Story: Dalton Academy, Chapter 1
AN: This starts when Kurt starts at Dalton, and up to that point it's mostly canon. This is a WIP, and I don't have any firm idea of where it's going to end, I'm simply going where the story leads me. It will be a Kurt/Dalton students friendship fic, and you might recognize some of the scenes from another story of mine, “Connecting to Dalton”.
Title: Dalton Academy
Summary: Kurt transfers to Dalton, but decides that instead of hanging on to Blaine, he's going to make his own way and his own friends.
Pairing: Undecided as of now, but NOT Klaine
Beta: Many thanks again to The Other.
Disclaimer: Glee is not mine, or else Kurt would be shacking it up with Sebastian.
Chapter 1: The end
Kurt Hummel was officially giving up. Well, not giving up in general, but giving up on McKinley. His dad had found out that Karofsky had threatened him, Karofsky had been expelled, but was coming back, and when Burt and Carol offered to send him to Dalton, he decided it was time to jump ship while he still could.
He was not looking forward to telling the New Directions, and knew they would probably accuse him of running and promise they could protect him. The problem was that they couldn't, and Kurt didn't want to live like that for the next two years. He knew one person though, who would most likely only be sad. Tina. Not many people saw their friendship, but if Kurt were to say who his best friend was, it would be her. His friendship with Mercedes was a lot louder and out there, but was also a lot shakier, and had already taken several death giving blows. Kurt had reached his limit with her, and the last few months where all she could think about were her 'tots, and didn't notice that Kurt had an issue the size of Mount Everest, was just the last nail in the coffin.
He had known Tina since before he could remember. They lived just a few minutes away from each other, and had met in the park when Tina was three and he was four. A few years later Kurt's mother died, and Kurt had stayed with Tina and her family a few weeks after the funeral - his dad too much of a mess to take care of anything but himself.
When Tina and Artie started dating, Kurt backed away a little to give them some space. Artie had thanked him with a nod, but Tina had followed him home and refused to leave until he told her why he suddenly didn't want to hang out. They talked, he told her, and their friendship became less obvious and more behind closed doors. The two of them had been together when the locker-checks started, and they soon learned how to treat the bruises to make them hurt less. They would sit on the bed, either in Kurt's basement or Tina's room, and take care of the others bruised back and sides. Kurt often had it worse, both because he was a more obvious target, but also because he bruised very easily. When things got worse with Karofsky at the start of the year, Tina was still the one to take care of them, and she was one of the few people that knew almost everything that had happened. And that was why she would most likely just be sad; sad that he was leaving, sad that she couldn't do more to help him than she had.
He walked into the choir room, interrupting Mr. Schue's talk about a solo for sectionals. It just added more annoyance; of course he would get what he wanted just when he had to leave, it was just his luck.
“First, I wanted to thank everyone for what you did at my dad's wedding; especially Finn. It's nice to know that I have great friends here, as well as a true brother.” Kurt felt he was laying it on a bit thick, but no one except Tina and surprisingly Puck seemed to realize something was not right. It wasn't that he hadn't loved the gesture at the wedding, but Finn had jumped so much back and forth between being nice and not the last year that it was a bit hard to hope that it would stick this time.
“Which is why it's so hard for me to leave.”
Shock and silence hit Kurt like a wall, and he almost stumbled.
Quinn spoke up. “What do you mean leave?”
He gave a sigh before he started talking again, preparing himself for the comments. “I'm transferring, to Dalton Academy. Immediately. My parents are using the money they saved up for their honeymoon to pay for the tuition.”
“What the hell dude, how about you talk to me about this?” Finn was walking towards him, clearly agitated.
“There's nothing to talk about. Karofsky is coming back tomorrow, which means I won't be.” Kurt looked over at Tina, and his heart swelled as he saw her blank eyes, trying to hold back the tears, her mouth forcefully closed, keeping whatever she wanted to say in for now. The rest of New Directions started talking and protesting, claiming they could keep him safe, and Kurt could see Tina in his side-view, holding Mike back and shaking her head. The tall dancer looked at her in confusion, but then seemed to understand that his girlfriend knew more about what was happening, and he sat back down again.
Suddenly Mercedes spoke up, and what she said stung like nothing else, and was, for Kurt the last bang with the hammer at the last nail. “It's just Karofsky. None of us enjoy his bullying, but leaving now is just letting him win, running away.”
Kurt grounded his teeth together, anger shining in his eyes. He could almost feel Tina's bitch rising up, and he spoke harshly. “Look, things are a lot worse than any of you know, and let’s just say my life isn't the only thing I have to worry about if I continue here.” Tina's sharp eyes found his, and he knew he would have to tell her later about what had happened. “What I need now is the zero-bullying policy at Dalton, it's enforced.”
No one seemed to know what to say after that. Finn knew about the death threat, of course, and Tina knew about the bruises, but no one knew the whole truth. By the end of the day, Tina would probably know everything, but Kurt had no plan on telling everyone.
*DALTON ACADEMY*
Some hours later, Kurt was sitting in Tina's room, sitting cross legged on the bed facing each other. They were eating and talking, mostly about the last few hours.
“We called Dalton, and they'll let me have the weekend to get situated before I start school. We have to pay tuition out the year, but in January a lot of scholarships open up, so I can apply for several then. Which is good, otherwise I would have to tap into my college fund, and I do not want to do that. I'm going to board - it's cheaper than driving back and forth each day, so I was hoping you would help me pack tomorrow after school? I have to go in early Sunday, so that I can get everything in order for classes and such.” Kurt looked at his girl, putting the empty Thai food container on the floor before leaning back on his hands.
“Of course I'll help you pack, and afterwards we'll have a sleepover, just the two of us. Your dad will probably claim you for Friday night family dinner, and you need the last night to be at home, but I claim Thursday!” Tina had finished eating a while ago, and was fiddling with the chopsticks as she talked.
“Of course, I would love to. You gonna skip Friday?”
“Yeah, I'll talk to mom, she'll get it. Besides, Mom and dad will want to say goodbye to you as well.”
Kurt just nodded, Susan and Thanh Cohen-Chang were almost his second pair of parents.
Suddenly, Tina seemed timid, and as she started talking, Kurt knew that they were going to talk important stuff. Serious stuff. “Kurt, what haven't you told me? I know it's more than the bruises, and I know you got Karofsky kicked out last week, but not how. Oh, and by the way, off with the shirt and lay down on the bed.” She jumped off the bed and went over to the windowsill, where she had a 'bruise-kit'. They had each made one about a year ago, with salves and creams for the bruises. They also both kept icepacks in the freezer.
When Kurt had stripped and lay down, Tina started to spread the salve over his back. These bruises was far from the worst he had had, as Karofsky had been gone from school a week, but it still looked like Kurt came straight from the boxing ring.
Whilst they waited for the salve to sink in, Tina ran downstairs to find the ice. A few minutes later, faster than usual, Kurt could hear someone walking up the stairs, and just as the door opened that someone talked and Kurt's heart sank.
“Hey, Tina, your mom let me...” Kurt turned around to see Mike standing in the doorway, looking in shock at Kurt and his bruised back.
Before either of them could say anything, Tina came in the door and almost crashed into her boyfriend. She looked from Kurt to Mike, before heaving a deep sigh. “Shit.”
That seemed to break the boys out of their shock, and Kurt lay his head down on the bed again, softly swearing.
Mike walked towards the bed as he started talking. “Dude, what the hell happened to your back?”
Kurt looked up at him again, raising an eyebrow. “What do you think?”
Mike seemed dumbfounded for a few moments before his eyes lit up in understanding. “You mean this is all Karofsky?”
“Well, a couple of them are probably Azimio, but yes, mostly it's Karofsky.”
“Dude. I know you said it was worse than we knew, but man, this is bad.”
In a moment of weakness that would decide the rest of the evening, Kurt sarcastically replied. “Bad? This is normal. I thought this what most of you knew. The worse is...much worse.” By the time Kurt had stopped talking, he realized his mistake, and buried his head in the pillow whilst Tina bandaged his wounds. Mike looked at them for a few moments before talking again, looking at his girlfriend uncertainly.
“It looks like you know what you're doing.”
Tina gave a sigh before answering. “It's because I do. We - me and Kurt - have been doing this for a year. He usually gets it worse than me, but a couple of times every week, we do this.” Tina and Mike had gone as far as sex, but the first time had been during summer, and Tina had been thankfully bruise free by that time. It was harder to sneak away during school, and as more attention was given Kurt, less was given Tina, so she had managed to lie her way out of it the few times she had bruises.
**
Mike wasn't sure, but maybe this was what it felt like being in shock. He had known of course that both Tina and Kurt were bullied, but this went beyond that. This was bad, and from what the best friends said, it was a whole lot worse than he thought.
When he had first started dating Tina, he hadn't known that she and Kurt were so close. They hid it well, not on purpose, but anyone seeing them at school would simply thing them glee mates, not friends. Turns out, Kurt was the secret best friend sitting in the wings. Mike had realized this a few weeks into their relationship, when he found out that Tina and Kurt talked on the phone every day. He learned more about Kurt that summer than he knew about anyone else in glee, and with Matt gone, he was kind of glad to get to know some of the other people in glee a little better. When they had come home from Asian camp, he had been a little worried, because he really wanted Kurt to like him. The other boy had simply threatened Mike once about hurting Tina, but after that, they got along famously. Mike had been surprised to find out that much like Mike himself, Kurt was an academic person, and he loved to discuss his classes, as long as it wasn't math.
Safe to say, Kurt had surprised Mike a lot the last few months, and Mike had a feeling it was going to continue for a while yet.
**
“So, are you gonna tell us what you mean by worse? And what you meant in Glee today when you said that it wasn't only your life you were afraid of?” Kurt looked over at Mike, and then at Tina and heaved a big sigh. He knew he wasn't getting away from this, so he sat up in the bed and leaned against the headboard. He could feel the ice pressing into his bruised skin, and he closed his eyes when he started talking.
“A few weeks ago, Karofsky pushed my phone out of my hand, and I just had enough. So I ran after him, into the locker room, and confronted him. I yelled a lot of stuff, asking why he couldn't just leave me alone, and in general provoking him when he wouldn't answer. When it looked like he was about to hit me, I kept telling him to do it, just hit me, and get it over with, but before I knew what was happening, he kissed me.” Halfway through, Kurt had opened his eyes again, and he was looking at the Asian couple, both of them sitting on the bed in front of him. When he said the last part, Tina's eyes widened in shock, and Mike jaw dropped.
“What?” Mike barely managed to breathe out the question.
“Yeah, I was a shocked as you. He pulled away and went in for another kiss, but I pushed him off and ran. Over the next week he started following me around, winking at me, leering, he even squeezed my ass. Once, he told me that I should be careful, or he would steal more than a kiss. Then he threatened me, told me that if I told anyone, he would kill me. Three days later, my dad found out about the death threat, we talked to Sylvester who kicked him out. Today the school board reversed that, due to 'lack of evidence', and Karofsky is coming back.”
Before Kurt had any time to progress what was happening, he was pulled into a three-way hug. He let himself relax slightly, feeling the heat from his friends, the familiar smell from Tina and the slightly unknown smell from Mike. After a few minutes, they all pulled back, and Tina started talking.
“I'm just glad you are getting away from that, I don't care that I have to drive over an hour if I want to see you, I want you safe.”
“Yeah, and I am going to kill Karofsky! Can I tell the other guys?” Mike was looking at Kurt with pleading eyes.
“No, you can tell the club about the death threat, but not the other stuff. Word would get around, and my dad would have another heart attack, and I don't want that. You can tell them that he threatened me and that something else also happened, but that I don't want to share it.”
“Fine.” Both Tina and Mike nodded, and Tina went to remove the bandages and ice from Kurt. They spent another hour talking, mostly about Dalton and what it was going to be like, before Kurt had to go home.
As he drove from the house, Kurt was sad, but at the same time he was relieved. He was getting away from the poison at McKinley, and although it would be tough to start a new school during the school year, it was nothing compared to what staying would do.