A/N: Hey, sorry for the long wait. Life has been hectic and I don't have much spare time to write. Thankfully, the worst is over and updates will be more prompt in the future. At least, I hope so. :)

Chapter 11

Blair flopped down on her back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. She had just returned from her dinner with Nate and she was exhausted. All night long she was listening to Nate talk about the last family outing he had at the Van der Bit, giving a nod at appropriate times and an 'hmmm' occasionally. Normally, she loved to hear all about the interesting things that were going on in the Van der Bilt's house but tonight, she only had one thing on her mind.

No matter what she did, she couldn't stop the scenes from replaying itself in her head.

"Do you feel the same way?"

"I… I don't know."

"Maybe that's why this thing between us will never happen."

Blair shut her eye tight as the scene replayed in her mind again. Was that it? They were just going to go back to their old ways and only speak to each other when necessary? Was she just going to treat him a pest and ignored the whatever feelings she felt? She didn't know. She was at a loss as to what to do. What she did know was that she couldn't go to him first. He had to come to her. Her pride wouldn't allow it.

Blair then turned over and covered herself with her satin sheets. She didn't care if she hadn't change or showered. She just wanted to sleep. Hopefully, when she woke up, she will realize that it was just a nightmare.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), she didn't have time to think it through the next day. She had a Queen to take down, a scheme to hatch, and minions to boss about.

"Did you make me proud?" Blair asked the new minion, a smile plastered on her face as she walked into the room where her minions were all sitting up straight in their chairs.

The minions were all gathered in Blair's house this afternoon for a very important meeting. Blair couldn't be more excited about their first major sabotage. Really, Amber should be honored to be their first victim.

Rachel nodded in reply to Blair's question.

Blair had noticed the change in Rachel's choice of attire. Gone were the boring glasses and limp hair. Today, Rachel had actually made an effort. She had put on contact lens, blow-dried her hair, put on a dress and had even put on make-up. She actually looked pretty good. Not that Blair was going to tell her that though. She didn't want to the compliments to go up to her pretty head.

"Yes, I got it all done while he was in the bathroom. I hid it behind his books –which I knew he wouldn't touch – and it will give us a good view of his bed." Rachel gushed.

She can't help but felt proud at herself for doing such a great job. Not to mention that she was getting closer to getting her revenge. Amber would never see it coming.

"Michelle." Blair gave a wave of her hand.

Michelle brought the laptop that she was carrying to Blair immediately. Veronica and Rachel crowded around the laptop immediately, all trying to get a peek at the screen.

On the screen, was a view of Luke's room. Rachel was right: The camera had a great angle. Blair was pretty sure that it would capture all the actions.

"You did good, Rachel." Blair said and gave a small nod.

"Thanks." Rachel replied and actually blushed.

"It was a good thing you didn't break up with him yet. That saved us a lot of troubles of breaking into his house." Veronica added.

"It was such a torture though." Rachel rolled her eyes at the thought of it. "It was so frustrating and irritating having to pretend that I'm clueless. I know he's cheating on me, yet I can't call him out. Every time he told me he needs to go to some family dinner, I know he's actually hooking out with her. It's so obvious. I have no idea why I didn't realize that before."

"Just bear with it. It will be worth it." Michelle said and placed a hand on Rachel's arm, hoping to offer some comfort.

Rachel muttered a "thanks" under her breathe to Michelle.

"All right." Blair clapped her hands together and looked around at her minions. "Now that we got the destroying Amber project down, let's get to our other work then."

"Really, Blair?" Veronica whined. "I thought you only get us on the organizing committee for the Ivy Week so that we can get good seats on that day itself."

"Yes, but I also promised Lily that we will do a good job. It's not easy to get freshmen on the organizing committee, you know. The only reason why she had agreed was because I promised her that we would do a good job. And we cannot let her down." Blair said. "It will be easy. Just think of all the parties you had thrown over the years. It's not that different."

"Ok, fine." Veronica huffed and pouted like a little girl.

Michelle and Rachel merely nodded. They didn't dare to disobey their new queen. Why Veronica had the courage to even utter a word of disapproval to Blair, they had no idea. They knew that Blair had always liked Veronica a little better than them, but surely Veronica held fear for Blair as well? They all feared the same thing. Today, they were on Blair's side. What about tomorrow? The day after? What if one day, they did something to piss her off and suddenly, they were on the opposite side of Blair? They definitely didn't want that day to come. No one wants a social death.

"Amber," Blair called out and gave a small tap on Amber's shoulders.

Amber rolled her eyes at the one voice she didn't want to hear at this point of time. Or any time, in fact.

"What do you want, Blair?" Amber asked as she turned around, her long copper red hair swishing with her movements. It was more of a demand than a question, really.

"Nothing, I just heard that you are the usher for the Brown's rep during the Ivy week. And I just want to say 'Congratulations'. I know just how much you want to get into Brown. Since it's where your father meets your mother." Blair said, a Cheshire cat's grin on her face.

"Well, thank you. Now that you made you point, you can go now."

"But wait."

Blair's grin then turned downwards and she started to frown.

"Please enlighten me. Why would you want to go to Brown when your parents are getting a divorce? I thought the only reason why you wanted to go to Brown was because it's where your parents' oh-so-romantic relationship started. " Blair asked, as if she was really clueless.

"How did you know that?" Amber hissed.

"I had my sources." Blair smirked.

Amber continued to glare at Blair, as if hoping that all the glaring would burn a hole in her beautiful face.

"Tell anyone and I will make your life in Constance miserable." Amber threatened.

Blair just laughed.

"You can try, but you won't succeed." Blair smirked.

Blair then turned and strutted towards her minions who were waiting in the corner of the courtyard, quietly enjoying the show. Blair had made them stayed there because she wanted to do this alone. It ought to show Amber that Blair didn't need her minions to be a bitch.

As Blair was walking to her minions, she noticed him. Chuck. He was standing in another dark corner of the courtyard. From the look in his eyes, she knew that he saw what happened. She also knew that things had not changed since last night.

"Blair! That was amazing!" Veronica shrieked and pulled at Blair's arm once Blair was within her reach.

Veronica's shriek pulled Blair back into the reality.

"Thank you." Blair gave a small smile. "Well, she can't say I didn't warn her now, right?"

Blair raised an eyebrow and Michelle laughed.

"Oh, I wish Rachel could see this. She will totally love the face on Amber." Veronica said with a small sigh.

Even though Rachel had tried to ask for permissions to "accidentally" pass by the courtyard from Blair on several occasions, Blair was firm on her ground that Rachel could not, and would not, be anywhere near Amber before the Ivy week. Blair did not want this to go wrong and she certainly did not want Amber to be suspicious of the fact that Blair had already managed to pull Rachel over to her side. She did not want Amber to see what was coming. Amber must go down.

It had been exactly two weeks since she had last talked to Chuck. Sure, she had seen him around in school, but they merely passed by each other, treating each other as though they were mere strangers. No heinous remarks, no witty comebacks. A part of her thought that perhaps it was the best. They should just remain where they were and let bygones be bygones. But another part of her had been furious that Chuck did not even try to appease her even though she knew he knew that she had been upset over what he said. Perhaps that was why she was sitting here and just listening while Veronica continued her "story".

"I heard that he had this rare southern sexual transmitted disease. It appeared to be fine on the outside, but really his penis will be falling off anytime soon."

Veronica looked unfazed as she took another spoonful of her yogurt.

Michelle actually looked scared as she asked, "Really?"

Veronica nodded.

"It's not surprising, really. He had like, several women every day. He had only been here for what? Two months? And he already banged up half of the freshmen in Constance. He's a step beyond womanizer."

That's true, Blair thought to herself.

Her thoughts were then distracted by a familiar head of blonde.

"Hey, B."

Serena greeted as she walked up the steps with her cup of yogurt. She flopped down on Blair's right.

"What are you guys talking about?" Serena asked casually.

"Chuck Bass. You know, the one who's always wearing a scarf?" Veronica replied.

Serena raised an eyebrow at Blair, who ignored her.

"I think I had seen him around school. What about him?"

"Veronica heard that his penis was about to fall off because he got this weird sexually transmitted disease." Michelle looked disgusted as she filled in the information for Serena.

"What?" Serena exclaimed and looked at Blair, who continued to look as if they were not discussing about one of their oldest friend's dick.

"Why are you looking at me like that? I had nothing to do with this." Blair said in defense.

"Where did you hear that from?" Serena asked again.

"You know, the usual place. The girls' bathroom. It's pretty amazing the kind of stories one can know if you stay in that place long enough." Veronica gave small shrug. "And I will have you know that the freshmen are always buzzing."

The truth was, Blair knew that Veronica was, in a way, trying to get revenge on Chuck for trying to threaten her with her fake virginity.

"Aren't you going to stop Veronica from spreading this ridiculous rumor?" Serena then whispered to Blair.

"Why should I? Chuck will probably enjoy the kind of attention it bought to him. Builds up his infamous reputation. It's about time he had one around here." Blair whispered back.

"You think he will like it when people are saying his penis is about to fall off?" Serena exclaimed.

Blair merely shrugged.

"And that's the only thing I've heard." Veronica continued. "Word has it that his own father, Bart Bass, couldn't stand the different kinds of women he had been bringing over to his house, so he gave him a suite in the Palace so he wouldn't see him, or his many women under his roof."

"Hey! That's not true!" Blair couldn't help but yelled.

Shock was written all over Veronica and Michelle's faces and a wave of silence took over the Steps of Mets. It was the first time Blair had yelled at them. Sure, she ordered them, she berated them, but she never yelled. Even Serena was stunned at Blair's sudden outburst. She'd always knew that Blair was close with Chuck –as can be seen from all the joint projects of theirs- but she did not expect Blair to be protective of Chuck, which was exactly what she was now. Veronica and Michelle did not dare utter a word as they watched Blair's chest rose up and down as she took in sharp, deep breathes in an attempt to calm herself down.

"I don't care what kind of rumors you wanted to spread about Chuck, Veronica, but never, ever, include his father in them. Do you understand?" Blair articulated.

Veronica gave her head a few nods.

"Good." Blair said. "Come on, S. Lesson's starting."

Blair then stood up and walked away, with Serena following behind her and Veronica and Michelle dumbfounded on the steps.

What the hell was that?

"Do you want to talk about it?" Serena asked as she stepped into Blair's room.

Serena was staying over with Eric at the Waldorf's again because their very irresponsible mother had taken off to another exotic place with her current husband again. Blair was on her bed with her books around her and Serena had just very rudely interrupted her study session.

"There's nothing to talk about, S." Blair said without even as much as lifting her head from the books.

"I know you and Chuck are close, Blair. But don't you think you care a little too much?" Serena continued, ignoring Blair's words.

"Firstly, Chuck and I are not close." Blair lifted her head and gave Serena a deadly glare.

Serena said nothing but simply raised an eyebrow.

"We are not close!" Blair exclaimed. "Secondly, I don't care about Chuck, Serena."

"Really? Because you seemed to care a lot when Veronica mentioned Bart."

"Veronica knows nothing! I actually began to think of Veronica as more of a friend than a minion these days and she proved me wrong by being so… superficial. You know that's more to it when it comes to Chuck's relationship with Bart. It's not like what she said. I was merely holding up justice." Blair said in defense.

"But there you are, sitting there eating your yogurt when Veronica make the ridiculous accusation that little Chuck is about to fall off." Serena rebutted, folding her arms over her ample bosom. Even as a freshman, Serena had plenty to be proud of.

"How do you know Chuck didn't get any weird Southern disease like what she said, Serena?" Blair said in all fake sweetness. "Chuck did travel south a lot."

"Blair, you are being ridiculous. Why don't you just admit that you care about Chuck? You two have always been close. Even before, you know…"

"Serena!" Blair shouted as she squeezed her eyes shut. Blair did know what Serena was hinting about, and she certainly did not want the memories to be flooding her brains right now.

"Serena," Blair opened her eyes again when the memories disappeared into the little black box at the back of her head again. "Let bygones be bygones. We don't live in the past, do we?"

"You can't pretend it didn't happen, B! It's obvious that-"

"The only thing that's obvious to me," Blair cut Serena's sentence off. "Is that I have a boyfriend who likes me very much and Chuck is merely my boyfriend's best friend. I care for him like I care for last season Chanel. Now if you excuse me, unlike you, I actually want to do my homework."

Blair then lifted a book onto her lap and appeared to be studying the content.

Serena rolled her eyes as she stood up from Blair's bed.

Blair was in denial again and she knew that there's nothing she can do to pull her back into the reality. She would have to wait for the day when she's willing to face the truth.

If that day ever comes.

So, what do you think? I've always think that Blair is protective over Chuck, don't you think? Perhaps even before the limo sex happened. That's why I wrote this chapter the way it is.

Oh, and I'm sorry for the lack of Nate and Blair scenes. I actually wrote out the dinner scene but I took it out because I figured that right now, Blair would be thinking too much of Chuck to be engross in her dinner with Nate so the entire dinner is quite boring. To the Nate and Blair fans out there, don't worry, Nate and Blair would eventually have some sweet moments together. :)

Spoiler alert: Next chapter would be the climax of this story.

Review if you like it!

To: Charlotte

Hey! Good to see your review again! I felt so honored that someone thinks that I can win a contest with this. It got to be one of the greatest compliment ever, so thanks! Well, this chapter doesn't really have much CB interactions, but I hope you like it anyway. :)

xoxo

Janice