Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by the bell signifying class was over. Kurt packed up his books and his whopping 59% Calculus exam and began walking to his locker to prepare for his next class. He was thankful today was the pep rally to keep the thought of his failure off of his mind, because if there was one thing he didn’t fail at it was performing.

Kurt put his things in his locker, closed it, and started walking away when he heard, “Hummel, stop – we need to talk to you,” come from a familiar raspy voice.

Kurt spun around to see Santana, Quinn, and Brittany approaching him quickly – Quinn looking worried, Santana looking pissed, and Brittany looking her normal cheery self. Kurt stopped dead in his tracks, worried about what they needed to talk to him about – did he not do well in practice? Was there a change to the routine for this afternoon? Did they know about his test?

“Coach Sue is looking for you and is even more livid than normal,” Quinn said to Kurt, her face looking even more worried as she spoke. Quinn always worried about her Cheerios – as the Captain, she needed to care about the success of the squad, but she also had some definite motherly instincts she had picked up after her unexpected pregnancy the year before.

“She said something about you failing a class and ruining her life,” Santana said, clearly mad she needed to even be having this conversation with Kurt about something as silly as failing a course.

“Oh gosh. Um…well….I…,” Kurt stammered, trying to think of what to say as his face became a bright red color. The grade hadn’t even completely sunk in, and he was already in trouble? This was shaping up to be one bad Friday.

Kurt quickly mumbled some goodbyes to the trio, he briskly walked to Coach Sue’s office on the other side of the school. He was going to be late to French – but that didn’t really matter since it was the class he was getting perfect scores in without even trying.

When Kurt knocked on his Coach’s door, he could see through the window someone else sitting in her other chair. The Coach beckoned him in, wearing her ever-present track suit and shaking a protein shake while telling the other student about her recent run in with the Glee club.

Coach Sue finally looked up at Kurt and motioned for him to sit down. She seemed calm, which was a good sign considering what Quinn had said about her being angry at him.

“So I hear you failed your last Calculus test,” she immediately started off with, as Kurt turned a shade of violent red wondering why the other student was sitting in the room when she was telling him this. Who was he anyway? Kurt had never seen him before… “…now you know I can’t be having people in MY CHEERIOS failing something as simply as CALCULUS,” Sue continued, becoming visibly angry at Kurt. “You’re jeopardizing all we have worked for this year – without your musical performance added to our ensemble we will not be able to win Nationals again, which I need in order to show off to that darn Will Schuester. To make sure I can keep you on my squad, you have to ace your next test, and that is why Mr. Anderson is here,” Sue said, pointing to the boy sitting in the other chair.

It was then Kurt remembered who he was sitting next to – Blaine Anderson. Blaine was known to be one of the biggest nerds in school, frequently walking around in bowties and no socks, found studying all the time, never seen at parties, and, as far as Kurt knew, he had no friends to speak of. However, Kurt knew this was the best idea, since Blaine would be able to make the fuzziness that is Calculus make sense. Blaine looked over at Kurt and smiled with this dorky smile, and Kurt politely smiled back. Why had he never noticed how cute this nerd was?

“Blaine has agreed to tutor you as often as you need. You’re very fortunate to have someone around like him,” Sue said. Her statement struck Kurt as an odd statement considering she never gave compliments to anyone and had already complimented Kurt on his cheerleading and Blaine on his intelligence.

“Now please leave my office so I can sanitize where your sorry failure butt has been sitting for the past ten minutes,” Sue said, and Kurt instantly recognized the defense mechanism Sue used to ensure no one could see how much of a softie she truly was – her rude and callused behavior.

As Kurt and Blaine walked out of the Coach’s office together, Blaine said the first words Kurt had ever heard him say, “So, shall we start at lunch?”

Knowing Kurt really needed the help more than socializing with his friends, he nodded his head and replied, “Sure, I’ll find you when I get there. I’ll spend half of the time with you, and then we can do more after school but before the big football game, if that’s ok?”

Blaine seemed perplexed by Kurt’s statement, and replied, “What game?”

Shaking his head at this truly tragic boy, Kurt stated, “Duh, the big game which determines if we get to go to the state championships! It’s the main reason we are having a pep rally this afternoon!”

Blaine just blinked at Kurt, clearly not caring about sports or the pep rally at all, and turned a corner, simply saying “See ya at lunch.”

Kurt stopped in the middle of the hallway and stared at Blaine’s retreating figure, noticing how well Blaine was built, especially for a nerd. He knew this was going to be a fun time, getting to enjoy the ball of awkwardness and antisocialness that was Blaine Anderson for at least the next couple weeks, but also wondered how much grief he was going to get both for needing the tutoring but also talking to the person who was probably the lowest rung on the ladder of popularity at McKinley High.

Kurt turned and continued walking to his next class, preparing the reason for his tardiness in English and French for Mademoiselle Berg, still thinking about his social life as well as the performance for the pep rally.