Chapter 9

The vibration of Blair's phone woke her from the most peaceful sleep she was sure she had ever had. With great effort, she tried not to jar the sleeping blonde who was currently wrapped around her as she reached for her phone. When she saw who was calling, she mentally cursed herself. Did she really need to be reminded she had a boyfriend right now?
She hit ignore, feeling a slight bit of guilt as she did. It wasn't Nate's fault that she'd rather be with Serena.
"Who's calling you this early?" Serena murmured as she burrowed her face into the pillow.
Blair turned around to face the other girl, smiling softly and pushing her hair out of her face. "It was just Kati. Sometimes she needs help picking out shoes." Blair lied, not wanting Nate to spoil their morning.
Serena looked up at Blair and raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
The brunette laughed, thinking of the countless times Kati had actually called her for that reason.
"Well I do have impeccable taste," she answered, leaning in to capture Serena's lips in a lingering kiss. As she pulled away, she caught a glimpse of the clock. The alarm would be going off in a few minutes. "We should get up. We have school and you don't have your uniform," she observed and then added, "I'd let you borrow mine but I don't think it'd fit."
Serena's head shot up in offense, "Are you calling me fat?"
Blair looked at her incredulously before bursting out laughing. "No, S, there's just a bit of a height difference, remember?"
"Oh," the blonde said, settling back down. "Its too early."
"Clearly," Blair agreed, raising her eyebrows.
"Shut up."
The brunette smiled and leaned in, her face inches away from the other girl's, as she whispered, "Make me."
Serena didn't have to think twice before she closed the distance. As the kiss began to heat up, the shrill tone of the alarm sounded through the room, surprising them both. Blair pulled away, leaning over Serena to turn it off and giving the blonde a pretty good view down her shirt. She caught the girl not-so-subtly looking and felt herself tremble as Serena bit her lip. Blair moved back to her side of the bed and looked at Serena, whose eyes were noticeably darker. "Hold that thought," she said as she went to get out of the bed. "I'll get ready and then we'll go to your place so you can change."
"Or," Serena began, grabbing the other girl's hand and pulling her back onto the bed, "We could skip school and stay in bed all day."
Blair nearly moaned at the insinuation behind Serena's words and it took all of her will power to get back out of the bed. "You can't skip school on your second day back, S. Besides, if we're both missing, it'll be more than suspicious," she explained, logically, trying to dissuade herself as much as Serena. She turned and made her way to the bathroom, knowing if she stayed another second, her prior efforts would have all been in vain. "I'll be ready in 10 minutes," she called back before closing the door and leaning against it. It was going to be a long day.

Ashley was surprised as she walked into first period History and found Serena in the desk next to the one she usually occupied.
"Hey," the blonde smiled broadly as Ashley walked over to her desk and sat down.
"Hey," she said back, "Looks like we have a class together." This was really a nice surprise for the brunette since History was not only her most boring class but it also had the most group projects and usually nobody wanted to work with the school dyke.
Serena nodded, "What do you have next?"
"Spanish."
The blonde smiled again, "Same here."
"You any good?" Ashley asked her.
"Not really."
"Well, you're in luck because I'm fluent," Ashley told her. "If you need help, just ask."
Serena was impressed by this. She always wished she could speak another language, but due to her bad memory and pronunciation, language classes were usually her most challenging classes.
"Thanks," she smiled at her new friend, who nodded back.
The teacher walked in and began to dictate notes a mile a minute so they weren't able to talk much the rest of the class. It gave Serena time to think whether it'd be okay to tell Ashley about her and Blair, seeing as Ashley herself was an out lesbian.
She figured she should talk to Blair before she told anyone though, just to be on the safe side since the whole thing was currently up in the air.
The bell rang and they gathered up their books and headed to Spanish class together. While walking in the hall, Ashley got up the courage to ask Serena about something that had been on her mind since yesterday.
"Serena?"
"Hmm?" the blonde looked over.
"Um, I just wanted to ask you something. Its a little personal, so I understand if you don't want to answer it."
The way Ashley was talking made Serena a little panicked. Did she know about Blair? Did she have some sort of 'gaydar' that may have tipped her off that Serena wasn't straight?
"You can ask me anything," the blonde smiled, feigning confidence. All things considered, there were far worse things than Ashley knowing.
"Well, I was wondering... Is there something going on between you and Nate?"
"What?" Serena had to stop herself from laughing out loud. "No, there's nothing going on with us. What gave you that idea?"
Ashley shrugged, "I'm obviously no expert when it comes to guys, but he seemed to be really into you yesterday."
They got to the classroom and sat down before Serena answered, "Yeah, I know he is... But there's nothing I can do about it. No matter how many times I tell him I don't feel the same, he doesn't believe me and I don't want to lose him as a friend."
Ashley nodded, understanding the situation and why Serena had seemed unaffected by it the day before. She was used to it. It hardly surprised Ashley as she looked at the girl. People must fall in love with her everyday. It was just a part of life by now.
"Was it really that obvious?" Serena asked, hoping Blair wouldn't pick up on it.
"Not really but my sister was talking about how there was something on Gossip Girl and I had kind of noticed it yesterday."
Serena furrowed her eyebrows and was about inquire more into the said 'Gossip Girl post' but the teacher began to speak in Spanish and it pretty much kept Serena's attention for the whole class. Every few minutes Ashley would look over at the thoroughly confused blonde and whisper what the teacher was talking about in English. By the time class was over, Serena had forgotten her question and her and Ashley parted ways, promising to talk more at lunch.

Luckily, Blair had managed to get Serena moving and made it to school on time, which was probably a first for Serena, she thought to herself and smiled. Now she was sitting in her fourth period study, awaiting lunch and a chance to see Serena since, unfortunately, they had no other classes together. She was snapped out of her thoughts by a pen tapping her shoulder lightly and turned around to face Isabelle.
"What?" Blair whispered to her friend.
Isabelle handed Blair her cell phone and asked, "Did you see this?"
Blair looked at the screen and saw it was a Gossip Girl post she had, in fact, not seen. A weird feeling that crept up on her as she read about Serena and Nate being spotted fighting outside of her apartment building. A lovers' quarrel?
"Well, Gossip Girl is obviously just grasping for anything to put the spotlight back on Serena," she said with a hint of disgust while handing back the phone. However, her insides didn't seem so sure about that statement. Blair definitely wasn't stupid; she was more than aware of the feelings that Nate had for Serena. After Serena left, he had seemed almost as distraught as she did, but she was better at hiding it.
But after last night, she felt guilty for having any doubts about Serena's feelings. She knew she should ask Serena before jumping to conclusions. For all she knew, they could've been joking around or something.
The bell finally rang and Blair headed towards her locker with Kati and Isabelle in toe.
"So you're not worried at all about Serena?" Kati asked, confused by Blair's behavior. Usually she would be on the war path by now, but she seemed pretty calm about the whole thing.
Blair opened her locker and turned to her friends, "There's nothing to worry about. You guys should stop believing everything you read on Gossip Girl. Its all just speculation," she reasoned and it seemed to work. The subject was changed to next month's fundraiser-slash-masquerade ball that they were in charge of organizing.
When they arrived in the cafeteria, they took their usual seats as Blair scanned the room for Serena who appeared to not have gotten there yet. She half-listened to her friends chatting about budgets and guests until she spotted the blonde walking in with, of course, Ashley Davies. Blair groaned internally, hoping that she wasn't going to have to make peace with Ashley due to her relationship with Serena. The blonde made eye contact with her and smiled her gorgeous smile, making Blair grin like an idiot as she waved her over. She watched as Serena set her stuff down at the table she had occupied with Ashley the day before, then made her way towards Blair.
"Hey guys," Serena greeted the table and everyone returned it. Then she looked down at Blair. "What's up, B?"
Blair smiled. "Just wanted to remind you to meet me in the library when you're done so I can help you catch up in English," she said with a concealed wink so that Serena would go along with it.
"Right, yeah," Serena nodded, trying not to show her excitement to have alone time with Blair. "I'll meet you there."
"Good," the brunette answered, and watched as Serena made her way back to the other table.

"So you and Spence disappeared on us yesterday," Serena smiled mischievously at Ashley. "Where'd you guys go?"
"We just went back to her place and talked," Ashley replied honestly, knowing that Serena wanted to hear something more interesting.
Serena gave her a blank look. "That's it? You just... talked?"
"Well, I asked her out, too," Ashley said, enjoying teasing the blonde.
Staring at her expectantly, Serena finally gave in and asked, "Well what did she say?"
Ashley smiled, thinking about Spencer and how she was going to see her in a few hours. "She said yes."
Serena's face broke out into a huge smile, "That's awesome! I'm so happy that you guys hit it off. You make such a hot couple."
Ashley almost blushed, remembering that her and Spencer's first kiss had an audience.
"So what are you planning to do for the date?" Serena asked.
"Well, I was hoping you'd help me out with that," Ashley said, a little embarrassed as she added, "I've never actually been on a real date."
Serena raised her eyebrows, "Really?"
Ashley nodded.
"Well, alright, I'll help you," Serena agreed. "Spence really isn't high maintenance, so I'm sure she'd be okay with just dinner and maybe a movie or concert. She's really into music actually. She wants to start her own record company."
Ashley thought this over, trying to think of something good. Spencer's interest in music was a new development that Ashley was glad to know. She also loved music as she herself was an aspiring musician.
"Ash?" Serena said, trying to get the girl's attention.
"Hmm? Sorry, I kind of zoned out for a second. What's up?"
"Remember how you said something about there being a Gossip Girl post?" Serena asked her, hoping she didn't sound too nervous.
It took Ashley a second to think back to the conversation they'd had that morning. "Oh, yea. I didn't see it myself, but my sister said there was something about you and Nate fighting in front of Blair's building. I think Gossip Girl used the terminology 'lovers' quarrel' to describe it," she explained, knowing now that it was a misconception and feeling bad for the girl as she recalled the idle gossip she'd heard from other girls in her classes. Everyone now seemed to think there was something going on between Nate and Serena.
"Shit," Serena cursed under breath. She turned around and saw that Blair had already left. Gathering her stuff, she apologized to Ashley, saying she had catch up work to do and she'd see her later.
Once out of the cafeteria, Serena practically ran up the three flights of stairs in order to get to the library. When she got there, she spotted Blair sitting at a table in the corner and made her way over and sat down across from her. The brunette looked up from her book and smiled. "Hey you."
Serena smiled uneasily, still a little out of breath, "Hey. Can we go somewhere and talk?"
Blair nodded, a little concerned by the blonde's urgency. "C'mon," she said, getting up and going to the back of the library where they could be alone. "What's wrong, S?"
"There's a post on Gossip Girl about last night and it says--"
Blair put a finger to the exasperated blonde's lips and said, "I know what it says."
Serena searched Blair's face for any signs of anger or disappointment, but found none. "Why didn't you say anything?"
Blair sighed, "Serena, I meant what I said last night. This is a clean slate. So far, you've given me no reason not to trust you."
The blonde relaxed considerably and pulled the brunette in for a hug. "You're amazing, you know that?" she whispered into Blair's ear.
Blair hugged her back tightly, "I know," she smiled as Serena laughed.
They finally pulled away and Serena leaned against the bookshelf. "Do you wanna come over after school?" she asked as Blair reached out to straighten her tie.
The brunette smiled and looked up at her. "Of course."
"Great," Serena said, wishing school was over already because all she wanted to do was kiss the girl. But they had already decided they needed to be careful and kissing during school was too big of a risk.
"Yeah," the brunette said softly, her eyes seemingly glued to Serena's lips. "I know we said we wouldn't but..." she trailed off as she leaned in a little, biting her lip. "I really, really want to kiss you right now."
Serena swallowed, and looked around then back at Blair. "I don't think I'd stop you if you did," she whispered.
"Good," Blair said quickly before grabbing Serena's tie and pulling her down to meet her lips. It was by far the most passionate kiss they'd shared yet, and if Serena was honest, it was the most passionate kiss she'd ever experienced. She had never enjoyed kissing someone this much, and she had never felt so much from another person either.
Blair finally broke the kiss, in need of oxygen. She leaned against Serena, feeling as though she wouldn't be able to stand on her own, and rested her hand over the taller girl's heart. It was pounding just as hard as hers and she smiled, feeling what she thought was the greatest feeling in the world; she wasn't alone in this.
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