Chapter 1 : Dan Humphrey

How long is necessary to change one's life? Is it a decade? A year? 4 years, like high school? For some that change exists only of life altering mistakes for others it is an opportunity to re-invent themselves. It's different for everybody but the time takes everyone as long; life can change in a second. But today mine changed during a 50-minute long English class.

"Good morning students" mister Jureaux exclaimed.

"Morning" some over-willing students answered in harmony; including Blair Waldorf; my ultimate enemy. She hurt everyone I loved and now I was going to NYU along with her.

"Today, as your last day of your senior year here at Constance and St-Judes we have decided to conjoin classes for one day; classes were mixed up from Sophomore's to Seniors for today and today only, behave or else… " mister Jureaux went on; oh that's why we were all here. "You will fulfil different assignments throughout the entire day" by the mentioning of this fun and very surreal pastime the whole class grasped. "Students from Constance will put their names in the basket passing around and then the boys from St. Judes will draw a slip, go ahead"

By the time the basket had gone around all the girls were hoping to get drawn by the cutest guys in our class; Chuck, Nate, … you know who I mean. I'm sure that whoever's name was written on the little ecru piece of paper in my hand wouldn't be too happy about me, me being their partner at least. Mr Jureaux kept on explaining the assignment; "Before you read the slips out loud; let me explain; the name written on your paper is your partner for today; you will be with that partner throughout all classes; before you leave the classroom you will find notes that explain easy steps to get to know your partner better, go ahead, read the names"

I took a peek at my slip; hoping it would be Jenny, that way it'd be easy no worrying about anything, she's my sister after all. Here we go, here we g—This isn't happening! Blair Waldorf?! Are you kidding me?

"Mr. Bass?"

"Jennifer Humphrey" Oh great and he, out of all people, got to spend the day with my sister.

"Serena Van der Woodsen" Nate said

"Nelly Yuki"I heard Nickolai say. I was next in line, should I lie about my partner? I mean teachers could always think that "Mr. Humphrey?" there was just a mi—"Mr. Humphrey? Are you still with us?" I couldn't help myself; "Blair Waldorf" and as I spoke those terrifying words I could see the cute smile from her face get bewildered by dark, angry and disgusted eyes. When everyone was with their partner we left the classroom.

"Help me" Jenny begged, but yet on a humoristic tone, "Wanna switch?" she laughed a little more, but honestly I was hoping she wasn't joking; "See ya' tonight"

"Yeah sure" I replied, thinking about the fact that Chuck wouldn't have completely destroyed her by then. All of a sudden I heard the distinct voice of a brunette girl behind my back: "Look Humphrey, you better step it up because I'm not the loser type and I want to win the prize"

"A prize? There's a prize?"

"Yes at the end of today the duo that scored the most points wins a weekend getaway to Paris"

"How do you know that?" I asked

She gave me a sigh in response. "Right, you're Blair Waldorf, that I even have to ask"

"You're getting better on the uptake, Humphrey"

We walked (well actually she walked, I just followed her around) toward Central Park and when we arrived at Wollman Rink we saw Hazel making out with Jeremiah Smith, a junior. "It didn't take them that long to get to know each other" I said, she replied, which on itself was hard enough to cope: "That's just Hazel" she rolled her eyes as if this girl was Britney Spears, "Alright, first step, 'Tell each other something personal' okay, I'll go first, I have a cabbage patch as well" she ordered me to speak; "Oh, I, I, I own the Elvis Presley Gold Collection on CD and LP"

She instantly gave me look that could only mean one thing; gross.

I took the liberty to take the card and read the second step "Okay, next; who did you hope you'd spend the day with?"

"Not you" she said, clearly still hating me

"Jenny"

"Why?"

"That wasn't the assignment"

"No but I asked Humphrey"

"You seriously have to stop calling me that! And because I was afraid that if I'd be paired up with Serena I'd have to face to many issues and you, well, you hate me so it's pretty evident that I don't want to be paired up with you"

"I see and just so you know, I don't hate you, I just, don't know how to act appropriately around you, you're not the type I usually hang with"

"Yeah, I know how you feel"

"So what's next?"

"Uhm, 'What would you say to your partner if he/she told you that he/she had a crush on you?' yeah in our case that's pretty easy" I grimaced, making her look down a bit, clearly hiding something. "What?"

She looked back up: "Nothing, it's just that, never in a million years did I ever expect me and you to talk about these things"

"Makes two of us"

"And just so you know, I could totally be in love with you if you lost the sarcasm, the over-protectiveness, the judging, all those things and if you lived in Manhattan" we both laughed, it actually felt nice, for a change. She was right though; I could love her too if she weren't such a manipulative, back-stabbing, 95-pound pack of girly meanness. The thought of Blair Waldorf only being just Blair Waldorf, daughter, friend and girlfriend made me stop laughing, she noticed the change in my expression and suddenly stopped laughing as well. After 2 long minutes, I counted her breaths to tell the time, she broke the uncomfortable yet just silence: "Give me that" I was sure she meant the card so I handed it over. "All right, it says here we have to tell each other 3 things we like about each other"

"I'm sure she won't have a problem finding out" I gestured toward the redhead sitting 7 benches away from us. "Well, I'll start; I like what you do for those girls"

"What does that mean?" she asked

"Well, how you keep hanging out with them, I don't like what you do with them, but what you do for them is pretty good"

"Okay, I like, that you take care of Jenny so much, if I ever had a brother, he'd have to be like you, only better-looking"

"I like, I like, that you keep putting yourself out there for Serena, even though she's hurt you so many times you keep giving her the benefit of the doubt"

"Since I can't find a third thing I like, I'll just say this; I envy you sometimes"

"Me? Are you sure we're talking about the same Dan Humphrey here?" I demanded

"Haha, you're getting better at the joke-thing too, Dan"

"Hey you called me Dan! Thanks Waldorf!" I joked

"Well, I envy you because of your willpower, determination, strength you find every time you get knocked out by some spoiled kid at our school, you drown in the pool of wealth and yet you manage to keep paddling. I envy you for that, I don't think I could survive one night in Brooklyn even if I wanted to"

"Wanna test that theory?"

"Huh?"

"Tonight, you come with me to my place and we do my kind of thing"

"Your kind of thing?"

"Yeah, Rufus Humphrey's infamous chilli and board games"

"Uh, I don't know"

"It's Humphrey style, dawg"

She burst out in laughter "I'll come if you never say dawg again"

"Okay" We stood up and left. And as for now, we were finally on good terms.