A/N: The last thing I should be doing is starting another multi-chap, but the current CB situation is bugging the crap out of me (please don't tell me any details; I'm not caught up w/ the episodes since the break) & The Ring/Ring 2 is/are my absolute favorite horror movie/movies. I've had this idea in my head for awhile and since it's pre-series, I think it'll distract me well enough from what I don't want to hear or think about at the moment. Heh. This fic is post-The Ring & pre-GG series. Blair is about thirteen & in 8th grade. Chuck will be in this, as will Nate and Serena, but probably not too many others & there will obviously be some references to what happened in The Ring story. Enjoy. Please review. =)

*I own nothing. Not The Ring, not Gossip Girl, nothing! *cries* lol.

"Have you heard about this videotape that kills you when you watch it?"

-Becca (from 'The Ring')

Ch.1—Isabelle

Becoming Queen Bee of Constance Billiard's School for Girls – the high school – doesn't happen overnight. It has to be earned. You have to make an impression on the graduating senior queen bee, or you have to overthrow her, outsmart her in some way that makes you the new queen of the high school. Becoming one of the popular girls, part of the group of minions that follow the queen around and obey her every command, isn't easy by any means, but it's easier. It involves more than having the right leggings to match the perfect skirt and headband, though that is a must as well, among other things. Coming in as a freshman is the worst, the most difficult, but the most rewarding in the long run if you can manage to befriend the queen instead of just following her orders. It takes time for that to happen, and talent. Trying to become a genuine friend of the queen at Constance Billiard's School for Girls is risky and almost always involves serious consequences, usually harmful to the person that makes the effort.

There's a middle school for Constance Billiard's too, along with an elementary school, but for all intents and purposes the latter isn't particularly significant. Unlike the high school, St. Jude's School for Boys doesn't share classrooms or even the same building with Constance. It's located in an entirely different educational facility, three blocks away. Many of the students in the two separate schools bond and become friends if they continue on to the high school where the two schools combine. Some, however, are friends already in middle school. Others have been since the cradle. Blair Waldorf, Serena Van der Woodsen, Nate Archibald and Chuck Bass are prime examples. There is no real hierarchy amongst the boys, but it doesn't mean they don't participate in some way with the royalty of the girls. More specifically, how the boys are involved with the girls may have a significant impact in where they stand in the social classes and how they are treated because of it.

Blair Waldorf, along with Serena Van der Woodsen, her best friend, was an eighth grader, starting her last year of middle school at Constance Billiard's School for Girls. She had lush brunette curls and the petite figure of an angel. She was the daughter of Harold Waldorf, one of the finest lawyers in all of New York, and Eleanor, a very high-end fashion designer. The three of them lived in a classy penthouse on the Upper East Side. Blair was spoiled rotten and the center of attention as she loved to be, except for where her best friend was concerned.

Serena was the envy of every girl in school. Though her mother was hardly at home and always changing the label of her newest suitor, Serena remained strong, both for her younger brother, Eric, and for herself. No one knew the struggles she went through. She was charming, beautiful, and the boys – even at the young age of thirteen – were at her beck and call. Blair loved her like a sister, taking her in time and again when her Lily Van der Woodsen left her children for months at a time sometimes to travel with her current lover overseas. But she was also exceedingly jealous, especially because of the way she saw who she deemed to be her future husband making eyes at Serena when the boys past them on the street. Her own mother too appeared to be favoring her best friend more than her own daughter when she was around. The last thing she had to hope for was her popularity, and today after school, the queen bee of Constance Billiard's School for Girls was coming to inspect the future freshman of Constance high school. Since the hierarchy at Constance middle school was practically nonexistent and only preached about for those who would continue on, the event was something Blair Waldorf took very seriously.

"Hey, B!" A bundle of bubbly energy and long, flowing blonde hair surrounded her, shaking her from her thoughts and spinning her in a circle. She fought her natural instincts with great ferocity and belatedly showed a somewhat pleasant face. Of course she was happy to see her best friend. But it would be a lie to say she was pleased that she had interrupted her from her staring down the street where Isabelle Walters – the Queen Bee at Constance's high school for Girls – would be approaching.

"Hey, Serena," she mumbled, looking past the wave of blonde hair but failing to see the road because of how much taller her best friend was.

"Guess what happened! Guess what happened!" she said enthusiastically, jumping about like what Blair would refer to as a wild animal or a jack-in-the-box. She moved to the side, trying to see ahead.

"What?" she asked in as indistinguishable a mumble as before.

"I was nominated for…"

Blair blocked out whatever else her best friend was saying. She was trying to focus on the positive. She could cheer for Serena's victories later, because suddenly she saw a car approaching and a beautiful black-haired beauty climbing out of a sleek black limo.

"Isabelle," she whispered.

"Huh?" Serena asked. She stopped walking around Blair in her jumpy excitement and tilted her head to the side. "Blair, have you even been listening?"

"Shh," Blair said, pushing her aside. "She's coming." Serena turned to look at the fifteen-year-old high school student walking their way, hardly aware of the cluster of girls starting to form around them all almost as in awe as her best friend was.

"Blair, you know it's not really that—"

"Shh!" she snapped, turning to look at her best friend with fiery eyes. It would be the last time, she told herself. She could not be distracted. Serena just didn't understand. She didn't comprehend how important was for her to be popular because she always walked into it naturally. She was the exception to the rest of the social world.

Isabelle came to a halt at the base of the cement steps, gazing across each girls' face now surrounding her. A few of her minions stood behind her, looking as proud as ever.

"Ladies," she began. Blair was enraptured by the very sound of her voice, to say nothing of the elegance and propriety of the way she stood. The confidence she held in her very stance was almost overwhelming. "Next year you will enter Constance Billiard's high school for Girls. It's a big step to take, and it will place you in the battlefield of where you will stand on the social hierarchy there." She paused, making sure all the eager eighth graders still were held with rapt attention. "Obviously, you will be judged accordingly at the beginning of the school year next fall, but certain things must be tested before then as well, to see just how far your loyalties will lie. It is very important to be dedicated to your queen." She smirked. Blair decided she liked it.

Isabelle turned to one of her minions who held out a manila envelope open to her. She reached into the envelope and pulled out a handful of invitations, handing them to various girls throughout the group. Blair saw that she did not give one away to every girl and crossed her fingers and eyes tightly in dire hope that she would receive one.

"Blair Waldorf."

She opened one eye and then resumed her normal stance from before, realizing that it had not been wise for her to squeeze her eyes shut as if she were witnessing some nightmarish horror film in the movie theater. She cleared her throat and took the invitation held out to her.

"Thank-you," she said very quietly, unknowingly avoiding eye contact with the beautiful girl. Isabelle looked amused, and then moved on to hand out the remaining invitations to the girls Blair decided were worthy enough for them. She beamed with pride then, realizing that she was one of them. Isabelle returned to the step she had before occupied.

"What you have in your hands is an invitation to an optional soiree I'm having this Saturday night. It's optional because there will be girls attending Constance high school next year that are not attending this middle school. It is in your best interest to attend however, because by coming to this event, and various ones afterwards, you will be one step ahead of them. You will have had more chances to achieve status in my eyes, and thus have a higher chance of becoming one of my future minions." She looked down at the sole invitation left in her hand and glanced over it, a mischievous look on her face. "It may sound very childish to you, or at least it does for most high schoolers, but at my soiree we will be playing a game of truth or dare. If you choose dare, you must be incredibly brave, because the dare I have in mind requires extreme intelligence and the outrageous spontaneity of a dare devil." She smiled slyly and then moved past the cluster of girls who parted instantly for her as she walked back towards her limo. She stopped when she reached the now open door and turned to all of the awe-struck eighth-grade girls.

"I hope to see all of you on Saturday. Eight o'clock. Don't be late."

They were all stunned, but gradually parted and headed for their cars where impatient parents were waiting, or, if you were particularly rich and well respected, limos were parked with casual drivers patiently sitting in their seats, ready to step out and hold open the doors for the next generation of billionaires and their friends.

"Are you done?" Serena asked, rolling her eyes before Blair finally approached her. She had a long blonde lock of hair twisted around one finger and her head tilted annoyingly to one side. Blair was too excited and proud to be bothered by her lack of interest though.

"Yes," she said confidently, strutting past her best friend on the way to her limo.

"She was talking kind of cryptic, wasn't she?" Serena asked, clearly not deciding to remain quiet as Blair had temporarily hoped. "All that dare stuff sounded…really weird and over the top." Blair shot her a death glare.

"It did not sound cryptic, or really weird or over the top," she said, sounding tight-lipped and exasperated. She halted and waited for the driver to open the door on her side of the limo where she stood. She turned into the opening once the door was pulled back to its limit and indulged in her prior happy sigh. "It sounded intelligent."

She slipped into the leather seat and scooted over to the other side, Serena sliding in behind her with another roll of her eyes.

…

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Please review. =) And yes, the boys will most definitely show up throughout the fic, but it is centered in on Blair. ;p