Klaine Advent 2018 Day 13: Momentum

Dimension eleven: Teachers at Dalton

There are three things in life that will always be there: death, taxes, and Dalton Academy.

When Blaine woke up, he was beyond excited to set foot in Dalton again, but Blaine soon found out that this Dalton looks like his school, but it is not his school.

There are unfamiliar buildings, unfamiliar names, and unfamiliar ‘houses’. Dalton never had houses.

It confuses the hell out of Blaine, because some parts are just like his school. The Warblers Room is the same and so are the senior commons, the majestic staircase, and the slow motion hallway, but apart from that, the entire school is different.

Students all walk around with a shield on the lapel of their blazers. They represent the three, or four, houses: Windsor, Stuart, Hanover, and the day students, also called Lancaster.

To make matters worse, Blaine’s the head teacher of Windsor House. Blaine’s literally never heard of this house and now he has to lead it.

Blaine had looked forward to being in Dalton, but now he just wants to get out of here. This place messes with his head.

He knows Kurt’s supposed to be here. If Blaine’s correct, they’re both teachers at Dalton. Blaine’s a Spanish teacher. He’d like to think that he’s a better Spanish teacher than Mr. Schue ever will be, but unfortunately for Blaine, his Spanish is limited. He knows some Spanish (not thanks to Mr. Schue) because his family in the Philippines know some Spanish, but he’s not fit to be a teacher.

His day at work has been absolutely terrible. He’s a terrible teacher and his students are all confused by his behaviour. Blaine even got an e-mail from Headmaster Gilbert, asking if he needs someone to talk to.

Blaine politely declined. How is he supposed to explain his lack of Spanish knowledge?

Because of his work day, Blaine didn’t have the time to go looking for the book or Kurt. He did find out that Kurt’s indeed a teacher here. He’s an economics teacher and he’s the head teacher of Stuart House. The reason Kurt wasn’t in the teacher’s lounge is simple: he’d called in sick.

The work day comes to an end and it ends with Blaine checking on Windsor House.

Windsor House is fucking madness.

In the beginning, Blaine was taken aback by the enormity of the dorm, but he was quickly shaken out of the state of wonder, because he heard an explosion.

That’s how he finds himself in Windsor house and it’s basically on fire. The weirdest thing is that all the students are completely calm about the situation.

Blaine orders them to calm down. It takes them almost an hour before it’s calm (sort of). The calmness doesn’t last long, because one student pushes another into the unlit fireplace. Blaine can feel a headache growing. Blaine helps the student up.

“Oh, Mr. A, there’s a compartment in the fireplace?” the student says.

Compartment in the fireplace?

Blaine crouches next to the fireplace and the student was right. He reaches out and he finds a box and a book. “Oh, this is interesting.”

There was a code on the side of the box, namely HDB 117. There were also keys and a book.

HDB 117 stands for Herman Dalton Building. Blaine has found a school map, since this version of Dalton is unknown to him. Since this Dalton is like a maze to Blaine, it takes him a while to find the building and to open the door.

Blaine enters the building and he finds himself in a large room with no windows. It’s very dark outside, but after a while, Blaine fights the light. He flicks the heavy switch and he hears a loud click before the yellow lamps curling from the pillars go on and then a large chandelier lights up as well.

This place is beautiful. He looks around in awe when he sees all the old portraits on the walls. Most of them are portraits of an entire class of boys. There are plaques underneath some of the portraits of a single person. There are ribbons in different colours in the frames: blue and gold for Windsor, red and white for Stuart, and gold and white for Hanover. There’s nothing grey for Lancaster, but there are also ribbons with the Dalton colours.

The entire hall is filled with cubby shelves. There seem to be endless rows of shelves, separated only by a middle aisle, some parts closed off in velvet rope. It’s some kind of archive and it is massive. The entire history of this version of Dalton is in this archive.

“Maybe the book is in here as well,” Blaine says to himself.

He wants to look around, but the class photos of all the Dalton boys catch his eyes. He wants to read it, but he doesn’t want to impose.

Yet there’s something inviting about the class photos.

Reading one paper can’t be bad.

Blaine takes a stack of paper from a shelf and he sees there are all letters. He reads a few and it captures him. They’re letters from the alumni. Blaine doesn’t know these people, but he can feel the emotion coming from the letters.

Blaine loses track of the time. It’s as if he’s stuck in the momentum. He’s been reading too long, it’s probably gone dark outside. Blaine makes himself stop, which is hard, because the letters are very moving. He puts the stack back on the shelf and he continues his way.

As expected, the book is lying in the archive, underneath a portrait of an old man. The plaque reads Oscar Thebold Brightman.

Blaine opens the book and as always, two new shapes have appeared. It’s not hard to figure out what they are: the pins on the lapels. Blaine suspects that one’s for Windsor and one’s for Stuart.

Suddenly, Blaine can hear footsteps.

“Who’s there?” Blaine calls out.

The footsteps are getting closer. “Blaine?”

“Kurt?” Blaine yells out. Kurt steps into the light. He looks very tired, but he’s also holding a box. Blaine runs towards him and he throws his arms around him. “I thought you called in sick!”

“I did,” Kurt says, and he does sound sick, “But I couldn’t sit by and wait. I had a ‘fuck it’ moment and I drove to, uhm, work. This is not our school.”

Blaine laughs and he shakes his head. “No, it isn’t.”

“And there are houses and I am a head of Stuart House? So, uhm, I found this box in our dorm room, which is huge, by the way, and I thought it’d be a great idea to check it out,” Kurt says. He looks around in awe. “Boy, am I glad I did. What is this place?”

“The history of this entire school,” Blaine answers.

“An archive?”

Blaine nods. “I also found the book.”

Kurt’s face lights up. “You did?”

“And we need a Windsor and a Stuart shield. How do we get those?”

Kurt is giving Blaine a real look. “Blaine, sweetheart, are you serious right now?”

Kurt takes Blaine’s hand and he places it on the lapel of his jacket. Blaine can feel a badge on Kurt’s jacket. Blaine uses his free hand to put feel if there’s something on his jacket.

“Oh.”

Kurt laughs. “You seriously never noticed?”

“I didn’t really pay attention to myself in the mirror this morning, because I had to go to work,” Blaine tells him, “Besides, I thought only students have to wear these.”

“Looks like the Kurt and Blaine from this dimension have a lot of house pride,” Kurt says and he unclips the shield from his jacket. Blaine does the same.

Kurt puts his shield on the page first. It’s a red shield crossed with white for Stuart House. Blaine follows suit and he puts his blue shield with a golden bar on the page as well.

This time, only one word appears, instead of three.

'Royals'.