Expectations

Everything had exceeded Blaine's expectations. As he had ran around his room a few hours ago, trying to decide if the red tie matched better than the mauve one, Blaine had come up with many possibilities.

Blaine wondered if he and Trevor would dance together. Obviously, it was a dance, so they would probably dance…but Blaine wondered if they would slow dance.

That thought had made Blaine stop short as he was buttoning up his black dress shirt. He had never slow danced with anyone before and just imaging it made him nervous.

He made himself move on and finish getting ready, though. It was basically his first date, even though he and Trevor were only friends, and his first time ever going to a school dance. Blaine figured it was ok to be nervous, just this once.

Whenever there had been dances in middle school, Blaine avoided them. He never liked a girl to ask and if he wasn't going with someone, what was the point in going and sitting the whole time? But since he had just come out a few weeks ago, Blaine figured he owed it to himself to go - and with someone for once. That's why he had hesitantly asked Trevor, who had been out for only a few months more than him, if he wanted to go with him.

Trevor and him weren't exactly good friends, but they usually ended up talking during sports, because they were both short and usually picked last. Trevor had grinned and accepted the invitation, but it was made clear that it wasn't a date date just because they both liked boys.

"Sweetie, I think they're here." His mom called from the living room, making Blaine quickly slip into his shoes. He let his mom fuss over him for a minute before running outside to where Trevor's car - well, his dad's car, since they were only freshman - was waiting. He stepped in and smiled nervously at Trevor as he greeted his dad.

"Hello, sir," said Blaine.

"Hey there, Blaine," Trevor's dad said. They drove to the school in relative silence, though Trevor's dad asked them if they were looking forward to the night.

Once they had gotten to the school, Blaine became more nervous. Everyone stared at him and Trevor when the walked into the dim gym, close together so it was obvious they were there together, but not holding hands, because that kind of scared Blaine.

A few minutes in, Trevor got both of them a glass of punch and they timidly struck up some conversation.

"I'm kind of glad someone else came out," said Trevor lowly, looking around at the people around them. "It was kind of miserable being the only one…"

"I could tell," said Blaine, frowning, then he blushed, realizing what he had just said. "I mean…I know that people pick on you and…I was sort of afraid that would happen to me, too. That's why I waited so long…I mean, I've known about myself for a while now but…"

"It's hard," shrugged Trevor. "I totally get it. If I was less…obvious, I would have waited, too."

Trevor wasn't exactly a "flaming homosexual" but he wasn't subtle, either. He had never exactly fit in with the other guys in the school, so rumors about him had always been there. He finally confirmed them after a while.

"I was just tired of hiding after a while," said Blaine, letting his curly hair fall into his eyes. "I thought it would be better if I just came out."

"Has it been?" asked Trevor, causing Blaine to start.

"I…I don't know," he finally answered. He had been made fun of, obviously. And people just…they weren't nice and he had lost a few of the friends he had, but Blaine still felt good about coming out and being honest with himself. "Maybe." Trevor nodded, satisfied with the answer.

A few songs later, Blaine's favorite song came on. It was an Usher song that he couldn't get enough of, even though the radio overplayed it enough. "Want to dance?" he asked nervously, looking at Trevor. The other boy grinned and nodded.

They joined the group of dancing students, albeit, on the outskirts and started dancing, a bit awkwardly.

But it was fun.

A few songs later, what Blaine had been both dreading and waiting for happened: a slow song started playing.

Blaine recognized it immediately; it was one of his favorites, honestly. "You and Me" by Lifehouse.

Blaine swallowed and looked over at Trevor, a questioning expression on his face. Trevor just stepped closer to him, a look of equal fear on his face. Since he was taller, Trevor put his hands high on Blaine's waist and Blaine put his shaking arms around Trevor's neck.

They weren't very close, honestly, keeping a safe distance away, but Blaine had never been this close to another boy before. Like, ever. With the music pounding in his ears, Blaine swayed to the rhythm and alternated between looking up at Trevor's eyes and then at the wall over his shoulder.

When the song ended, they stayed like that for a long moment before Trevor's hands fell from Blaine's waist quickly and he took a step back. Blaine looked from Trevor and then to the group around them. Everyone was…staring. Blaine blushed and looked away. Trevor nodded his head away from the dance floor and started to walk away, Blaine following.

They sat at a table, eating some of the chips sitting there. "Thanks for dancing with me," said Blaine quietly.

"It was nice. You're welcome," said Trevor with a grin.

"Even though everyone…"

"Was staring?" Trevor shrugged. "I guess I've gotten used to it."

"I wonder if I will," asked Blaine.

Trevor didn't answer.

The rest of the dance was mostly uneventful. Blaine and Trevor got up and danced a few more times, but not any slow songs, since suited Blaine fine. Even though the dance had been nice, the nervous feeling it gave Blaine's stomach wasn't the best.

At nine thirty, the dance ended and Blaine and Trevor filtered out of the gym with the rest of the students. Parents picked up a lot of them, but other kids got into their own cars to drive away. Trevor and Blaine stood further away from the school exit, waiting for Trevor's dad to pick them up.

"I had a nice night," said Blaine smiling over at Trevor shyly. It had truly exceeded his expectations, and if he had to be stared at by a few kids, Blaine was glad that was the most that had happened.

"Same here," said Trevor with a similar smile.

"Looks like the fags are about to eat each others' faces"

The harsh voice came out of nowhere, making Blaine jump. Three guys were walking over to him and Trevor. Blaine didn't recognize them, but he wondered if they were juniors or something, because they were huge. Two of them had football jackets on.

Trevor frowned at them. "What do you want, Neel?" He looked annoyed, but also guarded and a little scared.

The one who had spoken before, Neel, Blaine guessed, frowned at them. "I was wondering what they hell you two are doing here. I didn't know they let homos into the dance."

Blaine's ears burned at his insult. "We have just as much right," said Trevor, whose calm demeanor was only broken by the way his voice broke.

"I'm just wondering who asked who," said one of the other guys, the tallest of the three. "I mean, it's Sadie Hawkins - girls ask the guys - which one of you princesses asked the other?"

Blaine found himself muttering, "I asked him. As friends."

"Well slap a tiara on this one," said the last guy who had yet to speak. "He's the bitch in the relationship."

Blaine found his face growing hotter and he wanted to say something, anything, but most of all, he wanted to leave. He tried to tell Trevor that they should walk away, but he found that he didn't have the voice. Thankfully, Trevor was already taking a step away from the other guys. "Come on, Blaine, let's get out of here."

Blaine was ready to follow him, but Neel had grabbed Trevor by the arm and pushed him back. "I don't think so, fag. It's time to show you what happens when you crash the dances of normal people." Then, arm went back and then swung forward quicker than Blaine could blink, hitting Trevor in the face with a loud crunch.

Blaine's mouth fell open and he was sure he tried to scream or something, but no sound came out. He just stood there, eyes wide as Trevor stumbled to the ground, clutching at his face. Blaine wasn't give a moment to even think before he felt himself being shoved by one of the guys.

Run, you idiot, run.

Blaine tried to listen to the voice in his head, but two arms on either side of him were suddenly holding him in place. He could hear Trevor coughing some where around him, but he couldn't see him, because Neel and his hulking frame was suddenly in front of him, a horrible grin on his face.

The fist that collided with his cheek made pain explode in his mouth and even his head pounded with a dull ache. The arms on his still held him up, though he wanted to fall to the ground, just like Trevor. Blaine's eyes were half shut, already watering, so he didn't see the second fist come from a lower angle and hit his stomach with so much force it made him lose his breath.

Blaine wheezed and felt his legs sag. The arms held him in their vice grim for only a moment before suddenly leaving, making Blaine fall suddenly to the ground. He held up his hands on instinct and fell hard on his palms, the rough concrete cutting them.

Air returned to his lungs, finally, and Blaine coughed, trying to suck in more. He could dimly hear a groan to his right and he realized that it was Trevor. Blaine looked over and in the dim light of the parking lot, could see Neel and one of the other guys punching him.

Where is the third one? Though Blaine suddenly, his blood running cold.

His answer was found in the same of a cold, hard boot making contact with his stomach from his left side. Blaine fell the rest of the way to the ground, his arms unable to hold himself up. Again, his breath was knocked out of him and automatically curled in on himself, hoping to guard his stomach against more attack.

Another kick, this time near his back, making pain shoot up his whole body. Then, Blaine felt a hand fisting itself in his curly hair and he was suddenly pulled into a sitting position, pain pulling at every strand of hair. He heard himself cry out and his head was already pounding.

"Shut up," said the voice, which was quickly accompanied by a punch to his nose.

"Hey! What are you doing!"

The voice was familiar, but neither Trevor or any of the three boys that had jumped them. The grip on his hair suddenly left, making Blaine fall back to the ground with a dull groan. He clutched at his stomach as he heard the footsteps around him leave, running away.

"Oh my god, Trevor!" said the voice, and suddenly Blaine realized that it was Trevor's dad. "Blaine! Oh my god. I'm calling an ambulance." Blaine opened his eyes to see Trevor's dad leaning over another body, which had to be Trevor, a cell phone to his ear.

Blaine closed his eyes, because it hurt. Everything hurt.

The next time he opened his eyes was because of a lot of noise, which made his head pound horribly. There were a few people around Blaine, asking him questions and putting a neck brace on him. They made him straighten out, even though it hurt less to be crawled into a ball. They put him on a stretcher and then into the back of ambulance.

The ride wasn't very long. They were unloading him and taking them to another room in the way too bright hospital quickly. Blaine told them what happened and where it hurt (everywhere) but exactly where he was hit (face, stomach, back and head). They told him that they were going to give him something for the pain, and thank god.

A while later, how long, Blaine wasn't sure, his parents were there. His mom was weepy and his dad expressionless. Blaine had been put into a room with a few other people, one of them Trevor, who had the curtains around his bed shut. This doctor, a young man with shiny blond hair, explained to him and his parents everything that was wrong.

Blaine had a few bruised ribs, thankfully not broken, a dislocated right shoulder, because one of the guys had handled him so roughly when they were holding him in place for Neel's punch. His nose had bled for a while, but it didn't seem broken, just very bruised now, like his cheek. He had a killer headache still, because he had been pulled by the hair, but there wasn't much to do for that. Overall, the doctor said that Blaine had been lucky. Trevor apparently had the worst of it, since two of the guys had ganged up on him and Blaine only had one.

A few hours later, Blaine was being taken home by his parents. They hadn't let him see Trevor yet, because he was asleep from medication. Blaine fell into the back see of his dad's car and fell asleep immediately. The next thing he knew, he was in his dad's arms and being carried up the stairs. He wanted to protest because seriously, he wasn't five years old, but he still hurt and didn't want to move.

His dad laid him on his bed and his mom tucked him in, kissing his cheek and Blaine still didn't say anything.

A few days later, Blaine called Trevor and apologized for everything.

"It's not your fault that they're homophobic idiots," said Trevor.

"If I hadn't have asked you," said Blaine quietly. "It would have never happened."

"And we would have both been at home alone when everyone else was having a good time at the dance," said Trevor. "We'd have been safe, sure, but if we're safe our whole life, we'll never have any fun."

"I guess," Blaine had said and hung up soon after.

The three guys didn't get much but a week of suspension. They were all football stars and it was the middle of the season, so the school didn't want to lose them. Their defense had been that it was self defense, which a load of bull, but Blaine made his parents drop any charges and just forget the whole thing. Trevor did the same with his parents.

The week that the three guys had been suspended was horrible. Blaine's face was different shades of purple and black, as was Trevor, and Trevor walked with a limp. Everyone glared at them in the halls and whispered things about them, as if they had done something wrong.

The week that the guys came back, Trevor was gone. He transferred. Apparently, he moved to California to live with an aunt he had there.

Blaine envied him, because the three guys made his life hell without ever touching him again (because that was risk they couldn't take, thankfully).

Three weeks after the incident, Blaine was at a coffee shop thirty minutes out of town, near Westerville. Blaine took the bus here to do his homework and stuff, because if he hung out at the popular coffee shop in town, he was teased by all the kids from school there. Besides, this place had better cookies and wifi so Blaine could bring his laptop and not have to go home and face his parent's disappointed looks.

"Mind if we sit here?" Blaine looked up at two boys in matching navy blazers.

"Uh," said Blaine, a little surprised. "Sure."

"Thanks," said the taller kid, who was black. "Really busy here today," he said with a grin. "I'm David and this is Wes."

"I'm Blaine," he said after a moment. It was weird because no kids his own had had been this nice to him for over a month now, since he came out.

Blaine got up the nerve to ask the two kids about their blazers about ten minutes of them talking about "song selections" and "the Warblers".

"We go to Dalton Academy, about twenty minutes from here," said Wes - or maybe it was David? "What about you?"

"I go to Westerville High School," muttered Blaine, looking away from Wes' (David's?) gaze.

"Not really happy about it?" said David with a knowing smile.

"Not at all," sighed Blaine. "I….no one really likes me there."

"Why not?" asked Wes, who seemed genuinely concerned.

Blaine's heart jumped from his chest and before he could stop himself, he said it. "I came out a month ago and…everyone just makes fun of me now. The staff doesn't really care…"

Wes and David's faces were full of concern. "That's horrible," said one of them (he wasn't sure which again). "And the teachers don't do anything?"

"Of course not," sighed Blaine. "The guys that do it most are the star football players…and we need them for games, so people ignore it."

"Dalton has a zero-tolerance policy for bullying," said Wes with a pointed look. "You should look into it, Blaine."

When Wes and David left a while later, Blaine quickly typed in "Dalton Academy, Westerville, Ohio" into Google and was lead to the school website, where, like Wes had said, talked about their zero-tolerance for bullying and how it was enforced.

The tuition was steep, though.

Regardless, Blaine brought it up to his parents that night. They looked at the website and the next day, a Saturday, all three of them drove out to have a meeting with the principal. After a long conversation of what had been going on with Blaine at his school, and a lot more talk about the price of the tuition, it was quickly decided that Blaine would transfer to Dalton. The principal offered a partial scholarship, because of how good Blaine's grades were, which meant his parents only had to cover half and money for his uniforms and such.

That Monday, Blaine walked into Dalton Academy, a bit uncomfortable in his new uniform and haircut, which he had insisted on. Blaine had been nervous about his long, curly hair ever since the incident at the Sadie Hawkins dance. He didn't even like it when his mom put her hands in his hair anymore, so he had gotten it cut on Sunday and came up with ways to style it with gel later that night.

Blaine ran into Wes and David after his first two classes. They were a year ahead of them, but offered to show him around for the rest of the day. After school that day, Blaine was feeling good. He had gotten through the whole day and no one made fun of him or bullied him even once. He had even told two boys that he was gay, after they asked him if he was leaving behind a girlfriend in public school.

He had been hesitant to do so at first, but Blaine had come out to be honest with himself, so he told them - he thought one of them was named Jeff - that he was gay and…they didn't really care. Jeff had said something about there being a few other out kids in the school and that the school had a local chapter of GSA if he was interested in joining.

Blaine had been shocked for a moment before nodding and muttering something.

"How was your first day?" asked David after the final class. Wes was at his side, as well.

"It was…a lot better than I expected," said Blaine. "And it's nice to not be scared of every noise in the hallway."

"That's good," said Wes. "And Blaine, before you go, we wanted to ask you a question."

"Uh, yes?" asked Blaine, as they stopped in front of one of Dalton's many common rooms. This one was full of boys talking quietly.

"Do you sing at all?"

Blaine blinked at the question once, because it was just so out of the blue. "Well, I love to sing but…usually only in my room. I never went out for theatre at my old school because everyone said it was gay so I just…tried to lay low, before I actually came out."

Wes grinned and David nodded in understanding. "Blaine," said David, putting a firm and comforting hand on Blaine's shoulder. "Why don't you come to Warbler practice with us? It's our school's Glee club and we're holding auditions this week." Blaine looked at him with wide eyes. "It could be a great way for you to meet more people and get involved in the school, if you want to, that is."

The truth was, Blaine liked to sing. He wasn't sure if he was good or not, but it always killed him to pass up the auditions for the musicals his school had.

"I think that sounds good," said Blaine finally, with a nod. Wes and David smiled at him and lead him into the nearby common room.

Yeah, Blaine thought, things went better than he expected.

FIN