"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinion, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

-Oscar Wilde

Kurt was having trouble sleeping.

That was no cause for alarm, of course. He always had trouble sleeping. For a very long time, at least.

It's just that his brain wouldn't shut up; it kept working long after his body had given up. As if it feared what lingered in the silence.

Nothing, Kurt wanted to assure his brain, Nothing.

But maybe that's what was so scary. So he talked. And he was lucky enough to have friends who were willing to listen.

"Don't you just love that?" Kurt gushed, having read Mercedes a line from a play he was reading. "It's something I never really think about, you know? But I should. It's like….really important. It's phenomenal. It's like-"

"It's like, three in the morning. As much as I'd like to stay up and ponder the meaning of life with you, my Dad's standing in my doorway and giving me the stink eye."

"Tell your Dad that I've had a break through and I need someone to stay awake in order to listen to my pointless rambling and agree every time I pause to take a breath."

Mercedes laughed. He could hear as she put her phone down and quoted Kurt word for word and after a few moments of muffled talking she picked the phone back up.

"Could you hold off your existential crisis until at least seven in the morning?" Mercedes asked, but in a way that was dismissive of further conversation.

"I suppose."

"Night."

"Night Cedes." he said, and then a little louder, "Good night, Mr. Jones!"

"Get some sleep, Hummel." Kurt heard Jones Senior say gruffly before Mercedes hung up.

Kurt was leaning against the head board to his bed, laptop resting on his lap, and several tabs open. One tab was open to one of Yahoo's articles that stated: Catch up on new trends in winter fashion. He enjoyed reading Yahoo's attempts at being fashion forward; it always gave him a good laugh. Amateurs.

His other tab was open with nine different Wikipedia pages—although the school often advised against using Wikipedia as a viable source Kurt figured what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them— and he was just getting ready to begin typing his thesis statement for his paper when he heard a knock on his door.

"You up, kiddo?" Burt's voice echoed loudly. If Kurt hadn't been up, he certainly would have been after that cattle-call.

"Yeah. Working on English." Kurt called back.

"Good. That's good. Listen, I was going to talk to you-" his Dad stopped mid-sentence. "Can you open the door?"

Kurt set his laptop down on its cooling fan, slipped on his bunny slippers, and shuffled his way across the room. Winter was coming around early that year, and their hardwood floors were freezing. He opened the door and tried to read his Dad's expression.

Undetermined, Kurt decided, crossing his arms in an attempt to warm himself up.

"I, um…I got your progress report in the mail today." Burt started.

Abort mission, abort mission, Kurt thought. "I was getting ready to go to sleep, can we not-"

"Nice try. I heard you talking on the phone, and from the sounds of it you had at least three hours' worth of talking left to do."

It was times like this where Kurt wished he had one of those totally detached parents who couldn't tell their kids apart before having their morning coffee.

Defeated, Kurt's hands dropped to his sides, getting ready for whatever consequences he was going to face. He already knew what the problem was, and was hoping he could avoid this scenario by getting to the mailbox before his Dad did. But alas.

"First, congratulations on your English and History. I'm very proud. Trig is okay, but I'd like to see an A next time." Burt paused, reading his son's face. "It seems like you already know what I'm going to say."

"In my defense, I told you I was horrible at chemistry. I warned you the grade would be less than satisfactory, and you have no right to get upset with me just because things panned out the way I said they would." Kurt was in monologue mode already. "It's mid-marking period. I can bring it up by the time-"

Burt sometimes wondered if letting Kurt sign up for the debate team in middle school was a bad idea. He thought it would reign in his son's confrontational nature, not make it worse.

"I have a right to be upset with you whenever the hell I want. Especially if you're failing a class." he said sternly, watching as Kurt's expression turned from indignant to downright horrified.

"Failing?" He practically snatched the paper from his Dad's hands. He thought he was getting at least a C.

Burt watched his son have a mental break-down and was completely unfazed. Kurt had one of these at least once every few weeks, and after living with the kid for sixteen years they sort of lost their potency. He began to tune Kurt out, and only started talking again when he saw that Kurt's lips stopped moving.

"Now, I emailed your teacher." Kurt groaned, embarrassed. Burt continued, undeterred. "He hasn't gotten back to me yet but I asked him if there was any way you could raise your grade by the time report cards come out."

"I could have handled it myself." Kurt mumbled.

"We'll talk more about it in the morning, bud. Now get some sleep. It's a wonder you're not failing everything with how late you stay up these days."

And then his Dad was gone as if he hadn't just dropped an atomic bomb on Kurt's whole life. If people thought Kurt was sleepless before, he was an officially classified insomniac after that news.

The weekend went by quickly enough. Kurt and his Dad did talk that Saturday morning about his grades, but it was mostly a repeat of the night before. Kurt tuned him out. A large part of the success in their relationship was knowing when to listen and knowing when it was okay to zone out.

Finn offered to tutor him in Chemistry and that's when Kurt hit absolute rock bottom. That's when it hit him full-force. There was possibly nothing that could have been more depressing at that moment.

"…shopping allowance will be revoked." Kurt heard half of the sentence, tuning back in once he heard the word 'shopping'.

He laughed nervously. "I'm…I'm sorry?"

"Yack it up all you want, but I'm not kidding. No more shopping. I'm not gonna reward bad grades." Burt said.

Wonderful.

"At least he didn't threaten to send you to an all-boy's school." Finn mused after he'd left the room. "My mom pulls that one every time."

"One, we can't afford it. Two, that wouldn't 't exactly be a punishmentfor me." Kurt replied, and when met with a confused stare he elaborated. "It's like if your mom wanted to send you to an all-girl's school."

Finn's glazed over expression was enough to assure Kurt that he got the point.

That Monday was average enough, and Kurt had more or less gotten over his very short-lived, premature mid-life crisis. He was chatting with Tina and Mercedes on their way to lunch when Rachel made an unwelcome appearance, shattering his good mood.

"Did you get your progress report?" Rachel.

"I got one B and my Mom went coastal." Tina rolled her eyes.

"I got a C in history. I'm sorry, but I really don't give two shits about some dude whose name is Charlemagne." Mercedes attested to.

"Straight A's as always." Rachel said in her annoyingly chirpy voice. "What about you, Kurt?"

"Um…A's in English and History." he started, Mercedes interjecting to say that was to be expected. "I got a B in trig…and I'mfailingchemistry."

They all looked at him as if he was trying to hack up a fur ball. He took a deep breath and tried again.

"I'm failing Chemistry."

Rachel looked incredibly alarmed, but Tina and Mercedes wore their tell-tale smirks.

"Maybe if you'd quit staring into Anderson's eyes all day you'd know what the hell was happening." she joked, releasing the tension.

He was thankful for the change of topic, but really wished she had come up with something a little less embarrassing. "Not true. I do not stare."

"I thought you got over that little crush." Tina said. "I knew you were a liar."

"I had a little crush for a total of two days my sophomore year. But we've all had our share of embarrassing crushes, haven't we?"

"You're right. Sophomore year was a bad year for all of us." Mercedes concluded, dropping the subject.

Tina, who was still a sophomore, had no problem continuing on the subject. "So…are you going to go get extra credit?" she said, her voice filled with implications.

Kurt gazed at her, horrified as the two other girls laughed. They kept talking on the topic, words filled with sexual innuendo.

"How is it you guys know more about gay sex than I do?"

"Two dads." Rachel said.

"Sterek fanfiction." Mercedes admitted.

"Gay porn." Tina answered.

They turned to stare at Tina for a total of three seconds before shrugging and continuing down the hallway with their chatter.

"I could do better." Kurt joked. "I mean, have you seen the way he dresses? The bowties, for crying out loud. And don't get me started on the gel helmet."

"You won't believe what he told my class freshmen year." Tina started, clearing her throat and mocking his voice. "My hair prevents all the chemistry facts from falling out."

They all laughed; Rachel even snorted. "He's got the worst case of dad humor."

"It's cringe-worthy stuff."

That's when he bumped into the aforementioned.

"Kurt!" Blaine said in his overly enthusiastic voice. "Just the guy I was looking for."

Kurt heard his friends snickering, and gave them the finger, hiding it successfully behind his back from his Chem teacher. That succeeded at doing nothing but making them laugh even harder. "Yes, Mr. Anderson?"

Blaine paused, peering back at them before turning his attention back to Kurt. "I just got your email. I think it's really cool how you're taking the initiative here. It's rare to find ambitious students like that around here."

"Thanks." Kurt said, neglecting to mention the fact that it was his Dad who sent that email.

"Do you have a few moments? I'm on my prep and I'd like to discuss options with you." Cue the ridiculously obvious amount of hushed whispering from the trio. Kurt unceremoniously put up a second middle finger; Blaine was still oblivious.

"Sure. I was only going to lunch." Kurt answered, and he waited until Blaine turned around to walk to his classroom before glaring daggers into the hearts of his friends.

"Get it, Kurt." Mercedes whispered and he rolled his eyes before going down the hallway to catch up to his teacher.

Blaine sat behind his desk, reading glasses resting on the bridge of his nose as he looked Kurt's file over on his computer screen. Kurt watched as the other man made a few faces at whatever he was reading, and thought that maybe that was Blaine realizing Kurt's case was hopeless. Maybe Blaine invited him here simply to give him Burger King forms to fill out; to give him a jump start on his inevitable future.

"Well, something as simple as completing classwork would raise you up to a D, and you're pretty good with that." he said, still staring intently at the screen, not even sparing Kurt a glance.

"It really all comes down to what you get on the next few tests. You have the possibility to raise your grade to a B, but that's only if you get a minimum of a ninety percent on every single test until the end of the marking period."

Kurt resisted the urge to drop his jaw. That was impossible. Even the smartest kids in the class wouldn't be able to accomplish that feat. His Chem teacher was the harshest grader in the school.

"But, I am willing to work out a deal." Blaine said, turning his eyes from the screen to Kurt. "I already talked to Figgins."

Kurt figured it would be something easy, a one time thing like helping out at the school's next science fair.

"I could always use help grading papers. It would help you brush up on your basics, and it would help me be more efficient. I'll give you extra credit for every day you help." Blaine explained, watching in confusion as Kurt sighed in what appeared to be relief. "So, what do you say?"

"That…that sounds great. You're a life-saver."

"No problem. You're helping me more than I'm helping you, trust me." Blaine had a warm smile, Kurt noticed. "So let's work out a schedule."

He clicked some things on his computer screen for a minute as Kurt awkwardly shifted in his chair, looking around the room at the various lab safety posters.

"What days are you free?"

Kurt was about to say only Mondays, but then remembered that his shopping days, which usually took place on Wednesdays, were compromised. "I'm free Mondays and Wednesdays."

"I usually have teacher meetings on Mondays. So…let's make it every Wednesday after school?" Blaine said, looking at Kurt for approval. When his student nodded he clicked a few buttons before turning back to him. "All set. You're free to go."

Blaine stopped to write Kurt a pass so he wouldn't get yelled up for showing up late to lunch.

There goes my Wednesdays, Kurt thought sourly as he walked down the hallways to lunch.

And that was the moment that changed everything.

A/N: So this is different from anything I've written before. It's going to have roughly 30 chapters. Thank you for reading and feedback is always welcome!

Also special thanks to Stephanie for reading through my crap over the years and always giving me honest and helpful critique.