A/N: I'm so sorry I have taken this long to update College Trials. Honestly, I had a bit of writers block and could just not write a chapter which I was happy with.
Thanks to all who review! Please Keep reviewing.
Chapter 28: Here we are- Start the Battle
Serena woke up, and turned over and felt her hand collide with something hard. She looked to her side and registered that she was next to Nate. She unconsciously left her hand on his chest. She stared at him for a bit and realized she hadn't felt this relaxed in awhile. She sighed and finally sat up. She got out of bed and went to find her phone. She had some time before she had to go to any lectures. She looked around, not sure what to do. She finally decided she should probably go find her supervisor, and get her to help her get into her room. She was about to head to the bathroom when Nate stepped into the room yawning. He ran a hand through his hair and smiled at Serena.
'Morning,' she began and shifted back from the spot she was standing at, 'Thanks for letting me stay here last night.' She smiled at Nate.
'No problem.' was his reply. They stared silently at each other for awhile and Serena couldn't help but feel a bit awkward. She wasn't sure what to do now. Just then however Nate made his way over to the kitchen and began making coffee. She stood for a moment before following him.
'I'm going to go try find my supervisor, and get the keys for my room. So I'll see you later?' Serena stood in front of the one counter, and watched while he moved around the kitchen. He paused when she had finished talking and looked back at her. He shook his head.
'No. Have some coffee, cereal and then we'll go find your supervisor.' Nate proposed the counter offer. Serena tilted her head and looked at him.
'You don't have to come with me…' she trailed off and considered him for a moment longer than was necessary. 'Actually you do.' Nate laughed at this sudden change.
'And why's that?' Serena smiled.
'My supervisor is a girl, and she's always a lot a more helpful if there's a guy around.'
'You're pimping me out?' Nate laughed and shook his head at her.
'No, I'm simply using your advantages for my benefit.'
'Same thing!' Nate exclaimed. Serena took a sip of her coffee and grinned.
'I know but my explanation, just sounds a lot better.' Nate shook his head again and returned the grin. He was glad that they could sit here and laugh together, and not be consumed by any awkwardness that the previous night may have stirred up between them.
A Few Hours Later
Blair sat down on the bench and took a sip of her coffee. She looked up at the sky- which was growing steadily darker. She inwardly hoped that it wasn't going to start raining anytime soon. Her phone began to ring- distracting her from her thoughts. She checked the caller I.D. it was Chuck. She hesitated before answering.
'You don't give up do you?' she said into the phone and waited to hear his response.
'I need to talk to you.' Was his reply, Blair sat up straight, he sounded extremely serious.
'What's wrong?'
'Where can I find you?'
'Chuck, I'm meeting Dan soon. Can we-'
'Blair.' Chuck said cutting her off. 'Please.' She sighed and told him where she was. He told her he'd be there soon. They ended the call. Blair sat back and then shifted her position; she took a sip of her coffee trying to calm her sudden nerves. Three minutes later another figure approached the bench and sat down. He sighed and Blair looked to her right. It was Dan.
'What happened to you?' she asked him, she noted that he looked extremely tired. He shrugged and opened his bottle of water.
'Went out last night to this party.'
'Oh.' Blair replied and studied him further. 'Hey! Why wasn't I invited?'
'It was a spur of the moment decision. Actually I didn't expect to land up where I landed up.'
'Ok, Humphrey, start from the beginning. What happened?' Dan looked at his friend and then sat a bit forward, resting his head in hands for a second.
'I went to talk to Vanessa last night and I finally came to the conclusion that Vanessa and I…' the rest of his sentence was drowned out by Chuck calling out Blair's name on his arrival. Dan had abruptly stopped talking and looked at Blair then Chuck. Blair's eyes trailed away from Dan and rested on Chuck.
'Sorry about the interruption, Humphrey.' Chuck said towards Dan- who just shrugged. He really was a bit to hangover to have any real emotions about anything today.
'What's going on?' Blair asked Chuck and stood up to face him. Dan kept sitting and continued to watch the interaction.
'I know who posted that picture.' Blair and Dan scoffed at the same time. Chuck looked from one to the other and chose to ignore their reactions. 'Someone is out to get you, Blair.'
'And that lead to them posting a picture about you?' Blair questioned.
'Yes. Post that picture, destroy us, hurt you. Think about the last few Gossip Girl posts, a lot of them have been orientated about you.'
'That's not unusual,' Dan interrupted and sat a bit forward. 'Blair is a common occurrence on Gossip Girl.'
'Humphrey, has a point.' Blair agreed. Chuck exhaled in frustration.
'Are they always that negative?' He shot out and before Blair replied he continued. 'Someone is out to get you, Blair and they are using Gossip Girl to do it. They posted that fake picture of me.' He finished and took a step closer to her.
'You obviously have some idea about who this person is,' Blair began and folded her arms. 'Otherwise you wouldn't be standing here right now.' She concluded. She knew Chuck a bit to well; to know what she had just said was right.
'I do.' he confirmed her suspicions.
'Well, are you going to tell us who you think it is?' Dan added a moment later in annoyance- Chuck was taking a long time to get to his point.
'Georgina Sparks.' Chuck said to them both and held Blair's gaze. She gave a short laugh.
'Chace's sister?' she questioned uncertainly.
'Think about it, you hurt Chace, she overheard me asking you to go to Unknown with me. She knew when I would be there. She has the abilities to pull off something like this Blair; she's manipulative and has contacts.' Blair considered this for a moment and thought back to the day Chuck had asked her to go to the club with him.
Blair had felt someone kiss her on her cheek. She had looked up and smiled at Chuck. He sat down next to her. She leaned in and gave him a proper kiss. They broke apart and Chuck had tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.
'I was thinking about heading to the club 'Unknown' tomorrow night. You want to join?' Chuck had asked her and Blair sighed.
'I can't, I have this assignment I need to finish-' was her reply, she was about to continue when someone interrupted her.
'I'll go with you.' Some voice had said and they both turned to stare at a brown haired girl.
'Who are you?' Blair had asked.
'Georgina,' the girl replied. 'Chace's brother. I see you make it a habit… rejecting guys that is.' She said directly to Blair…
Blair sighed. Georgina did know where Chuck would have been, and when he would have been at the club. She also noted that Georgina hadn't been particularly friendly towards her, and she had made a reference to her 'breaking-up' with Chace. She ran a hand through her hair, shocked at this current revelation. She stared at Chuck for a few moments- she had wanted that picture to be a fake ever since it had been posted. If it was a fake and if what Chuck was saying had any truth to it- she was sure as hell going to find out.
'It's plausible.' Blair finally said to Chuck and then turned to Dan, who stood up and went to stand next to Blair.
'Well, we should pay her a visit then,' Dan said to Blair.
'Yes, shall we go now?' Blair suggested.
'Yes.' Chuck concluded. They all stared at each other for a moment. Blair finally began to walk away, and the boys followed a few seconds later.
Serena shifted the books she had in her one arm to the other arm; she then reached into her a pocket and took out her phone. She opened the message she had just received. It was from Nate. She laughed once she read it. This morning he had to flirt excessively with her supervisor to get her to help Serena. He had done what was needed without a word of complaint and now he had sent her message, telling her that she owed him and that he was extremely bored in the library. She typed a quick reply and then headed over to one of the campus shops. She bought two ice creams and then headed over to the library. She messaged him to come outside. Two minutes later he was outside and walking towards her with a huge grin on his face. He stopped in front of her and she gave him one of the ice creams.
'Consider this my payment for this morning,' she said and then smiled at him.
'You did pick a good flavour,' he replied and began to eat the ice cream. 'Thanks for the distraction.'
'Not a problem. Feel like going to play pool for a bit?' There was a bar on campus which you could play pool at during the day.
'Of course, don't want to pass up an opportunity to beat you at something, Van der Woodsen.' She laughed.
'Archibald, do you remember who taught you how to play pool?' she asked and he kept quiet. 'Yeah.' She added and laughed. They began walking to the bar. They were about to cut across the courtyard, when Serena stopped laughing and stopped walking. Nate immediately stopped as well and stared at her.
'Uh Serena?' he asked, not sure why she had suddenly stopped walking. She looked at him and then pointed to the opposite side of the courtyard. He looked across the courtyard and saw Chuck, Blair and Dan. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
'Let's go say hi,' he said and took a step forward. Serena nodded and they crossed the courtyard. Both were feeling a little bit tense- especially Serena who hadn't seen Dan since things ended between them. They made their way across quickly, Chuck, Blair and Dan had stopped walking when they had seen them. They reached them in a matter of moments.
'Hey guys,' Serena said when they reached them. She just jumped straight in, as an attempt to avoid any awkwardness. 'What are you guys doing?' she asked and looked at Chuck.
'Going to see Georgina.' Chuck supplied as the answer.
'Georgina?' Nate asked.
'Chuck thinks she's behind the photo and the recent Gossip Girl posts of me.' Blair answered and went to give him a hug hello. 'What are you guys up to?' she then asked Nate. He titled his head and looked at Serena.
'Coming with you guys to talk to Georgina as of a few seconds ago,' Nate improvised, he wasn't sure why, but he thought telling them they were going to hang out wasn't the best idea. Especially because he wasn't sure how Serena wanted to handle Dan- he knew they had broken up but he hadn't spoken to Serena about any of it.
'Yeah, I'd like to hear what she has to say about this.' Serena gave Nate a half smile and walked over to Chuck. She interlinked her arm with his.
'Bass, I do hope your theory is right.' She said to him and they began walking away. She had been helping him the past few days and she therefore knew how hard Chuck had been trying to prove that this photo was a fake. Nate began to follow and for a moment Blair stayed behind with Dan.
'You ok?' she asked him. He looked at her.
'I really am.' He said honestly to Blair. She walked over to him and interlinked her arm with his. They followed the rest of the group. Blair looked up at Dan.
'If you weren't ok you would tell me right?'
'I wouldn't have to tell, you would be able to tell if I wasn't.' Dan replied and nudged Blair. She smiled at him.
'That's true,' she said and then looked over at Nate. 'I'm going to go talk to Nate for a second.' Dan nodded and Blair caught up with Nate.
'So what were you two going to do?' she asked him once he reached her side. Nate looked over at her and sighed.
'Just going to play some pool,' he said and then looked at Serena and sighed again.
'Have you spoken to her yet?'
'There's nothing to talk about, Blair.'
'Denial is a lonely place, Nate.'
'She doesn't know what she wants, Blair, and I don't know if I can put myself out there and get hurt again.'
'So you would rather spend time with her and not tell her how you feel?' Nate looked at her and gave her his classic annoyed expression. She smirked at him.
'You think Chuck may be right about Georgina being behind this?' Blair asked him as a way to change the subject. He looked back at her.
'You know I don't think that picture is real, Chuck was right, if I thought he was lying I would have told you-'
'I know, but it's still hard to overlook something that is proven by a picture you know, Archibald?'
'That I do, but you should trust him. And for your sake I really hope his right about Georgina.'
'My sake?' Blair questioned his comment.
'Come on, Blair, you've put on a brave face but I know not having Chuck around has been hard on you.' Nate nudged his friend.
'You sound so sure of that?' she softly said to him.
'I do have experience when it comes to wanting someone that, you just can't have around you.' This time Blair nudged him.
'Don't give up, Archibald.'
'So where is Georgina?' Nate changed the topic.
'Chuck found out that she's in her dorm room.'
'Did he found out where her room is?'
'I did that part.' Blair laughed. Three minutes later they all arrived outside of Georgina's room. Blair made her way to the front and stood beside Chuck.
'Well?' she asked him; he looked at her and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear (he was surprised she was letting him touch her) and rested his hand on her cheek. Blair moved a little bit into his touch.
'Here goes.' He said and turned and knocked on the door. They waited a few moments and then the door swung open and revealed Georgina to them.
'Uh?' Georgina eloquently said when she saw them all outside her door. A few moments later she focused her attention on Chuck and Blair. 'What are you doing here?' she asked them specifically.
'We want to talk to you about that fake picture you posted of Chuck on Gossip Girl.' Blair jumped right in. Georgina focused on her; she titled her head and gave her a cheeky smile.
'I have no idea what you're talking about,' Georgina said.
'Of course you don't,' Chuck countered. 'Except I know it was you.'
'If you knew, you wouldn't be standing here, trying to get me to confess to something I have no idea about.' She shrugged. Blair studied her.
'You did do it,' she said and stepped forward. 'I know that look. You will regret this.' Georgina laughed.
'I don't regret anything,' she stepped back. 'And you can't prove anything.' This time Serena stepped forward. She pointed at Chuck.
'His Chuck Bass,' she paused and pointed at Blair, 'and she's Blair Waldorf. If they want to prove it, they'll prove it.'
'And you're only Georgina Sparks. Which means they'll take you down easily once they've proven it…' Nate added.
'You picked the wrong battle.' Dan added in a moment later.
'And messed with the wrong couple.' Chuck finally concluded. His statement caused Blair to look at him. He looked back at her. A smile spread across her face and she took a hold of his hand.
'I still have no idea what you're talking about.' Georgina said and stepped back into her room- she gave them all one last look that clearly said "she didn't care" and then closed the door. They all looked at each other for a moment and then turned and left.
'How are you going to prove this?' Dan asked once they were out of the building.
'We ideally need something to hold over Georgina, to get her to confess.' Blair said and looked at Chuck. Serena suddenly remembered something.
'Awhile back Georgina was on the phone with someone named Chris, she seemed pretty upset. Maybe that will help?' Serena was thinking back to when she came out of her door room and saw Georgina on the phone. She remembered hearing the name Chris and nothing else.
'That will help. Thanks, Van der Woodsen.' Chuck said and looked at Blair- she was still holding his hand.
'Shall we go sort this out?' he asked Blair quietly. She looked back at the other three and then turned back to him.
'Yeah. But give me a second I want to talk to Serena and Dan.' She was reluctant to let go of Chuck's hand. 'I'm sorry, I didn't believe you.'
'We haven't proven anything yet, Waldorf.' Chuck replied and looked down. 'What if we can't prove it?'
'It won't matter.' Blair said and stopped walking. She looked seriously at Chuck. 'Meet you back at your dorm?' He nodded and kissed her forehead. He walked ahead. Leaving Blair to talk to the others.
A/N: Well, I am sad to announce that College Trials only has two chapters left. I am thinking of writing a sequel to it. Also I have posted another Gossip Girl fic: "Rivals Make the Best Allies"- and will concentrate on this one before I start the sequel. So check that fic out please. I must say I never thought this fic would get this many reviews and really honestly thank you to all who have reviewed. And to the constant reviewers you guys are amazing!
I am going to update College Trials either on Monday or Tuesday and I think I may post the final two chapters at the same time. I promise there won't be a long wait for the last two chapters.
:) Please review
