A/N Sorry it took me so long to get back to this. I have still been writing, but school has been kicking my ass lately, and a few of my close friends have dropped out or taken a medical leave for the semester, and I've just felt in perpetual need of a hug. But at least next week is Thanksgiving break, so if I don't update again during then, feel free to yell at me. On a more story related note:
1) I finally named the French book they were reading!
2)TerribleSpy - thank you for trying to insert logic into my story, but it clearly does not run on logic, but rather runs on magic and unicorns. Which is why I'm allowed to mix events from season 2 and 3 and still call this Kurt's Junior year. And why I can have Sebastian pull film out of a video camera. :P
3)No, I have not picked a song for Kurt and Seb yet - if you have any ideas, feel free to leave suggestions after you finish this chapter and understand what I'm talking about... (though I have at least another week - story time - to think one up)
4)Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. And sorry for this long author's note. If you read all of this you are a much better person than me.
Thursday
Thursday went by in a blur. Jocks avoided him, Sebastian went out of his way to insult him, and glee members were absorbed in their own drama. So, for once, Kurt had a relatively relaxing day – he didn't have to keep his guard up so intently, he wasn't the center of any dramas currently so he could just sit back and gossip with his friends in class, he didn't have to worry so much so he could actually pay attention in class, and even Sebastian's insults seemed trivial and didn't put a damper on Kurt's good mood. In fact, for the most part, Kurt just ignored Sebastian for the day (any time in the past couple days that they had talked, it had usually devolved into fighting anyway, so what was the use of talking to him?). Kurt sat at the other end of the table from him in lunch and spent the entire time chatting with Mercedes, Kurt avoided him in the halls, and he didn't look at him or respond to him in French – instead he kept his face buried in their French book (Mme. Blanche had them reading Candide in its original French form). However, throughout the entire period of Chem, Sebastian glared angrily at the back of Kurt's head, leaving Kurt to wonder why Sebastian was so pissed at him (he had been ignoring him all diy – Kurt couldn't possibly have annoyed him!). Study hall was just the distraction that Kurt needed, and he was free to laugh with his friends and brush off the worry that something was wrong.
Then Kurt decided to go to his locker before Glee, and his good day was officially spoiled. For the first time in several days, Kurt felt himself slam into the lockers and cursed himself for letting his guard down.
"Hey!" Kurt exclaimed, whirling around with a bitch glare fixed on his face "What is your… problem…"
"My problem is you!" Sebastian snapped back, glaring "Sorry if your high heels tripped me – what are you, auditioning to be a stripper or something?!"
Kurt glanced down at his subtle, barely an inch off the ground, heels, and then back up at Sebastian before retaliating with "There's no need for me to audition to be a stripper when there's a slut like you around!"
"I'm sorry if getting a little action makes me a slut to a prude like you! Not that any guys would want a piece of that – you'd practically have to wear a paper bag over your gay-face to get any action!"
"Yeah" chimed in a dumb jock who had walked by and smelled the blood in the water (Kurt could picture it very clearly now – all the jock-sharks surrounding the bleeding Kurt-fish after scenting blood-the fact that Sebastian had stopped protecting Kurt. God, he had been watching far too much of the discovery channel lately.). "No one would want a fairy freak like you around Hummel!"
Kurt drew in a breath to snap back (he had grown used to using barbed words as his defense) when Sebastian suddenly spun to face the interloper, spitting out "Johnson! You seem to have missed the point of our little chat before….. Not get your odious, ugly mug, pit-smelling, fat ass away from us, or you'll get worse than Azimio, Black, Peterson, and Weston combined!"
Kurt stared along with the rest of the student body as the jock's eyes grew wide in fear and confusion before he turned tail and fled. And continued to stare as Sebastian turned once more and strode off toward the choir room. How could he just leave after everything that had just happened? After everything….
"Hey, wait!" Kurt called after Sebastian, feeling his anger spike again. "I'm not done with you!"
By the time Kurt had caught up to Sebastian (somehow Sebastian managed to have longer legs than Kurt himself) and grabbed his shoulder, they had entered an empty hall close to the music room.
"Hey! What the hell was that? What did I ever do to you that made you hate me so freaking much?!"
"You have been ignor- I mean – umm – being really annoying all day!" Sebastian retorted, coming off as flustered rather than angry "It's not my fault that your annoying gay-face bothers the hell out of me!"
Kurt paused, unsure for a second of how to respond before saying with a softer voice "I just – thought we were getting on better terms with each other and then you pull something like this and I just – I don't know….."
Sebastian turned his head away before saying gruffly "Let's just get to Glee."
Kurt sighed, but nodded anyway, following a few steps behind the taller boy. Before stepping into the choir room, and still without looking at him, Sebastian muttered "About what you said before? I- I don't hate you."
Kurt stopped and stared for a second 'I don't hate you' – what did that even mean? Finally he just shook his head and stepped into the choir room to sit by a frantically waving Mercedes – his eyes searching out Sebastian, who was sitting several seats away with the same old Sebastian Smythe smirk on his face and Kurt rolled his eyes – the boy had faster and more violent mood swings than Santana PMSing.
"We are totally doing duets" Mercedes whispered conspiratorially to Kurt.
He smiled back "Wanna do one together?"
"Sorry Boo – me and Satan already promised to do one together – and we have the perfect song in mind…."
Kurt bumped her shoulder gently to lift her frown "No worries – now that we finally have an even number, I shouldn't have to duet by myself."
They grinned in remembrance of Kurt's Le Jazz Hot duet with himself.
Mr. Shue strode in, silencing the chatty room, before marching to the board, writing 'Duets' on it, and spinning around, announcing "Alright class – it's time for duets again!" and on that note, the entire club burst into cheers, drowning out the rest of his words. Sebastian was the only one who seemed a bit confused by the excitement.
"OKAY!" Mr. Shue exclaimed, trying to regain control of the class "You guys can pick your own partners, but try to sing with someone you usually don't! I want to hear new voice combinations, and remember that we have not yet decided who to feature in Sectionals yet! And don't forget, there are two free meals at Breadstix for our two winners of the duet competition!"
Kurt rolled his eyes as he saw Rachel and Finn partner up – clearly they had decided to ignore the 'sing with someone you usually don't' rule that Mr. Shue had announced. Kurt glanced around for potential duet-mates – clearly not Finn or Rachel….. Mercedes and Santana were partnered up already….. his voice would sound terrible with Lauren Zizes'… he couldn't partner up with Sam after last year's debacle….. Quinn and Puck seemed to be discussing singing together…. maybe Britt? but she had already rabbed hold of Tina and was jabbering on a mile a minute…. and that just left Artie, Mike, or…
"Hey Princess" Kurt jumped at Sebastian's voice from the chair next to him "Guess it's you and me, huh?"
Kurt glanced quickly back at the rest of the group – who had all been paired up (damn) – before looking back at the annoying smirking meerkat, who seemed to be pretending that nothing at all had happened earlier.
"Fine" Kurt said with a sigh "Do you have any ideas for a song?"
"Eh – not really. I thought we could brainstorm some when we go to your house after school tomorrow."
Kurt rolled his eyes – only Sebastian would invite himself over to someone's house like that, but they did have to meet some time for this…. "Fine. Meet me in the parking lot after school tomorrow and you can follow me back to my house."
"Fantastic" Sebastian said with a grin that almost looked genuine "So…. You guys are acting like you've done duets before."
"Yeah, last year. Rachel and Finn always duet together, and the rest here have a tendency of singing with whoever they're dating at the time. Most aren't now, though, because of Mr. Shue's new rule of 'don't sing with the same person'."
"So….. who'd you sing with last year?"
"Uh – well…. After the competition I sang with Rachel…."
"Not after" Sebastian prompted with an interested glint in his eye "For the duet competition. Who was it?"
Kurt answered reluctantly, knowing that Sebastian would figure it out some other way if he didn't tell "I was… going to sing with Sam, the new kid last year…."
"Because you had a crush on him?" Sebastian interrupted with a smirk.
"NO!" Kurt flushed "He just – I – his hair color clearly came from a bottle and I just thought…"
"What, that he was gay?" Sebastian laughed a bit, then shook his head "Sorry Princess, but you seem to have the absolute worst gaydar that I have ever seen. For more reasons that one."
"Anyway! I found out that he wasn't and, well, he would have ended up getting picked on for dueting with the school gay, so I let him go and…. Um….well….. Iduetedwithmyself.
"What was that?"
Kurt sighed, but spoke slower "I did a duet with myself. To Le Jazz Hot. In a dual personality suit that I made myself."
Sebastian paused for a second, then burst into laughter "God" he said between bouts of laughter "I would have paid to see that."
Kurt shook his head and said "See you tomorrow, Smythe", leaving the room to the musical sound of Sebastian's laughter and the chatter of the few pairs who remained, still discussing song choices and meetings. Surprisingly, as he walked down the empty hall, Kurt found that he wasn't in the least bit mad at Sebastian for laughing. Maybe it was because the laughter had sounded more like joy at something entertaining rather than cruel laughter at the school freak's expense.