Jealously Never Wins
XOXO
At the final summer hooray before the fall school year begun, Blair Waldorf held the annual back to school bash at her house in The Hamptons. Blair was the most popular girl at Upper East Side High and everyone worshiped the queen bee. In order for her party to be a hit, like usual, Blair asked her talented and glamourous cousin, Lauren, to provide entertainment for the night. Her voice was beautiful and her music was hip. Everyone was satisfied and elated with Blair's selection.
All of Blair's friends could not stop admiring Lauren and were so ecstatic that Blair let her upper-east side friends meet her cousin. All except one, Ashely. Ashley had always had the lead role in musicals in school, become appointed president of the choir club, and took voice lessons weekly with an elite voice coach. Ashley was envious of all the praise that Blair and her friends were showering Lauren with. Ashely had always wanted to win Blair over. She craved to have a friend as popular, trendy, and powerful as Blair. Impressing Blair would ensure that Ashely's senior year would be off to fabulous start and maybe she could finally sit on the front steps for lunch with the rest of Blair's posse.
Ashley was sure that she could sing and provide entertainment as good as or even better than Ashely. She climbed gracefully and effortlessly onto the stage and started to sing one of her personally written songs, one that no one has ever heard before. In fact, Ashely had never let anyone hear her sing before.
Confused and surprised, Blair and her Lauren obsessed posse turned around to see Ashley all alone up on stage, belting emotional and personal lyrics out. Desperate for some positive or enthusiastic crowd response, Ashely began to panic. She started to stutter her lyrics and stood there completely silent. Her mind fell blank and she could not recover or improvise as a natural stage performer would.
The party fell silent. All that could be heard where whispers to one another commenting on the embarrassing and humiliating situation Ashely just put herself in. "Let's leave the entertaining to a someone who knows what they are doing, and someone who doesn't eat lunch in the hallway,"Blair snickered. The upper-east students burst out into contagious laughter and turned away from Ashely to finish their scandalous and immature conversations.
Embarrassed and mortified, Ashley ran off the stage almost as fast as she convinced Blair that she was not worthy. Maybe she learned her lesson and won't try to imitate her betters.
Author's Note :I chose to re-tell the story of the Monkey and the Camel in a modern and more relatable way. In the original story, a monkey was chosen to dance for the king and a camel became envious from all the praise the dancing monkey was receiving. The camel then attempted to imitate the monkey and dance at the party in order to hopefully engage the audience and draw attention to himself. The camel's feet got tangled and he fell face first in front of everyone. Disgusted with this jealous animal, the rest of the party decided to eat his ribs and meat afterwards. I wanted to express the theme "Don't try to ape your betters" in a Gossip Girl setting because I am obsessed with the show! Blair, her house in The Hampton's, her glamorous parties, and her upper-east side friends are all a part of the original TV series. I introduced Lauren and Ashely as new characters, taking the place of the Monkey and the Camel. Instead of dancing, I changed the act of entertainment to singing. I wanted readers to be able to understand the theme of "don't try to ape your betters" and the theme of jealousy.
Bibliography : The story The Monkey and the Camel came from the Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter book. (1919).
Oh Blair Waldorf, gotta love her! Hahahah I have seen the show and can perfectly see this happening in it. I liked how you changed certain aspects in the story to make it more realistic. I know that some people can be so desperate to get the attention from others that they are willing to do anything. Sometimes trying to be noticed doesn't work out that well just like in this story; it only pushes us father away from the goal. I liked how you brought Blair back into my life, it was quite fun to read!
ReplyDeleteI love Gossip Girl! This must have been so fun to write! I was really impressed with how well you kept the main themes of both Gossip Girl and The Monkey and the Camel while stile telling a new and interesting story! I also love the pink of your blog. It's so fun and different from what I usually think of a blog looking like, and it makes me excited to read! I also think that the spacing and fonts that you chose make the story easy to follow and they look great aesthetically. I was a little confused by the story when Ashley had never sung in public before this time, but she was in musicals and the choir. Did you mean that she had never sung her own songs publicly? The overall message of the story was extremely clear though, and I had so much fun reading your story!
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