"It was quite brilliant, really. I mean, now you guys will have an excuse to spend time with Blaine, and then you guys can fall in love and then you will get married and live happily ever after, effectively end the feud between the Hummels and the Andersons for the rest of eternity."

"This sounds an awful lot like Romeo and Juliet, Rach, and I kind of want to live to see my next birthday, thank you very much." Kurt quipped with a roll of his eyes.

"Aw... Come on, Kurt. You like Blaine. And I am willing to bet that he likes you, too. You guys are so perfect for each other."

"I barely know the kid, Rachel." Kurt said dismissively, pulling out a textbook from his locker and shoving it in his messenger bag.

"All the more reason to get to know him!" Rachel squealed excitedly. "I'm a genius, this is totally going to work."

"No, it's not. I'm talking to Mrs. Ewald tomorrow and having Blaine moved to a different group. End of discussion." Kurt turned away from Rachel, slamming his locker shut and beginning to pace down the hallway. Rachel reached out to stop Kurt, walking down the hall with him, frantically trying to deter Kurt's thoughts.

"No! No, Kurt, don't you dare. You know, in a couple years when you two are married, you'll be thanking me for this."

"Highly doubtful." Kurt huffed, an amused smirk tugging at his lips.

Suddenly, Rachel grabbed onto Kurt's forearm, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. Rachel whipped around and called out to a girl pacing down the adjacent hall.

"Mercedes! Hey, Cedes! Come help me knock some sense into our Kurtsie dearest!"

"What's going on?" Mercedes said as she met up with the pair. Kurt squirmed out of Rachel's grip with a glare before addressing Mercedes, his voice flat and irritated.

"We have a project coming up in trig, and Rachel here decided it would be a good idea to invite Blaine to join our group."

"The new transfer kid? Hot damn. Go Rachel!" Mercedes grinned, but her expression changed when she saw Kurt's. "Wait, is he gay?"

"Yes, he bats for my team, but he's also an Anderson."

"Oh." Mercedes muttered, her eyes widening with sudden understanding. "Wow. What a stroke of awesome luck, huh?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it luck..." Kurt mumbled, looking down and away.

"Wait..." Mercedes said, a smile gradually appearing on her face. "Do you like him, Kurt?"

"I..." Kurt paused, the words "I do" just begging to leave his lips. He shook away the urge however, avoiding the question to the best of his ability without lying. "I just met the kid."

"Oh my God. Kurt has a crush!" Mercedes squealed, bouncing on her heels. Kurt rolled his eyes, speeding forward down the hallway, the door to his next class in eyesight as the turned a corner.

"You both are idiots. I would never even be able to be so much as friends with Blaine. My dad would kill me."

"But if you like each other..." Rachel trailed, her voice going up suggestively.

"But Blaine probably-"

"Shut up." Mercedes interrupted, speaking to Kurt in a clipped, demanding tone. "You're doing the project with Rachel and Blaine. You're going to bond with him, become the best of friends, and then fall in love, get married, and have beautiful, sexy babies."

"Oh my god..." Kurt let out a sigh as he walked past his two best friends into his next class.

.:~:.

"Blaine! Hey!"

Blaine looked up from his tray of food, startled to hear his name as he made his way to the nearest empty table in the lunchroom. Mike was waving towards him from his table, which was only occupied by himself and his girlfriend, Tina. Blaine sighed in relief as he made his way to the table, taking the seat next to Mike. He greeted them with a cheerful smile.

"Hi, Mike, Tina."

"How are you liking the school so far, Blaine?" Tina replied, in attempt to break the ice.

"It's alright." Blaine managed.

"Just alright?" Mike quirked an eyebrow in question. "Did you get slushied again?"

"No, no." Blaine shook his head dismissively. He wasn't sure what to tell Mike about what was going on. He wasn't sure how much he was aware about the feud between the Hummel's and the Anderson's. He didn't even know if Mike knew who Kurt Hummel was. "It's just we had to group up in trig and I don't think one of my group members likes me very much..."

"Really? Who?" Mike questioned. Blaine shifted uncomfortably in his seat before answering softly.

"Um... Kurt Hummel."

"Kurt?" Tina squeaked, taken aback. "Aw, come on. You're so sweet, why would he hate you?"

"I'm an Anderson... He's a Hummel..." Blaine offered, with a sigh.

"This is about that ridiculous rivalry?"Mike sounded surprised. He shook his head sadly. "I really thought Kurt was better than that."

"Well..." Blaine trailed.

"You like him."

The statement came out of nowhere. Tina said it as if she knew it was a fact. Maybe it was? Blaine wasn't entirely sure. He couldn't, though. He couldn't like Kurt, so he brushed off the idea the best he could.

"What? Where did you get that idea?"

"Because I'm not blind." Tina grinned, speaking quickly, surely. "I saw that look on your face when you said his name. Your pupils dilated. And then you defended it in an instant. You're making it blatantly obvious, actually. It's cute."

"I..." Blaine opened his mouth to protest, but with the look Tina was giving him, as if no matter what he said, Tina's opinion wouldn't sway, Blaine knew it was an argument that was not worth fighting. So he caved in. "Okay, I kind of like him. But he has made it perfectly clear that he has no intention of being friends with me. So, I'm kind of stuck with him hating me all through trig."

"I know Kurt. If he hated you, you would be dead right now. He doesn't hate you." Mike said, with certainty. Blaine's eyes widened, confused, to say the least. He was suddenly intrigued; he decided to question this.

"What do you mean?"

"I know what this is..." Tina's face crept up into a smile, ignoring Blaine's question. She spoke with excitement and interest, throwing Blaine a little off guard. "Kurt likes you too! And he's worried about his dad's reaction if he were to ever find out he was with an Anderson, so he's pretending he hates you! Brilliant!"

"What is his dad like?" Blaine pushed the first part of Tina's spiel to the back of his mind, not wanting to build his hopes too high. And he was curious. Kurt's family had come up when they first found out each other's last names. He was obviously scared of their reactions.

"Oh, he's the nicest man." Tina explained, sweetly. "But he had a heart problem last year, so Kurt is always really worried about him. Which is why he can't have Burt finding out about you, I'd assume. He'd blow a gasket and then possible have another heart attack. That's the only reason Kurt would keep something from him. They have a very closely knit relationship."

"I just don't get why we can't be friends." Blaine dropped his fork and let his head settle in his hands, a pout becoming evident on his face.

"I don't either, to be honest. I'd just keep being really polite to him. Try to befriend Kurt without pushing it too hard." Mike offered.

"It looks like you and Kurt really have some chemistry, and definitely potential. I have a feeling that if it was meant to be, something good will come out of it." Tina grinned, reaching across Mike to tap Blaine on the nose, resulting in all of the blood to rush to Blaine's cheek, painting them a light shade of pink. "Patience, definitely."

"Can you sing, Blaine?" Mike asked, suddenly. Blaine was slightly taken aback at the random question.

"What?"

Mike attempted to elaborate. "Can you sing? Like... are you a good singer?"

"Well... I guess so?" Blaine looked completely confused. "Why?"

"I think you should join Glee Club. We're getting ready for sectionals, and we could use an extra voice."

"Oh, I don't know. I'm not really that good or anything..." Blaine sighed.

"Kurt's in Glee Club. He has a great voice. If you joined, you'd get to hear him sing like... all the time." Mike smirked.

"Well... I'll think about it." Blaine said, a smile tugging at his lips.

.:~:.

Once school ended, Blaine took out his cell phone to call his mom and tell her he'd be late coming home. He told her about how his friend Mike invited him to join the school's competitive show choir group, and Blaine's mom was genuinely excited for Blaine. She went on about how this was one of the reasons the high school experience would be good for Blaine. She knew that Blaine loved to sing and perform, and for the first time, Blaine would have a medium to do so. Also, the potential of making more new friends was appealing to her. Blaine was glad he called. He needed this kind of encouragement. To know that making this decision was the right choice.

He met Mike and Tina outside of the choir room. They greeted him with the friendliest of smiles (something Blaine could definitely get used to) and walked him inside.

The choir room felt nice. Warm, welcoming. The students were mostly already seated in the plastic orange chairs in the back of the room. True to Mike's word, there was Kurt, sitting in the corner, engaged in a whispering conversation with... what's her name... Rachel Berry. He hadn't noticed Blaine yet, which put Blaine at ease momentarily.

Tina went and took her seat, next to a pretty blonde girl in the front row, while Mike led Blaine to the front of the room, where a tall man with curly brown hair, supposedly the glee club instructor. He smiled at Blaine, and looked back at Mike, raising his eyebrow in question. Mike answered, introducing the two.

"Mr. Schue, this is Blaine. Blaine, this is Mr. Schue. Blaine is new here, and he's looking to audition."

Mr. Schue grinned, shaking Blaine's hand enthusiastically. Blaine's eyes darted over to Kurt, who was now looking his way, with a blank expression. This made Blaine nervous suddenly, and second thoughts rushed to his mind.

"That's great! We could use an extra voice in the mix for sectionals! Can you sing?"

"I'm alright." Blaine shrugged.

"Well, great! What are you going to sing for us today?" Mr. Schue asked, and Blaine shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Well... I mean... I was thinking maybe "I'd Rather Be With You" by Joshua Radin? I know how to play it on the guitar... if you had one I could borrow, of course." Blaine stuttered nervously. He was relieved when one of the band members handed a nice acoustic guitar and a black stool. Blaine muttered a thanks as he settled down into the chair, adjusting the guitar on his lap and strumming carefully, not in any particular tune yet. Just to get a feel of the instrument and make sure it was in tune, which he was pleased to discover it was.

Mr. Schue retreated to a corner of the room, and Mike took his seat next to Tina. Blaine gave a nervous gulp as he started the gentle plucking of the beginning of the song. He started singing softly, sort of unsure.

"Sitting here, on this lonely dock
Watch the rain play on the ocean top
All the things I feel I need to say
I can't explain in any other way."

He looked over at Kurt. Kurt's expression was unchanged, for the most part. He looked blank, like he was trying to tune Blaine out. And well, Blaine didn't want that. He sped up his strumming and started singing louder, with more confidence.

"I need to be bold
Need to jump in the cold water
Need to grow older with a boy like you
Finally see you are naturally
The one to make it so easy
When you show me the truth
Yeah, I'd rather be with you
Say you want the same thing, too."

Kurt's lips were now slightly parted, his mouth hanging open in... was it surprise? Maybe. Hopefully. Blaine kept singing and strumming his guitar, smiling now, looking directly at Kurt.

"I could have saved so much time for us
Had I seen the way to get to where I am today
You waited on me for so long
So now, listen to me say..."

Blaine calmed down slightly for the last bit of the song, putting all of his concentration into the plucking of the guitar strings, and his voice, gentle and convincing.

"I need to be bold
Need to jump in the cold water
Need to grow older with a boy like you
Finally see you are naturally
The one to make it so easy
When you show me the truth
Yeah, I'd rather be with you
Say you want the same thing, too
Say you feel the way I do."

Blaine finished with a heavy breath, grinning ear to ear as the glee club clapped appreciatively. Mike and Tina looked pleasantly surprised, clapping the loudest and each giving Blaine two over-enthusiastic thumbs up. Kurt was smiling lightly, clapping his hands slowly along with the group.

"Well... Welcome to the New Directions, Blaine!" Mr. Schue laughed, and the group continued with their applause.

Blaine sat down in the orange chair next to Mike, and he suddenly felt a change in his luck.