Hey, I'm in the process of updating this story and here's the first re-written chapter. Enjoy :)

Hey Upper East Siders. Gossip Girl here. And I have the biggest news ever. One of my many sources, Melanie91, sends us this: "Spotted at Grand Central, bags in hand: Sebastian van der Woodsen." Was it only a year ago our It Boy mysteriously disappeared for "boarding school"? And just as suddenly, he's back. Don't believe me? See for yourselves. Lucky for us, Melanie91 sent proof. Thanks for the photo, Mel.

….

'I made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter, you are the best thing that's ever been mine' – Taylor Swift

Danielle had always been the outsider. She was one of the few scholarship kids at Constance Billiard, she wasn't a legacy, she didn't come from money and her interests didn't include parties and expensive alcohol. To most of the school she was invisible girl, she could come to school in her pyjamas and nobody would even notice.

She liked it that way but there was one person she did wish would notice her. Sebastian Van Der Woodsen. They'd talked for all of five seconds at a ninth grade birthday party she'd accidental been invited to and that was all she needed. He had a certain life to him that the others didn't, a vibrant, sunshine-y quality. He smiled at her as if he didn't notice that she didn't belong there.

"Danni?" Jeremy called snapping her out of her memory "I think I see dad over there"

She and her younger brother Jeremy had spent the weekend visiting their mother in Hudson and were currently weaving their way through the crowded train station looking for their father. She craned her neck to see the person Jeremy was referring too.

"Nope, he's way too tall" Danni told him looking back at her brother who merely shrugged and continued walking.

"Danni, Jeremy" a familiar voice called out to them "over here"

Their father stood in front of them, arms open for a hug. Jeremy who was ahead of Danni got their first and was wrapped in a hug when Danni got closer their father wrapped a free arm around her shoulders and pulled her into the now family hug.

"You made it, welcome back" he said when the three Humphrey's separated "how was your weekend? How's your mom"

"Good" Jeremy told him.

"Fine" Danni said at the same time.

There was a strange moment of silence between the family.

"Uh, fine and good" Jeremy said

"Yeah she's good and fine" Danni added.

"Like maybe I never should have left fine or leaving my husband was the best thing I've ever done fine?" their father asked. Neither sibling spoke at first, they shared a brief uncertain look before both turning back to look at Rufus.

"D-dad I'm starving" Danni said deciding to change the subject.

"Yeah, let's go home" Rufus said "I'm cooking"

Rufus and Jeremy begun walking out of the train station side by side Danni trailing alongside behind them dragging along the bag she'd taken to her mothers, eyes on the crowd. A familiar blonde caught her eye, Sebastian Van Der Woodsen. He was standing in the middle of a crowd looking for something.

She slowed down when she saw him. Nobody had seen Sebastian in a year and seeing him there in the station didn't quite seem real.

….

His mother had sent a car for him and he was met by a driver at the station. The car pulled up outside the Waldorf's building where'd he earlier learnt his mother would be. Eleanor Waldorf was throwing another one of her parties and like always his mother would be in attendance.

He wandered through the party looking for his mother trying to ignore the fact that a lot of people were talking about him. He found her in conversation about her renovations with another party goer.

"Mom?" he asked.

"Oh Sebastian" Lily greeted turning around to face him, a hand over her heart, she moved towards him and hugged him "you're home"

"So where is she?" Sebastian asked, looking around the room, when his mother let go "what? They haven't let her out yet"

"Let's not talk about that just now" Lily told him "I thought you mind want to see some of your friends"

He sighed and turned his head to the side only to see Nathalia Archibald heading towards him, a large smile on her face. She didn't seem to have changed much in the year he'd been gone, her hair may have been a little shorter and a little lighter but otherwise she looked the same.

She disappeared from sight when a door opened between the two of them and Blaine Waldorf stepped out.

Blaine had been his best friend before he left for boarding school, they'd been close ever since they were kids. Blaine unlike Nat didn't seem all that happy to see him. He paused in the doorway, a surprised expression on his face as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. He quickly regained his composure and started moving towards the other boy a smile now on his face.

"Sebastian, it's so good to see you" he said.

They stood facing each other for a few tense seconds before Blaine leaned forward and they shared an awkward hug.

"Come on, we're about to have dinner" Blaine said, his smile dropped for a few seconds but he quickly plastered it back on.

"I actually just stopped by to say hello" Sebastian told him "I have somewhere to be"

"You're leaving?" Blaine asked eyebrows raised.

"Yeah" he replied already moving "but I'll see you at school tomorrow okay?"

….

Sebastian hated that his sister was in a place like the Ostroff Treatment centre, hated that he wasn't around for her. He was her big brother, he was supposed to protect her, not desert her. His head was filled with 'what if's', 'what if he never left', 'what if he came home earlier?', 'what if he hadn't got caught up his own problems?'

She looked so small lying in that bed, so tiny, so fragile and it was so wrong.

….

Erica wakes him the next morning, shaking his arm and calling his name. He winced as he sat up, muscles stiff from his awkward sleeping position in the arm chair by Erica's bed. He smiled at her and she smiled in return, patting the space on the bed next to her. He moved to sit beside her, happy to stretch out his legs.

"Hey" he said "how are you?"

She shrugged and he caught her looking down at her bandaged wrists.

"You know I've been better" she finally said.

"I know I've been a terrible big brother" he started "I'm just so happy to see you"

He pulled her into a hug, please to find that she was real and solid and that she was actually still alive and not part of some delusion. He felt as if he'd been given a second chance, that he could start his life over. Be there person he'd always wanted to be.

….

Her brother and father were already in the kitchen when she left her bedroom. Jeremy was bent over the box of invitations some guy in his art class had asked him to address for Blaine Waldorf's 'Kiss on the Lips' party, a plate of their fathers famous waffles beside him. When Rufus saw her another plate was placed on the counter.

"Guess whose dad is cool" he practically chirped.

"It's a trick question" Jeremy was quick to reply, looking up from the invitations to smirk at them.

"Yeah because it definitely can't be ours" Danni added sitting down on the stool next to Jeremy and staring down at the plate in front of her. Her father gave her a strange look as if he was waiting for something. She picked up her fork and her father snapped back into the conversation.

"Ha ha" he said passing her an open Rolling Stones magazine "look at this"

"Top ten forgotten bands of the nineties" she read aloud.

"Yeah look at number nine" he instructed. Her eyes drift down to the bottom of the page where the number 9 catches her eye, Lincoln Hawk is written beside the number. Her father's band.

"Hey, way to be forgotten" she said with a grin putting the magazine down beside her, dropping her fork back on to her plate.

"Only way to be remembered" he said with a smile.

"Maybe you would care if dad's band was on Gossip Girl?" Jeremy suggested.

"What?" she asked "I don't read Gossip Girl"

"So that wasn't your laptop open to it last night reading all about Sebastian Van Der Woodsen?" he teased as he rifled through the box of invitations in front of him making sure they were all there. The whole family knew about Danielle's crush on Sebastian, it had long ago become a running joke especially with Jeremy.

She picked up the magazine again, flipping through it pretending to be looking for the page Rufus had just shown her.

"I'm going to read this" she lied trying to change the topic of conversation "Lincoln Hawk, number nine, wow"

Rufus shook his head and turned to his youngest child who was still flicking through invitations.

"They're invitations for the Kiss on the Lips party" he replied "everyone's going"

Ah the infamous 'Kiss on the Lips' party, the girls at school had been talking about it for a while now. The other day a girl had knocked Danni's books out of her arms as she was wildly gesturing, swinging her arms around as she tried to explain what her dress was like to her group of friends. Although she couldn't be quite sure the girl hadn't purposely done that.

"You got invited to that?" Danni asked "excuse me if I sound surprised since I've never been invited"

She'd only been to one of her classmates parties and she'd been accidently invited. She didn't know whether to feel proud of him or scared for him.

"A guy in my art class told me if I addressed all of them I could have one" Jeremy announced sounding rather proud of himself.

"Well that sounds fair" their father said, Danni quickly picked up on the sarcasm in his voice "sweatshops could learn a thing or two"

"Dad" Jeremy groaned "don't start, you make us go to private school"

"For your education" he reminded him.

"So you want us to be anonymous losers who eat lunch alone and never get invited to parties?" Jeremy asked.

"Works for me" Danni said with a small shrug which only earned her a glare from her brother.

"Mom thinks it's a good idea" Jeremy muttered looking back down at his invitations, shuffling through them again although Danni was pretty sure there was no need as he'd been looking through those invitations all morning.

"Because her judgement is always sound" Rufus sarcastically replied.

Neither sibling dared to speak. They were both trying to remain neutral towards both parents and not get involved with their fight. So far it was working but made for a lot of awkward moments.

"Jeremy" their father finally said "if you want to go this party then you should"

Jeremy finally looked up again from his invitations and grinned. He slipped the lid onto the box of invitations deciding her was now finished with them. Thank god.

"You kids deserve some fun" Rufus said.

…..

Nat was standing outside the hotel when he returns to change into his uniform. She's already wearing hers and he hopes that's she waiting for Charlotte and not him.

"Nat?" he asked when he walks up behind her "hey"

"Oh hey" she replied turning to face him "your –uh- your mom told me you guys were staying at the Palace"

"Yeah" he told her pulling the strap of his backpack higher up on his shoulder "we're renovating….again, you know my mom if it's not broke break it"

Nat let out a small laugh but didn't say anything in reply. There were a few second of tense silence before Sebastian spoke again.

"So….what are you doing here?" he asked her.

"I just want to ask you how you were" she said "you seemed kind upset last night"

Nat obviously expected him to tell her why but he couldn't, he really couldn't and he didn't actually want to either. It seemed that the days of telling her anything were long gone. He wanted a fresh start, a chance to be the person he'd always wanted to be and Nat just didn't fit in with the new him, especially after what happened before he left.

"I've got to go change for school" he told her walking away from her "I'm going to be late"

"Sebastian" she called after him, hurrying to catch up with him.

"No" he said coming to a stop and whirling around to face her "no"

"But you're back now" she argued.

"I didn't come back for you" he told her "Blaine's my best friend and you're his girlfriend and he loves you, that's the way things are supposed to be"

She runs with Jeremy to catch the bus that morning apparently he had to get their early to hand over the invitations and walking to school like they normally do just won't cut it. There's standing room only and the two of them heard as far back as they can, it's not until the bus starts moving again that she even notices that Nathalia Archibald and Charlotte Bass are sitting in the seat she's standing beside.

They both look perfectly made up as usual, there is not a single hair out of a place. They seem out of place riding the bus but Danni doesn't spend much time thinking about it.

They both stand up when they reach their stop and Danni shuffles into line behind them, Jeremy behind her.

"Are you following us or something?" Charlotte Bass asked her, she barely avoid the temptation to roll her eyes.

"Ah, no, we go to the same school" she said tugging on her uniform tie "identical uniforms should be a big hint"

"Whatever" Charlotte merely said as she headed towards the front of the Bass.

"So want to sit together at lunch?" Danni mockingly asked when they were out of earshot, Jeremy groaned and pushed her forward towards the front of the bus.

….

He spends most of lunch looking for Blaine who he finally find on the steps of the Met with Kade, Isaac and a younger boy he doesn't recognize. Blaine has an air of superiority about him and it's obvious to anyone that he's the leader of his group on the steps, just as Blaine always wanted.

"Hey there you are" he said walking towards them "I've been looking all over"

He turned to the younger boy, holding out his hand for him to shake.

"Hi, I'm Sebastian"

"I know" the boy said "I mean, hi I'm Jeremy"

"So" Sebastian started pausing to pick up the invitation sitting next to Blaine on the step "when's the party?"

"Saturday" Blaine replied "and you're not invited, since until twelve hours ago everybody thought you were at boarding school, now we're full and –" he paused turning to the boy "Jeremy used up all the invitations"

Ah, um, actually –"

"You can go now" Blaine told him. It was an order not a suggestion. Jeremy seemed to understand this as he nodded at Blaine smiled at Sebastian and headed off down the steps.

"Sorry" Blaine said once Jeremy had left referring to the lack of invitations.

His tone was sickly sweet and it was obvious that he wasn't sorry, not at all.

"It's alright" Sebastian told him "I've got a lot of stuff to do anyway"

He leaned forward dropping the invitation in front of Blaine who picked it up and began gathering his things Kade and Isaac quick to follow his lead.

"Well we better get going" Blaine said.

"Blaine" he called after him "think we can meet tonight?"

The other boy paused and turned around.

"I have plans with Nat" he said.

"The Palace, eight o'clock" Sebastian told him "Nat will wait"

….

Danni had volunteered to help her father put up 'Lincoln Hawk' fliers. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do.

"You know" she started trailing alongside him clutching onto the stack of fliers "they have this thing called Myspace, you could post all this information online, save some trees have a blog"

He finished stapling up one flier and she passed him another.

"Maybe if musicians got off their blogs and picked up their guitars the music business would be in better shape" he countered as he finished hanging up the flier and begun heading across the road. She followed him, just as she had been doing this whole time.

"Spoken like a true relic" she told him.

"Thanks" he sarcastically replied.

Her phone sounded out a text message alert in her pocket and she fished it out.

"HELP. EMERGENCY" the message said, an address written beneath it.

It was from Jeremy and although she doubted it was a legitimate emergency it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Hey dad, I've got to run" she told him putting her phone away "are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah" he said pausing before he spoke again as if considering the question "yeah, your mother will be back, she's always been a free spirit that's one of the reason I fell for her in the first place"

"I – uh meant with the fliers"

Jeremy's 'emergency' turned out to be one of the fashion kind. The address had led her straight to a department store where her little brother was standing in front of several mirrors dress in an expensive looking tux turning this way and that.

"So what do you think?" he asked.

"This is your emergency?" she asked incredulously fiddling with the strap on her messenger bag.

"Yeah, I've never been to a big dance before" he told her.

"Neither have I" she pointed out.

"Well mom's not here and dads allergic to department stores" he countered.

She stepped behind him so that both of their reflections were visible in the mirror. He looked older dressed up as he was, more mature. He was just beginning to grow up and their mother wasn't around to see it.

"You look great Jer, really you do"

"Thanks, too bad it's more than our rent but I think I can sew something like it" he told her turning away from the mirror, something or rather someone caught his eye in the other direction "hey it's Sebastian"

He was right Sebastian Van Der Woodsen and a smaller blonde girl was making their way towards them.

"Hi, Sebastian" Jeremy called out and the blond looked over at him.

She took the easy way out and ran, ducking behind a rack of clothing out of sight of her crush.

…..

"Oh hey Jeremy right?" Sebastian asked the familiar blonde boy that had called him over.

"Yeah"

"This is my-" he started turning towards his sister.

"Stylist and personal shopper, Erica" she cut in holding out her hand for Jeremy to shake which he happily did.

"Hi, this is my sister-" he turned around obviously looking for someone when Sebastian looked over his shoulder he could see the top of a head of brown hair peeking out over the top of a rack of clothing.

"Here" Jeremy said handing him an envelope identical to the one Blaine had this morning "I made this for you during free period, but if anyone asks where you got it I know nothing"

"Thank you" Sebastian told him, smiling. He wasn't planning on attending the party, he obviously wasn't wanted, but as the saying goes 'it's the thought that counts'.

….

"So, uh, how's your mom doing?" Sebastian asked Blaine as they sat at the Palace Bar that evening "with the divorce and everything"

"She's good" Blaine replied with a tight lipped smile "lost fifteen pounds, got an eye lift, it's been good for her"

"I'm sorry" he told him. He was, well he was now anyway and that's what really counted, didn't it?

"Yeah, I can tell" Blaine sarcastically replied raising his glass to take a sip of his drink "since you didn't call or write the entire time it was happening"

"Boarding school was just-"

"I don't even know why you went to boarding school to begin with" Blaine said "and to hear about it from your mother was just the icing on the cake really"

"I had to go, I had to get away from everything" Sebastian attempted to explain "just trust me"

"How can I trust you when I feel like I don't even know you?" Blaine asked.

"We can fix that" he told him "things can go back to how they used to be, you're like my brother and with our families we need each other"

Blaine didn't say anything for a few moments, turning his head away Sebastian and looking down at his drink. Finally he broke out into a smile.

"Well you missed some classic Eleanor Waldorf meltdowns" he said "if it wasn't such a tragedy it would've been funny, it actually kinda was"

"If it isn't the invisible women!" Jeremy cheerfully greeted when she returned to the loft that evening "I really had no idea you could move that fast"

He was bent over his sewing machine replicating the outfit he'd been trying on earlier but stopped and removed the fabric from the machine when she walked into his room.

"Yeah well your fashion emergency was solved" she "so I figured my work was done"

She moved across the room, flopping down on the sofa behind her brother.

"Come on Danni, Sebastian said 'hi' to you at a ninth grade birthday party and you've never forgotten it" Jeremy reminded her.

"How could I?" she asked "he was the only one who spoke to me, I'm pretty sure he thought I was someone else"

"He's actually really nice" he said turning around to look at her "and if he did know you I think he'd really like you"

She shot him a small smile, rearranging herself so that she was sitting up, her back pressed up against a cushion.

"I don't know, he might be a little overwhelmed by the glitz and the glamour of the Humphrey lifestyle!" she sarcastically exclaimed.

"I hear he's living at the Palace hotel"

"My point exactly"

"Probably sitting all alone at the bar, it's quite sad actually" Jeremy continued as if he didn't hear her at all "oh dad's going to be at the gallery until later so he left us money for takeout, I was thinking Indian?"

"Umm...none for me" Danielle told him sliding off the sofa "I think I might go out"

Jeremy smirked as he watched her leave.

"God, because I already ordered and I only got enough for one"

He should've known better, but he'd been hungry and had had a little too much drink so when Charlotte invited him back to the kitchens of the hotel for a grilled cheese he had said yes. It had been a stupid decision. He should've known better.

Charlotte had always looked deceptively innocent, she hid behind her big eyes and sweet smiles lulled you into a false sense of security and then pounced.

"I know" she hissed in his ear, pressing up close to him, standing between his legs, hands on his thighs "you and Nat, I know"

The implication being that she now had something to hold over his head, blackmail material.

Sometimes he liked to think of her as she once was, a little girl, 6 or 7, around the time they first met. She was softer then, the walls were only begin to go up. She had a smile that he swore shone brighter than the sun, they were so alike when they were kids, 'partners in crime' his mother would say ruffling his hair. He missed that girl. She'd changed quickly, as if her heart had suddenly frozen. She had developed a habit of shooting a glare at anyone that annoyed her, started declaring most of their grade as beneath her.

He pushed her away and jumped over the bench he'd been sitting on, rushing out of the kitchen leaving the long forgotten sandwich behind. He was moving faster than he realised and when he turned his head to see if Charlotte was following him he barrelled into a girl. He doesn't knock her over but she drops her open bag and its contents spill out onto the floor.

He quickly bent down and begun to help her pick it all up, a pen, an almost empty tin of mints, a metro card, a hair tie and a few bobby pins that he almost misses. He pressed the lot into her hand and shot her a brief smile before dashing away again.

He didn't even notice he'd left his own phone behind.

She brought the phone back to the hotels front desk the next day. She was hoping to hand the phone over to the concierge and make a quick getaway, but just like always things didn't work out the way she wanted.

"You didn't read it?" he asked when she told him it was 'Mr Van Der Woodsen's' phone.

She shook her head no, drumming her fingers on the desk in front of her. She sheepishly withdrew her hand when the concierge shot her a funny look.

"Well how do you know it was Mr Van Der Woodsen's if you didn't read it?" he asked, he was accusing her of something bigger than going through his phone although she wasn't quite sure what. Did she just give off a certain 'stalker' vibe or something?

"And if you're not a guest at the hotel what were you doing here?" he continued. He didn't bother waiting for an answer as he spotted someone walking behind Danni.

"Well look there's Mr Van Der Woodsen now" he said, he called out to him despite her protest.

The blonde turned around and started heading towards them and Danni resisted that urge to run.

"Do you know this young woman?" the concierge asked, pointing at her.

"He doesn't know me, nobody knows me" Danni told him "its fine"

"From last night" Sebastian said as he reached the counter, leaning against it "I'm sorry about that"

She was genuinely shocked. Never in her wildest dreams did she think he'd ever remember her.

"You remember me?" she asked, he nodded, she turned back to the concierge "he remembers me"

"Well she claims to have found your cell phone" he said, holding it out for him to see.

"Oh!" he said, face lighting up with a smile "I've been looking for that everywhere, thank you"

"Sebastian!" a voice called, they both turned to see an older blonde women standing behind Sebastian "I've brought you a suit for Kiss on The Lips, I saw the invitation on your nightstand"

"I'm not going to that" he was quick to tell her.

"What do you mean you're not going?" the woman, who she soon realised was Mrs Van Der Woodsen, asked "Blaine's throwing it"

"Well you see by the time I got the invitation, I actually already plans" he told her.

"Plans with whom?" she asked.

"My friend" Sebastian eventually replied, pointing his thumb in Danni's direction. She paused when he did so, standing completely for still for what seemed like minutes but in reality was probably only about two or three seconds.

"Ah, yes nice to meet you Mrs Van Der Woodsen" she said playing along "I'm Danni Humphrey"

Mrs Van Der Woodsen paid very little attention to her, turning back to her son.

"And what are you and Danni Humphrey doing?" she asked him.

"Ah, um-" Sebastian trailed off, looking over at her for some help. She was only too happy to oblige, reaching into her coat for one of her dad's fliers that she'd stuffed in there.

"We are going to a concert tonight" she told her holding it up for her to see.

"Lincoln Hawk" she said with a small nod.

"Yeah, Rolling Stone named them one of the top ten forgotten bands of the nineties" she told them, remembering the article her father had been so proud to show her the other morning.

"Big fan" Sebastian added.

"Well this party would be a perfect event for you to announce your return" Lily said beginning to walk away "but if you have plans"

"Thank you" he told her once his mother was out of earshot.

"Yeah, it's, uh, no problem at all" she told him, she turned around and begun walking away.

"So I'll see you at eight?" he called out to her. She turned back around to face him, barely able to believe what he'd just said.

"You'd really go out with some girl you don't know?" she asked him.

He shrugged, dropping his cell phone into his pocket, and smiled at her.

"Can't be worse than the girls I do know"

…..

She found herself standing in front of the large mirror hanging on a wall in the Humphrey loft that evening next to her brother. He was wearing his replica tux and she was wearing her best dress, a knee length blue number that she thought would give her the confidence she needed to not ruin the night.

"You're going out with Sebastian and I'm going to Kiss on the Lips" Jeremy said staring at his own reflection "who said this families not cool"

"I've got to go" she told him, resting a hand on his shoulder "but good luck"

"Yeah, you too" he called after her as she headed out the door.

….

It was surprisingly easy to talk to Sebastian. She'd built up this idea of him in her head and had almost forgotten that he was human too. The walk from the Palace Hotel to the concert was really great, the conversation flowed freely and naturally as if they'd known each other for years.

"Hey" she told him when she spotted her father unloading the bands equipment "I want you to meet someone from the band"

"Oh, so you're a groupie?" he asked.

"Uh, not exactly"

Her father spotted them and begun walking over.

"Sebastian, I'd like you to meet Rufus Humphrey" she started "dad, this is Sebastian"

"Sebastian Van Der Woodsen" he said with a smile sticking out his hand for Sebastian to shake, which he did, he must've picked up on his confused expression as he added: "I don't know how I know that"

"You're early" Rufus said "we've still got a while before we go on"

"I kind of over budgeted for travel time" she admitted.

He liked Danni. There was something about her that he couldn't quite put his finger on, something new, something different and he really, really liked it. For the first time since he'd left Boarding School he felt like the 'new Sebastian' was real. She didn't know the old him, only saw the person he was now.

She introduced him to her father, a member of the band whose concert they were attending. He seemed nice, friendly and happy to see him but the whole experience was unnerving. He'd never been a 'meet the parents' kind of guy. The fact that Danni had introduced them at all made him feel nervous, an odd 'I think I'm going to be sick' kind of nervous.

He didn't want to screw this up. Danni was the first good thing that had happened to him in a long time. He needed this to go right.

"You took me to meet your father on our first date?" he asked.

"Oh, this is date?" she asked feigning shock "I'm starting to feel very underdressed, I should have worn some heels, maybe do my hair a bit"

He laughed in reply. He couldn't help but think that he'd still think of her as stunning even if she'd worn a pair of her ugliest pyjamas on their date.

…..

She was looking at him strangely when they left the concert, as if she was trying to figure him out.

"Oh sorry" she was quick to say when she noticed that he had picked up on her staring "it's just my brother was right, you're nice"

It took him a second to remember that her brother was Jeremy. The wide eyed blond boy who was on the list to become one of Blaine's next minions.

Danni's commented took him by surprised. 'Nice', the last time anyone had called him 'nice' he was ten and he'd given sister some of his old toys. No girl had called him nice, he liked to think that he was but he had never heard it from a date before. He was a little shocked to find out that he liked it. 'Nice' fit in so well with the new Sebastian he was trying to create.

"You asked me out and you didn't know if I was nice?" he asked her.

"I knew you were hot" she said with a shrug "and technically you asked me out"

"Oh" he said with a small laugh "little miss tortured soul is actually kind of superficial"

"Yeah, just a little bit" she admitted her voice growing quite as she pulled her beeping phone out of the pocket of her coat. She paused on the last step, looking down at her phone.

"Ah sorry" she said after a moment.

She stepped back down onto the ground and they began moving but they'd only taken about two steps when her phone beeped again. She looked down at the message with a frown.

"Better offer?" he asked her jokingly.

"No it's my brother" she told him "he's at that Kiss on The Lips party, he's having some problems with this girl, Chuck, I'm sorry I have to go"

"I'll go with you" he was quick to tell her.

"No, no it's okay It's-"

"Look, if it involves Chuck it's not okay" he told her, she looked worried, a little scared even.

He knew Chuck, a little too well maybe. He knew how she operated, knew how she liked to prey on the naivety of boys like Jeremy and how good she was at manipulation. If she had gotten her claws into Jeremy he'd definitely call that an emergency.

…..

There was no sign of Jeremy or Chuck amid the crowd of people at Blaine's party. He was really hoping they'd find him, unscathed and embarrassed and that this whole situation would be a huge misunderstanding.

"I'm going to do a lap" Danni told him "keep a look out for him"

He surveyed the whole deliberately ignoring the hushed whispers of the crowds.

They eventually found them on the roof, Charlotte had Jeremy pushed up against the protruding skylight. His coat had been taken off sometime earlier and lay in a heap by the door. Charlotte was leaning in dangerously close to Jeremy, holding onto his wrists when they burst through the door.

Danni jumped into action before he was even able to fully process what he was looking at. She grabbed Charlotte by the shoulder pulling her off her brother.

"What the hell is your problem?" Charlotte snapped staring down Danni "it's a party, things happen, who are you anyway?"

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Danni exclaimed, voice harsh "I'm in your class, my name is Danni Humphrey and that is my little brother!"

She ended this by punching Charlotte, hard in the face. Sebastian eyes widened in surprise, he didn't know she had it in her.

"Come on, Danni" he told her placing his hand on her should and steering her towards the door. Once he knew Jeremy and Danni were together her stormed over to Charlotte and shoved her, she stumbled but didn't fall.

"Don't you ever touch him again!" he warned her.

"Your life is over!" she called after him "don't forget I know everything"

They left the party in a hurry, Danni arm looped around Jeremy's shoulders. He held out a hand for her as they walked and she took it with a small smile. Outside she dropped his hand, hailed a cab and piled Jeremy inside before turning to him.

"So, do I have a shot at a second date?" she asked.

"Well I don't think you can top this one" he replied teasingly.

"I did punch someone" she said with a smirk.

"True, we'll talk about it in the cab"