“Bye, ‘Cedes!” Kurt called after the retreating girl, receiving a wave and a smile from his best friend in response. He edged into the already full classroom, and sat in his usual seat amidst the havoc that the other teenagers were making around him. Luckily, they all steered clear of Kurt as normal. He was fine with that really. Biology was his second best subject, so having a lab partner wasn’t that important to him. Sure, it would be nice to not be treated like an outcast all the time, but he could deal with it. He had learned over time to let it go.
“Right class!” Mr Johnson yelled over the chattering of the students, abruptly ending their conversations with one steely look. He was the kind of teacher who didn’t really bother if the class were actually paying attention, as long as they attempted to look like they were paying attention. Kurt thought he was an adequate teacher, nothing special. He did get taught all he needed to know, the work was just highly tedious.
As a slideshow popped up on the screen about mitosis, the class let out a groan, Kurt included. “Copy this please, and be quick about it.” Mr Johnson said, slouching down in his seat and reading the morning paper. Kurt stared at the scrawls of writing on the slide and sighed. Mitosis was something they had done years ago, and seemed to repeat more often than necessary. He had memorized the process, and could recite it backwards, but he copied down the title anyway, rolling his eyes.
It looked like this was going to be one of those days.
“Ah, Mr Anderson! How nice of you to join us!” Kurt looked up a few moments later, as the teachers voice filled the classroom.
Mr Anderson…? He thought, confused. There’s no one in the class with the second name Anderson.
But he followed the gaze of Mr Johnson, to the open door. Standing there, hands on the straps of his rucksack was a boy Kurt had never seen before. His curly hair looked unkempt, but somehow it was the most attractive hair Kurt had ever seen in his life. Actually, he thought, taking in the rest of the boy, he might just be the most attractive boy he had ever seen.
He was…indescribably handsome. Some of his dark hair had fallen onto his olive-toned face, and his eyes were fixed on a spot on the ground. He was wearing a rather tight green and white checked shirt which showed off his arms perfectly. His biceps were clenched as he was holding onto his bag tightly, and he looked strong. You could also see some veins making their way up his arm and below the sleeve. Kurt reluctantly tore his eyes away from his arms, and settled on his bottom half. He was wearing dress shoes, no socks and ohmygod suspenders. How had he not noticed them before? Kurt almost fainted with joy. Finally, a guy at this school had proven himself to have bit of fashion sense. At that moment, the boy tore his eyes from the ground and looked straight at Kurt, confusion settling on his face. Kurt could only stare back at him, trying not to let his mouth hang open. His eyes were the most amazing colour of hazel he had ever seen in his life. They even looked golden when the light shined on them a certain way.
“Blaine.” Mr Johnson said sharply. Blaine’s eyes left Kurt’s and he turned around to face the teacher, looking a bit lost.
“There’s a free seat beside Kurt that you can have. You’ll be lab partners for the rest of the year. I take it that’s okay with you, Kurt?” Kurt’s eyes widened as he stared at Mr Johnson, who raised his eyebrows at him, waiting for a response.
“Um, yeah, that’s fine.” He stuttered, aiming a small smile at Blaine. He did not get one in return. Blaine slowly walked over to the seat beside Kurt, swinging his bag off his back and dropping into the chair with a small sigh.
“Just copy the notes down off the slide, Blaine.” Mr Johnson said, slamming a jotter down in front of the startled boy. He gave a small nod, brought out a pen from his pocket and immediately started copying the slide. Kurt had been staring at the boy from the moment he had walked in the door, and had only just managed to snap himself out of it. What was he getting his hopes up for? This guy was clearly straight. Blaine, he corrected himself. Damnit, he thought. He even has an attractive name. He groaned internally, frustrated at his naivety, and settled back to copying the notes down.
He couldn’t help how his eyes flickered to Blaine every few minutes though. He, unlike Kurt, was focused intently on writing, his eyes flickering up to the screen every few seconds. His tongue was slightly out of his mouth, and he was biting it in concentration, eyebrows furrowed. They had only been writing for 5 minutes at most, and already he had filled half a page of his messy scrawl. Kurt looked down at his own paper, cursing Blaine for causing his lack of concentration. He had written 3 lines so far. He furiously started scribbling again, willing the lesson to be over so he could think clearly again. He couldn’t seem to think straight, never mind concentrate when Blaine was around. And he had only found out about his existence 5 minutes ago. He hadn’t even heard him speak yet, for God’s sake.
10 minutes later, and Kurt was three quarters of his way through the notes, each one merging into the next. He glanced over at Blaine again, who seemed to have finished writing them down. He was sitting staring at the table like it was the most interesting thing in the world. But his brow was furrowed, and he looked worried about something. His eyes were wide, and Kurt thought for a second he saw tears in them, but he couldn’t be sure. Blaine’s eyes flickered along the table, settling on Kurt’s unfinished notes, and his frown deepened as he looked up and met Kurt’s eyes. Kurt, shocked at being caught staring so obviously at him, awkwardly turned back to his notes and continued writing, making a silent vow not to look at Blaine again at least until he was finished with these stupid notes. But out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Blaine had not turned away from Kurt. He had not stopped staring at him. Kurt’s eyes widened, but he refused to look up. So he continued writing the notes, his breath hitching in his throat as the time when on, and Blaine had not stopped staring at him. Why? Why is he staring at me? Kurt was shouting at himself in his head, begging for an answer. Of course, no answer came. He willed himself on with the notes.
5 minutes later, he finally finished. He slowly leaned back in his chair, placed his pen on his book, and turned to face Blaine. Their eyes met for the third time that day, and Kurt couldn’t help the rush of excitement that came with it. This time it was Blaine’s turn to look away, face going scarlet. Kurt decided that if he wanted to get to know this boy, he would have to make the first move to speak to him.
“It’s Blaine, right?” He asked tentatively, voice quivering slightly. Blaine nodded slowly, eyes still trained on the table. Kurt struggled for something else to say, but he wanted so much to get through to Blaine. He had to try. They were going to have to do plenty of assignments together, after all.
“I’m Kurt. Kurt Hummel.” He said with a small smile, even though Blaine couldn’t see it. After a few minutes of hesitation, he lifted his head, and turned to Kurt.
“I know.” He said softly, thumbs fiddling with each other in his lap. Kurt wondered how he knew his full name, but decided not to ask. He was making a breakthrough and had actually gotten Blaine to speak, and he didn’t want to ruin it now.
Again, he struggled for something to say, but settled on talking about biology, since he knew at least they had that in common.
“These-” He was cut off abruptly by Mr Johnsons loud voice, addressing the class.
“You’re assignment for the next two weeks will be to carry out an investigation on mitosis. You will do the experiment in class, but the written work will need to be carried out as homework. Which means you and your partner will actually need to spend some time after school working on it.” The bell shrilled harshly, cutting off Mr Johnsons speech. He sighed, shaking his head. “Alright, class dismissed.” He said in a defeated voice, sinking back down into his chair.
Immediately the class broke out in chat, chairs scraping across the floor as they hurriedly made their way to their second class. Before Kurt had realised, Blaine was already out of his seat and halfway towards the door.
“Blaine! Wait!” He called after the boy. They needed to discuss when they were going to do the stupid assignment, which would definitely be awkward since they didn’t even know each other. He had realised now that Blaine would be a lot harder to work with than he originally thought, since he seemed so shy and withdrawn.
Kurt ran after Blaine, who was already out the door, and turned the corner just in time to see Blaine thrown against a locker by Karofsky. “Dirty fag!” He shouted, walking off laughing. Blaine was crumpled on the floor, head in his hands, and not one person made a move to help him. So Kurt ran to him.