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

important “it’s time to get your shit together” talk? Why hadn’t
anyone warned her?
Well, there was no point in freaking out. She still had time. And she
could still have fun. She didn’t have to become a nun just because
she was joining the Interschool Drama Club, or whatever.
Serena clicked the TV off and wandered into the kitchen. The van
der Woodsens’ kitchen was massive. Glass cabinets lined the walls
above gleaming, stainless-steel counter tops. There were two
restaurant stoves and three Sub-Zero refrigerators. An enormous
butcher-block table stood in the center of the kitchen, and on the
table was today’s pile of mail.
Serena picked up the mail and sifted through it. Mostly, there were
invitations for her parents—white square envelopes printed with
old-fashioned typefaces—to balls, benefit dinners, fundraisers, and
auctions. Then there were the art openings—postcards with a
picture of the artist’s work on one side and the details of the
opening on the back. One of these caught Serena’s eye. It had
obviously been lost in the mail for a little while, because it looked
beaten up, and the opening it announced was beginning at 4 P.M.
on Wednesday, which was . . . right now. Serena flipped the card
over and looked at the picture of the artist’s work. It looked like a
close-up black-and-white photograph of an eye, tinted with pink.
The title of the work was Kate Moss. And the name of the show was
“Behind the Scene.” Serena squinted at the picture. There was
something innocent and beautiful about it, and at the same time it
was a little gross. Maybe it wasn’t an eye. She wasn’t sure what it
was. It was definitely cool, though. There was no question about it;
Serena knew what she was doing for the next two hours.
She flew into her bedroom, whipped off her maroon uniform, and
pulled on her favorite pair of black leather jeans. Then she grabbed
her coat and called the elevator. Within minutes she was stepping
out of a taxi in front of the Whitehot Gallery downtown in Chelsea.
The minute she got there, Serena grabbed a free gin martini and
signed the guest list. The gallery was full of twenty-something
hipsters in cool clothes, drinking free martinis and admiring the
photographs hanging on the walls. Each picture was similar to the
one on the postcard, that same close-up black-and-white eye, blown
up, all in different shapes and sizes and tinted with different colors.
Under each one was a label, and on every label was the name of a
celebrity: Kate Moss, Kate Hudson, Joaquin Phoenix, Jude Law,
Gisele Bundchen, Cher, Eminem, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Elton
John.
French pop music bubbled out of invisible speakers. The photo-