"I heard that the Anderson boy transferred to McKinley. Have you guys seen him around?"

Kurt's heart plummeted. This was exactly what he was hoping wouldn't happen. Of course, his father was always up to date in all of the Andersons' activities. He would know about Blaine's transfer. Kurt was dreading seeing his father, knowing he would bring this up. What was Kurt going to do? Tell his father that yeah, he met Blaine. And he was actually really nice. He was fun to talk to and he was intriguing in all the right ways. And he was kind of gorgeous... No, his dad would hate that answer, of course... But was Kurt going to lie about it, then? Kurt was a lot of things, but one thing he was not was a liar. Kurt looked down at his plate, choosing to avoid speaking about this at all costs.

Finn, on the other hand, seemed to have something to say about Blaine's transfer. His eyes lit up with the need to answer the question. He spoke with his mouth full of Carole's casserole, causing Kurt to pull a discreet face of disgust.

"Yeah, I have! He was in my gym class. I felt so bad, the kids were destroying him in dodgeball. Apparently he's only a junior and he's in all of these advanced classes. Heard he got slushied today, too."

Kurt pursed his lips and looked down at his food, silently eating and praying that his dad wouldn't ask him specifically about the matter...

"How about you, Kurt? He in any of your classes?"

Shit.

Kurt answered in a low voice.

"Trigonometry."

"Trig? And he's a junior? Damn. Makes sense, I bet his parents had him working at a faster pace his whole life. It's like the Andersons to do that. They think they're so much better than everybody else, you know? I bet their kid is the same exact way."

"He seemed alright..." Kurt trailed off, in an attempt to deter hit father from ranting more about the Andersons. Kurt knew from experience. Don't get him started on that family. He never runs out of things to say.

"I'll tell you, he's not alright. Don't talk to him, Kurt. The last thing I need is you hanging around an Anderson."

And that was the last straw. Kurt stood up, picking up his plate.

"May I be excused?" he snapped.

"What? Why? What's wrong, Kurt?" Carole said sweetly, trying to make peace.

"I'm just not feeling that well. I think I need to lay down for a bit." Kurt stood up abruptly, taking his plate with him and dropping his plate in the sink. He ignored the curious stares directed his way as he sped up the stairs into his bedroom.

.:~:.

"Did you make any friends, dear?" Katherine Anderson said sweetly, dishing out a nice portion of pasta onto Blaine's plate. The family of three, Blaine, Katherine, and her husband Joseph, were gathered around their small kitchen table, with a large meal set out, hot and ready to eat.

Blaine looked uncomfortable, shifting in his seat ever so often. He didn't know how much he actually wanted to say about how his day went... If he told his parents about the weird looks or the slushie incident, they'd pull him out of McKinley for sure, and Blaine didn't want that. He wanted high school. He wanted friends.

Friends...

Oh yeah, and then there was Kurt. He knew that if he so much as mentioned Kurt, his father would go off on a tangent about how boisterous and abnormal the Hummels were. And from what Blaine gathered about Kurt... it was all a lie. Sure, he'd always been skeptical about the feud anyway, but meeting Kurt in person... He was unlike any boy he'd ever seen before.

"Yeah..." Blaine answered slowly.

"Really?" Katherine's face lit up. "Oh, that's great honey! What are their names? Maybe I know them."

"Well, Mike Chang was really nice to me. He was in a lot of my classes..." Blaine managed. It wasn't exactly a lie. Mike was incredibly friendly, and Blaine liked him.

"He's Mike Chang Sr.'s boy then?" Joe cut in. "Good man, good man."

"And then his girlfriend, Tina Cohen-Chang."

"I've met her mother. She's such a sweetheart." Katherine drawled.

"And then Kurt..." Blaine said, under his breath, but loud enough that his father still caught onto his words.

"Kurt? What's his last name?"

"Hu..." Blaine couldn't say Hummel. He couldn't. He knew what would happen. So he made a decision. A quick lie, the first one he had ever told his father. "Hurley. Kurt Hurley."

"Oh, thank God. I thought you were going to say Hummel." Joe breathed, looking relieved.

"I've heard about that Kurt Hummel figure." Katherine said, putting down her fork and wiping her lips daintily with her napkin. "He's Burt's son."

"Burt Hummel is just about the worse of them." Joe put down his fork, looking between his wife and his son. "He owns that tire shop downtown. 'Hummel Tire and Lube'. A mechanic, yet he has the audacity to go around telling people he's better than us."

"I don't think he's that bad..." Blaine said quietly, bringing some more pasta to his mouth to avoid saying anything more on the matter.

"Of course he's that bad. You haven't met him, you wouldn't know. And his kid... I've heard nothing but awful things about him, too."

"Like what?" Blaine asked with his mouth full, resulting in a glare from his mother.

"Well, I've heard that he is incredibly rude. He is a soprano in his glee club, and he's such a loser that he gets tormented every day. He's complained about it to the school board, too. It also doesn't help that he's gay..."

"What's the matter with being gay, dad?" Blaine spoke up suddenly.

"Nothing, nothing. You know I'm fine with your sexual preference, Blaine, but... it's different with this kid." Joe said, his voice a tad uneasy.

"You don't know that."

"Yeah, I do. You'll know when you see him, kid. He's a freak."

Blaine wanted to speak up to his father. Tell him exactly what he thought about Kurt Hummel.

Kurt was smart and clever. He was sarcastic and snarky, but not in a bad way. It made him interesting, unique. Kurt had the most amazing voice. It was high, but not an annoying high pitch. It was beautiful, ringing out, echoing in Blaine's ears like bells. His skin was incredibly smooth and clear, resembling porcelain. Blaine didn't know it was possible to have skin as perfect as Kurt's. His hair was incredible. How it was coiffed so perfectly, hardly a hair out of place. And his eyes... Blaine could've stared into Kurt's eyes forever... They were incredible. Blue, with bits of green and grey, all glazed over to make that color that Blaine could just get lost in so easily.

Woah. Blaine kind of really liked Kurt.

.:~:.

When Kurt got upstairs into his bedroom, he plopped down on his bed and dug his iPhone out of his pocket, immediately unlocking it and dialing a very familiar number. It only rang once before Kurt got an answer.

"Hello?"

"Rachel, I have a problem." Rachel sighed dramatically on the other side of the line.

"Kurt, I told you. I really can't picture your outfits over the phone. Where whatever one you want, I'm sure it looks amazing."

"No..." Kurt said, but not without a glance to his pile of outfits yet to be decided upon. Not the time, Kurt. Not the time. "No, that's not it."

"Oh." Rachel sounded confused, relieved, curious. "Okay. Then what?"

Kurt swallowed before speaking, maneuvering up to a sitting position. "Do you remember the new kid in trig? The one that sat next to me?"

"YES." Rachel said excitedly, not missing a beat. "Oh my goodness, yes. If I wasn't with Finn... He was so gorgeous."

"And also not on your team, but that's not the point."

"He's gay? Oh, that's a shame. Well, I mean... Not for you, I guess. Why, do you like him?" Kurt's breath caught in his throat. There was a pause. "Oh my goodness! You like him!"

"Rachel, Blaine is an Anderson." Kurt said slowly.

"And you like him?"

"I... I don't know, I just met him today."

"Kurt has a crush!" Rachel squealed. " Oh my goodness, I can't believe it! Oh, Kurt! You two will be so cute together!"

"You're missing the point, Rach. He's an Anderson." Kurt shifted again. This time he was lying on his stomach, his head at the foot of the bed.

"So? That whole rivalry is kind of stupid, Kurt. You've told me that yourself. And that Blaine is a whole lot of gorgeous, so I wouldn't let a little think like that-"

"This isn't a "little thing", Rachel." Kurt interrupted. "At dinner today, we got to talking about him, and my dad started ranting about the Andersons, and now I'm not even allowed to talk to Blaine, let alone date him, or even be friends with him."

"Oh, I see what this is... Forbidden love..." Kurt could hear the mischievous smirk in Rachel's voice.

"No, it's not. It can't be... I can't talk to him."

"Oh, but Kurt, you like him." Rachel said in her sickening sweet convincing voice. "And by the looks of this kid, he's super smart, incredibly sweet, and unbelievably sexy. And gay. I wouldn't let his last name stop anything, if I were you."

"You are absolutely no help, Rachel." Kurt said with a sigh.

"Your very welcome, Kurt." he rolled his eyes. "Now, you actually called at the perfect time. I was just looking over possible numbers for the next glee club assignment..."

.:~:.

Going back to school was very awkward for both Kurt and Blaine. Of course, they still had to sit together in trig, but this time the time wasn't passed with the curious glances or the friendly conversations. It was a silence replete with tension, neither boy willing to greet each other properly or mention yesterday's events. Neither Kurt or Blaine expected things to change. They kind of accepted that the rest of their existence at McKinley would involve the two ignoring each other completely, as was expected of them.

However, the previous day's encounter was definitely not the last.

It was a Monday, about two weeks after Blaine's transfer, which was the start of the second quarter.

"Each of the groups will be assigned a different theory, and you will then need to do research on how you can apply it to real life, and use it to solve a real life problem. The groups will be consisted of either two or three people. I'll let you choose your groups."

Kurt and Rachel immediately shared an excited look, so it was no doubt that they would be partners. Blaine not included in any of them.

"Who doesn't have a group?" Blaine raised his hand sheepishly. Mrs. Ewald gave him an awkward smile, as if to be feigning pity.

"Which group here is willing to take Blaine into their group?" Blaine looked down. Yeah, nobody would want him in their group, and he would work alone. So this is what high school would be like for him. Social rejection. Maybe his dad was right, and he was better off being homeschooled...

"We will, Mrs. Ewald!" A female voice said, chipperly. Blaine's head shot up as he pinned a face to the voice. Rachel Berry.

"Rachel, no!" Blaine saw Kurt's panicked expression as he shook his head violently at Rachel, and his heart dropped into his stomach. Kurt.

"Okay, great." Mrs. Ewald said, ignoring Kurt's protest. "Thank you, Rachel. Blaine, you can work with Rachel and Kurt."

Oh, no. This is not good. Definitely not good.