Kurt glanced sheepishly down the grand, marble hallways of The Dalton School for Gifted Youngsters desperately hoping to find his way to his first class without looking like an incompetent idiot. The glossy halls seemed almost eerie in the silence, but that was probably just his memories coming back to haunt him.
Visions of the dank, locker-lined hallways of McKinley rushed into Kurt's mind, making him dizzy. The aroma of cheap cafeteria food and gym socks assaulted his nostrils and panic began to set in as he remembered the faces of his tormentors and the sounds of their taunts. "Freak.", "Loser.", "Faggot." Kurt remembered Karofsky's face hovering over his just moments before…No. Kurt pulled himself back to the present with a lurch that forced him to steady himself with a hand on the ornate wall next to him. He came here to forget all of those things, not to let the memories continue to haunt him.
Plus, here was a school where he would be accepted. He had to be because they were all like him here; mutants. Kurt hated that word though. He much preferred the term "gifted", as he had pointed out to his father while reading through one of Dalton's pamphlets after that fateful day in the locker room. It had been the last straw that had prompted his search for a new, more tolerant school.
His father, not being the one he'd inherited his gift from, was extremely protective of Kurt, especially when it came to being bullied over who he was. Despite his sexual preference and superhuman abilities, Burt Hummel loved his son all the same, and believed that everyone else should too. Burt felt that those who disagreed with him needed a good fist to the jaw (though, he had never actually acted on this opinion).
Kurt glanced down at the schedule in his hands and saw that if he had gotten to school on time he would be in computer science with Mrs. Hamilton. As it was, he had chemistry with Mr. Cohen second block. He let out a groan. He hated chemistry and had barely passed it at McKinley and now that he was at Dalton they had a higher standard for their students and felt that Kurt could do better than a "D" and would therefore retake the course. He couldn't help that all those formulas gave him a migraine, not to mention that memorizing the periodic table had taken him months longer than the other students. If they thought that grade was bad, then he shuddered to think of what it will end up being now that he was at a private school with "higher standards" (which was really just code for more difficult classes and smarter students). He was royally screwed.
Kurt looked up from his schedule and peered down the hall searching for the room number. He froze when he heard the scuff of a shoe on the linoleum. Kurt spun around to see nothing but an empty, decadent hallway in front of him.
"Still…" he thought, "Best be safe." And with that Kurt took off in the direction of the main foyer slightly on edge and with the occasional fleeting look over his shoulder. He couldn't take any chances. Not after everything he'd been through. Though, as he got closer to the front of the school, he began to realize how silly he was and internally kicked himself for being such a chicken. Then he realized that he was actually quite lost.
As Kurt rounded the final corner before entering what he thought should be the foyer, he found himself colliding with what seemed like a warm brick wall.
"Unf!" Kurt let out a huff as the air was knocked out of him. He felt the sudden grasp of a strong hand at his elbow keeping him steady.
"Woah there!"
Kurt looked up to find himself trapped in the most beautiful hazel eyes he'd ever seen.
"You alright?" the breath taking stranger asked.
"Oh, me! He's talking to ME!" Kurt thought, his eyes never leaving the other boy's.
Kurt searched for words but nothing seemed to come out. His brain felt like scrambled mush and it was a good thing the beautiful boy was steadying him because he found that his knees had suddenly turned into jelly.
The other boy continued to search Kurt's eyes for any sign of an answer. Kurt began to realize this, "Say SOMETHING you idiot!"
"Uh-huh" he managed to squeak out.
The other boy laughed with relief and released his arm, "Sorry, I didn't see you there! I'll have to be more careful next time!" He flashed a flawless smile at Kurt as he drug a hand through his brown curls. Kurt had to remind himself to breathe. Oxygen was important.
"Uh…yeah." Kurt said as he blushed fervently and stared at the ground.
The other boy didn't seem to notice and instead offered his hand out to Kurt, "I'm Blaine."
Kurt, flustered, managed to gain enough control over his brain to grasp his hand and reply, "Kurt."
The two boys stood in silence and gazed into each other's eyes for a beat before Blaine relinquished Kurt's hand, looking mildly confused. Kurt continued to grin at him like an idiot.
"Are you new here? I've never seen you around before…" Blaine's searching eyes seemed to bore a hole straight through Kurt.
Kurt blubbered, "Ermm...yeah, I kind of just transferred today."
"Oh, that's cool! It's always fun meeting a new student before they're corrupted by the Dalton ways." Blaine grinned at him and chuckled at Kurt's blank stare.
Kurt jumped as the bell signaling the end of the period pierced the calm of the hallway.
Blaine put a hand on his shoulder, "Maybe you should stick close to me for now. I don't think you're quite prepared for this just yet…"
Before Kurt had a chance to ask Blaine what on earth he was talking about, classroom doors began to swing open as a stampede of children and teenagers began to rush out in a raucous frenzy. Kurt tucked himself between the wall and Blaine, while peering over the other boy's shoulder at the wide array of rowdy students passing them.
Kurt gasped as a girl turned and walked straight through the wall to his right. He could feel his jaw dropping to an unattractive level, but he couldn't help himself. He had never seen someone use their ability openly in public like that before. Then there was a crash to his right as a member of a group of boys throwing paper wads crashed into a trash can. It wasn't until the boy stood and brushed himself off that Kurt noticed that the boys weren't actually using their hands to throw the paper wads. In fact, they weren't using anything at all…
"Mayfield! Fletcher! Knock it off and get to class!" Blaine shouted at the boys, who quickly gathered themselves and rushed down the halls cackling.
Kurt looked at Blaine with his eyebrows raised in a question and Blaine just shrugged and ducked as a banana went flying over his head.
He leaned over to Kurt and took his schedule. After skimming over it he grabbed Kurt's hand, "C'mon, I'll show you where your class is. I know a short cut." Blaine winked and with that they were off and he was carefully guiding Kurt through the chaos and into the main foyer, which was even worse than the previous hall. Everywhere he turned there were students gathered in circles of friends chatting and laughing and openly using their powers as if it wasn't a big deal or…dangerous.
"This is going to take some getting used to…" Kurt thought as he watched a boy playfully shoot a jet of water from his fingertips at a girl he was with who then froze the water mid-air with a smirk.
Just as Kurt turned to Blaine to ask him if this chaos was an everyday thing, a large, glowing Frisbee flew straight over his head, jostling his hair. As Kurt turned to screech at the perpetrator of this heinous crime, he saw a lanky, blonde boy leap from the floor straight up to the lavish and expensive looking chandelier in the center of the foyer to catch the Frisbee in question. The boy howled with laughter as he tossed it back in the direction of a short boy with a dark mop of hair who leaped in the air to intercept it before it smashed into a trophy case. Kurt stared at the dark-haired boy in fuming disbelief as Blaine continued to tow him across the massive foyer.
Kurt had faced forward in an attempt to gain his bearings (as he was now tripping over his own feet) when Blaine shot out his arm in front of Kurt to stop him. Just as he did, the lithe figure of the blonde boy dropped gracefully from the chandelier, a mere few feet from the two boys.
"Well, what do we have here?" the boy chuckled and began to circle Kurt, who was now frozen in fear. He had somehow, in all of the current confusion, missed that the boy had a long tail trailing behind him that was the same shade of blonde as his shaggy hair.
"Fresh meat?" the boy inquired and Kurt thought his eyes might literally pop out of his head.
"Back off, Jeff," Blaine said lightheartedly, "He's already freaked out enough as it is."
Kurt nodded lightly in agreement, his eyes never leaving Jeff's tail. The two boys exchanged a knowing look as Jeff burst into a fit of laughter.
"You'd better get him to class before he ends up curled in a ball in the corner like the last newbie…" Jeff trailed off with shudder "They couldn't find the poor kid for days."
Blaine simply nodded, "That's what I was trying to do before we ran into your sorry hide."
Jeff smirked and turned towards the direction of the boy he'd been playing Frisbee with and shouted, "Nick! Chemistry is calling our names!" The two boys dashed off, Nick on foot and Jeff climbing the walls. "Yep, gonna take a while to get used to this." Kurt thought as Blaine began to tow him again, this time in the direction of the slightly frightening troublemakers.
As the passing period grew to a close, the chaos around them seemed to die down and before Kurt knew it, they were right in front of room 147, Mr. Cohen's chemistry class.
"You're lucky I have him this period or you would have left to the mercy of the Mischief Twins in the lobby." Blaine snickered as he gestured for Kurt to enter the room.
Kurt, beginning to get ahold of himself looked at Blaine questioningly, "Mischief Twins?"
"It's their nickname. You'll figure out why soon enough." Blaine grimaced and shook his head, "I've never been able to keep those two in line…"
"Keep those two in line?"
"Yeah," Blaine motioned for them to sit in the two unoccupied desks in the back corner of the room, "I'm what we call a Prefect. We're sort of like hall monitors, with more power and responsibilities."
Kurt laughed, "Blaine, I know what a Prefect is. I have read a Harry Potter book or two…" Okay, all of them. Multiple times.
Blaine blushed, "Oh…I…" but before he could finish he was cut off as Mr. Cohen silenced the class to take roll and begin the lesson.
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The period passed like any normal high school class: the teacher dithering on for an entire hour and half of the students not paying attention to a word that they say. Kurt paid attention though. He was determined to at least pull a "B" in it this time. He had decided that if he was going to have re-do it and live through hell again, he might as well re-do it right.
He thought he actually had a shot too, that is, until Mr. Cohen gave him his syllabus and an un-Godly amount of homework that he had two weeks to catch up on.
"Where does he get off forcing me to make up half a semester's worth of assignments? I swear that man is the devil incarnate!" Kurt's fuming kept him distracted from the surrounding bedlam as Blaine guided him towards the dining hall for lunch.
Blaine laughed quietly at the way Kurt's ranting seemed to make him immediately fit into Dalton's hallways, "It'll get better, I promise. Cohen's always hard on transfers. He wants to make sure you're not just here for the free ride. A lot of kids show up with abilities thinking they'll get special treatment here because of who they are and won't have to work for their grades. It doesn't really work like that here seeing as we're all different."
Blaine guided Kurt into the most extravagant room Kurt had seen yet. The beautiful dining hall was ceiling to floor mahogany with ornate, golden scrolls along the cornice. Tasteful rococo art was hung over the entrances to the lunch lines, which had beautiful arched doorways that seemed large enough for a giant to walk through. The gorgeous stained glass windows that lined the walls let in enough light that they caused the wooden dining tables and benches to shine like they were brand new. Dalton's dining hall put McKinley's dingy cafeteria to shame. Even the food smelled better! "It had damn well taste better with what the tuition costs." Kurt thought.
"Speaking of being different, what is your ability? If you don't mind my asking, it's just…you seem fairly normal to me." With that Blaine smiled at him and guided Kurt into the nearest line.
Kurt could feel his heart beating erratically in his chest,"Errmmm…" he struggled for words. "Did he just call me 'normal'?"
Blaine's brow furrowed, "Sorry. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I just thought it wouldn't hurt to ask."
There was somewhat of an awkward pause between them as Kurt struggled to slow his heart beat and think of a response and Blaine tried to think of anything to say at all. They both grabbed trays full of food and headed to the nearest empty table to sit down.
"I'm a telepath…" Blaine said after a few more minutes of silence. His eyes locked onto Kurt's, searching again. Always searching.
"Oh," Kurt said, feeling suddenly uncomfortable, "What am I thinking?" Kurt began to panic as he picked at his lunch, "Stop thinking about his eyes, and his adorable curly hair, and, Oh God! That smile!" Kurt could feel the blush rising to his cheeks.
"That's the thing; I have no idea." Blaine shook his head, "Your mind is completely blank to me."
"So much for being normal…" Kurt sighed and dropped his eyes to his food. "What does that mean then? Other than that I'm freakier than all of the other freaks."
"I can't say for sure, but my guess would be that it has something to do with your power. Maybe, a defense mechanism of sorts?" Blaine shrugged.
Kurt shrugged in return. He could accept that as a possibility, given what his power was.
"So, Bella, am I on the right track? Is your power something defense related?" Blaine gave him a devilish smirk.
"You will never find out if you call me that again." Kurt glared daggers at his new companion who was now doubled over laughing.
"All right. Deal." Blaine nodded, his eyes never leaving Kurt's.
"Do you…want me to show you?" Kurt asked, suddenly feeling shy. He'd never voluntarily shown someone his ability. No one had ever asked.
"If you're okay with that…" Blaine trailed off, unsure of why this moment had begun to seem intimate.
Kurt nodded and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and let himself slip away as the familiar sensation took over and he felt his skin tingle from head to toe.
He heard Blaine let out a small gasp from across the table,"Woah…"
"Yeah." Kurt sighed.
Blaine began to reach out to touch the air where Kurt had been and found his hand meeting with Kurt's shoulder.
"Yes, I'm still here." Kurt chuckled as Blaine snatched his hand away.
"I've never actually seen someone turn invisible before," Blaine laughed, "Pretty cool."
"Blainey!" the joint cry came from none other than Jeff and Nick who were rushing over to their table with trays piled high with food.
"Where's newbie?" Jeff asked, ducking down to look under the table for their new victim.
"We could have sworn we just saw him eating with you!" Nick let out an annoyed sigh as he too peeked under the table searching for Kurt.
Blaine began laughing at the downtrodden looks on his friends faces.
"What?" Nick scowled.
"He was right there!" Jeff shouted while jumping onto the bench and pointing at the exact spot where Kurt was still seated, his tail flailing wildly. He slid down into his seat, "Oh well, we'll find him sooner or later."
"And he won't know what hit him." The grin spreading across the boys faces even creeped out Blaine, who had known the pair since middle school.
"I'm right here." Kurt clearly couldn't see the looks on their faces, Blaine thought, or he would be running for the hills.
The boys both jumped, clearly not used to being the ones getting surprised. Nick spat his drink clear across the table and fell out of his seat while Jeff jumped clean out of his seat and onto the chandelier hanging above their table.
"What is it with you and hanging off of light fixtures?" Kurt scoffed, suddenly feeling much braver as he phased back into sight.
"Cool power newbie." Nick said while wiping his mouth with the napkin that he snatched out of Blaine's hands, "But you will soon come to regret ever having done that."
"And we sincerely hope that you take that warning into consideration and never pull such a stunt again." Jeff added, now back in his seat.
"Preposterous…" Nick snorted before digging into the mound of food on his tray.
"And on that note we'll be leaving." Blaine said as he cleared off his and Kurt's now empty trays.
Kurt stood and waved at Nick and Jeff as he walked with Blaine to drop off their trays at the dish washer's window.
"I was thinking maybe I could go get permission from the front office to help you find your dorm room and help you unpack seeing as I'm a Prefect," Blaine looked up and saw the guarded expression on Kurt's face and quickly added, "if you'd like?"
Kurt nodded and graciously smiled at him. "Why is this beautiful boy helping me? What did I do to deserve him? Oh, right…"
Blaine's face cracked into a grin, "Great! Just give me a few minutes and I'll be right out to take you to the dorms."
Kurt decided to rest on one of the stunning couches in the foyer while he waited. While fiddling with his bag, Kurt looked up to see a small, dark-haired boy sitting on a couch across from him, bent over a book grumbling to himself. Kurt recognized him from his chemistry class second period. "Well, you came here for a fresh start. It's now or never."
Kurt set off across the entrance hall towards the boy who didn't once look away from his text book.
"Ooh! Chemistry! I hate that class! I never could memorize all of those nasty formulas!" Kurt grinned as the boy looked up at him, shocked to have been disturbed.
Kurt stood next to him in silence as the boy stared at him, mouth hanging open. "So much for a fresh start…"
"I'm Kurt." He smiled and stuck his hand out for the smaller boy to shake.
After hesitating for a moment, the other boy firmly grasped his hand in return, "Thad." He smiled sheepishly at Kurt as his eyes darted to the ground. "Ah, that explains it."
"Ar…Are you new?" the boy stammered.
"Yep, just transferred today!" Kurt beamed at him.
"Oh, well, I hope you like it here." Thad smiled at him and Kurt noticed the other boy’s tension begin to ease away.
"Me too." Kurt glanced across the hall to see Blaine exiting the office, "Well, I hope to see you around, Thad." Kurt smiled and waved goodbye.
"You too." Thad nodded and waved at Kurt, and turned back to his school work with a much brighter outlook.
"I see you're already making friends." Blaine smirked as Kurt caught up with him and they headed out the main doors and across the grounds to the dorms.
"Yeah, I guess I am." Kurt smiled to himself, proud to have taken that little leap towards friendship.
"Now, what dorm are you in?" Blaine asked as Kurt reached into his bag to retrieve the slip of paper.
"Building 2, room 248." Kurt read out. His stomach did a flip of unease when he saw the expression on Blaine's face, 'What?"
"That's right next door to me." Blaine said, his eyes avoiding Kurt's as he shifted uneasily in his blazer.
"Oh," Kurt said, staring blankly at the ground, "Is that a problem?"
"Oh, no!" Blaine looked panicked, "I just, enjoyed having a bathroom all to myself, that's all." He smiled reassuringly at Kurt, who now looked completely lost. "All of the students at Dalton have single bedrooms, for privacy reasons. Mixing hormonal teenagers with strange mutant powers in cramped living conditions apparently didn't go over too well when the school first opened. So when buildings 2, 3, and 4 were built, they were made into singles with adjoining bathrooms." Blaine explained.
Kurt wasn't sure if he should be calm, now knowing Blaine didn't mind basically rooming with him, or if he should be freaking out because he was rooming with Blaine. He finally decided on freaking out.
As Blaine led Kurt through the beautiful marble front lobby of the dorm, Kurt began to panic. He was on the verge of hyperventilating and he knew he had to get away from Blaine as soon as possible. Blaine led him up the stairs as Kurt began formulating an escape plan.
"Well, here we are. I'm right here in 246 and," Blaine grand gesture towards the door marked '248', "here you are." He said with a warm smile.
"Right…" Kurt dug in his bag for the key, snatching it up and shoving it in the lock. "Well, I think I'll just…unpack on my own. I want to get used to everything and all. Yeah." Kurt turned away from Blaine to open the door.
Blaine sputtered, "Oh, erm…right. Of course. Yeah. Just, knock on my door if you need anything."
"Will do." Kurt stepped into his room and shut the door right behind him, locking it. He turned around to face the massive boxes stuffed with his belongings (mostly clothes) and sighed, slowly sinking down to the floor. "Why? Why does he have to be right next door?" Kurt groaned and his head fell on his knees as he realized that things were definitely not going to be simple like he had hoped.
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Just outside the door, Blaine stood, dumbfounded. He shook himself out of it and turned towards his door, reaching into his pocket for his key. He entered the room slowly, closing the door behind him with a sound click. He immediately slumped his back against it, lightly banging his head against the solid frame. "That is so inconvenient…" He groaned, knowing his life just got a lot more complicated.