When Blaine woke up the next morning he was disoriented. It took him several long moments of staring at the blank white walls surrounding him before he remembered where he was.

That's right.

He'd been forced to leave his parents, forced to move in with the Danvers family.

He hated it already.

Blaine swallowed hard, sitting up slowly. He lowered his legs over the side of the bed and sat there, unsure of what to do next. Should he shower? Get dressed? It was Saturday – was there something the Danvers family normally did that he should be doing too?

He hated the uncertainty. Blaine had no idea what he was doing. Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes and he took a deep breath. He would not cry again today.

"Blaine?" He heard Elaine's voice through the door. She opened the door and poked her head into the room. "Good, you're up." She smiled. "Michael is waiting in the living room for us – we wanted to talk to you, if that's okay."

Blaine shrugged, standing up. He followed her out to the living room idly smoothing back his hair, hoping it wasn't too bushy. His mother's curly locks bounced in front of him as they walked, almost like they were mocking him. Just more proof that he wasn't he who'd thought he was.

Elaine sat down on the sofa and patted the seat next to her. Blaine sat down stiffly and turned to look at Michael.

"We thought we'd just have a little family meeting, go over the rules of the house, our schedules..." Michael trailed off as Blaine nodded. "Elaine and I work during the week," he began, going through their routines, letting Blaine know the times they left and when they were usually home. They talked about the dinner menu and Julie's extracurricular activities.

"We also only have the one bathroom," Elaine added. "So there's a schedule for who gets the shower first, and we rotate." He nodded again. It would suck, but Blaine had figured something like that since he knew the house wasn't that big.

"Do you have any questions?" Michael asked. Blaine bit his lip.

"Is it okay if I go shower now?"

"Of course, sweetie," Elaine answered, reaching out a hand as if she was going to stroke at one of his wayward curls. Blaine didn't mean to flinch back from her touch but he did, and he could see the hurt cross Elaine's face and he felt bad – until he remembered that she'd forced him from the only home he'd ever really known.

"Just one more thing, Blaine," Michael said. "I'm going to need your cell phone and your laptop."

"What?" Blaine uttered. "Why?"

"You know the Andersons agreed to no contact for the first three months to give you time to get settled in," Michael replied.

"I know, but..." Blaine didn't understand why he had to give his phone and his laptop as a result of that.

"You won't have time to get adjusted if the temptation to contact them is there," Michael continued. "And your old friends know that they can't contact you, but that doesn't mean they won't."

"What about emergencies?" Blaine tried to think fast. "What I need a phone for that? Or my laptop for school stuff?"

"We got you a new disposable phone for right now," Elaine chimed in. "It's charging in the kitchen." She smiled at him but all he could do was stare at her in shock. "It's not much, just something prepaid in case you need it. And of course you can use your laptop for school, but Michael and I would prefer if you did it here at home, where we can supervise your internet use."

Blaine didn't know what to say to that. Three months of not talking to his parents would be torture – but three months of no contact with anyone from his old life? It would be absolute hell.

"We know it's hard, Blaine," Elaine murmured. "But all we're asking is that you give us a chance. After the first few months, you can have your things back. We feel like you won't give us a proper chance if you've still got one foot stuck in Westerville."

"I'd like to go to my room, please," Blaine muttered, standing up. He had no idea what else he could say to that.

"What about your shower?"

"No, thank you," he practically snapped. He walked away, heading back to his room – except it wasn't his, was it? He could feel the tears threatening again as he shut himself inside.

He didn't know how much more of this he could take.

*

He kept to his room that day, slowly unpacking all of his things. He put his pajamas and underwear in the dresser drawers – he could tell it was old and second hand, thanks to the worn and scratched paint. The rest of his clothes went in the closet – polos and dress shirts and cardigans. Pants in every color.

The highlight of his wardrobe was his bowtie collection. At home, he'd barely worn most of those clothes, practically living in his Dalton uniform. Now that he'd be going to public school he'd be wearing them a lot more.

He stared at the pile of bow ties and sighed. He had kind of a bowtie obsession – he wondered now if it had anything to do with the bowtie still residing at the Anderson house and Cooper buying it for him the day he was taken.

There was a rough knock at the door to his room and Blaine knew it had to be Julie.

"Come in," he called. As angry as he was at Elaine and Michael (and his parents – they could have fought harder or something), he was trying not to be angry at Julie. She was his sister and he'd never had a sibling before (Cooper didn't count, for so many reasons now).

"Mom says dinner's ready," Julie told him quietly.

"Thanks," Blaine replied. His stomach rumbled uncomfortably, letting him know he hadn't eaten all day. He would have to brave a family meal.

"It'll get easier," Julie told him after a second. "Mom and Dad are really are good parents."

"I'm sure they are," he agreed softly. "I just don't know them... or you."

"Well, you're not going to get to know us if you hide out in your room all day," Julie pointed out.

Blaine looked at her for a long moment. Julie was right about that; he only wished that getting to know the Danvers' didn't feel so much like betraying his parents.

*

Dinner was a quiet affair, filled with small talk between Elaine and Michael with Julie chiming in. Finally, Michael turned to Blaine.

"Are you excited about school on Monday?" he asked.

Blaine shrugged. He wasn't. Not at all. Aside from having to leave all of his friends at Dalton, it was discovered that Blaine wasn't actually as old as he thought he was – instead of being seventeen going on eighteen, he was actually sixteen going on seventeen. Which mean that he was actually a junior in high school; he was hoping that he could transfer enough credits to end up in the senior class and graduate "early," but he wasn't counting on it. Nothing else in this situation had gone his way.

"We've got lots of clubs and activities," Julie added. "You could join glee club with me – didn't you do that at Dalton?"

The tension in the room rose at the name of Blaine's former school. He'd thrown a near fit when his parents had told him that the Danvers didn't want him continuing on at Dalton. Even if they'd allowed it, they couldn't afford it and they were refusing to let the Andersons pay for it.

That meant Blaine was going back to public school, something he hadn't done since getting jumped by kids at school his freshman year. They'd beaten him up because he was gay, but he'd never been able to positively ID them so nothing had ever come of it. He wasn't sure about the environment at McKinley High, but he was too afraid to ask. He wasn't even sure that Elaine, Michael and Julie knew he was gay. He debated about bringing it up, and decided he'd work around the conversation.

"Maybe," he said, knowing the Warblers would want him to be happy and wouldn't begrudge him joining a new glee club. "What's the school like?"

Julie launched into a few stories, making McKinley out to be a typical public school. "But the glee club is on the way up. We went to Nationals last year and almost won!"

"What's the glee club name?" Blaine glanced at her with narrowed eyes. He wondered if the Warblers had competed against them before.

"New Directions," she answered. Blaine nearly choked on his bite of pot roast at her answer. It had almost sounded like she'd said... he shook his head.

"We went up against them last year," Blaine said softly.

"What?" Elaine stuttered out.

"Last year," Blaine cleared his throat. "We lost to them at Regionals."

Elaine suddenly wiped tears from her eyes. "Sometimes it just hits me how close you were and we just never knew."

"You should probably know," Blaine began, taking a deep breath, "that the reason I enrolled at Dalton was because I was being bullied at my public school."

"Oh, honey," Elaine murmured.

"My par-parents," he continued, trying not to feel awkward, "felt that moving me was best for my safety. Does McKinley have a zero tolerance bullying policy?"

Julie nodded. "They do, but it's not as strictly enforced, I don't think."

"We've talked to the school," Michel replied, his voice a little gruff. "They know you're coming and the whole story, of course. Principal Figgins assured us that he would help you have a smooth transition."

"Great," Blaine said softly. He'd be the target of stares and whispers and it would only be his first day.

"My friend Kurt was bullied last year," Julie told him. "He's gay, and that made him a target, but they eventually made it stop."

Blaine nearly choked on his food a second time. Well, at least he wouldn't be the only out kid at school.

"You know," Michael muttered. "If he'd just tone it down a little, or put an end to that phase, they'd have left him alone."

Blaine jerked his head up and stared at him in shock.

"What makes you say that?" Blaine spoke slowly, trying to wrap his mind around what he hoped wasn't true.

"He brought it upon himself," Michael said. "If he'd just date girls none of it would have happened."

"You don't choose to be gay," Blaine snapped, his voice full of conviction. "It's how you're born."

Michael shifted uncomfortably. "Blaine, I'm sure it seems-"

"No," Blaine cut him off. "It's not a choice."

"Why are you so insistent about this?" Elaine jumped in, obviously about to try and mediate the situation.

"Because," he said quietly, standing up and dropping his napkin onto his half full plate. "I'm gay."

With that he turned and left the room.