It had not been his idea. He'd like to say it was his friends' idea, as they were definitely crazy enough to come up with such a thing. But it hadn't been their idea either. Some seniors – who had now graduated, of course – had thought it would be funny.

Since the Warblers didn't have to worry about Regionals – after an unfortunate meeting with Vocal Adrenaline during Sectionals – they had agreed that they might as well relax a little. And that was how Blaine had found himself pressed on a couch one Saturday, watching a big screen. They had been told to watch closely, as they might learn something from it. He wasn't entirely sure what a cheerleading competition could teach an a cappella choir – after all, it wasn't as if their own moves were that revolutionary.

Still, he watched the competition as shown on some or other sports channel. That in itself was pretty bizarre to him, but he didn't want to put too much thought into it.

His best friends, Wes and David, were seated on the same couch, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves just fine, as was everyone else. Blaine was sure that this had a lot to do with the fact that the cheerleaders generally wore short skirts and – sure, he would admit it – were pretty enough.

He sometimes wondered if he was actually the only gay guy in this room.

The various presentations weren't all of the same length. Some took only a few minutes, but the longest had taken about ten minutes in all. That was, until a woman he vaguely recognised from some news show his parents liked to watch was interviewed. Her team – the Cheerios, Blaine thought – was the next (and last) to perform and she boasted about how long their performance would last.

Blaine saw his fellow Warblers all lean forward in anticipation. Who wouldn't like to see almost fifteen minutes of cheerleading? To top it all off, the woman also told the audience how she, as the only coach in the competition, was using live music instead of tapes or CDs. Now, Blaine leaned forward as well. That might be interesting to hear.

Fifteen minutes later, the room was almost impossibly silent. Then, the audience on TV started clapping, and the Warblers clapped along. Very impressive, Blaine thought. Not only were there a bunch of cheerleaders who had somehow managed to perform for almost fifteen minutes straight, but there had also been this boy… Smiling to himself, Blaine almost had to wonder how the kid had performed so well. Fifteen minutes of singing was quite a feat in itself, but a Celine Dion medley? In French? Very, very impressive.

Naturally, the final team won. As the coach was once again boasting about something or other, Blaine caught another glimpse of the boy as she grabbed his shoulder for a moment. Cute.

*O*

It had started there, but when David and Wes had ambushed him after the summer, Blaine was forced to spend his limited spare time going through videos of cheerleading stuff with them to find that one performance. His friends almost drooled at the sight of the short-skirted girls, but Blaine had his gaze fixed on the boy as he sang his lungs out. Every time he watched the performance, he became more and more taken by him, and it worried him slightly. He didn't even know this kid. He never quite caught his name, even though it was mentioned. Talk about frustrating.

Wes and David became slightly nervous when the news about their competition for Sectionals arrived. They weren't necessarily concerned about the Hipsters, but the other group, New Directions, was bound to cause some trouble.

"I heard that some of the cheerleaders are in that glee club as well," Wes had told him.

At first, it hadn't meant anything to him, until David had rolled his eyes and clarified, "They won Nationals last year. The cheerleading squad, I mean. If they pull some of those moves during Sectionals now, we're dead."

So that was why that coach had looked so familiar. She really was from this area.

"This is more about vocals than about moves, isn't it?" Blaine had asked, shrugging. He honestly wasn't that worried.

"But the judges like a good stage performance as well," Wes had said, impatiently. "Look at Vocal Adrenaline."

That was when the three of them had decided to do some investigating. It wouldn't hurt to see what their competition would be like, right? But instead of actually going to McKinley (which they deemed a bit too desperate), they searched the internet for clips and information.

There wasn't that much to find. There were the performances on Sectionals and Regionals the previous year… and that was about it. As far as Blaine was concerned, that was. He happily settled for watching the Cheerios video once – or twice – more, hoping with all his might that the endearing boy in the cheerleading uniform was not a member of the glee club. He would hate having to compete against him, if only because the Warblers would surely lose then. But that might not be the whole reason, even though Blaine concentrated very hard on not thinking about that too much.

"What are you doing?" David asked him after a few hours, and Blaine shrugged, his eyes still on the computer screen.

When the performance was over, he felt inclined to watch it one last time, but he knew that his friends might get suspicious if he did. So instead, he asked, "Did you find anything?"

His friends shrugged. "Not really," David replied.

"If you don't count the thousand-and-more videos we found on some MySpace account," Wes added, nodding towards his laptop.

"Isn't she the lead singer or something?" Blaine asked, squinting at the small screen.

"Yeah, she is," Wes replied. "Still, it's not much. But we've been more productive than you. All you've been doing is watching that Cheerios video over and over and over again."

Trying to keep his face from resembling a tomato, Blaine coughed loudly. "Yeah…"

His two friends exchanged smirks. "Sounds like someone has a crush," David teased, and Wes grinned widely.

"He's completely star-struck!" he said, and Blaine groaned. This was torture. What had he ever done to deserve this?

*O*

The next few weeks, he made sure to only watch the video when his friends – or anyone else, for that matter – were nowhere to be seen. It was much easier this way. He couldn't deny that he might be developing a small crush on the kid who was brave enough to sing French songs for over fourteen minutes during a cheerleading competition. But he was being ridiculous. He didn't even know him. Had no idea what he was like. At all.

His fellow Warblers had given him strange looks when he had walked into the senior commons, humming one of Celine Dion's classics to himself for the first time. He figured that Wes and David had told everyone else about his slight obsession shortly after that, as they never did it again, no matter how loudly he hummed.

Now was not the time for Celine Dion, however. He suspected that he had been given this solo on purpose – to take his mind off of things. Or rather, one thing – no, he should say, one person and a whole variety of songs.

He had wanted another solo for ages, so he didn't complain when he had been told it was Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. It was only a slight disappointment. Nothing he couldn't handle.

He was making his way towards the senior commons for the 'spontaneous' performance when he was stopped on the stairs by a slightly nervous looking boy. He looked oddly familiar to Blaine, though he couldn't quite figure out what it was. At any rate, he did not seem to belong at Dalton, no matter what he said. He wasn't wearing a uniform, and he seemed to know nothing at all about the school.

Curious, but… cute. In a way.

It didn't hit him until halfway through the song that the other students were shooting the spy – as that was what this boy probably was – weird looks. As if he seemed familiar to them as well.

When they had finished singing, Blaine was congratulated by a whole bunch of people telling him how well it went. In the meantime, he noticed that Wes and David were already approaching the boy. This couldn't go well.

He reached them just when David started speaking. "You!" he simply exclaimed, and the boy looked taken aback.

"What?" he asked, sounding confused.

"It's you!" Wes repeated, grinning from ear to ear. "I cannot believe this. What are you doing here?" Narrowing his eyes slightly, he continued, "You're spying on us, aren't you?"

Before the boy – whose cheeks had gone red already – could even respond, David asked, "Does this mean you're actually in the glee club? You're in New Directions?"

As the boy nodded, Wes looked impressed. "We're screwed," he muttered, and elaborated as the boy looked more confused than ever (Blaine started to feel bad for him). "We saw you perform. I mean, we weren't spying. We watched last season's cheerleading competition."

"Oh, no," the boy said softly.

"Oh, yes," Wes told him, a wicked grin on his face. "You were very good, singing in French for that long." Wait, what? Blaine could only stare and wonder why he had not recognised this kid immediately. "Blaine here is your biggest fan. He watches the video at least once a day. Maybe you could do a duet some time?"

Blaine's eyes widened. This was rather embarrassing. "Shut up, Wes," he muttered. Couldn't he have more normal friends?

David cleared his throat. "No matter if Blaine wants to jump him or not, he's still a spy."

Blaine should've known that David would take over once he tried to reprimand Wes. As always. "Let's go to the cafeteria," he suggested. This spy in particular didn't seem very threatening. And he hadn't really thought his plan through, it seemed. Something else had to be going on.

He – heck, all three of them - would have to act maturely for a moment. No joking around, no thinking about how much cuter this boy was in real life than on TV, and certainly no wondering why he wasn't here in his Cheerios uniform because, no matter how nice his current outfit looked on him, that just looked so much… hotter. No, they had to do this professionally. Luckily, Wes and David agreed when he told them this. For once.

*O*

He felt certain that he'd done the right thing. Because no matter how confident Kurt had seemed during Nationals a few months ago, he really needed a friend right now. Someone who knew what he was going through, and who could help him.

But what he was also certain about – this meeting had definitely changed his life. It didn't matter that Kurt had not been wearing his Cheerios outfit or that he had been distressed for the better part of the conversation. Blaine knew that he was hooked. Damn those cheerleaders…