𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗘
𝘐𝘕𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘝𝘐𝘌𝘞 𝘈𝘕𝘟𝘐𝘌𝘛𝘠
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Drinking enough to get a headache the next day was starting to become a habit for Angelique, one she obviously didn't like. When Zöe came to wake her up, she also brought her something to help with her problematic headache.
"You're an angel, Zöe," Angelique thanked her and swallowed the pill, then took a large sip of water right before she got out of bed.
"Your clothes are ready, Miss," the maid announced, revealing her school uniform.
Today was an important day. Ivy Week was crazy for everybody, particularly for the students who had a legacy to live up to. Or, as Angelique's mother would say, it was another opportunity to show Constance Billard what being a top student means.
She wouldn't dare to be late during Ivy Week. Headache or not, she had to be at the top of her game. And if she wasn't, then she was great at pretending to be.
It didn't take long until she was ready to leave the house. The ride to school felt uncomfortable today, even though she was sitting in the back one of the most luxurious cars that have ever been made. But she couldn't let it get to her. She could deal with anything that needed to be dealt with, but not now. Next week.
Right before her driver opened the door for her, Angelique finished applying her lipgloss. She usually looked good and well put together, but she put even more effort in everything during Ivy Week, including her looks.
"Good morning, Angelique."
It was Blair's voice that made her stop walking. When Angelique turned around to face the sound of the noise, she was met with a smirking version of her friend.
"Good morning, Blair. What's up with you today?"
"You're going to regret leaving the brunch party so soon yesterday after you hear this," Blair began to brag, but her attention quickly shifted towards her side and she started waving towards someone.
Angelique naturally turned her head in that direction and her eyes met a pair of deep blue ones.
Her eyes were probably deceiving her. He couldn't be looking at her like that, not when Blair was right next to her. It was probably the distance that made it seem like his gaze never left hers until they both got into the separate buildings of their schools.
And when she finally snapped out of it, she looked back at Blair, who seemed to be as happy and pleased as before.
"You were saying.." Angelique pressed her a little. She was a little curious to find out whether she missed something big or not. But knowing Blair, this had to be relevant enough if she mentioned it out of nowhere.
"I'll skip through the part in which Nate and I were in Chuck's suite and were interrupted by Serena and I'll start the story by telling you how disappointed Dan Humphrey was to find out Serena slept with Nate," she said proudly, "and how angry he got when Chuck mentioned his sister. He almost punched him again. He did push him, but there were way too many people there and he didn't dare to start a real fight."
"Oh, wow," Angelique said, furrowing her eyebrows. "That's, uh—Scandalous. Yeah, I think that's the word for it."
"For sure. Now, don't you feel sorry for losing that?"
"Yeah, I should've been there," she replied absentmindedly. Little did Blair know that Angelique witnessed something even more scandalous that afternoon.
"Moving onto even more relevant stuff: we're both going to be in charge of the mixer! Isn't that exciting?"
If this was any other day, she wouldn't have been bothered by the obvious excitement in Blair's tone. But she was already stressed at hell and Blair only contributed to her anxiety, instead of making her feel calm.
Everything had to be perfect. She had to ace her interview. She had to get into Harvard. There was no other option for her.
"Um, hello? Earth to Angelique?" Blair waved a hand in front of her, snapping her back to reality.
"Sorry," Angelique apologized with a light shake of her head, "my mind's been all over the place today. Yeah, the mixer's going to be pretty cool."
At this point, the two girls were already seated. They were surrounded by so many people and they were all talking about different topics. Their voices were so loud that they bothered Angelique—until they suddenly became nothing but background noise to her. She was too stressed to focus anymore and she was starting to zone out.
"Pretty cool? Angelique, this is going to be unforgettable! We're both part of the community outreach committee, we can't do anything less than perfect!"
Blair was talking about the mixer and as much as Angelique wanted to share her excitement, she couldn't. She was grateful that the assembly started and that everyone went quietly.
And because bad things never come alone, it was now time for the girls to play hockey.
It would have been a great opportunity to Angelique to let out some of that stress, but Blair decided to be petty and Serena refused to put up with it, so the match turned into a cat fight.
A real cat fight, this time.
"Hey, stop it!" Angelique raised her tone at them both, then she grabbed Serena by her wrists and pulled her off Blair. "What's gotten into you two today?!"
As expected, Blair refused to give it up without giving Serena a final blow. "Ouch, my leg!" She suddenly started to complain, grabbing Angelique for support.
"Come on, you've got to be—Hey!" She groaned when Blair pinched her and finally agreed to let her use her as a support if that meant she'd shut up.
𝙷𝚎𝚢, 𝚄𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚛 𝙴𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚂𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜. 𝚆𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚆𝚊𝚛 𝙸𝙸𝙸 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚔𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚝, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚜. 𝙲𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚘𝚛 𝚛𝚞𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚒𝚍𝚎. 𝚆𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚎'𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑.
"You are the ideal Harvard candidate, Miss Evans."
That was exactly the answer she was hoping for, but why didn't it help with the lump in her throat?
"Thank you, Sir," Angelique nodded and flashed her most charming smile, "It's truly an honor. I have heard so much about Harvard from both of my parents. It's my dream to continue their legacy and to set up even higher standards for the future generations."
She has been rehearsing this speech for years, but truth to be told, Angelique wasn't even sure if this was what she truly wanted or if it was just something her parents programmed her to want.
She knew she would be studying law at Harvard since she started speaking and she hasn't been able to stop talking about it ever since. She could easily imagine her life as a top lawyer. She had what it takes to make a difference, but was this dream really hers?
There was no room for doubt right now. She managed to give an impressive interview, she couldn't mess it up at the end.
"Very well, Miss Evans. It's clear to me that you would indeed be a valuable asset for Harvard. Thank you for your time, it has been a real pleasure."
"Oh, I should be the one to say thank you. It was delightful to have this conversation with you, Sir."
That was it. It was done. The interview she feared so much was already over. She couldn't even recall how she got out of that room or how she made it to the back of the school. It was a blur to her.
But now, she could finally allow herself to breathe, even if it was for a little bit. She placed one of her hands over her chest and took deep breaths—in, then out, then again until her breathing was steady.
"Are you okay, Angel?" A voice asked from behind, followed by a hand that was placed on one of her shoulders, which caused her to turn around.
"Nate!" She exclaimed. "You scared me."
"Scared you?" He repeated her words, a skeptical look spreading all over his face. "What's going on?"
"What? Nothing!" She was quick to defend herself, but her excuse was not even close to being believable.
Still, Nate didn't want to press her any further. "If you say so." He let out a sigh, then gave her shoulders a comforting squeeze. "How did your interview go?"
"It was great," Angelique admitted with a nod. "I'm glad it's over." For what felt like the first time today, she was speaking the truth.
"Don't tell me you were nervous about it. Come on, you're surely going to get into Harvard, you don't even have to worry!"
Angelique scoffed. "How could you be so sure? Nate, this is Harvard's Law School we're talking about, not some random university."
"Yes and I know it's a really big deal, but I know you. And you got this under control. They have to be incredibly foolish to not pick you."
His words earned a smile from her, a sight that seemed to be so rare these days.
"See? Now that's the type of attitude I wanted to see. Beautiful and sincere smiles fit you best, Angel."
She scrunched up her nose and let out a chuckle. "You're in an oddly good mood today."
"Actually, I've had better days. But I'm glad it's not showing and I'm glad managed to make you smile. You seemed rather tense and confused this morning and I knew something was up," he confessed, lightly scratching the back of his head. "I wanted to come talk to you before your interview, but I couldn't find you."
"Yeah, I kind of needed some time alone. It's sweet of you to think about me, thank you, but I don't want you to worry, alright? I'm fine."
"I know you are. Now."
Angelique didn't reply. Instead, she looked deeply into his eyes and mirrored his smile.
And for a second, she could almost swear her heart skipped a beat and her head felt lighter, dizzier even. That, of course, until somebody else decided to join in.
"I assume your interviews went really well today. You're both.. radiating," Chuck pointed out as he approached them both.
He placed one of his hands around Nate's neck and the other around Angelique's waist, pulling them both closer to him and creating some distance in between the two of them instead by placing himself in the middle.
"What about your interview, Chuck? What did you say to convince them to appoint you as Yale's usher?" Angelique asked.
Chuck, on the other hand, replied with a cocky scoff. "Easy. I told them I'm Chuck Bass and that's all they needed to hear."
His answer made Angelique roll her eyes. This became her natural response to everything Chuck did. "Of course you did. Alright, I don't know about you two, but I spent enough time outside and I know for a fact that they are going to announce the results in less than five minutes. I'll see you both at the reception."
Chuck waved in Angelique's direction as a goodbye. Nate, however, didn't do anything but to watch her leave. It was hard to take his eyes off her.
"She's gone, now will you stop acting like a proud boyfriend? You got the wrong girl," Chuck suggested in a teasing tone.
"I am a proud friend, I don't know what you're talking about. Was I supposed to be upset she did great on her interview?"
"What you're supposed to be is glad that she doesn't want to go to Yale. Or that Blair doesn't want to go to Harvard. Speaking of which, did you ask your actual girlfriend about her interview? Or did you just assume it went alright?"
"Seriously, Chuck, don't you have anything better to do?"
"Honestly? No, I've got quite some time until the reception."
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thank you so so much for 13k reads, i can't believe you guys love this story so much ??? i never thought "elite" would make it that far but i am forever grateful!
yours truly,
vic