Blaine didn't know why he didn't think about moving out the abandoned drive-in theatre sooner.

He had the old concession booth set up for himself, including a futon he found at a garage sale not far away as a bed. From the outside of the concession booth, it still looked like it was boarded up and abandoned, but Blaine had fixed it so he could swing away several board to get himself and his motorcycle inside at night. Using his credit card, which he didn't expect to be cancelled since it was taken care of by the family lawyers and not his parents, he had gotten himself a light, blankets, a space heater, and a supply of snacks. Unless his parents admitted their son had run away because his father had violated the restraining order, which Blaine was sure they wouldn't, he still had access to as much cash as he needed.

In the mornings he left early to shower and get ready at the school in the locker room. He had even taken to having a morning swim in the McKinley pool.

Some kids would have felt scared and sad about leaving home like he had, Blaine however, felt liberated and free.

Maybe it was because he knew this was only temporary for him. As soon as he turned eighteen, he would have access to all his trust funds and college savings. He could move somewhere, go to school, and not have to deal with his parents ever again if he wanted. If only he knew what he wanted to do after graduation.

The living arrangements at the drive-in weren't totally perfect of course. For a few nights he had a difficult time sleeping because there were so many bugs buzzing around inside the concession, and he was sure he had accidentally swallowed a few bugs when he did sleep from the gross taste in his mouth when he awoke.

He had also made the mistake of peeing too close to the booth when he first went out there and now there was a distinct urine smell near his secret entrance.

Blaine also really missed his instruments. He used the ones in the choir room when no one else was around to keep practiced, but they didn't feel the same. He just couldn't grab a guitar when he wanted to strum anymore and it made him feel like he had a missing arm.

He kept the motorcycle in the booth with him too, so no one who might wander through the field would think anyone else was there, and so he also had to endure the smell of oil and gas in the small space he occupied.

The one surprise was that his parents hadn't tried to call him at all. Nothing. Not a text or voicemail or anything. If they went to the police, they could have tracked his phone down to find him, but that would again require them admitting his father had broken the restraining order - which they wouldn't do.

And despite feeling free of his mother, Blaine still felt guilty. He felt like he had left a lamb with a lion by leaving her with his father. But if she was a lamb, then she was one who wanted to be eaten, and nothing Blaine could say or do would change that. She was old enough to make her own choices - stupid or not.

For the most part, Blaine kept busy anyhow - helping Kurt campaign for senior class president, glee club, and football. He didn't spend a huge amount of time in the booth, and when he did it was because Kurt was helping Burt with his campaign and unavailable to spend time with. Blaine had actually taken some books out of the library at school to help pass the time on those nights.

On the weekends he had begun staying over with the Hummel-Hudson's again. When asked by Carole, he simply told her that his mother had a friend staying over to help her out.

He was still smoking, but since he didn't have the stress of taking care of his mother, he found he didn't need to smoke as much, and only needed to sneak away from Kurt and his family a few times on the weekend to get a puff in.

Things with Kurt since the opening night of West Side Story had been different too. He felt like now that they both knew they wanted each other in their future's that a cloud had been lifted from over them. Blaine knew that no matter what came next, Kurt would be at his side. They weren't temporary. They just were.

And because of that, Blaine knew he had to deal with some things. He had to stop smoking because he didn't want to hide it from Kurt forever, and he didn't want Kurt to find out and implement a whole Kurt-style stop-smoking program either. Blaine could only imagine that such a program would be more exhausting than just going cold turkey.

He also needed to figure out what his future was... at least besides Kurt. He was sure that he couldn't just be happy living off his trust fund money. He needed something that made him feel like he had a purpose in the world.

Blaine also needed to figure out how to block Sebastian's number from his phone. Since the punch at Scandals, Sebastian had been texting him insistently about 'ditching the loser with a weak punch'. Blaine had told him in no uncertain terms to stop, but he didn't. Blaine even tried at one point to politely ask him to stop, but that didn't work either. Sebastian seemed to have it in his head that Blaine would end up in his bed at some point, and perhaps that was partially Blaine's fault for dancing with him a little too much at Scandals, and allowing him to say those sweet things into Blaine's wanting ears, but Blaine knew now that Kurt wouldn't be alright with it if he kept up with Sebastian - so it needed to stop.

He had also been trying hard to build up relationships with the other members in glee club - well, some of them anyhow. Puck had actually asked him to help sing back-up on a Van Halen song and Blaine had accepted. It wasn't often they did real rock, so Blaine even enjoyed it. The other members of New Directions seemed quite entertained by the performance and he had gotten a nice make-out session afterwards with Kurt.

Blaine had tried talking to Quinn as well, since she was the one he thought he knew best since Brittany left for the Troubletones. She didn't want to talk though, and snapped at him when he had called her Babymama. Apparently she was having issues. Maybe she had just been on her rag. Blaine decided he would wait a week to talk to her and then see if she was less grouchy then.

He wasn't going to try and smooth things out with Rachel though. He was still mad at her for being so catty with Kurt over the senior class president campaign. Even Kurt, who was normally so sweet, loving, and forgiving, wasn't talking to Rachel. Blaine could tell it hurt him. Kurt and Rachel had been so set on going to NYADA together, and now they couldn't even look at one another. Blaine wasn't sure how he was going to retaliate on Rachel yet, but he had bigger fish to fry.

Namely Santana. The latino bitch had been talking a whole lot of smack lately - insulting everyone in New Directions with a vengeance. Blaine had never hit a girl before, but when it came to Santana, he thought it might be a real option.

Brittany would never forgive him though.

Not that Brittany had said more than a few words to him anymore, and that was mainly in Cooking class. She had even moved away from where she sat beside him in Geometry to sit on Santana's other side - probably at Santana's behest.

Santana's parents should have dropped the first N and last A in her name.

Then there was Rory.

Blaine had tried with him. He honestly had. But Rory, aside from being hard to understand, was brutally naive. He understood none of the innuendo and slang that made up the majority of Blaine's vocabulary. It was frustrating to say the least.

"Hey... you still with me?"

Blaine shook his head a little, coming out of his own thoughts. It was Sunday night, and he had pretended to call his mother in front of Burt to ask permission to stay over since the weather had gotten bad. Now he and Kurt were curled up on the sofa together watching one of those reality TV shows Kurt loved so much.

He smiled warmly to the boy beside him, "Always babe."

Kurt chuckled, rolling his eyes a little at the sappiness, and then turned his focus back onto the screen where two women were being beeped out because they were swearing so much at one another.

Blaine on the other hand, just watched Kurt. He had traced the features of Kurt's face 100 times before with his eyes, but he never got tired of it. He especially loved the slope of Kurt's cheek bones. Gorgeous.

"What the... DAD!" Kurt stammered and then yelled out abruptly. Blaine looked to the screen to see an image of Burt on the TV with Coach Sylvester's voice in the background stating that Burt had a baboon heart.

Burt hustled in and watched the new ad with the boys, immediately calling up Mr. Butthead, his other campaign manager, when it was done. Kurt was fuming, yelling at the TV which had since changed to a shampoo commercial about how ridiculous the ad was and how insane Coach Sylvester must be.

Blaine just rubbed the small of Kurt's back until he calmed down, though calling Kurt calm even when he had stopped giving the television shit was inaccurate. Kurt had managed to calm his outward anger, though was still stewing inwardly judging by his folded over arms and storm clouds in his eyes.

"Stupid smear campaign... how does she expect to win by being negative?" Kurt grumbled.

Blaine rolled his eyes upward, thinking about just how many campaigns had been won on strategies of making candidates look better than the alternatives. He had been paying attention in Civics class, enough to know the average voter was a moron that might actually buy the baboon heart nonsense.

Kurt didn't expect a response though. The question had been rhetorical, and Blaine was glad of it. He wasn't going to be the one to tell Kurt how much something as idiotic as that could hurt Burt's campaign.

But he figured he could at least take a piss on Coach Sylvester's car tomorrow.

I can't believe her! - K

Kurt, it's the middle of class and you're texting me. -B

I don't care! I'm so mad! -K

At Rachel? -B

No! Well, yes. Her too. But Coach Sylvester. -K

What happened? -B

I spoke to her about her inane ad and then she had the audacity to say I needed to fight dirty on my own campaign. -K

Well.. it is kind of how she works. -B

But it's wrong! I refuse to win this by playing dirty! -K

Yes. Keep the playing dirty for me. -B

Blaine.... -K

Yes sweetcheeks? -B

I love you. -K

Love you too. -B

Hey... -B

Hmm? -K

If you win the campaign, will that make me the equivalent of the first lady? -B

Really Blaine? -K

Because if that's the case, I need to get myself a nicer dress and a little dog to carry around. -B

Didn't know you were into drag. -K

I was joking! -B

Because I have a ton of ideas for womens fashion I could use you as a model for... -K

Not happening. -B

But you've got me all intrigued now. -K

Ugh.... -B

"Dodgeball... it's going to be like elementary school all over again..." Kurt groaned as he stretched out his legs on the gym floor with Blaine beside him.

Blaine smirked over at Kurt. Blaine secretly loved that they were about to play dodgeball. Since he had gotten older and buffer, he had daydreams about going back to elementary school and replaying dodgeball with all the bullies from his youth who had used it as an excuse to slam him with their balls - in a way he didn't enjoy anyhow. Now he could probably take them.

"I don't understand..." Rory said with that unmistakable accent, holding one of the balls and looking towards Blaine inquiringly. "If we're meant to dodge the balls, then why did Finn say to try n' catch them?"

Blaine winced a little at the question. How did you explain dodgeball to someone who didn't grow up with it?

Thankfully Kurt jumped in and began explaining the game dynamics to Rory so that Blaine wouldn't have to. It allowed Blaine to create a mental picture of him slamming a ball into Santana's smug little face. He was going to enjoy this.

The game started up as predictably as it could. Rory went out, then Mercedes, then Rachel, then Sugar, then Kurt, then that tiny Cheerio who squealed all the time, and it continued, until the New Directions was left with Mike, Blaine, and Finn, and the Troubletones had Brittany and Santana.

No problem.

Blaine was great at catching balls. Puck even made a terrible pun about gay guys and balls. But as soon as Blaine caught the balls and they got a team member back up from the bench, it seemed they got hit again just as quickly. He would have to play this more aggressively.

So he slammed a ball at Brittany, and while he didn't mean to hit her hard, he didn't miss that she was going to have a bruise on her calf where he hit her as she limped to the bench.

Santana meanwhile managed to hit Mike, leaving it two against one.

"I got this." Finn insisted, crouching as he prepared his shot.

"She always moves to the left when a ball comes at her..." Blaine hissed over to Finn, meaning to help him out.

Finn shot him a dirty glance and threw the ball. As expected, Santana lunged to the left and then threw the ball she was holding.

And Blaine would have caught it if Finn, apparently trying to be a hero, jumped in front of him trying to catch the ball himself, and failing. The sudden action made Blaine have to jump backwards to avoid Finn landing on him, but he tripped backwards over a ball on the ground and landed with a thud backwards on the gym floor.

In rapid succession, Santana flung two more balls, effectively ending the game since Finn and Blaine were both sitting ducks on the gym floor where they had landed.

"Blaine!" Kurt was as his side in an instant, helping him up while some more insults were tossed behind them between Santana and Finn. As Blaine got to his feet with Kurt's assistance, Rory was blasted with balls from the Troubletones until Kurt jumped away from Blaine and to Rory, yelling at the girls to stop. Rory was bleeding.

"Maybe this is how the others treat us, but we don't do this to each other!"

Kurt declared the game over and helped Rory to the locker room to get cleaned up. Most of the New Directions and Troubletones followed suit, but Blaine and Santana had caught each other's eyes and stayed in place until they were alone in the gymnasium.

"I should have thrown that ball at your crotch the way you hit Brittany." Santana snarled, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I think we both know that you don't know what to do with balls." Blaine replied, eyes narrowed.

That shut Santana up, at least for a minute. She couldn't be more obvious about how she felt for Brittany, and it was like she was the last one to recognize it.

"Let me make things clear for you Santana." Blaine said, breaking the silence. "Brittany was one of my best friends and I know you've been stopping her from hanging out with me. On top of it, you got her involved in a campaign that has her not only making empty promises, but smearing my boyfriend's name. It's going to stop - or I will fight fire with fire."

Santana's eyes narrowed up further. "You can't threaten me. I'm from Lima Heights -"

"-Adjacent. Yes. We all know, and guess what?" Blaine leaned forward and hissed, "I don't care."

"What on earth can you do about it Frodo?"

"Lima Heights Adjacent is a very catholic area... I'm willing to bet your family isn't aware of your.... preferences, and wouldn't be happy to find it out either."

"You wouldn't!" She snapped.

Blaine smirked, turning towards the boys locker room. "The ball is in your court... so to speak."

As he walked into the locker room, he couldn't help but smile to himself.

"How can she not get in trouble for this?! She's saying Carole is a donkey! Isn't that slander... or libel... or something?!" Kurt was flailing his arms up as he ranted, and to avoid getting hit, Blaine had taken a few steps back.

They were having supper at Kurt's house when Mr. Butthead and Burt had come in, talking about the latest attack ad. In curiousity, Kurt had pulled the ad up on his phone and watched it. Now he raging all over the kitchen.

"Calm down Kurt!" Burt roared over. "I already had a fit about it. You don't need to as well!"

"But it's not right dad!" Kurt let his arms drop to his sides as he looked to his father. "She shouldn't be allowed to be such a bully."

"She shouldn't be... but she has that freedom. We have to hope that the voters clue into it."

Blaine stepped up behind Kurt then, since it seemed he would be safe from getting hit now, and gently patted his back.

Kurt wasn't calm though. "My generation keeps being told that things will be better once we get older, but when you see what she's doing, how are we supposed to believe that?"

Burt came over then, setting a hand on Kurt's shoulder, "Son. I want to tell you it'll get better as you get older, but bullies don't disappear when you reach a certain age - they get older too. It's like that Indian guy said... you have to be the change."

"Gandhi." Kurt supplied, nodding his head in agreement.

"Right! Him! You have to be the change if you want things to change." Burt finished off and let go of Kurt's shoulder. "Now I'm going to go talk with Mr. Schuester, and I expect you and Blaine to enjoy your youth right now and have a nice... CHASTE... evening."

Both boys couldn't help but smirk at that, glances exchanged that said they couldn't believe Burt wouldn't have clued in that their time together was anything but chaste. Blaine nodded towards Burt though. No sense in getting him upset over finding out his son wasn't a little angel when he had bigger fish to fry.

When they were left alone again, Blaine reached over and squeezed Kurt's hand, "Hey. It'll be alright. Your dad will overcome the bullshit, just like you always do."

Kurt smiled weakly over at Blaine. "I hope you're right."

"Are you ready for the debate tomorrow?"

Kurt shook his head, "No... I mean... I have a speech ready and everything, but I don't think I'm really ready for it. I've spent so much of my high school career trying to steer away from being the center of attention, at least outside of glee club anyhow, and now I'm purposely putting myself in front of everyone."

"You'll do amazing." Blaine insisted, leaning over to press a kiss to Kurt's cheek, who leaned into it with a happy hum.

Blaine couldn't imagine why anyone would vote for anyone but the boy before him.

"How do I look? Is it too much? Too little? I knew I should have gone with a stronger color..." Kurt rambled to himself and Blaine, looking himself over in the mirror.

It was debate time, and, as always, Kurt was freaking out about his clothing choices. Really, Blaine always like what Kurt wore, but that didn't seem to stop his boyfriend from freaking out over it.

"You could always go naked... that's when I like you best." Blaine admitted, looking over Kurt hungrily. Kurt chuckled and turned to kiss Blaine.

"Okay... I'll be looking for you in the bleachers if I get nervous."

"And I'll be there. Don't worry. You'll be amazing."

They parted and Blaine went to sit by the rest of the Glee club kids in the stands. It was an abysmal turnout by the school for the debate, but given the amount of apathy the normal high school student had, Blaine wasn't particularly surprised.

If Kurt hadn't been involved, Blaine wouldn't have come to this either.

The debate began with one of the hockey morons, Rick the Dick, claiming that teachers should do what the students want, which got some cheers from the audience - mostly his fellow puckheads. Blaine couldn't believe the idiocy.

Then Brittany gave a report on tornadoes, how they kill people, and then, to everyone's shock, announced that she didn't want to be senior class president anymore.

"I found out that my plans to replace teachers with robots would have resulted in many teachers not having any other choice but to work in strip clubs which would mean that we would have strippers trying to teach us math. Therefore I am no longer going to run for president and hope you all have a nice day."

Blaine raised both eyebrows, glancing down the bleachers at Santana who was nodding supportively to Brittany. Was this because of him?

Kurt spoke next, and Blaine listened with bated breath as Kurt talked about how he had hoped to combat obesity in the school, but instead wanted to aim higher, and combat bullying. Kurt wanted to ban dodgeball as a tool of bullies in order to say that violence was not okay.

Blaine wasn't sure how he felt about that, but he knew it was important to Kurt by the passion in his voice and how he wasn't reading off his notes anymore.

Finally Rachel spoke. And another shock, Rachel was withdrawing from the presidential race as well.

"I urge you all to vote for Kurt. He was the only candidate to not resort to negativity in this campaign."

Blaine couldn't help but smile, and caught Kurt's eyes with his own. Kurt was beaming.

Blaine crossed off Rachel on his mental list of people to get back at.

Kurt whispered over to Blaine, "You know... that mustache... never actually grow that alright?"

They were in the auditorium, having just done their mash-up from Hall and Oates and now waiting for the Troubletones to do their song. They had done alright if Blaine said so himself, even if Kurt didn't like the peel off mustache he had worn.

Blaine nodded though to Kurt. He didn't like keeping facial hair anyhow since his hair was so curly that even his facial hair coiled and then just tickled his own skin. Despite being a pain, he was committed to a lifetime of vigorous shaving every morning.

"So... Rachel and I reconciled." Kurt then whispered and Blaine grinned over. He knew it without Kurt having to tell him. The tension between Rachel and Kurt had ended, they smiled at one another now, and Kurt had gone the day without one snarky remark about the diva.

"Good." Blaine wanted Kurt to be happy, even if it meant giving up a little bit of his time with Kurt so that Rachel could fit in.

They were quiet as the Troubletones took the stage, doing a very good mashup of Rumor Has it and Someone Like You. There were really good in fact, and suddenly Blaine wasn't so sure that the job the New Directions had done was good enough to beat them.

At the end though was when the real show began. Santana hopped off stage and started verbally sparring with Finn, silencing him with a sudden slap to the face. When that quieted both him and Rachel, she looked over top of their heads towards Blaine, "You! You too! You had no right!"

Blaine blinked a few times, looking to Kurt to see if he knew what was going on, and then back at Santana when Kurt looked at him with the same amount of confusion he had. By that time, Mr. Butthead and Ms. Corazon had gotten to Santana and were escorting her out of the auditorium while she yelled in Spanish back at the group.

As soon as the adults were gone, everyone was talking at once.

"What was that about?"

"Oh my god!"

"What's going on?"

"What is wrong with her?"

Blaine shook his head and looked at Kurt, "Sorry... what?"

"I asked if you did something to piss her off specifically." Kurt repeated over all the other voices.

Blaine frowned. He knew he had, and looking ahead at Finn, he could see that Finn was feeling guilty about something as well. "Probably... yah."

Then he added on, "But she fucking deserved it."

Because... really, she did.