Blaine got to school early the next day, and went straight to the guidance counselor’s office. He knocked on the door and bit his lip when he heard a squeak and the sound of something hitting the floor.

“Come in!” she called out, and he opened the door to see her carefully picking up a tray of pamphlets that had scattered all around her desk. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

“I didn’t mean to, um, startle you?” he said, kneeling down and gathering up what had fallen further away from her. “I know it’s early and there’s not really anyone here, I just…”

“No, of course, it’s fine.” She straightened up in her seat and offered him a smile, albeit slightly timid looking, and he set the pamphlets down on her desk before sitting across from her. “You’re Blaine, right? Blaine Anderson who transferred from Dalton Academy?”

“That’s me,” Blaine said with a slight grin, carefully setting his bag down next to the chair. “It’s… Miss Pillsbury, right?”

“That’s me,” she echoed cheerfully, seeming much more in sorts than she had been when he’d entered the office. “You’re adjusting well to being here? I know it’s a bit different than Dalton, but your classes are going well, I hope.”

“Classes are fine, nothing too bad,” he began, biting at the inside of his lip. “I was actually hoping to talk to you about something that wasn’t class related.”

“Of course,” Miss Pillsbury said with a nod, idly nudging the pamphlets back into neat stacks.

“This is all… confidential, right? I mean, you can’t tell anyone what I say.”

“If this is something serious… yes, it’s confidential, but if it’s something life threatening then I have an obligation –”

“It’s not,” he said quickly, shaking his head. “I just wanted to make sure, because it’s not about me. Well, not really about me. I don’t even know if I should say anything because it’s not like I’m the one who is dealing with it. I mean, I kind of am, but not really.”

“Blaine,” she said calmly, hands folded in front of her on top of her desk. “If you felt like something was important enough to come and talk to me, you probably should be here. It doesn’t have to be about you – there’s nothing wrong with being an advocate for someone who doesn’t feel like they have a voice.”

“This school is a horrible environment for gay students,” he blurted out, before he could form the words into an eloquent sentence that didn’t seem to attack the entire school and system at once. Smooth, Anderson. Her eyes widened, somehow more than they had been already, and he took in a deep breath. “Sorry, what I mean is, this school doesn’t foster an environment where students feel safe being themselves out in the open.”

“Are you…” she started, then seemed to change thoughts as her voice lowered. “Have you been threatened?”

“No, I haven’t, and I haven’t heard of anything like that but I know some people who are very obviously scared about the possibility of anyone finding out about them. It’s always related to the other students here, what the reaction from them would be, and what might happen if they knew. And I’m not saying that they want to come out, because I honestly have no idea and it really doesn’t matter if they do or not. It shouldn’t matter. If they did want to, it shouldn’t be an issue, they shouldn’t have to worry about it, but they do worry. They worry every single minute they’re here.”

“We’ve never had reported instances of bullying for cases like that,” Miss Pillsbury said softly, her eyes never wavering from his. “That’s not to say that it doesn’t happen, of course, but it’s never been brought to our attention. Of course we don’t allow bullying—”

“I don’t know if that’s necessarily true,” Blaine interrupted, and closed his eyes for a moment to try and instill some manners back into himself. “Sorry, I just, again, nothing has happened to me but I’ve heard enough to know that I don’t think you’re seeing everything. Maybe it’s because Dalton had a zero tolerance policy for bullying and I got used to it, but last night someone told me that because I’m new here this year, the only thing that’s kept me from getting thrown in a dumpster or had a slushy tossed in my face is the fact that I’m dating a cheerleader.”

Miss Pillsbury stared at him with those wide, unblinking eyes of hers. He hadn’t meant to be so blunt, but it had all come tumbling out anyway. He’d never felt scared to be himself before – there hadn’t been any kind of warning before the Sadie Hawkins Dance and then he’d gone to Dalton straight after – but McKinley was almost pushing him to that point. There hadn’t been any threat toward him, no ill spoken words, but he knew there were reasons for that.

“Do you know of specific instances of these things happening?” she asked, her tone still patient and gentle. “Accusations are just that without proof.”

“No, I don’t,” he said, shaking his head. He’d known that question was coming, and it had been one of the only reasons he’s hesitated to go in and talk to her. He was sure that if he’d been paying attention, hadn’t been so wrapped up in Kurt and everything circling around him with Brittany and Santana and the most ridiculous not-actually-a-love-triangle he could have ever imagined, he would have seen something. “Not the physical anything. I mean, I did hear a someone getting called a slur, but…”

“Well then, we’ll start with that,” Miss Pillsbury said with a curt nod. “It’s just very difficult to try and do something when there’s no evidence or proof of what’s going on. I’ll talk to Principal Figgins about keeping the teachers more aware, maybe having someone in the halls between classes to keep an eye on things. I don’t want you to think that I’m brushing this off, because I take this sort of thing very seriously. I’ll do what I can with what you’ve told me, and we’ll go from there.”

“Thank you,” he murmured, scrubbing his hand over his face before reaching down for his bag.

“Blaine?”

“Yeah?” Blaine’s hand tightened on the strap of his bag as he looked up at her.

“The… the people you know, who don’t feel safe,” she started carefully, pausing and glancing down at the pamphlets in front of her for a brief moment before meeting his eyes again. “I hope that they know that they’re always welcome to come and talk to me – that nothing they say here in this office leaves these walls.”

“I’ll make sure to mention it. Thanks.”

Saying that he would say something was different than actually being able to do it. Blaine knew that he wasn’t that in tune with everything going on at McKinley, and a big part of him was hesitant to mention talking to Miss Pillsbury to Santana or Kurt. What right did he have to do that? He was an outsider, new to the environment they’d been in for years, so shouldn’t one of them have brought it to the school’s attention?

Except he knew that sometimes being so involved in the situation could make it difficult to do just that.

“You look out of sorts.” Blaine glanced over from his locker, taking in Kurt standing there beside him. It was unfair, really, how he still could look so stunning when he was trying so hard to fade into the background. Plus, Blaine couldn’t help but think about what Brittany had said the day prior. If it helps, I think he loves you too. Reaching in for a book, Blaine looked away and bit at the inside of his lip. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Blaine said, shaking his head. “I just had a meeting with Miss Pillsbury.”

“Oh.” Kurt brow furrowed as he studied him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just have a lot on my mind.” Thankfully, Kurt knew better than to push when Blaine was trying to avoid talking about something.

“Thanks for talking to Brittany, by the way,” Kurt said quietly, hugging his notebooks to his chest. “She called me last night to tell me about it. I’d tried to tell her, but she wouldn’t listen to me. I think it helped having someone who was ‘involved’ set the record straight.”

“No problem,” Blaine said, shutting his locker and looking up at Kurt. He was going to say something about how it was strange to have someone like Brittany mad at him, but he figured that was implied by the fact that it had been Brittany and she had been mad at him. She was a person he couldn’t ever imagine being genuinely mad at anyone; she was just so sweet and eager to please. Except that thought reminded him of what Santana had said the night before. “Oh, I’m sorry about, um…”

“Sorry about what?” Kurt raised an eyebrow, looking confused.

“Someone told me they saw something,” Blaine started softly, slowly, trying to choose words that wouldn’t completely give everything away in case anyone was listening. Then again, the hallway was bustling with people and noise as everyone tried to get their things and get to their classes – it wasn’t likely anyone was paying attention to them. “Yesterday in the locker room.”

“Oh, yes,” Kurt said, his eyes widening with realization. “That was, uh, awkward. It’s okay, I mean, I’m pretty sure it all worked out. Brittany and all…”

“Right.” Blaine startled as he felt arms slip around him from behind, but he relaxed almost instantly because it was the familiar weight of Santana pressed up against his back.

“Hey stranger,” she whispered up next to his ear before releasing him from her hold and sidling up beside him. “You got here early.”

“Yeah, I had some stuff,” Blaine offered with a shrug, barely even noticing their fingers lacing together. It was almost frightening how used to that sort of thing he’d become, though he wished he could have that with Kurt. He glanced over at the other boy, bringing his free hand up to rub at the back of his neck. “Hey, if you and Brit don’t have any lunch plans, we should all grab something together.”

“Yeah definitely, we’ll meet you guys out in the parking lot.”

Kurt insisted on driving at lunch, claiming that his car fit four people much better than anyone else’s. No one could really argue with that – his SUV was huge – and Blaine was more than happy to not have to deal with Santana’s reckless driving for once. He always offered to drive, and she always refused to let him. It seemed like a silly thing to argue about considering that she hadn’t actually killed anyone behind the wheel of a car. Yet, Blaine always reminded himself as he clung to the armrest and silently thanked the inventor of seatbelts.

They went to the Lima Bean – not exactly the most convenient place for lunch but easily the most comfortable. There were limited options for food, but it wasn’t like any of them were bound to go hungry. Sandwiches and muffins were acquired, and Kurt and Blaine had exchanged a look but no words when Brittany started talking about how much she loved muffins, and they found a table off to the side where they could eat and not be bothered. That was perfect, since Blaine had thought all morning about how he wanted to talk to them about his meeting with Miss Pillsbury, but he didn’t exactly want to do it in front of anyone else.

“So, I saw Miss Pillsbury this morning,” he began, mostly to Brittany and Santana because Kurt already knew. He took a bite of his sandwich, ignoring their raised eyebrows. Well, Brittany mostly just looked concerned. “I talked to her about the, um, bullying situation.”

“You what?” Kurt asked, turning to look at him.

“I didn’t give any names, didn’t say anything, I just wanted to bring it to her attention because clearly none of the teachers or staff have any clue that it’s going on,” Blaine hurried onward, keeping his tone quiet just in case. “I thought maybe an outsider’s perspective, a fresh pair of eyes, was a helpful point of view. No one should have to feel afraid of being themselves, and the school really should be paying more attention, so I told her about all that. Not… us, but just the everything else.”

“I think that was a good idea,” Brittany piped up, offering him a smile. “I don’t like when people are mean, so they should know what people are doing.” Blaine was glad for her support, but then again he knew that she was right there with him as far as most things went.

“She said to tell you guys – not that she knew who – that if you ever need to talk, she’s there and everything said in her office stays there,” he added, his gaze flitting back and forth between Santana and Kurt. “I did what I could, but I didn’t exactly have any proof or experiences to lend to her as examples. Not saying that you should have to go and tell her anything, just… she’s there. If you want to talk or anything like that she’s willing to listen, and she’s nice.” He hesitated, and then continued quietly. “If there’s something that happened…”

“This isn’t the time or place,” Kurt interrupted, his posture stiffened.
 

“Even if I did go and talk to her, I doubt that would change anything,” Santana muttered, suddenly disinterested in her blueberry muffin. “People are dicks, that’s just how it is.”

“Nothing will change if we don’t do anything, that’s certain,” Blaine said carefully, reaching across the table and taking her hand. “So we can either stand back and let them get away with it, or we can refuse to be the victim and actually try to make a change in the world. Or in one high school in Lima, Ohio at least.”

“We’re just a bunch of kids.”

“So are they,” he countered, squeezing her fingers. “Sometimes all it takes is a voice, Santana. One voice that grows into many.”

“We’ll see,” Kurt said, finally doing something other than dissecting his sandwich, like he had been doing since he first questioned what Blaine had done. That seemed to dismiss the topic for everyone and they ate in near silence until they headed back to the school. Blaine knew better than to try and push anything, because if they were going to do it, it would be at their own pace, but part of him wanted to ask if Kurt or Santana were actually considering it.

He hoped they were.