All I Want Is Everything
Originally released in 2003 by Little, Brown and Company
Written by Cecily von Ziegesar
Preceeded by: You Know You Love Me
Followed by: Because I’m Worth It
All I Want Is Everything (Book Three)
I wanna, I wanna, I gotta be adored.
- The Stone Roses
Black-and-White Ball
A month has passed since the events of Book 2 and it is now one week away from Christmas break. Serena and Blair are now good friends; so much so that when Eleanor and Cyrus asked for their children (and a friend of their choosign) to join them in St. Bart’s for their extended honeymoon/Christmas, Blair asked only Serena to go with her.
They are attending the the Black-and-White Ball as co-chairs which is happening tonight. The Ball is a charity fundraiser for Be Kind, an animal rescue fund started by Flow (née Julian Prospere), the sexy lead singer and guitar player for the rock band 45. Aaron, who came to the Ball with girls, introduces Blair and Serena to his friend from Bronxdale, Miles Ingram, the son of a rich restaurant/club owner. Miles is immediately enamored with Blair, but Aaron is on edge since he wanted Blair to himself given his own romantic feelings for his step-sister.
Chuck, Kati and Isabel are also at the Ball with Blair, but now tired with the event, Blair suggests to move the party to her house. Howver, Flow takes the podium and asks the co-chairs to come on stage. The announcement forces to Blair to cross the dance floor, walking right in front of Nate and Jenny, who are also there; the cause of her loss in the belief of destiny and romance. Jenny doesn’t mind Blair being present though, since she just had a romantic outing with Nate where he had given her a turquoise pendant. Nate, however, notices that Blair is looking really hot in her dress. After Blair and Serena make their announcements, Flow is entranced by Serena and suggests that the three of them should take a ride in his limo. Serena, in her over-enthousiastic self, invites Chuck, Kati, Isabel, Miles, Aaron.
Nate and Jenny head outside so that he can smoke some weed and they come across Flow’s limo. Serena notices them and invites them along, much to Blair’s dismay. Serena doesn’t notice this since she is enjoying the feeling of uncertainty with Flow. Inside, Nate rolls some joints for Chuck, Kati and Isabel and Flow hands out some drinks. Blair decides to try Serena’s philosophy, takes a drink and starts flirting with Miles, and if makes Nate jealous, that would be a plus. Aaron notices this and tries to stop it by sitting between Blair and Miles. When Jenny hears that Flow wants to go to a club that she will probably be carded at, she tells Nate that she would like to leave early and Nate complies. The two stop the limo and take a cab back to Jenny’s apartment on the Upper West Side.
Earlier, Dan and Vanessa are at her older sister’s apartment in Brooklyn. Vanessa tries to convince Dan to have sex, but Dan is a little put off that Vanessa has slept with Clark already and tells her that he wants his first to be “organic”. Although secretly, Dan wouldn’t mind waiting till marriage to have sex. Vanessa, not wanting to risk hurting their new relationship, backs off. The two briefly discuss their application strategy for college (Vanessa would like to make another film to supplement her War and Peace mood piece and Dan decides against publishing) and they head back to Dan’s place. When Jenny comes in, Dan notices that she’s early and when Jenny asks Vanessa and Dan for their opinion on Nate, he worries that Nate is not right for his smart, intelligent and pretty little sister. Jenny wants her romance with Nate to be like Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss; a passionate embrace on a bed of flowers, but it seems to be a notion that only Jenny understands.
Chuck, Kati and Is – drunk and high are left sleeping inside the limo while Flow, Serena, Blair, Aaron and Miles end up in front of one of the restaurants that Miles’ father owns. Miles explains that he can get them a private room, but Aaron realizes that he’s the odd man out in the group and leaves. Alone now, Miles and Blair share a polite kiss and Blair realizes that partying with a random boy isn’t so bad.
Monday Midterms
It is Midterm week at all the NYC prep schools and the seniors are writing exams. While Blair is writing her AP French exam and answering general questions like: “Descrivez votre famille.” and “Quel serait votre souhait si vous aviez un seul souhait?”, her Advanced Film Studies teacher, Mr. Beckham is proctoring her exam and catches Blair’s attention by blushing at her. Blair is disgusted at thought that he likes her.
Serena is elsewhere in Constance writing her American history exam but paying more attention to her split ends. Mr. Hanson, the proctor and her Latin teacher, interrupts her exam and asks for her and Flow’s authorgraph. Since her outing with Flow Saturday night after the Black-and-White Ball, Flow and Serena have been labeled as the new “it” couple by all the tabloids and rumors of their early romantic meetings in rehab and upcoming nuptials fly. Mr. Hanson brandishes a magazine and she reluctantly signs. The other girls follow suit, including Kati and Isabel. Vanessa, who is sitting the same exam, ignores Serena and the rest of the girls and ponders some film ideas and strategies on how to get Dan to loosen up about sex.
At Riverside, Dan and Chuck are writing their English paper. Dan notices Chuck trying to copy off his paper, but Dan writes some choice words for Chuck in big font to deter Chuck. Afterwards, he tries to write “For Vanessa”, a poem, during the exam, but struggles.
Meanwhile, Nate, Jeremy, Anthony and Charlie have just finished their Calculus exam and are eating some junk food to re-energize before their Chemistry exam. Nate zones out and starts thinking non-specifically about Blair and Jennifer (Jenny, as he knows her) and decides that Jenny is like a safety anchor that roots him while things in his life may be changing, whereas Blair is just like him: moving on and going places. He sends Jennifer a text asking her out for Thursday and decides that he needs to reward his analytical thinking process by getting high.
Jenny, a freshman, isn’t stuck in exams but in Health class with gossipy freshmen girl and her New Age gym teacher, Ms. Doherty. When someone asks about love being a prerequisite for being with a man, Jenny announces that she feels that love is necessary. Since she is normally very quiet in class, everyone stares her down. Jenny was answering the question from the perspective of dating, but soon realizes that the question was about sex. She fears that the other girls will start spreading rumors about her and Nate having sex, so she tries to stay quiet for the rest of the class.
After Blair’s AP French exam, she visits Ms. Glos (Constance’s college advisor) to hear her thoughts on the six-page entrance essay that she wrote on Audrey Hepburn. Ms. Glos isn’t impressed and tells Blair to re-write her paper. Although upset, Blair realizes that Ms. Glos is likely right and that her vacation in St. Bart’s is going to involve her writing another paper. In the halls, Blair runs into Kati and Isabel who neglect to tell her that most of the senior class was asking for Serena’s autographs. Annoyed by their presence, Blair turns to leave, but Kati and Isabel ask if Serena is really getting married. Blair, who knows that the notion is ludicrous, plays up the idea by telling them that Serena is getting married and the trip to St. Bart’s is to plan her wedding.
School’s Out
It’s Thursday, midterms are over and Christmas break is here. Jenny and Nate meet in front of Barney’s after school for some Christmas shopping and she gives him an artsy, glittery Christmas card. They enter the store and decide to get Nate’s gift first: a pair of boxers with a silk-screened sailboat. Nate is impressed that Jenny is genuinely generous and doesn’t want to get him some lame gift, like cologne. Nate then takes Jenny to the lingerie department to get her anything she wants, but she’s a little embarassed of admitting her cup size to anyone, so she hastily grabs a pair of white lacy thongs, which embarasses her further. Nate is cool about it, though.
As they head out to go the St. Regis Hotel for some hot chocolate, they run into Blair and Serena. Blair tries to antagonize the sickeningly cute couple by using Nate as her cologne model in front of Jenny. Jenny wonders why Nate is so wonderful alone but acts so stupid around other people. Blair is satisfied at first, but her plan backfires when Jenny tells Blair that she got Nate boxers for Christmas. Blair starts to get mad, but Serena sweeps Blair away. Alone again, Nate invites Jenny to the matinée playing of the Nutcracker at the Lincoln Center tomorrow (a ritual he had with Blair for the last 3 years), and Jenny is overcome by the feelings of love.
Meanwhile, Dan is trying to cope with his writer’s block by eating an egg-roll and coffee, but when he drops his egg-roll in his coffee, he realises that: sex is the utmost expression of love. Since he wants to write about his love with Vanessa, he can’t really do that until he experiences that ultimate manifestation. Elsewhere, Vanessa walks past a Victoria’s secret and entertains the idea of buying some lacy bras and tangas to seduce Dan, jus as long as they’re black.
Lasagna Punjabi
The next day, Blair, Serena, Tyler, Aaron and Miles are flying economy class to St. Bart’s. All throughout the flight, Miles tries to flirt with Blair, but Blair is not receptive since she is trying to focus on her paper for Yale. However, Blair is attracting all sorts of attention, as the flight steward and pilot both hit on her. Aaron tries to ignore all of this by pretending to sleep.
Once at the Hotel Isle de Paix resort on St. Bart’s, Serena and Blair head to their villa and get dressed. Serena is approached by one of the resort’s attendants with a bouquet of exotic island flowers. Over the last week, Serena has received a giant Godiva chocolate snowman and bowl of baby barracuda fish thinking they’re from Flow. She is about to throw them out thinking that they’re another gift from Flow until Blair reads the attached card and sees that they’re from Kati and Is. When Eleanor and Cyrus meet their kids for lunch, Aaron notices Blair’s sexy island wear and the smell of her shampoo and reprimands himself for being so attracted to his step-sister. Serena then notices an airplane spelling out her name. Worried, she realizes that Flow is on the island and that 45 is performing at the resort’s Christmas Eve party. She has a mini-panic attack of the thought of Flow stalking her and reaches for Blair. But having become disgusted by her mother and step-father feeding each other, Blair leaves the table to throw up for the first time in a month and Serena follows after her.
Back at the Humphrey’s apartment, Rufus is preparing his special rum-flavored lasagna punjabi for a special dinner for Dan/Vanessa and Nate/Jenny. As Dan helps stir the sauce, he contemplates on how he should tell Vanessa that he needs to have sex. Elsewhere, Jenny and Nate are leaving the Nutcracker and then go for a romantic walk in Central Park. Jenny tells Nate that she is wearing the thong that he bought her and he tries to get into her pants, exposing her bare bottom in the Park. Jenny then asks Nate if he is wearing the sailboat boxers, so he pulls down his pants to check, but he isn’t. Then Nate wraps Jenny in his overcoat and the two exchange “I love you”.
Unbeknownst to them, Vanessa is also walking through Central Park and captures the event on tape. She doesn’t know at first that it is Jenny and Nate, imagining that the couple could be anyone in love. But when Vanessa sees Nate and Jenny dressed in the same outfits as the couple in the Park at Dan’s place, she realizes that the couple was Nate and Jenny.
While everyone sits for dinner, Rufus and Nate bond and Jenny is elated with this. Anxious to talk with Vanessa, he takes her into his bedroom. Wile he is working up the nerves to say that he needs sex, Vanessa strips down to her Victoria’s Secret black, lacy push-up bra and tanga. Dan is put off by the clichéd underwear and pre-meditation of the act and spurns Vanessa. Feeling hurt, Vanessa leaves.
In the next bedroom, Jenny introduces Nate to her art collection – six portraits of Nate in the style of various artists: Pollock, Dali, Monet, Picasso, Warhol and Chagall. Nate doesn’t understand the meaning of the portraits and is put off by the thought of Jenny spending many hours creating art in his likeness. Desperate to leave, luckily Jeremy calls just then and Nate uses him as an excuse to leave. Nate says that he will see her again on New Year’s Eve and make his polite goodbyes to Rufus.
The Link
It’s Saturday and in her Williamsburg apartment, Vanessa notices that the camera with the footage of Nate and Jenny is missing. Apparently Ruby lent the camera to the guys at the Five and Dime and it seems that they posted the video with Vanessa’s characteristic film style, on the internet. On the Upper West Side, Dan is checking his email and finds a link to a video from his good friend, Zeke. He lets the video load as he tries to write in his book, Rufus notices the video playing silently on his monitor. Seeing the pseudo-pornography, Rufus calls for Jenny and grounds her for acting like a floozy. Upset with her, Rufus sets Dan on Jenny-watch to make sure that she doesn’t do anything trampy. Dan is upset with Jenny for acting like a whore with Nate in public and upset with Vanessa for posting the video online – and starts overcoming his writer’s block by starting a new poem called “Sluts”.
In Maine, Nate is going over his college applications. Later, he passes around a bong with John and Ryan, other rich kid friends he made during his vacations in the Archibal Maine cottage. As the trio smoke, John and Ryan ask him about the video on the internet of him and the buxom, curly-haired brunette that he was fucking in public and Nate thinks they’re joking. They ask him if he’s still with the girl and he says “nah, not really”.
Meanwhile, in St. Bart’s, Serena and Blair have spent the rest of yesterday and most of today hiding in their villa at the resort, but Serena convinces Blair to leave and go sunbathing topless. On the beach, Tyler, Aaron and Miles who are taking windsurfing lessons notice the pair. Aaron is entranced with Blair’s breasts and crashes, but Miles takes the opportunity to ask if she is going to the Christmas Eve party tonight. She cooly says yes and he leaves. A couple of hours later, Flow finds Serena he expects her to gush over the long week apart, but she plays it non-chalant. Flow is taken aback with this, but asks Serena to show up at the Christmas Eve party because he would like to give her a special Christmas present. Serena agrees to be there despite the fact that she isn’t into Flow, she still likes gift.
As party time approaches, Blair tries to bail so that she can write a screenplay of Audrey Hepburn attending Yale, but Serena convinces her to go. As the pair head to the party, they meet up with Aaron and Miles at the resort bar. Aaron tells Blair that their parents want to announce something, so they head to the dinner table where Cyrus, Eleanor and Tyler are already seated. Champagne is passed around and Eleanor announces that she is pregnant and due in June. Tyler asks where the baby will be sleeping and Eleanor explains that her intention is to convert Blair’s room into a nursery once she is at college. Eleanor pushes Blair further about changing her last name to Rose, but before Blair can vomit over the announcement, 45 takes the stage and she drags Miles to the dance floor. And after some dancing, she leaves with Miles for his villa…
… because she’s ready to lose her virginity. She and Miles hastily strip and turn off the lights. Back at the party, Serena is dancing up a storm with Aaron and wonders why she hasn’t noticed how cute he is before. During a break in the music, Flow finds Serena and asks if she is liking the music. They agree to meet Christmas morning. Serena, desperate to leave the party notices Aaron leaving and follows after him. Outside, she asks if he’d like to go swimming with her, but he opts to head back to the villa. However, at the villa, Blair starts comparing Miles to Nate. She thinks that if it was Nate instead of Miles, she would have had sex already, and wishes that Nate is thinking about her. His slow foot play gives Blair the opportunity to back out and just as she is getting dressed, Aaron shows up and stares down his naked step-sister. Angered by the night’s eventsm, Blair pushes past him and heads to the sea for a late night swim. She finds Serena also out there and tells her that she wants to go back to New York, but Serena worries about how Eleanor would feel about Blair leaving on Christmas day. Though once at their villa, Serena finds another present – a talking parrot that says, “I love you Serena. Marry me!”. Weirded out by this gift that may or may not have come from Flow, she starts packing, liking Blair’s plan more and more.
Sluts
It’s December 28th and having been cooped up for days now, Jenny decides to prepare a care package for Nate containing the playbill from the Nutcracker, some PopTarts and a lock of her hair. As she leaves the package for pick-up at the entrance for the service elevator, Dan confronts her and explains that Vanessa is to blame for the video being posted on the internet. Jenny rejects the idea, feeling that Vanessa would never do something like that. Jenny then asks why Dan looks so miserable and he explains that he been working with a poem. The poem is “Sluts”: it’s about how people who you love end up being different from what you expected. He e-mails the poem to Vanessa, feeling its the only way he can tell her how he feels.
Vanessa is sulking since she hasn’t spoken to Dan since the dinner last Friday; the longest time she has gone without contact from Dan. She wants to apologize to Dan, but she also wants him to apologize for hurting her feelings. Instead, she finds “Sluts” in her inbox and sees that Dan is nothing but angry with her. But from her work on Rancor, she realizes that “Sluts” is special, so she mails a printed version of the poem to the New Yorker for submission.
Although it’s a few days before New Year’s Eve, Serena has just decided that she would like to throw a New Year’s Eve party since the party is better when you make the decisions. But with Blair locked away developing a screenplay for her Yale application, Serena is left alone to plan and Serena doesn’t do grunt work. Instead, she enlists Kati and Is to help execute the party operations. At her penthouse, Kati and Is begin asking about Flow. Although Serena isn’t feeling Flow, she doesn’t want to say anything to fuel more rumors, so she says that she expects Flow to be at the party even though she know that he will probably not be there due to his responsibilities as a rock star. Serena instructs Kati and Is to secure a large loft with a deck and ensures that Aaron is on the guest invite list, as well as Nate.
Back in Maine, Nate is finally opening the care package from Jenny, but instead of being reminded by her, he feels nostalgia for Blair. He has procrastinated on returning Jennifer’s 9 voicemails, and is wary of answering his cell when he hears it ring, but answers when caller ID displays “SERENA”. She invites him to her New Year’s Eve party, but he is a little reluctant. He asks if Blair will be there, and once assured by Serena that she will be present, he agrees to come.
It’s now New Year’s Eve and Dan receives a letter from the New Yorker, stating that his poem was accepted for publishing. Dan is amazed that the magazine accepted his work, but is thoroughly upset with Vanessa who shared his personal feelings with a stranger and now, potentially, the world. He leaves to find Vanessa to give her a piece of his mind. But in Williamsburg, Vanessa gets some good news of her own, as Ken Mogul, an alternative filmmaker, approaches her to collaborate on a filming project after having seen the amazing style in the Jenny/Nate video on the internet and getting her contact information from Gossip Girl.
A Wild Night in Paradise
After dressing up and preparing for Serena’s party, Jenny realises that she has been left alone in the apartment; so she decides to deviate from her punishment to meet Nate at the party. However, in Union Square, Nate, Jeremy and Anthony are smoking a huge joint before the party. Nate’s excited to see Blair, not Jenny.
Blair arrives at the party and finds that Nate has been looking for her. Surprised, she sees that Nate is wearing the moss green V-neck sweater that she had given him last Easter. They fall into an easy conversation over their drinks and things almost feel like how they used to before they broke-up. Meanwhile, Aaron and Serena dance a little and he realises that Serena is gorgeous and that he might be happy with her.
Vanessa didn’t want to go to Serena’s party, so she heads to Central Park to try and get more footage for her film, now becoming an exposé on things only found in New York (i.e.: whackjobs). Still searching for Vanessa, Dan tries her Williamsburg apartment and then the Five and Dime where Ruby and her band are practicing, where he learns that Vanessa went to a park to film “crazy people”. He searches Madison Square Park, Washington Square Park and eventually finds her in Central Park.
Back at the party, Jenny finally shows up around 11pm, but instead of kind greetings from Nate, she is accosted by boys taunting her over the video on the internet. Jenny then sees that Nate is deeply engrossed in a conversation with Blair, forcing her to realize that Nate never stopped loving Blair and because of that he is a bad boyfriend. She rips off the turqoise pendant Nate had given her and throws it at him. He tries to apologize, but she storms off to the washroom to cry and collect herself. Blair sees the events unfold and rejects Nate when he returns to her. The countdown to midnight is happening, and since she doesn’t want to kiss a loser for New Years, she heads outside.
It’s nearing midnight and Serena and Aaron are dancing up a storm until Flow appears and starts to serenade Serena with his new song, “My Kandy Girl”. Serena is non-plussed and suggests to Aaron that they should head outside . Blair is already there trying to cope, but Chuck tries to wrangle some sexual action out of her. Blair suggests Kati and Is instead since they love him and he rushes off to find the two girls. Once Flow finishes his song, he notices that Serena has left and that it’s midnight. Everyone is kissing so he feels unusually left out. As he leaves he runs into Jenny, who he tries hitting on, but she rejects him as well. Back on the deck, Serena, Blair and Aaron wish each other Happy New Years and Serena and Aaron finally kiss.
Dan sits on a bench to wait for Vanessa, coincidentally beside Ken Mogul who is watching Vanessa filming. Ken approaches Vanessa after she finishes talking to some crazy people, claiming that he’d like to use her for one of his films, but Dan interrupts the conversation. Ken asks who Dan is to Vanessa and he says that he is “her boyfriend” and pulls Vanessa into a passionate kiss with fireworks overhead ringing in the New Year. Neither of them mind the cliché since the moment is better than any poem or film they could make.
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