Exile

1.Oh Wilderness

'I'm standing in the middle of a forest in the middle of nowhere with a broken Jimmy Choo tell me, how am I being melodramatic?' –Blair Waldorf

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'I can do this,' Blair Waldorf muttered clutching the steering wheel of the pick-up truck with sheer determination; sure she didn't have a driver's licence, but honestly how hard could it be to drive this thing? Even cabbies could drive for God's sake, and Lord knows they're not exactly the brightest crayons in the box.

'Foot on the clutch, turn the key, release the handbrake and gently press on in the gas pedal,' Blair muttered recalling the short but frustration filled driving lesson Roman had given her yesterday though now she wished she'd paid more attention since she couldn't remember for the life of her which one was the gas pedal. 'Left or right?' she mused biting her lip in concentration before slowly nodding. 'Right, definitely right.'

She released the clutch and pressed down on the gas pedal; the car jerked a few times before finally coming to a very abrupt halt.

'Oh come on!' she shrieked slapping the steering wheel in frustration; why was absolutely EVERYTHING boycotting her?

After Chuck's painful and not to mention embarrassing snub, she'd hoped that her father would just let her wallow in self-pity in beautiful sunny France not drag her into this humid hellhole named Forks because apparently the countryside and its disgusting bugs, terrible climate and idiotic townies would do her much more good than locking herself away in a perfectly comfortable villa where everything her heart could possibly desire was in her perfectly manicured grasp! So here she was in the middle of the woods, where her father had bought a charming little chalet, all alone because her father and his boyfriend were out hiking (since when did gay men hike anyway?) sitting in a black pick-up-truck that wouldn't even move! How was she going to get to Port Angeles, which had the clothes shops that Forks lacked, if this thing wouldn't take her there?

'I can do this,' she said through gritted teeth starting the car again, this time releasing the clutch and pressing the gas pedal much more gradually and surely enough the truck actually started moving: Praise the Lord there was a way out of this hellhole…though it was going to take her forever since it took a lot of concentration to actually keep the truck on the dirt track and she was afraid to go any faster than 15 miles an hour through this wilderness. 'I am Blair Waldorf, I am the Queen Bee, I can drive a car, I will survive,' she muttered gripping the steering wheel just a bit tighter and for a minute it seemed like her luck was finally changing…that was until she came face to face with a herd of deer that had decided that it was a good idea to just stop and lounge in the middle of the road.

Startled she pressed her foot down on the accelerator, in her alarm mistaking it for the brake, and instinctively turned the steering wheel causing her to swing off the dirt road and right into a tree; the car slammed into it and the airbag slammed into her.

'This is not happening,' Blair muttered after the initial shock had worn off as she patted herself in search of injury before finally checking her face in the rear-view mirror; everything seemed okay and she hoped she could say the same thing about the car. She struggled with her seatbelt, her hands still shaking from the adrenaline that was undoubtedly coursing through her body, before pushing open the door and climbing out of the vehicle, the heels of her dainty white Choos sinking into the mucky forest ground. She clumsily waddled towards the front of the car and cringed: the front of the car was squashed into the sturdy tree that hadn't even budged under the impact.

'Oh sweet heaven,' she stated rubbing brow; she could feel the onset of a severe migraine. How was she going to navigate herself out of this mess? Her cell phone didn't even have reception in this place! And for God's sake she was Blair Waldorf, not some boy scout; the most primitive place she'd ever been in was Brooklyn for crying out loud and sure Brooklyn may have drug dealers and brooding artists but this place had bears, she couldn't handle bears right now!