Nathaniel Archibald had always tied his best to make his father proud of him; getting caught stealing his coach's Viagra which was the main cause to him loosing his high school diploma had not helped. Then – when given the chance to get himself out of this trouble by spending the summer fixing up his coach's summer house in the Hampton's, he chose to run away with his long time love affair – Blair Waldorf, steal his father's boat and sail around the world with her.

Oh yes, your logical way of making decisions astounds me.

Having finally gotten back to New York, he had been trying to avoid going home; just as much as he was trying to avoid telling Blair that he didn't get his diploma. Neither could he avoid forever. So Nate stood outside of his Park Avenue town house a little after midnight smoking a blunt attempting to calm his nerves before he went inside. His wavy gold hair was messy having been tousled by the sea wind for most of the summer, his skin a brilliant tan, his emerald green eyes sparkling with worry. Nate took the last drag and threw what was left on the floor then stomped it out. He took a deep breath steeled himself and then began to enter his home. He managed to sneak up to the 2nd floor without being seen or caught, the really tricky part would be getting by his dad's study to get to his room. If he was really lucky his dad would be in bed and not even be in the room at all. He got to the hallway and peered down, sure enough the light was on; Nate cursed this turn in events… maybe he could still get by. He was almost to the room when his dad called out:

"Raven… is that you?" Nate swung around stunned into a frozen state wondering who the hell Raven was.

That's right, who the hell is Raven and why is your father looking for her?

Suddenly the door to his room swung open and a girl's head poked out. She stood at least a 5"2 seeing as her head came just a little past his shoulder, she had pale skin, brilliant blue eyes, and dark brown hair hanging down to her shoulders, and she was wearing his favourite shirt, much like a baggy and yet clingy dress – Nate could clearly see that she had several very nice curves. The shirt hung limply down to her mid thighs, the rest of her legs being completely bare. She looked at him up and down and then called out:

"Did you call for me, Sir?" She waved to Nate to get him into the room as she went over to the study to look in at the Navy Capitan who had asked for her. Nate watched her go – his intoxicated mind trying to hard to comprehend what was happening- she was barefoot too, and he could hear her feet padding softly on the hardwood flooring. Nate watched her go, his mind stuck on the "Who-is-this?" dial all while staring at her butt, her hips sashayed with each movement leaving her butt to shake back and forth underneath his shirt.

Lucky Shirt.

She pushed the door open a little bit, and Nate retreated into his room so his dad wouldn't see him, but decided to keep the door open so he could hear the conversation.

"No I thought I heard someone in the hall." He heard his father reply, there was a scraping sound of his chair being pushed back from his desk, why was he getting up?

"Oh, no that was just me in the room, you know me can't get to sleep." The girl responded. "Why are you up so late… Sir?" she asked

"Well I thought my son would be coming back today, the boat was docked this morning." He responded to her.

"Well I'm sure he'll be back soon." The girl chirped, and heard his dad whispered goodnight and kiss her somewhere, then he walked out of his study towards the room he shared with his wife and Nate's mom. Nate pushed himself back into the dark room hoping his dad hadn't seen him peering in through the crack in the door. Shortly after the girl followed and came into his room, she flicked on the light, and crossed her hands over her chest.

"You're lucky I was here to save you. Where have you been anyways? What were you thinking running away like that? Do you have any idea how mad he is at you? Well what do you have to say for yourself?" She lectured deliberately keeping her voice down, while pacing back in forth in front of him much like an agitated cat.

"Excuse me… but who are you?" Nate cried, absolutely flabbergasted that a complete stranger living in his room, wearing his clothes and being kissed by his father was trying to lecture him.

"Oh, I'm Raven, you're parents are thinking of adopting me." She whispered sticking her hand out waiting for him to shake it. Nate took it cautiously looking at her carefully surveying her face, she had look about her that told him that she was younger then him, but her body definitely screamed older, which left him dying to catch another good look at her butt.

These are not good thoughts to be thinking about your soon to be sister.

"Whoa wait… adopt?! My parents want to adopt?" He suddenly cried. Raven rushed forward to clamp her hand to his mouth.

"Shut up you idiot, do you want your father to hear you?" She hissed her face dangerously close to his. Nate inhaled sharply, taking in the scent of vanilla hand cream. He looked into her blue eyes as she listened to the entirely soundless environment, waiting to hear if she heard any stirrings. Once satisfied that the captain had not heard Nate's outburst and was on his way to investigate, Raven loosened her hold on him.

"No more outbursts Mr. just keep it quiet." Raven demanded giving him a stern look and wagging her finger back and forth in front of his face. Once finished her warning she then sashayed her way back to his bed where she plunked herself down and picked up a large book from the night stand. Nate stared at her incoherently, his mind still not fully grasping the situation.

Of course it has nothing to do with the Pot you were smoking.

"What are you doing in my room? Or wearing my shirt?" Nate asked, joining her by the bed.

"Well, you're parents are fixing up the reading room so I could stay there. They're adding in a bunch of stuff for me, you know washroom, closet… stuff like that, which is really nice. And your shirt… well let's just say I like wearing baggy things like this to bed, your dad said it would be alright." Raven responded, not even looking up from the book. Nate gazed at the cover, trying to make out the words, but finding it difficult, the book was so old and so tattered it looked like the letters had fallen off.

"It's Ovid's Metamorphosis. It was the last thing I got from my parents before they died." Raven responded. Nate looked up, how was it possible that she had noticed that he was staring? Had she not been reading the book the whole time?

"Is it good?" Nate asked, he moved closer to her, so he could be sitting beside her. He looked down at the pages and saw that the printing was way to tiny for him to concentrate on it in the current state of his mind, the words swam around on the page and were blending together much like a melting ice cream.

"You're high aren't you?" Raven suddenly asked, her voice cutting into the hazy fog of his mind as it struggling to think. He looked up to her guiltily a blush creeping up on his cheeks for the first time. He had never once flushed when someone asked if he was stoned, why the sudden change?

"Uh… yea how could you tell?"

"Well, you're awfully slow, you can't seem to read the writing on the pages, and you happen to reek of the smell." Raven responded. Nate nodded. "You're having trouble following this aren't you?" Nate nodded his head, a little afraid to admit it. Raven pet his head softly,

"It's alright; would you like me to read to you?" She asked her voice soothing and gentle. Nate nodded, his voice seeming to be stuck somewhere in his throat. He rested his head on her shoulder taking in a stronger scent of vanilla; it was almost like she had bathed it. His eyes closed a sense of calm coming over him as Raven began a story about Aphrodite. In a few short minutes Raven's soothing voice had washed over him long enough to send him to sleep, but it was long after she had finished the story that she noticed he was asleep. Neither noticed the shadow at the door that had been watching them all along.