Blair is used to being her posh private school's resident Ice Queen. No one messes with her and gets away with it. New boy in town, Warren, decides he's not really a fan of the status quo. When Blair's friends take the arrogant jerk under their wing, she'll have to face a challenge like one she's never faced before.

CHAPTER 1

"Behind every bitch is a man that made her that way."—Anonymous

"But I really, really like you, Blair."

She looked at him with a pout on her lips and patted the boy's head like he was her pet terrier. He waited for a response—mercy, maybe, but Blair Ward was too busy examining her manicure to notice. Her friends, used to her behavior after years of being around, stared at the boy in pity.

"I know you do," Blair said, false expressions of sympathy playing out over her face. "Is there anything I can do to make this process go more smoothly for you?"

Chad—or was his name Chester?—stood up and brushed himself off. "No. No, I'm alright."

Blair got to her feet as well and gave Chad-slash-Chester an icy, over-sweet smile. "Good. Now, off you go!"

The boy dropped his head and, stuffing his hands into his pockets, shuffled away.

Blair reached up to ruffle her blonde hair, at last noticing the rest of the refectory staring at her. One swift glare strategically aimed in their general direction was all it took for the simpletons to return to their food. The refectory was once again filled with their chatter, and Blair took her seat.

"Blair."

She tugged on her navy school blazer until it settled over her shoulders, taking her time on purpose before acknowledging Eve's reprimanding tone. She might have been her best friend, but Eve's meek demeanor and friendly ways never failed to get on Blair's nerves.

"Blair."

At last, Blair faced Eve with sharp cerulean eyes and plastered on a moderately warm smile.

"Yes, Evie, darling?" she said, adding a little sugar into her voice.

Eve rolled her eyes, not buying the act for a moment. She leaned into Foster, her boyfriend, a little more before starting in on her lecture.

"That wasn't very nice," she said. "Chuck has liked you forever."

Oh, his name's Chuck. That's right.

Blair picked up her fork like she was going to throw it across the table. Instead, she dug into the Caesar salad on her tray, mulling over Eve's words.

"Why is that my problem?" she asked after a minute.

Eve opened her mouth to reply, but didn't get a chance as another of their friends, Knox Kavanaugh, arrived at the table and sat down. He exchanged a manly handshake with Foster, and then pecked both Eve and Blair on the cheek.

"Hey, hey, kiddies. What did I miss?" he asked.

Blair was glad for the momentary distraction, hoping it would be enough to make Eve forget about the whole thing.

Foster was about to answer Knox's question, but his girlfriend beat him to the punch.

"Just Blair being a bitch as usual," Eve said. She faced Blair with serious brown eyes and a pointed look. "It's your problem because… well, how would you like it if you poured your heart out to someone and they just stomped on your feelings without a care in the world?"

Blair smirked. "That never happens to me, Evie."

Eve glared, an uncharacteristic action, and threw up her hands. "I give up, B. You're beyond help."

Knox looked around the table at his friends, mainly bored, but still curious as to what the girls were so riled up about. Foster stepped in to save him the trouble.

"Just leave it alone, man. You do not want to get in the middle of this," he said. Then turning to his angry girlfriend, he said, "Evie, why don't you let me take you out for ice cream, huh?"

Eve deflated, anger slipping out of her veins. She nodded at Foster and the couple made quick work of the rest of their lunches.

"I'll see you guys later," Eve said, standing up.

When she and Foster were out of earshot, Knox leaned forward. He met Blair's icy gaze with a matching blue one of his own.

"What's up, cousin?"

Blair rolled her eyes and pushed her tray away, no longer in the mood to eat. She explained what had happened with Chuck in a couple of fluid sentences. When she finished, she was pleased as usual to find an amused smirk on Knox's face. No one in their group really understood her as well as her cousin did.

"Kid's a pussy. I've seen him around," he said. "Don't worry about Eve. She lives in a world of sunshine and rainbows."

Blair knew he was right. Eve's efforts to soften Blair's personality were commendable, but fruitless. There was nothing that would be able to change her, and Eve would be better off knowing that.

"Yeah, I know."

"Good," Knox said. He leaned back and started to pick at his pizza, staring at it with an expression of disdain on his beautiful face. "God, I can't believe they actually expect us to eat this shit."

Blair blew a wisp of golden hair out of her face and checked the time on her Rolex. The diamond-encrusted timepiece, a gift from her father, told her it was almost the end of lunch, and subsequently, the first half of her day.

"Hey, did Bianca say anything about meeting me to study?" Blair asked Knox.

Her cousin pushed his outgrown jet-black hair away from his forehead and nodded. "Zel's parents wanted her back home this weekend, so she had to book a last-minute flight for tonight."

"Damn. I have a calculus exam tomorrow," Blair said. "Fine time for your girlfriend to jet off to another country."

Knox smirked evilly and put on his best innocent expression. "Why don't you get Chuck to help you? I've heard he's a whiz at math."

"Fuck you," Blair snapped. "Don't try me today, Knox, or I'll stick one of my beautiful Jimmy Choos up your ass."

Knox grinned at her and waved as she stood up to leave. "No use getting your panties in a bunch over nothing, cousin. Relax."

Blair was tempted to stick up her middle finger at him, but refrained from doing so when she realized he was just goading her.

As she picked up her tray, the refectory seemed to stop all movement once again. The student body, although they didn't let usually let on, was always aware of Blair. She was the highest authority amongst her peers, a queen by her own right, and everyone around her catered to that.

It was only half a second before three different boys surrounded her, waiting to take the tray out of her hands. She picked the most handsome of them—though he wasn't very handsome at all—and almost tossed her empty plates at him.

"Do you need anything, Blair?" another of them asked.

His zit-covered face repulsed Blair and she felt her lunch coming back up. Throwing him a cursory glance, nose upturned, she shook her head.

"Not from you."

"A drink?" the last boy asked.

In comparison to his companion, the third boy was much better-looking. Blair accepted his offer and he scuttled off.

When he was gone, she noticed the boy with the acne problem standing off to the side as if waiting for something. She resisted the urge to roll her pretty blue eyes, but her voice was still icy when she addressed him.

"Why are you still here?"

Zit Boy jumped at being spoken to again.

"I-I-I—"

"Leave," Blair said. "Now."

He flushed a pasty tomato color under his pimples and scurried off as well. Blair noticed Knox at their table, grinning from ear to ear. This time, she didn't hesitate to send him the bird.

"That's attractive," he said.

"Unlike your face," Blair shot at him, and then grimaced at the awful comeback.

Knox's grin widened, if that was possible, but he didn't say anything in response. His sapphire eyes dropped behind her to the second of Blair's lackeys who had gone to fetch her a drink. He almost felt bad for them sometimes, until he remembered they did it of their own volition. Blair's presence was enough to stir anyone into action, and he'd admit that, even being her cousin as he was. Plus, it wasn't as though he himself was short of admirers. Being a part of Blair's gene pool (and her court, as he liked to call her group of friends) did have its perks.

"Here you go, Blair," the boy said, handing her a bottle of water.

Blair took it from him, and then strutted out of the cafeteria, aware of the hundred or so pairs of eyes that were watching her leave. Knox's laughter followed her into the hallway.

-X-

Warren Fitzpatrick felt like he was walking through the set of Gossip Girl, to which he was only privy because of his fifteen-year-old sister. If Ashley saw this place, she would fall in love with it, he knew.

As he looked down at the headmaster's directions, he realized he'd made a wrong turn at the gargoyle statue in the last hallway, and doubled back.

It took him another fifteen minutes, but he managed to find the administration office at last.

"Good morning, you must be Mr. Fitzpatrick," the receptionist said as he entered, glancing at him. She did a double-take, and then blushed at her own actions and went about flipping through some papers to retrieve his file.

Warren grinned, showing off his dimples. "Yes, ma'am. Is the headmaster available, or should I wait?"

The receptionist fixed her skewed glasses, flustered.

"G-Go right in. He's free," she said. Her hand flew out into his line of vision, a thick manila envelope grasped between her fingers.

Warren raised an eyebrow, but took the file anyway. He tipped an imaginary cowboy hat at the stunned receptionist and then followed her pointed finger to the other side of the room.

"Come in, come in," said the headmaster when Warren knocked.

He opened the door and went inside as instructed.

As the new boy in town, Warren had been told many stories about Cooper Academy's Headmaster Sutherby. Seeing him now, seated behind his desk, he found the tales had been pretty accurate: the headmaster was a weather-worn man with white hair, kind eyes, and a knack for coffee. Even now, three or four empty mugs littered his desk as though he'd had a party earlier in the day. Warren had also been warned not to take anything the man said very seriously. The headmaster was a fan of telling bad jokes and playing pranks.

"Good morning, sir," Warren said.

The headmaster grinned at him, gesturing to one of the plush armchairs in front of his desk.

"Oh, my. You'll fit right in," he said, chuckling in delight.

Warren raised an eyebrow at the weird comment, but he figured it was best not to ask. Instead, he handed Headmaster Sutherby the manila envelope he'd just received.

"Good, good. Let's take a look, shall we?"

As he waited for the headmaster to flip through his transcripts and letters of recommendation, Warren studied the large office and its many trophies and plaques. Cooper Academy, he knew, was the cream of the crop when it came to private schools. Not a single one of its graduates went to any college except the Ivy Leagues, and as such, its alumni included prominent political figures, Nobel laureates, and world-renowned researchers. His acceptance letter hadn't been anything short of a miracle, and their generous scholarship was an even bigger achievement.

"Scholarship student, eh?" Headmaster Sutherby said, peering through his wire-rimmed glasses at Warren's application packet. "We'll just keep that little tidbit between us. No one else needs to know."

For some reason, those words succeeded in dropping a little bit of anxiety into Warren's stomach. He knew that for all Cooper's prestige and tradition, the academy was home to the children of the world's richest and most successful parents. He was just the son of a college professor and an archaeologist. They weren't poor, by any means—rich, in fact, by normal standards—but neither would Warren be dropping thousands of dollars on watches nor would he be driving Ferraris around any time soon. He'd seen the student parking lot. He knew what kinds of families his peers were coming from.

"I would appreciate that a lot, sir," he said finally.

Headmaster Sutherby nodded, regarding him across the massive expanse of his cherry wood desk. He folded his hands together as though he was a grade school student.

"Mr. Fitzpatrick, I must warn you," he said. "There are some students here who won't care very much whether you grew up in the Bronx or in a Parisian chateau. However, there are even more who will know at once that you're here on scholarship. I trust you to know how to deal with them."

Warren's fears were confirmed. Although he had always considered himself to be born in the lap of luxury, these were a whole different brood of people.

"Well, I suppose that's all. I understand you've taken up the scholarship committee's offer of on-campus housing?" Warren nodded. "Good. Then Mrs. Dean will give you your dorm key."

When the headmaster didn't make any further comment, Warren took that as his dismissal and stood up to leave.

"Oh, one more thing," Headmaster Sutherby said. "I'd tell you to stay away from Blair Ward, but… Well, never mind."

Warren felt like he should ask the headmaster to expand on that a little. He wanted to know who Blair Ward was and why he needed to keep his distance. Yet when he opened his mouth ask, Headmaster Sutherby just shook his head.

-X-

By the time Warren got his dorm key and Mrs. Dean had given him all the instructions, he'd already missed most of his scheduled classes for that day.

There's no point trying to catch half of the last period, he thought, and decided instead to go exploring. He'd unpack later that night, after dinner.

And so, Warren took to the hallways in an attempt to learn his way around the school. It was easier to do it now, while classes were going on, rather than trying to shove his way around people after the bell rang.

He'd been told by the receptionist that classes were in session at Cooper from eight o'clock in the morning until dinnertime, at six p.m., but that most students had breaks distributed throughout their schedules so that no one actually had classes for all of those hours.

Warren took another glance at his schedule. According to that, he'd only have class until three o'clock each day. Right now, his last class of the day would be coming to end.

It was as he was making his way through the Foreign Languages wing in the senior building that Warren got his first glimpse of the Cooper Academy lifestyle. It strutted towards him in a plaid skirt, the hem of which had been considerably shortened, some kind of designer heels, and a half-open white blouse, over which peaked a lacy hot-pink bra. The girl who was responsible for taking his breath away had discarded her navy school blazer for the moment and tossed it into the arms of a tall, good-looking boy who followed behind her.

She and her companion brushed by Warren without acknowledgement, though he did notice her cold eyes land on him for half a second. Then, she tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and kept walking as though he was only a speck on the wall.

"Whoa," Warren mumbled. He pulled a hand through his dark, coppery hair and stood stock still for a long moment, digesting what he'd just seen.

After he'd regained his composure, he turned his eyes back to the map clutched in his hands and continued on his self-guided tour.

-X-

While everyone at Cooper Academy knew that Blair Ward was the most beautiful creature to ever grace the school's antiquated halls, even Blair was sure she'd never come across a boy quite as handsome as that before.

New students at Cooper were few and far between, as most who applied were not accepted. This boy, clearly a new student himself, had made it through the rigorous application process. There was something to be said for smart boys.

Blair had played it cool when they bumped into each other in the Foreign Languages building. He hadn't been so careful with his expressions, and his hazel eyes followed her through the hallway as she walked by with Thomas.

Blair would most certainly have to corner Eve when she got back from her date with Foster. Ice Queen B had some researching to do and a new plaything to acquire.

1/3/11 A/N: Hey, guys! So, here it is. I'm still working out the plans for this story, but it's going to be my guilty pleasure as I work through problems with my other projects. Also, I wrote this chapter last night in one sitting and I'm pretty alright with it. Still, if I decide to change something around or whatever, I'll let you know. Please leave a review and let me know how you like it, what you think of Blair and Warren, and if there are any grammar errors you see. Thanks so much, guys!

Edit 1/3/11: So, I changed the last scene a little bit. It says the same thing, just with different wording. Still, I'm going to re-upload the chapter so that anyone with this story on alert will get a new email.