I don't mind. I'll see you tomorrow then? –K

See you tomorrow. G'night, Kurt –B

Kurt practically had a grin plastered onto his face; he was meeting Blaine for coffee tomorrow, gorgeous Blaine who sang like a dream.

He suddenly opened his eyes again two minutes later, he had let it slip to Blaine that he wasn't going to Dalton tomorrow, which, if Kurt was, he would probably going for coffee with Blaine at lunch, not after school, how could he have been so stupid? He and Blaine would have probably met up at school anyway, he had slipped up. Big time.

How was he going to explain this one?

Kurt woke up the next morning he stared straight in front of him for a few moment's to let himself become awake, before finally pushing him self up with his arms and sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

He got showered, done his skin routine and had coiffed his hair, now all that was left to do was to get ready.

He didn't have a clue what he was going to wear– he didn't want to overdress, but still, he wanted to look good, he was really looking forward to seeing Blaine later, get to know him a little better maybe.

He picked out an outfit eventually from his Narnia of a wardrobe deciding on a pair of black skinny jeans, a white button up shirt and a charcoal coloured waist coat, slipping on his usual Mark Jacobs coat before making his way too school.

Kurt was heading out of his Chemistry class when he heard Mercedes call his name, this caught Kurt's attention– she hadn't spoken to him personally in a week or two.

"Hey– Kurt!"

"Hey." He said bluntly, he didn't mean to sound annoyed, he just was, she was his best friend for crying out loud!

"Whoa, what's wrong, boo?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe because you haven't said a word to me in maybe…two weeks? Sound familiar?"

"Look, Kurt, I'm sorry okay. In case you haven't noticed, I actually haven't been in school a lot lately…My grandma hasn't been too well, I've been helping mom look after her." She looked at him apologetically.

Now that she had said it, maybe she was right, Mercedes hadn't been in school a lot now that Kurt noticed, and now he felt like the worst friend in the world.

"Merc– I'm really sorry, I should have known– why didn't you tell me?…in fact, that doesn't matter, you don't have too tell me…"

"Kurt, it's fine okay, I'm sorry…you're sorry, let's just leave it at that and forget about it, yeah?"

He gave her a small smile, which Mercedes took as an opportunity to hug Kurt, when she did, Kurt gave a sharp intake of breath, not that Mercedes had hurt him; it was just his stupid ribs from stupid Karofs–

"Kurt," Mercedes said once she had heard Kurt wince "What's happened?" Is was more of a statement than a question.

"N-Nothing…It's nothing." He knew that she could read through him though but he would keep trying anyway.

"What's been going on?" She said seriously and Kurt just couldn't lie to her like that, he had to tell her.

"Can we go somewhere quiet?"

"Sure." Mercedes said and the walked outside and sat on one of the tables scattered about.

"The thing is Merc, I really want to tell you something, you're my best friend, and to be completely honest, the only person here that I trust, I just don't know how to– I'm scared."

"You don't have to tell me. In fact, I don't want you to– not if you're not ready, I would hate to force you."

"No– I have to tell someone…I'm being bullied." He said slowly licking his lip nervously.

"YOU'RE WHAT!" Mercedes shouted and Kurt just shot her a look that he hoped would say 'Shut the hell up' which apparently, it did. "By who?" she asked in a quieter voice.

"I don't think I'm ready to say yet."

"Alright." She said taking her hand and rubbing his arm comfortingly. "How long has thing been going on for?"

"About a month." Mercedes gasped at this.

"Kurt– if I'd have known."

"You didn't though Merc, how could you have? It's not as if I told anyone, I couldn't."

"I know, but I should have, I'm you're best friend, Kurt, I should have noticed something– I'm sorry."

"It's fine 'cedes, I mean it isn't fine– the situation, but I meant that we're fine."

"Always, boo."

They sat in silence for a few moments, this was huge, they were both processing this, Kurt processing that he was actually telling someone and Mercedes that this had been going on and she hadn't noticed.

"Kurt, I understand if you don't want to tell me, but, what do they…do, exactly?" Kurt froze for a couple of seconds, the memory of the things that Karofsky would do to him when nobody else was around making the little colour that he had in him, out, and he was crisp white. "You don't have to say."

"No, I will. They, um– at first it was just the name calling, y'know, fag, homo, girl– nothing that I couldn't handle, but then it got worse, I started to get shoved in to lockers, and then I got beaten up one day– so bad, and I had nobody to tell." Kurt realised that he may have sounded a little bitter then "Sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that, I just…" he gave out a tired sigh.

Mercedes understood though, he was right, he didn't have anyone, Kurt was on his own, once again, all she could do was hug him.

"Can we talk about something else now; I kind of don't want to talk about it anymore."

"Of course…Where did you disappear to after Glee yesterday, I didn't see you in Social Studies?"

"Oh, well Noah made it very clear that I was being useless in terms of choosing a song for mash-up's and told me to go and visit 'The Garblers' I think were his words."

"Urgh– I swear, that boy needs a clout on the back of the head– did you? Go? To see The Warblers I mean?"

"I did, and I bumped into this boy called Blaine, he showed me around and we hung out for a bit."

Mercedes spat out her drink in shock "Wait, what? You hung out with a boy?" Kurt nodded "Why don't I know about this?"

"Can we not really talk about this, there really isn't that much to tell."

"Hell to the no! I need details, Kurt, details."

"Fine– only because I love you."

Kurt walks into the Lima Bean at around 3:10pm that day for his coffee date with Blaine, and of course, Blaine's friends, he was a little nervous about the whole thing, firstly, meeting new people was a big thing for Kurt, especially now, in his situation with Karofsky and secondly, he had yet to find out whether or not Blaine had sussed out that he had slipped about the fact he didn't go to Dalton Academy.

He opened the door of the coffee shop and scanned it for a head that was full of gel and sure enough, he spotted it and headed to the table where he was sitting

"Hey." He said approaching the table, he smiled upon seeing Blaine and he looked between the three boy's there, he presumed the other two where Wes and David, like he had said.

"Hey, guy's, this is Kurt– Kurt this is Wes," Blaine said gesturing to the smaller of the two "–and this is David."

Kurt sat down and said hi, as to which he sat down on the seat that was next to Blaine. Wes and David seemed nice enough, so this should be okay.

"So, Kurt– Blaine here tells me that you're new to Dalton." Wes said taking a sip of his coffee and putting it down on the table.

Kurt felt a cold heat go up him; he was almost stuck for words.

"Y-yeah. Yes, I'm new."

"Funny, because as a prefect at Dalton, Mr Hawthorne would have told me about any student's transferring." He said in a voice that wasn't intimidating, just more curious but also knowing that he wasn't a student of Dalton.

"You're not going to beat me up are you?" Kurt said suddenly flustered, fiddling with his scarf.

"No of course not –!" David started "– We just found it odd, about Wes not knowing of your transfer."

"Which made me think that maybe there was another reason why you came to Dalton yesterday…" Blaine said trying to search Kurt for clues, to suss him out.

Kurt just looked between the three boys in blazers with his eyes wide, he couldn't tell them, could he? 'Stuff it.' He thought to himself.

"Could you guy's maybe give us some space?" Blaine said gesturing to his two best friends.

"Yeah, course." Wes said finishing his coffee.

"We'll see you back at the dorm, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." Blaine said saying goodbye to his friends, noticing that Kurt was still a bit quiet, but was contemplating something "Kurt?"

"Yeah, oh– sorry, I was just thinking."

"About?"

"Thinking of what to say– how to tell you."

"Oh, okay." Blaine just sat and listened.

"Okay so, yesterday– I came to Dalton. There had been a few things going on back at school. I go to Mckinley and I'm part of the New Directions–" Blaine raised his eye brows to that, he had not been expecting that "– and currently, were doing a mash-up assignment and we were discussing what songs to do so I tried to tell them my idea's but they got shot down– so that's when one of them told me to 'make myself useful and go check out the garblers.' So I did…"

"They said that to you?" Blaine said looking at Kurt sympathetically

"Yeah."

"Wow–"

"It's fine, that's just the way Puckerman is– he's the one who told me to go."

"Yes, but even so, he shouldn't."

"Anyway, where was I?"

"Oh you where just telling me about how you came to spy on us." Blaine smirked.

"Oh right, yeah, so I came here, but I wasn't spying, I promise– I have no idea how I'm able to tell you this, but I'm going to– I'm being bullied at school. I had heard about The Warblers and Dalton before and I had heard about their non-bullying policy– so I took the opportunity to go and have a look."

"Wait, you're thinking of transferring?"

"Yeah– but my dad could never afford the tuition."

"It must be bad then? – the bullying?"

"I guess so."

"I hope I'm not making you feel uncomfortable or anything, but how bad, exactly?"

"Let's see– he shoves me into lockers, makes my life a living hell and he's even got me on my own and beat me up– Blaine what's wrong?" Blaine had become a little uneasy.

"It's just– why would people do that? – I mean I wish people would get over the fact that people are gay, y'know."

"How did you know I was gay?"

"Oh my gosh– I'm sorry– I didn't mean to presume– I just guessed."

"No– its fine" Kurt smiled at him.

"I'm gay too– and I was also bullied at school."

"But I thought Dalton had a non-bulling policy?"

"Oh, Dalton does yes– it was at my old school…it's actually the reason I'm at Dalton."

"I see."

"Just like you, it started off not so bad? I mean, I'm presuming that you had the dictionary of verbal assaults thrown at you too?" Kurt nodded at him.

"I was a freshman–" Blaine continued "–I wasn't exactly popular, but I did have my own friends, so I was happy with that. People would look at me different, like the jocks and they started to call me things like fag, and I had no idea what that meant, I felt so embarrassed that I didn't so when I got home one night, It had gotten to me– so I looked it up."

"Wait, did you even know that you were gay then?"

"No– that's the thing, I wasn't even sure myself, I had no idea– I mean to me from when I was really young– it just didn't seem to matter to me, whether someone was with someone the same gender as them or not."

"When did you find out that you were?"

"Let's just say that I've never been interested in girls that way and I have an unhealthy obsession with Daniel Radcliff." The two boys laughed together.

"So what happened? Did it get worse– or–?"

"Oh yeah, Um, at the end of the year my old school had a dance and I went with my friend Joey– who was also gay– but I'd known him forever so it wasn't like– that. After the dance we where waiting for his dad to come and pick us up and while we were waiting– the jocks came out and they beat us up– really bad– I had to go to hospital and I was in there for about two months, and after that, I transferred here, to Dalton."

"Oh my god– was Joey alright?"

"I don't know– I haven't seen him since."

"Oh– um– I'm sorry- do you want to talk about it?"

"No– um– not today– the point that I'm trying to get at is that I understand– I understand what you're going through and I know it's tough."

"Tell me about it."

"But I want you to know that starting from now– you're not alone, okay."

"Thank you."

"No problem – you have two options, Kurt, you can let them win, which I know is the easier thing to do– or– you can be the bigger person and stand up to them, don't let them push you around– I ran, Kurt and I regret it, I wish back then I had the courage to stand up to them."

"It's not that easy though."

"I know, and I would love to tell you to just come to Dalton and roll with us Warblers, but A– I know tuition is steep and B– I know that Dalton isn't for everyone."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, let's just say that Dalton is a bit crazy sometimes."

"It didn't seem that way – it seemed relatively normal compared to McKinley." Blaine snorted at this "What?" Kurt asked laughing.

"You obviously haven't met my friends– I mean sure, Wes and David are relatively normal, but there's Nick and Jeff– who are just insane and then there's the Tweedles."

"The Tweedles?"

"Yeah, Jamie and Justin, let's just say they are not all right in the head. They're completely harmless, but not all there."

"Ah, I see. Thank you, Blaine, by the way."

"Huh? Why?"

"I don't know– being honest? Listening and understanding."

"Hey, nobody should have to do this on their own, I mean sure, I had Joey– but after that, I had no one, so I'm not going to just sit there and let you go through this by yourself."

Kurt felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out to see a text from his dad.

Kurt, where are you? Carole and Finn are coming around for a movie night –Dad

Sorry I forget to tell you– I just went to the Lima bean with a few friends– I'm on my way home now –K

"I better be heading back," Blaine said finishing his coffee "– gotta keep everyone in order."

"Yeah, my dad's just text me, I have to be heading back too…"

"I'll see you around, okay."

"Yeah." Kurt said smiling at him, a few seconds later he was being pulled into a hug from Blaine, his surprisingly strong arms felt secure and safe around Kurt.

"See ya." The shorter boy said leaving the coffee shop and Kurt following not long after and drove back to his house.

Once Kurt had gotten home, he had found out that Carole had made the dinner for the four of them, they sat down and ate in an awkward silence, Kurt was still annoyed at Finn for what he had said yesterday, how he just brushed Kurt's opinions off, he was practically his step-brother by now, he was supposed to look out for him.

Kurt was up in his room finishing off a little bit of homework before going downstairs to watch a movie with the rest of them, when he heard a knock at his door.

"Come in." he said putting his books back in his school bag.

"Hey." Finn said opening the door and slowly entering.

"What do you want?"

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for yesterday, I shouldn't have shot you down like that."

"Yeah, well you did."

"Dude, what the hell?– I'm trying to apologise here–"

"Yeah?–" Kurt said cutting him off "–well I'm not accepting in Finn, we're supposed to look out for each other."

"Which is why I'm apologising!"

"Don't bother! – I don't want to hear it."

"Kurt, what the hell is with you? You've been acting weird for weeks now– something's going on."

"Nothing is wrong, Finn– not like you'd care anyway."

"I know there is. Don't you think I've seen how you're being distant from the rest of us, how you pretty much jumped at the chance to go the see The Warblers yesterday just to get away from the rest of us."

"So if I've apparently been acting different, then why haven't you said anything to me?"

"Because every time I do you just shove me off, man, I have tried, but you just close yourself off from everyone."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do, you haven't even been going for solo's and man, there is something wrong with that."

"I don't have to hear this." Kurt said making his way out of his room, he was so wound up right now he thought he would explode, he shoved passed Finn and headed downstairs.

"Kurt– wait!" Finn shouted after him but it was too later, he was already gone and out of the house, slamming the door behind him as he disappeared.

There was always something about the meadow that Kurt went to whenever he was upset.

It wasn't too far away from home, but far enough away to get away from everything.

He had come here a lot in the past actually, it seemed to settle him, the beautiful tranquillity of is soothed Kurt; he would often just sit here and think.

He used to come here every day when his mother died, he would see his dad get upset and say to his dad that he was just going around to a friends house, when really he would be coming here, and he would often cry, because he knew he had to be strong for his dad, but of course he had to let go somehow, so he would come here and just cry.

Nobody knew about it, he had kept it to himself. It was a secluded meadow, quite small, but big enough to not feel trapped. In all honestly, the place reminded him of a fairytale, the woods it was surrounded by mystified him and sometimes he would stroll through them, and letting his imagination take over.

This was how Kurt dealt with things properly and was probably why he had dealt so well with the death of his mother– sure he would never get over it, but this helped.

He would make up woodland creatures in his head and pretend that he was the queen of their land and he would ran about in it and shout and scream and often, he would sing, he sang a lot, even if it wasn't any song in particular, he would often make up songs to himself.

As he lay on his back in the grass he finally managed to calm himself down, the argument with Finn had really upset Kurt, but he had eventually begun to get his breathing under control.

Breathe in– …and out.

Maybe Finn did have a point though; Kurt was often like a closed book when it came to telling anybody anything. Most of the time when he was upset, people would know that something was wrong but unless they had seen it– they never knew what happened.

It all made sense; Kurt really was closing everyone off, well, apart from Mercedes, and of course, Blaine.

Kurt could understand why he had eventually told Mercedes, she had been his best friend for like, ever. But he couldn't understand why he was so open with Blaine, but then it hit Kurt.

He had been through the same things.

Blaine was pretty much what Kurt had wanted, somebody who understood him, who had been in his situation. Blaine was the one who had been through all of this, had not only been bullied, but it was because he was gay too, not that that was a good thing at all, but Kurt just knew that he needed Blaine, he needed Blaine right now.

As he felt the cool night air rush over him he heard a noise coming from the tree's behind him, he quickly sat up and looked to where he though he heard the noise coming from.

He focused his vision in the direction it was coming from, he heard footsteps coming towards him, usually, Kurt would be scared and probably run, but something was just telling him to stay put.

Once the person that had been making the footsteps came closer and in to view, Kurt couldn't believe his eyes.

"Blaine?" He asked sounding bewildered. How was that even possible?

"Kurt?" The other boy answered sounding just as bewildered himself.

Kurt had never felt so relieved to hear someone's voice before in his life, but how was this possible?

How and more importantly why was Blaine here?