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[turnthebadinme]

In New York, there would have been a party - a catered event, a room filled from end to end with classmates, family, friends. Serena would have pulled on some fabulous ensemble at the last possible minute and swanned around the room, laughing, drinking champagne, enjoying her last real birthday before college began. Or maybe they would have been in

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[learnwhatsreal]

"Hey, you alright?" Jenny called with a laugh, wrinkling her nose a little, having spotted the errant shoe from where she lay a little ways away, stretched out on a towel and propped up on her elbows. Had she thought she'd be able to grab it herself before Serena could, she would have; instead, she settled for getting up and heading over, a broad smile on her face. She knew it was Serena's birthday, of course, and had prepared accordingly. That didn't mean she was going to say anything just yet. "Careful, those things have a mind of their own sometimes."

[turnthebadinme]

"I'm fine," Serena assured her, laughing as she started into the water after it. "I just don't want to go back barefoot. There we go!" Fishing out of the water, she turned back, smiling, triumphant. "It can't escape me."

[learnwhatsreal]

Laughing, Jenny clapped a little as Serena retrieved the shoe, pressing up to the balls of her bare feet. "I don't know how it could have thought otherwise," she said, attempting to feign seriousness and failing. "So, how are you?" Pausing a moment, she bit her lower lip, more teasing than anything else. "Having a good birthday?"

[turnthebadinme]

"Mmhmm." Heading over to join her with a sunny smile, Serena shook her shoe, though it didn't really suffice to make it any less wet. "Yeah, it's been a nice day," she said. After last week, she supposed they didn't really need to make a party out of it. That had been the Upper East Side way and they were islanders now, whether or not they liked it. "Even the runaway shoes."

[learnwhatsreal]

"Oh, well, that's definitely good," Jenny said, teasing, though she bit back a wider smile. "God forbid a runaway shoe ruin any of your fun." Joking aside, though, silly as it may have sounded, that much was true. It would've sucked for something so little to cause too much trouble. "I, um, have something for you, by the way. I'll have to bring it over a little later."

[turnthebadinme]

"Oh, you didn't have to get me anything," Serena said, waving the offering off even as she smiled in clear approval. "That's sweet of you, Jenny. God, it is so weird." She shook her head, hair sweeping back over her shoulders. "I was here for my last birthday, too." Turning eighteen in the middle of nowhere wasn't something she'd ever imagined for herself, three successive birthdays spent away from Manhattan and her mother.

[learnwhatsreal]

"Well, I mean, it's not like I could go out and spend money," Jenny half-laughed, dismissing that statement with a quick wave of her hand. It was one of the nice things about having a talent like hers. Gifts here were never a problem when she could always just make something. "But, God, I know what you mean. One birthday here was weird enough, I can't even imagine a second."

She didn't think she'd ever been quite so homesick as she was when she'd turned sixteen, a good six months sooner than she was supposed to have. It was one of those things that she doubted anyone could really get used to.

[turnthebadinme]

Spending had never been a concern of Serena's, although she recognized, vaguely, that it was moreso for Jenny. On the Upper East Side, what was worth most was what was most rare, and that had never been money. Time and effort were scarcer by far.

"I think it helps it's low-key," she said, her air that of having just decided this. Parties were a reminder of what a party back home would have been. "And that nearly everyone's here."