Ring! Ring! Ring!

The chestnut haired boy pressed the corded landline his ear awkwardly. He couldn't recall the last time that he had talked on a landline phone. This was the first time that he had call outside of his daily meeting with his psychotherapist calling various people on speakerphone.

"This is Blaine." A male voice on the other end of the line said.

"Hi, Blaine… This is Kurt."

"Hi, Kurt!"

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Besides for my Sunday afternoon date with coffee and Calc. homework?" The Dalton boy tried to joke.

Kurt laughed awkwardly. "Do you have a lot of homework?"

"No more than usual. Dalton enjoys torturing us with excessive problem sets."

"Are ready for your test?"

Blaine blew out. "I'll never be. All of this drilling just isn't helping, either- we can't all have photographic memories like Wes, can we?"

"Math prodigy?"

"Just a general overachiever." Blain laughed fondly.

"Aren't all Dalton Academy boys overachievers?"

"Some more than others." Blaine responded truthfully.

"Not all animals are made equal." The Kurt joked.

"Animal Farm." The raven- haired boy recognized the idea.

"I hated that book."

"Me too… Kurt?"

"Yes?"

"I really don't think that you give yourself enough credit. I've talked to you for something like an hour total talking time and I can tell that you are extraordinarily intelligent."

"You know they say genius and insanity go hand in hand." The moment that the words came out of the Kurt's mouth, he regretted them.

He didn't want Blaine to think about his mental stability. Blaine didn't know or understand the whole story- and Kurt didn't need Blaine judging him before he knew the whole story- did he want other boy to know the whole story?

"You're not insane."

"How do you know?"

"I've talked to you for an hour and I can tell that you're brilliant."

"Whose to say that I'm not insane as well?"

"Maybe you are."

"Maybe I'm not."

"Maybe," The raven-haired boy said back, "I haven't had the chance to get to know you well enough yet."

"Maybe you have."

"I'd like it if I could get to know you better."

"I would, too.

"Would it be okay if I visited you?"

"Yes. I would like that."

"Cool."

"Hey, I'm sorry, but my phone time is almost up for the day and I have to cut you off." The chestnut haired boy said, feeling strangely disappointed that there was a 20 minute time limit on all out- going calls by patients.

"Don't worry about it… Were you serious about me visiting you?"

"Yes."

"Great. I'll call Green Meadows this week then."

"I'll be waiting to confirm your visit."

"See you Saturday, Kurt!"

"You too, Blaine."

And with that, the chestnut haired boy and the raven-haired boy ended their phone call.

"Hey, Kurt," Nurse Marie approached the chestnut haired boy from behind, slowly. She didn't want to frighten him and she knew how he still got shocked when people came up behind him. The nurse knew that it had to do with the bullying that the boy had been victim to back at his high school.

The boy flinched, but only a little bit. He turned around. "Hi, Nurse Marie."

"Who were you talking to?" she asked, not demanding an answer. The chestnut- haired boy always liked that about her. She challenged him, but didn't need to know everything.

"My friend Blaine." The boy responded, a small expression that could have been mistaken for a smile on his lips.

Marie gave the teenage boy a knowing expression. "Dr. Jackie said to remind you that you have an appointment in five minutes."

The boy composed a witty response, but he refrained from saying it aloud. He didn't want to give the nurse a hassle, when he knew that she wasn't responsible for it.

"Thanks for reminding me." Kurt stood up and walked towards the doctor's offices areas. When he arrived at the third door on the right he paused and knocked softly on the door, so that he wouldn't feel the burn his wrists. Even though he had come to like the pain, all the dressing changes that the doctors would force him into if another stitch popped would be a hassle.

"Come in!" A female voice called as the boy heard the shuffle of papers from behind a closed door.

The boy walked though the door. A thirty- something woman sat on a chair behind a table and look at papers. She peered over a pair of stylish glasses and looked up at the boy who had just entered her office. "Hi, Kurt."

"Hi, Dr. Jackie."

"How are you today… and is that a slight smile on your face that I see?" the woman teased.

"What do you think?"

"Why are you smiling, Kurt?" The doctor instructed, looking the teenager in the eye

"A acapella group from the Dalton Academy came and performed for us. I talked with a member named Blaine. It was nice talking to a guy my own age, who's normal."

The psychologist chuckled dryly. "I forget that you're a teenager, you act so grown up."

"I had to act grown- up. It was what distinguished me from the Neanderthals back at McKinley."

"Speaking of McKinley…" The doctor trailed off as she waited for a groan. Any person who didn't want to talk about what they were about to talk about would groan, except foe the boy.

"I know…" The doctor paused. "I'm sorry, but we have to talk about this since your dad is coming tomorrow. It's best to discuss this now than be surprised later. Surprises won't do any good."

"I know." The boy admitted. He hated when the doctors looked down on him like he was a small child. They knew he was a mature teenager, when you're a doctor in a psychiatric hospital for so long, it's not to. Still, it was no excuse.

"Have you thought about where you might want to go once you leave?"

"Not back to McKinley," The boy said without a moment's though. He had months to think about it, his answer had not changed.

"Not anywhere in Ohio, either."

"What about other places?" The doctor asked.

"We've been through this, Dr. Jackie. Burt has his business, his wife, and his step- kid in Lima, I can't make them move for me."

"What about another school- it would be a drive- but you might be safe."

"I don't want to start at another school that might be safe. I don't care what administrators say- no place is as safe as they claim."

"What your grandparents? Aunts? Uncles?" The doctor suggested.

"I can't take that much from them. I'm already taking so much from Burt. I know the financial burden my hospital bills are putting on him. Besides, if I live with them, then they'll know about me and who's to say that they'll be accepting?" The boy paused, "Remind me why I can't take online classes?"

"We've been through this, Kurt."

"I know- I need to function in the 'real world'- connect myself to people for the future."

"Speaking of strings- let's talk about them. You've mentioned your friend Mercedes. Let's talk about why you and her drifted."

"She was one of my closest friends- at times my only friend- but I didn't want her to get attached. I didn't want the bullies to hurt her by association with me- I'm not worth that much. And when I finally made the decision to leave this place, I didn't want her hurting."

"Don't you think that you hurt her when you severed her friendship? Don't you think that you hurt her when you tried to kill yourself?"

"Thanks for the self- esteem boost, Doc," Kurt's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Yes, but I think that I would have hurt her more if she was attached. She'd have even more regrets that way."

"What about your acquaintance, Rachel? You've mentioned her before. Did you detach from her, as well?"

"I wasn't as attached to her, like I was to Mercedes. We sang together and sometimes worked on things together, but it wasn't like it was with Mercedes."

The doctor nodded. "How do you think that Rachel took it?"

"Rachel is tough. She' bullied at school for many reasons, but she knows who she is. It would have been hard on her, but she would have coped."

The doctor nodded again. "You've made a lot of progress. You really do have an good understanding of what repercussions your actions have or might have had on others."

Kurt looked around. Complements were awkward for him. He hadn't received many since his mom died- she always complemented him and thanked him for helping her.

Things were different at McKinley.

Correction: Things were fucked up at McKinley.

It was survival of the fittest. Bullies would be bullies. Tadpoles might morph into frogs, but at the end of the day the bullies would still be kids who snatched frogs from the pond and stabbed them to death with a stick.

Authority witnessed violence every day and never did anything about it.

Teachers claimed that death threats would get bullies suspended or expelled, but they were not taken seriously. How could slushy facials, dumpster tossing, and smashing into lockers be taken seriously if death threats weren't? Surely, faculty had seen the attacks. They were cowards.

Kurt thought Mercedes and Rachel were brave- they took on Goliath with no one at their sides.

Kurt didn't cope like the girls did. He did for a while- but the attacks ultimately broke him.

The detail- oriented boy hated- not knowing what made him snap. Some day he would write a memoir, analyze the data, and make up his mind, but until then, he would live without answers to his questions.