A/N: Hey guys. I'm sorry for taking so long to update but I'm currently in the midst of my High School final exams so I really don't have much time. Another thing, I only figured out the other day that Chuck and Dan go to a different school and that they don't go to St.Judes, but oh well, let's just pretend for this story. Like I said before, I didn't have a plot for this story so things are literally just being made up as I go along, but it is kind of birthing itself so yeah, hopefully I can keep it interesting. Thanks a million for the favorites and reviews too, I really appreciate them so much! Like honestly, the smiles that bare on my face when you guys say such nice things, one would swear I've seen Blair Waldorf. Anyway, bad jokes aside, enjoy!
Crushes (Part 1).
Of course. Of course! Why would I expect anything different? After a sleep wrecked with nerves and restless turns, it's only customary that grey clouds weigh heavily in the skies this morning. I wonder if God's gotten sick of America and handed my emotions the damned responsibility of maintaining our weather pattern. Yeah, because an hormonal teenager is the perfect candidate for the job right? In Dan we trust? Anyway, the reason for my nerve-filled sleep is twofold. Reason 1: For an entire year I hadn't received any GG blasts because I had specifically put GG notifications on for Serena Van Der Woodsen only - I had a huge crush on her since the eighth grade - and now that I get a blast rumoring her reappearance in the city, I'm desperately hoping my heart doesn't send rumors to my brain that my feelings for her are reappearing too. I mean, my heart shouldn't do that. It's been an entire year. And for the past six months I haven't actually thought about her. And for the past three days, I definitely haven't thought about her.
Which then brings us to reason 2; the way more anxiety inducing reason of the pair: I still haven't received a message from Blair to let me know that she got home safe. Last night I flooded her cell with phone calls and text messages but she hasn't responded at all. The only thing that stopped me from leaving the loft to go make sure she's gotten home was my dad calling her building's reception. And luckily, after excessive explaining that Blair had spent the entire day with me yesterday and all we wanted to know was if she had come through the building doors safely, the receptionist had turned my nerves down a little when he confirmed what we wanted to know. But after that relief, my brilliantly overthinking mind went on this whole investigative process, wondering why in the hell Blair hadn't responded if she's at home? It just didn't add up. Which is why I'm up at five-thirty this morning. If there's any chance I'm gonna catch her before school starts, I need to be in the Upper East Side super early. I hop out of bed and the first thing to do is smash the garage door between mine and Jenny's room hard into the ceiling. *BANG*
"Dan!" Jenny moans.
"Come on, it's your first day of school, wake up dweeb." I'm enjoying this moment to be honest.
Jenny reaches for her phone, "It's five in the damn morning! What the hell!?"
"Five-thirty." I correct, "Come on, I need to make a pitstop before we get to school."
"I hate you!" Jenny says as she gets out of bed reluctantly.
It doesn't take long for either of us to get done and within twenty minutes Jen and I are sitting at the kitchen table finishing the last bits of our cereal.
"Why are you guys up so early?" My dad says as he comes into the kitchen with his standard sleepwear of an old Lincoln Hawk T-shirt and panda bear boxers.
"Dan wants to walk Blair to school." Jen's eyes roll. Sometimes I forget how intuitive she is.
"No...well...maybe...but no. That's not my original intention." I defend.
"Then what is your original intention?" My dad's eyebrows furrow.
"Look, dad, I'd love to sit here and chat to you about Blair Waldorf, and trust me, I could talk about her all day, but if Jen and I don't leave right now, my intentions will remain intentions. No action involved whatsoever."
"Son..." My dad sighs, "...it's too early to process so many words."
"We need to go - that's what he said dad." Jenny says irritably as she gets up, puts her bag on her back and pushes me out of my seat to leave, "Bye dad."
"Bye, dad." I repeat as I put my bag over my shoulder and make my way out the loft.
"Bye guys, enjoy your first day of school, Jen! Love you guys!" My dad calls out.
"Love you too, Dad!" We call back as the loft door closes behind us.
If there's one beautiful perk about waking up extra early, it's the availability of bus seats on the ride over to school. Jen and I grab the first two seats in front of the bus. Weirdly enough she doesn't seem nervous about her first day of High School. But then again, she is kinda a cool kid already so it's not like she has anything to be nervous about. And Blair did promise to take care of her so there's that too. After about halfway through the bus ride, Jenny says randomly,
"So I'm not sure whether you're too Blair-struck to notice, but Serena's back in the city."
Play it cool Dan, "Oh, nah, I totally didn't know." Am I sweating?
"You totally know!" She screeches.
"I totally don't!" I might've screeched too.
"Are your blast notifications for her still on?" Jen nearly bursts into laughter.
World, if you'd ever like to open up the ground beneath me and swallow me up whole, now is the time.
"I forgot to turn them off okay. But I swear, I don't like her like I used too. And you seem to forget I made us wake up super early just so I could get to Blair before school starts."
"Oh but Dan, that's exactly the issue here!" Jenny's laughter turns hysterical.
"What do you mean that's the issue?"
"I swear you live under a rock at that school. Serena and Blair are best friends dimwit!"
"Ha!" I laugh disbelievingly, "You're joking right?"
"Nope." Jenny shakes her head.
"Okay well it's whatever. Serena doesn't even know I exist so I hardly think if me and Blair become anything, it'll affect her."
"You honestly don't get how High School politics work do you?"
"As I said before, I don't care about it."
"Well you should because right now you're Mr.Nobody, but once Blair Waldorf's snatched you up, every girl around New York is going to want a piece of you. That's just how High School works, everyone wants to be with whoever's popular."
"First of all, I am not a piece of meat that people can just 'snatch up' and have a 'piece of' and second of all, I don't care about the girls of New York. It's Blair and it's only Blair."
"Yeah right, until Serena's one of those girls." Jenny laughs disbelievingly.
I'm about to defend my feelings for Blair but the bus comes to a halt. This little battle will have to wait until we get home again. Jenny and I hurry out the bus and we make our way to the Constance grounds so I can see her inside.
"Go away! I'm not a two year old you dweeb, I can walk myself into school." Jenny says in disgust.
"Fine. Fine. See you later." I put my hands up and walk away.
Jenny gives me one last dirty look before I turn around and soon after I'm back out the school and half-running down the street to get to Blair's building. Luckily it's only a few blocks away. I look down at my watch quickly and to my relief there's still a half hour until school begins. Hopefully Blair isn't one of those early risers who gets to school early though. I finally get to her building and rush towards the front desk.
"And how may I help you?" A man asks with his eyebrow arched.
"Good morning, uhm, could you buzz the Waldorf's apartment please?" I reply.
"Floor?"
"The penthouse floor."
"And you are?"
"Dan Humphrey."
The man picks up the desk phone and dials it. In a second it's answered and he starts talking again.
"Hi, is this the Waldorf residence?..yes, I have a young boy by the name of Dan Humphrey down here and he's wanting to...well I'm not actually quite sure why he's here."
"To walk Blair to school." I interject.
"Oh, to walk you to school he says...oh, okay, yes ma'am. Will do."
"So?" My eyebrows furrow anxiously.
"The young lady says she'll be down shortly."
"Okay, thank you so much sir." I say with a smile beaming from my face as I push away from the desk.
As I'm about to go sit down on one of the couches in the waiting area, I walk past the café from the other night and it's telling me one thing. I quickly make my way inside to order two coffees for Blair and I. Soon enough our coffees are done and as I walk out the café again, Blair comes gracing out the elevator. Honestly I can't believe how I've never noticed her at school before. She's wearing this little school skirt that hugs her hips, she makes our school blazer more fashionable than it has any right to be, and if I'm not mistaken, she's wearing heels instead of freaking school shoes. And are those stockings even allowed? I walk up to her and she turns around and catches eyes with me.
"Oh, there you are." She says.
"Morning." I reply sheepishly.
"Morning, Humphrey." She's smiling. That's a relief.
"This is for you." I hand her her coffee.
"Thank you." Her voice is soft.
"You okay?"
"Mhm." She nods unconvincingly as she sips on the cardboard cup.
"You sure?"
She takes another sip and nods again. She's definitely not okay.
"So is there a reason you haven't answered my calls or texts at all yesterday?" I ask softly.
The way her eyes are looking up at me so guiltily yet so gently at the same time, I'm not sure whether to be upset by her lack of innocence or to frown at how cute she looks. She pulls the coffee away from her lips and that fatally tender pout of hers forms on her face. She nods once more to answer my question.
"Are you gonna tell me the reason?" I try.
She sighs first, "I don't have much of a choice now do I?"
I chuckle, "Come on, you can tell me all about it on the way to school."
"You're so patient and understanding...I hate it." She says annoyedly.
"Sorry, I'll try to be more impatient and ignorant." I let out a laugh.
I shape my arm into a hoop and she puts her arm through it to hold onto my bicep as we walk out of the building. Certainly it's undeniable that my anxiety's are wavering a little because through the what-was-just-moments-ago thick, grey clouds, a sharp ray of sunlight pierces through an opening, sending a stint of heat onto the New York streets. At second thought, I wonder if it's just not Blair who brings the summertime? That does seem more believable to be honest, you know, considering the fire in her eyes, the brightness in her smile, the warmth in her voice. She screams summer.
"Do I really have to tell you the reason?" Blair knocks me out of it.
"Yes, you really do." I catch up with reality.
"Like right now?"
"Like right now."
"You're gonna think I'm a nutcase."
"Trust me, we're past nutcase."
"Humphrey!" She hits my chest playfully.
"I'm kidding." I chuckle.
"And it's embarrassing."
"Okay, I'll tell you what. If it's nearly as embarrassing as you're making it out to be, I'll tell you something embarrassing about me okay?"
She ponders for a second, "Mmm, you promise you'll tell?"
"I promise, Waldorf."
"Okay fine..." She lets out an exhaustive breath, "...so as you probably already know, Serena's back in the city and it kinda just freaked me out."
"Why? I thought you two were like best friends or something?"
"And that's where the embarrassing part comes in. I know you like her, Humphrey." She says with an almost broken voice and my heart wants to break because of it.
"W-what? How...how'd you even know about that?"
I stop our walk, untie our arms, turn to look at her and place my hands on her shoulders. She's frowning now and her eyes dart downwards toward the pavement somberly.
"I used too see the way you look at her Dan. Even though I was right next to her all the time, you hardly noticed me. All you saw was Serena."
"And that's why you freaked out?" I ask softly, "Because you think now with Serena back in the city things are going to go back to that?"
Her soft eyes look up at me again, "Yeah."
"Oh, Blair." I bring her tightly into my arms, wishing I could hug all the doubts away, "I was such a stupid idiot back then. Like probably the stupidest of stupid idiots you could possibly get. But I swear, I don't like Serena anymore. And you, oh my god you Blair Waldorf, you've made me feel things that I never even knew I could feel. I literally get butterflies thinking about you."
She chuckles in my chest and it's the most relieving sound I've ever heard.
"There's no way a stupid crush is going to change my mind about you okay?"
She comes out of the embrace to look at me, "Promise?"
"Blair, I'm telling you, there's absolutely no way okay?"
"Okay." She's pouting again and I'm currently dying inside.
"But wait, what's the embarrassing part of this story?" My eyebrows furrow.
"Oh, I don't know Dan, maybe the part where I watched you for two years, just wishing that you'd look my way for once and now the freakin' part where I tell you all of this!" She turns on her heels and walks off.
"Hey, hey, Blair..." I chase after her and then grab on her hand gently to pull her back, "...I'm sorry."
"No! You heard what you wanted to hear." She tries pulling away, "Let go of me!"
"There's no way I'm letting you go Blair Waldorf. Not now, not ever." I chuckle.
"This is not the time for your stupid poetic remarks!" She glares.
"You think I'm poetic?" I laugh.
"No, I think you're an ass."
"Hey, I get it, I'm irresistible. There's no need to be embarrassed." I joke.
"Ugh! I despise you." She stops resisting now.
"And I adore you."
"I think I'm gonna puke." She mimics vomiting but then starts laughing to my relief.
Her fingers graze under her eyelids to wipe away the tears of her laughter and then as she looks up at me again, our eyes lock.
"I hate you." She says, but the cheeky smile on her face tells me the complete opposite.
Suddenly the New York traffic of cars on the street and people on the sidewalk have all disappeared and she's all I can see. Her cheeks redden, her teeth bare, her eyes glisten and my heart starts racing. Whatever Jenny was on about earlier, and whatever my own mind was on about earlier about me still liking Serena, it all quite frankly deems meaningless and incorrect right now. In these eyes, in Blair's eyes, and in Blair's heart and on Blair's smile, that's where I'd like to live, forever. And in my arms, and around my mind and on my heart, Blair will hold residency, forevermore. I'm entirely and utterly, hers. Her eyes suddenly shut and she looks away again with a stupid smile on her face.
"What?" I snicker.
"You're doing it again, Humphrey. I can't deal!" She laughs.
"The eyes? Again?" I moan.
"Yes! The eyes, Humphrey!"
"Ugh, well you're just gonna have to get used to it because you are kind of the problem here." My shoulders shrug.
"I am aren't I?" She bats her eyelashes.
I chuckle before putting my arm around her, "Come on, let's get to school before your self-flattery makes your head explode."
"No, wait!.." She removes my arm, "...you promised to tell me something embarrassing about you." She glares.
I sigh in defeat, "I was hoping you'd forgotten about that."
"Daniel Randolph Jonah Humphrey, I don't forget. Ever."
"Noted." I laugh.
"Well...get on with it." She prompts.
"Okay, but first you have to promise there'll be no passing of any judgment whatsoever."
"Yes, yes, I promise." She rolls her eyes.
"So... I have this cabbage patch doll named Cedrick and I just can't get rid of it. Too many childhood memories and sentiments to just 'throw away' I guess." I might just be blushing.
"Aww, you're blushing..." She chuckles, "...that's so cute Humphrey!" She presses my cheeks together like a mother to her baby, making my lips pout, "A coochie coochie coo. A coochie coochie coo. You're so cute. Yes you, you're so cute." Her nose scrunches.
My eyes roll and I take her hands off of me, "Come on, we're gonna be late if we don't get going." I walk off, trying my best to act annoyed.
"Tough crowd." She jokes to nobody but herself because I'm already a few paces in front of her.
The sound of her heels clapping the pavement followed by the feel of her fingers then intertwining in mine puts a dumb smile on my face. You won't understand how badly I was hoping she'd come after me. We're even now.
Blair and I make it back to the school just in time to line up at our respective places to enter into the school assembly hall. Once inside I grab the aisle seat in the second last row of the boys side of the hall. After everyone's seated, headmistress Queller steps up on the stage and addresses everyone,
"Good morning and welcome back students..." She begins and then carries on giving her annual welcome back speech that she regurgitates every single year. Honestly, for the majority of the time that this lady speaks, I just switch off. But as her waste of breath comes to a close, she says in a more emphatic manner, "And we've got some exciting news for you all. After careful planning and administration over the summer, and after we got all the go-aheads and clearances, I'd like to proudly announce that Constance Billard for girls and St.Judes School for boys is officially integrating to become one multi-gendered school! Phasing in of the mixed classes will begin next week. Students, I know this is really exciting news, but please remain calm. Thank you everyone."
I don't think these trust fund kids have ever clapped for anything before, but let me tell you, they're making a ruckus right now. Whistles and cheers. Whispers and murmurs. Did I just see anxious Alex burst into tears? I turn on my chair to look for Blair, but like a mind reader, she's already standing in the aisle beside me with her hand on her hip. My eyes can't help but fixate on the way this school skirt is curving around her elegance. She tucks her index finger under my chin, moving my head up gently and I'm met with raised eyebrows.
"Sorry?" I bite my teeth.
There's two other boys sitting in the seats next to me, but when Blair sends a death stare their way, they literally get up and move to the row behind us. I think this is the first time I actually get a glimpse of the high school dominance that this doe-eyed Queen has around here.
"In all honesty, I might've not noticed you before because I was probably too scared to look you in your eyes." I joke.
"Plausible." She replies as she sits down next to me, "Or you just didn't know what's good for you."
"So you're good for me?" My eyebrow arches.
"Quite frankly, I'm what's best for you, Humphrey." Her right leg reaches over her left as she turns her body to me and rests her hand on my thigh.
"Plausible."
We both chuckle and our eyes meet. But before I can get lost and entranced as per usual, Blair's eyes dart past and behind me, upwards, with her eyebrows skewing like they've never skewed before and her eyes narrowing in on what I can only suspect is a target. Her posture straightens and it's clear that her defenses are up. Suddenly her fingers are embedding themselves into my thigh.
"What-" I ask as my head spins around.
"Hey, Blair."
...