Kurt quickly found out that Blaine was easy to talk to. By the end of the period, he knew that Blaine had an older brother and that his parents were gone the vast majority of the time, either on business trips or vacations. The only think Kurt couldn't get out of him was why he had transferred to McKinley in the middle of the year. When he asked, Blaine turned very vague, simply stating that he had had some problems at his old school.

The class passed quickly and Kurt was surprised when the bell rang. He and Blaine packed their things up, left the room, and began walking down the hall together.

"I like talking to you, Kurt," Blaine said.

"You're interesting."

"You're pretty interesting yourself," Kurt said, pleased by the compliment.

Blaine walked him to the choir room, where he flashed Kurt a quick smile and with a polite "See you tomorrow!” continued to walk down the hall.

Kurt was glowing all through glee rehearsal, big even arguing when Rachel hopped up to do her third impromptu solo. As soon as rehearsal ended, Finn walked over to him.

"You ready to go home, dude?" He asked Kurt.

"Yes, Finn," Kurt said, ignoring Finn's insistent use of the word "dude".

As Finn kissed Rachel goodbye, Kurt went out to his car. He had no desire to watch the battle of tongues he knew would come. Finn finally emerged from the school and climbed into the passenger seat. It had been quiet for a few minutes when Finn spoke.

"Did that Blaine guy walk you to Glee?" He asked.

“No," Kurt said slowly. "We had last period together and were just going the same way."

"Oh. He seems like a cool dude," Finn said. "I heard him talking to Beiste about boxing."

"Really?" Kurt said, surprised.

"Mhmm” Finn murmured, losing interest in the conversation as he turned the radio on.

Kurt thought about Blaine boxing. His hi muscles would strain while he hit the bag. How the sweat would roll down his tones body. How he probably wore sweat pants that perfectly hugged his- but no. That didn't matter because Blaine was straight.

Kurt sighed as he pulled into his driveway. He and Finn walked into the house. He greeted his father and went into the kitchen to see if Carole, his stepmother, needed any help with dinner. She assured him that it was under control and he went upstairs to his room. Before long, dinner was ready. Carole's lasagna, as delicious, as usual, and Kurt enjoyed laughing and joking with his family.

After dinner, he helped Finn do the dishes and went back upstairs to do his homework. Two hours later, he slammed his French book closed and Egan his moisturizing routine. As soon as he was done, he collapsed on his bed and was asleep almost instantly.

The next morning, Kurt rushed his routine, eager to get to school.  Burt was up early as well, and Kurt was grateful for the full pot of coffee Burt had made him. He filled his mug, hugged his father goodbye, and was out the door.

Fortunately, he managed to avoid the jocks and get to first period with no trouble. Unfortunately, this meant he didn’t get to see Blaine either. His first period French class went by quickly, as it was one of the few classes he actually enjoyed. As soon as the bell rang, Kurt shot out of the room and walked quickly to English Lit.

He was unsurprised to see that he was the first one in the class, and he walked to his seat to wait. Tina came in shortly after he did and sat down next to him.

“Where were you earlier,” she asked, slightly annoyed.

“Oh. I had to talk to Ms. Moss about something,” he lied, not wanting to talk about his feelings for Blaine.

“Oh, ok,” Tina accepted and began telling him a story about Mercedes forgetting her homework. Kurt, however, didn’t hear a word of it because, at that moment, Blaine walked in.

He glanced at Kurt, smiling when they made eye contact.  Kurt felt himself smile back, but it faltered slightly when Blaine sat down next to Karofsky.  He knew that as soon as Blaine learned why the jocks tortured him, there would be no more friendly smiles and conversations.  As soon as Blaine knew Kurt was gay, he, too, would think Kurt was disgusting. Kurt’s self-depreciating thoughts were interrupted when Ms. Moss stood up, holding a stack of papers.

“Today we’re going to start our novel analysis,” She told the class. “You will have partners, which I have assigned, and each group will have several assignments. “

As she talked, Ms. Moss walked around the room, handing out the list with the partner assignments. Kurt grew hopeful that he would be paired with Blaine.

“I will give you some time with your partners in class, but most of these assignments will need to be completed on your own time,” Ms. Moss continued as she handed Kurt a list.

He scanned the list, quickly looking for his own name. When he found it, his jaw dropped. Because the name next to his wasn’t Blaine Anderson.

It was David Karofsky.