Blair isn't surprised when she sees Serena running towards her at the airfield. Honestly, she half expected Serena to try to stop her, and would probably have been disappointed if she had not. But her mind is made up.
"Stay" Serena says and it sounds more like a plea than a command. "Don't let these things make you run away like it did me. Like it does everybody in our world."
"Everything's horrible. My whole life is falling apart!"
"So rebuild it. You're a Waldorf, remember? People don't tell you who you are, you tell them. Stay and fight. I'll fight with you."
"I know, S, and I love you for it. But this isn't your fight and I'm sick of fighting."
"If this is about whatever horrible thing Chuck said…"
"It isn't." Blair half smiles but there are tears in her eyes. "Not anymore. It's about me needing to figure this thing out. It made you better."
"No it just meant it was a while longer before I had to look my problems in the eye" Serena counters. "Please don't go."
"I'm sorry S, but I have to. I'll write you and you'll come visit, right?"
Serena knows a losing battle when she's faced with one and finally gives up. "I'll miss you so so much" she whispers and now there are tears in her eyes as well. "I'll come as soon as I can! Give my love to Harold and Roman."
Blair rolls her eyes but readily accepts the hug and gets on the helicopter, ready to start her new life far away from the UES and Gossip Girl.
The first week in France is weird, but Blair tells herself weird can be good and she can learn to like (and maybe love) Roman and she definitely likes Cat and her new room and the quiet. Harold has enrolled her in a classy private school not to far away and offered to go shopping with her in Paris before she starts, but she knows he wont be able to and so she decides to go alone. Alone is good, she tells herself, she needs alone after the whole debacle with Nate and Chuck and Little J and urgh even their names make her want to throw up. She uses her anger as motivation and before noon she has ripped her daddy's credit card through every high-class store she has come in contact with. She is just telling herself how nice it is to not know anyone when a familiar face stands out in the crowd.
"Well hello beautiful" he greets her with a smirk not unlike Chuck's and she has to forcibly stop herself from grinding her teeth.
"Carter Baizen. I thought you were doing Asia at the moment?"
He laughs at her thinly veiled insult. "I'm done with Asia, it made me itch."
"So you decided to come to Paris?"
The smile is replaced by the smirk. "Well, my parents made it clear they weren't ready to see me in New York so I had to choose the next best thing."
Blair scoffs. Everyone knows it wasn't the elder Baizen's that disowned Carter; it was Carter that discarded his parents in lieu of hard partying, easy women and globetrotting. She figures he's seen more of the world by now than Phineas Fogg. "What are you doing here?"
"Living. You?" She suddenly blushes and realizes that because she hadn't expected to meet anyone from her old life, she hasn't worked up any excuses for her presence in France. "I'm pretty sure the term at Constance has already started."
"I don't go to Constance anymore" she snips.
"Oh is that so?" The smirk widens. "That wouldn't have anything to do with that unfortunate situation with Nate and Chuck?"
"How did you?" She gasps. "Honestly Carter, you're what, twenty, and you still read Gossip Girl?"
"Force of habit" he laughs. "Now come on, troublegirl, I'll buy you a coffee."
"Why?"
"Because us ousted UES'ers need to stick together" he says and somehow that's enough to convince her to take his arm and let him lead her to the nearest little charming coffee shop.
Her afternoon with Carter is surprisingly pleasant, considering its Carter and he darts every person question she throws at him. In the end she opts to throw caution to the wind and tells him everything that happened between her and Nate and Chuck and all the wrong choices she made and she spends almost an hour ranting about that horrible little blond Brooklyn-badger Jenny Humphrey and how everything is really her fault.
Carter just let's her ramble on and on without interrupting her and when she's finally done he just hold her hand for a moment and tells her that everything will be alright in the end and she's actually inclined to believe him.
School in France is different, as Blair quickly discovers. There are no Queen B's but lots of mean girls and she gets her first taste before she has even put her books in her locker, as someone walks by and calls her "American Trash". The school uniform is also quite bad and goes horrible with her complexion, but she tells herself she can manage; this is a fresh start and she'll be damned is she lets it slip past her.
She cheeks Gossip Girl after her first day of school, just out of habit. There are lots of posts regarding her and asking people to look for her. Serena has apparently alluded to her leaving for Dubai and she loves the crazy blonde a little more for that. Nate and Chuck are already best friends again and she snorts a little at that. Maybe they can bond over their mutual disgust of her?
Serena writes and emails and calls her almost obsessively and she likes to still know what's going on in her old world without actually being involved. Things between Serena and Dan are good and she spends a lot of time gushing over him, which makes Blair feel a little sick, but whatever… Serena's happy and she's happy for them. It's no surprise, however, that her absence has left quite the empty shoes and someone needs to fill them because there has to be a Queen B at Constance's. It's also nu surprise that Little Jenny Humphrey is vying hard for the role. Blair rolls her eyes at that; she'll learn eventually. A Queen doesn't come from Brooklyn.