Novels by Cecily von Ziegesar: Gossip Girl You Know You ... - Weebly

socks felt damp inside his brown suede Hush Puppies.
Serena van der Woodsen. He took a long drag on his Camel. His
hands were shaking so much he almost missed his mouth.
“Dan?” his sister squeaked into the phone. “Can you hear me? Did
you hear what I said? Serena is back. Serena van der Woodsen.”
Dan sucked in his breath sharply. “Yeah, I heard you,” he said,
feigning disinterest. “So what?”
“So what?” Jenny said incredulously. “Oh, right, like you didn’t just
have a mini heart attack. You’re so full of it, Dan.”
“No, I’m serious,” Dan said, pissily. “What are you calling me for?
What do I care?”
Jenny sighed loudly. Dan could be so irritating. Why couldn’t he just
act happy for once? She was so tired of his pale, miserable,
introspective-poet act.
“All right,” she said. “Forget it. I’ll talk to you later.”
She clicked off and Dan shoved his cell phone back into the pocket
of his faded black corduroys. He snatched a pack of cigarettes out
of his back pocket and lit another one with the burning stub of the
one he was already smoking. His thumbnail got singed, but he
didn’t even feel it.
Serena van der Woodsen.
They had first met at a party. No, that wasn’t exactly true. Dan had
seen her at a party, his party, the only one he’d ever had at his
family’s apartment on Ninety-ninth and West End Avenue.
It was April of eighth grade. The party was Jenny’s idea, and their
father, Rufus Humphrey, the infamous retired editor of lesser-known
beat poets and a party animal himself, was happy to oblige. Their
mother had already moved to Prague a few years before to “focus
on her art.” Dan invited his entire class and told them to invite as
many people as they wanted. More than a hundred kids showed up,
and Rufus kept the beer flowing out of a keg in the bathtub, getting
many of the kids drunk for the first time. It was the best party Dan
had ever been to, even if he did say so himself. Not because of the
booze, but because Serena van der Woodsen was there. Never mind
that she had gotten wasted and wound up playing a stupid Latin
drinking game and kissing some guy’s stomach with pictures
scrawled all over it in magic marker. Dan couldn’t keep his eyes off
her.
Afterwards, Jenny told him that Serena went to her school,
Constance, and from then on Jenny was his little emissary, reporting
everything she’d seen Serena do, say, wear, etc., and informing
Dan about any upcoming events where he might catch a glimpse of
her again. Those events were rare. Not because there weren’t a lot
of them—there were—but because there weren’t many Dan had