Serena Vander Woodsen had always been a part of the lower middle class. She had lived in rural Pennsylvania her entire life with her mother, Lily, and her brother, Erik. Lily had always had to work two jobs just to make ends meet each week. They had never had very many luxuries, but they were happy and they loved each other and Serena wouldn't have traded her life for all the riches in the world.
But everything she knew was turned upside down one warm summer day when she was 14 years old. Her mom and Erik were on their way to pick her up from a friend's house when they were involved in a head-on collision. They both were killed instantly.
And just like that, everything that Serena had ever known had disappeared. She was sent to New Jersey to live with her mother's artist sister, Allison and her writer husband, Rufus. Allison and Rufus Humphrey had two children, Dan and Jenny.
Dan was 21 when Serena moved in and he was a musician. After graduating from high school Dan had decided to pursue his love of music and had loaded up a van with his best friend/roadie/manager, Nate Archibald, to travel around the country and play gigs wherever he could.
Jenny was extremely artistic, like her mother, and dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. She was 18 and dreading her senior year of high school. Jenny was sort of an introvert and she could come across as kind of a bitch to people who didn't really know her. And her dark fashion sense and heavy eyeliner didn't help with people's first impressions of her. She didn't have any friends at her school and she was made fun of constantly and considered to be an outcast.
At first Serena hated New Jersey and she missed her mother and her brother, but slowly she began to adjust. She enjoyed going to her aunt's art shows and attending concerts and poetry readings with her Uncle Rufus and Jenny. And she always had so much fun when Dan and Nate were in town. Jenny and Serena would go to Dan's show and afterwards the four of them would always go to an all-night diner or back to the Humphrey house or to Dan and Nate's hotel room and just spend the rest of the night joking and laughing and having a good time.
When school started up, Serena didn't stick out too much. She was a freshman, so she wasn't the only new face in her classes. She kept mostly to herself at school. The only other person she talked to was Jenny, who was a senior, so Serena was only able to see her at lunch.
Serena made it through that first year just fine. She studied hard and did well in her classes. She worked at Allison's art gallery after school and on the weekends she would go out with Jenny and if Dan had a show nearby they would go and see him play and hang out with the boys afterwards.
But as her sophomore year neared, Serena became more and more anxious. Jenny had graduated and left for college, and Dan and Nate were still touring around the country, so she had absolutely no one. She planned on focusing even harder on her schoolwork and putting in more hours at the gallery.
But on the first day of school all her plans were ruined.
Her third period class was chemistry and they were assigned lab partners, except her class had an odd number of students so there had to be one group of three. Mr. Pizer, the chemistry teacher, was just like every other teacher and student in the school and knew that he needed to keep Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass happy, which in this case meant making them partners. But Mr. Pizer was slightly bitter over the power Chuck and Blair had in the school, so while he was not brave enough to separate them, he decided to do the next best thing, and he placed them in the group of three along with Serena Vander Woodsen.
When the pairs were announced, Serena placed her head in her hands and groaned quietly. She could not believe this was happening to her. She had never actually spoken to either Blair or Chuck, but she knew of their reputation and she had spent her whole freshman year doing her best to avoid them.
But now here they were, walking towards her, Blair with her head held high and her nose in the air and Chuck strolling closely behind her with a predatory leer on his face. Serena took a deep breath and sat up straighter. She refused to be scared of them. Just because they thought they were better than her or anyone else didn't mean that they actually were.
When they sat down on either side of her she looked them both up and down with raised eyebrows before introducing herself, "Hi. I'm Serena."
"We know." Blair said flippantly without even looking at Serena as she smoothed down her hair and checked her reflection in her compact. After a moment, Blair closed the compact and finally looked at the girl next to her, "Now," she said in an authoritarian voice, "I hope you are not completely inept when it comes to chemistry. My grades are very important to me. If I want to go to Columbia, I need to stay right at the top of our class. My parents have done more than enough damage forcing me to attend this public school." Her face scrunched up in disdain at her last words.
Chuck merely rolled his eyes, "Oh please, Blair. Like your grandparents couldn't buy your way into Columbia."
"That's not the point, Charles. Just because you Bass' throw your money around to get what you want, doesn't mean we all do that. The Waldorf's have more class than that."
Chuck snorted and continued to smirk as Blair turned back to the other girl, "So I was thinking we could start working tonight. You don't have plans do you?"
"Um, not really…"
"Good. We'll come by your place at like 7?" It was presented as a question, but Serena got the feeling that it was more of a command.
"Why exactly are we meeting?" She asked with just a hint of defiance in her voice.
Of course both Chuck and Blair had picked up on it. Chuck's smirk only grew as his gaze shifted between the two girls, waiting to see what would happen. Blair's eyes widened slightly before a small, cool smile formed on her lips, "To start planning out the assignments, of course. This is advanced chemistry. If we don't stay on top of things from the beginning, then before you know it we'll get behind and then we won't have time for parties and socializing and that is just completely unacceptable."
Serena just stared at her for a minute before she turned to Chuck, "Is she always this neurotic?"
Blair looked shocked for a moment before she shook her head and smiled as Chuck just laughed, "Absolutely. You get used to it."
…….
That night, at 7 o'clock on the dot, Chuck and Blair showed up at the Humphrey's house. Serena looked surprised when she opened the door to see them standing there. She ushered them in as she asked, "How did you know where I lived?"
Chuck had another amused expression on his face as Blair smiled like she was explaining something to a child, "Sweetie, just because we've never really interacted before this doesn't mean we didn't know who you were. We know everything."
"Oh really?" Serena said skeptically.
"Of course. We know that you spent last year hanging around Crazy Jenny. We know that she is your cousin and that you came to live here with her and her parents after your mom died in an accident."
Serena's mouth hung open before she managed to stutter, "W-what? But-, but how? How did you-? No one here knows-"
"Serena, you need to understand. We're not like everyone else. There is a reason we've ruled this school since we were freshman. There is a reason we rose to the top so quickly. You can't hide anything from us."
Serena was still completely baffled as Blair brushed past her and into the living room, "Now, enough about that. Let's get to work on some chemistry!"
…
A few hours later, Blair and Chuck were getting ready to leave when Blair turned to Serena with a satisfied smile, "See, aren't you glad we did this? Now you won't have to worry about chemistry at all this weekend! You'll be completely free for whatever plans you have."
"Great." Serena muttered.
Blair's face fell slightly as she frowned at the blonde girl standing before her, "What? You don't have any plans? It's the first weekend of the school year! There's always a huge party."
Serena rolled her eyes, "Oh right, I must have misplaced my invite."
Chuck smirked, "Don't worry Blondie, it's usually really lame anyway."
"Yeah," Blair chimed in, "We're not even going this year. Chuck's dad is hosting a big charity ball in Manhattan so we're going to that instead."
"It's going to be great." Chuck said sarcastically.
Blair hit him lightly on the chest, "Oh come on, Chuck. It is going to be fun! The champagne, the fancy dresses, the dancing! Ah, I can't wait!" She said as she clasped her hands together like a little girl.
Chuck watched Blair and her excitement with a mixture of amusement and tenderness in his eyes. Suddenly, Blair's eyes widened with an idea and she turned to Serena and exclaimed, "You should come!"
"Uh, what?"
"You should come to the ball with us! It will be so much fun! We can dress up and get our hair and make-up done. Have you ever been to a ball before?"
"Um, no, not really…"
"Oh, they are so much fun! You should definitely come with us!" Blair's eyes were practically dancing with excitement.
"I don't know…"
"Why not? What else are you going to do? Sit here and bond with the Humphreys over poetry and art?"
"No. I-, I don't know. I wouldn't have anything to wear to a ball!"
Blair laughed, "Oh, don't worry about that! I have a ton of stuff you could borrow. Plus, this only adds to the fun. Now we can go shopping!"
Serena sighed, "Well, I guess…"
"Great!" Blair interrupted. "We'll talk about it more tomorrow. You're going to sit with us at lunch, right?"
Another command posed as a question, Serena noted, but she found herself smiling and nodding as Blair and Chuck walked out the door.
"See you tomorrow, S!" Blair called out as she left.
Chuck turned and smirked at her, "Bye Charity." He said right before he closed the door.
"Charity?" Serena muttered to herself as she thought about what had just happened. Blair almost never invited people to sit by them at lunch. They had their designated table where they sat together with Blair's boyfriend of the moment and a few select, privileged others (usually hot girls that Chuck was hooking up with). It hadn't really sunk in with Serena that she had just been invited into their exclusive clique.
The next day, Serena sat with Chuck and Blair at lunch. Chuck had his customary place on Blair's right side and Serena sat where Blair's boyfriends had typically sat, on the left.
When Chuck was distracted by one of the cheerleaders sitting nearby, Serena asked Blair, who was busy looking at the cheerleader in disgust, what he had meant when he had called her 'Charity' the night before. Blair tore her eyes away from the overly affectionate pair and laughed with a wave of her hand. She told Serena that Chuck had gotten the idea that she was merely Blair's latest charity project. He believed Serena would be her new, poor orphan friend, but Blair assured her that was not the case.
"You've got some spunk; some attitude." Blair told her, "I like it. I'm intrigued."
Serena wasn't entirely sure what the other girl meant by that, but it seemed to be a good thing.
She attended the ball with Blair and Chuck that weekend and it served as her introduction to the Upper Eastside as the newest edition to Blair and Chuck's little group. After that night she was firmly in place as Blair's new best friend (other than Chuck) and Chuck soon accepted that she was not just another Good Samaritan project for Blair, although he did still call her Charity occasionally.
Serena was the perfect addition into their world, and both Chuck and Blair quickly realized how well she fit in with them. She was witty and strong-willed enough to keep up with them and occasionally put them in their place, but she was also naïve and kind enough to not want to take their power or to pose a threat to their position.
She soon became comfortable with her new friends and she realized they weren't what she had always thought they were. Sure, they could be manipulative and down-right cruel sometimes, but with the people they really cared about they were both extremely kind and loyal. They were always inviting her to fancy events and parties, and even though she couldn't afford pretty much all of the restaurants and clubs they went to or the clothes they wore, Chuck and Blair always made sure to take care of it for her.
Before she knew it, Chuck and Blair, two of the most self-centered, greedy people she had ever meant, had become the best friends she had ever had, and she wouldn't have had it any other way.
……
A/N: So, just so you all know, the whole premise of this story is taken from another story thing that I came up with that is not related to gossip girl and has like a ton more characters. There were 2 characters who were kind of based of Chuck and Blair and then I just decided to actually make it about C&B and I got rid of a bunch of the characters and changed some of the other ones around a bit to fit into this story and to fit them closer to characters from the show.
So yea, I don't know exactly how much I'm going to go into anything with Dan/Nate/Jenny/Serena in this story or more specifically Nate/Serena since there characters have a whole story on their own, but maybe after I could do like a sequel or something. I'm not sure. We'll see. Obviously, no matter what I decide, you will at least get hints of N/S in this story.