Blaine was starting to get a serious stress headache by the lunch period. The lessons were way beyond those that he had previously been taken. Though this was a good thing because he often got bored in his old oversimplified classes it would mean he would have to study three times as hard over the next couple of weeks to catch up in time for mid-terms. He was considering the difficulties of lunchtime at a new school (where to sit, is there anything he likes on the menu, would he be unable to find an empty table and have to ask to sit next to somebody) as he heard a voice call to him.

"Hey Blaine."

Blaine turned to see Wes, he had been waiting for him outside the classroom and Blaine had managed to walk straight past without noticing him. Wes walked up to join him and clapped him on the shoulder, Blaine knew it was meant to be a friendly gesture but he hit one of his bruises and sent a dull ache down through his body.

"You alright you seem a million miles away."

"Yeah sorry just thinking about.. Charlemagne."

"Ah, good old Charlemagne hey." Wes gave a cheeky smile. "I thought I'd come ask you to join me for lunch."

Blaine was half looking at him and half watching the people who passed them all of whom were sharing quiet openly at him. He hated it, it was like at his old school. He half expected to be cornered by three jocks by the end of the day. Not that he could tell who the jocks were seeing as they all wore uniforms. He tried to tell him that he was being stupid, they didn't know he was different, or did they? Did people just sense that he was different?

"Blaine?"

"Hmm. Oh lunch, don't you want to sit with your friends."

Wes gave a small laugh.

"Yeah, they want to meet you. Unless you have somebody else you want to sit with."

"Uh .. No."

"It's settled then."

They walked a few more steps silently before Wes suddenly stepped in front of him making him stop.

"I can tell something's wrong, why don't you just tell me?" Wes asked him.

Blaine looked down and shuffled his feet.

"People are looking at me." He said quietly.

"Of course they are, you're new they're wondering who you are. You should just introduce yourself around you know. Hey how about you come try out for the warblers?"

"The singing group?"

"Yeah, you'll get to meet some people make a few friends new friends, we're a pretty tight group. You can sing right?"

"Yes I can sing." Blaine said leaving out the fact that he had never really sung in front of people before.

Blaine had spent three lunch times enjoying the conversation at the warblers table. Though the warblers group was spread out between all years at the school and all type of boy, as far as Blaine could tell they had an easy joking way with each other. They were interested in Blaine, they asked many questions and Blaine tried to answer truthfully yet without revealing to much. He did not want them to know what his life at his old school had been like. He wanted a new start, an opportunity to do thing's differently, to be seen not as the too smart for his own good gay kid.

On his second day he had been sat in the library trying not to meet the eyes of the strange Liberian who was so upright during the day time that Blaine had to wonder if it had all been some strange dream. As he had sat there Wes and three of the other warblers had come in. He overheard Wes telling them not to question Blaine so much 'he needs some time to settle in, I'm sure he'll come out of his shell if he's given a bit of room.' Blaine had been thankful for this simple sentiment and had felt such a great warmth for Wes that he decided to open up to him, not about his previous school or his father or about how much he missed Gregory, just about his strange first night at Dalton. Wes was a senior and knew the school as well as anybody did, Blaine thought he could shed some light on the situation.

Blaine waited till he had the older boy alone. Wes had said he would fill Blaine in on Warbler traditions and rules and stories about some of the things they got to do as a group in an attempt at getting Blaine to join. Blaine had agreed and seeing as it was a warm day out they had walked side by side around the grounds.

"Wes, there's something I haven't asked you?"

"I'm straight."

"No it wasn't that… Wait you know I'm gay?"

"I overheard your parents telling the head master."

"But why are you still being nice to me?" Blaine asked confused. The only boy whom knew he was gay and still been willing to be seen out of class with him had been Gregory, and he had been gay too.

"I like you Blaine; it doesn't matter to me that you're gay."

Blaine smiled an honest smile for the first time since the Sadie Hawkins dance. He held back the urge to hug the boy next to him. Even if he was completely okay with Blaine being gay he still had the feeling that being jumped on by a teenage boy that you've only known for three days gay or not would be a rather uncomfortable experience. Despite his burst of happiness he still felt a strange sickness in the pit of his stomach.

"Please don't tell anybody else."

"Hey it's alright." Wes clapped him on the shoulder. "You can tell people when you're ready. So Warblers?"

"Yeah, I'll definitely try out"

"Great. What did you want to ask me?"

"Oh, the Liberian Is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's a bit strict."

"I meant, like in the head."

Wes gave Blaine a strange look as if he was trying to figure out whether Blaine was joking or know something that Wes himself was unaware of.

"Yeah. I know she's hitting eighty but she's still as smart as anybody around here."

"Okay."

"Why do you ask?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I guess I must have misunderstood."

Blaine was running late. The teacher of his final lesson had pulled him over to check how he was settling in which was nice but he was supposed to be going to the Warblers meeting to audition and his pen had chosen to explode allover his tie. He had put a fake smile on and told Mr. Harrison that everything was going brilliantly and he was sure he would catch up soon. By the time Mr. Harrison had finished telling antidotes about how he too had changed schools in the middle of term when he was a junior Blaine was already five minutes late for the meeting and he couldn't turn up with his tie completely covered in ink.

He burst into his room and ran to the draw looking for his spare tie. It wasn't there.

"Damn it."

He tried to think about where it might be, he had got this tie from his draw this morning meaning that this was his second tie and the other was… on the floor where he had dropped his uniform the night before. He got to his knees and looked under his bed.

"Score!"

He grabbed the flash of red fabric and pulled it out. He stared at it in confusion. The bottom two inches of the wide end had been completely cut off in a diagonal. He sat back on his heels staring at it trying to figure out how it had got cut up. It had been whole when he had taken it off the night before. He checked his watch and saw that he was now ten minutes late, he looked at the tie in his hand and made a quick decision, ink was better than half missing. He dropped the tie back on the floor figuring he would work out what happened when he got back after his audition.

When Saturday came Blaine had expected that he would be left entirely alone with all the other boys returning to their homes in neighboring towns. He soon found this was not the case though. The Warblers had welcomed him into his group. When he had forgotten all the words in his audition he had though his chances at any happiness whilst in high school were completely out of the question. Thinking all was lost he closed his eyes and started to belt out Katy Perry's 'I kissed a girl'. But when he had opened his eyes the boys were cheering, people were clapping him on his back and telling him it was awesome, they were talking about choreography and writing it into regional's and did he have an opinion on starting positions. It had all seemed so strange to him but he found himself smiling and laughing with the other boys and then he was joining in on a group number and the boys next to him were trying to teach him to break-dance and somebody winked at him. Then even more amazingly at the end of the session Wes had brought out a little golden bird cage with a fluffy little canary in it and Blaine had always loved birds but his mother was allergic to feathers and he would never have been allowed one as a pet but this little bird was going to be his to look after.

"Blaine, this is the warblers mascot, he is part of an unbroken line of canaries that have been at Dalton for over a hundred years. We call him Pavarotti. We would like it if you took care of him."

"I'd.. I'd be honored." Blaine had replied holding back tears.

Everyday since then different people from the group had been coming up to talk to him in the hallways. They learnt his name and asked him to go to various upcoming social events and one boy David asked him to be his lab partner. Then there was today only a few members of the warblers had actually returned home and the rest had invited him to go into town with them and to grab a McDonalds. Blaine had happily agreed, he just could not believe he was making friends.

He had spent part of the morning in the library doing homework. When David had come and clapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he was ready to go Blaine had told him he just had to run up to his room to grab his jacket. He ran up to his room (and now it did feel like his room with the printout pictures of Gregory and of his favorite movie and of course Pavarotti always there and singing happily) and grabbed his green jacket from the hook on the back of the door then went to his bedside table where he had left some money out. That was funny; he thought he had left fifteen dollars there now there was only ten. He bent to look under his bed and around the bedside table. He must have spent it already.

He was exhausted, and admittedly a little drunk. He had never had so much fun before. The Warblers were his friends; it was amazing to have friends. They had been to one of the guy's houses, and he couldn't even remember his name and his parents had been away and his older brother had brought booze. They had sung Queen songs all night and Wes and David had picked him up when he had fallen over and he had hugged them because he loved those guys so much and they hadn't freaked they just clapped him on the back and told him he was cool and yes they were his friends. He had friends, he still missed Gregory but here he had two friends, maybe more because the guys who sung with him seemed to like him and there were no bullies, life was good. He collapsed on his bed without getting changed and feel into a contented sleep.

Blaine groaned and threw his hands up to his face. It was the squawking that had woken him up though it took him a moment to figure out that's what it was. He reached out for his bedside lamp knocking several things to the floor as he looked for the on switch. Once the room had lit up he sat up and groggily looked over at the golden bird cage with the little canary flapping around in obvious distress. Blaine jumped up and ran top the cage looking at the little bird trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

"Shush, Pav. What's the matter?" He asked gently picking up a sunflower seed and poking it through the bars for the little bird. The bird stopped squawking tilted it's head to one side and then hopped to the opposite side of the cage. Blaine dropped the sunflower seed and opened up the cage hatch so that he could lightly run his fingers over the bird's soft feathers. Once he was content that the bird was not injured and not going to start squawking again he closed the hatch and went back to bed. He turned off the light and laid flat on his back in the darkness.

He was just drifting back off to sleep when he heard a strange sound. There was a scrapping as if something was being pushed across the floor and then a little tapping as if tiny feet were running across the wood. He sighed and flicked the light back on, lifted himself off the bed and sat on the floor looking under his bed. Sure enough something was skittering around in the dark under there. He just caught the glimpse of something, just a dark little shadow.

"Great a mouse." He muttered. He sighed and held his hand to his throbbing head, he didn't really want to disturb anybody but he wasn't sure what you were meant to do if you've got a mouse in your room. He grabbed his phone and text Wes asking him to pop by in the morning when he woke up.

Next chapter: Meet Kurt Hummel the burrower.