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

Maybe it would give her back some of her power.
Barefoot, she padded into her parents’ dressing room, where they
were getting ready for their own black-tie affair.
“What do you think?” Serena asked, doing a little twirl in front of
them.
“Oh, Serena, you’re not wearing that. Tell me you’re not,” her
mother exclaimed, fastening a long rope of pearls around her neck.
“What’s wrong with it?” Serena said.
“It’s an old ratty thing,” Mrs. van der Woodsen told her. “It’s just the
sort of dress my grandmother was buried in.”
“What’s wrong with one of those outfits you bought with your
mother last weekend?” Mr. van der Woodsen suggested. “Didn’t you
buy anything to wear to the party?”
“Of course she did,” Mrs. van der Woodsen said. “She bought a
lovely black dress.”
“That makes me look like a fat nun,” Serena said grumpily. She put
her hands on her hips and posed in front of her mother’s full-length
mirror. “I like this dress. It’s got character.”
Her mother sighed disapprovingly. “Well, what’s Blair wearing?” she
asked.
Serena stared at her mother and blinked. Under normal
circumstances she would have known exactly what Blair was
wearing, down to her underwear. And Blair would have insisted on
going shoe-shopping together, because if you bought a new dress,
you had to have a pair of new shoes. Blair loved shoes.
“Blair told everyone to wear vintage,” Serena lied.
Her mother was about to respond when Serena heard her phone
ring in her bedroom. Was it Nate calling to apologize? Blair? She
raced down the hall in her bare feet, scrambling to pick it up.
“Hello?” she said breathlessly.
“Yo, bitch. Sorry I haven’t called in a while.”
Serena took a deep breath and sat down on her bed. It was Erik, her
brother.
“Hey,” she said.
“Saw you in the paper last Sunday. You are crazy, aren’t you?” Erik
laughed. “What did Mom say?”
“Nothing. It’s like I can do whatever I want now. Everyone thinks I’m
like, ruined or something,” Serena said, fumbling for the right
words.
“That’s not true,” Erik said. “Hey, what’s up? You sound sad.”
“Yeah,” Serena said. Her lower lip started to tremble. “I sort of am.”
“How come? What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. There’s this party I’m supposed to go to that
everyone’s going to. You know how it is,” she began.