aye.. I know.. I'm sorry..

It seemed like months had passed since Kurt Hummel had disappeared into the girls' bathroom to wash the remains of several slushies off his face and out of his previously perfectly styled hair.

Blaine alternated between pacing up and down the hall, standing in front of the closed door with a raised fist and coming ever so close to actually knocking, and running his hands through his hair before starting all over again. He made a frustrated noise as he tried to wipe some gel off his hands. What the hell was wrong with this school? The hallway had been crowded just seconds ago and now he was almost expecting some tumbleweed to be blown across it. Had nobody noticed what had just happened? Had nobody seen that wonderful young boy be so utterly humiliated?

Of course they had seen! Blaine balled his fists and came close to punching one of the lockers he passed. They just did not care! Not one of them had cared enough to stop and make sure the boy was okay. They simply hurried to their classrooms, probably forgetting what they had witnessed as soon as they crossed the thresholds.

Another pace, this time including a kick against one of the lockers. The boy briefly wondered if one of the teachers would come running out of their classrooms and give him detention for kicking an inanimate object. He let out a bitter laugh. Wouldn't it be ironic if it were okay to push around a human being but kicking metal got you in trouble?

He passed the bathroom door once more and listened. There had been water running the last few dozen times he had done it but this time he heard nothing but silence. He wondered what the younger teen was doing on the other side. Was he as angry as Blaine was? Or was he scared and sad? Maybe even crying?

"I can't leave him alone in there." the teen decided and raised his fist to actually knock this time. "Kurt?" he asked tentatively, wincing at how hoarse his voice sounded.

There was no reply. He was just about to knock again when a high voice interrupted him, leaving his hand raised in mid air.

"And what exactly do you think you're doing there, Romeo?"

Blaine turned to see two very angry looking girls making their way towards him.

"Uhm… I … I was… just… uhm…" he wanted to slap himself for how inarticulate he sounded, but these girls could surely take him in a fight and they did look like they were ready for one.

"Very interesting." the brunette replied, raising one eyebrow behind her thick pair glasses. "But unless you brought Gandalf with you to tell us we can't pass- you better move it, hobbit."

Unable to come up with a reply and cursing himself for it Blaine stepped aside and watched the girls disappear into the bathroom, he didn't even manage to catch a glimpse of the boy inside.

What was he supposed to do now? Should he just leave? He had already missed half of his English lesson and was bound to get in trouble for it. He walked up to the row of lockers and pressed his forehead against the cool metal.

"Get your head together, Anderson. If you want him to think you're a fool you're doing one hell of a great job!" he hissed before banging his head against the locker and turning around to slide towards the floor. He chose to wait.

It took several minutes, that again felt like months to him, before anything happened. Then the door finally opened. Kurt walked out with his hair coiffed like nothing had ever happened. He was wearing a McKinley High School shirt and Blaine briefly wondered how the girls had known to bring it to him. Probably the same way they had known where to find their friend, something as simple as a text would have done the job, dumbass. Get your brain to work! As he was still beating himself up over his sudden lack of intelligence the other boy began to walk past him without as much as a glance., holding his head high like the simple gym shirt came from Marc Jacobs' latest collection.

"Kurt." the older teen called out, struggling to get off the floor.

The blue-eyed boy did not look his way, instead he allowed his dark-skinned friend to wrap an arm around him and steer him down the empty hallway, disappearing around the corner.

Finally having managed to gain control of his legs and raising himself off the dirty floor Blaine took a step to follow them but found his path blocked by the other boy's second friend.

"He does not want to talk to you." the girl said crossing her arms.

"But… why?" the boy furrowed his thick eyebrows.

"You really need to ask? Kid, you're even dumber than I thought." she laughed.

"Hey! I'm older than you." he pouted.

"Yeah and you're also an idiot!"

Blaine opened his mouth to protest but was silenced by the younger but bigger teen taking a step towards him.

"He really liked you, you know. He thought you were friends! And you chose to ignore him all summer and perfected it into the most pathetic game of hide and seek in the halls today! Why?"

The boy swallowed, if this girl had noticed him avoiding her friend, had Kurt seen it as well? He tried to come up with a good reason to explain but they all suddenly seemed so silly he just couldn't force a single one over his lips.

"Thought so." the girl scowled. "It's your loss, dude. If you have a chance with Kurt Hummel and you don't seize it the very second it appears? That makes you nothing but a fool."

"Just let me talk to him."

"Do you think you can explain?"

Blaine grimaced.

"You're gonna leave him alone." the girl continued. "If he comes to you? - Fine. But you are not gonna make things even harder for him than they already are, hear me?"

The boy nodded and the girl turned around to walk in the direction her friends had left only a minute earlier.

"I really like him!" the dark-haired teen called after her.

"Of course you do! Who wouldn't?" she replied without turning around.

Blaine was left with his mouth open. He may be stupid but there was one thing he now knew for sure. If he wanted Kurt Hummel he would have to fight for him.

Emma Schuester sat in her small office scrubbing away at a beautiful little picture frame. Her youngest son had given her this treasure on the first mother's day they had ever spent together. Of course like every school kid his age he had made something for her in school - another picture frame decorated with macaroni that she kept on her vanity desk at home. He had cried for a full week leading up to mother's day because he was so embarrassed by the macaroni art - even though it was crafted beautifully and showed his talent, until finally Will had taken him shopping and he had spent all of his allowance on the pretty little object she was polishing now.

Inside the frame she kept a picture of the two of them. It had been taken only a few weeks after the little boy had come to live with them. It showed him and his new mother after one of their beloved baking / bonding sessions. They were both covered in flour and chocolate sauce, yet Emma was beaming at the camera as the little boy in her arms kissed her cheek.

The guidance counselor paused in her cleaning and threw the polishing wipe away. Instead she picked up photo after photo on her desk, examining them and all the smiling faces they pictured. Her perfect, happy little family.

She had fully expected this to be a hard day for her, yet it had hit a little harder than she would have thought. Another two of her children out of the house to go to college and her youngest starting high school. She felt so old, she had spent half of the morning examining her ginger mane for grey hair.

"You look more beautiful than ever." her husband had reassured her while kissing her head.

And it was true, for a woman approaching her fiftieth birthday she looked remarkable and she had not found a single grey hair, while her husband's head was now completely covered in them. She thought it made him look very sexy.

The mother's thought returned to her youngest child, wondering how he was doing. She had been trying to catch a glimpse of him in the hallways all day but it seemed like he had finally mastered the power of invisibility and it frustrated her greatly.

"Will and the older kids probably told him to hide from me." she thought, remembering how embarrassed Finn and Puck had been when she had greeted them with hugs and kisses on their cheeks on their first high school day. She could not help but get emotional. High School was a huge step for a child, one more big step towards independence and away from their mother's arms.

She looked at the door and wished her son could just walk through it now telling her about his day. Once he had become comfortable enough to speak in front of his family little Kurt had turned into quite the talker, always having something to tell his parents and siblings. And when he had not experienced anything worthy of talking about all day he had simply started to make up stories of his own. Beautiful and complicated tales with characters so complex that Emma had begged him to write some of them down for her. Her husband called the box she kept the little scripts and drabbles in the perfect blackmail material for when the boy got older, but she was so proud of his talent she hoped he would never be embarrassed by it.

"Mrs. Schuester?"

The woman was torn from her thoughts by her next appointment.

"Oh David. I'm sorry, please come in."

She would just have to wait until dinner to hear about her son's first high school adventures.

In the meantime Kurt had told his two best friends about his horrible day and they had shown the appropriate amount of sympathy, comforting him as well as possible.

"At least we only got the Glee Club meeting left and then we can go home." Mercedes supplied.

"I'm not feeling particularly gleeful today." Kurt replied and watched the young diva kick Lauren for snorting.

"You saying you want to skip?" the bigger girl said without showing any sign of even noticing the kick. "because I would be all for it but I really want to talk to the wrestling coach here."

"No way. You can't skip Glee!" Mercedes gasped.

"I just really want to be alone right now."

"But what about your parents? I'm pretty sure your Dad will notice if you don't show up since the two of us and Artie and Tina are probably going to be the only members."

"I'll think of something. I just need to get away right now." the boy replied as he got up and started to walk away.

The girls exchanged a look of defeat.

Kurt had only managed a five minute walk away from school when he noticed a car slowing down next to him. He started walking faster but sopped when he heard a male voice call out to him.

"Hey kiddo! Do you need a ride?"

Wait, he knew that voice. But it could not be, could it?

"Finn?" he was truly surprised to see his oldest brother who was supposed to be away at college right now. "What are you doing here? Don't you have classes you should be at?"

"Well, I guess I could say the same thing about you." the older boy said flashing a crooked smile. "Come on, get in the car and I'll explain.

The teen climbed into the car and looked at his brother expectantly.

"I couldn't sleep last night." the young man explained while rubbing his neck. "I just kept thinking about how cruel that school can be and I really wanted to be there for you in case you had a bad day. I got so worried that by the time for breakfast Sam kicked me out saying I should just drive here and see for myself. Oh, he also said to give you this."

He hugged his little brother close.

"Santana also told me give you a kiss from her but we'll just agree to tell her I did it, okay?"

Kurt smiled and nodded as his brother hugged him again.

"Slushy?" he asked as he examined the simple shirt his kid brother was wearing.

"Several actually." the boy replied looking down.

"I was afraid that would happen and then when Mercedes called us…"

"Wait, Cedes called you?"

"Yes, about ten minutes ago. Did you know you can make conference calls on your phone?"

"Yes, Finn. Who did she call?"

"Me, Puck, Santana, Sam, Brittany, Artie, Tina, Rachel and Quinn." the young man listed. "Puck was gonna come to find you right away but I told him I was already almost at the school and he should just go and get us lots of food. Because that's what helps me when I'm upset and Rachel told us to get ice cream because it's soul food or something."

Kurt winced at the thought of ice cream.

"Please I really don't want to eat anything that's frozen right now."

"Okay, nothing frozen, got it," he reached for his phone. "Puck… Yes, I got him… Yes, he's okay. .. No, no black eye or bruises - … you don't have any bruises do you?" he said turning to the passenger seat.

Kurt shook his head.

"He got slushied, so now he does not want to eat anything that's frozen….. I dunno… maybe she got that soul thing wrong… okay… wait… " he turned to Kurt again "What would you like to eat?"

"Sushi." the boy replied after thinking for a few seconds.

"He wants sushi… what… how would I know?" he looked to his little brother for help. "Is that the fishy stuff?"

The teen nodded, biting his lip trying not to laugh at his goofy brothers.

"Yes, fish…. you'll find it... I'm sure... just pretend you're doing it to impress a girl…"

He hung up and beamed at Kurt.

"Let's go home."

They arrived to find Brittany already waiting for them there, hugging her kid brother tightly.

"Artie called, he wants you to know that in case Mum or Dad ask you later you got a bad tummy ache and I picked you up and drove you here, okay?"

"Okay." the boy mumbled into her shoulder.

"And you better call Santana soon. I had to talk her out of coming here like fifty times in the last ten minutes."

"Food's here!" Puck yelled as he walked through the door. He too wrapped his little brother in the tightest hug before proudly handing him his food.

"That's a burger." Kurt said upon unwrapping it.

"It's fish." his brother replied.

"It's a fish burger."

"So?"

"You do know that's not Sushi, right?"

"It's food. Eat it."

And Kurt did. He ate the greasiest burger and fries he had allowed himself in years and was sure his skin was going to suffer for it. But sitting there with his siblings and Quinn and Beth who arrived a short while after it felt like the right thing to do.

"Thank you." he said hugging Finn goodbye.

"You're welcome, little bro. Us Schuester Misfits? We got to stick together."

"You're a great big brother."

The young man beamed at the compliment, flashing his dimples.

"Now you better go before Mum and Dad get here."

When the rest of the family arrived home that day Kurt was already tucked into bed, not even having to pretend to have a stomach ache. He did not want to know where Noah had gotten that evil burger from, he would simply never touch one again.

The next morning his parents asked him if he needed to stay at home another day but he decided to face his demons and not hide away.

"Don't you want to ask me anything about Glee Club?" Artie asked as they made their way towards their lockers.

"What do you mean?" Kurt replied blushing, had his brother read his mind and knew he was wondering if Blaine had been there?

"He didn't show." Mercedes supplied from his other side.

Damn his best friend and her knowing him so well. Kurt just shrugged and scowled in reply. Why should he care if the boy had been there. He obviously did not care about him.

"Only very few people came." Artie continued deciding to ignore his brother acting like he had been caught. "So Dad came up with this idea. We are gonna have a big show this Friday. Everyone who is interested in joining Glee has to come to the auditorium and perform a song on the big stage. He thinks a lot of people will show up to watch and maybe even be inspired to sign up."

"Or laugh at us." Tina whispered.

Kurt ignored her. He did not hear the rest of the conversation. Right now only one thing mattered: he knew exactly which song he wanted to sing.

AN: I really just want to thank every single one of you for still believing in me and this story.