Blair did not want the summer to be over. She enjoyed spending time in Italy, especially her last week in Rome. Every summer she went somewhere exotic, but she was afraid that was all going to be over now. She was a senior now, which meant that after this she was going to start college, and yes, that did mean summer classes as well. Blair wanted to be done with her degree as soon as possible that way she could move out, get a job, and get the hell out of the small town that she's been living in. Mystic Falls might sound like a place that would be beautiful, but Blair really didn't see anything too special about it. That's why she always left whenever she could. There was something else out there in the world and she knew that one day she was going to find it.

Blair had a lot of time to think though over the summer and she decided that maybe she needed to be single again. She wasn't one who had long relationships, and Nate had definitely been the longest. He was so good to her, so handsome, and he was sometimes romantic…but at the end of the day Blair knew that she needed more then that. Nate didn't bring any excitement into her life. She needed someone that was going to keep her heart racing and keep her on the edge of her seat. Nate was just too down to earth for her and he was too loyal like a puppy dog.

"Blair breakfast is ready!"

"Coming Mom." Her mother has been a super mom lately ever since her dad and sister died. Eleanor has been focusing on her Blair so much afraid that one day she was going to lose her like she did her husband and daughter a few months prior. It was pretty hard on Blair, but she tired not to let it show too much. She was dying on the inside, but there was no sense in crying or being miserable about it; that's not what they would have wanted. They would have wanted them to be happy. Blair really felt that she was going to see them again in the after life. "Wow, pancakes, sausage, bacon, biscuits, and fresh squeezed orange juice? This is way too much food mom."

"Well, I am having someone coming over…someone that I wanted you to meet." If Blair was eating something at that moment she definitely would have choked. Who could her mother possibly want her to meet? She was only gone for two months and her mothers already meet someone so soon after her husbands' death? "Now don't give me that look young lady, I want you to at least give him a chance." A knock on the door made Blair's skin crawl. She wondered who this loser could possibly be.

"I'll get it." Blair said while nearly running to the front door to get a glimpse of the man that her mother was in love with. "Mr. Bass!" Blair almost screamed it. Mr. Bass was the father of someone she wasn't very fond of in school…Chuck. He was basically the school's playboy, and a real jack ass. He thought that every woman should want him and that he was the hottest guy in school. He was one of the wealthiest families in town too, and judging by how Chuck was she would hate to see how Mr. Bass was. After all, Chuck had to have learned it from somewhere.

"Please call me Bart." He said while giving Blair a plastered smile. Blair could tell that it was fake, that's when Blair noticed Chuck coming out of the car. Great not only was she going to have to deal with Bart but she was going to have to deal with Chuck as well. "Hurry up Chuck, breakfast smells amazing." Bart then walked over to Eleanor and he gave her a quick kiss on the lips and then whispered something to her that made her giggle like crazy.

"Good morning Blair you are looking…exceptionally beautiful." Blair just rolled her eyes at Chuck not even bothering giving him a response. She then walked over to the table, sat down, and then started to serve herself some breakfast.

"Blair don't start eating till we all sit."

"Well I don't want to be late for school…Serena and Meredith are going to pick me up today that way I can tell them all about my trip. If I don't tell them before school, then I will tell them during…which would probably end up getting us all in trouble, so it's better that I leave the table early."

"Okay, let me just pour you all some orange juice." She said while grabbing the pitcher and pouring everyone a glass. She then took her seat by Bart and began to eat her meal while stealing glances at him every once in a while. "I know that this might come as a surprise to you Blair…it really came as a surprise to me too. We just started off as friends, talking every day; he has been so sweet and nurturing." Blair felt like gagging at that. She could never see Bart as someone who was sweet or nurturing. "Then it kind of blossomed into something more. I thought it was a good idea for us to all be together more, since we are all a part of this. I was hoping that you and Chuck would get along. I haven't really ever heard you talking about him too much."

"Well Blair and I know each other at school, but we never had a chance to really talk to each other too much since we never really had any classes together. Now though, I will be sure to go out of my way to say hello." Chuck said while giving Blair a cocky grin. Oh he thought he was so coy, and Blair wanted to smack that smile right off of his face. Blair heard a honking horn outside and she thought that was the most beautiful sound in the world, she couldn't be happier that Serena and Meredith were there.

"Well that's the girls!"

"Why don't you take Chuck with you? That way they could get to know him a little better too." Blair wanted to scream no way in Hell, but she knew that she had more respect for her mother then that. Plus, Blair really wasn't in the mood to get into a fight with anyone right now.

"Fine, come on Chuck." Blair said while grabbing her bag from the floor and then heading out the door with Chuck trailing behind her. Serena and Meredith both looked like deer caught in headlights when they saw Chuck following Blair. They were hoping that they didn't some how managed to hook up. "Chuck is coming with us to school today. Seems like my mom and his dad have a relationship now." Blair said while rolling her eyes.

"Are you serious? Why would she date him?" Serena asked almost forgetting that Chuck was standing right there.

"Because my father is a wonderful man, wealthy, and powerful; what kind of woman could resist all that?" Chuck said while getting in the back seat of Serena's convertible sitting beside Blair. "Looks like I could be your new brother soon enough Blair."

"I wouldn't count on it. This is just a rebound relationship; my father just died…there is no way that she could possibly be seriously moving on this quickly. She's going to soon realize that it was a mistake."

"Well I wouldn't mind living with you. They say a family that showers together stays together."

"EWWW!" All the girls shrieked in unison. Chuck was infamous for his perverted remarks, and sometimes he did take them a little too far. Blair found herself slapping his shoulder trying not to picture the two of them in a shower together.

"I am going to tell Nate that you said that."

"Blair, you aren't going to tell him anything. After all it's not going to matter once you break up with him. He told me that your entire trip in Italy you barely called him or wrote to him. He is taking it pretty hard right now. So are you going to break up with him today before school? I personally think it'll be better to deliver the blow afterwards."

"Chuck, you have no idea what you are talking about." Blair said while crossing her arms. "It's really expensive to call the states and I don't see the point of writing when I'm only gone for a couple of months. It's not like I was gone for a year or something." Blair felt awful, she knew now that Nate was expecting the talk, and Blair could not help but to feel incredibly guilty.

They pulled up to the school and thankfully Chuck walked over to a couple of his football buddies leaving Blair alone with her two friends. Meredith and Serena immediately began to laugh when Chuck walked away. They were still kind of in shock that Chuck was going to be a potential step brother.

"I feel so sorry for you Blair."

"Thanks Mer, I really appreciate that. There is no reason to feel sorry for me though, I am going to talk to my mom and I'm sure that she is going to listen to me. She's acting completely ridiculous doing this."

"I don't think it's a good idea to talk to her about the relationship. Usually when you confront people about stuff like that, they get angry…and it really doesn't end up resolving anything." Mer the peacemaker. She was just one of those naturally kind people, which wanted to see the best in everything and everyone. She always knew the appropriate way to handle any situation. That was why Blair liked her so much as a friend, she was a little quirky but at the end of the day Meredith was the most loyal and kind person you could ever meet.

"I don't know I think it might be worth talking to your mom. I mean you really don't want Chuck Bass to end up being a family member. That would be totally weird and honestly kind of gross." Serena was a lot different then Meredith. Serena was one that didn't mind butting heads with someone, she believed in speaking her mind whenever possible. She had trouble in the love department though; she had no problem dating guys because she was amazingly hot, but she did have trouble keeping them. She just ended up speaking her mind more then she should and she wasn't exactly one who ever really backed down. Even sometimes Serena and Blair butted heads, but they have been friends too long to ever stay mad at each other forever. At the end of the day they were both extremely loyal to one another.

"I will see what happens. Mr. Bass always seems to find a way to sabotage his own relationships. He shows his true colors eventually, I just hope its sooner rather then later." Blair said while walking into the school. People started swarming around her like they usually did. She smiled at all of them talking about her trip and all the hot guys that she had met there. She told them how she met a millionaire that took her on a personal tour of the Coliseum.

"So is that why you never bothered calling Nate?" Blair looked up at Vanessa who was bold enough to even ask such a question. Vanessa and Blair used to be best friend, but something happened between them…and Blair wasn't even quite sure what it was. Blair always figured that it was jealousy. Vanessa wanted to be her, which was something she could never do.

"It's hard calling long distance." Blair simply stated to her. "Plus, I was very busy with this very hot multimillionaire that wanted to show me all of Italy personally!" Blair pulled out her digital camera and showed all the girls Gio's picture and they all started to make giggly and swooning noises. They were all wishing they were Blair right at that moment.

"Blair, I thought that was you." Blair looked up and saw Nate, and Blair immediately turned off her digital camera.

"Hey Nate…girls, I will talk to you later." Blair said while giving them a little wave and walking over to Nate. "How are you?" She asked while giving him a small hug. He attempted to kiss her lips but she moved so that he would only kiss her cheek. He could immediately tell that something was wrong, but he was too scared to ask her about it.

"I'm doing a lot better now since you are here. I missed you so much over the summer Blair. I was counting the days." Blair laughed…a forced one. This was going to be a lot harder then she originally thought. She thought ignoring him would give him the message, but it was obvious that he was still in love with her.

"Well, I am back. What does your schedule look like?" She said while pulling out hers. She was praying that they didn't have any classes together. It would certainly make things a little less complicated. "We have second period AP Calculus and our last class history and it looks like the same lunch hour." Blair wore a weak smile. She was really not ready to see him three times a day, every day, for the rest of her senior year.

"Awesome, I really can't wait." He said to her with a grin. "The guys are waving me down, I will see you second period." This time he snuck the kiss on the lips in and he ran off the other direction. The kiss was definitely weird, she just didn't feel the sparks anymore and that was something Blair needed. Blair looked at her schedule again and wondered if she could get out of any of these classes. She knew it was a cowardly move, but she just didn't want to deal with his puppy dog hurt eyes.

"Hey B." Serena said while jogging up to her. "I figured your talk with Nate would run a little short. I just wanted to tell you though that we just saw one of the hottest guys just come into school. He drove up in a freaking red Ferrari of all cars!" Blair's ears perked up at the sound of Ferrari.

"Where is he?" Serena looked around trying to find the guy.

"I think that he might have gone into the attendance office. He is new after all. Come on…" Serena said while dragging Blair. Blair didn't know if she believed Serena about this hot new guy. After all they both had extremely different taste. Blair only believed in having the best, while Serena didn't mind settling for second best. That was when Blair saw him. He wasn't the tallest guy in class he stood around 5'9, he had dark chocolate colored hair, broad shoulders, lean muscles that could be seen even under his Armani jacket, and she wished she could only see his face. Without even seeing it though Blair felt her heart racing in her chest. He turned around for a moment and Blair was disappointed to see that he was wearing sunglasses. He was hoping he would pause and look at Blair for a moment but he turned away quickly as if she didn't even exist. Blair felt furious, no one ignores her.

"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said that he was hot. I mean with the sunglasses at least. Who knows what he is sporting underneath there though. For all we know he could have these tiny little beet eyes." Blair said with a laugh.

"I don't care what his eyes look like…the rest of him definitely makes up for whatever he is hiding underneath those shades. If you ask me, I personally think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with him…he is probably just one of those bad boys, that tries to bend the rules."

"Serena, you and the bad boys never mesh well together." Blair teased her. "So do you think when he walks out I should tell him that we are part of the welcoming committee or something?" Blair said while raising her eyebrows.

"Oh no, we really couldn't do that!" Serena squealed with a laugh.

"Watch and learn…" Blair said while she watched the new boy walk out of the attendance door. "Hello I am Blair and this is Serena and we are part…"

"I'm sorry; really don't have time for this." With that he walked passed her and disappeared into the crowd. Blair heard giggling and looked up to see that Vanessa was snickering at her. Blair clenched her hands into a fist. Not only did he reject her, but Vanessa had to witness the whole thing.

"Wow, what a jerk that guy is!" Serena said as she pulled Blair aside out of Vanessa's view.

"What the Hell is Vanessa's problem?"

"It's something that we are going to talk about later B; it's really not something you want to hear about right now. Lets not make this morning completely and totally miserable."

"Hey guys!" Meredith said while walking over to them. "I was wondering where the heck you went Serena!"

"Hey you were talking all that weird stuff to that weird witch chick and that's really not my scene."

"Witch stuff, you know that it's real. People can tell the future and people have powers and abilities, you just can't close your mind to it." Serena loved Meredith to death, but whenever she brought up witch craft, Serena honestly kind of got freaked out. She just didn't believe in that stuff and Meredith seemed to almost fully believe it. Serena sometimes believed that she just did it for attention though, which Serena felt was even sadder. Serena didn't want to say anything though, because Blair sometimes seemed to be really fascinated with all of it.

"I believe you Meredith, even if Serena doesn't. You said something about buying some tarot cards right?"

"Yeah, I bought them right before your trip. They called to me, they are really one of a kind, they cost me an arm and a leg, but I have a feeling that they are going to be worth it in the end. I should do your cards after school, and then I can tell you if Chuck is going to be your new brother or not."

"No, what I want to know if that new guy is going to be into me." Blair said with a small laugh. "God Meredith, you won't even believe how that guy treated me. I went to go introduce me and Serena to him and you know what he had to audacity to say to me? He actually told me that he didn't have time for this and he walked away!"

"Are you serious? Now that is just rude. I don't even know why you would want to hook up with a guy that is like that? Sounds like a real jerk off move, and I don't know why girls always go after the jerks! You know Nate is really into you Blair, I mean completely in love with you and the entire time you were gone he didn't even look at another girl. I really think you should give him a chance." Meredith had always had a crush on Nate, but Meredith knew that he was out of her league. Meredith was pretty, but she felt she was more of that quaint girl next door. Being friends with Serena and Blair made her even blend more into the background. Serena and Blair had always been known to be the stunning beauties in school.

"Meredith, you know that I love you to pieces, but there is no way I can stay with him. Things just aren't going to work out between the two of us. I mean I'm going to tell you guys something that I haven't told anyone yet, because it's actually kind of embarrassing. Right before I left for our vacation it was going to be our first time…and he couldn't even really get it up. He kept saying it was nerves because he's a virgin, but I don't know I just kind of saw that as a sign."

"My lips are sealed about that one." Serena said shocked about what Blair was saying. "What if he's like really gay or something?"

"There's no way that he is gay! I can't believe you would even say that about him! He probably really was nervous. You don't realize Blair how many guys at this school are intimidated by you."

"They should be too." Blair said with a laugh. "Lets look at our schedules." They all pull theirs out and compared them. "Serena first period, third period, lunch, and forth…Meredith I have you second, third, lunch, fifth, and sixth. Looks like I'm really not going to be lonely in my classes." The bell began to Blare. "Okay Meredith I will see you in second period." Blair said while giving Meredith a wave before running off with Serena too their class room.

Blair didn't have the new kid in her first, second, or third period class and she felt herself becoming increasingly disappointed. Thank god Meredith was in her AP calculus class because there were two people to a table and Meredith quickly sat by Blair before Nate could even get a chance too. Now it was lunch time though and she had no choice but to sit by Nate because he saved her a seat.

"Hey guys…." Blair said while sitting down. She looked over at Chuck who was wearing an amused look on his face.

"Hello Blair, or should I just call you sister now."

"Chuck seriously, it's getting old really quick."

"Oh, so I guess you found out that Chuck's dad has been dating your mom." Blair rolled her eyes, she didn't want to hear about this over and over again.

"Why isn't Vanessa sitting over here?" Blair asked as she looked over and saw that she was sitting with her own little group of girls. Most of them Blair thought were wanna bees and were really never a part of her circle of friends.

"Who knows with Vanessa?" Nate said while shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know what happened to her over the summer, but she seemed to have changed a lot…started hanging out with different people. Not that big of a deal though right?" Nate said while draping his arm around Serena as she sat down.

"Hey there's the new kid." Chuck said while standing up. "I heard that he has quite an arm on him. The coach wants us to talk to him about joining the team. Maybe now is the time to invite him into our crowd." Blair's heart skipped a beat about the idea of him joining them at her table. Chuck ran over to him and Blair turned around and watched the two of them talk for a minute. The boy ended up turning around and leaving though which disappointed Blair.

"Who is the new kid?" Blair asked since she didn't even know his name.

"Stefan, he just transferred here. He said he had something to do on his lunch break though, but he said he'll try out for the team." Chuck said with a satisfied smile on his face. "That means I get brownie points with the coach."

"You're still not getting Quarter back…" Nate said with a grin. "That's always my position man."

"I'm just hoping I don't keep warming the bench." Chuck said with a laugh. Blair ate her lunch with little chit chat here and there, but she honestly couldn't get her mind off of Stefan. She went through forth, fifth, sixth period class and she didn't even see him. Even walking down the halls she hoped to catch a glimpse of him…but nothing. Finally when all hope was lost she walked into her last period class and there he was…sitting at the back of the class room with his glasses still on. She walked up to him and gave him a small smile.

"Hi I am Blair Waldorf."

"That's nice." He said shortly to her. Blair looked at him oddly for a second and was about to ask why he was being so rude but Nate came in.

"Blair, sit by me!" He said with a smile on his face.

"Sure thing." Blair said while looking over her shoulder one last time at Stefan before she finally took a seat. "Do you think we can talk a little after school?" Blair said to him knowing that she was going to have to break the news today.

"Sure…I guess…" He said with a nervous laugh.

"Okay quiet down!" Mrs. Jones said when she entered the classroom. She was a tall woman with a bird like nose and big round glasses. She was tall and as thin as a stick, Blair always thought she was a funny looking woman. She was in her mid forties and her hair salt and peppered colored hair was tied in a tight bun on the back of her head. "Now I know most of you are thinking that this is history class and this is going to be easy. Most history teachers don't take the time to teach you the background stories of history…they just tell you the main points and then you know nothing about the backbone that made it all happened. I will teach you history as though you were there…witnessing it all. There are no multiple choice tests either…or commonly known as multiple guess tests. You will actually have to know your stuff." She said to them. "I know most of your teachers just went over the syllabus with you, but I will hand these out and you can read them on your own time." She said while handing the papers to the front people to pass back.

Blair could already tell that she was going to hate this class. She has heard a lot of rumor about Mrs. Jones. Rumors that she overcompensated because she was a woman and she felt that men were treated better in this industry, there was nothing that she could do about it now though. You couldn't change teachers unless the teacher requests it or if you had a valid reason…and not wanting to do the work wasn't a valid reason.

"While you guys are living life as though there is no tomorrow back in the renaissance age children actually devoted their times to their studies. They didn't waste time playing sports and going to the mall…worrying about what their hair looked like. Knowledge was the most important thing to them." She said. "Pull out your text book and open it to page thirty five…" Mrs. Jones heard snickering. "Excuse me, is there something that I said that amused you?"

"You said they didn't play sport. They actually did play them all the time, they enhanced their bodies as well as their minds. Exercise was something that was actually really important to them. A healthy body meant a healthy soul which ultimately led to a healthy mind."

"What is your name young man?"

"Stefan."

"Well Stefan, please do not talk unless you are called upon. There is no laughing in my class either…there is no talking out of turn or you will get detention I hope that is understood." Everyone in class held back their laughter. They couldn't believe the new guy was already speaking back to the teacher. "Take off those glasses too young man, unless you have a doctors note."

"No, I don't." He said while taking off his glasses. Blair had never seen such beautiful green eyes before and her heart literally stopped. He didn't even look at her though, she felt that she wasn't even in the room to him and that made Blair want him more. She knew she was going to have him…even if it killed her.