Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Thanks for the feedback. Each character will get their own in-depth update; last time was Blair's. This time is Serena's.

Previously: The day of Bart Bass's brunch, Blair and Chuck's flirting escalates, the Van der Basses begin merging their families, and Blair and Nate unexpectedly spend the day together.

This time: Introducing the Humphreys, i.e. the moment Serena starts growing up.

I Feel It All

"Princess." Chuck called as he exited his limo. Blair shot him a sideways glance, not stopping her ascent into the schoolyard.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're the joke of Manhattan, driving around in that tacky thing? Get a Town Car, or a G-Wagon, or something." Blair replied acidly.

Chuck jogged to catch up with her, pushing aside the minions. "Oh, let's not pretend that I didn't come over last night and confess secrets and whisper sweet romantic nothings."

"You were with Chuck last night?" Hazel asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. "But you were with Nate all day."

"And you were with nobody, so I don't understand why you're speaking." Blair snapped. "Let's go to assembly. Now remember, Ivy Week is about division and conquest. Isabel is taking Brown, Penelope is taking Penn, Hazel is taking Cornell, Kati is taking Columbia, and I'm taking Yale."

"That's funny, because Yale doesn't offer degrees in slut." The Mean Girls turned on their heels to face Serena, who had emerged from the Van der Bass limo.

"Excuse me?" Blair said with narrowed eyes.

"You heard me. First you flirt with Chuck at brunch, spend all day with Nate, and from the looks of it, all night with Chuck." Serena tossed a glance in her future step-brother's direction. "He got home late last night."

"It took him a while to express the disgust he felt about sharing an enclosed space with you in the future." Blair replied. "And while it must be liberating to have absolutely no boundaries, but some of us do not feel the need to inspect one another's hymens." Blair closed the gap between the two girls so their noses were close to touching. "And seeing as I still have mine and you can't even remember which of the two boys you were with took yours, I'm not sure you should even be talking to me about being a slut."

Blair turned around, not waiting for Serena's reply, but as they got to the entrance of the school, she snapped her head in Serena's direction. "You were off my radar."

Somehow in the scuffle, Chuck managed to be the one escorting Blair inside, the entourage of minions surrounding them. His hand was pressed to her back as they walked into assembly.

As the eleventh graders of St. Jude's and Constance Billard were told which of their peers would be ushers and for which schools, Serena couldn't mask her disappointment that, per Blair's prediction, Isobel was going to be escorting the Brown representative with the swim team captain, who was an infamous stoner.

Chuck managed to catch up with Blair again as they stood in the transitional hallway between the two schools.

"Stalk me much?" Blair asked, leaning against Chuck's locker as she scrolled through the Gossip Girl updates on some lesbian drama out of Brearley. "Yale? I thought you wanted to hook up with the hot Princeton rep."

"I did, but then I thought... If I wanted to get a taste of Jersey, I could hit the clubs on the weekends and mingle with the bridge and tunnel crowd." Chuck replied. He reached out and caressed the inside of Blair's elbow. "Besides, I rather like the idea of Connecticut."

Blair rolled her eyes. "You've got to be kidding."

"What?" Chuck asked a little defensively.

"You need some serious psychotropic mood stabilizers, Bass." Blair said in an exasperated voice. "I have gym class."

"Are you trying to make me hard?" He called after her.

Blair smirked as she walked away.

Serena sighed. She supposed she should have worked harder over the past year; it was unsurprising that involved and B average Isobel would be escorting the Brown rep given Serena's lack of involvement and C average. In fact, Serena was pretty sure she was actually failing French since she nearly never went and had ended up with the instructor who gave daily attendance quizzes. The only reason she was getting a C average was because her English grades were actually bordering on As, but she had no Advanced Placement classes.

Serena was confused. Had she always been doing this poorly, or was it something she had never noticed between Blair's bullying of Serena's teachers and Serena's wildly busy social life. The girl's normally golden features darkened as she thought of Blair. Blair hadn't denied any of her accusations, and Serena hadn't realized until now how much she'd wanted Blair to do just that.

"I didn't get what I wanted either." A boy said beside her. Serena looked up and discovered she was in a St. Jude's corridor which she must have wandered into by mistake. "At least, you look upset and we just came from the Ivy Week assembly so… you wanted, no, no, let me guess."

Serena smiled. "Brown."

"Oh, yes, of course, Brown." Said the boy. "I should've guessed by the way you actually spoke to me."

Serena took in the brunette boy, who seemed achingly familiar but whose name she couldn't come up with. So she put out her hand, tilted her full head of blonde hair to the side, and smiled even wider. "Serena van der Woodsen."

"Um, yeah, I know." The brightness in the boy's eyes dimmed a little bit. "I'm Dan Humphrey. We've gone to school together since first grade."

"Oh." Serena wasn't quite sure what to say. "I'm sorry."

"Well, that's a great start." Dan smiled again. "I wanted Dartmouth, but Nate Archibald got it."

Serena shrugged. "Believe me, if he could, he'd give it to you."

"You think so?" Dan didn't seem so sure.

"His dad is obsessed with his alma mater. Nate would like to be on the West Coast, or at least he was." Serena said. "But Nate would do anything to please his dad."

"So, in the long run, we both get shafted." Dan mumbled, and Serena's heart expanded. Did this boy actually think she was on his intelligence level? Should she let him?

Maybe for today, she would. "Hey, do you wanna meet up after school? We can figure out how to crash the Ivy Week mixer."

Dan hesitated, and Serena felt a sort of anxiety in her chest she hadn't felt since she'd been interviewed about Georgina. But it was a good anxiety, or at least she didn't feel like she was wandering into dangerous territory. But Dan smiled, and Serena felt a strange soaring feeling she hadn't ever felt sober. "Sure. The courtyard?"

Serena nodded feverishly.

Halfway through gym class, and Serena was well bruised. She threw her stick down, nearly missing Nelly Yuki, and she pushed the tiny brunette's shoulders. "That is ENOUGH, Blair."

"It's enough when I say it's enough!" Blair retorted, turning back to the game when the instructor blew the whistle.

Every inch of Serena's body was aching from body checks and places where Blair had slapped her field hockey stick against the Amazonian blonde, and she was enraged. How the hell did Blair think that one night was worth all of this nastiness? Serena did the first thing that came to mind; she tackled her former best friend.

Serena locked her legs on either side of Blair's red skirt and the pair wrestled around, pulling on each other's ponytails: Blair's neatly curled and Serena's messily perfect. Serena ended up on top of Blair, ready to punch her in her delicate little face when the instructor pulled her off. "Is that enough yet?" Serena shouted as Blair pulled herself together. They faced one another, in eye-gouging range. "So that's it, huh? We've actually come to physical blows, huh? Truce?"

Blair paused for a moment, and then collapsed onto one leg. "OW! My leg!"

"Serena! You're out!" Shouted the instructor. Serena grabbed her gym gear in disbelief as Blair's minions helped her limp off the field. "Ow! Ow!" Blair moaned, and as Serena brushed past her, she snarled, "I hope it's broken."

Hey Upper East Siders, we hear that World War III just broke out, and it's wearing knee socks. Choose your side or run and hide. We have a feeling this one's to the death.

Serena was walking back towards Constance when she saw Blair sitting on a bench alone, waiting for her car to pick her up. Serena rolled her eyes, and sat down next to her.

"I told you that you were off my radar." Blair sniffed contemptuously.

"Can't you just get over it?" Serena sighed. Blair stared at her. "I'm sorry about this morning, but you've had the entirety of uptown freezing me out since I got back from rehab."

Blair still didn't say anything, but she didn't look at Serena anymore. "I expected better from you." She said finally, seemingly speaking to her hands.

"I said I'm sorry about Nate." Serena shrilled, and Blair's head snapped up.

"No, no, you didn't." Blair replied quietly. "I… was ready to forgive you for that, because you were always so drunk that year. He might as well have been an usher or some other lacrosse player as far as you were concerned, but you never apologized."

Serena's mind was racing. Rehab had been a struggle, and she'd just wanted it to be over it so she could go back to rebuilding her life. But she had to have apologized to Blair, hadn't she?

"I knew something might happen, but I figured if you did it, you'd apologize, and you'd mean it." Blair continued. "I even looked up the AA and NA steps to figure out when. But you got out of rehab, and it didn't happen. You broke up with Nate, and it didn't happen. My parents broke up, and it didn't happen. My dad left my mom for a 31-year-old male model, and everyone was talking about me, and it didn't happen, and I kept waiting and hoping because I was lonely and I couldn't trust anybody, and I had already invested so much in you, and it never came. I gave up on you, I gave up on Nate, I gave up on everybody, and then you have the gall to call me a slut?"

Serena was still trying to figure out the timeline. Straight out of rehab, she'd thought if she were serious about Nate, people would take her seriously and forgive her. But Nate hadn't been serious about sobriety, and Serena needed something more reliable than a boy to make it through Claus (with a C or a K? She never remembered) and her new social status.

So she chose sobriety. Had she just forgotten?

Blair's car pulled up and as her driver helped her off the bench, Serena reached for Blair's wrist. Blair snatched it back as though she'd been burned. "Would it make any difference if I apologized now?"

The driver lifted Blair into the back of the Town Car, and as he put her bags in the trunk, Blair looked mournfully at Serena. "I don't know." She said sincerely, her eyes taking in the face of Constance and St. Jude's. "I just don't."

Serena spent the rest of the afternoon in a daze. It was in French class (the instructor was thoroughly surprised to see her) after she'd absentmindedly received an A on the attendance quiz that she remembered the apology she had given Blair.

Georgina had just visited the Ostroff Center and had managed to sneak in a case of gin cleverly disguised as Fiji water. The first two weeks had been the most difficult, and Nate was kindly dropping off notes and assignments from Constance he'd paid Nelly Yuki to take. One night after Nate had confessed his feelings to her, not knowing that she was three sheets to the wind, Serena had called Blair.

"What do you want?" Blair sounded tired, Serena remembered, too tired to go through her normal defense mechanisms, namely the ones that made her sound acidic or icy.

"I wantedsh to apolergize." Serena slurred. "About Natie-poo. I didn't mean shit." Serena hiccupped. "I mean it. I didn't mean it."

"This doesn't count, Serena." Blair had said in an exasperated voice, and she'd hung up. Serena had put the cap back on her Fiji water and had rolled over and gone back to sleep.

The bell rang, pulling Serena out of her reverie, and she hurriedly packed her things and headed three blocks north on Fifth Avenue.

At the awning for 1132 Fifth Avenue, she ran into Chuck, and neither attempted to hide their disgust with one another.

"Heard about the field hockey throwdown," He began, and Serena noticed the peonies in his hands. How had he gotten his hands on them? School had just let out. "All those mouthguards and short skirts; I hope somebody filmed it."

"You're disgusting, Chuck." Serena snapped, and they both pushed their way past the doorman, who was familiar enough with their faces to let them in.

"Please, call me brother." Chuck replied, adjusting his scarf. When they arrived at the elevator bay, they found Nate standing there. Both of them were surprised. Nate, on the other hand, rolled his eyes.

"Well, this is weird." Serena said as they rode in the elevator; Chuck had put in the new code which Nate and Serena absentmindedly memorized.

The elevator opened into the Waldorf penthouse, and Blair, upon seeing her new visitors, commanded Isabel and Kati to go fetch something. She accepted Chuck's peonies, kissing each of her visitors on the cheek.

"My favorites, you know me well." She said, casting her eyes toward the kitchen where her minions had disappeared to. "They'll have to get me a vase."

Chuck's chest puffed with pride. "Women like to pretend they're complicated; I know better."

The awkwardness hadn't left the room when Isabel and Kati returned, and Blair sent them on another errand to fetch a vase. She gestured to her former friends to sit down.

"So, Serena and Blair got into a fight, I spent the day with Blair yesterday, Chuck spent the night with her, and Chuck and Serena are about to be stepsibings?" Nate asked after the four had spent ten minutes in silence.

"God, I told them to find a vase, not forty extra IQ points." Blair said instead of responding. She took the hot pad off her leg. "Okay, so faking this injury is getting boring."

Serena laughed for the first time all day and Blair shot a small smile in her direction. "You did a good job of convincing our beefy gym instructor."

"Oh, you mean the Birch Wathen Lenox grad?" Blair asked, scoffing. "I'm pretty sure he's only around to parade around in those shorts."

"Why are you here?" Chuck asked the blonde nastily, and Blair scowled at him.

"Jealous?" Nate questioned his friend with an amused smile.

"You can only be jealous of something you have." Blair interjected, and it was Chuck's turn to glower at Blair. "Why are all of you here? Serena's…" Blair couldn't find words to kindly describe what she suspected about the blonde girl, "You're still trying to get in my pants, and Nate…"

"Nate is concerned about his very vulnerable ex." Nate said, referring to himself in the third person. "Nate only suspected Chuck would come to try and take advantage of your injury."

"Had Chuck known that Nate and Serena would try to cock-block him, he would've skipped last period to come sooner, instead of waiting until after school." Chuck retorted.

"Well, if Chuck would've come sooner, it would have been better for him to not come in Blair at all." Blair said with a sinister smile, and the four burst into laughter.

"After school!" Serena exclaimed suddenly, standing up. "I've gotta go, I think I stood someone up."

"Someone more important than our pending reunion?" Blair asked, her cold eyes tented under quirked eyebrows.

Serena shrugged, but she couldn't keep the smile from expanding across her face. "Dan Humphrey?"

Her friends' faces were blank.

"We've gone to school with him since first grade, apparently." Serena sat down again as Isabel and Kati appeared, the flowers placed in a Waterford crystal vase in the foyer.

"Lovely choice." Blair complimented with a saccharine smile. "Can you bring me my computer from the dining room?" Serena's face was puzzled, and the smile on Blair's face transformed from sticky sweet to simpering. "I recognize the name."

Blair scrolled through a list of names, and Nate noticed that while he and Serena had taken seats opposite Blair's chaise lounge, Chuck was resting on the arm, his hand resting close to her lounging body.

"He's the secretary of Politics Club." Blair said with finality, and Chuck peeked over her shoulder.

"How could you not remember that?" Serena said with a laugh. "You're the vice president!"

"He takes good notes." Blair said by way of reply.

"She has a dossier on every single member of the junior class." Chuck said incredulously, beaming with pride.

"He's from Brooklyn." Blair continued with disdain. "Really, S? Brooklyn?"

"Ugh, he's going to think I'm such a bitch." Serena slouched in her chair, and Blair sent her an inquisitive look. "I wish I had his phone number or something."

"Well, you could just tell him you're a flake." She deadpanned. "Because that's true."

"We were going to figure out a way to get into the Ivy Week mixer." Serena moaned. "He wanted to be the Dartmouth rep."

"If I could give it away, I would." Nate said, his own slouch mirroring Serena's perfectly. Chuck snorted.

Blair put her phone up to her face. "Hello, Daniel?"

Serena sat up straight suddenly, and she was sending Blair a warning glare.

"This is Blair Waldorf; I'm the chairwoman of the student committee on Ivy Week." Chuck mouthed the words back to her; this was a made-up position. "My friend Serena came over to explain your predicament to me, and while I can't make Dartmouth happen for you, there is a position that we've found that might be satisfactory." Blair paused. "Of course I know who you are. You're the secretary of Politics Club." Blair was silent again. "I just don't refer to people by their names. Are you going to escort Princeton or not?" Blair smiled once again. "No, no, thank Serena."

Chuck rolled his eyes. "Princeton? Tristan Fox is escorting Princeton."

"And he's going to find an 8-ball in his locker that he can't resist and mysteriously, Dan will be available to fill the spot. He's from Brooklyn, he can handle Jersey." Blair retorted. "Can you make the plant?"

Nate balked. "You're planting drugs in people's lockers?"

"Keep up, Nate. Serena apologizes, Blair schemes for her. The old gang is back together again." Chuck said with a grin, throwing his arm around Blair's shoulders. She didn't shrug him off.

"I'm sorry." Serena mouthed to Blair across the living room, Blair waved her away, and Nate couldn't tell whether it was Blair's mother's divorce or the speaking in third person or the field hockey fight, but the four had just given each other a chance. They hadn't walked out or turned around upon running into each other, and like magic they were friends again.

"You can stop with the Roladex." Dan said to his father, who was muttering under his breath. Only a few words were decipherable to human ears, but they were things like bourgeois and privilege, and even Dan was getting a little tired of it. "Dad, stop. Blair Waldorf just told me I could escort Princeton. Not ideal, but at least I'm invited to the mixer."

"Blair Waldorf called?" Jenny shrieked from her room, and she ran into the kitchen where her brother and father were seated. "How does she know who you are?"

"Yeah, who is Blair Waldorf?" Rufus asked, pushing his Roladex aside.

"She's the vice president of Politics Club, and 95 pounds of the girliest evil ever to rule Constance Billard." Dan stuttered. "Frankly, I'm not sure how she knew my name, but she did, she called my cell and said I could escort Princeton. She said her friend Serena told her I needed help."

"That's impossible." Jenny stated matter-of-factly. "Blair hates Serena." Jenny gasped and clapped her hands together. "Oh! Maybe Serena apologized to Blair so she could get you an usher position! Maybe that's why she stood you up!"

"No, she stood me up because girls like Serena van der Woodsen stand up guys like Dan Humphrey." Dan replied. "What does she have to apologize to Blair for?"

"She slept with Nate Archibald at a wedding when Blair was still his girlfriend." Jenny explained, as though it was common knowledge, which it kind of was. "It's all on Gossip Girl."

"That website's for girls." Dan responded slowly, "And that doesn't sound like Serena van der Woodsen."

Jenny scoffed. "That sounds exactly like Serena van der Woodsen, because she did it. I know you've been in love with her since the seventh grade, but I think you're in for a rude awakening."

"Wait, do you think Blair Waldorf can give me Serena's phone number?" Dan asked. "Is that lame?"

"Blair Waldorf will give you Serena's number if she wants you to have Serena's number." Jenny replied. "Do you think that you could mention that you're related to me? Because if you're cool now, I want to be cool too."

Neither Humphrey observed that their father had left the room, with his Roladex.

"I'm back, Eric!" Serena cried as she returned to the Van der Woodsen suite. "Blair's speaking to me again, bullying people into doing what I need them to do, and I might still have a shot at Brown!"

Eric laughed. "I'm happy for you, though I'm a little worried about what Blair will do."

"She mentioned something about an 8-ball," Serena began, plucking the half-finished banana from Eric's hand and taking a bite. With her mouth full, she said, "Though technically I think Chuck is dealing with that one."

"But I thought Chuck hated you." Eric stole his banana back.

"Chuck hated me because Blair hated me, and Blair doesn't hate me anymore." Serena exclaimed victoriously. "Where's mom?"

Eric shrugged. Serena noticed that he seemed pretty uninterested in her recent social status recovery. He turned to go back to his room, but then spun around to face her again, his face very serious. "Can we have room service tonight? Just the two of us?"

Serena nodded. "Yeah, sure. Get started ordering. I trust you." Her phone rang. Her face lit up again. "Hey, it might be one of my friends. Did you hear that, plural? Friends?"

"Congratulations." Eric told her sincerely, plucking the room service menu from the coffee table.

"Hello?" Serena greeted.

"Hello, Serena? It's Dan Humphrey..." Serena smiled as his voice cracked. "Hello?"

"I'm here." She said, sinking into the couch. Eric presented her with the menu and she pointed at a few random items. "How'd you get my number?"

"Your friend Blair, she's your friend, right? My sister Jenny says she's not." Dan was rambling nervously, and Serena felt warm. "Anyway, she gave me your number, rather unwillingly, but she gave it to me."

"She's my friend alright." Serena found herself saying, dancing a little bit in her seat. "Did she ask why you wanted my number?"

"I'm convinced she taught Cheney how to question suspects at Gitmo." Dan replied. "And I said I was trying to thank you for talking to her about the Ivy Week mixer."

"You're welcome." Serena said. "I figured one of us ought to have a shot."

"Well, thank you. And I mean, hey, when Blair was grilling me, she mentioned she was your best friend and having your best friend as the chairwoman of the student committee on Ivy Week has to count for something." Dan suggested, "Maybe you should talk to her for yourself."

"I'm sure she'll figure something out." Serena whispered, the warmth coming from her heart spreading across her chest. Best friend? "So do you forgive me for standing you up? I just had the epiphany in French class and had to act on it before I forgot. I'm flaky, you know."

"Oh, that's cool. I mean, if you can stand me up every time I have a problem Blair Waldorf can solve, that'd be great."'

A knock came at the door. "Hey, Dan, I'm really glad everything worked out for you, and we do need to set something up to celebrate, but my brother and I need some serious bonding time." Serena handed Eric cash for a tip. "I'm really glad you called."

"I'm glad I called." Dan echoed. "I'll see you at school?"

"Yeah." Serena hung up after a moment, and Eric unpacked the best the Palace had to offer across the coffee table. "What's up, E?"

"I don't know how to preface this, so I'm just going to say it." Eric put his hands over Serena's, which had a magnetic attraction to the truffle oil grilled cheese. "I'm gay."

Serena didn't move, but her face softened and her smiled dropped a little. "Okay."

"And I've told Chuck." Serena scowled in surprise. "Well, he asked, and I told him honestly."

"How could he have figured it out?" The implied 'before me' never came out of Serena's mouth.

"It doesn't matter. I've," Eric paused, looking away from his sister's gentle gaze, and laughing a little. "You're being really great about this."

"Of course." Serena squeezed Eric's hands.

"Mom's kind of absent and she comes and goes on when she wants to be a good mom and when she wants to be Lily van der Woodsen, famous rock photographer and ex-groupie." Eric began. "When she's great, she's great."

"But when she's gone, she's gone." Serena whispered. "Am I that way too?"

"You…" Eric searched for the sweetest thing to say. "You've been focused on yourself, and your sobriety, and you made that such a top priority, and I'm really proud of you. But even with both of you here, I've felt kind of lonely. And I think that's why Chuck picked up on it, because he's lonely… and is probably never going to focus on sobriety."

Serena laughed. "Our food's getting cold, E."

He snatched the top grilled cheese. "Yeah."

The Van der Woodsens sat together in silence, a happy silence.

Next time…. Chuck.