Kurt sighed and closed his history book, making a face plant down on the bed.  With only a week until finals, he had almost finished his junior year at McKinley High. He had friends, lots of them, but no one really, truly understood him. They could all date people without getting laughed at and just generally be themselves. Kurt always tried his best to be himself, but it was hard. He was tired of being slushied and humiliated every day. He was sick and tired of everything.

He opened his eyes again, just as someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Kurt said and sat up against the headboard. Carole entered the room with Finn closely behind her.

“Hi sweetie,” she said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. Finn sat down on the other side.

“What did I do now?” Kurt frowned, this was weird.

“Nothing,” Carole said quickly. “Finn doesn’t know anything either.” The two boys looked at Carole, trying to get her to explain the situation. She cleared her throat. “Burt and I have been discussing something and we wanted to ask you first if you would be okay wi-“

“Ohmygod, are you having a baby!?” Finn burst out. Kurt almost chuckled.

Carole laughed and shook her head. “No, but we are getting a new family member, so you got that part right.”

Finn looked puzzled. “So, you’re adopting…?” he tried.

She sighed and looked at her two sons, smiling. “We’re taking in an exchange student. We got requested to host Blaine Anderson, since he’s really interested in music, just like you guys. He also loves football,” she added quickly with a glance at Finn’s direction.

“And this means…?” Finn still couldn’t quite get the pieces together.

“This means that a boy from Italy will be staying with us from August this year until June next year. He’ll be like your brother, just this year. He’ll go to school with you guys and yeah, just stay with us. Isn’t that great?” She grinned excitedly at them.

Finn shrugged and smiled a little. “Sure, I guess it’ll be fun.”

Carole smiled at him and turned to Kurt. “Sweetie, are you okay with this?”

“Yeah, sure,” Kurt said. I think I am.

After Carole had kissed him on the cheek and told him that dinner would be ready in half an hour, they left the room. Kurt sighed and slumped back against the pillows. Something caught his eye at the end of the bed and he reached for the bunch of papers.

Blaine Anderson. 17 years old.  Nationality: Italian.

Kurt skimmed through the papers and found Blaine’s personal letter. He read it more carefully. It was very well written with just a few grammar mistakes here and there. Somewhere in the middle of the letter, his gaze froze. He read the part again, thinking that he might have read it incorrectly. But no, he had been completely right the first time. He stared at it as a small smile spread across his lips. Finally someone who would understand.

I can live with any type of family, there is only one exception. I cannot tolerate to live in a family where any member is homophobic. It would make me uncomfortable, since I am gay.

:)

It was Blaine himself who had taken up the idea of going as an exchange student. His mother thought that he was brave even thinking about it, but she never thought he would actually do it. His father encouraged him to go. He wanted him to “improve his rusty English”. Blaine’s English was fine. Actually, his mom was from England and his dad from Canada, so he was basically fluent. He didn’t write it often though, so that was always a problem. He was slightly hurt by his father’s comment, but it was okay. As long as he could go, the reason didn’t really matter. His own reasons for going were much deeper. He wanted to escape. He needed one year when he could just be himself and run away from everything. That was why, after his father had read through his letter to his host family, he added a small part where he asked to not be placed in a homophobic family. He’d had enough of that in his past life.

When he found out his host family, the first thing he did was look up where he was going to live and which school he was going to. Late one night, when his parents were asleep, he pulled out his laptop again and opened it. He just remembered that he had been sent pictures that he hadn’t looked at yet. It was a family picture of the Hudson-Hummels. They were standing in some kind of auditorium and they all looked really happy. There was the father, Burt, the mother, Carole, one of the sons, Finn and- Blaine inhaled a sharp breath. Kurt Hummel wasn’t like anything he would have imagined. He had long, slender legs that led up to perfectly sculptured hips, the shape of them was very clear in his skin tight jeans. His chest looked firm and his arms muscular. When Blaine looked at Kurt’s face, it was like his whole world was tumbling down. The boy’s face was lit up with a huge smile and his blue eyes were shining with happiness. His skin looked smooth and pale, sort of like porcelain, and his chestnut colored hair was perfectly styled. Of course, Blaine had no idea if Kurt was gay. One thing did he know though was that his new brother was completely perfect.