For the entirety of his high school career, through all three schools and repeating his freshman year, Blaine had been told senior year would be his toughest challenge. There were college visits, applications, essays, studying for and taking the ACTs and SATs, waiting for the acceptance letters to come in, then choosing the place where he would hopefully spend the next four years of his life. Not to mention all the actual schoolwork, starring in McKinley’s production of Pippin, the peer counseling program he started up with Miss Pillsbury, replacing Mike on the Brainiacs (Tina and Artie may have bribed him with a few new bow ties), and of course Glee club that took up the already strained free time he had left. Blaine was stressed just thinking about how he scheduled every moment after school. It was all true, to an extent. The year was packed with activities to lead up to his hopeful collegiate experience, but they were fairly easy to get through.

The reason Blaine’s senior year was the hardest was because his heart was five hundred miles away.

This wasn’t to say he didn’t have it hard the other years as well. His first freshman year was marred by hateful words, nasty bruises, and a three-week stay in the hospital with two broken legs, broken ribs, and a severe concussion. The following August, six months after the attack, he uprooted his life for Dalton Academy, where he would be kept safe but had to start all over since he couldn’t complete the year before. He was still recovering from the beating; the more rigorous courseload triggered migraines that he had not dealt with before. Blaine was away from his family, who did the minimum amount they could to help him out and sent him to boarding school the second they could, and he had basically lost the few friends who hadn’t ditched him when he came out in junior high. He tried out for the Warblers on a whim, knowing music was one of the few things to calm him down when he was having flashbacks to that night. When he was accepted into the group, Blaine was stunned. He had never sung in public before, but the Senior Council admitted his voice was the best they had heard in years. Not only did he have an extracurricular that calmed him down when he became stressed, but he gained his first real friends who didn’t judge him for his sexuality.

Sophomore year proved to be even more trying. Not only did the homework get more difficult, but Blaine was given the lead soloist position, meaning more rehearsal time to keep him from thinking about what happened before. Then one brisk fall day, Kurt Hummel spiraled into his life, and suddenly all his time was spent making sure Kurt wouldn’t suffer the same fate he did. Blaine never thought of himself as a mentor before, but it was through the beginning of their friendship that he realized he wanted to help teens who were just discovering themselves for a living. His second semester schedule included a Psychology course, which fascinated him from the beginning and confirmed the path he wanted to take. Between classes, Warbler obligations, and falling in love, Blaine hardly had time to breathe by the end of the year.

Blaine went into his junior year looking forward to everything. The Warblers were determined to make it further during competition season, and he had agreed to become an RA for the new residents. Even the classes he was taking, while even more difficult, made him happy. But deep down, after spending the summer with Kurt, Blaine was hurting to take on another challenge. This was why he dropped everything to move back home and transfer to McKinley. He wanted to stand up to the people who made his boyfriend’s life a living hell and come to terms with his own attack. Junior year ended up being his favorite. Everyone in New Directions already knew and liked him, save for Finn’s animosity early on, so he came into the group with plenty of friendly faces who he helped get to the top five at Nationals. He was able to exercise his acting potential as Tony, which earned accolades from many staff members and students. He also convinced Kurt to not give up on his dream when he assumed he wouldn’t be accepted into NYADA. Blaine had a feeling the day after the election that Kurt wasn’t going to send the application in, so he showed up a few minutes early to pick him up for school and while Kurt finished with his hair, Blaine snuck the paperwork into his messenger bag. He knew if Kurt didn’t at least send it in, even to get rejected, it would destroy both of their confidences. The day the letter arrived, Blaine stopped to buy some roses on his way to the Hummels’ house, hoping they would be congratulatory and not consoling. When Kurt opened the door, the first thing he noticed was the largest smile ever to grace his face, which made Blaine nearly drop the flowers to embrace him. The remainder of winter and into spring was smooth sailing, with the boys opting out of a potential repeat of last year’s prom festivities for a Fred and Ginger movie marathon. The day of Kurt’s graduation, it finally hit Blaine that he was soon going to be separated from his boyfriend, and he vowed to spend as much time as possible with him before moving day. The night before Kurt and Rachel were to leave for New York, he promised Blaine that no matter what, they would make everything work since it was only a short time until May when he would come home for the summer, and then they would never be apart.

Blaine spent most of the following weekend in bed watching a good portion of his Disney collection. The tears hardly stopped flowing, only when Artie texted him asking if they really needed to follow Rachel’s list of how New Directions needed to start the year. Then he entered into school mode, where free time was so scarce he wouldn’t be able to think about Kurt. But it still happened; every day he missed him even more. He had begun researching colleges the previous January and visited a handful over the summer. His list to apply to was quite long, but number one had remained the same from when he entered his teens. If Blaine was accepted there, it wouldn’t even be a question on where he would live. When he had the rare chance to talk to Kurt, it kept getting harder to say goodbye after being apart for just a few months.

It was Valentine’s Day when the one envelope Blaine wanted more than the others arrived. He had stayed late after school to help a girl who was having trouble with her father’s disapproval for her boyfriend, empathizing with her more than he expected. When he took the mail out of the box, he stared at the letter for several minutes before heading inside, then sat down and looked at it more. He was terrified to open it, thinking the worst had happened because he hadn’t been able to stay at a school. He then spotted a red envelope with Kurt’s swift handwriting on it, so he decided to open that first. Kurt was still slightly against the holiday, but he did what he could to acknowledge the bond they had and satisfy Blaine’s eternal romantic side. The card was simple, quite understated compared to Kurt’s more flashy personality. Inside was a message that made Blaine slightly less nervous about the impending decision: ”Blaine, do you remember how five minutes after we met you sang that I would be your valentine every year? Jeremiah notwithstanding, I can’t see anyone else I would rather spend today, or any day, with. I promise that I will never stop loving you, no matter where we are. Three months from now, I will be leaving this city for the last time without you. I know you will hear the words you want to soon, and hope I am the first to get the news. Happy Valentine’s Day, baby! Love always, Kurt.”

Blaine felt the tears beginning to run down his cheeks. The card gave him the courage he needed to open up the larger envelope to see if his dream would come true. He slid the paper out and took a deep breath before he started to read it. ”Dear Mr. Anderson, On behalf of the Department of Psychology at Columbia College, I hereby welcome you to the Columbia University class of 2017…” He couldn’t finish reading after the first sentence, dropping the packet on the floor and fully crying. His hard work, his year of hell to begin, his unbelievable decision to leave a highly-ranked private institution, his extracurriculars partially used to mend his aching heart, they had all paid off. Blaine was going to be attending the school he planned on for years, with the man of his dreams by his side.

Suddenly, he stood up. He walked into the kitchen, hardly recognizing his feet hitting the ground, to take a look at the calendar. He started flipping through the pages, counting each box carefully, until he reached May 10th. Eighty-five of them. Eighty-five days until Kurt returned home. Graduation was on the 25th, which equaled an even one hundred days. One hundred days until Blaine’s future would begin. He was finally complete.