The card was stark white, a sharp-cornered square. It was a model of symmetry. It looked like something Steve Jobs would have liked. There were two words on it. Tara. 7 pm.

An invitation.

Blair studied it again bleakly. "She hasn't specified a dress-code," she said, scanning the card again as though expecting new words to float on the paper if she glared at it hard enough. She wouldn't put a test of will being part of the conditions - it would tie into Scarlett's macabre schemes perfectly. She tried to will a dress-code into being but nothing happened. "God, that bitch."

Serena polished off the last of the cookie dough. "Its just a sleepover, Blair," she said lazily. "I don't really think there's a dress code."

Blair whirled around to face her friend. "No, it is not just a sleepover, Serena. This is one of Scarlett O'Hara's sleepovers." When Serena blinked at her innocently, like a glamorous Dumbo, Blair sighed. "Let me see your card again."

"What, the last five times weren't good enough for you?"

The cards were disappointingly identical.

Blair stormed out of the kitchen in frustration, Serena trailing after her. It had been shaping up to be the perfect lazy Saturday morning - cookie dough, a nail art session, hunting down their old Barbies and they'd been planning to go feed the ducks at the park just like they did when they were little kids. Until the cards had arrived.

"Do you realize I have under forty-eight hours to find the perfect outfit?"

"You could bug her house," Serena suggested. "Find out what she's wearing and coordinate, you know... uh, Blair, you're not seriously considering that are you?"

Blair rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid. I don't have time to bug her house." She gnawed on her lip thoughtfully. "Do you think she's inviting that Hamilton girl? They're always together, though I can't see why. She's such a freak."

"She seems really sweet," Serena said.

"That's because she doesn't have enough personality to be anything else. When people say sweet, they actually mean insipid. Wonder how she and Ashley Wilkes ever got together."

"He's really cute," Serena said, grinning. "He totally rocks geek chic. I thought Scarlett was kind of into him."

"Kind of?" Blair raised her eyebrows. "I wonder why she isn't acting against Melanie Hamilton though. If I were her, I would."

Serena raised her eyes heavenwards. "Maybe because she actually cares about him?" she suggested mildly.

Blair gave her a look that suggested that she was crazy. "If she cared, she'd do anything she could to get him." She pursed her lips for a moment and then pulled out her cellphone.

"Blair what are you-" Serena began as Blair began to dial. "Don't say I didn't warn you," she said dryly, when her friend glowered at her.

"Hello, is this Melanie? Hey, its me Scarlett. I was wondering if you'd like to grab a coffee sometime? Oh, you'd love to? Oh, well, yeah, four's great, yeah, well we'll see you there then..." With a very smug smile on her face, Blair snapped her phone shut.

"Coffee with the Cookiecutter," she announced. "Cue dramatic music."

Serena wasn't even about to ask what Blair was up to. As far as she was concerned, ignorance was blessed.


Say what you would for her, Melanie Hamilton had a very sweet smile. But that was all.

She was a wide-eyed, apple-cheeked all-American girl. Tendrils of curly dark hair escaped defiantly from her ponytail, she wore an oversized sweater that reminded Scarlett of the print on a battered couch in a badly-funded sitcom. When she opened it, Blair almost winced to see her wearing a Read-is-Fun t-shirt that she'd probably gotten free at a convention.

She couldn't believe that Ashley Wilkes, pursued desperately by one of the most beautiful girls in New York, found little Miss Goody Two Shoe's looks appealing. So what was it that he saw in her?

Blair studied her discreetly over the top of her latte while Serena made idle talk. Melanie was carrying a slim, ivory-covered volume of poetry, she said she came to this particular cafe often to read and sip the herbal chais she preferred in peace.

"It can get pretty insane at home when Uncle Henry comes visiting. He drives Aunt Pitty crazy but he's our other guardian and one of our trustees so she can't exactly bar him from the house."

She liked to chatter in a mild, inoffensive yet mind-numbing way. She was like static played at a low volume - annoying but not unbearable. Blair smiled and asked about her brother Charles again, all the while studying her.

Inoffensive... she mused as Serena asked Melanie what she was planning to wear to Scarlett's sleepover. She's just like him. Shy and bookish. She doesn't disturb him... not like Scarlett would. But he likes Scarlett too, there's that way he looks at her...

"Oh well, its just a sleepover isn't it?" Melanie tittered foolishly. "I guess I'll wear my pajamas."

"Blair's been freaking out since we got the cards about it. What'd you say again? Oh yeah... this is one of Scarlett O'Hara's sleepovers."

Melanie turned her doe brown eyes on Scarlett. "Oh you don't have to worry about Scarlett, Blair. She seems really... tough but inside she's a very sweet person."

This was so far off the mark that the mark might as well have been placed in another continent. Or another planet. Blair smiled the sickly smile that Scarlett always used on Melanie. It was also the kind of smile she used on people with missing limbs or intellects. "Oh I know. Now tell us all about you and Ashley. We're just dying to know."

Melanie blushed and began playing with the honey-colored scrunchy that held back her wiry hair. "Oh well, there's really not much to tell is there? We used to be such good friends when we were kids, our parents were so close and after I moved here things... happened." She had little dimples, like a baby.

"Cute," Blair said, stirring her latte. "And you're really into the things Ashley is into, I guess?"

"Not that much," Melanie admitted. "I mean we're both part of the Debating Society and we have a common interest in books and music, but Ashley's very technologically oriented. You know he's the President of the Tech Club? And I'm all thumbs where gizmos and gadgets are concerned."

Even Serena winced when she heard the words 'gizmos' and 'gadgets'. Putting both in the same sentence was positively antediluvian.

"So is Scarlett," Blair mused and a plan began to form. She began to smile angelically.