Kurt flinched at the voice. He knew who it was without turning around. Quinn looked at him amusedly. "Blaine Anderson-Berry is calling for you," she told him.

"Because I couldn't hear him myself," Kurt grumbled, slamming his locker shut and still not turning around.

"He's seen you," Santana said from Kurt's other side, a wicked smirk on her face. "How much longer are you going to have to put up with him again?"

Kurt clenched his jaw. "Until my maths grades go up to a B at least. It isn't my choice, you know that."

"I like him," Brittany said with that dreamy quality she'd always had. "He's a dolphin, Kurt! Like you!"

"But he is also the brother of Rachel Anderson-Berry," Kurt said. "Which means he'll be just as obnoxiously infuriating as her, given they were brought up the same way. Now you all have five seconds to make yourselves scarce so I can get through this tutoring hour thing without going insane."

The three of them giggled furiously at him as they hurried away, huddling together.

"Kurt," Blaine said. Kurt turned to look at the beaming boy standing behind him. "Didn't you hear me call you?"

"Nope," Kurt replied shortly. "Let's just go so we can get this over with." He shouldered his bag, and walked quickly to the library, smoothing the front of his cheerios uniform and trying to ignore the footfalls of Blaine hurrying to catch up with him.
***
"Kurt," Blaine said more then half an hour into their tutoring session. "If you aren't motivated to learn this, then we're wasting our time."

Kurt looked up from his book, his blue eyes hopeful. "Could you tell Ms Sylvester that?"

Blaine snorted. "If I wanted to be killed on sight, then sure."

Kurt exhaled heavily and rested his face in his hand, glaring at the messily scrawled numbers lining his page.

"Is there any reason you're so reluctant to do this?' Blaine asked hesitantly, after a moment of nothing.

"It's boring," Kurt moaned. "And I won't need it when I leave school anyway."

"But you need it now," Blaine said. "To stay on the cheerleading team. That should mean something, right?"

Kurt hesitated before speaking. Blaine had been nothing but kind to him all afternoon and he had been nothing short of a brat, groaning and complaining about the exercises and strategies Blaine had been trying to help him with. He had expected Rachel's brother to be a lot more of an annoying know-it-all but Blaine definitely was not that. Kurt supposed he should try and let Blaine in a little after how badly Kurt had been treating him. "I don't really like cheerleading that much."

Blaine's eyebrows shot up. "Why not? You're really good. And you've been on it since… freshman year." Blaine realised how much he had let out. He had basically just told Kurt he had been watching him especially in the Cheerios performances since freshman year. God, how pathetic could he get?

But it seemed Kurt didn't register anything out of the ordinary. Instead he was biting his lip and looking more nervous then Blaine had ever seen him. "I'm really only there for the status. If I wasn't in the Cheerios, I'd be tossed into the dumpster everyday and pushed around in the halls. I – I still am a little, when no one's around, by a few of the guys like Karofsky, but when I'm with the girls, I'm pretty safe. No one touches me. Oh and I suppose I like performing," he added airily. "But I can do that in Glee club, which is a lot better anyway."

Blaine let this sink in. He hadn't expected Kurt to open up to him, nor for his response to be so… not Kurt. But he supposed since he didn't really know Kurt anyway, he couldn't judge. Before he could reply, Kurt spoke up.

"Why aren't you in Glee club, by the way?" he asked. "And don't say you can't sing. I went to a one night community theatre performance of Rent because Rachel was in it and you were there playing Mark! You're really good!"

Blaine stiffened a little. This was not the direction he wanted this conversation to take. "Well, Rachel's in it …" he trailed off.

Kurt's eyes widened. "Don't tell me Rachel won't let you join because she's afraid you'll steal her spotlight. She's your sister for crying out-"

"No! No, no, no," Blaine interrupted, half-laughing. "Though that is my sister, isn't it?" He grinned fondly and Kurt found himself smiling back. Blaine really does have a nice face, he thought. Did I just think that? "I'm not in it for the same reason, you're in the Cheerios. Status. I'd … love to be in Glee," Blaine admitted. "Rachel's tried to encourage me to join, despite herself," he grinned again. But the laughter in his face faded away quickly. "She's always been the stronger one. She's never cared about what people thought of her. She's always done what she loved – even if it meant being at the bottom of the high school food chain. I... didn't want that. So I devoted myself to schoolwork," he grimaced and indicated to the stack of AP textbooks that Kurt could see piled in his bag because it was so big. "I'm not completely left alone since I'm a certified geek, but at least I'm not at the bottom."

Kurt swallowed nervously, thinking of all the times he and the other Cheerios had laughed at Blaine's style, geekiness or gelled hair, sometimes even when Blaine was in their presence, and the times they had stuck little notes with 'fashion advice' on his locker. Now he'd gotten to know Blaine a bit better, he could see his clothing choice actually suited him a little, but that didn't make Kurt feel any less horrible and he was struck suddenly by the thought of what he had been doing. Was he a hypocrite? Yes, the answer flew into his mind the moment the question formed. Blaine had been trying to avoid the things Kurt had been for just as long, trying even harder then Kurt had. The only thing was Kurt was one of the people who he'd been hurting him. He felt as though he had physically been punched in the stomach.

"Sorry," Kurt said suddenly.

Blaine frowned, obviously confused. "For what?" Oh god, he didn't know, Kurt thought, half relieved, half horrified. He didn't know it was Kurt who had laughed at him behind his back, who had sent the scathing notes, who had flicked little bits of eraser at him with Quinn in French. He supposed Blaine wouldn't , seeing as everything they had done, they did from afar.

"For …" Kurt thought quickly. "For not getting to know you better."

"Oh." Blaine's eyes lit up hopefully. "That's ok." Kurt was suddenly struck by the thought that Blaine did not have many friends. He was always seated alone at lunch and in class, apart from, occasionally, his sister.

"You should join Glee. You shouldn't have to not do something you love because other people will tease you for it," Kurt said. "And also… we should hang out."

"Really?"

"Really," Kurt smiled. Then he frowned. "Although, if we are going to hang out, you need to start wearing socks."

Blaine opened his mouth and looked down at his feet.

Kurt hurried to cover up his mistake, "Only if you want too, I mean."

"No, it's ok," Blaine said, pulling his books and stationary together. "I know I'm not that … fashionable. That's … that's what I've been told anyway." Kurt felt guilt clench at his stomach. "Anyway, the libraries going to close in a few minutes so your tutoring is up for today." Blaine smiled at him, all trace of self-doubt gone from his face. "We'll meet here tomorrow same time?"

"No," Kurt said. "Glee club rehearsal is on tomorrow. You're coming to that with me and then you can tutor me later. Ok?"

He saw Blaine hesitate nervously. But then he looked at Kurt directly in the eye and answered, "Alright, I'll go. It'll make Rachel happy anyway." Then he smiled and waved and strolled out the library doors, leaving Kurt seated and surrounded by the things Blaine had used to help him when all Kurt had done was make life a little less brighter for him.