Gossip Girl (Book One)

Eleven

I was walking down the halls of the school with five giant candy canes. I saw Lily and Bart Bass talking. "Lena!" Lily said and I smiled at her. "Oh, happy holidays!"

"Happy holidays, Miss Van Der Woodsen." We kissed cheeks and I looked over at mr. Bass. "Mister Bass, I didn't think you were still in town... I figured you were-"

"With Charles. No, sadly I'm stuck here on business while he suns himself at my hotel in Monaco. I have my staff keeping an eye on him and I'll join him for New Year's." Bart said and I nodded.

"Oh, right, I... I was wondering why he's been so quiet... and Monaco answers my question. Lovely to see you two. Bye." I walked away. I would have expected an apology by now. Monaco makes sense. I walked out of the school where Blair was on her phone with Serena.

"Blair! There you are." I said.

"Lena, you got a huge sweet tooth?" Serena asked, chuckling.

"Well, yeah, but two of these are Blair's." I said handing two of them over to Blair.

"They're for my dad and me, we get them every year." Blair looked at her watch. "And he landed from Paris 27 minutes ago."

Serena dragged us towards the exit and I followed. "Oh, then vite, vite, I parle while you marche. Come on, I said vite!" Serena shouted and I laughed.

We walked to the street and Blair tried to get a taxi, but it went straight by. "Hey! Nice holiday spirit, Scrooge!" Blair yelled at them.

"Oh gosh, it's gonna be a real Waldorf Christmas?" Serena asked and Blair smiled.

"A real Waldorf Christmas eve. Eleanor drew the line at Christmas day. That's only for me, her and Dorota." Blair explained.

"Well, you still have a couple of days with your dad." I said and Blair smiled at me.

"No, it will be more than just a couple of days. I'm gonna convince him to stay in New York." Blair said and I looked at her confused.

"What about Paris and Roman?"

"Roman is a phase. My father belongs here with me. He only left New York to ride out the scandal." Blair explained and we both waved to get a cab to stop. "Time to come home, don't you think?" The cab stopped and Blair opened the door. Blair looked back at Serena. "Didn't you want to ask me something?"

"Yes, a gift idea for Dan... now that Vanessa got him the most thoughtful Dan-like present ever." Serena said.

"Why don't you just buy him a new outfit for Cedric and call it a day?" Blair said getting into the cab.

"Thank you for being totally not helpful at all?" Serena said.

"See you tomorrow night." I said and the cab drove away. I looked over at Serena. "Come with me. I gotta get Carter's present." I said.

"Thank you for being help." Serena said and I laughed walking with her.

~~~

I got an SOS text from Blair and went to her house. I walked into her room to see Blair sitting on the couch in front of her laptop. "Hey, you told me to come right away. Is everything alright?" I asked going over to sit down next to her.

"Yeah." Blair said, staring at her screen.

"Why aren't you with your dad?" I asked confused.

"Eh, I need your login for your agency's site from your modeling days." Blair said and I groaned.

"Please do not call it my modeling days."

"You did 12 photoshoots."

"During my pageant days." I shuddered at the thoughts and Blair smirked at me. "What... are you holding an open call or something?"