Chapter Three of the rewrite - enjoy :)

Chapter Three: Poison Ivy

She flicked through the stack of pages clipped onto the clipboard as she gathered her things for school, picking up her coat, bag and an apple for breakfast. That Monday was the official start of Constance Billiards and St Judes 'Ivy Week' and she'd volunteered to head up the planning committee for the mixer at the end of the week. The position usually went to a parent, in this case Lily Van Der Woodsen who appeared to have a penchant for heading up committees, but as Mrs Van Der Woodsen had to resign from her position last minute the headmistress decided to turn over the rest of the work to a group of students on a volunteer basis, apparently it would increase their standing in the eyes of the Ivy representatives.

And honestly if going to an Ivy wasn't her dream she'd never have volunteered in the first place. She'd been saddled with most of the actual work while the rest of the committee debated trivial things like whether the napkins should be cream or white. They'd all get the same amount of credit for being part of the committee and that was all that they were looking for anyway.

"Good luck!" her father called after her as she left the house that morning.

….

After that morning's assembly where the fact that this week could possibly be the most important week of their lives was drilled into their heads repeatedly Danni was filled with a new sense of determination. Things were looking up or at least they were until she literally bumped into Sebastian.

"Sorry, sorry" she said before she could stop herself "I wasn't looking where I was going"

"No, no it was my fault, I'm the one that's sorry" he told her "is the, uh, is the assembly over?"

"Yeah, yeah just ended" she said "I should probably get going, don't want to be late for class"

…..

Things had looked so hopeful yesterday morning, he and Blaine were friends again and he had whatever he had with Danni, now in the aftermath of Sunday's disaster of a brunch both Blaine and Danni were avoiding him, Danni had practically ran away from him earlier.

He found her at lunch in the courtyard, sitting at one of the stone tables, pouring over a pile of papers, shoulders hunched up as she leant over the papers in front of her. He moved across the courtyard towards her table and sat down beside her.

"Can I help?" he asked.

She looked up surprised, she hadn't noticed he was there until he'd spoke. She leant her elbow on the table, resting her head on her hand so that she was looking at him.

"Umm, do you know anything about…." she trailed off looking at her papers "catering for an Ivy Week mixer?"

"They stuck you with catering?" he asked, wincing in sympathy.

She ran her hands over her face and groaned into them.

"They stuck me with everything" she admitted, resting both elbows on the table top and resting her head in her hands "why did I think I could do this?"

"Because you can" he assured her, taking the page labelled 'catering' of the top of her pile "you just need a little help and that is what I am here for"

She looked up at him and smiled a soft smile.

"Thank you"

…

The Ivy Week mixer is officially under control by the end of lunch and honestly he's quite proud. A year ago the idea of spending his lunch doing something like this with someone like Danielle Humphrey was completely laughable but he had no idea what he was missing out on. Danni was so incredibly easy to talk to.

The thing about Danni Humphrey was that she was so wholesome. Drugs, partying, alcohol, the stuff that he'd found so important before, didn't seem to matter to her at all. She was just nice, no lies, no agendas, no secrets, she was just being nice to him because that's the type of person she was.

"Thank you for this" she said as they wrapped things up, slotting the papers into her bag "I would never had finished this without you"

"You would've" he assured her as he stood up "you probably would've torn your hair out first but you would have finished"

She let out a little laugh that he found oddly adorable and swung her bag over her shoulder.

"Hey, about this whole going out deal?" she asked him "you, um, you wouldn't want to g-give it another go would you?"

"I really would" he told her "but only if it's what you actually want"

"Of course it is, I'm the one who asked after all" she said, she widened her eyes in surprise just now realising that she was running late for class and standing in a now empty, apart from the two of them, courtyard "I've got to go, but I'll talk to you later okay?"

"Okay" he called after her, unable to wipe the wide dopey smile off his face.

….

"I've been coming here for the past week, nothing's going to change unless she stops hiding her here and lets her get her life back"

"It's not called hiding Sebastian" his mother replied "it's called recovery"

She spoke to him as if he didn't understand, as if he was some stupid, naïve child that she was growing weary of.

"Tell everyone she's staying with Aunt Carol in Miami?" he counted "that's recovery?"

She let out a deep exasperated sigh, raising two fingers on her left hand to rub at that temple, resting her elbow on the arm rest.

"She's not ready"

He rolled his eyes, settling back into his chair.

"A decision like this includes Erica as well" the therapist pointed out.

"Oh really, you mean I get a say in this?" Erica asked sarcastically "gee, thanks"

"Erica, of course" their mother said "we're here for you"

Sebastian leaned towards his sister, blocking out his mother and turning all attention towards Erica.

"If you wanna leave just tell us okay?" he told her, placing a hand on her arm "no matter what mom says"

Erica nodded as she took in his words turning away from her brother to face the therapist who was sitting in front of the three Van Der Woodsen's.

"I would really like to get out of here" she admitted, she caught her mother's eye and upon noticing the unpleased look on her face added "but maybe I'm not ready yet"

"What about just for a few hours?" he suggested "you can come to the Ivy League party tonight?"

"Sebastian" their mother interrupted, leaning forward in her chair to look across her daughter at her son "that party is an important event for you"

"She'll be around people she knows, it'll be fun and she'll be comfortable" Sebastian pointed out.

"Actually that sounds really great" Erica admitted, her face brightened and Sebastian smiled in response, pleased with her response.

"There we go" the therapist nodded sounding proud as if this was a major breakthrough "comprise, it wasn't so hard was it?"

….

"Now just remember if you feel light headed or panicky just come to me" Lilly was telling her daughter as the three of them stepped out of the car later that evening as they arrived at Ivy Week party.

"It's fine mom" she assured her worried mother, something that she'd become quite practiced at over the last few months "all I have to do is be normal right?"

"Or at least act normal" she said to Sebastian when their mother took off ahead of them,

"Works for mom"

…..

He almost immediately spotted the two people he'd been hoping to see that night, Blaine and Danielle, they were both standing with the Yale rep talking animatedly. They turned to each other at one point during the conversation and laughed at whatever the rep had, Blaine raised a hand to clap Danielle on the shoulder as though they were friends. He couldn't help but smirk when he saw that as soon as the Yale rep left the pair Blaine's smile dropped and he quickly walked away.

"What was that about?" he asked her

"Just Blaine being Blaine" she said with a shrug "want a drink?"

"Sure" he told her "the party looks great, I see all your hard work paid off"

"Our hard work" she corrected him "I couldn't have done this without your help"

"I barely did anything" he pointed out "this – "he paused gesturing the surrounding party "this is all your work"

She smiled at him, small and soft in a secret kind of way that made him feel – if only for a brief moment – as if they were the only two people in the world.

"Let's get these drinks shall we?" she asked.

…..

"May I please have everyone's attention?" Blaine called climbing up onto the stage; he cleared his throat and started "welcome again to the Constance Billard, St. Jude's Ivy week mixer, I'm Blaine Waldorf, chair of the community outreach committee" a round of applause broke out through the crowd "every year our school chooses to support one local institution we feel benefits out community, this year our schools have chosen to honour the Ostroff Centre"

Sebastian head quickly turned away from Danielle towards the stage, towards Blaine who easily met his gaze in the crowd and smiled smugly before continuing his speech.

He should've known, he should've known that Blaine wasn't just going to ignore him. He'd known Blaine Waldorf for as long as he could remember, he loved his revenge. He was stupid for believing that this time was going to be any different.

He just didn't think he'd go after Erica to get to him. Blaine had never been anything but kind towards the youngest Van Der Woodsen. He'd affectionately called her 'the little sister I never had' on several occasions. He deserved payback for what he'd done but Erica sure as hell didn't.

He whispered a quick apology to Danni and moved through the crowd and over to Erica putting a hand on her arm and trying to move her towards their mother.

"This semester our choice is a very personal one because the centre has helped one of our own" Blaine asked.

"What is going on here?" Lilly asked when she met up with her kids, voice full of worry. Worry for herself or for her daughter Sebastian wasn't quite sure.

"It's because of their excellent program which aids so many young addicts and alcoholics that a student here with us today is clean and sober, at least for now, can I please have Sebastian Van Der Woodsen join me on stage?"

Sebastian let out a sigh of relief. Thank god. He slipped his arm out of Erica's grip and headed through the crowd towards the stage, head held as high as he could manage.

"Don't try to deny it" Blaine warned in a whisper when Sebastian was in ear shot "Chuck saw you"

"Hi I'm Sebastian Van Der Woodsen" he spoke to the crowd "I uh, I just want to thank my friend Blaine Waldorf for recognising the Ostroff Centre and all of the good things that they do, thanks Blaine" he clapped and soon enough the whole crowd was, most of them anyway "at the centre one of the main things that we learn is forgiveness…"

"He's in rehab?" Danielle asked turning to her nearby brother

"No, it's not him" Jeremy whispered so that Danielle was the only one that could hear him "it's his sister that's there"

"What?"

"You can't tell anyone okay?" Jeremy asked

"I won't" she assured him "but why is he doing this?"

"….about how in order to move onto our future we need to forgive those who've wronged us in the past and we must ourselves ask for forgiveness from those whom we've wrong" Sebastian continued turning to Blaine "without this forgiveness innocent people get hurt"

"Alright" Blaine exclaimed stepping forward and cutting in "thank you Sebastian, thank you"

…..

"Fine, you've humiliated me and ruined my future" he said, following Blaine off stage and away from the party, grabbing Blaine's arm to stop him from walking any further "are you done yet, are we even yet?"

"Not even a little bit" Blaine snapped pulling his arm away from his old friend "we will never be even"

He shot Sebastian a final glare before disappearing off into the crowd of party goers.

…..

Sebastian stormed outside, Danielle following after him.

"Sebastian wait!" she called.

"What?" he snapped turning around "here to congratulate me on ruining my future?"

"I just wanted to see if you were okay" she explained "I mean after what you did for your sister…"

"Wait, how did you know about my sister?" he asked cutting her off, eyes widening in slight panic.

"Trust me nobody will hear about it from me" she assured him, holding up her hands in surrender "but if you want to talk about it, or not talk about it, I'd be happy to do either"

Sebastian smiled a little.

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you" he nodded "but I've really got to get out of here"

"Oh sure" she told him, moving to head back inside and let Sebastian past her.

"But ah, I'll call you okay?"

"Okay"