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“Look at all of these old pictures,” Kurt said softly, surprised. He had not really thought of looking at old pictures before, except for that time in eighth grade when he had dug out every old picture of his mother that still remained. He smiled as he thumbed through a tattered looking photo album that had obviously been kept by his mother. The entire album was dominated by a progression of Kurt pictures from around ages two to seven.
On the first page, a toddler Kurt smiled wide and held his hand up in some kind of little wave.
“Finn, look.”
His stepbrother crawled over and looked over his shoulder. “Cute,” he said. “I didn’t know you had so many old pictures. You were a cute kid Kurt.”
Kurt smiled and flipped a page.
“Kindergarten,” he said, shaking his head as he turned to another section of the album. Yes, he remembered kindergarten, sort of. A five year old version of Kurt stood on a playground blacktop with some kind of paper crown on his head. He grinned just as madly as he had in the younger picture.
His father was right, he was a total ham for the camera.
“Hey, who’s that kid with you?” Finn asked, pointing to a picture of Kurt and a slightly larger boy playing in the sandbox. He was mostly turned away from the camera, so Kurt didn’t recognize him.
“I dunno,” he said, trying to recall the names of his childhood friends. He honestly couldn’t remember much about kindergarten, which was disappointing. He was sure that it was a good time, crayons, paper crowns and sandcastles being good things.
He turned the page and there was a picture of that little boy again. His arm was wrapped around Kurt and he was grinning with a cheesy grin that could put Kurt’s to shame. “Holy shit…” Kurt said, dropping the photo album like it was on fire. The little boy in the picture was Dave Karofsky, there was no mistaking him for who he was.
“What is it?” Finn asked, picking the album up again and acting confused. He recognized it too, though, instantly.
“Karofsky,” he said, seriously. He knew Karofsky as a kid, though not this young. He had been rivals with the boy at about eleven years old and here, well it looked as though Kurt had been very good friends with the boy earlier.
“How come I don’t remember this?” Kurt asked, looking at Finn.
Finn shrugged .”You went to kindergarten here?” he asked.
Kurt nodded.
“I went to one slightly out of town.” Finn responded. “I transferred to the elementary school here in second grade. Karofsky’s always been in one of my classes or another. Take the picture out? My mom always wrote stuff on the back of pictures that she took.”
Kurt delicately took the photo of the hugging children out of its album. On the back, written in his mother’s pristine penmanship, were the words: Dave & Kurt, Best Friends. 1999-2000.
Kurt frowned. “I don’t get this,” he mumbled, quickly shoving the book aside. He had to think about this.
-
Dave instantly noticed something sticking out of the slits in his locker. He opened his locker and it fluttered to the floor. It was a picture. He turned it around and saw it. In the picture, two little boys held onto each other and smiled like crazy. He recognized one of them as his childhood self. The other boy was Kurt Hummel.
He frowned. “Hummel?” he asked.
Just thought you should know - xo Kurt.
He turned it around and read aloud, “Best friends?”