"But I dont wanna show some new kid around."

Burt shook his head as he closed the hood of the car and wiped his hands on the towel sticking haphazardly out of his pocket. “Kiddo, it's called being polite. They're new to the neighborhood.”

Kurt groaned again and twisted on the stool. “But what if the kid is weird? I don't want to hang out with a weird kid.”

“Aren't you usually the weird kid?” Burt asked.

Kurt looked scandalized. “Dad!”

Burt held up his hands in surrender. “I'm just saying. They're new to the neighborhood, and your mom is organizing the party today. She takes it seriously to make everyone feel welcome. And that includes the new neighbors. Now, they have a kid your age, so she thought you'd want to help her be a good host. You want to help your mom be a good host, right?”

Kurt sighed, then nodded. He knew he wasn't going to win this. And it wasn't going to matter if the kid was weird. It was hard enough convincing the kids in the neighborhood and at school that he wasn't weird, without some new kid hanging on to him all day. “I'll help,” he grumbled.

“Thank you,” Burt said. “C'mon, you can help me check the tire pressure.”

***

Kurt absently toyed with his bowtie as he followed his mom down the street four houses to the new neighbors. Dad had tried to convince him that it was too stuffy to wear a button-up and a bow tie in the beginning of July, but being hot was no excuse for looking like you'd rolled through your yard. And it wasn't that hot. And Mom said he looked like a ‘handsome devil' and always smiled when she said that, so he'd rather be a handsome devil.

“I'm so happy you're coming with me to say hello,” his mother said warmly as they walked up to the front door. “It's so important to make people feel welcome when they move to a new place. Can you ring the doorbell?”

Kurt pressed the button and stood back, his hands in his pockets to keep from fidgeting. “Do I have to play with him?” he asked softly. He didn't get answer – the door opened to quickly for his mom to say anything.

It was a boy much older than Kurt – probably high school age, he thought – in nothing but athletic shorts who answered the door. “Hi,” he said.

“Hi, I'm Mrs. Hummel, we live down the street,” Kurt's mom said warmly. “Is your mother home?”

“Mom!” the boy yelled, turning back into the house. “Mom! There's someone at the front door for you!”

“For god's sake, Cooper, you don't have to yell.” A petite woman emerged into the foyer and waved Cooper back into the house. “I swear that boy doesn't understand the idea of calmly announcing anything. Teenagers,” she chuckled. “Sorry about that.”

“Not a problem. I'm Elizabeth Hummel,” Elizabeth said warmly. “My husband Burt and I live a few houses down. I know you moved in a week ago and we wanted to say hello.”

“I'm Camille,” she replied, offering Elizabeth her hand to shake. “Camille Anderson. That was my son Cooper. All of a sudden he's fourteen and thinks that he's too cool for anything having to do with me.” She smiled down at Kurt. “And who is this?”

“This is Kurt,” Elizabeth said, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving him a slight squeeze.”

“It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Anderson,” Kurt replied dutifully.

“Such nice manners,” Camille said. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Kurt. What grade are you in?”

“Second,” Kurt said. “Next year.”

“Well, what do you know,” Camille chuckled. “I also have a son going into the second grade. He's in the back yard if you want to go say hello.”

Kurt looked up at his mom. He didn't want to say hello. He didn't want to get stuck with a weird kid all night. Maybe Mom would say they really needed to get home? Maybe she didn't want him out of her sight? Maybe anything would happen so he wouldn't have to go pretend to like playing with a weird kid…

“That sounds like a great idea,” Elizabeth replied. “Go ahead, sweetie.”

So much for help from Mom.

The backyard looked pretty much like his, except for the stack of cardboard boxes against the side of the house. Mrs. Anderson insisted her son was out here, but unless he was invisible, Kurt was pretty sure he'd gone inside. He was just about to head back to his mom, when a head popped out of one of the boxes, bearing his teeth and yelling, “AAARGGGH!”

Kurt screamed, took a step back, and got his heel caught in a dip in the yard. He ended up flat on back and staring up at the clouds.

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I thought you were Cooper!” A boy his age tipped over the tall box to crawl out and stood over Kurt. “I'm sorry. I thought you were my brother,” he explained again. “He's usually the one to scare me.”

“Yeah, I'm not your brother,” Kurt grumbled. Well, the boy didn't look weird. Black, curly hair, Ohio State t-shirt, and a fine array of marker smudges up to his elbows. “I live down the street. I'm Kurt.”

“Blaine,” he replied, offering his hand to help Kurt up. “I didn't know we had other kids in the neighborhood. But we just moved in.”

“Yeah, Mom came over to meet your mom,” Kurt explained. Once he was on his feet again, he brushed off the pieces of grass from his shorts. “She wants to make sure you guys are coming to the 4th of July party this afternoon. There's gonna be food and stuff, and fireworks. We're not supposed to have fireworks, but Mr. Pierce always brings them and no one's gotten hurt and nothing's caught on fire, which is what my dad says will be the line.”

“Cool,” Blaine beamed. “So… what grade are you in?”

“Second,” Kurt said.

“Me too!” Blaine beamed. “Are you at North Lima Elementary?” Kurt nodded. “Me too! Maybe we'll be in the same class. That would be really cool. I didn't think I'd know anybody.”

“Well… now you know me,” Kurt said. It was the polite thing to say. Blaine didn't seem all that weird. He seemed pretty normal. Like all the other boys in the class…

… which meant that he'd probably think Kurt was weird once he got to know him. Blaine seemed really nice, but so did Noah when he first moved here last year. That didn't last very long.

Blaine just grinned. “Great. I was making a city out of the boxes if you wanted to draw too,” he said, pointing to the bucket full of markers next to boxes in various stages of coloring. “That one's going to be the school,” he explained. “And that one's going to be the fire house. And that one's going to be the theater cause it's big enough that if you lay it down you can perform inside of it.”

“I think I've gotta go home,” Kurt said. “But… I'll see you at the party?”

Blaine nodded. “Okay. Oh, and Kurt? I really like your bow tie. You look sharp,” he added, grinning and making a pop with his lips on the final ‘p'.

***

Blaine turned out to be not weird at all, and always grabbed an extra cookie from the dessert table, which made him pretty awesome in Kurt's book. The entire neighborhood came out every year for the 4th of July party. There was food, and games, and Mom's star shaped cookies, which were awesome, and Blaine kept bringing him a new one. “Your mom makes really good cookies,” Blaine said, crumbs falling from the side of his mouth as he tried to talk and chew at the same time.

“She really does,” Kurt agreed. “She doesn't make them all the time. I wish she did. She let me do the frosting on some of them.”

“I bet those are the ones that taste the best,” Blaine said.

Kurt nodded. “They are,” he agreed.

“Hi Kurt!”

Kurt waved at the pretty blonde girl. “Hi Brittany,” he said. “This is Blaine. He's new.”

“Hi Blaine,” Brittany said brightly, shifting her backpack as she walked. “You look like an elf. Did you move here from the North Pole?”

Blaine looked at Kurt curiously. “Um… no?” he replied. “We moved here from Cleveland.”

Brittany shook her head. “No, it was definitely the North Pole. My cat told me.”

“Your cat?” Blaine asked.

“Brittany, you don't have a cat,” Kurt said.

Brittany nodded happily, swinging her backpack off her shoulders and setting it gently on the ground. She unzipped it and pulled out a floppy kitten, who meowed as soon as he emerged. “This is Mr. Tubbington. He's my new cat. He's pretty special. He's the one who told me you were from the North Pole. I'm pretty sure that the Queen is going to give him a lordship soon.”

“So… Lord Tubbington?” Blaine asked.

“That sounds great, Britt,” Kurt said. “But, um, I don't think you're supposed to bring your cat outside. What if he runs away.”

“He knows who feeds him,” Brittany replied, slipping the kitten back into her bag. “But you're right. He's probably hungry, so I should take him home before the fireworks start. I'll see you later, Kurt!”

“Nice to meet you, Brittany!” Blaine called out as she walked away. “She's…”

“Brittany,” Kurt said with a shrug. “She's really nice when you get to know her. Teachers say she's special.”

“Well, if she can talk to cats, she must be,” Blaine replied. “Want to get another cookie?”

“Sure. Let's just—“ Kurt was cut off by a football cutting through the air and beaning him in the back. “Ow!” he yelped.

“Watch it, Hummel!” Noah Puckerman ran over, followed by a few of his friends. “You got into the way of the ball.”

“You're the one who threw it at me!” Kurt snapped.

Noah shrugged. “You got in the way. Who are you?” he asked, pointing at Blaine.

“Blaine Anderson,” Blaine replied. “We just moved in.”

“And you're hanging out with Hummel? You should play football with us. You like football, right?”

“Uh huh,” Blaine nodded.

“Then play with us,” Noah said. “Nobody plays with weirdo Hummel.”

“I do,” Blaine insisted. “C'mon, Kurt, I want another cookie.”

Kurt's eyes went wide as Blaine took his hand and pulled him back towards the table. None of the kids at school had ever done that for him. Brittany was always nice to him, but Brittany was nice to everyone. But never any of the boys. “You don't have to,” he said quietly. Yeah, his mom had said that Kurt had to be nice, but he was sure Mrs. Anderson wasn't going to make Blaine do it too. Blaine was new. He should play with the cool kids if he wanted to.

“They threw a football at you,” Blaine said. “On purpose. That's just being an asshole.”

“I'm not supposed to say that word,” Kurt said, but he couldn't help but smile.

Blaine chuckled. “I'm not either,” he said quietly. “But Cooper said as long as Mom and Dad don't hear it, it doesn't count.”

That made sense. “Mom told me I was supposed to play with you,” Kurt admitted. “Since you're new. And I thought you were gonna be weird, but you're not. And those guys think I'm weird, but I'm not, I promise. But… you don't have to hang out with me if you don't want to.”

“Why wouldn't I want to hang out with you?” Blaine asked. “You just have to make it up to me.”

“How?”

“I just got a new bike,” Blaine said. “You have to show me all the cool places in the neighborhood.”

“Done,” Kurt replied. He could do that. And the fact that Blaine was picking him over Noah and the cool kids…

“Hey, look, fireworks!” Blaine beamed as the first crack of color exploded in the air.

Kurt looked up in time to see the second, and the third. It wasn't until the fifth burst that he realized Blaine hadn't let go of his hand. He'd held hands with Brittany on field trips lots of times, but he'd never held hands with a boy this long. It was really nice. Why didn't he hold hands with boys before? He would've if he'd known it would make him smile like this. “I told you there were pretty cool,” he said.

Blaine nodded, his eyes still looking up. “As long as no one catches on fire,” he laughed.

They stood like that for the entirety of Mr. Pierce's fireworks show, and Kurt figured as soon as Blaine realized they were still holding hands, he'd pull away pretty quickly. But he didn't. When the fireworks were over, Blaine just turned and smiled at him. “Those were pretty cool.”

Kurt nodded. “Yeah, they were,” he said.

Before Blaine could say anything else, they heard his mom calling for him. “I guess I have to go.”

“Yeah,” Kurt said, letting go of Blaine's hand reluctantly. “Did you, um, want to ride bikes tomorrow?”

“Yeah!” Blaine exclaimed. “Great. Just come over and you can show me everything.” He glanced over his shoulder to look around and, before Kurt realized what was happening, leaned over and kissed Kurt on the cheek. “Bye Kurt!” he called out, jogging over to meet his parents.

Kurt just stood there, stunned. If holding hands with Blaine was fun, that was… why didn't anyone ever tell him that holding hands with boys was great and getting a kiss was even better? He didn't notice when his mom placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “Hey sweetie, ready to head home. Your dad is packing up the tables.” Kurt just nodded. “Did you have fun with Blaine? Did you make a new friend?”

He turned and smiled a huge, uncontrollably happy smile. “Yeah,” he breathed. “Yeah, he's great. Really great. He's not weird at all.” And even if he was, Kurt didnt care. Weird wasnt so bad after all.