He slowly wrote it down, careful not to miswrite a single letter, number, or sign. If he did, the large amount of work he would have to put into this would quickly be wasted.

Blaine frowned at the math problem, biting his lip. He chanced a quick glance at Artie to see that he was thinking the same thing. It would take a lot of work to solve this problem before the last school bell, not to mention before everyone else.

Mr. Cepress looked up at them from his desk fondly and said, “Oh come on boys! You told me you were up for a challenge today!”

“I don’t think the hour of work and five pages of paper that it is going to take to solve this problem is worth only two extra credit points Mr. C.” Artie said skeptically, slowly inching away from the whiteboard as though it had a particularly nasty disease.

Blaine raised his eyebrows, “I thought you said to always take extra credit opportunities.”

Artie shrugged, “I’m feeling a bit lazy today.” He yawned and stretched out his arms as though to prove his point.

Mr. Cepress laughed and said, “You asked for it and now you aren’t even going to try?”

Artie shook his head, wheeling himself away from the board and behind the sole desk without a chair. “I won’t, but we all know Blaine will.”

“Hey!” Blaine protested. “You can’t know that...”

“Blaine,” Artie began looking amused, “you are the biggest nerd I have ever met and like… the perfect student. Besides you already started on the problem.”

Blaine just smiled and stuck out his tongue at Artie, regardless out how immature it make him look. Then continued working. 

About a minute or so later Mr. Cepress got up from behind his desk and said, “There will be a new student arriving here today and I have to go see about the extra desk I was promised. I trust I can leave you two alone for awhile?”

“A new student?” Blaine asked curiously. “But we are already three weeks into the school year! Why didn’t he come before now?”

“That’s not information for me to disclose Blaine.” Mr. Cepress said gently but Blaine could see a wariness creep into his usually confident eyes. 

Blaine muttered an apology and promised they would be good, then frowned again as Mr. Cepress left the room, wondering what about the new student would make his favorite teacher nervous. He had never had problems in his classes before; Blaine had heard even Puck simmered down in math class.

Mr. Cepress was the kind of man you wanted on your good side. He looked like he should be in a retirement home with his white hair, wrinkles, and huge coats that sometimes looked suspiciously like bathrobes. But beneath his elderly exterior he was full of life and everyone could easily see how he still managed to teach in an all boys boarding school. 

He was incredibly kind to the students that behaved and just as strict to the students who misbehaved. He did have quite the temper and sometimes gives out rash punishments, but he was still one of the most well liked teachers in McKinley.

Blaine checked his watch, fifteen minutes until first period officially started, he plenty of time to get a good head start on the rest of the class.

After a few minutes of nothing but the noise of his pencil and Artie’s soft humming of a song Blaine didn’t recognize, Blaine heard a soft clinking sound. He looked in the direction of the noise and heard a loud click coming from the window.

He was about to pass it off as coming from outside when the window suddenly flew open and a large black bag was tossed into the room, followed quickly by its owner.

Blaine’s breath hitched in his throat. The boy who was now quickly scanning the room set off his warning bells. Trouble. 

He was wearing a plain white shirt, a brown leather jacket, skinny jeans, and some kind of boots that matched the leather of his jacket. His clothes looked old and worn but they were extremely tight fitting and left nothing to imagination. He had pale flawless skin, perfectly styled spiked brown hair, and blue eyes.

The boy quickly slammed the window shut behind him and locked it again with a small pocketknife saying, “I can’t believe they actually expected to search me.”

The boy quickly flipped the pocketknife closed and put it in his pocket, turning to glare at Blaine and Artie.

Kurt was already having one of the worst days of his life. He thought he had finally done his time in juvie only to find out his father had only got him out early by arranging that he be sent to boarding school, and not just any boarding school. McKinley. 

McKinley Academy was known all over the country for it rigorous academics and discipline, even without a uniform policy. You needed to be really smart, rich, or (apparently) troubled to go there and the last thing Kurt needed was to go from one hellhole to the next. 

He had just felt as though he was beginning to make friends in the juvenile detention center he was sent to and now he had to face all the judgmental and suspicious looks of a bunch of prep school boys. Great.

Its not that he wasn’t grateful to be out, he was, he just wished he didn’t have to go here. 

Kurt was sure that the whole school would know that he was a delinquent by the end of the day and he was going to do his best to play the part. It wasn’t going to be that hard; he already knew how to act unprincipled from his time in juvie. And now, after insisting that his dad stopped by a thrift store on the way there, he had the necessary clothes too.

Even if they weren’t his style.

Even if he missed his designer clothes and his scarves like a child misses their favorite candy.

Even if he would have avoided the clothes he was wearing now like the plague two years ago.

After hugging his dad goodbye and promising he could find his own around, he had quickly ditched his bag in the bushes and ran over to a large convenience store across the street. He had been extremely surprised with the cashier hadn’t asked for ID or something. Because he was almost sure that buying a pocketknife, cigarettes, and matches were all illegal at 16. 

It was kind of funny now that he thought about it. To be locked up for over a year for something he didn’t do only to break the law now. He had quickly emptied half the cigarettes into a trashcan to look like he had smoked some, because he never planned to. Then stowed the pack, matches, and pocketknife in his pockets.

He had been about ready to enter the school before he saw the sign. All students will be searched before entering the building.

He had smiled at the sign. He had a feeling it had been put up just for him and if he was going to be searched, he might as well make a scene about it. Now here he was in what looked like the math classroom, glaring hopefully threateningly at the two students in the room. 

One of them was in a sweater vest and a wheelchair and the other was wearing jeans, loafers, a red cardigan, and a bowtie. Neither looked even close the hub of school gossip but they would have to do.

But he had to admit… the second one was cute.

“I was never here.” He muttered darkly.

“Okay.” The cute one wearing the cardigan answered while fearfully eyeing where Kurt had just stowed his pocketknife. 

Kurt held the boy’s gaze for a second before quickly grabbing his bag and leaving the two startled boys behind to find out where his dorm was and what his schedule might be. 

He could hear a relieved exhale of breath behind him as he left the room and he smiled. This was going to be fun.

Kurt twisted open the lock to his room and quickly stepped inside. After making a big ruckus when the principal had found him wondering the hallways alone when he hadn’t even been aware Kurt was in the school yet, Kurt had finally got his dorm assignment and class schedule.

Kurt grinned, wondering if the staff were stilling scratching their heads over how he gotten into the school without them noticing. They had been so adamant about checking his bag that they had forgot to check his pockets like he had hoped.

He glanced around the small dorm, surprised to see that he would be sharing when it had just been made clear that he wasn’t trusted. The thought sent a cold pang through him because his criminal record would make sure he was never fully trusted again.

 The other side of the room was neat and orderly except for the posters randomly covering the walls. They ranged from Harry Potter to Katy Perry to Les Misérables and other Broadway plays. Kurt tilted his head thoughtfully as he studied them. He and this boy just might get along.

Kurt smiled as he skimmed the boy’s CDs and movie collection; he knew they wouldn’t be fighting over TV or music at least. The majority of his movies were classics and his musical taste was fantastic. 

Kurt quickly threw his bag onto the unused bed and checked his first hour class. 

8-9 am: AP Calculus, Room 23, Edwin Cepress. 

Kurt raised his eyebrows in surprise when he realized it was the room he had broken into not fifteen minutes ago. Then he glanced at the clock on the wall to see it was almost eight and smiled.

Perfect timing to be late. 

Shutting the door behind him, Blaine looked nervously up at his principal and hoped he wasn’t about to be yelled at.

Mr. Recklin, the school principal, had appeared in the doorway a few minutes after the strange boy left asking to talk to Blaine.

Mr. Recklin chuckled dryly and said, “Relax Mr. Anderson you are not in trouble. You haven’t done anything wrong have you?”

“No sir.” Blaine said shyly.

The principal smiled at him, though it didn’t reach his eyes, and said, “I thought not. I was just wondering if you would be alright with acquiring a roommate.”

Blaine had been at McKinley since his parents had dumped him here for his freshman year two years ago so he knew that was code for: You-have-a-knew-roommate-so-suck-it-up-and-don’t-you-dare-complain-about-it-because-I-will-just-get-angry-and-it-won’t-do-any-good.

“Yes sir,” Blaine said quickly, ignoring the nervousness he felt about sharing his room. He hadn’t ever had a roommate before.

“Good, good.” Mr. Recklin said. “He will be arriving today.”

Blaine gasped, “T-t-today?” The boy that broke in… He had arrived today.

“Will that be a problem Mr. Anderson?”

“No.” Blaine said meekly as his mind screamed YES! No way in hell I am rooming with him!

“Very well. Thank you Mr. Anderson.” Mr. Recklin said with another fake smile before walking away through the steady crowd of students that were now filling the hallways. Blaine’s classmates parted for the principal like the red sea, each doing their best not to come under Mr. Recklin’s attention.

Blaine walked back into Mr. Cepress’ room in a daze and took his seat to the right of Artie in the front row. “What’s wrong?” Artie asked, looking at his blank expression with concern.

“He is my roommate.” Blaine muttered.

“What?” 

“He is my roommate.” Blaine repeated louder.

“Who is your roommate?” Artier asked. “I thought you didn’t have one.”

“I do now,” Blaine said putting his face into his hands. “He is arriving today.”

Artie patted his back and said, “I am sure he won’t be that bad.”

“Artie I think we have already met him.” Blaine said miserably.

“Wh- Oh.” Artie said his comforting smile fading. “Well maybe he isn’t as bad as he looks.”

The five-minute warning bell rang and other students began taking their seats, talking animatedly about the usual random going-ons of boarding school. Mr. Cepress entered the classroom with a new desk just before the bell rang and placed it to Artie’s left.

Blaine started as he realized that his new roommate would be joining him in his first class of the day and almost missed Mr. Cepress calling out his name for attendance.

He said a strangled little, “here,” getting a sympathetic look from Artie and strange glances from a few classmates as he did so. Blaine shook himself and dived into the extra credit problem as a distraction.

As Mr. Cepress began to teach the lesson Blaine flipped to a fresh notebook page and began taking notes. He was just wondering why the new boy wasn’t in class when the door crashed open. 

There was suddenly a tangled mass of limbs on the floor of the room and Blaine could see the new boy struggling out of the grip of Sam Evans.

“I told you tell let you of my arm!” The boy snarled as soon as he was on his feet. “I don’t care that I am late and I could have found the room myself since it was like ten fucking feet away!”

“What the hell man!” Sam shouted at him, “I was just trying to help!”

“You boys will watch your language or you will both be given detention!” Mr. Cepress warned them sternly.

“Like I give a shit about detention.” The new boy muttered under his breath.

“Excuse me?” Mr. Cepress asked angrily.

“Oh nothing, nothing at all.” The boy replied sarcastically.

“I thought so. Now sit down and watch your mouth if you know what’s good for you. Get to class Sam.” Sam stormed back out of the room and Kurt slammed himself down into the empty seat, still seething.

Mr. Cepress scowled at him for a second before saying, “There is obviously a new addition to our class today. I would like you all to meet Mr. Kurt Hummel, who will be joining us for the rest of the year.”

Kurt started looking menacingly around the room and Blaine sighed, earing himself an angry glance. It was going to be a very long rest of the year.