Just Like The Boxcar Children (Chuck/Serena) Part 1
It all started in kindergarten
Five year old Serena van der Woodsen stared blankly up at the large house in front of her, clutching her mother’s hand for dear life as she lead her up the front walk way. Sure, she was a bright and happy child who liked playing with other children at school, but that didn’t mean that she actually had any friends outside of the school’s walls. Her mother had forced her into ballet, French, and art as soon as she turned four, but Serena wasn’t like the other little kids in her classes. She was loud, messy and unladylike. In fact, she’d caused quite a scene the week before when she’d clumsily spilled paint all over Blair Waldorf’s dress.
It had been a wake-up call for Lily. Serena needed girly friends to help her learn how to be a proper young lady, and that was exactly why she was being forced into having a play date with Georgina Sparks.
Even though she knew that her mother had her best interests at heart, she still couldn’t help but to feel abandoned in this big, scary looking house. Normally when her mother dropped her off places, she couldn’t wait to be free of the woman, but right now this was the last place that she wanted to be. Georgina Sparks scared her. But her mother wouldn’t hear her pleas as she abandoned her with Georgina’s nanny.
As Serena waited in the parlor for the nanny to figure out where Georgina was, she couldn’t help but feel like someone was watching her. Curiously, she wandered further into the parlor. “Hello?” She called out as she tried to figure out if someone really was watching her or if the house was just really scary. And that was when she felt the hand clamp down around her ankle. She screamed and fell backwards over a table, suddenly at eye-level with the little brown-haired boy who’d been sitting on the ground by the couch.
“I’m sorry…” Came a mumbled out reply from him as he looked at her from under a mess of brown hair, his very pale skin a sharp contrast to his dark hair. He toyed with his purple bowtie for a moment before looking at Serena again. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She didn’t know what to say to the boy for a moment. He looked so strange all dressed up but hiding in the parlor. She wanted to ask him what he was doing hiding in here, but she didn’t get a chance to. That was when Georgina finally made her grand appearance.
“Serena! There you are!” She cooed out, as though she was her bestest friend in the whole wide world. Grinning brightly, she stepped on the boy’s hands as she leaned over him to help Serena to her feet. “I can’t believe that you’ve been hanging out with my cousin, Charlie.” She started leading Serena out of the room and away from the boy. “He’s not even really my cousin. My mom says that he’s my second cousin by marriage but they’re not even married any more. He’s so weird. He’s staying with us all summer though. His dad’s in Africa…”
The entire afternoon went by as slowly as possible.
Serena didn’t understand why Georgina acted like a little grown up all the time. She didn’t want to play with Barbies or even play pretend. No, she insisted that they painted each other’s fingernails while listening to some band called Aqua. It was like she was playing with a teenaged girl and not a six year old, and she didn’t like it one bit. All Serena wanted to do was play. She’d put up with Georgina’s games for nearly three hours when she just couldn’t take it any more. She quickly made up some excuse about needing to use the bathroom and instead went in search of him.
Charlie.
She wandered through the hallways of the big creepy house as she looked for him, not knowing exactly where he would be hiding. After spending a couple of hours alone with Georgina, she understood why he was hiding: she was scary to be around.
When she heard a coughing sound coming from a closed door, she slowly stepped inside the room. “Charlie?” She whispered out. “Is that you?”
There was no response.
“Charlie?” She tried again as she looked under his bed to see if he was hiding there. As she knelt down on the ground, she felt his cold hand slip around her ankle again. This time she didn’t scream. In fact, she’d been expecting it. Smiling brightly, she looked over her shoulder at the boy hiding in the closet. “Can I hide with you, too?”
He suddenly smiled a bright cheeky smile at her as he let go of her ankle. “Georgie scares you, too?” He asked her as he scooted over to make more room for her in the closet. “I thought you were her friend.” A frown slipped onto his features as though he was trying to piece everything together. It was as though the little boy wanted to know everything.
Serena giggled and shook her head at that as she climbed into the closet with him. “No. She’s in my French class. My mom thinks we should be friends.” She made a face at that thought. “She’s not very nice though, is she?”
He shook his head. “No. I don’t know why though.” He admitted as he pulled the closet doors shut, secluding them in their own little world. “She won’t tell anyone though. I think she’s sad.”
“Do you miss your dad?” She asked him softly after a moment. “I miss my dad. I don’t get to see him much either.”
Charlie didn’t answer her question. Instead he announced, “I’m not going to be living here for much longer. I’m going to be seeing the world.” He looked at her, using the dim lighting from the slits in the closet doors to see her face more clearly. “Can I send you a postcard?”
Her eyes lit up at that and her hands tightly clamped around his. “Where are you going? Can I come with you?” She asked, sounding desperate to be anywhere but here.
“I’m going to run away.” He whispered out, as though fearful that Georgina could hear everything he said. “My dad always gives me a lot of money when he leaves me here. I’m going to use the money to get on a train and get away from here. I have an old nanny I can call.”
Serena frowned. “You’d be lonely if you ran away.” She pointed out before deciding something very important. “I’m coming with you! We can live together in the woods! Just like the Boxcar Children! It’ll be so much fun, Charlie! We’ll take care of each other.”
He pushed her hands away from his. “You don’t even know me, Serena.” He pointed out.
She grabbed his hands again. “It doesn’t matter. We’re going to be best friends! I just know it!”
That seemed to calm Charlie’s nerves. Grinning brightly, he pushed open the closet doors and pulled Serena out of the closet with him. He dug around under his bed for a moment before finding a large wad of money. He tucked it all into his pocket before taking Serena’s hand. “Let’s go!”
“Now?” She asked him, looking a bit more nervous now.
He looked down at his feet. “You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to…”
Serena shot him a bright smile. “If you’re going, I’m going.” She announced as she gave his hand a tight squeeze. “How do we do it?”
Instead of giving her an answer, Charlie just smiled at her and started leading her through the maze of a house that was the Sparks’. It was more than obvious that he’d been planning this for awhile because he seemed to know all the strange back routes through the house. He actually led her out of the house through the laundry room and out into the side yard. And even then he wouldn’t let her go out onto the main side walk.
They cut through three neighbors’ backyards and wound up on a street that Serena didn’t even remember seeing when her mom had dropped her off earlier. Once they were out on the street, she couldn’t help but to look at him for guidance. She really didn’t think that they were going to make it this far. She thought it was just going to be a game. Only it wasn’t. So, now she had no choice but to let Chuck drag her onto the city bus.
She’d never been on a bus of any kind before and it was the most frightening experience of her life. There were just so many people and they all just looked so much bigger than they were. And then, of course, there was the creepy man in the back corner who was wearing tin foil on his head and talking about aliens coming to free New York of its sins. It was the scariest thing she’d ever seen, but Charlie didn’t look scared at all. He just pulled her over to one of the benches and made her sit down. He didn’t even say a word as they moved through the streets of New York, and Serena had never felt safer. She just leaned against him and waited for him to tell her what their next move was.
For most of the drive, he didn’t say a word and Serena found herself drifting off to sleep with her head on his shoulder. It wasn’t even until he grabbed her hand again and started whispering her name that she even realized that she had been sleeping. She just immediately trusted him and really didn’t know how to explain it. So when he started leading her from the bus and into a train station, she trusted him completely. They were going to live on the run like The Boxcar Children and she wouldn’t have it any other way. This was an adventure and it was so much better than spending the rest of the day with Georgina, but once they got inside the building, Serena wasn’t sure how Charlie was going to pull this off. They were only five! How did he expect to get a train ticket?
“Stay here.” He instructed as he let go of her hand and pulled out some of the money. Off her horrified expression, he just smiled at her. “I’m just going over there.” He pointed over to a group of teenagers who Serena was certain were no good. They had tattoos and shaved heads, but Charlie just stood straight and proud with his bowtie on and walked right up to them. Serena didn’t know what he told them, but Charlie handed them some money and next thing Serena knew, one of the guys was going up to the counter and buying their tickets.
When Charlie bounded back over to her, a triumphant smile on his face and tickets in hand, all Serena could do was stare at him. Charlie really could do anything if he wanted to. She felt that safe feeling wash over her again. “What did you tell them?” She wanted to know.
He just grinned at her before grabbing her hand and cockily explaining what he’d done. “I only told them that our stupid mother forgot to buy our tickets before she dropped us off to see our grandmother.” He shrugged lightly. “They thought you were my sister. Plus, I gave them money.”
“You gave them money?” She asked, sounding horrified.
He sighed, looking more grownup than he really was again. “Rena, money is the universal language.” She must have looked confused because he then added, “That’s what my dad always says. I don’t exactly know what it means.”
Serena nodded slowly as he began leading her to the tracks. “Where are we going?” She asked, knowing that if Charlie picked the place, then they were going to be fine.
“My grandmother’s. My dad doesn’t talk to her. We’ll be safe.” He gave her hand a squeeze as if to reassure himself of that as well before leading her out onto the platform. “No one’s going to notice us, Rena.”
And that was when they heard it.
“SERENA VAN DER WOODSEN!”
They looked back to see Lily standing with two security guards and then back at the train that was starting to leave. They looked at each other before nodding and jumping onto the train.
Serena couldn’t help but to watch as they moved further and further away from her mother. A surge of excitement rushed through her body as she realized that they’d actually done it. They’d run away! They were going to live just like The Boxcar Children. Nothing could go wrong, right?
The train stopped immediately at the next stop and Serena found herself and Charlie sitting in her mother’s limo.
“Next week you’re playing at the Waldorf’s.” She shot Charlie a very dark look. “And you, Charles, won’t be playing with my daughter any more.”
Once Lily was no longer paying Serena any attention, Charlie grabbed her hand. “We’ll runaway together someday.”
Serena grinned brightly at him. “You promise?!” And when he nodded, she pressed a sloppy kiss to his cheek. “We’re going to be just like The Boxcar Children one day. We’ll create our own family and it won’t be scary.”
He merely touched the spot she’d kissed before nodding dumbly at her. “Yeah…”
Sophomore year of high school managed to make things better and worse at the same time.
Serena couldn’t wrap her mind around what had just happened. No. It couldn’t be real. None of this could be real… Not only had she slept with Nate, but… She didn’t want to think about what had just happened. No. She couldn’t think about what had just happened. It was just too much for her to deal with and she was far too young to have to even think about it. She was only a sophomore in high school.
She wasn’t supposed to be growing up this fast.
Sighing, she began throwing things into a suitcase, just the bare essentials that she would need the first couple of days at boarding school. Her mom had promised that she was going to have the rest of the things sent over, which made things easier. She knew that her mother didn’t exactly agree with her sudden decision, but Serena knew that this was what she needed right now. This wasn’t something that she could handle in New York and if anyone ever found out…
She pushed the thoughts from her head as she picked up an old picture of herself and Chuck. They were only eleven at the time. It was well before they both changed and became the high school enigmas that Serena couldn’t believe that they’d become. Although she hated the person that Chuck was becoming, she still loved the little boy that she’d met hiding in the Sparks’ sitting room. After staring at the picture a little longer, she threw it into the suitcase as though it was a protection spell, and maybe it was. He’d always protected her in the past even when they didn’t get along. He was still her Charlie sometimes.
Her fingers latched around her phone for a moment and she stared down listlessly at her contact list, remembering their promise. If she was going to run away from all of this, she knew that he should know about it. She scrolled down to his name, but all she could do was stare at it. They weren’t little kids any more. She couldn’t call him.
“You can do this by yourself.” She mumbled to herself as she threw her hands up in the air, and with that, she tossed her phone down onto the bed and began throwing more things into her suitcase. When she knew there wasn’t anything else she could throw into it, she slid onto the floor, leaning numbly against her bed.
When she felt someone sit down next to her, she knew immediately who it was before he even said a word. Instinctively she took his hand as she stared blankly up at the ceiling, not knowing what to say to him. A part of her was waiting for him to invite himself on her trip, but she really didn’t want him to ask. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to tell him no. Instead of voicing that, she found herself asking, “Did my mom call you?”
“She didn’t have to.” Chuck responded, not reacting at all to the feel of her hand in his. “I know what happened, Serena.”
Horror washed over her at the thought of Chuck knowing about what she and Georgina had done. He shouldn’t know about it. They didn’t need another accomplice! He couldn’t know! He couldn’t. Immediately she was on her knees in front of him, desperately gripping both of his hands for dear life. “Listen, Chuck, I don’t know why Georgina told you, but you can’t tell anyone, okay? You can’t tell anyone what I did.” She pleaded with him as she noticed a confused look wash over his features. It didn’t matter to her though that he was confused. All that mattered to her at the moment was getting him to promise her that he wasn’t going to tell.
His confused look morphed into a strange look before he slowly nodded at her. “Who would I tell?” He asked, but the way he said it sent chills down Serena’s spine. “And by the way, I’m coming with you.”
Immediately Serena was on her feet. “We’re not little kids any more, Chuck! We’re not running away to the woods to live in a boxcar!” She flipped out her hair. “Besides, I’m not running away. I’m going to boarding school.”
He laughed at that and lazily stood up. “Relax, princess.” He rolled his eyes at her. “Lily asked me to make sure that you made it to the train station safely.”
Serena raised an eyebrow at that. “I thought you said that my mom didn’t call you.” She reminded him.
“I lied.”
And that was how Serena found herself sitting in a limo with Chuck. Instinctively, she rested her head on his shoulder and found herself drifting off to sleep. After all, he was still Charlie, and she knew that he would always protect her. Besides, she knew very well that her mother hadn’t called anyone.
And the debutante ball just made things more confusing.
Serena was all giggles as she and Dan made their way back to the hotel. It was things like this that reassured her of their relationship. Sure, they came from different worlds, but Dan was always proving that he could make it work. He made her feel safe in a way that no one had since when she first met-
“Is that Chuck?”
She was taken completely off guard when her boyfriend pointed him out to her. It didn’t make sense to her why Chuck was walking out to his limo, suitcases in hand. He wasn’t supposed to go to Monaco until next week. It was weird to her that he was leaving so soon. And then she flashed back to seeing Nate and Blair together at the ball. Sighing, she looked over at Dan. “Hey, could you wait for me inside? I need to talk to him.”
Dan didn’t look very happy about it, but he nodded anyway and went into the Palace. She waited until she was inside before approaching Chuck.
“So where are we going?” She asked him casually, stopping him before he could make it all the way to his limo. When he didn’t respond to her, she took the suitcases out of his hands for him and set them down on the sidewalk. “Chuck… I know about you and Blair…”
Apparently that wasn’t the right thing to tell him because he shot her a very dark look. “Then you don’t know anything at all, Serena, because there’s nothing to tell.” And with that, he picked up the suitcases again and pushed past her.
Instead of giving up, she followed after him. “So where are we going?” She asked him again. “Are we running away? Because I think I found a forest that really does have a box car in it.”
He dropped his suitcases and spun around to face her. “We’re not going anywhere, Serena! You said it yourself.” He leaned in close to her and growled out, “We’re not little kids any more.”
That didn’t bother her at all, and she merely picked up one of his suitcases and carried it to the limo. “Relax, Chuck. Someone needs to make sure that you actually make it to the airport.” She responded brightly.
Rolling his eyes, he picked up his other suitcase and handed it to the driver. “And what will your boyfriend think when he sees you drive off with me?” He asked with a dark smirk.
Serena didn’t respond to that because she frankly didn’t know what Dan would think, but this was something that she needed to do. After all, it was Chuck. So she didn’t say a word. She just got into the limo, and when she felt him slide in next to her, she just rested her head on his shoulder. This was just the way that they worked.
They were Rena and Charlie. Even after all these years. They acted like they hated each other, but when it came down to it they would always protect each other.
It was just the way that they were.