“Don’t you even want to see her?” Jenny asked. Dan thought about what he’d heard Chuck Bass say about Serena. He hadn’t wanted to believe any of it, but if Serena looked as experienced as Jenny said, maybe what Chuck said was true. Maybe Serena really was the sluttiest, druggiest, most venereally diseased girl in New York. Dan shrugged his shoulders and pointed at the pile of grapefruit carcasses on Jenny’s plate. “That is so foul,” he said. “Can’t you just eat a Pop-Tart or something, like a normal person?” “What’s wrong with grapefruit?” Jenny said. “It’s refreshing.” “Watching you eat it like that isn’t. It’s disgusting,” Dan said. He stuffed the rest of his donut in his mouth and licked the chocolate off his fingers, being careful not to smudge any on his script. “Don’t look, then,” said Jenny. “Anyway, you didn’t answer my question.” Dan looked up. “What question?” Jenny put her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “About Serena,” she said. “I know you want to see her.” Dan looked back down at his script and shrugged. “Whatever,” he said. “Yeah, whatever,” said Jenny, rolling her eyes. “Look, there’s this party the Friday after next. It’s some big fancy benefit thing to save the peregrine falcons that live in Central Park. Did you know there were falcons in Central Park? I didn’t. Anyway, Blair Waldorf is organizing it, and you know she and Serena are best friends, so of course Serena will be there.” Dan kept reading his script, completely ignoring his sister. And Jenny went on, ignoring the fact that Dan was ignoring her. “Anyway, all we have to do is find a way to get into that party,” Jenny said. She grabbed a paper napkin off the table, scrunched it into a ball, and threw it at her brother’s head. “Dan, please,” she said pleadingly. “We have to go!” Dan tossed the script aside and looked at his sister, his brown eyes serious and sad. “Jenny,” he said. “I don’t want to go to that party. Next Friday night I’m probably going over to Deke’s house to use his PlayStation, and then I’ll probably head over to Brooklyn to hang out with Vanessa and her sister and their friends. Just like I do every Friday night.” Jenny kicked at the legs of her chair like a little girl. “But why, Dan? Why won’t you go to the party?” Dan shook his head, smiling bitterly. “Because we weren’t invited? Because we’re not going to be invited? Give it up, Jen. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is. We’re different from them, you know that. We don’t live in the same world as Serena van der Woodsen or Blair Waldorf or any of those people.” “Oh, you’re such a wimp! You drive me crazy,” Jen said, rolling her eyes. She stood up and dumped her dishes in the sink, scrubbing at them furiously with a Brillo pad. Then she whirled around and put her hands on her hips. She was wearing a pink flannel nightshirt and her curly brown hair was sticking out all over because she had gone to sleep with it wet. She looked like a mini disgruntled housewife with boobs that were ten times too big for her body. “I don’t care what you say. I’m going to that party!” she insisted. “What party?” their father asked, appearing in the doorway to the kitchen. If there were an award for the most embarrassing dad in the universe, Rufus Humphrey would have won it. He was wearing a sweat-stained white wife-beater and red checked boxer shorts, and was scratching at his crotch. He hadn’t shaved in a few days, and his gray beard seemed to be growing at different intervals. Some of it was thick and long, but in between were bald patches and patches of five o’clock shadow. His curly gray hair was matted and his brown eyes bleary. There was a cigarette tucked behind each of his ears. Jenny and Dan looked at their father for a moment in silence. Then Jenny sighed and turned back to the dishes. “Never mind,” she said. Dan smirked and leaned back in his chair. Their father hated the Upper East Side and all its pretensions. He only sent Jenny to Constance because it was a very good school and because he used to date one of the English teachers there. But he hated the idea that Jenny might be influenced by her classmates, or “those debutantes,” as he called them. Dan knew their dad was going to love this. “Jenny wants to go to some fancy benefit next week,” he said. Mr. Humphrey pulled one of the cigarettes from behind his ear and stuck it in ............