It was three days before school started back for the spring, and in the basement of the Hummel-Hudson household two brothers were both lying awake.

Finn Hummel-Hudson was thinking about how in just three short days he would be dragging all his things over to Westerville to move into an all boys' boarding school called Dalton Academy.

Well, mostly.

That's what he should have been thinking about. And it's what he would have told anyone who asked.

But no, his mind kept picturing his ex-girlfriend and his ex-best friend making out again.

He didn't want to, but every time that he got a second to breathe - which thankfully wasn't all that often now with everything that was going on - his thoughts just seemed to stray in that direction.

He knew that Dalton was tough on academics; he was going to have to work hard to keep up. Kurt was already worried about having to catch up and Kurt was like some kind of genius or something.

But Finn was kind of glad that he would have something to keep his mind occupied.

Kurt Hummel-Hudson was worrying about what Kurt Hummel-Hudson always worries about.

His skincare regimen.

At least, that's what he'd like to everyone to think he was worrying about it.

Or better yet, he'd like them to think he was worrying about nothing, because he's Kurt Hummel-Hudson, fierce and fearless, and he doesn't worry about anything, ever.

But the truth was that Kurt was worrying. He was worrying a lot.

He was worrying about starting a new school. He was worrying about being behind and not being good enough. He was worrying that Dalton could be worse than McKinley.

He quickly shook that thought from his head. It wasn't going to be worse than McKinley. Positive thinking. That's what he needed: positive thinking.

"Kurt?" Finn's low whisper came from across the darkened room. "Are you awake?"

"No, Finn." Kurt hissed. "I'm asleep."

"Okay." He whispered. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine." Kurt sighed. "I'm awake now, so you might as well tell me."

"I just want you to know that I, um, I got your back, man." He said quietly. "If any of those guys give you hassle or anything it's gonna be me getting a black eye for you this time, not Sam."

Kurt looked over at the shadowy figure and smiled.

"You really mean that?" He said softly.

"Yeah, I do. I didn't do my duty as a brother before and I'm sorry about that."

"Thank you." Kurt was touched. Finn was not the type to talk about things, especially things that were personal. He knew that he had let Kurt down, not that Kurt blamed him - he didn't wish his fate on anyone - and he was trying to make up for it."It means a lot to me. It really does."

He paused, mentally taking a picture of the moment so he wouldn't forget.

"Now be quiet, I need my beauty sleep."

He rolled away from his brother and shut his eyes, willing away the worry and slowly drifting into unconsciousness.

"Goodnight, Kurt." Finn chuckled. He turned over and settled into a dreamless sleep.

"So, Blaine," Charlotte Grant smiled up at him from her third glass of white wine "Only two days until school starts again. Are you looking forward to going back?"

"Yes, Ma'am." He flashed her his prize winning, pearly white smile.

"Blaine's been selected to be a perfect this year. The last boy has transferred out on an early acceptance program to Stanford. " His father said from the head of the table.

"Oh," Charlotte breathed, "What an honour. And you only a junior. You must be so proud, Kristen."

"We certainly are." Blaine's mother smiled tightly.

"Of course, Blaine's not going to let that affect his studies, are you Blaine?" His father's handsome face pulled into its usual stern look.

Blaine sighed inwardly.

"I'm sure I can handle it, father." He smiled brightly.

"Well, if it's gets too much, you can always give up choir. I'm not having you give up football. The team needs you too much." He drained the remains of the wine in his glass. "And I've never heard of a senator who was in choir in high school."

"I wouldn't dream of giving up football, father." Blaine reassured him, his fist clenching under the table.

"I'm sure he'll have no trouble coping." Lily Grant smiled sweetly at her boyfriend, her blue eyes warning him gently to keep his tone light and her hand reaching under the table to squeeze his hand. "Mrs Anderson, that necklace you're wearing is simply gorgeous. My mother was just telling me the other day that she felt like she didn't own enough bling."

She smiled as Blaine's mother and her own struck up a conversation about the diamonds around both of their necks.

"Blaine was telling me that you're a keen fisher, Mr. Anderson." She turned to him, her delicate fingers brushing a stray strand of blond hair back behind her ear. "My Dad goes fishing every weekend with some of his friends from work."

"You're most welcome to come along, William," Mr Grant said. "The more the merrier. What kind of bait do you use?"

Blaine breathed the smallest sigh of relief.

"Thank you." He whispered.

"What are friends for?" She said warmly, and let go of his hand.

"Guys, I'm like, really bored." David whined into the phone. "Entertain me?"

"I can't, David," His best friend answered calmly, swinging his racket bag over his shoulder. "I'm still at tennis camp."

"Tennis camp's for losers. Blow that popsicle stand. Please? I think I'm about jump off the roof. I have nothing to do." He flopped back onto his bed. "I even cleaned my room, dude, for the first time in like, three years."

"Ew." Theo's small nose wrinkled at the thought, as he flipped through his wardrobe for clothes to bring to school. "You're disgusting."

"Seriously, man," Wes said, pushing the door to the canteen open. "That's kind of gross."

"We have a maid." David grumbled, his dark eyes gazing blankly up at his ceiling.

"Well I'd invite you to hang out with me, but I'm already too into my preparations for returning to school. I'm halfway done packing my things. Not my clothes, obviously, they'd crease something terrible." He shuddered at the memory of the first day back last year, when he had to beat the creases out of David's blazer with the iron. "And I have a dentist's appointment later." He was carefully placing his favourite books in a cardboard board box on his bed. "I suppose you could come over tomorrow, if you wanted. I'm curling up on the couch with all the Harry Potter films and half a pound of dried fruit."

"Thanks, man." David sighed. "But if I have to listen to you gush over how cute Daniel Radcliffe is one more time, I'll push you off the roof."

"Why don't you call up Rebecca?" Wes said, picking up glass of juice and setting it down on his plastic tray.

"Don't mention her name." David said darkly, sitting up.

"What's she done now?" Theo said, his bright eyes narrowing. His friend's girlfriend had been messing with him for too long, and Theo was getting sick of it. They had asked him to dump her a thousand times, but he was too much in love with her to do it.

"She's been rehearsing real hard for this Music Festival thing, so I went over to her house with a cake to surprise her." He mumbled. "She was making out with some guy. Things got pretty ugly. I threw the cake at him."

"Who was the guy?" Wes asked angrily.

"I don't know his name. But I recognised him from Vocal Adrenaline." David said through gritted teeth.

"Ima cut the bitch." Theo growled. "Cheating on you is one thing, cheating on you with one of them? It's just one step too far."

"Seriously though, David," Wes said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He sighed. "I never thought I'd say this but I can't wait until school starts again."