Chapter 11

December 3, 2012

The feelings of disappointment and uneasiness followed Kurt through the rest of the weekend and it didn't go away the next morning when he woke up for school. He couldn't believe it had been only a little bit more than a week since he came to the States. He had already been through a great emotional rollercoaster and he had a feeling that it was far from over.

The first class of the day went just fine. He had a chance to quickly catch up with Mercedes, who had had a new haircut done during the weekend, and he got back his graded essay for which he had gotten a B minus. It was a good grade considering that he had almost no knowledge of the language.

After Spanish was over the girl needed to get something from her locker and Kurt offered to walk her there. They ended up almost running to their next class and made it just on time. The teenagers were still out of breath when they sat down in their seats. Rachel, who was already there, leaned towards them.

"I have something to tell you," she whispered. "I didn't want to tell this over the phone."

"Miss Berry, may I, please, start the class?" their teacher asked, annoyance obvious in her voice.

The girl blushed and sat up straight with a guilty smile. She didn't try to talk to them anymore and while Kurt was a bit curious, he didn't think it was something important and paid attention to the teacher. Mercedes, on the other hand, kept sending him notes asking what he thought Rachel's news could be about. The answer to her question came as soon as the bell rang and the class was over.

"Spill," was the first word that left Mercedes' mouth when they were finally allowed to talk.

"Wait until we are out of the classroom," Rachel said, looking pointedly at the teacher, who was still sitting behind her desk.

The trio made their way to the corridor where there were no teachers around as far as they could see.

"So?" Mercedes asked impatiently.

They began to walk down the corridor and Rachel finally began to tell her news. "Okay, so, on Saturday I was going to the theatre with my dads and we saw smelly-ass. Guess what? It is a thief!"

"What do you mean?" Mercedes asked with a frown while Kurt felt himself getting paler by each passing second.

"It was wearing a jacket from the new Marc Jacobs collection! I don't follow fashion but my papa recognised it," Rachel continued with her story. "I knew that thing was a thief but now we have a proof."

Kurt cleared his throat. "Don't you think someone may have... given it to him?"

"Oh, please, you look like someone who knows brands, you should know how much that jacket is worth," Rachel rolled her eyes. "Anyway, my dads took the jacket away and as a decent citizen I took it to a charity shop."

Mercedes shook her head in disbelief. "It's quite stupid, did it think nobody would notice?"

"I bet it didn't know how much the jacket was really worth," Rachel shrugged. "By the way, don't worry about the safety of your belongings. I told Finn about it and he and his fellow jock friends taught smelly-ass the lesson that it is not supposed to take what belongs to others."

A heavy feeling settled in Kurt's stomach at the girl's words. 'Teaching the lesson' could only mean one thing and it wasn't anything good.

"Kurt, are you feeling alright?" Mercedes asked with concern and Kurt shook his head.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," he said and ran into the boys' bathroom which they were conveniently passing by.

The teenager locked himself in one of the stalls and sat down on the lid. He put his head in his hands and tried to calm down. It was all his fault. He thought he was doing a good deed but in the end Blaine got beaten up because of him. That must have been the reason he hadn't showed up in the park – he hated Kurt...

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Kurt yelled at himself and in response heard someone snickering from the stall next to his. Apparently, he wasn't alone.

The teen grabbed his bag and left the stall, ready to leave the bathroom before the other guy could make fun of him. Unluckily, the said guy left at the same time and blocked the exit.

"Must be pretty stupid to talk to yourself," he said and Kurt took in his appearance.

The boy was wearing a black worn out leather jacket with a white t-shirt and dark blue jeans. It was typical attire for someone pretending to be badass and from the first look Kurt knew that this person was bad news.

"You queer, gorgeous?" the boy asked with a smirk, moving to the side when Kurt tried to round him.

"Excuse me?"

"Queer? Homo?" the boy 'explained.'

"If you mean 'gay', yes, I am," Kurt answered reluctantly and tried to leave again. "Let me go."

The boy's grin just widened. "I'm just trying to find out what got you so upset. It doesn't suit you."

Kurt glared at him in disbelief. "That's none of your business."

The guy snorted and stepped closer to Kurt, successfully making him feel intimidated. "That's not a good way to make new friends, princess. No surprise you are hanging out with those stuck up bitches."

For some reason Kurt felt braver and even though he knew that the guy could easily break his bones, he felt the need to defend the girls. "Don't talk about them like that, they are my friends and they are better people than you."

The guy laughed and his eyes shone with amusement. "Sure they are. I'll see you around, pretty face."

With that the guy left and Kurt almost forgot why he had gone to the bathroom in the first place.

The time in school went excruciatingly slowly. Kurt was like on the needles all the time, checking the time, counting how much longer until he could get out and go looking for Blaine. He needed some big apologies to make. It didn't help that every time he saw Rachel in the hallway or the cafeteria, he felt like throwing up.

When the last bell of the day rang Kurt literally ran out of the class, not wishing to waste any more precious time.

If I was a homeless slave, where would I go?

Don't be stupid, you don't even know this town well enough...

However, he did know a few places. First, since the Lima Bean was close to school, Kurt drove there and walked into the alley just to find it empty, with no sign of Blaine. He slowly drove by the store from which he had seen the slave walking the day before and looked at every half-hidden place on the street. In the end he went to the park and found it empty. Only when he saw the birds with snowflakes falling on their feathers did he remember the promise he made to the other boy.

Disappointed with his failure Kurt went back to the car and found a veterinary office on his navigation system. He selected it and let the robot woman's voice guide him to the place.

When the teenager entered a brightly lit room he saw a woman with a dog sitting on one of the chairs and a man talking to the receptionist. He stood behind the man to wait for his turn to speak with the lady behind the counter. Fortunately, it wasn't necessary since a woman in a white coat walked into the room and when she saw him waiting, went straight to him.

"Hi, may I help you?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah, hi, I'm not sure who I should contact so I figured that you would know," he said. "You see I was in the Faurot Park and I saw two swans that haven't migrated and since it's winter I thought someone should know about it."

"Oh wow," the woman looked shocked. "Thank you for telling me this. I will make sure to inform the authorities."

"It's my pleasure," Kurt smiled.

The woman looked at him funnily. "Have I seen you before? You look familiar..."

The boy shook his head. "I don't think so, I just moved here a week ago."

"And what's your name?"

"Kurt Hummel," the teen introduced himself and was surprised by the woman's reaction.

"I knew I recognised you! You are Burt and Elizabeth's son! My name is Carole Hudson, I went to school with your parents. The last time I saw you was in the funeral..."

"Yeah, my dad and I moved to France not long after that," Kurt shrugged.

The woman nodded in understanding. "I know, Burt told me about his plans. How do you like being back in Lima?"

Kurt just shrugged. "It's okay. I miss my friends but I have so much going on right now that sometimes I just don't notice it."

"When I was a kid my family moved as well. At first it's hard but then you make new friends and it gets better."

"Yeah, I'm currently in the process of making new friends," Kurt laughed.

The woman smiled at that. "So, how is Burt doing?"

Kurt opened his mouth to speak when a better idea hit him. "Um, how about you give me your phone number and I will have him call you some time this week?"

In the end Carole gave him his number and Kurt left happy that at least one positive thing happened that day.

"No way."

"Come on, dad..."

"I can't do it!"

"Yes you can, it's just a phone call..."

Kurt had been nagging his dad to call his old friend ever since Burt came back from work but it didn't seem to work. For some reason, the man was a tad bit reluctant.

"I know but it will be awkward..." Burt reasoned the millionth time that evening.

"I will help you," the boy offered. "You will speak to her and if you get stuck I will help you out, tell you what to say next."

"I don't know... I mean, it would be fun to catch up with her," the man uttered thoughtfully and Kurt knew he was close to winning. "What the heck, let's do it."

The man took out his cell and Kurt handed him the number. "Okay, be cool and try to sound natural," Kurt gave the last piece of advice as his dad hit the 'call' button.

After two rings the phone was answered.

"Uh, hi, is this Carole?.. Hi, it's Burt Hummel... Yeah, Kurt gave me your number... I'm alright, how are you?.. I'm glad to hear that... So, I was thinking maybe we could catch up some time?.."

"Ask her out for dinner," Kurt whispered.

"Um, food, you like it?.."

Kurt literally facepalmed himself at his dad's words. It was painful to listen.

"Then maybe we could eat together? Maybe on Friday?.. Seven sounds great... Breadstix? I'm sure I'll find it... Alright, see you then... Bye..."

Burt hung up and Kurt rolled his eyes at him. "Real smooth, dad."

"As if you could have done it better."

December 6, 2012

For the next few days Kurt was on the lookout for Blaine without success. He had gone to the park every day after school and spent at least half an hour there in a hope of the slave boy showing up. He was out of luck until Thursday. He was having a particularly bad day and almost didn't go to the park but something pulled him to that place and in the end he found himself walking through the 'forest.'

The moment he saw someone sitting on the ground by a bench, he thanked all deities which names he had heard of for making him go there. There, in the flesh, was the boy he had been chasing after for days.

"Hey, Blaine," Kurt said to get the boy's attention.

The slave turned around and once his eyes set on the countertenor, they filled with fear and he hastily got on his knees. "Sir! Please, I'm sorry! Please, I didn't mean to," he kept muttering and Kurt had no idea what it was about.

He slowly approached the boy. "Blaine? It's okay... Why are you apologising? You didn't do anything wrong," he tried to soothe the scared boy.

"I lost your jacket, sir," he snivelled. "You gave it to me and I lost it, I'm sorry! Please, don't hurt me..."

"Oh Blaine..." Kurt's eyes filled with tears. "I promise I won't hurt you... Here, no kneeling, okay?"

The teen manoeuvred the curly-haired boy onto the bench and sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry..."

"Hey, none of that... It was all my fault," Kurt bit his bottom lip. "I know what happened to you and I know why it happened. People thought you stole the jacket and I should have known they would think that way... Please, will you forgive me?"

The slave boy wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "There is nothing to forgive, sir. You were kind to me and I lost your gift..."

"My name is Kurt, remember?" the teen reminded Blaine. "You deserve a normal explanation... The jacket was new and made by a designer so it was quite expensive–"

"I'm so–"

"The price doesn't matter. But some people thought you had stolen it. I thought I was doing something good by giving it to you but I never realised that it may cause some trouble for you. So, I'm really very sorry for not thinking it through..."

Blaine gave him a small smile. "It's okay... Kurt."

"Why didn't you come to our picnic on Sunday? Did you think I would be angry?" Kurt asked even though he already suspected what the answer would be.

Blaine just nodded and started playing with the hem of his shirt. "I did," he said with a light blush. "And I was embarrassed as well... I could handle you being angry but I didn't want to see your disappointment."

Kurt tried not to let the pity show on his face since it was the last thing the slave needed to see. "I could never be disappointed in you. It's the rest of the world that makes me angry."

Blaine looked much calmer now. "You are so focused on the bad things that you forget that nice people exist too. You for once give me hope in humanity."

Kurt was about to say something when they heard footsteps and turned around to see who it was. The teen recognised the same boy, who had cornered him in the school's bathroom in the beginning of the week.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the cutest couple ever..."