Chapter 1: ...and so it begins

Blaine wasn't like the other boys in his class. No, it wasn't because he wore an excessive amount of hair gel or because he didn't wear socks or because he liked to button his shirts up all the way and wear bow ties every day or even that he was gay. None of that helped him fit in with his peers, of course, but the main difference was that this was a whole new world to Blaine—not just McKinley High School, but Earth in general.

Allow me to explain: Blaine came from Daltune, a planet about three light years (approximately one week of travel time in an Agency vehicle) away. 

Daltune, his planet of origin, is much like Earth. Its ecosystem and environment are essentially the same—although in admittedly better condition—and, like Earth, Daltune is inhabited by humans. Daltune is smaller than Earth, but other than that, the differences between Daltune and Earth are really more differences in society rather than the planet itself.

Daltune was very modern. Paper and books and pens weren't unheard of, but were extremely uncommon since people found using technology to be much more efficient in most cases. Paper and paint and markers and such were still commonly used in art, but rarely for everyday things. Things were run on both electricity and solar power, but mostly the latter. Everyone had access to technology, and it was considered a basic right to all the planet's inhabitants. The main mode of transportation was the Zipline, which was the lightning-speed (no, literally) public transportation system which went to just about everywhere. It was clean, safe, comfortable, affordable, and efficient, so most people preferred it. If you didn't take the Zipline for some reason, you could also commute by car. The cars on Daltune were quite different than Earth cars, though. For starters, you never had to remember where to go because you simply entered the destination into the keypad at the front of the car and it would take you to the destination. You still needed to operate the vehicle to navigate between other cars and avoid collision, but it kept to speed limits and adhered automatically to signs and signals, so it didn't require much effort on behalf of the driver. It has a manual mode as well, which is pretty much the exact same functionality as an Earth car, but it is only used for emergencies and is rarely necessary. On the rare occasion the car got damaged or needed fixing, there would be a warning. If it got in a crash, it automatically sent off a signal with a location to the nearest emergency service. There were also bikes, but almost no one ever used them.

The inhabitants of Daltune were all very well-mannered and well-educated. There is little to no outright conflict on Daltune, save for in the Ombra Domini. The Ombra Domini was the only Dark place in the whole of Daltune, and very few dared to venture there. It was a shadow land, the only place on the planet where chaos, conflict, and danger ran amuck. It was mostly referred to as Od, as it was a rather odd place, but it was rarely referred to at all. People didn't talk about those things in polite society.

Daltune was definitely polite society. Everything was proper, orderly, controlled, tamed, and organized. People functioned as units. No one person was in complete control or had much dominance at all. Everyone served an important function and all required leadership was directed by councils comprised of elected, fair, capable members. Fashion didn't exist on Daltune because everyone wore the same things. The entire wardrobe of Daltune consisted of the following:

Attire for general use...

-white button-down shirts

-gray dress pants

-knee-length gray pleated skirts

-knee-length gray shorts

-black dress shoes

-red and navy blue striped ties

-navy blue blazers with red piping, gold buttons, and a red Daltune insignia over the heart to signify that all the planet's inhabitants should always have the good of the planet at heart

-navy blue sweaters

-navy blue sweater vests

Attire for cold weather (but not to be worn at formal events)...

-Daltune hooded sweatshirts (white, black, red, gray, or navy)

-Daltune hooded zip-up jackets (white, black, red, gray, or navy)

-raincoats (black, red, gray, or navy)

-red and navy striped scarves

-black galoshes

Attire for sleep/home/athletics...

-sweatpants (black, red, gray, or navy)

-gym shorts (black, red, gray, or navy)

-long or short sleeve casual shirts (white, black, red, gray, or navy) with or without the Daltune insignia

-tank tops (white, black, red, gray, or navy)

Everyone was well-groomed, too. Everyone's hair was neat and all boys gelled their hair down to look polished. Everyone's clothes were cleaned and their shoes were shined. Everyone was very proper and mannerly. The idea of working together was at the core of the society of Daltune. Working together as a unit was how they built their society and it was what maintained order and peace. There was no discrimination based on gender, sexuality, appearance, or anything, really. Daltune was a place of unity, so why create conflict by pointing out everyone's differences, dividing them accordingly, and then treating them differently because of it? It simply wasn't a logical idea. Violence of any kind was prohibited and violators were exiled to the Od, because when you hurt any part of the community, you hurt the community as a whole. Everything that mattered was done in groups—leadership was done by councils, sports were played in teams, projects and assignments were collaborative efforts. Music was yet another group activity. On Daltune, they knew of instruments from their studies of Earth, but did not have or use them. Rather, the only instruments used on Daltune were the voices of its people. All music was acappella, so people needed to work together as a group to produce a full sound. 

Blaine liked Daltune. It was safe and it was beautiful and it was nice, but it was nothing special. It was nothing special because there was nothing special. That was the problem for Blaine. Blaine wanted something special, something different and he wanted to be independent. On Daltune, everything was the same and everything was done in groups, creating a sense of unity that was nice but a dependence on others that could be considered unhealthy.

As much as Blaine liked Daltune and loved his friends there, he wasn't a big fan of Daltune society. He felt like he was just one cog in a giant machine. The idea of the individual, in many ways, had been lost on Daltune. People had individual personalities and appearances and experiences, but everything in Daltune society emphasized the importance of the group over the individual, always. Blaine tried as many things as he could to make him feel like he stood out as his own individual. He tried football first, since his father liked it so much and figured that, since he was quarterback, he would stand out, but it wasn't enough. He got involved with boxing and fencing because even though all sports on Daltune were played in teams, those were the two in which the individual members of the team acted on their own and had a moment to shine, though the victory was shared. He liked these things, sure, but none of them made him feel special. 

Blaine's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, had been on some of the most prominent councils on the planet and had high hopes for their children to grow up to serve the fellow people of Daltune in whatever way they felt best. Naturally, when Blaine's older brother, Cooper, expressed an intense interest in Earth studies, his parents were thrilled. They were overjoyed that Cooper seemed to have found his way to serve so early in life: he would be a teacher. He would teach the future generation of Daltune about a subject about which he was passionate, and everyone would be happy. It would be wonderful. They were happy to help him continue with his studies and made sure to get whatever books he needed and whatever Earth items he wanted to study, and he was incredibly fascinated by all of it, especially the films. 

As Blaine grew up, he, too, developed a fascination with Earth. Together, he and Cooper would study and figure out how to use all the trinkets and gadgets and instruments from Earth. Blaine took particular interest in the music of Earth and took it upon himself to learn every instrument he could get his hands on. Piano turned out to be his favorite. He listened to all types of Earth music, older and modern, and found he liked many styles of it, especially musicals and Roxie music. Blaine also learned about reading and writing music and began writing songs. He read magazines and enjoyed seeing the vast selection of clothing in styles and colors and patterns of all kinds, and discovered a deep love of color, patterned bowties, and suspenders. He read and learned and loved the idea of Earth, loved how everything was so drastically different. Both Blaine and Cooper were enthralled with the movies and recording of television they got from Earth. Blaine loved all sorts of them and found he had an affinity for musicals and a soft spot for the Disney animated princess movies. Cooper loved it all, too, the television shows, crime dramas, and action movies in particular. They both took up an interest in acting and performing in general and would perform for each other and offer each other constructive criticism. Together, they cultivated their knowledge and their talents. Blaine and Cooper would spend hours gushing about the wonders of Earth, planning their future adventures, and going on and on about how they would live there one day. 

At first, their parents thought their starry-eyed wonder and fascination was cute. As they grew, though, Cooper and Blaine took the Earth thing far too seriously for their parents to be comfortable with it. It was fine for their boys to dream of living on Earth as long as it was a far-off fantasy, but now that Cooper and Blaine were older, it became clear that they were truly determined to achieve their goal and turn their dream into reality. This was bad for the Andersons on a number of levels. One was that their boys were incredible and would be a great loss to Daltune if they left. Another was that Earth was dangerous. It was full of people and situations that would inevitably end up in disaster. They loved Cooper and Blaine and, as any parents would, wanted to keep them safe from anything that could hurt them, and they knew that Earth would hurt them.

Much to their parents' dismay, after finishing high school, Cooper got a job as a Spy. It wasn't as cool as it sounded, and he was honestly pretty disappointed to find that it was nothing like being a spy from the Earth movies, but it was still more than he could have dreamed. His formal job title was "Earth Informant." Informants were called "Spies" for short, though, and he just liked being able to say that he was a Spy. Spies were people from Daltune sent to different places on Earth to keep Daltune's knowledge of Earth up-to-date. The people of Daltune felt that it was important to be aware of the matters of Earth, at least in a vague sense, since it was one of the two only other planets they had yet encountered also inhabited by humans, so they sent Spies to keep them informed. They had not yet been able to send Spies to the other planet inhabited by humans, Smythia, as they had not been able to reach it, but Spies were stationed all around Earth. Cooper was stationed in Lima, Ohio. Of course, Spies had to have documentation and such, so each Spy was given the necessary paperwork. For school transcripts, the names of the classes were altered slightly but the grades were the Spy's actual grades. Other paperwork was similar, drawing whatever they could from each Spy's real life on Daltune and making sure to have solid contacts and background set up, but making things up when necessary. All paperwork provided was official legitimate enough to hold up in any Earth court, if need be. The Agency of Informants provided contacts and information for it everything. Each Spy was set up with a backstory, money, a job, and a living space. From that point forward, the Spy leads a normal life on Earth, the only stipulation being that they periodically report back to the Agency with whatever information they specified over video conference on his standard-issue Transmitter (a device somewhere between Earth's laptop and Earth's iPad that also acted as a phone, only it had far superior battery life and storage capacity, not to mention WAY better reception). Cooper was set up in a nice apartment and ended up going into acting like he had wanted to, his biggest gig as the face of Free Credit Rating Today, which was a surprisingly big deal in Lima. He loved his job.

While Cooper was off being a Spy on Earth, Blaine was stuck in Daltune with his parents. Blaine knew that he wanted to follow in Cooper's footsteps and become an Earth Informant. His parents knew, too. They desperately attempted to change Blaine's mind, but he was stubborn. He had his mind set on going to Earth and nothing was going to get in his way. Blaine loved his parents and didn't want to hurt, upset, or disappoint them, but he refused to let them keep him from what he felt he was meant to do and where he was meant to be. He knew his parents loved him and had his best interests at heart, but was frustrated that they didn't make any sense. No matter what Blaine did, he felt like he was a disappointment. In some way or another, he never felt good enough for them. As much as they loved him, they weren't supportive of him doing what he loved. They wanted him to be happy, but they didn't want him to do what he knew would make him happy.

Blaine's plan of action was to finish high school on Daltune to appease his parents, then apply to the Agency to be a Spy. He liked his school on Daltune for the most part. His parents had sent him to the highest-ranking school on the planet—an all-boys Academy called Dalton. Technically, it wasn't the highest-ranking, as it was tied with a smaller all-girls school of the same caliber (a Catholic school called St. Lucy's), but it was still the top and was rather impressive. "Only the best for our baby," his parents had cooed. As irritating as his parents were, though, Blaine had to admit that they picked the best school for him. Dalton was fantastic and he loved it. 

Dalton was the most exclusive boarding school on the planet. The dormitories were the most coveted of all dormitories, as they were plush, roomy, well-equipped, well-maintained, and beautiful to boot. All of Daltune was beautiful, really, but the Dalton campus was particularly impressive. There were high ceilings and grand staircases and wide hallways and an elegant vintage feel unlike any other of the extremely modern-looking buildings on Daltune. The food was excellent, and Blaine was able to get his daily fix of medium drip coffee. The sports were good, too, though Blaine wasn't as interested in them as he had once been. He had stopped fencing a while ago and quit football after freshman year. The only sport he didn't stop was boxing and he even started a Fight Club (which he obviously can't talk about). The academics were excellent, as was the school's glee club, the Warblers. 

Fight Club was great, but nothing made him happier than the Warblers. The Warblers were his school's glee club (acappella, of course) and were almost like what Earthlings would call "rock stars." They were the best glee club out of all the glee clubs from all the other schools on the planet. In addition to that, though, all the Warblers were great guys. They were like a family, really. His best friends were the other members of the Warblers' Council, Wes and David. He was also really close to Nick and Jeff, the blond and brunette dynamic duo of mischief and silliness. Thad and Trent were pretty good friends, too.

In the Warblers, there were no solos because, technically, everyone was singing at the same time, but there was always someone on lead vocals. More often than not, that someone on lead vocals was Blaine. Singing made Blaine feel alive and was his joy in life. His voice was capable of so many different levels and styles and feelings and was truly unlike any other. Even when he sang other people's words, he felt like himself whenever he sang because he put so much of himself into each and every performance. Singing was the only thing that made Blaine feel truly special.

Music, in general, was more important than air to Blaine. Listening to it, playing it, singing it, composing it...that was what Blaine lived for.

But I digress. Life at Dalton was good for Blaine. He was well-liked by teachers and students, had good friends, had fun, got good grades, got to visit his parents for one weekend a month, and was generally happy.

———————————————————————

It was a normal day at Dalton when the news came. 

It was a Saturday, the last Saturday before he would finish his junior year and get out for summer break. Blaine had just gotten his daily dose of coffee and settled into the extra Warblers practice scheduled for the day. He was sitting on the couch in the Warblers' rehearsal hall, laughing at the scene before him. Nick and Jeff were closing in on Thad, who was turning a deep shade of red. They were playfully teasing him about....something. He wasn't sure what it was this time, as they were across the room, just out of earshot, but they were visible and gesticulated broadly enough to have a rather comical effect. He sunk into the couch and chuckled into his coffee cup, rolling his eyes. All the other Warblers were already here, except for Wes, and were scattered around the room. It was an oddity, really, for Wes to be late. No, actually, more than an oddity. Wes was never late. Wes was always composed and organized and...uptight and was always punctual. When Wes entered, Blaine was about to greet him with his usual grin when he noticed Wes's face. Upon noticing his distress, Blaine's smile rapidly shifted into a look of concern. Wes was a bit paler than usual and was shifting awkwardly. He obviously didn't know how to handle whatever was going on—which, in itself, is bad enough—and wore an expression of pity, pain, concern, fear, and anxiety all at once.

"Are you okay?" Blaine asked.

Wes looked at Blaine, puzzled, for a moment. Then a switch seemed to flip in his brain and he rushed out the words "No, no—I mean, yes, but—you—just—it's...look, why don't you sit back down. You'll probably need to sit back down."

Eyeing Wes warily, Blaine reclaimed his place on the couch, confused. Wes shifted and gulped, seeming to be fighting some sort of panic attack, then took a deep breath and managed "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry, Blaine."

"Wes, relax, would you?" he said, rising from his seat to give Wes a hug, only to be shrugged off. "You don't have anything to be sorry for, so—"

"No, no, no, it's not that!" 

"Then what is it? Breathe, calm down, it'll be fine, just—"

"But it won't be fine!"

"Don't say that, you—"

"Your parents are dead, Blaine!"

Wes's eyes widened and he clapped his hand over his mouth. The room fell silent at Wes's outburst and turned to face Blaine, who froze in shock before sinking back onto the couch with his head in his hands.

The world stopped. He couldn't move. There were voices, but no words. Everything was blurry as tears began to well up in his eyes. He could hear Wes distantly, rushing apologies. 

"I'm so sorry! It wasn't supposed to come out like that! It's just, I found out and I knew I had to tell you but I didn't know how and I'm not used to not knowing what I'm doing and you were just being a good friend and I wasn't able to get it out and then I just yelled it in your face and I'm really, really sorry Blaine."

There was a tense silence following the rant, the only sounds were those of breathing. The Warblers looked around, uncertain, wanting to go to comfort Blaine but not knowing if they should. Nick and Jeff were the first to move toward him, immediately followed by David. Thad and Trent followed cautiously behind them. Then Blaine looked up.

"No. They...they can't be."

Silence.

"If this is some sort of sick joke, it isn't funny."

Silence.

"Blaine, I'm sorry—"

"NO!!!" Blaine yelled. Glances were exchanged among the Warblers. Blaine steadied himself and gulped nervously, then took a deep breath.

"I apologize for yelling. I just..." He took another shaky breath and looked down, trying not to cry, and quietly asking "What happened?"

Stumbling over his words, Wes managed to compose himself enough to deliver the news. "My dad...he was at work, at the hospital, and he was...you know, walking to his next appointment or something...like, in the hallway, and...he saw...your parents were rushed by him on gurneys and...he wasn't sure if it was them, but....he followed and asked and it was them, and.....Apparently, they got into a bad car crash. Something went wrong with the car and it went haywire and they crashed. They...they did everything they could, but—"

"But they couldn't save them," Blaine finished.

Wes nodded. "Blaine, I'm so sorry, I really—"

"Wes, don't, it's okay—well, I mean it's not okay—but you didn't do anything wrong."

"The best friend I could wish for, even in personal crisis. I should be the one consoling you !"

Wes sat next to him on the couch then and put his arm around his shoulder. The other Warblers approached and they all wrapped Blaine in one massive hug as he sobbed.

———————————————————————

Cooper came back to Daltune from Earth for the funeral and to deal with final affairs. Their parents' will had left them considerably well-off financially and left Blaine in Cooper's custody. The Agency hadn't been faced with this situation before, but eventually produced adequate Earth documentation for Blaine and enrolled him in school for the next year at McKinley High School. They instructed Cooper to fill Blaine in on their backstory and to keep him home for at let a week to explain the social differences and anything else about Lima that he should know. Other than that, the Agency left it to Cooper to incorporate Blaine into his life however he saw fit. They exchanged their money for dollars—the type of Earth currency accepted in Lima—and spent some time gathering and sorting and packing and preparing until they were ready to go. He was excused for his final week of school and was able to take his final exams later. 

The whole process of preparing to re-locate to Earth took about two months. Things got better and easier to handle over time with the love, help, and support of his family (namely, Cooper and the Warblers).  The two months passed by arduously slowly for Blaine, who had waited his whole life to go to Earth, but somehow when they day of his departure came it seemed it had come all too soon and he found himself at Dalton to say goodbye to his friends. This was the part that hurt the most about leaving Daltune. Sure, he would be able to talk to them all the time with his Transmitter, but he would miss out  on so much, on so many memories. He wouldn't get to graduate with the boys and enjoy all the crazy antics and shenanigans of senior year with the class he knew and loved. He'd always planned to leave, he just wanted more time. His eyes had already begun to sting by the time he reached the Warblers' rehearsal hall with his effort to hold back tears. He opened the door to see a red carpet laid out on the ground, leading from the door to the center of the room, where the Warblers stood in formation. They began to sing as the door closed behind him.

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road

Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go

So make the best of this test, and don't ask why

It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.

I hope you had the time of your life, so

Blaine couldn't fight his crying any longer and felt his eyes tearing up. The backup vocals went into an interesting and brief transition, becoming more upbeat and somewhat rock-like and even as he cried, Blaine chuckled as he recognized the next song.

Carry on my Warbler son

There'll be peace when you are do-one

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more

Blaine smirked at the adaptation of the lyrics as he felt his eyes begin to fill with tears. The backups changed again in another flawlessly smooth transition transitioned into the next song.

'Cuz you've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me

When the road looks rough ahead

And you're miles and miles from your nice warm bed

You just remember what we Warblers said

You've got a friend in me

Blaine had a huge, bright smile on his tear-stained face and was promptly tackle-hugged by the Warblers, who came running down the red carpet to pounce on him as soon as the number came to a close, laughing and smiling.

"I was definitely not expecting that. That was amazing guys, thank you! And that medley was great. 'Time of Your Life' by Green Day, 'Carry On, My Wayward Son' by Kansas, and 'You've Got a Friend in Me' by Randy Newman, all perfectly blended together. Wow. Also, since when do you listen to Earth music?"

"Well, this is a bit of a special occasion, so we decided to learn some. It's pretty good, really."

"See? What did I tell you?"

"B, if you didn't wear so much gel, I'd be giving you a noogie," joked Nick, to which Jeff added "as it is, he'd probably get his hand stuck." They all laughed more and then David's voice came from beside him.

"We're really gonna miss you, B."

There were murmurs of agreement and sniffles throughout the group, and they all squeezed in a bit tighter as Blaine said "I'll miss you guys, too. So so much." 

Too soon, they all finished saying their goodbyes and Cooper and Blaine had begun their week-long journey to Earth. Blaine looked back until Daltune was entirely out of sight, then yawned and fell asleep. 

———————————————————————

By the time Blaine started school, he was pretty well filled-in about life in Lima. Cooper and Blaine had moved to a bigger place—an actual house, not just an apartment—to accommodate them that was really nice and they had settled in and adjusted nicely. Cooper gave him his crash course on Earth humanity as well as his personal bonus course teaching Blaine about the best of Lima. The brothers were close and had fallen into a routine rather quickly and were both happy with their new life. 

It was a bit lonely at times, though, for Blaine, since he hadn't yet met anyone his own age. Cooper had been home all the time for a while since they moved to the new place on Earth. They watched Disney movies and discovered the wonders of karaoke and generally had fun brotherly-bonding time that they hadn't had for years since Cooper first became a Spy. It didn't last, though, and Cooper eventually had to get back to work and fly out to Hollywood to shoot the newest commercial for Free Credit Rating Today, so Blaine found himself alone for a while toward the end of summer. He didn't mind though, and used the time to explore the admittedly small town. He ended up spending a lot of time in libraries and book stores and a lot of money on a rapidly amassed collection of bow ties. What Blaine mostly did with his time alone, though, was make music. Since they had a house of their own, they dedicated a room to music. It had a piano, a guitar, a whole bunch of other instruments, a few microphones, sheet music, CDs, a few chairs, a couch, some pillows, and a very small makeshift recording studio in what would have been a large closet. In his spare time, Blaine spent most of his time in the music room singing and writing songs and playing the various instruments. 

In a flash, summer was over and Blaine found himself here, at McKinley High School.

———————————————————————

So, now that you know all that, we can get back to the beginning and go on with the story properly. 

Blaine had never been to an Earth high school before, and was overwhelmed with...well, everything. 

First, there was the crowd. Not only did this school have many more people than Dalton, they were all crammed into a smaller place. Also, the atmosphere was extremely unlike that of Dalton. Dalton boys had their antics and noise, but there was still an overall pleasant, friendly, polite, somewhat calm vibe on campus at all times. People smiled and acknowledged each other in the halls and everything was at a relaxed pace. Everyone knew everyone else and they were all fairly close-knit. Here, however, in the halls of McKinley, everything was fast-paced. The atmosphere was altogether more hostile and, with so many people, there seemed to be a lack of familiarity among the students. There was much more noise, and it was difficult to maneuver around the swarm of students in the cramped hallways. Some shuffled and shoved along with their heads down, some stopped to talk to their friends, some were doing other things entirely. 

It was pretty intimidating, to be honest, but as terrified as Blaine was beginning to feel, he was also incredibly fascinated. Everything, everywhere, and everyone was so different! They were different from what he knew and different from each other as well. There was almost no uniformity whatsoever. In addition to the lack of uniformity, there was also a lack of a uniform, about which Blaine was endlessly excited. Everyone wore different clothes, and each person's style seemed to say something about who the person wearing it was, or wanted people to perceive them. The only uniforms he saw were cheerleading uniforms—which, he was informed, was an indicator that the wearer of the uniform was a member of the cheerleading squad, the Cheerios, and was apparently a big deal. He also noticed that there were some boys wearing letterman jackets, which he knew meant they had been involved in sports, and was warned that most of these guys were not the kindest of people and that it would probably be best to stay away from them. Blaine himself took advantage of his new freedom of dress to wear some of the things he had seen back when he was still on Daltune, reading magazines and such to learn more about the planet on which he so desperately wished to reside. He wore a black polo shirt tucked into red jeans with a white belt and black dress shoes. He also wore a black, red, gray, and white striped bow tie and donned bright yellow wayfarer sunglasses. 

Blaine looked very out of place in the halls of McKinley, with his gelled hair, new outfit, and overly happy and enthusiastic attitude, and pretty much generally shouted "HEY, BULLIES! YOU SHOULD PICK ON ME AND CRUSH MY HAPPY SPIRIT!" Blaine, though, was oblivious to this as he tried to find his way to the office.

When he found the office, he walked in to be faced with an exceptionally bored-looking secretary. At the sound of his footsteps, she looked up. She looked about Blaine's age, maybe a few years older, a college-age intern or something. Upon lifting her head, she looked Blaine up and down with judging eyes and he shifted uncomfortably, feeling suddenly nervous.

"May I help you?" she asked as if she thought he was mentally handicapped.

It was only then that Blaine realized he had been standing awkwardly in the doorway for about a minute. He quickly moved to the desk chanting stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid in his brain as his face flushed a bit. 

"Uh...I'm new."

"Obviously."

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid  

"I guess...well, yeah, I mean, I....uh..."

"Okay, it doesn't seem like you're going to talk any time soon, so here's your schedule. Don't lose it. Your locker number and combination are written on the bottom of the page. First bell rings in ten minutes. Good luck."

Blaine nodded as he grabbed his schedule and opened his mouth to say something, but she had already gone back to her work. He stared at the coffee-stained piece of paper in his hand—his schedule—for a minute before mumbling a small "thank you" that garnered no reaction from the girl and setting off to find his locker and his first class. 

He quickly found that he would need to ask for help, as he had no idea where he was going. He squinted as he attempted to decipher his coffee-distorted paper and felt a shove from behind him that sent him back to hit the door head just closed, doorknob hitting squarely in the small of his back. 

"DON'T BLOCK THE HALLWAY, DUDE!"

Well, this was really not how Blaine had hoped his first day would go. Before he could get too disappointed, though, he turned around and walked into someone.

"Sorry," he stumbled, looking up and saying "I—"

He stopped speaking when his eyes met those of the person with whom he had collided and he froze. He had literally run right into the most beautiful human being he had ever seen in his entire life. The beautiful boy he ran into was pale as a statue and sculpted just as artfully as one. He was a few inches taller than Blaine was and was absolutely stunning. He was lithe, but still obviously strong, and had perfect chestnut brown hair swept up perfectly, finely sculpted features, pretty pink lips, an adorable nose, and the most beautiful eyes he had encountered. Beautiful Boy's eyes looked like galaxies and Blaine thought he might actually be able to get lost in them. They were blue—no, green—no, both at once, and were practically sparkling. The wondrous eyes were appraising him, beginning with caution, shifting to confusion, and settling on curiosity.

"It's fine, I'm used to it. Are you okay?"

Beautiful Boy had spoken to him. His day had, in an instant, drastically improved. Now Beautiful Boy was looking at him as if he may be stupid and Blaine realized that he should probably say something in response. 

"Oh! Uh...yeah, I'm fine, sorry, just a little out of it." 

Beautiful Boy smiled politely and began to turn to walk away, but Blaine grabbed his wrist before he could, blurting "DON'T LEAVE ME!"

Beautiful Boy stopped and looked at him, as though a bit confused and also slightly amused and waited for Blaine to elaborate.

"Sorry. It's just that I'm new here and I'm clumsy and confused and hopeless and could you please help me?"

Beautiful Boy smiled. "Sure." 

Blaine let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding in a sigh of relief. 

"Did you get your schedule?"

"Um...yeah, it's..." he fumbled for a bit before handing it to him, smiling and chuckling lightly as he did so "It's right here!"

Beautiful Boy raised one of his perfectly groomed eyebrows at the state of said schedule. 

"So...I take it you like coffee?" 

"Well, um...yeah. Yeah, I do, but that's how the paper was when I got it." What was it about this boy that made him unable to speak like a normal person? Usually, he was incredibly composed and well-spoken, but his tongue chose to knot itself at the very moment Blaine really needed it to, you know, not knot. 

As Beautiful Boy's gorgeous eyes scanned the schedule, Blaine figured that Beautiful Boy probably had a name, so he decided to find out what it was.

"So, what's your name?"

Beautiful boy lifted his eyes to meet Blaine's, looking a bit surprised, before answering.

"Kurt. And yours?"

"Blaine!" he said a bit too quickly. "Blaine Anderson," he said, trying to sound a bit less eager.

Kurt smiled small smile, which Blaine quickly decided was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen, and said "Well, Blaine Anderson, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Blaine then gave a big, charming smile and a very sincere "The pleasure is all mine"

They stayed like that for a moment, looking at each other and smiling, before Beautiful B—Kurt, he amended in his head, his name was Kurt—cleared his throat and began in a somewhat business-like tone "Okay, so your first class is in room 205, which is—"

Kurt stopped as his eyes widened at the sight of something over Blaine's shoulder. Blaine turned around to catch a glimpse of slushie cups and letterman jackets before being hit full in the face with red slushie.