Author's Note: I keep writing and re-writing this and I'm just never happy with it. I'm going to try and start the first chapter or so off as… I guess you could somewhat call them 'flashbacks'. Oh, well. We'll see how this goes...

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for my own original characters. I also do not own the title that I picked for this story - it is a song by IThe Killers.

The blue-eyed eight year old was so bored. He just wanted to get home and play his Gameboy or perhaps sneak into his sister's room and see what she was hiding in her diary that week.

His eyes flitted over to where there was a petite girl his own age, sitting a few chairs away. She had shoulder length brown hair that was curled and kept out of her face with a bright, shiny silver headband. She was dressed in the school uniform, though the silver headband matched the small heart-shaped Tiffany's bracelet on her wrist.

"Very good, Charlotte," their teacher complimented as she glanced over the brunette's shoulder at her worksheet. "And I like your headband, is it new?"

The brunette beamed up at the teacher, showcasing her straight, white teeth. "Thank you, Ms. Evans – yes, it is."

"Very nice," the teacher smiled and continued on her way. She glanced down at the boy's worksheet and frowned. "Carter, aren't you going to start your worksheet?"

He frowned back at her and let out a quiet sigh, before writing his name at the top of it. His eyes glanced over to Charlotte Waldorf to see her playing with a strand of her hair as she worked on another problem on the worksheet. The headband was shining in the light and he got a wicked idea.

On his way home that day, he spun the headband around his finger as he walked towards his family's limo, laughing. It was always so much fun to mess with Charlotte Waldorf – the goody two shoes of the Upper East Side.

"I'm having a friend over for dinner, so can you like… not exist?" Sarah Baizen frowned at her younger brother.

He glanced at her and scoffed. She was a seventeen-year-old senior at Constance Billard School for Girls and he had just started his freshman year at their partner school, St. Jude's School for Boys at the age of fourteen.

"You don't have friends," he scoffed. "You have minions."

"Yes, well, she's not a minion yet – she's new," Sarah flipped her dyed blonde hair over her shoulder. "She's actually from your grade."

"My grade?" Carter frowned. "Why are you recruiting from my grade?"

"Because," Sarah stood up and smoothed out the plaid skirt of her Constance uniform, "I'm a senior now, Carter. And I'm going to need someone to take over at Constance next year when I go away to college."

"Why not pick one of the minions?"

It was her turn to scoff as she made her way towards the stairs. "Please, they're more helpless than any freshman. I like this girl, she seems nice."

Carter rolled his eyes and picked his videogame controller back up as his sister left the room. He went and got washed up for dinner about a half an hour before Sarah's friend was to arrive and noticed that his sister was now wearing a designer something-or-other dress and that his mother had laid out one of his nice dress shirts for him to wear. He sighed, got dressed, and made his way downstairs.

He froze on the landing at the sound of a familiar laugh in the sitting room. No, he thought. It couldn't be. A wicked smile grew on his face as he made his way into the room to see none other than Charlotte Waldorf sitting on the sofa with Sarah.

She was also dressed nicely, in a dress that looked familiar to one he'd seen Sarah wear once, and she had heels on. She'd begun wearing heels and accessorizing her uniform at school lately. He should have guessed it had been Sarah's influence.

"Oh," his mother stood up at the sight of Carter in the doorway, glancing curiously at the brunette. He almost rolled his eyes at the sight of a black headband with a bow in her hair. Those stupid headbands of hers…

"Carter, sweetie, come in," she waved her son in. "Charlotte, I'm sure you know Carter… he's in your grade isn't he?"

Carter waited for her to say something terrible about him – he'd seen the way she'd frozen at the sight of him in the door – and he smirked.

"Oh," Charlotte smiled politely. "Yes, Mrs. Baizen. Carter and I were actually in a few of the same elementary school classes together…I didn't realize that you were related," she glanced at Sarah and he could see the look in her eyes.

"Oh, that's lovely," Mrs. Baizen beamed as she sat back down. "Are you two friends?"

Carter's eyes flickered over to where his father was sitting, watching him with narrowed eyes. He prayed that Charlotte kept up whatever ruse she was going with.

"No," she beamed at Carter this time and he could see the look in her eyes. You owe me one. "Unfortunately not – my mother hasn't really let me interact with too many boys, she's worried that they'll distract me from my studies."

"Good woman," Mr. Baizen grunted.

"Oh, yes, your mother… Eleanor Waldorf," Mrs. Baizen was beaming. "She's a fashion designer, right? I loved her Spring collection last year."

"Thank you, Mrs. Baizen," Charlotte's bright green eyes lit up at the compliment. "I helped pick out some of the fabrics. Well, my sister and I both did."

"Oh, you have a sister?" Mrs. Baizen inquired. Carter blinked, this was news to him. He'd never followed much of Charlotte's life unless it helped him torment her.

"Yes," Charlotte was still smiling and Carter had to wonder if her face hurt. "Her name is Blair, she's two years younger than I am."

"How lovely," Mrs. Baizen beamed. "We'll leave you kids alone while we go check and see what's taking so long with dinner." She pulled Mr. Baizen out of the room and Sarah sighed heavily.

"That's the longest anyone's lasted under mom and dad's interrogation," she grinned slyly at Charlotte. "Way to go, Waldorf. You didn't tell me you knew my brother."

Charlotte's grin was gone and in its place was a grimace. "I didn't know you were related to that."

Sarah burst into laughter as she turned her grin to Carter. She turned back to Charlotte. "Oh, kid, I knew there was a reason I liked you."

They were called to dinner not long after and Carter caught Charlotte's arm on her way out, following behind Sarah.

"Let go of me, Baizen," she whispered, ripping her arm from his grasp.

"You could have gotten me in a lot of trouble," he told her. His eyes scanned her face curiously as she remained neutral. "Why'd you lie?"

"Please," she rolled her eyes. "I've heard about your dad, Baizen. I'm not completely cruel."

And with that, he followed her to the dinner table with a grin on his face.

Though Sarah had graduated and Charlotte had taken over the acting position of Constance's queen, it didn't mean that Carter was free of her in his personal life. She kept in touch with Sarah while she was at school and whenever Sarah came home, the two seemed to be attached at the hip.

She'd even convinced their parents to let Charlotte stay at their house in the Hamptons with them for the summer before their junior year. That'd been interesting. He'd gotten to see Charlotte Waldorf in a bikini and his mind had frozen up. Who'd have known she had a body under that drab uniform? Though, he should have guessed because some of the dresses that she'd worn to parties around that time had been pretty tight.

Junior year and Senior year seemed to be overall bad for Charlotte Waldorf. She'd been excited that her younger sister, Blair, and her sister's friend Serena, would be starting Constance that year. Those two reminded Carter of Sarah and Charlotte – the wild blonde and the goody-two-shoes brunette. It actually amazed him how much Blair Waldorf was like her older sister.

Though as the years had gone on, her hair had gone from tight curls to loose curls and no makeup had turned into eyeliner and lip-gloss… but that damn headband remained. And now, even her sister wore one, too.

To his dismay, after seeing Charlotte in that bikini, he'd found out that she had a boyfriend. His name was Jack van Ness and he was a senior. They'd dated up until December, when he'd broken up with her for another girl in his own grade, and potentially screwed Charlotte when it came to having a cotillion escort.

He sucked up his pride, mostly because he didn't want to end up with anyone who he considered beneath him, and had his mother call her mother to set him up as her cotillion escort. And though she'd been angry at first, she had actually thanked him for helping her out. He had shrugged and told her to consider them even for not throwing him under the bus with his father ever.

"Charlotte Waldorf," an older blonde woman grinned. "You look lovely as ever."

Carter had to agree with her. Charlotte was dressed in a long, sparkly silver evening gown and she had her hair done up with some curls escaping. She had in diamond earrings and wore a matching necklace and no stupid headband.

"Thank you, Mrs. van der Woodsen," Charlotte beamed, her arm still linked with Carter's.

"I keep telling you, dear, just call me Lily. And Carter Baizen," Lily turned to him. "You look handsome. I was so excited when your mother called to tell me you'd be escorting Charlotte. You two make such a lovely couple."

"Oh, no, we're not –" Charlotte began, but Carter cut her off with one of his grins.

"Thank you, Lily," he beamed as she left them alone.

"You're an ass," Charlotte rolled her eyes. But he saw the hint of a smile on her face.

"You sound surprised," he mused.

"I guess I shouldn't be," she shrugged. She noticed him sneaking sips from his flask. "Can I?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, but offered it to her and watched as she took a large gulp before handing it back to him. "God, what is that?"

"No idea," he smirked. "I've never seen you drink anything other than champagne… I caught you sipping your mother's whiskey earlier. Everything alright?"

"Not that it's any of your business," she mused as she grabbed a glass of champagne from a waiter. "No," she told him honestly. "No, nothing's alright actually. But can you just… not be nice? I need some normalcy in my life and the whole… gentleman Carter Baizen thing is really adding to the oddity that is currently my life."

"Okay. So, tell me what you need me to do and I'll do it."

She blinked at him. "Can you be a terribly bad influence and get me drunk enough to forget my own name?"

He found himself grinning. "I never thought I'd hear you ask me that. But come on," he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her past her younger sister who was staring at her with curiosity – she'd obviously been told about him from the way she was glaring at him.

He'd kept his promise and had gotten her drunker than he'd ever seen her. He'd even snuck her out of the event and into his limo, where he'd had his driver take them to her penthouse and he'd gotten her upstairs and in her room without any problem. He snuck out and made it home before his mother did, grinning. He hadn't known what was wrong with her then, but he wasn't exactly complaining.

That year had also been the birth of their mutual enemy: Gossip Girl. At first, the mystery blogger had focused solely on Serena van der Woodsen before moving on to focusing on all of the freshman class. Soon, however, the website grew and no one was safe.

That was how Carter Baizen found out that Charlotte had skipped her family Thanksgiving Senior year in lieu of getting drunk with Sarah at a bar. They'd arrived back at the Baizen home late that night and Carter had run into a drunken Charlotte in the hallway.

She'd broken down crying and confessed to him that her parents were getting divorced. Once he'd gotten her to calm down, he led her back to the guest room where she usually stayed on her expenditures with Sarah, and gotten her to go to sleep. She hadn't remembered it the next day.

That was also the year that he'd gotten to save her from a disaster that she'd walked into unknowingly, but that… that story was the secret that the both of them thought they'd be able to take to the grave. As long as Gossip Girl never found out. And if she hadn't posted it then, he highly doubted that she would post it after it'd been a year.

He hadn't seen her since after graduation, and she'd barely made eye contact with him after the incident, as she'd run away to go to school out of the country from what he'd heard. He didn't even know if his sister had heard from her. But occasionally, on his travels abroad, he found himself searching for her name on