Author's note: Hello. I'm not dead. I'm just... too dead to think about writing when I come back from work.
WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR
Walt Disney was full of crap, Serena decided long ago. Magical things didn't happen if you merely believed in magic. Prince Charming didn't fall in everlasting love with you in real life. Your life didn't become a fairytale simply because you wished it. All those dreams Walt Disney and whoever handled his accounts while the master waited to be revived assured would come true if you dreamed enough and you dreamed big... they never did.
Blair never understood that. Time and again she believed that if she dreamed enough, her life would reflect that of Audrey's – who wasn't reared by Disney, granted, but movies were movies were movies, and movies generally followed the dreamiest dreamest story of all... love and romance and a life to die for – and that if she snagged Nate Charming the entire business of love in the first place would be and that was that. Blair thought life would figure itself out if she dreamed she was Blair Waldorf. In giant lit letters that announced she had it all.
While Serena's life appeared to just be a dream of its own volition.
Sure.
Serena watched Blair's plans shatter to pieces before her own eyes time and again, and she knew she never wanted to dream. Gave up her old dreams, even. Gave up everything that wasn't tangible, here and now, because she'd learned that things did come to those who didn't expect them.
Made the receiving that much more of a surprise... a blessing.
Of course, sometimes she did look up at the New York sky and its few shy stars, and she was guilty, so so guilty... She'd be walking from exclusive club to select event and the things she had would seem like mirrors and smoke in the dark of night and sore lack of warmth.
She wished for things she didn't have, because remembering what dreams tasted like was like a virus... they could hit you hard and leave you weak-kneed and hot.