Winter break had finally come to an end, and Kurt found himself sitting beside the rest of the glee club in the auditorium again. It had only been two days after they returned from the break, and the administration made a spontaneous announcement earlier that everyone would be brought to the auditorium for a quick closure of the contest; it should only last fifteen minutes, the principal said, but Kurt still heard his teacher groan in anguish at the thought of losing fifteen minutes of teaching time. He slowly began to feel the nerves creeping back;what is Blaine going to say? What if I did win? Is he going to read what I wrote?!He tapped his fingers against his thigh to the beat his heart was tattooing in his chest, trying to appear calm otherwise.

"Chill out, Kurt!"Crap.Tina turned to face him, a large smile on her face."You've got this in the bag. I'm sure he's going to acknowledge you in some way—i.e, you're going to win." Tina placed a comforting hand on his arm. "Don't worry about it; everything is going to work out."

"Oh, I don't know," Kurt replied lackadaisically, trying to brush it off. "I don't know if he'll like what I wrote. It's a little-"

"Settle down, please!" Principal Figgins took his place on the stage, his mouth pressed to the microphone. Kurt immediately stopped talking, but the rest of the room was abuzz with chatter and laughter. He repeated the phrase a multitude of times before the talking was just a sporadic whisper. "Thank you. As I said earlier, this shouldn't take too long. I'll let our friend Mr. Anderson come out now." While Kurt silently laughed at the irony of the statement, Figgins stood in front of the microphone for a second, staring up at the crowded room, and then shuffled off of the stage. After a few seconds, Blaine walked out from the right wing, a few papers in his hands. He was wearing his Dalton uniform, something Kurt had never seen before. Kurt leaned forward slightly, his knee bobbing up and down. It's like he couldn't stop moving—I need to go out and run or something, he thought,this is too much.

Blaine strutted up to the center of the stage with that affable charm still evident in his gait, grabbing the microphone from the stand as he walked past it. He looked down at the papers before he looked up at the load of students surrounding him. Kurt wondered how he could ever have the pluck to talk in front of over a thousand people, but then he remembered that he'd be performing with glee club in front of a crowd about the same size soon, and with that his mind fell silent.

"Hello, William McKinley High School. It's nice to be back, I can tell you that. I'm sure that it's a relief to be out of class for a while after such a long break, right? I'm not quite in the school mood, either," he laughed nervously, and some people joined in sympathetically. "Okay, while I'm sure that your teachers don't appreciate that comment, I'm sure that they feel the same way." Some more laughs. "All right, all right, I'll stop." He grinned, and Kurt found his lips curling up into a dumb smile.Why do you do this to me?

"So, first order of business: I was blown away by the response to this. I read through every single one of your papers—I couldn't carry them with me because there were simply too many for me to bring; these are the winners (winners, plural?! Kurt noted)" He held up the papers in his hand, "—and wow! Some of you, of course, took the easy way out, although I was very impressed with one person's deep analysis ofGoodnight Moon, that was rather enlightening, Noah Puckerman," Kurt turned to throw him a strange look, but he was too busy hi-fiving his friends. "but there were a lot that were fantastic. I can't say that I wasn't surprised with this enthusiasm. Either my speech really moved some of you; you all just wanted the incentive. Perhaps your English teachers bribed you. I suspect the latter, but I succeeded in my endeavor in getting you to at least read something substantial outside of school...I think. I know this is banal and childish, but go ahead and pat yourselves on the back. No? Fine." He chuckled, seeing that only a few people performed the action; Kurt reached over and did it, still unbelieving of how those little things Blaine did affected him so.

"Second order of business: the winner. As I said before, I read through all of these. Every. Single. One. My entire break consisted of this, thanks to all of you. Anyway, while all of them were great, there were a handful that were absolutely amazing, and really touched me. So, without any further ado...can I get a drumroll, please?" Of course, everyone obliged at that command: Kurt could feel his chair vibrating from the movement. They couldn't possibly amount to the sound of his blood rushing in his ears, or the rapid pace of his heart. "Okay, good good good!" Blaine practically shouted, trying to calm everyone down. "The winner is...Brittany S. Pierce!"

Kurt's jaw fell, leaving his mouth gaping as he stared at Blaine's smiling face. He could hardly suppress himself from shouting out. He never expected...of all people...Brittany?!He turned to watch the girl get up from her seat, skipping down the aisle and up the stage to meet Blaine there.

"Brittany, of all of the responses I read, I found yours the most...intriguing. You can explain to everyone what you wrote about." Blaine quickly moved away from the stand, ducking his head as he allowed Brittany take center stage.

"So, I wrote about a book that's very dear to me. I just readCharlotte's Weba while ago, because I saw that it was about spiders and I had just seen the remake of the Spiderman movie so I was in the mood for spider-y stuff, and then this thing came up and Lord Tubbington suggested that I write about this..." Kurt was not paying any attention to Brittany. He observed Blaine, who was flippantly fingering through the papers he was holding, and occasionally wiped his hands on his thighs. He seemed very anxious. Kurt frowned, wondering what that was about.

"...then I decided that Charlotte was just a representation of this small thing we call life, and to quote Robert Frost, 'So dawn goes down to day/Nothing gold can stay.'" Brittany ended, turning to Blaine brightly. "I'm done. Can you take me to Mars now?" Kurt sniggered as Blaine snapped his head up at the question, a bewildered look on his face.

"Uh, we can talk about that later. Thank you so much, Brittany, you can stand right here," he grabbed her arm, preventing her from walking away, as it seemed that she got distracted by something backstage. "Before I wrap this up, however," he let out a long sigh, "there's one more thing I need to address.

"Kurt Hummel, can you please come up here?"

Kurt felt every muscle within his body freeze. He stared up at Blaine, who appeared to be searching for him, with wild eyes, his mind going through a thousand scenarios of what might happen if he even approached the stage.

He felt something nudge him, causing the numbing sensation that had temporarily entombed his body to dissipate. "You heard him, get up there!" Tina urged. Kurt's legs finally remembered how to work, and they lifted him from his seat at those words. He began to mechanically walk towards the aisle, feeling detached from the entire scenario. It almost seemed as if the room was completely empty aside from him and Blaine. The only sound he could hear was his feet landing against the floor, bringing him even nearer to the boy waiting for him.

Soon enough, Kurt climbed the stairs, slowing down as he got even closer to Blaine. Once he was a couple of feet away from him, he looked up. Blaine was staring at him with the strangest expression, like his hazel eyes had turned to liquid gold from the zeal they emulated. Kurt felt his breath catch in his throat. No one ever looked at him that way...

"Kurt," Blaine whispered, and held his arms out. Just the way he said his name—Kurt fell into Blaine's embrace, digging his head into the boy's neck as their bodies fit together like puzzle pieces. It felt so natural.

After a few seconds, they broke apart: Kurt glanced back at Blaine, who was still staring at Kurt with that same countenance. He took the microphone standing nearby in his hand and brought it to his mouth. "Kurt, you didn't win simply because your entry deserves more than just one outing with me. I was wondering if you would like to do something with me tonight?" He gave Kurt a sheepish grin.

"Of course," Kurt answered without hesitation, the feeling of Blaine's body against him still lingering.I just got asked out on a stage in front of the whole school. I just got asked out on a stage in front of the whole school. I just got asked out on a stage in front of the whole school.

I am going out with Blaine Anderson tonight.

"Thank you, KH," Blaine whispered in his ear as he drew Kurt in for another hug.

Principal Figgins's voice dismissing the rest of the school seemed to be a thousand miles away as Kurt and Blaine continued to hold onto each other, still trying to become acquainted with the fact that they were actually speaking with each other in the flesh.