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Sorry if any of the GG characters seem OOC. I don't have much experience writing them yet. If anyone's interested in beta-ing for that purpose, let me know.

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It was her first day at her new school.

Regina had spent over an hour getting ready. Her hair was perfectly straightened. She put on her cutest pink mini-skirt, the one that had made all the boys at her old school drool endlessly over her. Her favorite shirt, reading, 'A little bit dramatic', was her choice for a top. Her Tiffany bracelet graced her wrist, and her Gucci bag was slung over her shoulder. She debated over whether to wear her Jimmy Choos or Manolos, and in the end decided the Choos were better for making an intimidating impression.

She stepped out, feeling perfect, and after bidding her parents farewell stepped primly into her beautiful Lexus. She figured that, just like at her old school, the kids' jaws would drop when they saw that her parents had bought her a brand-new Lexus for her birthday.

She parked and began to make her way into the school when she spotted a younger girl, around 14, probably a freshman. Here was her first opportunity to gain popularity, a perfect opportunity to gain a follower.

"Hey," she called in her best superior voice. The girl stopped and frowned slightly, seeing Regina. Her eyes traveled Regina's clothing and she looked faintly surprised.

What's the bitch looking at? Regina thought viciously. Probably just jealous she doesn't look like me.

"Do you need help?" she asked dubiously, looking like she was asking out of courtesy and not any real desire to help.

"What's your name?" Regina asked commandingly, ignoring her question.

"Aurora," the other girl answered, still eyeing her skimpy outfit skeptically. Regina had to admit that the weather was colder than expected, but it didn't deter her from dressing to get the attention she wanted.

"I need some help with my books, Aurora," Regina said sweetly. "You'd help, wouldn't you?"

She never dreamed of getting any answer beside immediate subservience. All the girls had jumped at the chance to be her assistant at her old school.

"You look like you're doing fine," the girl answered, a hint of disdain in her voice. Regina's jaw nearly dropped, but she gathered her composure and changed her tack.

"Well, I'm new, I'm sure you'd love to show me around," she said, trying to look like an innocent lost kitten. It was an old trick; suggest it to them in a manner implying they had already agreed upon it.

"You're new, all right," the girl mumbled. Regina mentally scowled, but kept her angelic demeanor.

"Well, come on," Regina said snobbily. She didn't have all day, and she was determined that this little child would be her first follower.

Finally, the confused look cleared from her face, replaced by thinly veiled disdain.

"I can't. You must be higher than freshman, so our classes are different," she said. "Besides…I kind of have other things to do."

Boiling mad by now, Regina struggled to smile sweetly as she tried one last tactic. "Lunch, then," she said, in her nicest dangerous tone which told that disobedience could be costly.

The girl was either completely unimpressed, or completely oblivious. "I can't. I always eat with Blair, and she'll be mad if I sit with you," she said, shrugging. She turned to leave. "I'm going to be late if we talk anymore. See you."

"Wait, Blair?" Regina repeated stupidly. The girl stopped and stared. A small, irritatingly know-it-all smile crept onto her face.

"You'll meet her soon enough," she said with a hint of a smirk in her voice, and walked away.

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"Blair," Aurora said casually as they made their way outside for lunch as always. "I think there may be something you want to know."

"Mmm?" Blair tossed a glance Aurora's way. "And what's that, Rory?"

"New girl," Aurora answered coolly. She met Blair's gaze evenly, waiting for Blair to demand more. Blair raised a perfectly sculpted brow in mild interest.

"And?" she replied, equally coolly, not about to be manipulated by someone she felt far below her. Of course she was curious, but Aurora would tell Blair on Blair's conditions, not the other way around.

"She seems to think she calls the shots," Aurora said, watching Blair for a reaction. She smirked lightly. "She tried to get me to carry her books and promise I would eat lunch with her. She didn't know who you were and acted all pissed when I wouldn't do what she said."

Blair seemed to think about all this for a moment, before her expression grew slowly into a smirk.

"New, you say?" she asked thoughtfully. "Well, that does seem obvious."

She cocked her head to the side, eyes gleaming the way they did when she had a plan that only she knew about.

"Aurora," she said in a pleasant tone that always made her underlings nervous. "Why don't you go find our new friend and invite her to lunch."

Aurora's eyebrows rose. "You want to—"

"Of course I do," Blair said, with a dangerous smile. "Now go, Aurora. Be polite. I mean, of course she doesn't actually have a choice…but make her feel like she does. Off you go."

Looking dutiful, Aurora turned and exited the group, feeling confused. Why would Blair want this wannabe to join them? She felt a nervous bubbling in the pit of her stomach and could only say she was glad that she was not the new girl.

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"Hey. You."

Regina turned, looking annoyed that she had been addressed as such. It was the girl she'd seen that morning. She smiled sweetly.

"Annie, right?" she said, deliberately getting her name wrong and smiling fakely.

'Annie' rolled her eyes. "Aurora, but I bet you already knew that."

"Why, no!" Regina pretended to look offended. "Actually, I was just—"

"Look, whatever," said the girl impatiently. Regina was angry and started to butt back in and take control again, but 'Aurora' wouldn't stop.

"Blair wants you to have lunch with us."

This piqued Regina's interest. She did want to meet this mysterious Blair character. She pretended to think about it.

"Of course, you'll want to come," Aurora said smoothly. "Front steps, two minutes. You'll see us. Ciao."

Regina stook stock-still. Aurora had just manipulated her into attending this lunch. She had used Regina's own control tactics against her. She bit her lip in fury and her eyes darkened. Fine. She would go, and show this Blair person who really ruled the school.

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Regina, to her own humiliation, 'reported' promptly to the steps as informed.

There was a line of girls in front of some others, seated primly on the steps. It seemed as though they were at a court, or something, or perhaps auditioning for American Idol. They handed the center girl a folder, which she calmly looked through and either placed in a small stack or handed back with nothing but a mocking smirk and a dismissive nod.

Regina cut straight to the chase.

"Excuse me." Her polite tone as betrayed by the obvious beligerance in her posture and voice. The center girl stopped what she was doing and looked Regina up and down several times. Her beautiful face remained absolutely expressionless, save for the eyebrow that rose barely a fraction of a millimeter. Her eyes spoke for her: Tell me what you want and tell me fast.

"I'm here to find, like…Blair?" she acted like she almost forgot the name.

"Me," the girl, Blair apparently, said shortly. "And?" she added when Regina said nothing else.

Regina extended a hand and smiled sweetly. "Regina George." Her eyes lighted up in a fake gesture of approval. "Oh, I just love your outfit, it's only the cutest thing ever—"

"Yes, I know, it's hot off last week's runway. The shoes are Blahnik originals," Blair replied shortly.

Right. Uh…Regina ignored this and kept going. "I heard you were having lunch here and I wanted to meet you—"

"You and all the other little would-be socialites here," Blair replied coolly, an eyebrow arched. She pointed to the line, looking at Regina's hand and deliberately refusing it. "You can get in line now, if you want to be one of us."

"Um, hello." Regina thought this was getting a little ridiculous. "I don't think you know who I am. My name—"

"Is unimportant to me unless you happen to be either royalty or your parents are billionaires," Blair cut her off, tone growing icy.

"I was, like, totally invited here by that chick there," Regina snapped, pointing at Aurora who glanced at Blair and then quite coolly back at Regina.

Blair paused. "Yes. That's true. Well."

She looked up at Regina expectantly. "Since you have temporarily won the favor of myself and my girls, you may cut to the front of the line. You have sixty seconds. Clock it."

"Uh—" Regina was caught off guard as immediately the girl sitting next to Aurora snapped up her wrist and began clocking the time. "Well, I—" She composed herself. "I was the head cheerleader and my old highschool, and I, like, totally dated the captain of the football team. He was so gorgeous and—"

"Forty seconds," Blair interrupted boredly.

"Uh—okay, well, my parents bought me a Lexus for my birthday, uh, my dad makes two million a year…everyone at my old school just adored me—"

"Like we care," Blair interrupted again, looking as though she could not possibly be any more bored.

"Um…" Regina looked around helplessly. Wasn't that good enough? Her father was a millionaire, she had been the captain of the cheerleading squad and dated the football captain, she was the queen bee at her old school…what else was there?

"Okay then." Blair smiled trickily. Suddenly something in her pocket beeped. Her face lighted up wickedly. "Gossip Girl!" she trilled and the students were suddenly a blur of motion as everyone simultaneously reached for their cell phone.

"Um, wait, like, what?" Regina said, standing awkwardly with her phone still where it belonged. "Gossip…Girl?" She tried to speak the name like she knew it. Everyone stopped and stared at her. And it wasn't the adoring stare she was used to. It was disgust, an 'I can't believe you don't know what that is' stare.

"Ugh. Hazel, can you believe this?" Aurora said, her nose turned slightly up.

"You don't know who Gossip Girl is?" Hazel said in disbelief.

Blair snapped her phone shut with a sweet smirk. "Well, um, Roberta, as fun as this has been, I really don't think you belong here. Cheerleading and dating the football man got you some points, but…really, it's not enough. I mean, you drive yourself to school? So last year, so sorry."

She smiled sweetly and gave a mocking little wave. "Bye, now."

"Wait…" This was not turning out how Regina wanted. She was supposed to be in charge here. She turned on her most evil glare. For some reason Blair didn't even change expressions. "Look, you want me in this group. I—I am the mistress of evil plans. I—"

"You're threatening me?" Blair asked delicately. She looked around at her girls then back at Regina pointedly.

"Oh, girls, what happened to the last unfortunate soul who tried to question me?" she asked sweetly, eyes still trained on Regina's unwielding form. "I seem to forget; be a doll and refresh my memory."

"She moved to Tahiti," Hazel reported smartly, immediately.

Blair's sickeningly sweet smile did not waver. "That's right, Hazel."

She gave an indifferent little shrug.

"Wait!" Now Regina was desperate. "You don't get it, I have this book, I call it the Burn Book. I unleashed chaos on the whole school last semester with it—"

"A book." Blair's eyes had sharpened just a little at this; her waning interest suddenly piqued. "Tell me about this…Burn Book."

Regina rearranged her skirt primly. "We call it the Burn Book. I had dirt from everyone in it. I mean, the teachers, the students…anyone and everyone."

"Dirt. Elaborate," Blair commanded, tone leaving no room for argument.

"Well," Regina said, regaining a little of her confidence. "A teacher's affair with a student. Proof that a gay student was closeted. Proof that a straight student was gay." She smirked a little at the last one.

"Really." Blair seemed mildly impressed. Mildly. She looked thoughtfully at Regina. "Bring me this Burn Book tomorrow. Then we'll see."

"But—"

"Oh," Blair interrupted. "That's not all. By this time tomorrow you'll also need to be subscribed to Gossip Girl, get rid of that middle-school shirt and find some clothes that are actually fashionable."

Regina's mouth dropped open. "But I—"

"Maybe the man-whores at your other little school were into the trashy look on their girlfriends, but around here, nobody associates with sluts," Blair said dangerously. "With a shirt that could fall off that fake cleavage in seconds and a skirt that shows all there is to you, there's absolutely nothing that separates you from the little tramps in the downtown pubs. Supposed fashion like that takes no effort and really shows that you don't care enough about your apperance to want to belong. Oh, and by the way, showing up to school with a chaffuer is also a plus, but not completely necessary."

"I—I—" Regina stuttered in outrage at this outright insult and abrupt change of subject.

"That's all," Blair said sweetly.

"I, like—"

"Your extreme overusage of that word has me wondering whether to consider you at all or just send you straight home crying to your mummy because someone was mean to you," Blair said, sweetness gone, replaced by coldness. She did not like people wasting her time.

"Just listen—"

"You can go now," Blair said. She gave a sardonic little wave and Regina was forced to step aside as Hazel deliberately moved to bump into her.

"So sorry," Hazel said, eyes flashing sweetly, daring Regina to say or do anything. The former queen bee's mouth dropped open like a fish out of water, before she stiffly pivoted on her heel and stalked away.

Later that day in her room, several broken items later, Regina had a good screaming fit.

This Blair wasn't going down without a fight. Well. Regina loved a good fight. Blair, she had to admit, had won the first round, but it was still unknown who would win the next.

The other girls were too closely devoted to Blair to be any good. Therefore, for the time being Regina would have to act like she wanted to be a part of their little group, until she could figure out their inner workings, what made them—Blair—tick, and how to destroy them.

Regina would just have to up her game a notch. This must have been why fate sent her to Manhattan; to test her skills against the most elite of the clever, cunning and conniving.

Regina cracked her knuckles threateningly at her own image in the mirror. She would just have to fight harder. It would be a fight, that was certain.

Regina smiled wickedly at herself.

This might not be easy, but it certainly would be fun…

At least so she thought.

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You know you love me!

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