“Relax, it’s not even going to happen.” Mercedes told him somewhat absently, too preoccupied with something on her phone.

Kurt shook his head adamantly as he reached for another piece of pizza.

“You didn’t see the look on his face. He was serious about it. And it’s ridiculous, I mean, he’s now got me doing chores and homework all the time when I’m at home, and if I’m home so much as thirty seconds later than I said I would be he reminds me of this stupid boarding school thing. And it’s like… I have scripts to look over you know? I’m seventeen and have to start transition from teen star to serious adult actor now, I do not want to end up washed up at twenty. I can’t be expected to work, finish all my homework, do all the damn housework even though we would easily afford a housekeeper, find the next perfect script for me and have a social life. It’s impossible.”

“It’ll be ok. Just a couple of weeks of good behaviour and he’ll forget all about it.”

“I bet it was Carole’s idea. You know, she always seemed so awesome, and loving, I sorted out her haircut and wardrobe and thought we kind of bonded as stepson and mother over that. But what if she’s secretly an evil stepmother and planting ideas about boarding school in Dad’s head? She’d never send Finn there in a million years. But me, she can’t wait to get rid of.”

At this Mercedes burst out laughing, nearly knocking her drink over in the process. She put her phone down and looked sternly at Kurt.

“Ok, Kurt, now you’re getting ridiculous. Your dad isn’t sending you to boarding school, Carole isn’t evil and you won’t end up a washed up actor at twenty. Stop freaking out.”

“You’re not listening to me.”

“No, you’re not listening to me.”

Kurt glared at her.

“I’m serious. You’re over reacting.”

“Yeah ok say that now. But when I’m skyping you from a dorm room in a school uniform I get to say I told you so.”

“Deal.”

Kurt raised his eyebrows and held out his pinkie finger. Mercedes rolled her eyes and smiled, linking hers with his as they shook on it.

“Ok, now we need to get this pizza out of my sight before I eat more of it. I’ve eaten two days worth of calories already and I have a photo shoot in two days I need to look amazing for.”

“You obsess over how you look far too much.” Mercedes said as she grabbed a final slice and close the box before placing on a small table on the opposite side of her room.

“This is an industry that is obsessed with outer beauty.”

“Well, what if you were the one to change that?”

Kurt gave her a dubious look. “Yeah… right.”

x x x

The sleepover with his best friend had been just what he’d needed to get his mind off the forever-looming doom of being sent away. When he’d gotten home his dad had greeted him warmly, which annoyed Kurt. He couldn’t be nice but still threaten him like he had. Things just didn’t work that way. He’d barely acknowledged him and went straight to the kitchen and unpacked the dishwasher. Probably more aggressively than he needed to (he didn’t feel the need to mention the crack in a mug he’d made) then stormed upstairs where he found several scripts that had been sent to him sitting on his desk.

He picked up the first one. ‘The Hierarchy’ Kurt’s eyes flicked down to the description… it was basically about a nerd climbing his way up the high school social ladder to get the girl. He tossed it aside. High School based comedies were the type of thing he was trying to get away from. The next one was titled ‘Being Ethan Hart’ he shrugged and settled down on his bed with it.

The first couple of pages were confusing and he had no idea what was going on and the Ethan Hart character hadn’t even been introduced yet. He was about to give up when his phone interrupted him, ringing loudly. Kurt suppressed a groan when he saw who was calling. He could ignore it, or just get it over and done with, because she was likely to call again… and again… until he finally picked up.

“Hello.” He answered dryly.

“Kurt Hummel. How are you?”

“I’m fine Rachel Berry. Why are you calling me?”

“I’m calling because I sent you a formal invitation to my party, on this Saturday night.”

“Ok…”

“So are you coming?”

“Why did you send me an invitation if you were just going to call me about it anyway?” he asked.

“Um, because this is the part where I ask if you could bring your cute step brother?”

“Finn?” Ok, so, while he’d had a fairly misguided crush on Finn once, back in the day, hearing Rachel Berry say he was cute was just… weird.

“Yeah, that one. Please bring him with you.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but… why?”

“Because he’s cute, and his band is so close to making it really big. If he starts to protest, just remind him that being seen with me, and at my party, will give him major recognition and the blogs just might start taking notice of him, and consequently his band. Tell him it’ll be great publicity.”

“Ok. But, he might not come. You were a little bit… clingy last time.” She’d been drunk and had refused to let go of her grip on him all night. Finn had ended up off to the side of the party looking helplessly at the tiny girl attached to him with no clue as to what he was supposed to do.

“If he doesn’t come, you can’t either.”

“Rachel, wha-

But she’d hung up. Kurt shrugged and sent a quick message to Mercedes, asking if she had heard about the party and if she had plans to go. Rachel’s parties had a history of being, well, interesting…

To say the least.

It was potentially worthwhile going just for that. And actually, now that Kurt thought about it, it actually kind of amazing she was allowed to have another party since the last one she’d had had made headlines. And not particularly very good ones.

x x x

“No way man. I’m not going.”

“Finn, you have to.”

“No. Rachel is cute and all, but she’s really, really scary.”

“She’s not…” Kurt stopped when he realised what he was about to say. “Ok, she is that bad. But please? For me?”

“For you? Why would I do it for you Kurt?”

“Because… I’m your awesome step brother?”

Finn didn’t respond.

“Ok, Finn, please don’t make me beg. But, I can’t go unless you do and everyone is going to be there so I have to be. People will know if I’m not.”

“Dude, why do you care so much about what people think?”

Kurt sighed, it was time to pull out the big guns. “Finn, if you go and are seen with Rachel… Rachel Berry, ok the Rachel Berry. The girl all guys want and all girls want to be… people will want to know who you are.”

“So?”

“So… New Directions are on the brink of stardom.” He pointed out.

“Dude, I’m aware of that.”

“I’ve done my share of tweeting about you guys. But as soon as pictures of you and Rachel get out, people will be curious, and we can anonymously leak that it was Finn Hudson, drummer for New Directions. Do you realise how much of a leg up that will give you?”

Finn sighed. “Ok, fine.”

“And who knows?” Kurt shrugged. “Maybe you’ll even end up liking her.”

“Dude, you know Quinn and I are going to get back together.”

“If you say so.” He muttered. “We’re leaving at seven ok?”

“Ok.”

Three hours and four and half outfits later he finally found the perfect one. It said ‘I just threw this on, but still look fabulous’. He coiffed his hair the same way he always did because it was his signature and stepped back from the mirror and smiled at himself. He looked good. Better than good, actually. He set about carefully hanging the discarded outfits back up in his wardrobe, which was divided into three sections. Things he’d worn, things he’d yet to wear, and things he’d never in a million years dream of touching but hadn’t gotten around to throwing out yet.

Kurt had the entire third floor to himself, granted it was the smallest floor of the house, but it meant he could have a whole room dedicated to wardrobe, and his own living room and mini bar fridge for when he had guests over. He looked in the wall length mirror one more time, and quickly fixed a lock of hair that was going astray before heading downstairs to Finn’s room.

“Are you ready?” he asked, knocking on the door politely.

“Yeah, let’s get this over with.”

“Are you really wearing that?” He asked, glancing up and down at Finn. Baggy jeans, an old grey shirt and a puffy vest? No, just… no.

“What’s wrong with this?” Finn glanced down at his attire.

“At least get rid of the vest and… I don’t know, throw a band t-shirt on or something.” Kurt shook his head. It would still be awful, but he was running not only on a limited amount of time, but also a limited wardrobe.

“Fine.” Finn sighed. When Kurt didn’t move he gestured to the door. “Leave so I can change.”

Kurt sighed and turned to wait outside the door. Finn said he no longer had an issue with the fact that Kurt was gay, but… sometimes…

It just seemed like maybe he still did.

Finn came out wearing a Journey shirt, which Kurt raised his eyebrows at, but chose not to comment on.

“Let’s go.” He said.

The headed down the stairs, and Kurt practically made a beeline for the front door. He’d nearly made it too, but as his hand closed in on the handle a voice stopped them.

“Wait. Where are you boys going?”

Kurt opened his mouth to respond, but Finn got there first.

“Oh, just a party at Rachel’s house.”

“Rachel?”

“Yeah, Rachel Berry.”

Kurt winced and only just managed to resist the temptation to slap his hand to his forehead.

“Kurt?”

“Yes dad?”

“You didn’t tell me you were going to a party at Rachel’s. Or that you were going out at all.”

“It’s not really a party. More of a… small get together of friends. There won’t be that many people there.”

“But dude, you said-“

Kurt dug his heel into Finn’s foot.

“It’s nothing Dad. We’ll be back by two.”

“Midnight.”

“One?” Kurt tried.

“Twelve-thirty. Remember the talk we had last week…” Burt said. “No drinking, either of you. No drugs, no… just no anything alright?”

“No worries Burt. I’ll keep an eye on Kurt for you.” Finn slapped his hand down on Kurt’s shoulder, perhaps heavier than he needed to.

“I don’t need to be baby-sat. Bye Dad.” He rushed out the door before he could get another lecture. Finn quickly followed him.

x x x

The party was lame. Far worse than Kurt had been expecting. For starters; who instigated a ticket system to get alcohol? When Rachel had handed them to him he'd stared at them in disbelief for a second.

"Really?" he asked.

"This way, we can consume alcohol in a controlled manner."

Kurt had frowned. The whole point of alcohol was to lose control. Not... not to be sensible.

Rachel Berry was overly concerned with her image. It was to the point where she was annoyingly obsessed with it and it was just one of the many things about her that drove Kurt insane. She was constantly torn between wanting to be considered cool by all her 'friends' (people only pretended to like because, as annoying as she was, she had some quite powerful contacts), and maintaining the good girl image she had to the public. Kurt thought it was dumb, everyone knew the 'good kids' weren't really that good at all, so what was the point in pretending? He sure didn’t bother with it. If he was in a magazine with a drink in his hand, even though he was only seventeen, who cares?

"Dude, this party stinks." Finn said.

Kurt sighed. "Yep, it sure does."

"Then why are we still here? Other people are threatening to leave."

Kurt glanced in the direction Finn had pointed and sure enough an Asian couple (who he vaguely recognised but had no recollection of their names) were talking to Rachel, who seemed to be pleading with them.

"No, wait. Please... we haven't even played any games yet."

"Face it Berry," Santana Lopez sauntered towards her. "Your party sucks."

Rachel looked defeated. "But, I..."

"Yeah, the Kids Choice Awards are more of a party than this and the average age there is ten." Kurt cut in.

"If you want to save this party you need to bring out the booze. Lot's of it." Santana said.

Rachel looked hesitant for a moment, then sighed. "Fine, alright... alcohol it is."

Santana met his eyes and grinned, he grinned back. Now they could call this a party.

The party got much crazier after that. It also got much bigger. Kurt had no idea where all the extra people had suddenly come from but he didn't care. He was currently dancing with a really cute guy (who had probably told Kurt his name but he couldn’t be bothered to remember it… he’d been calling him ‘Green Eyes’ in his head) to his favourite song, having a blast.

"Kurt!" a hand clamped down on his shoulder from behind, forcing him ot stop dancing and turn around.

"What Finn?"

"We have to go."

"Why?"

"Curfew."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Only kids have curfew. Lighten up."

"No, we have to go, now. Burt will be mad if we don’t."

Kurt sighed, his Dad still hadn’t lightened up on the whole boarding school thing, and he had a feeling it was going to take another couple of weeks before he gave up on threat. "Five minutes, ok?"

Finn looked hesitant but eventually nodded. "Ok, five minutes. But then we're definitely going."

Kurt turned back around to Green Eyes.

"Boyfriend?" he asked.

He shook his head. "Gross no. Brother."

"Oh," Green Eyes nodded in understanding and pulled Kurt closer. "Guess it's ok if I do this then?" the boy pulled Kurt closer until their lips met.

Kurt pulled away for a moment and smiled. "That's absolutely ok. In fact, quite welcome." And closed the gap between their lips again.

x x x

It was the sun hitting his eyes that woke Kurt up. He groaned. His head was pounding, his body hurt and the sun was annoyingly bright. He rolled over to bury his head in pillows to get away from it. However, as he did there was no more bed left and he found himself plummeting to the floor with a thud.

"Uughghh"

Kurt paused.

... Since when did his floor groan? Kurt's eyes shot open and he found himself on top of another human being. Blonde, male, reasonably attractive... Sam Evans. He frowned.

"Sam? What are you doing in my room?"

"I'm not in your room."

"Huh?" Kurt looked around and his heart sunk. He was in Rachel Berry's basement. Why? Why was he still there? He couldn't remember anything after a really good make out session with... well, it didn’t matter who, it was really good. "Shit. Is Finn still here?"

"Finn?"

"My stepbrother."

"Oh, tall, Frankenteen guy?" Sam asked.

"Uh, yeah, sure."

"Nah dude, he went home."

"I'm going to kill him." Kurt muttered. He stood up, a little too quickly making his head spin something severe. He half stumbled up the stairs and out the door. Why hadn't Finn dragged him to the car to get him home? He was dead. So dead.

He had to get a taxi, which was completely humiliating. He wasn’t calling anyone from his house, because that would only draw attention to the fact that it was eight in the morning and he wasn’t home. Mercedes hadn’t picked up when he’d tried to call. It was so obvious he was hung over and the driver had known exactly who he was when he got in. Of course he had known... everyone knew who he was. He mumbled his address and sat in the backseat sullenly until they pulled up at his house. Kurt handed the driver a wad of cash, barely even looking at how much he was giving him, it didn’t really matter, it wasn’t like he didn’t have more money, before getting out.

He must have stood at the front door for at least ten minutes before he finally mustered the courage to knock.

He hadn't brought keys, because Finn had been driving. It was another five before the door finally opened.

"Kurt, nice of you to show up." his father said, and Kurt suddenly knew where his sarcasm came from.

"Please don't yell at me." he said.

"Oh no, I'm going to yell at you."

Kurt pushed past him and into the house. "I made a mistake ok? I'm a human it's what we tend to do."

"This is the second time you've been out all night in two weeks."

"So I’m one for one. That’s not so bad. I didn't mean to."

"I don't care, Kurt. You're seventeen, still living in my house, under my rules."

"I paid for this house." he muttered.

"What was that?"

"I paid for the house, half of it anyway. I should be able to come and go as I please."

"Don't you dare start giving me attitude."

"I have a right to give you attitude if I want."

"I'm still your father and I demand that you give me respect. This is your third strike."

"So what? That's it? You're just going to ship me off to boarding school so you don't have to deal anymore?"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do."

Kurt sent the iciest glare he could. "I hate you."