The rest of the day was going well. The jocks would greet me with a nod or a man-hug. If I ever pass by someone getting bullied, I make sure to step in. I am on good terms with the popular crew, so they would just roll their eyes at me and leave the person alone. It did annoy me a little considering nobody really stepped for me, but then I told myself to get over it. I did have people that stood for me including Jasper. I can't believe the guy's in town. But Blaine did say something about him teasing her, I wonder what that's about..
During lunch, Jesse would slap my back a couple of times while I'm eating. I stopped eating and was super thankful that I finished all my breakfast before I left the house. I would ask for Kevin's help, but he was talking to some of the other guys. Blaine would catch my eye and laugh at my misery while she was in her own conversation with the cheerleaders. I then started a conversation with Jesse.
"Hey Jess." He turns to look at me. He probably thought I would have just ignored him the whole time.
"Yeah, what's up?" He asks with a grin and I stop myself from giving a sarcastic response.
"Could I eat my food in peace please?" I say pointing at my tray.
"Sure." He answers and I'm pretty sure I looked surprised. I hurried to finish my food before he changes my mind. While I'm swallowing my drink, he says, "Don't want you to have another thing to complain about at the gym." I shrugged and ate some more.
"Nah I have dual enrollment today." I say with a smile. He rolls his eyes at me.
"Of course you do."
~~
"Hey Alan! Come on, Kevin said he'll give us a ride to college." Blaine says as she grabs my arm while I'm putting my stuff in my locker. I nod at her and close my locker when I'm done and she pulls me to the exit.
"I'm coming Blaine." I said as if it made a difference.
Kevin took us along with Jesse considering the gym was close by, Blaine and I said our thanks. Afterwards, we got ready to present for class. The professor wanted us to update the class on our progress with the project. When it was our turn, Blaine and I walked quietly to the front of the classroom.
"Do you have your glasses?" Blaine asks me in a whisper. I nodded. "Hello everyone, my name is Blaine Evans." She waved to the class. I was a little more shy having everyone's attention on me.
"My name is Alan Gray." I say to the class as I keep one of my hands in my pocket holding on my glasses.
"Our project is called My Nerd Project. I have this guide that we think will help make Alan more popular. So far, he's dyed his hair, traded his glasses for contacts, has been routinely going to the gym, and gets himself in social activities." She nods at me and I read out loud the words I have written in the paper that I have already memorized. I go on explaining how the guide has a lot of pros to it. Blaine mentions that we still have a few more lessons to go and we get asked a few questions.
"How are the contacts going?" One of the students ask in a joking manner and a few people laugh including Blaine and me.
"They're okay," I shrug.
"What do you two hope to get out of this project?" The professor asks. I look at Blaine.
"We want to see if popularity is worth changing your image." Blaine answers while looking at the class.
"I just want to survive high school," I say with a chuckle, trying to end on a good note. People laugh at this and even our professor looks happy.
"Okay great progress so far, please put your notes on my desk and take your seats; Thank you." The class starts to clap for Blaine and me while we thank him and do as he says.
We watch as a few more groups go up, and then class is over before I know it. A lot of the projects seem very interesting. Psychology is one of my favorite classes for sure. As we make our way to the parking lot, Blaine says that Jasper is the one picking us up.
I quickly fix my hair and make sure my shirt isn't tucked in or anything. Jasper was like an older brother to me; he would look out for me and be a role model of a person I would want to be. When my dad passed away, both Blaine's father and brother would occasionally check on me to see if I needed anything.
When I saw him waiting outside the car, I immediately wanted to walk quicker. Blaine, however, wanted to stay behind. She told me to go on ahead so I did. I nodded at Jasper.
"Hey!" I said. He nodded back looking a little confused.
"Hey man." He answered to me and nodded to Blaine when she came. "Hey Blaine, where's lover boy?" Blaine's cheeks went red immediately. Wait, who's lover boy? I stepped back subconsciously.
"Uh..." I said not even knowing what was going on. Jasper turned back to me.
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. My name's Jasper, you?" He didn't even recognize me, but I still felt put off with what he said to Blaine.
"Jasper, it's me Alan." He looked at me shocked. I put on my glasses to show him real quick. He started to laugh and punched my arm.
"It is you," He put his arm up and we did one of those man-hugs. He looked at me in surprise, and I smiled.
"A lot has changed about me, I know. My voice, hair, glasses, a lot." I said with shrugging. "Believe it or not, I'm somewhat cool now." He ruffled my hair. I laughed. "Come on, no, not the hair." I shouldn't have even bothered trying to fix it with how many times people keep messing with it.
"Nah it's my fault for not recognizing a dork when I see one," he said chuckling so I know he's joking. "Let me guess, I wasn't the only one who couldn't tell."
"You have no idea," I said shaking my head. We all got in the car. He would ask me about school; he tried talking to Blaine but she seemed bent on not talking to him.
"Any trouble or anything?" He questions on our way home. He was asking about bullies, so I quickly shook my head again. Things were actually looking up for me.
"Nah. I even made new friends, they're cool." He nods at me.
"More chess buddies?" He joked. I started to laugh but face-palmed myself instead. I forgot all about chess club. Hopefully I can get them to excuse my past absences..
"More like jocks." I said quietly. "They're pretty cool."
"Good, you just let me know if anyone starts bothering you." He says seriously. I nod at him so he leans back in his seat satisfied. "Hey Blaine." He called. She quickly glared at him. He innocently looked at her. "You can't stay mad at me for long." She crossed her arms and looked away. "I drove all the way from college to see you guys."
"You got on a plane." She answered flatly trying to hide a smile. He laughed and shrugged.
"Right, right." He said. "Everything going well here Blaine?" He said in a teasing tone.
"Shut up Jasper!" She said throwing her arms in the air then covering her face with them.
"It seems some people's feelings just don't go away." He continued. My mind was drawing a blank.
"What do you mean?" I questioned.
"Oh nothing." He says innocently and turned his attention on me. "Anything new going on that I should know about?" I looked at him in surprise.
"Not really?" I say, which ends up sounding like a question. He looks at Blaine quickly.
"You sure?" He asks me once more.
"Yeah I think so, why what's up?" I ask.
"Hey, look we're already home." He says. Seeing this, Blaine opens her door and goes inside leaving us both still in the car.
"Hey Alan." Jasper calls me while I watch as Blaine hurried out of here.
"Yeah Jasper?" I ask him as I turn my attention back to him.
"What do you think of her?" He asked me in a straight voice.
"Who, Blaine? She seems mad." I said wondering what was bothering her.
"That's not what I meant; you like her, right?" I looked at him in shock. He never asked about my feelings for Blaine before. I couldn't even speak for a second. "Maybe love her?" He asked and I completely froze, this was her older brother. Older brother.. I couldn't even help it, I was panicking a little on the inside. Did I say a little? I meant a lot.
"I mean-" I wanted to face-palm so bad right now!
"You should tell her." He said. After a few more seconds, he added, "Just- don't hurt her, got it?" He seemed waiting for my answer. So, I started to nod. "Good." He then turned the car off and went inside.
Me don't hurt her? Hurt her how? Was he trying to say she had feelings for me too in that way? But no, this is Blaine. So why was she blushing in the car? And am I supposed to be lover boy? Or was that Kevin? But Jasper knew I was with Blaine. I sighed. This whole love thing was so complicated. I could already feel my hopes going up. So I got out of the car and went inside Blaine's house. Jasper let me go up to Blaine's room, so I did and knocked on her door. She let me in when she realized I was alone, and before I lost my courage, I gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Sorry about Jasper embarrassing you." I said clearly but my nerves were at an all-time high. I started playing with my hands and looked up to see her cheeks were as red as mine felt.
"It's okay." She said after a while.
"You'll always be my Blaine too." I said the words that I should've said earlier.
"And you'll always be my dork," she answered. We both looked up at each others eyes at the same time and the time felt so intense. I was going to ask her if I was 'lover boy', but suddenly I heard a loud bang and looked to see Jasper outside Blaine's open door. It seemed he tried to get our attention for a while. As nervous as I was in this situation, something felt so warm inside me. I didn't need my glasses to put myself together, I needed Blaine.
"Mom said dinner's almost ready." Jasper said to us then walked out. I looked at Blaine. Do I tell her I have feelings for her? But how do I do that? And what if ruins everything? Makes it awkward for the rest of our project?
"I-I think we should get down there then, don't want the food to get cold." Did I really just say that? The dinner wasn't even ready yet! I'm such a coward. I'm not the same dork as before; I thought I could have at least told Blaine by now.
"Yeah sure! I-I'm just going to change out of my uniform real quick." She said still blushing a little. I blushed and got out of her way. I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at myself. I knocked on Jasper's room and he let me in. I didn't bother closing the door all the way; I was too upset.
"I am such a dork." I told him grabbing my glasses out of my pocket. I sat myself at his chair near his desk.
"Don't you wear contacts?" He asked taking notice of my glasses.
"Yeah." I answered still holding onto my glasses. He sat up on his bed and looked at me curiously.
"What's the problem lover boy?" He asked me. So I was lover boy? I sighed.
"I can't tell her how I feel. It just isn't right. And it was supposed to be easier since I changed and everything." Jasper looked at me for a while and just shrugged.
"Why don't you just change back then?" I shook my head at his question.
"I don't want to be a nerd anymore. I don't really mind the gym sessions, you know? I get healthy and whatever. But I do want my glasses back, I want to go to chess club, and I want to be able to look at your sister's eyes and say how much I care about her, not just as a friend, but more.. To tell her that I love her." I sighed, he already knew anyway. A gasp at the door turned our eyes at a surprised person. Our expressions were just as shocked if not more. I looked back at Jasper and closed my eyes.
This is not how I wanted her to know.