When Blaine arrived home, his parents were both sitting at the kitchen table. "Blaine, come in here," his father said in a forced pleasant voice. He sat down at the table with them. "Your mother tells me you've decided to come home." Blaine nodded. "Then let's go over exactly what that means. If you are going to live here, it means that you will not see or speak to that boy at all. I will be checking your phone to ensure that you don't. When you're not at work, you will let us know where you're going and once you're back at school, you will come home every weekend. Provided you stick to these rules, we will continue to pay your tuition at Dalton and you will be welcome in this house. You know this year is extremely important for your future," he continued. "You'll need references for college applications and you may have college interviews to go to. You wouldn't want to make the wrong impression and jeopardize your chance for a successful future."
Blaine nodded silently, seething internally. He almost preferred the raging version of his father to this manipulative one.
"Anything to add, Sharon?" his father asked.
"No, I don't think so," she said quietly.
Blaine headed up to his room and immediately sent an email to Kurt. Don't phone me or text me. He's checking my phone. Miss you already, B.
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The rest of the week wasn't too bad. Blaine was at work all the time anyway, and he was fairly certain his father wouldn't manage to break into his email, so he and Kurt were still emailing regularly. Then Monday morning came, his only day off, and all he could think of was that he should be with Kurt. He would have risked sneaking off to Lima, but his father knew his work schedule and Blaine thought he might check-up on him today. He did risk a Skype session, however, and it was great to see Kurt and hear his voice. He couldn't believe how much he'd missed him in a week. Sure enough, around 11:00, Blaine heard the door open downstairs. "Got to go - someone's downstairs," he said and quickly shut down Skype. Overall, even though he was miserable this morning, he was still optimistic. It was only two more weeks before he'd be back at Dalton and then his parents would have a much harder time keeping track of him. Even if he did have to come home on weekends, he'd be able to sneak off to Lima on weekdays after school.
Kurt was definitely missing Blaine, too. He was even starting to miss Six Flags, but like Blaine, he was hopeful that things would be better in two weeks. For now, the musical was occupying most of his time. This was their last week to practice, with the big show on Friday.
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Thursday night, Kurt was feeling pretty optimistic. The kids knew their parts. The orchestra's playing had improved dramatically. They were now all managing to play the same song at the same time. Kurt had doubts initially about pulling off an original musical with all the actors under twelve years of age, but it had all come together eventually, with a few modifications to his original script. Tomorrow morning was their dress rehearsal, then the performance in the afternoon. His family, Rachel and Mercedes were all coming, in addition to the kids' parents, the camp director and all the other camp counsellors. He really wished Blaine could be there too, but Finn had promised to video it for him to watch whenever they saw each other. Kurt just had a few things to finish off on one costume. Most of the kids had been responsible for their own costumes, but this one, Kurt wouldn't trust to anyone else. "Pip Pip Hooray" couldn't go on without a realistic Prince Harry and Kurt had recreated the extensively-decorated navy jacket that the prince had worn for his brother's wedding. At last, it was done. He had crossed everything off his to-do list and he was ready for tomorrow. As he climbed into bed, he glanced at his silent cell phone, wishing he could share his excitement with Blaine. Email just wasn't the same as actually talking to him.
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Kurt was back in his room the next afternoon by 4:30, curled-up on his bed, absolutely mortified. Nothing had gone as expected. He thought back over the day's events.
It had started first thing in the morning as the kids arrived in their costumes. The girls had been instructed to wear their fanciest dresses and the boys, their best suits. Kurt had looked after any accessories they might need, like appropriate hats for the Queen and Pippa. He was looking forward to seeing his "Pippa." She certainly looked the part – tall for her age, and with long, straight, light brown hair. She'd said her mother was very excited that her daughter was starring in the musical and had been working on her outfit for weeks.
When she walked in, Kurt just about fell out of his director's chair. Her once-brown hair was now dyed a hideous shade of bright orange and was braided into two braids with wires stuck in them so they stood out sideways from her head. She bounded-in excitedly in a denim dress and mismatched striped stockings and said "What do you think? My Mom said she played Pippa in a play when she was a kid, so she knew exactly how she looked."
"Very nice," said Kurt in a strained voice.
And that was just the beginning. The rest of the costumes were also interesting. Some of the kids could certainly pass for an attempt at looking like royalty, but others were unbelievably far from it. Kurt should have known better than to tell his "Prince Philip," to wear his best suit. He should have remembered that the kid's parents owned Lima's biggest western wear store. And so, the Queen's aged and supposedly distinguished husband, was attired in black Wranglers, cowboy boots, a black and white western shirt and bolo tie, and of course, an extra large belt buckle. The "Queen" wasn't much better. She was wearing her fanciest dress, and it certainly was fancy... and short. Who buys a black sequined dress for an eleven-year-old, Kurt wondered? It looked even worse with the flower-covered yellow hat Kurt had made for her.
Things only got worse during the actual performance. After all of their hard work, the audience just kept laughing at everything. At the end of the first act, there was a scene at a royal ball that had Burt laughing so hard, he turned bright red and Kurt was afraid he would have another heart attack. What choice did Kurt have? He'd wanted to do the scene with a romantic waltz, but the kids had flat-out refused to do any dancing that involved touching any member of the opposite sex, and the only dance they could all seem to remember was the Bird Dance.
In a serious scene where Prince Harry asked Pippa's father for permission to marry his daughter, little Cody, who played the father, kept talking about sewers instead of suitors. It had been weeks since he'd made that mistake in practice, but it apparently came back again when he was nervous. He had the audience laughing so hard, two people in the front row actually fell out of their seats.
In the final scene, as Pippa walked up the aisle in her orange braids and wedding veil to meet her betrothed, singing "Some Day My Prince Will Come," from Snow White, the contrast between the demure expression she'd been practicing so hard, and her Pippi Longstocking appearance, was just too much for the camp director. He had a coughing fit and had to leave the room.
Afterwards, nearly all of the parents came up to Kurt to tell him how much they'd enjoyed the show. The camp director said it was by far the most entertaining musical they'd ever had and offered him the job again next year.
Finn said "That was awesome, Dude. I thought it would be so boring, I would fall asleep, but that was hilarious."
Rachel said "I never knew you were such a talented satirist."
His Dad and Carol just congratulated him and left him to the rest of the parents who still wanted to speak to him.
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Back in his room, he gave in to the tears that had been threatening to fall all day. He'd loved his musical. It was meant to be a serious and beautiful tale, a royal romance. There wasn't supposed to be anything funny about it, but no one seemed to understand that. He needed Blaine, needed him to listen to all of his worries and hold him close until it didn't hurt anymore. He grabbed his keys quickly, headed out the door and started driving towards Six Flags.
He glanced at his watch as he walked towards the gates. Blaine should have thirty minutes until his next show. Luckily the ticket people all knew him and he never had to pay admission. It didn't take long to spot Blaine. He was sitting at one of the tables at the restaurant he'd taken Kurt to the first time he'd been there. Kurt started walking towards him, then stopped dead. Blaine wasn't alone. His Dad was sitting next to him, and that must be his Mom as well. Luckily Blaine's parents were facing away from him. On Blaine's other side was a pretty blond girl who looked about their age, as well as an older couple who were likely her parents. Blaine was smiling politely at something the girl's father was saying, but Kurt could tell even at a distance, that it wasn't his true smile. Then Blaine looked-up and saw Kurt. Their eyes locked and Kurt could see the misery in his boyfriend's expression. The adults didn't seem to have noticed, but the girl did. She was looking from Blaine to Kurt trying to figure out what was going on. Kurt turned quickly and walked away, not wanting to get Blaine in any trouble. He made it out of the park and back into his car before he started crying again.
Blaine was really distressed now. He could tell that Kurt had been crying and it was killing him to not be able to go running after his boyfriend. Yet, he was stuck here, with his parents and their friends, talking about the merits of the various Ivy league colleges, while they all made not so subtle hints about all the things he and this girl, Jessica, had in common. Luckily she'd noticed something was going on and came to Blaine's rescue.
"I'd really like to see more of the park before the show starts. Would it be alright if Blaine and I went for a walk so he could show me around?" she asked." Fortunately, their parents were only too happy for them to go off alone together.
"Who was that?" Jessica wanted to know as they walked away.
"My boyfriend, Kurt. My parents don't approve and won't let me see him anymore. Sorry, I assume that they forgot to mention I was gay."
"Well that explains why you weren't acting very interested. Don't worry, I'm not upset. I have a boyfriend, too, and my parents don't like him any better than your parents like yours. Just because his parents moved here from El Salvador and don't have any money, they don't think he's good enough for me. They don't care that he's super smart, gets straight A's, and will get a scholarship to whatever college he wants to go to. They're always trying to set me up with guys they think are more suitable."
Once they were out of their parents' sight, Blaine broke into a run with Jessica following. He was afraid Kurt would have left already, and he was relieved to see the Navigator still there in the parking lot. He pulled open the driver's door. Kurt looked –up, surprised. Then realizing who it was, threw himself into Blaine's arms. They held each other tightly, softly whispering how much they'd missed each other, pressed so closely together that only they could hear each other.
After a few minutes, Blaine pulled back and, remembering Jessica was there, said "Sorry, Jessica, this is my boyfriend, Kurt. Kurt this is Jessica. Our parents seem to be trying to set us up."
"That's awful. How could they do that to you?"
"I guess with our new deal, they can do whatever they want. I have to pretend to be the perfect son, or they kick me out again. So, are you okay? You look upset, and it was your big performance today. Did everything go alright?"
"I was going to come here and complain to you about how they all laughed at everything. All the dramatic scenes I'd written, they thought were absolutely hilarious. But you know what? It doesn't seem important anymore. So what if my Dad and Carol laughed at my musical? At least they were there supporting me, not like your parents. Besides, if we only have a few minutes together, I don't want to spend them crying on your shoulder."
A few minutes was nowhere near enough time to catch-up on everything they'd missed over the last few weeks, but it was better than nothing. Blaine felt bad for ignoring Jessica after she'd rescued him, but she seemed to understand. She went off to look at the map at the front gate so they could say goodbye alone.
Blaine kept kissing Kurt, starting to walk away and turning back to kiss him one more time. After several repeats of this, Kurt locked his arms tightly around him and said "I don't want you to go either, but you've got to get ready for your show and since you are the star, your parents will probably notice if you're not there. Remember, I'll see you the first Monday, right after school. I love you."
"I love you more," Blaine replied, then tore himself away and went to find Jessica.