Blaine Anderson wasn't sure how he'd gotten to where he was now, but he definitely wasn't going to complain. When he'd arrived at McKinley High at the beginning of the school year, he'd expected taunts, jeers, maybe even locker slams. So far, however, he'd been on the receiving end of none of those, and the same thing went for slushie facials and dumpster tosses.

How? Well, as soon as Blaine had found out that McKinley had a Glee club, he knew he had to be a part of it. So he'd asked the guys in the band to help him out, and before he knew it, he'd been outside during the lunch break, performing a song and hoping that there were Glee club members around to see it.

As it turned out, there were, and he'd been immediately accepted in the group. However, New Directions wasn't the only group to accept him – Blaine soon found out that Sue Sylvester, the coach of McKinley's cheerleading (cheerleading!) team had her sights set on him as well. At first, he'd wondered if it was really possible to be a member of both the cheerleading squad and the Glee club, especially since coach Sylvester seemed to hate the Glee coach with a passion. As it turned out, it wasn't that big a problem. So Blaine Anderson became a cheerleader.

The girls all loved him (and were heavily disappointed when he (slightly hesitantly) admitted to them that he was gay), and it seemed like the coach also tolerated him. So much, it turned out, that at some point, he was made head cheerleader – alongside Santana and Becky, but that didn't bother him as much as it bothered them. He was just thrilled.

His father was less thrilled about his son being a cheerleader, but his mother thought it was pretty cute. That was, until she saw his grades just before Christmas, and demanded he get a tutor as soon as school started up again.

Blaine honestly didn't think it was that big a deal – it was just French, and he'd never been good at that. The only reason he'd taken it was because coach Sylvester thought he was spending enough time with Will Schuester as it was, and she didn't want him to turn into a younger look-a-like of the man anymore than he already was.

Needless to say, Mr Schuester hadn't been very amused when he'd heard this.

Either way, coach Sylvester seemed to agree with his mother on Blaine's need for a tutor, and immediately went to snatch a poor, unsuspecting kid out of a classroom. Blaine spent the three minutes she was gone thinking up apologies to bury his tutor beneath, as nobody deserved to be confronted with coach Sylvester, especially unexpectedly. At least Blaine himself had joined the Cheerios somewhat willingly.

Okay, no, he hadn't really, but that was beside the point.

Imagine his surprise when his coach returned with his fellow Glee club member Kurt Hummel on her heels, looking surprised, but not exactly intimidated. Huh. Maybe Blaine wouldn't be needing those apologies after all.

"Porcelain," she addressed Kurt, and Blaine noticed that the other boy was merely smiling. Most people seemed entirely perturbed when coach Sylvester spoke to them. "You'll be tutoring young Burt Reynolds here for the next few weeks. I will not be responsible for the consequences if I lose one of my best Cheerios right before the competition like when your friend Aretha quit two years ago. Now get out of my sight, both of you."

"Why didn't you ever tell me you were struggling with French?" Kurt asked as soon as they were outside her office. "I would've helped you without coach Sylvester intervening, you know."

Blaine shrugged. "I didn't realise I was failing until my mom pointed it out to me at the start of the break," he admitted. "So you'll… help, then?"

"Yeah, of course." Kurt seemed surprised that he even had to ask. It was odd, really. Blaine knew – heck, the entire school knew – that Kurt was gay, like him, and proudly so, but they'd never really… talked, for some reason. He figured it must be because of all the Cheerios practices coach Sylvester planned – it didn't give him much time to socialise with the people in Glee. It was a shame, really. Then again, maybe this was just the thing they needed. Kurt seemed like a great guy, after all, and Blaine couldn't wait to get to know him just a little bit (or maybe a lot, he didn't mind) better.

Blaine let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding. "That went better than I'd expected," he said, not knowing what else to say.

Kurt just smiled. "I suspect she might have a bit of a soft spot for me. I did win her Nationals back in sophomore year, after all."

"You mean you used to be a Cheerio?" And if so, why hadn't anybody told Blaine about that?

Kurt seemed surprised by this as well. "Yeah, I did," he replied. "For a couple of months. It started out as just a way to get more solos, but it was fun, I guess. Not something for the long run, though. It's how she knows I'm so good at French," he added as if in an afterthought. "I sang a Celine Dion medley in French for the competition."

"Wow." Blaine was impressed. "That sounds amazing." Before he could catch himself, he added, "You know what? You should re-join the team! Once you've taught me all there is to know about French, we could sing French duets!"

"I appreciate your enthusiasm, Blaine," Kurt said, chuckling, "but I don't think that's going to happen. Now, how do you want to do this tutoring thing?"