The drive had been lengthy; a two-day drive in total from Ohio to Vancouver, but finally Kurt found himself in the parking lot of Northridge College. He stared up at the residence buildings in awe. This was going to be his new home for three years. He spoke with a kind woman at the reception desk and was given his room assignment. Burt and Carole helped him carry up his belongings; he was on the 5th floor, room 512. He fed his keycard into the door and swung it open, finding two boys around his age with their parents helping them pile things into their rooms. Kurt was staying in an apartment-like dorm with three other guys during the school year. Each of them had their own bedroom with a shared bathroom, kitchen and living room. One of the boys looked over to Kurt as he entered the room.

“So you’re either Kurt or Benjamin.” The boy smiled as he began to walk towards the door.

“Kurt.” Kurt smiled back; setting the box he was carrying on the floor and extending out his hand.

“Nice to meet you Kurt, my name is Lee. That’s Patrick.” He gestured to the other boy who was having a conversation with his parents across the room.

“Very nice to meet you as well, Lee.”

“I’ll let you get settled, take your pick at the rooms over there,” He gestured to the right side of the room. “My bedroom is in the back left and Patrick is staying in the one next to me.” Kurt nodded and picked up his box, walking towards the room in the far right corner. It was a fairly good size for a dorm room. Kurt had done plenty of research on his accommodations before moving in.

“You can set those down on the bed, dad, Carole.” He waved his hand to the general direction of the bed. Eventually all of Kurt’s boxes were in his room and the unpacking began. Burt put up a removable shelf over Kurt’s desk for Kurt to keep his camera collection. Carole offered to set up Kurt’s closet for him to which he was grateful for. Better Carole than Burt to be handling his clothes. Within a few hours, Kurt’s room was more or less put together. He would probably do some rearranging but it felt much more like home with all of his things arranged around the room.

Kurt hugged Burt and Carole as they said their goodbyes. Burt looked especially misty-eyed as he pulled away from his sons embrace. He really was going to miss his family.

“Stay safe okay? And I expect you to call as often as you can.” Burt’s voice quivered slightly.

“I will dad, I promise.” Kurt smiled and Burt patted him on his shoulder before turning to leave. He called out a last goodbye as they turned out of the parking lot. He was lost in his thoughts for a moment, already feeling a sense of being home sick. He didn’t even notice the dark skinned boy running around the corner before it was too late.

“Omph!” They both gasped, tumbling to the ground.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry!” The other boy gasped, quickly getting to his feet and helping Kurt up. “Are you alright? I hope I didn’t hurt you!” Kurt rubbed his elbow, which must have somehow broken his fall.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m alright. It was partially my fault for standing here.” The other boy smiled weakly.

“I’m sorry, again. My name is Benjamin by the way.” He extended his hand to Kurt.

“I’m Kurt.” He said kindly, still feeling a bit of pain in his elbow. Suddenly it came to him. “Benjamin? You don’t happen to be rooming in Falcon House do you?” The other boy lit up.

“I do indeed! I forgot some of my room registration papers out in my car and I was just running back from getting them. I can be so forgetful sometimes.”

“There is a Benjamin supposed to be rooming with me, maybe it’s you! Room 512?” Benjamin smiled even larger.

“Roomies!” He wrapped his arms around Kurt and Kurt was a bit shocked at first. The man was clearly affectionate and Kurt definitely wasn’t use to that. Kurt patted him on the back hesitantly. “Sorry about that, here we’ve only just met and I’m already hugging you.” Kurt laughed.

“It’s alright Benjamin. Do you need help with anything? I’ve already finished setting up my room.”

“Thanks for the offer, friend! I’d much appreciate an extra pair of hands.”

Kurt learned that Benjamin was 4 years older than himself and he didn’t have his parents there to help him move in.

“I’ve been on my own for quite a long time now, don’t worry about it.” Ben must have seen the pity in Kurt’s eyes. He was probably used to it by now.

“When I came out to them, they made their feelings about me pretty clear. I was sure they knew I was gay even before I came out, but I guess they were just in denial.” Ben shrugged. It felt like he had told that story one too many times and it lost the meaning it once held.

“So you are gay then?” Kurt asked and Ben nodded. “I am as well.” Ben smiled softly.

“I kind of guessed you were, but I didn’t want to pry. It’ll be nice to have a gay guy around here. Not that straight friends aren’t great too, but it’s nice to have someone around to relate to. Especially someone in the same living quarters.” Kurt nodded. He never had the chance to make male gay friends. Sure him and Dave had been on speaking terms, and of course he did have Santana and Brittney, but that was different.

Kurt helped Ben carry boxes up from his car to his room after he had finished his registration at the front desk. Lee offered to help as well while Patrick had mysteriously disappeared. It didn’t take them long to get everything up into Ben’s room and Ben assured them he could handle it from there. Ben proposed they head down to the food court and get something for dinner. Kurt agreed, feeling and hearing his stomach growl softly.

During dinner Kurt spotted a familiar head of hair. Well, not exactly familiar. It was Mr. Anderson, who appeared to be ordering up a sub from the sub station. Kurt watched him; he was even more handsome in person. Ben must of caught Kurt leering and poked him in the ribs.

“That’s Mr. Anderson, is it not?” Kurt nodded, pretending to not be interested in talking about the man he was clearly staring at. “Definitely not hurting in the looks department if you ask me.” Lee, who was sitting across from Ben, chocked on his fries and Kurt laughed. It took some explaining to Lee that both Ben and Kurt were gay. Lee seemed accepting of both of them.

“I mean, I guess I see the appeal. He has nice hair. Wish I had a jaw line like that…” Lee ran his thumb and index finger along his chin and Ben laughed. Lee was the same age as Kurt and Patrick was two years older, he later learned.

“What do you think, Kurt?” Ben turned to him, clearly still talking about the handsome professor ordering his food. Kurt debated on what to say.

“Well he’s definitely not bad to look at.” Kurt settled on, trying to hide the fact that his heart rate sped up a little bit as Mr. Anderson turned and walked off down the hallway. Kurt wondered if he was working late on something. Classes didn’t start until tomorrow, but Kurt was sure the professors had lots of things to tackle before classes began. Kurt may have stared a little too longingly at his professors’ backside as he walked off, appreciating the dark wash jeans. He turned back to see Ben smirking knowingly at him and Kurt rolled his eyes.

Could he be any more obvious?

Kurt awoke the next morning a little dazed before he realized where he was. He looked up at the white ceiling before bringing his hand out from under the covers to turn off his alarm clock. He rolled over on his side and brought up his legs to his chest. Day 1, he thought to himself. He felt butterflies stir in his stomach. He had class with Mr. Tines first thing in the morning, 9am. He had practical class and theory with him for four hours and then a lunch break before Mr. Anderson’s lighting class. Luckily him and Benjamin were both in the same program and had the same schedule (due to Ben’s last name being Idana, which was close alphabetically with Hummel). Lee had the same first two classes, but not lighting. They’d discovered that Patrick wasn’t even in the same program as the rest of them, but had somehow been placed in their dorm room as an odd-man-out.

Kurt rolled out of bed at 7am. He figured that the other boys wouldn’t be up for another hour anyways, so he decided to claim the bathroom for himself. He took a leisurely shower before deciding to get dressed. He had his first day outfit picked out for weeks, though he probably wouldn’t admit that to anyone. It wasn’t until 8 that Ben was out of his room and into the bathroom. Kurt had flushed when he caught Ben walking back to his room in only a towel, but Ben didn’t seem to care.

Kurt was 19, and had no previous opportunities to be around other guys (except his stepbrother) like this. Boys didn’t exactly like to be partially naked in front of the gay boy. He was a virgin, but hoped that that would not make itself known among the student body. Benjamin just oozed with sexual self-confidence. Kurt found him attractive, but he wasn’t really his type. He certainly did not feel the same way he did when he caught a glimpse of Mr. Anderson last night. Kurt cursed himself for thinking of Mr. Anderson in that way. He was a teacher, after all! Still, Kurt couldn’t help but be excited to finally get to meet him.

It was another half an hour before Lee stumbled out of his room. He was dressed and drowsy looking. Kurt had made coffee to which the other boys were grateful and sat in his room for a few minutes. He clasped his hands together nervously and took a few deep breaths. He tried to smooth out his first day jitters before packing his bag and entering the living room again.

“You guys ready?” He spoke softly, figuring that Patrick was probably still in bed. Ben and Lee nodded and the three of them walked off to class.

His first two classes droned on with unexciting introductions of the program, all of which Kurt had meticulously researched himself already. Kurt was excited however to learn of some field trips the class would be taking around the city, for photographic opportunities.

After lunch, Kurt strolled into the studios where his lighting class was held. There was a studio setup on one end of the room and chairs arranged on the other side. He sat down next to Ben, turning to smile politely at the other people already seated. It looked like most people had chosen to arrive early on the first day.

“Good afternoon, class!” A confident, masculine voice boomed from the doorway. Everyone turned in unison to see Mr. Anderson strutting into the class, looking gorgeous as ever. He was shorter than Kurt had realized yesterday, shorter than himself actually. He had the sexiest pair of black-rimmed glasses perched on his nose that Kurt had ever seen. He was dressed simply in dark jeans and a collared black shirt. “It’s nice to see you’re all here early and on time, I like the positive attitude. My name is Blaine Anderson but please feel free to call me Blaine. I will be your lighting teacher for the entire year.” Ben chose that moment to poke Kurt playfully in the ribs and Kurt looked at him incredulously.

Class seemed to speed along quite quickly as the students were given a tour of the studios, an introduction to the material they would be learning over the coming weeks, and an overview of the assignments. Kurt loitered around after class in hopes of catching a brief conversation with Blaine but found himself competing amongst a hoard of girls that had surrounded him and were currently giggling at his jokes. Kurt felt jealousy bubble up inside his chest. The girls didn’t stay long and finally Kurt had a chance to approach Blaine.

“Anything I can do for you…” Blaine was searching for a name, but couldn’t come up with the right one. He had to learn the names of over 200 students, after all.

“Kurt.” Kurt smiled, extending his hand politely.

“Nice to meet you, Kurt.” Blaine’s smile was probably the most incredible thing Kurt had ever seen. His teeth were perfect and bright and he looked like the happiest man in the world, all while he was shaking Kurt’s hand. “I remember your portfolio now, actually. You did the girl with the winged eyeliner, among others, right?”

“Yes, that was me.” Kurt blushed.

“Your portfolio is quite stunning, Kurt, especially for someone with no formal training. It will certainly be a treat being your teacher this year and getting to watch your work improve even more.” Kurt was blushing even more now; desperately hoping his skin was not as red as it felt.

“Th-thank you, Mr. Anderson.”

“Please, call me Blaine.”

Kurt and Blaine talked back and forth for about 20 minutes. Kurt explained that he was American and Blaine admitted he grew up not that far from Kurt, in Westerville. They both admitted to being avid members of their glee clubs and expressed their love for singing and performing.

“Funny how both of us ended up on the same path.” Blaine smiled that mega-watt smile and Kurt smiled back shyly. “Well Kurt, I’ve got to go work in the printing area for awhile, but I will see you soon, eh?” Kurt nodded and waved his goodbyes, taking a deep breath as Blaine exited to calm his nerves.

He smiled softly to himself, petting over the skin on his palm where Blaine had touched him. He felt a little crazy for being so in love with his professor. He knew that college would present new dating opportunities that Lima did not, but he could never have expected this.