At first, it had been pretty easy to keep convincing herself that staying away from Dan was the best course of action. True, when it came to any kind of relationship, Chuck wasn't exactly the best person to take advice from, but Serena had to admit, he'd had some good points. Besides, Dan had been totally out of line. Maybe she'd been wrong to take ( Read more... )

In the hallway beyond the rec room, Serena stood and closed her eyes, giving herself a few moments to gather her thoughts. Out there with Lyla, she hadn't been able to think why Blair would say such things about her and Chuck. It was easier to guess at why Blair would be after Chuck, and even then, she couldn't have said with any certainty. ( Read more... )

It had been a relief, waking up herself again. Being small had, for a little while, been fun, but then it had just got strange and worrying again. Serena couldn't say exactly that she was back in her own body now, because it had always been hers, but now it felt like she fit ( Read more... )

Serena would never have denied that she'd enjoyed being little again, but only for a brief while. Waking up as herself again had been more than a slight relief. As pleased as she was the candy had stuck around, it was just one more day in her life that she would be content to pretend had never happened ( Read more... )

( State of the Pups, in which I go on and on and on and on. )

At first, Serena had made herself scarce at the Compound to avoid all the drama, but as time went on and things got quieter, she'd still found herself spending time at Beat's just to be there. Yesterday, hanging out in the afternoon had turned to hanging out in the evening which had been followed by pursuits too active to be considered hanging out ( Read more... )

Serena had no intention of going to the Compound for long. Long stays meant an opportunity for long talks, and maybe she'd talked things out with Beat, but that in no way meant she had any desire to endure a rehash of events with Chuck or Blair or even Jenny, or to go through Eric checking to be sure she was alright. Love them as she did, it was ( Read more... )

Once Dan had left, Serena had made every possible effort to ignore the scene which had just taken place, determined to enjoy the rest of the ball as she'd meant to from the start. Shaking off any concern or comments the others made, she'd made it through the rest of the night with a big smile on her face and all thoughts of Dan banished from her ( Read more... )

Serena made a point of seeing her friends as often as possible - not all of them on any given day, because even here, she had only so much time, but still she managed to say hello with some regularity. It didn't occur to her to notice at first, but when a couple days went by without her seeing any sign of Jeremy, she made her way to the cave where ( Read more... )

Taking time after Dan left to sit a moment and calm herself, Serena drew her hands carefully across her eyes. She brushed beneath her eyes with unsteady fingers, forcing herself to breath slowly, deeply. It would be alright. She'd made her choice a month ago. At the time, though, she'd begun to think that she would never see Dan again, that it wasn ( Read more... )