Struck By Love

I know that blackmailing half the school isn't really the wisest decision to make because what if I get caught? What if Northwestern won't accept me because blackmailing is on my permanent record? You think that I didn't think about that? I have, I think about this all the time, but what other option do I have? Go to the school on my knees and beg anyone I meet to write at least two lines for the magazine? No, thanks, I'd rather go to give a bath to my grandma. Ugh and now I'm just making myself sick.

I love my grandma, but I really didn't have to imagine that.

I don't want Blaine to try to convince me to stop the operation Clovergate, I know that I have to do it. And I know it's wrong, but Blaine will just have to get used to it because there is nothing that I wouldn't do to get to Northwestern and away from this stinky town.

It's Monday, October 15, and I'm walking around the campus, looking for Blaine. I dismissed myself early from chemistry so Malerie and I (and Blaine) could get started with the operation. Today is officially the Clovergate Day One.

After ten minutes, I finally find him in his Spanish class. The door is opened and he's not sitting very far away, so I just call his name. (I don't bother with the teacher hearing me, she's an 80 year old woman who can't see shit in front of her without her double glasses and has to have a hearing aid to hear anything. The only reason she's still teaching is because she kicks ass in Spanish and people respect her too much.)

Blaine doesn't hear me at first, it seems like he's writing something in Spanish and he's way too much focused on it. I wait a few seconds, just looking at him... I never appreciated how handsome he really is. His neatly gelled black hair (I wonder how he looks without the hair gel applied), his bright yellow shirt with red bow tie and a little smirk while he's writing. I sigh. He really is handsome. And his jawline, God!

Smack! I mentally slap myself. I can't get distracted like this, not now. I have to focus on our plan – I still have over five people to blackmail and I haven't even found any dirt on some of them yet.

"Blaine!" I call again. This time he looks in my direction and immediately smiles at me. I smile back and show him with my hand to come to me. He hesitantly looks at the teacher and other students. They don't really pay attention and Mrs. Nevelson is writing something on the blackboard. He looks back at me and nods slightly. He grabs his things and sneaks out of the classroom to me.

"Hi," he says as soon as we're behind the wall. I give him a hug. "So, what's going on?" He asks then.

"Time to blackmail – I call it Operation Clovergate!" I grin at him. His smile disappears and he looks back into the classroom, then back at me.

"You know that I don't like that idea." He whispers.

"I know, just consider this a rescue from your Spanish class then. Now let's go." I grab his arm and we go. He doesn't say anything else until we reach Malerie's art class.

We look inside. She's sculpting and her hands are completely covered in clay. She had to put her camcorder aside, but it didn't leave her side, it's right there next to her on the table, recording her sculpting. She is making a Bugs Bunny bust of sorts.

"Malerie, let's go!" I say to her from the doorway. "Clovergate time!" I hear Blaine scoff behind me, but I ignore it.

"But I'm sculpting," Malerie says, looking around for her art teacher, but honestly ditching her class is the least of her worries. The teacher wears an eye patch and is missing four fingers – he used to teach wood shop.

"Malerie, this is no time for sculpting!" I hiss. She looks around confused and then back at me and Blaine. She stands up finally and gathers her things with her elbows since her hands are still dirty. She presses her camcorder to her chest, apparently not having another place for it, plus she obviously doesn't want to stop filming.

Finally she reaches the door and looks one more time into the classroom.

"Hey, it's that pencil guy from homecoming!" Some jackass in the class says. I don't even bother answering, I just acquaint him with my middle finger and then we finally leave.

When we're finally in the journalism room, Malerie helps me to make a large CLOVERGATE board. Blaine isn't helping. He's just sitting on the table with his bag in his lap, looking at us. I guess I won't make him agree with me and the whole plan then.

We put up school pictures of who my first victims would be: Claire, Coach Walker, Remy Baker, Nicholas and Scott. Yeah, my sights are set very high. I plan to blackmail the whole football team and all cheerleaders once I get coach Walker and Claire.

"Capture the queen, and the colony will follow," I say, looking at the board and adding Vicki and Dwayne. See? I'm not targeting only the popular kids.

"Yeah," Malerie nods her head, "unless the ants revolt and execute the queen first like they did in my ant farm." I ignore her – she says weird things like this all the time... even weirder sometimes.

"So many people to blackmail, so little time," I say.

"How are we going to blackmail all of them?" Malerie asks and looks at me.

"I don't know," I admit and fold my arms on my chest.

"Well, maybe you don't have to blackmail any of them." Blaine says, looking down. I turn to him and he looks up at me.

"Blaine," I say and go closer to him. "Remember, we're doing this for me, for our future life," I smile at him and take his hand into mine. He doesn't smile back though. "And I mean, I already got dirt on most of them." I add. "How hard could it be to use it against them?" He looks down again, but keeps holding my hand.

"Wait, guys?" Malerie says and steps a bit closer to us. For the first time in forever, she shuts down her camcorder and puts it on the table next to her. "Are- are you gay?" She asks.

Blaine pales visibly and squeezes my hand. I laugh a bit and look at him. "It's okay, it's just Malerie," I say and squeeze back. "Right?" I look at her. She still doesn't seem to get it.

"Yes, we're boyfriends, Malerie." I confirm.

"Oh, yeah, okay," she shrugs, "I'm happy for you," she turns her camcorder back on, facing the Clovergate board.

"See?" I tell Blaine, looking into his caramel eyes. "She doesn't care." I smile at him.

"Alright," He smiles back and pulls me closer for a quick kiss. "And..." He trails off.

"No, I'm not canceling the Clovergate operation." I roll my eyes and turn back to Malerie and the board." So as I said, I got dirt on most of them, but I'm not sure about the others. But then again," I look at Malerie. "Columbus wasn't sure North America was there. And you know what he did when he got there?"

"What?" Malerie asks.

" He enslaved every Indian around him."

"Oh," Malerie says and then steps closer to the board. "All you little Indians watch out."

"How far are you willing to go?" Blaine asks suddenly and hops down off the table. I turn to him.

"Until the Magazine is done and I get to Northwestern." I answer and look back at the board, ignoring Blaine shaking his head. "Some will be much easier than others," I say. "Oh and remember Malerie, if anything happens to me while I'm attempting this, you and Blaine are in charge of the Chronicle and the Writers' Club."

Malerie opens her mouth and her eyes widen. She probably thinks that I might really die. "Don't worry Malerie," I quickly say, "I won't die." She relaxes and looks at the board again, still a bit confused.

"Who are you starting with?" Blaine asks. I look at the board again and at Remy's cheesy class-photo smile.

I smirk."I'm starting with Frodo here." I point at her big head. "She's in my English class next period."

Three down, four to go! Clovergate Day One has been a big success! I successfully managed to blackmail Remy and Nicholas with Scott. I made Remy send me a pic of her naked... and well, needless to say, I can't even look at her face anymore. Not that it was any easier before.

And Nicholas with Scott were already under my control, I just gave them a bright yellow flyer that said that they are invited to attend a mandatory meeting in the journalism classroom Friday after school. I can't even wait for that day, but on the other hand I'm a bit nervous. I don't doubt that I can handle such a power over them, I worry about not convincing them to write for me. What if they refuse to do anything and I spread the gossip about them (or the picture in Remy's case) and no one's gonna believe me? I'd be screwed.

"Hey," I look up and see Blaine. I'm leaning against my car, waiting for him – I'm taking Blaine home.

"Hey," I smile at him and open the door for him. He gets inside and seats himself next to me, on the passenger seat. I start the car.

"So, how did it go?" He asks awkwardly.

"The Clovergate?" I ask and he nods. "Well, I got Remy and Nicholas with Scott today. Those two were the easiest, now I just need to blackmail the rest of them." I finish, smiling. He's not smiling though, he's still silent and then, after a minute, he speaks.

"So you really aren't stopping, uh?" He says, the tone of his voice sad.

I sigh. "Look, I've already told you, I can't stop the operation. I've already blackmailed three people today, I'm not going to throw away my last chance to get to Northwestern."

"Okay, okay," He murmurs and looks out of the crappy window of my car. "Hey, let's change the subject." He suggests.

"I'm listening," I smile while still looking at the road in front of us.

"My parents are supposed to be out tonight, so we have a lot of time." He smirks at me and continues. "Now, I suggest we go to my room and well, I can teach you play the piano for example." He winks at me and I almost forget where to drive when I see his beautiful smile.

"I'd like that," I smile at him and wink back.

After about fifteen minutes I'm parking in front of Blaine's house. His dad's car isn't in the driveway, so Blaine was right and his parents aren't at home. That's great, I smirk at him again as he opens the door and gets out of the car.

Once we're in front of the main door, he opens and we go inside. The whole house looks so great when I know it's going to be just the two of us. He takes my hand and leads me to the stairs to his room, grinning.

"Blaine?" We suddenly hear his mom say. He immediately lets go of my hand and looks in her direction. She was still behind a corner when we were holding hands, thank God.

"Mom?" He asks and she looks at us. Then only at Blaine, and then only at me. She suspiciously narrows her eyes. I hear Blaine swallow.

"Hi, I'm Pamela, Blaine's mom." She suddenly introduces herself with a smile on her face, reaching out her hand, probably expecting me to shake it. I don't.

"I'm Carson," I just say.

"He's my tutor." Blaine quickly says and looks at his mom. "I know my dad wants me to be great at school, and I didn't get one lesson in Algebra, something about an imaginary number and Kurt offered his help." He looks at me and then at her, wishing that she would buy it.

"Kurt?" She asks.

"Yeah, well I'm Carson Kurt Phillips, so… " I explain. She nods her head and smiles once again.

"Um, why are you home so early?" Blaine asks carefully.

"Well, your dad got suddenly a lot of work he had to finish tonight, so we had to cancel the whole plan for today." She says. Blaine and I nod in the same time and she smiles slightly. "Well, I'll let you two work on that imaginary number or what the hell it is," She turns away. "Yeah, and Blaine?" She turns back at him.

"Hm?"

"After you two are done and you're hungry, I'll leave you something in the fridge. I need to go to the bank today, so I won't be at home." With that she finally walks away into the living room.

After a few seconds Blaine finally goes to his room. I silently follow him upstairs and close the door to his room after we're both in. He sits on the bed and I sit next to him, putting my hand on his thigh.

"It's okay, she doesn't know." I say and rub his shoulder.

"Yeah," He smiles sadly. "But now I can't teach you to play the piano." We both laugh silently.

"To be honest I don't get the imaginary number either." I laugh and he laughs too.

"Well, you can at least pretend to teach me."

"I have a way better idea." I smile and lean in to kiss him. He kisses me back and it's exactly like the first time. In his room, on his bed, his fingers playing with my hair and my hands on his cheeks. Though this time it's different because we're already boyfriends. We don't care where are we or what time is it, or anything, we love each other... Oh my God, I love him. I'm probably in love!

I pull away and stare into his brown eyes. "Blaine," I whisper. "I think I love you." I admit, worried that he might not feel the same. But his smile gets even bigger and he kisses me again, hard.

"I love you too." He gasps between the kisses. I chuckle and hug him. He hugs me back, closing his eyes. It's the most perfect moment. I'm in my boyfriend's arms and I'm actually happy. Once I get to Northwestern, I'll probably be so happy I might actually get a heart attack.

Suddenly we both hear the main door closing loudly.

"Blaine?!"

It's his dad's voice.

And he's angry.