Chapter 1 - "Welcome to Mutant High"

"Is this it?"

A pale face looked out of the passenger window of a dark blue car. In the distance a large manor was visible. The boy had never seen a building so grand looking and his bright blue eyes widened at the sight. Surround by large fields, the mansion looked like it belonged in the English countryside, not in the American mid-west state of Ohio.

The car slowed down as they reached a large pair of iron gates. The man, driving the car looked over to the boy.

"This is McKinley. Are you ready?"

"No," the boy replied, truthfully.

"This isn't a prison, Kurt," The man said reassuringly. He wound down the driver side's side window so he could speak into the intercom placed in front of the gate. "It's me."

"Well that narrows it down," came a sarcastic female voice from the speaker.

"Sue, c'mon," The man sighed. "You know it's me."

When no response came he looked at Kurt, a little embarrassed, before speaking into the intercom again.

"This is Will Schuester, reporting back with new student, Kurt Hummel."

"Much better," the voice said, satisfied. "Don't think that just because you're the headmaster you're above security protocols."

"I'll remember that," Will replied, rolling his eyes as the gates started to open with a loud creaking sound.

The car moved towards the building and Kurt watched in the wing mirror as the large iron gates closed behind them. Frowning slightly he thought about what Schuester had said about this not being a prison.

They stopped in a driveway in front of a garage door that looked like a tank could fit through. Kurt expected the garage to open but instead, Will got out the car and moved towards the passenger door. Kurt quickly opened the door himself and climbed out.

Will started walking towards the building, stopping only when he realised that Kurt was not following him but was staring at the car.

"I'll send for someone to come and get your bags," Will said. Kurt didn't move until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"This way," Will said softly. "Everyone will still be in class."

"Class..." Kurt repeated. He thought back to the discussion from the previous day. Apparently McKinley was a school. A school for people like him. A school for mutants. Kurt shuddered involuntarily, the way he always did whenever he thought about mutants.

Mutants were feared, spoken about in frightened whispers whenever there was a news report about another one of them using some unnatural ability against humans. When Kurt was 6 years old there was a particularly nasty and well publicized incident resulting in the death of three young children. For the next 5 months Kurt's parents couldn't get him to go to sleep unless they first checked inside his closet and underneath his bed to confirm that it was free of mutants. His whole life he had believed that mutants were monsters. Even after discovering that he was a mutant himself, he wasn't sure if that didn't just make him a monster too.

When Will Schuester had told him that he was taking him to a school, Kurt was sure that it had been code for something else. Either some secret government facility or perhaps an evil mutant training ground. The idea of mutants doing something as normal as going to class and doing calculus homework went against everything Kurt had ever known.

Will lead the way through the grand manor, up a flight of stairs and into his office. He sat down at his desk and motioned for Kurt to take a seat.

"Kurt, I know you've been through a tough time."

Kurt avoided his eyes, staring into his lap instead where his hands were twisting together.

"But know that you're safe here," Will continued. "Some of us... we know who we are from the moment we're born. But sometimes it's not until much later in life that there is an incident or we're under great stress and our mutation becomes apparent. I know that it is a difficult thing to come to terms with."

Kurt's fingers gripped tighter around his hands. He didn't want to think about what had happened and he hoped Will wasn't going to talk about it.

"To the outside, William Mckinley is a school for the gifted. Well that is certainly true, we're just a lot more gifted than most people realise." Kurt's eyes rose to meet Will's. Gifted, that certainly wasn't a word that Kurt had ever associated with mutants. Cursed... Abominable maybe... but Gifted?

"We help young mutants learn to control their power, and if possible, grow it. But aside from that McKinley is a school. We have regular lessons and students here will can achieve a high school diploma. When they're ready we can help them integrate back into society and go to college and live normal lives."

Kurt's mouth opened slightly at that and for the first time in days he felt a tiny spark of hope, that maybe this wasn't the end for him and he could still have a normal life.

"Of course for some... living amongst humans isn't an option, so they stay here. Others stay here out of choice, so that they can help to teach the next generation. Mrs Pillsbury is our careers counsellor, among other things, you'll be able to talk to her about your goals and your plans for the future. Now if you really want, you can take the rest of the week and start classes on Monday, but I would highly recommend that you start classes tomorrow. It'll be the quickest way for you to get used to life here and make some friends."

Kurt didn't care either way so he nodded in agreement. Before Will could speak again his door burst open and a tall woman with short blonde hair entered the room wearing a red tracksuit.

"Schuester!" She barked. "We have a situation."

The two of them stared at each other for a while as Kurt watched them curiously. Suddenly Will stood up and addressed him.

"Kurt, I'm afraid I have to go and take care of something. Someone will be here in a few minutes to show you around, so just sit tight here until then okay?"

"Okay," Kurt repeated, watching the two of them leave the room silently.

They had barely left the room when girl with dark skin walked through the open door.

"Hey, new kid," she said, "I'm Mercedes Jones."

Kurt stood up and was surprised to see that the girl was fairly fashionable.

"I like your sweater," Kurt said quietly.

"You have good taste," Mercedes replied, smiling brightly. "So do you have a name, new Kid?"

"Kurt."

"Well, Kurt," she said moving backwards. "Welcome to Mutant High."

Kurt gasped as Mercedes stepped backwards further into the wall and then disappeared. He stayed frozen to spot, staring at the solid wall until Mercedes reappeared laughing hysterically.

"You... you just.." Kurt stuttered as he gripped onto the desk for support.

"You should see your face!" she cried, still laughing.

Kurt stared open mouthed at the girl who was looking extremely pleased with herself.

"Ok I'm sorry, I couldn't resist," Mercedes when she had finally stopped laughing. "You really should get used to it though, there's a lot of kids here and with a wide range of freakish abilities."

"Like what?" Kurt asked.

"Come on I'll show you around." Mercedes linked arms with Kurt leading him back towards the wall until he stopped and pulled back.

"Wait! I can't... I can't do what you just did," he said.

"You can if I'm touching you," Mercedes replied, nudging him with her arm.

"Can we just use the door?" Kurt asked. Mercedes noticed the pleading tone in his voice.

"Of course," she smiled. Kurt breathed a sigh of relief as they walked out of the headmasters office without having to pass through any solid objects.

"McKinley has all the facilities you'd expect to find at any other school, classrooms, a library, a gym, a cafeteria, a sports field, even a swimming pool." Mercedes said as they walked down an empty corridor. "But we live here too, so there are dormitories and common areas for us to hang out in the evenings and at weekends. Is there anywhere in particular you want me to show you?"

Kurt shook his head. "Not really."

"Ok, well if we wait for classes to finish then I can introduce you to my friends, the guys will be able to show you to your dorm."

"Will I have to share with lots of people?" Kurt asked

"It depends," Mercedes replied. "There are a lot of kids here of all ages, we're split into girls and boys and then into different age groups. There's usually never more than 4 in a dorm though. How old are you?"

"Seventeen," Kurt answered.

"I thought so, that's probably why Mr Schue asked me to show you around," Mercedes said thoughtfully. "We'll be in the all the same classes."

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of a bell ringing. Doors opened either of side of them as children started spilling out into the corridor. Kurt was dragged over to a group that had just walked out of a classroom, an boy and girl of Asian descent and a boy with glasses sitting in an odd looking wheelchair.

"Hey guys," Mercedes greeted them. "This is Kurt, he's new."

"Hi Kurt, I'm Artie," said the boy in the wheelchair, extending his hand which Kurt shook. "And this is Tina and Mike."

Kurt looked at the trio smiling warmly at him and couldn't help thinking that they didn't look so monstrous or scary.

"Wait, where's Rachel?" Mercedes piped up.

"She was taken out of class about 10 minutes ago," Tina said, giving a knowing look.

"No point waiting around then she could be gone ages," Mercedes decided.

"Look," Mike said nodding towards the end of the corridor where group of 10 people were marching towards them as everyone else moved out of their way. Kurt felt Mike tug him until he was against the wall. Will and Sue were leading the group who were all wearing matching dark blue and black uniforms that made them look extremely intimidating.

"Who are they?" Kurt asked.

"You know Sue and Will, behind them is Jesse St James and Bieste. They're teachers," Mercedes said, referring to a young man with curly hair and a large woman who must have been at least 7 ft tall. "The guy with the Mohawk is Puck and next to him with blonde hair is Sam. Behind them is Quinn and her giant-sized boyfriend Finn. The tiny girl at the back is Sunshine and the girl next to her is Rachel."

Kurt shrunk even further against the wall as the group strode past them, the girl called Rachel winked at them as she walked past.

"Why are they dressed like that?" Kurt said in a whisper as he watched them walk away.

"They're the Elites," Artie said wistfully.

"The Elites?" Kurt repeated.

"They're teachers and advanced student. No one outside of the Elites knows exactly what they do as they're pretty secretive but some of the kids here were rescued by them and brought here," Tina answered. "They do more than collect new students though. We think they deal with dangerous mutants, and help ones that are in trouble. It would explain the injuries they come back with and why they only take mutants with powers that would help in combat"

"Let's get out of here. We'll grill Rachel later, she's such a blabbermouth she'll probably let something slip," Mercedes grinned.

Kurt followed the group until they were on the fourth floor. Taking a left they directed him to the corridor that housed the dorm rooms for older teenagers.

"Left side of the corridor is girl's dorms, right side is boy's." Artie explained as they walked to the end of the corridor. "This is ours."

Inside was a large room with four beds. The slanted wall opposite them and exposed ceiling rafters made the room seem either bigger. The two beds on their right were covered in wrinkled sheets. Each bed had a bedside table which had various items strew across them and there were clothes left carelessly on the floor. Kurt looked at the mess and knew this must be where Artie and Mike slept.

In the middle of the room were four desks that had been pushed against each other so there was two either side. The two desk nearest Artie and Mike's bed hasd a Desktop PC and a Laptop on them, as well as more clutter, including junk food wrappers that made Kurt wrinkle his nose.

The left side of the room included two perfectly made beds and was baron of any personal items except for a suitcase and large bag at the foot of one the beds. Kurt recognised them as his own.

Mike and Tina sat on his bed, Tina with Mikes arms wrapped around her. Mercedes sat on the other bed, patting the space next to her, motioning for Kurt to join them.

"You're quiet," Mercedes noted.

"Like, even more quiet then Tina," Mike chuckled, earning him a nudge in the ribs from the girl.

They were all looking at Kurt, waiting for him to say something. They seemed nice, and Kurt thought that having friends would be better than having not having friends, but he still wasn't sure about this place. The image of his mother looking under his bed floated to his mind and a childish part of him wanted to just come and ask if they were 'the bad guys'. He didn't want to offend them though, nor was he sure if he wanted to know the answer.

He shifted nervously under their gaze.

"Let me guess," Mercedes said. "Your whole life you have been told that mutants are evil and only concerned with hunting down poor innocent humans."

Kurt opened his mouth to reply but then stayed silent, not quite sure how to respond.

"It's okay, we've all been there," Tina added.

"You have?" Kurt frowned.

"When I was little, me and my neighbours used to play games. Cowboys and Indians, things like that." Tina smiled as she remembered. "We invented a new game, we pretended that we were mutants and gave ourselves different powers. One day, we were playing in my backyard and my mom saw us. She freaked out. She dragged me into the house screaming that mutants were dirty and were created by the devil. I tried to tell her that we were only playing pretend but she sent me to my room and called my father. Not too long later I heard my him arrive home. He sounded furious and I was so scared about what he was going to do."

Mike's arms tightened around Tina whose eyes were watering as she continued retelling her story.

"He came into my room and I closed my eyes just waiting for the shouting, but it never came. When I opened my eyes my father was running out of my room shouting "Tina's gone!". I didn't understand. I was right there. Then I saw the mirror on wardrobe door. My father was right, I was gone. That was the first time I turned invisible. I thought about how angry my parents were when I was pretending to be a mutant, I didn't want to see how they would react when they found out it wasn't pretend anymore. So I ran away."

"Tina, I'm so sorry," Kurt said, and he meant it. "What happened?"

"I stayed invisible. I didn't know how to turn visible again but honestly I didn't even try. I was scared and I didn't want to be found. But then Mr Schue found me, and he brought me here. That was 8 years ago and I've been here ever since."

"But how did he find you? You were invisible."

"That's his power," Artie replied. "He can locate mutants. That's how he found most of us."

"And you all like being here? You don't miss your families?" Kurt asked tentatively.

"A lot of us don't have families anymore. Or not any family that wants to know us," Artie said sadly.

Kurt stomach twisted at his words. Of course, no one wanted a mutant in their family.

"It's not like that for everyone though," Mercedes chipped in. "My parents have known about me since I was a toddler and walked through a stair gate but they've always loved me and protected me."

"Then why are you here?" Kurt asked.

"Mr Schuester came to my house and talked to my parents. He explained to them about this school and the good work it does, that it would be a safe place for me to use my power without fear and for it to grow. I wanted to come so they let me. I still see them though."

"I don't understand," Kurt frowned, thinking over her words. " Mr Schue said there were special classes to learn to control our powers but how can they grow?"

"It really depends, it's different for everyone," Artie said thoughtfully.

"For example," Mike said before disappearing completely.

"Where did he go?" Kurt gasped in shock.

"Right behind you."

Kurt turned to see Mike grinning at him. He supposed he should start to get used to this type of shock.

"You teleported?" Kurt said, disbelievingly. In answer to his question Mike disappeared again. Kurt turned back around to see him back on the bed with his arms around Tina.

"That was...impressive I guess but I still don't understand," Kurt admitted.

"When I first came here, I could only teleport a few feet," Mike explained."But Mr Schue and Miss Sylvester taught me how to control my power so I could teleport over larger distances."

Mike stood up and walked over to the large bay window. He looked out of it before promptly disappearing. Kurt ran over to the window and looked out.

From the window he could see out the front of the school. The sky was starting to darken and the car he'd arrive in was now gone from the large driveway. In the distance he could see front gates, and just inside of them, an Asian teenager waving at him.

"Ok, that is pretty cool," Kurt conceded when Mike reappeared next to him.

"I'm still working on it. I can only teleport to places that I can see," Mike admitted. "If I could teleport to places out of sight, like behind walls or into locked rooms, I bet I could join the Elites. Mr Schue thinks I can learn to take people with me when I teleport too."

"How does he know that?" Kurt said, genuinely interested.

"Well you may have noticed then when I teleport I don't appear completely naked," Mike grinned, causing Kurt to smile back at him. It was the first time in days that he had smiled and it felt nice.

What Mike had said made sense. If he could teleport and keep his clothes with him then it could be possible to take bigger items with him, or even people. The more Kurt learned about mutants the less scared he felt. Instead he was filled with curiosity.

"What's your power?" He asked, looking at Artie.

"I'm a technopath. I can talk to computers."

"Wow, I've never heard of that," Kurt said, relaxing. "Can you show me?"

Artie rolled himself over to the computer and put a hand on the screen. Kurt watched in amazement as the computer lit up and immediately came to life. Artie laughed at his expression.

"All I did was turn it on, keep watching."

The monitor flickered and two girls appeared on the screen. A Latino girl with gloved hands was sitting on a bed, plaiting the hair of a blonde girl who was kneeling on the floor in front of her.

"That's Santana and Brittany!" Mercedes whispered, as if the girls on the screen might hear her. "What did you do?"

"I just hacked into Quinn Fabray webcam," Artie declared proudly.

"Artie, that is way creepy," Tina said with wide eyes. "How often do you do stuff like that?"

"I only did it because I knew Quinn was out with the Elites," Artie said defensively. Putting his hand back on monitor, the screen went blank again. "I didn't think anyone would be there."

"What else can you do?" Kurt said excitedly.

"What about you?" Artie countered. "You haven't told us what you can do?"

Everyone was staring at him again. He had been expecting this question since Mercedes walked into Schuesters office. After talking to them he was sure that they wouldn't think he was weird. He couldn't imagine four people who was judge him less so he took a deep breath.

"I don't know if there is a fancy name for it or anything but I can heal myself."

Kurt watched their faces closely for their reaction. After a pause Artie's face broke out into a grin.

"That is dope."

"Very cool," Tina agreed.

"I'm hungry," Mike whined.

"Me too, let's go down for dinner," Mercedes said.

Kurt's shoulders relaxed and the group starting talking about what they thought would be on the menu today. It was as if he just told them he knew how to play the guitar, a moment of interest and awe and then they moved onto another subject. It was then he realised that he was also starving.

The cafeteria at McKinley wasn't much like the one at Kurt's old school. Instead of cheap tables that could fold away, the room was filled with dark mahogany tables covered in white table cloths. Also, Instead of just high school students there were children of all ages, as well as several adults.

They had barely set their trays down on a table before they were joined by two girls. Kurt recognised them as the two girls from webcam. They were wearing different clothes now but he noticed that Santana was still wearing black lace gloves.

"Who's the new kid?" Santana asked.

"This is Kurt," Mercedes replied.

"What his story?" she said. Kurt frowned at the way she was talking about him like he wasn't sitting there. She hasn't even sat down, as if she'd come over to get her gossip and then leave again.

"Don't be angry," the blonde girl, Brittany said suddenly, addressing him. "We were just curious."

"Um, I'm not angry," Kurt lied, trying to avoid any confrontation but Santana laughed.

"If my girl Brittany says you're angry, then you're angry."

"She's an empath," Mercedes whispered into his ear.

"No need to get your girl-panties in a bunch, ladyface, I just came to find out what deformity you had that landed you here," Santana said casually.

Kurt felt his temperature rise. He had dealt with his fair share of bullies and remembered something his father had told him: 'No one pushes the Hummel's around'.

"I can heal myself when I'm injured," he answered before anyone else could. "So now you know and you can take your girlfriend and your tacky gloves back to Cemetery Lane."

Santana shot him a dark look before storming off, Brittany trailing after her.

"Wow, look who's not so quiet," Mercedes said amused.

"I would lay off the glove jokes though," Artie advised. "Trust me it's best for everyone if she keeps them on."

Kurt raised his eyebrows waiting for someone to explain.

"When Santana's skin touches someone... she takes their life force, if they're a mutant it means she can take their power for a while, but it's extremely dangerous, hence the gloves," Tina explained. "She wears them all the time and gets really touchy about it."

"I didn't know... I should go apologise or something."

"Hell to the no," Mercedes interrupted. "She started it, she shouldn't dish it out if she can't take it back. Trust me, Santana is a big girl and she'll be fine."

Kurt looked over to where the girl was now sitting with Brittany who was stroking her hands over Santana's gloved ones, trying to comfort her. He felt a twinge of guilt and Brittany's head shot up to look in his direction. She smiled warmly at him and whispered something in Santana's ears.

"Look who's back!" Artie said excitedly. Kurt looked over to the entrance where a group of six teenagers had entered the room. Kurt recognised them immediately as the student members of the Elites, but now they were out of their uniforms.

Most of them went to join Brittany and Santana but Rachel skipped over to them and flung herself down in an empty chair.

"Well I am so tired and hungry. And don't ask me where I've been because you know I won't tell you. It's like the first rule of being an Elite but it was awesome and you know what? I think we really made a difference in someone's life and- wait who're you?" Rachel paused her speech when she suddenly noticed that Kurt was there.

Kurt stared at her open mouthed for a moment until he realized that she had asked him a question. "Oh! I'm Kurt. Kurt Hummel."

She immediately extended her arm. "It's a pleasure to meet you Kurt Hummel, I'm Rachel Berry."

Kurt took her hand for a surprisingly firm handshake and wondered if this was what Rachel was like 'tired', what was she like at full energy?

Rachel reached over to Artie's bowl of fries, only to have her hand promptly slapped away.

"Get your own fries, woman!" Artie scolded, ignoring Rachel's pout.

She raised her hand and a single french frie rose out of the bowl and flew into her hand. She put it in her mouth pointedly before rising to go and get her own food.

They sat there chatting and eating their food until Mercedes suggested they go watch TV. Kurt's eyes were beginning to droop. It had been a long day, so he told them he was going to unpack and have an early night.

Once he was back in his dorm room he decided to pick the bed closest to the window. He grabbed a few things from his bag before changing in the dark and brushing his teeth in the bathroom he discovered through a door he had first assumed to be a closet. Too tired to unpack the rest of his things he climbed into bed and stared out the window.

The sky outside was black now and the room was lit up slightly by the moonlight. Kurt noticed that night time in the country side was much darker than night time in a city. Even in a small town like Lima there were street lights everywhere, meaning it was never truly dark. Now, with the absence of the light pollution the sky was dotted with thousands of stars. Kurt watched them for a while, thinking about where he was when he woke up this morning and where he was now. He felt his throat tighten as he was suddenly overcome with loneliness. He felt his eyes start to water but willed himself not to cry.

Sitting up, he crawled to the end of his bed and started rummaging through his bag until he felt something hard and rectangular in shape. He pulled it from the bag and stared at the framed photo of him standing next to a man wearing a baseball cap.

"Goodnight, Dad," he whispered, stroking his fingers over the photo.

He took a deep breath and settled the frame carefully onto his bedside table before climbing back under the covers. Kurt closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

A/N: So here it is, the first chapter. Please review and let me know if you would like to read more!

I have great plans for this fic! It's mainly Klaine but other characters and pairings will feature and they won't stay the same. I don't want to spoil my own fic but if you're desperate to know if your OTP (one true pairing) will/won't happen or if they'll stay together before you get invested in the story then feel free to PM me.