Kurt wakes up five minutes before his alarm goes off.  He doesn’t even care, because it’s his birthday, and, if he’s being honest, there’s nothing more he loves than a day entirely dedicated to him.  He stretches and hops out of bed, going about his morning routine, pulling on the clothes he laid out for himself the night before—the perfect 18th birthday outfit, naturally.

            He makes his way through the house to the kitchen only to find his dad there, a plate of waffles with strawberries arranged around them waiting for him.

            “Happy birthday, kiddo!” Burt shouts before pulling Kurt into a bear hug, and Kurt has to squeeze his eyes tight to stop from any tears escaping.  His dad is always so great on his birthdays, trying to make them extra special—it’s the one thing he’s always gone all out for, ever since Kurt’s mother’s passing.

            They sit and enjoy the waffles (Kurt is happy to see that his dad made himself multigrain ones and went easy on the syrup) before Kurt has to leave for school.

            He pulls into the parking lot and kills the engine, just taking a moment to flail a little to himself because it’s his birthday and he’s 18 and he’s in such a good mood he can’t contain it.  Once he calms down a bit, he steps out of the car, walking to the entrance and through the school to his locker.

            He did not expect it to be decorated.  Blaine, Tina and Sam all stand around it, supposedly protecting it from people who will most likely tear it all down later.  They all wrap him in a big hug and let him get to his locker, which is covered in wrapping paper and stickers.  He opens it to find flowers (from Blaine) and a card (signed by everyone).  Tina and Sam leave him and Blaine alone, walking away with their phones out, furiously typing.

            “What’s good, birthday boy?” Blaine teases, leaning in to give Kurt a kiss on the cheek.  Kurt hates how careful they have to be about PDA, but he’s not about to let something like that ruin his perfect day.

            “Everything!  This was so sweet Blaine, but you guys really didn’t have to go through so much effort.  You know all this will be gone the second we leave it free to be destroyed.”

            “I know, but…we took pictures throughout the whole process and made sure you got to see it before anyone else got to it, so it was worth it,” Blaine explains with a smile on his face.  “You’re worth it.”

            Kurt smiles back and takes his hand, PDA rules be damned.  He’ll never get tired of how cheesy Blaine can be.

            They separate when they have to go off to first period, but Kurt spends the entire class waiting to be reunited.  He barely pays attention, doodling in his notebook and writing back and forth with Mercedes, who seems very distracted and keeps texting someone or something underneath her desk.  She always answers his notes though, so he doesn’t let it bother him.

            He spends second and third period making heart eyes at Blaine across the room (their teachers wised up a while ago and don’t let them sit near each other anymore—they don’t mind, because all the other couples get treated the same way, so it’s kind of nice).  By the time lunch rolls around, Kurt’s good mood has soared to ecstatic, having been told happy birthday every time he sees anyone from glee, and Blaine leaving him little notes to find with compliments (“18 notes plus one for good luck, but that’ll come later,” he had said mysteriously).

            Kurt takes out his lunch, specially made for him by Brittany and Santana, which was way too great to resist, and digs in, chatting with everyone about random things and just enjoying being with great friends on such a special day.

            About halfway through lunch he notices that everyone keeps pulling out their phones and checking them, occasionally typing something out.  It’s been happening all day and he’s starting to become suspicious.

            “What’s everyone up to on their phones, hm?” he inquires, trying to sneak a peak at Blaine’s but failing.

            “Planning your surprise party, duh,” Tina mumbles, not even looking up from the screen.

            “You all do realize that since you told me about it a week ago, it’s no longer a surprise,” he muses, chuckling when they all just wave a hand at him.

            “Whatever, you’re still going to love it, boo,” Mercedes assures him before checking her phone again.

            “You’re all so weird,” he hisses at them jokingly, but drops it, figuring they’re not going to tell him so he might as well just let himself be surprised.

            They all have glee club last period, and Kurt is sat down front and center before everyone jumps up and starts singing to him.

            “They say it’s your birthday!”  Kurt laughs as the song goes on, his chair being picked up at one point as they all dance around the room.  He grips on tight, glad when they let him down and he grabs them all in a group hug, joining in on the song for the last bit.  It’s silly, they sing the same song for everyone’s birthday, but it feels so personal and special and his heart swells with love for everyone in the room, even Mr. Shue and the random band kids.

            They all settle back in and the class goes on.  Kurt keeps his hand in Blaine’s as various people sing, everyone dedicating their songs to him even though none of them make sense in context.  He still appreciates it though.

            At one point, Blaine takes his hand back, causing Kurt to look over at him and see him on his phone again.  This time, however, his face is full of expression, unlike all the other times when he just seemed to be concentrated on whatever he was typing.

            “What’s up?” Kurt asks, shaking Blaine out of his stupor, who turns to face him with the biggest grin on his face.

            “Get your phone out,” Blaine demands, his smile widening.

            Kurt mutters out his agreement before reaching into his bag to get his phone.  He’d put it on silent this morning, since his family doesn’t seem to understand the concept that he’s in school and they’ve all been sending him birthday texts and calling him.

            He scrolls through his various messages on his lock screen, glancing at Blaine only to be given an encouraging wave, when one from twitter catches his eye.  He can’t believe it, doesn’t want to, but he swipes it anyway.

            Lady Gaga @ladygaga

@bwayboy94: You have some very dedicated friends!  A very happy birthday to one Kurt Hummel, hope it’s a good one my little monster!!!!

Kurt sits there, dumbstruck, staring at his phone.  He vaguely hears the music stop and everyone around him squealing with excitement, hears snippets of conversation : “can’t believe it worked” “tweeting all day!” “never forget this one”.  He can’t seem to move.  He feels himself crying and smiling but he can’t look away.  Blaine is taking his hand, the one not holding his phone, and that’s when he manages to look up into the shining face of his boyfriend, who did this for him, to look around the room and see all his friends who did this for him.

“So this is why everyone’s been so weird about their phones today,” he chokes out, and everyone is laughing, another group hug surrounding him, his phone still clutched tight in his hand.

“Lady Gaga tweeted me happy birthday,” he repeats for the millionth time, his dad rolling his eyes and Blaine chuckling from where he’s standing talking to Tina.  They’re all gathered at the Hummel house, Kurt’s “surprise” party well under way.

“Gee, really?  I hadn’t heard,” Burt taunts, receiving a joke punch in the arm and a hug from Kurt (he’s been giving out a lot of hugs today).

“Alright everyone, if you could all gather around the TV, Kurt in the front of course, there’s something Burt and I put together that we’d like you to watch,” Blaine announces, stepping off the foot rest he’d been using before pressing something on his computer which is hooked up to the television.

Kurt watches as a montage starts, music playing along and pictures artfully weaving in and out, starting with him as a baby and working through the years.  There are some beautiful shots of him and his mom, plenty of embarrassing ones of him in the bathtub (later he’ll yell at his dad for ever letting Blaine see those, let alone all his friends), and some of his favorites of him playing tea party with Burt.  It jumps pretty quickly to pictures of him with the glee kids, some great photos of freshman Mercedes and her ‘fro, which she laments loudly to the whole room.  He claps when it gets to pictures of him and Blaine, a whole slew of pictures throughout their relationship, cute ones of them kissing that he never even knew existed (“You’re welcome for those, by the way,” Rachel whispers to him later when he’s trying to remember who took them”).

The second to last shot of the slideshow is the Lady Gaga tweet, and he whoops and laughs as it lingers on the screen for a whole ten seconds.  The last shot is from this very night, when he’d insisted on a picture with all of his friends and family, setting the camera to a timer.

He’s never seen himself so happy, and as the party starts up again, that picture of him surrounded by everyone he loves remains on the screen.  He stands in front of it, staring at it, startling a bit when Blaine slides up next to him.

“Hey, beautiful birthday boy,” he mumbles in Kurt’s ear before sneaking a quick peck on the lips.  “Was today everything you wished for?”

“And more,” Kurt responds, turning away from the photo and into his boyfriend’s arms, letting himself get swept away by all the love and attention that envelops him as the people around him sing happy birthday to him and smash cake into each other’s faces.