Chapter Text
Felicity glanced quickly at the piece of paper that Iris slid onto her desk before returning her eyes to her computer screen, “What’s that?”
“That,” Iris closed her laptop, ignoring Felicity’s protests, before continuing, “Is a hockey ticket, because you are coming to the hockey game tonight.”
“We have a hockey team?”
“Okay, see this is exactly why you need to come. You’ve been here for 3 months now and you don’t get out of our room long enough to know that this school is crazy for hockey.”
“Since when have you even been into sports?” Felicity asked as she tried to pry her laptop out from under Iris’ hand.
“Since I had to help Linda cover one of the hockey games and I realized that they’re actually pretty fun. And you need to have some fun.”
“I have a lot of work to do, I’m not going to a hockey game,” Felicity concluded.
“Barry said he’d take us out to Big Belly Burger afterwards…”
Felicity narrowed her eyes, “Fine.”
Iris grinned triumphantly and walked over to their closet. Felicity reopened her laptop while keeping one eye on Iris rifling through her tops.
“What are you doing?”
“Picking out something cute for you to wear,” Iris tossed over her shoulder.
“What is wrong with what I’m wearing?” Felicity looked down at her worn-in Starling University sweatshirt and yoga pants.
“You really don’t want to go to this do you?” Iris asked, “You love getting dressed up and you want to go out in public like that?”
“I’m not going to waste a good outfit on a hockey game.”
“But, and I’m not saying that this is the only reason that you should dress nice, but…” Iris held up her leather jacket and a sparkly tank, “If you wear this with those jeans you wore yesterday that make your butt look nice you might catch one of the cute guys on the team’s eye. And then you won’t be stuck third wheeling Barry and I for the rest of your college experience. ”
“Cute guys? Hockey players don’t even have all of their teeth,” Felicity argued.
“Seriously Felicity? That is like the most stereotypical thing ever. You know Laurel Lance, the pre law major who lives down the hall? She’s dating the goalie, Tommy Merlyn, and not only is he cute, I’m pretty sure he has all his teeth.”
“Tommy Merlyn,” Felicity tapped her chin, “I’ve met him before… oh yeah, I got a virus off of his computer a couple weeks ago. He was pretty cute… and had all of his teeth. And I do like that top…. You think those jeans make my butt look good?”
“Yes, now put them on and let’s go,” Iris answered as she tossed the pile of clothes at her before heading out into the hallway to wait for her.
Felicity slipped out of her sweats and into the outfit Iris had picked out. Fixing her ponytail, she swiped on some of her favorite pink lipstick and stepped into a pair of ankle booties. She grabbed her bag and gave herself one last glance in the mirror before opening the door.
When she stepped out, Iris held out her hand, “Tablet?”
Felicity looked at her innocently but Iris kept her hand out so she begrudgingly reached into her bag and handed over her precious tablet.
“You are going to thank me later,” Iris remarked as she set the tablet down on the shelf just inside their room.
“I’m just in it for the free food.”
When they arrived at the game, Iris made a beeline for where Barry had saved them seats.
“Felicity, nice to see that you’ve decided to join the land of the living,” Barry commented as he gave her a hug.
“I was bribed into coming here and you know it Barry,” Felicity replied, but her resistance was starting to crack. Tons of students were making their way in to watch tonight’s game and she couldn’t help but catch the excitement that was filling up the rink.
She noticed that Iris was keeping an eye out for someone and she must have spotted her because she waved and called out, “Caitlin!”
Caitlin picked her way across the stands to join them, “Hey guys! Wait. Is this the ever-elusive Felicity?”
Felicity narrowed her eyes at Barry and Iris, “Do you two gossip about me?”
“All good things,” they answered simultaneously.
Felicity rolled her eyes and turned back to Caitlin, “Yes, I am Felicity. It’s nice to meet you Caitlin.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you too. And they have only said good things about you, I promise.”
“Did they coerce you into being here too?”
“Oh no, my boyfriend Ronnie plays on the team. I come to all the games,” Caitlin turned and displayed the back of her Starling University Archer’s jersey that was emblazoned with “Raymond.”
“Oh. Does he have all his teeth?”
Caitlin gave her a confused look and Iris face palmed, “Felicity you really have to get over the teeth thing.”
“Are you here for pre-dentistry?” Caitlin asked.
“Umm no, I’m actually majoring in Computer Sciences. The teeth thing is well-- nevermind.”
“So are you and Ronnie going to join us at Big Belly Burger afterwards?” Iris asked and Felicity tossed her a grateful look at redirecting the conversation.
“There’s word that the whole team is actually going there after the game so yeah I think so. Are you coming too Felicity?”
“That’s the whole reason I agreed to come to this, dinner on Barry,” Felicity replied with a grin and patted his knee.
Caitlin smiled and turned to talk to another girl who had walked over.
“Having two girlfriends is getting expensive,” Barry mumbled.
“That’s why we need to find the perfect guy for Felicity. She’s smart and funny, not to mention a total babe, if she wouldn’t spend so much time in front of her computer she would have tons of guys falling for her,” Iris remarked.
“Maybe I want to be alone, maybe I think the cat lady life is where it’s at,” Felicity protested.
“That’s not how you felt when you were with Cooper.”
Felicity paled, “Oh look, I think the game is about to start. We should focus.”
“Felicity I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought him up—“
“No it’s fine, I just… really want to watch this hockey game,” Felicity offered her a small smile and turned to the ice.
The lights in the rink dimmed and the announcer’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker, “Welcome everyone to tonight’s game! Facing off against your Starling Archers tonight are the Coast City Pirates.”
As the players skated onto the ice, a few cheers came from a small section of parents and students who had traveled to see the game. They were quickly drowned out though by loud music that started booming over the sound system as the rink got darker and green lights flashed across the ice.
“And now…. your Starling University Archers!”
Felicity watched as player after player skated onto the ice as their name was called. She recognized a few names like Tommy and Ronnie but for the most part she could tell that the hockey team did not spin in the same circles as her. Okay to be fair, she mostly just hung out with Iris and Barry when she wasn’t in class or studying, but she occasionally hung out with some other people to work on projects… and none of them were hockey players.
“And finally, your captain… center, Oliver Queen,” the announcer could barely get the words out before the crowd erupted in cheers as Oliver skated onto the ice.
Iris nudged her in the side, “Now he is cute.”
Felicity rolled her eyes, “He seems really arrogant.”
“You got that from watching him skate onto the ice?”
Felicity shrugged, “I’m good at reading people.”
“Well I don’t know about arrogant,” Barry spoke up, “But he definitely has reasons to be confident. He’s the lead scorer in our division, has been a captain since his freshman year, and there’s talk that he’ll graduate with an NHL contract.”
Felicity watched as Oliver raised his stick in the air and saluted the crowd as the lights came back on.
“A justifiable big ego is still annoying, plus he’s not long term relationship material if he’s going to play professional hockey after this year. He gets scratched off the list, keep trying.”
“Okay but you have to agree with me that he’s super cute,” Iris countered.
“I guess so...”
“And the muscles… I’ve seen him in class, that’s not all padding, I bet his arms are like the twice the size of yours Barry.”
“Okay you two let’s try to remember who the boyfriend is here or you can ask Oliver to take you out to dinner,” Barry complained.
“Ahhh you know I love you, I’m just looking out for Felicity,” Iris replied and leaned over to kiss him.
Felicity glanced over at them and felt a pang of sadness. Despite her protests that she was happy alone, she couldn’t help but be a little jealous of what they had. After things had ended so poorly with Cooper she had hoped that starting college and the change of scenery at Starling U would help her to move on. But other than the Lacrosse player who had creeped on her for the first two months she had been at school and the guy in her class who was more interested in her help with his project than her, she hadn’t exactly caught any guy’s eye. Which as Iris had stated, probably stemmed from her tendency to bury herself in her work instead of going out every once in a while. A hockey player was definitely too much of a stretch for her though. She had secretly been hoping that Barry would reveal an identical twin sometime soon.
Iris tapped her on the shoulder, “Where did you go? The game is starting.”
Felicity shook her head and turned her attention to the ice, trailing her eyes back and forth to watch the puck. By the end of the first period it seemed that it was going to be an easy victory for the Archers as they led 3-0.
As the second period was getting started Iris leaned over, “So what do you think so far? Pretty fun, right?”
“I don’t know about fun, but it is definitely not the worst thing I’ve ever been dragged too,” Felicity consented.
“I’ll take what I can get. But we still have two more periods for you to change your mind,” Iris said as she flashed her a smile.
Things started to go downhill during the second period, as the Pirates quickly made up the point deficit and brought themselves to a 3-4 lead.
“See that’s what happens when they get too cocky,” Felicity commented nonchalantly, but inside she had that same nervous feeling in her stomach as the rest of the students that the team wouldn’t be able to turn things around in the final period. She really wanted to see a win.
At what point did I get so invested?
She found herself shifting further and further forward in her seat and was swept up to her feet with the rest of the crowd when the Archers finally scored and tied things up.
“Okay guys, one more point, you can do this,” she muttered as she bounced on the balls of her feet and watched the clock ticking away.
With just a few seconds left, Ronnie passed the puck to Oliver and he had clear ice to skate down and raise his stick to shoot. The blade of his stick made contact with the puck and time seemed to slow down as everyone held their breath and kept one eye on the clock and the other on the puck coasting across the ice. Just as the buzzer sounded, the puck made contact with the back of the net and the crowd erupted in cheers.
Iris turned to her and they jumped up and down shouting, “We won! We won!”
Iris paused and raised her eyebrow, “Wait a second…”
“Yes I had fun, you win, they win, hooray,” Felicity interrupted her with a grin.
“This was seriously one of the best games I’ve ever been to, it was so close the whole time and then that ending was amazing,” Iris commented.
“Great assist from Ronnie on that last goal,” Felicity mentioned to Caitlin.
Caitlin smiled, “I know right? I bet he and Oliver will be the game MVPs.”
Sure enough, the announcer called Oliver and Ronnie back out to the ice to congratulate them for their game winning goal and award them with MVPs of the game. One of the broadcasting students walked out to interview them both.
“First of all I want to congratulate you two on your game winning goal. That was a really great game of hockey tonight,” she started off, “There were definitely some parts where it did not seem like things were going to go your way. How did you guys manage to turn things around at the end?”
Oliver started to answer, “I think what makes our team work so well is that we’re like a family, so we know that we can all rely on each other to make the passes, be where we need them to be, and then score the goals. There’s no one player who can win the game by themselves—“
“Okay Oliver but really, everyone knows that you’re the star of this team,” the interviewer interrupted him; “You’re the reason that we’re on the track to our fourth undefeated season, right guys?”
The crowd clapped and cheered and Felicity was surprised to see that Oliver looked uncomfortable. Maybe he wasn’t as arrogant as she thought.
“Like I was saying, everyone is an important part of our victory. If Ronnie hadn’t made that spectacular pass I wouldn’t have been able to make that goal,” Oliver announced.
“Oh right. Ronnie, you’re also one of our game MVPs. Congratulations! That really was a great pass,” the interviewer added, “Can we get some pictures of you guys?”
“Yeah of course,” Oliver replied.
They snapped a few and then Ronnie asked if they could take one more.
“Hey Cait!” Ronnie called up to the stands and Caitlin stood up, “Come on down here for a picture!”
Caitlin blushed and picked her way down through the stands to where Ronnie had skated over to meet her.
“Oliver is there a special lady that you’d like to include?”
Oliver grinned and waved into the stands, “Come down here Speedy!”
Felicity watched as a younger looking girl exited one of the donor’s boxes and made her way down. Oliver hoisted her up over his shoulder and skated out to where Ronnie and Caitlin were waiting.
“Awww that’s so cute,” Iris commented.
“That he’s into really young girls?”
Iris slapped her shoulder, “Felicity that’s his little sister. I think they’re pretty close, I’ve seen her at a lot of the games. ”
“He doesn’t have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe because all the girls just assume that he’s an arrogant prick without getting to know him,” Iris elbowed her in the side.
“It was a first impression that I am willing to admit may have been wrong,” Felicity conceded, “That doesn’t mean that I’m going to start doodling Mrs. Queen in my notebooks.”
“Never say never. You also said you weren’t going to have fun tonight and you did.”
“Okay ladies, we better get going or we’re going to have trouble getting a booth if the whole team and their entourage is heading there,” Barry interjected.
“Will you please stop eating my fries?” Barry asked as he swatted Iris’ hand away, “Why didn’t you just order some for yourself?”
“I was on a healthy eating kick that lasted pretty much the duration of the time we were ordering and is now over,” Iris answered as she reached for Felicity’s milkshake.
“Nope,” Felicity pulled it away, “Go back up there and get yourself a milkshake.”
“But the entire team is in line right now, just let me have a sip,” Iris pouted.
“Fine, just have mine. I’ll go get another one,” Felicity conceded as she slid out of their booth.
“Hey while you’re up their why don’t you get your flirty flirt on with some of the guys,” Iris suggested.
Felicity narrowed her eyes, “Don’t make me reconsider my generosity.”
“It was just a suggestion, no need to get defensive. I didn’t dress you in that cute outfit for nothing though…”
Felicity rolled her eyes and walked over to the line determined to not talk to anyone, let alone flirt. Yes she had had fun at the game but now she just wanted a chocolate shake, and then she could get back to her dorm room and her laptop. And some peace and quiet, because the restaurant had gone up several decibels with the arrival of the team. She managed to get to the counter without anyone taking much notice of her but before she could plunk down a few bills for her shake one of the team members who was waiting for his food pushed her hand back.
“I got this blondie, a pretty girl like you shouldn’t have to be buying for herself.”
She resisted the urge to smack him and instead settled for a mildly disgusted look.
“O’Reilly! Don’t hit on girls until you’ve learned not to be creepy about it,” she heard the guy on the other side of her speak up. She turned and vaguely recognized him.
Recognition lit across his face too, “Hey it’s Felicity right?”
“Yeah… Tommy? How’s your computer running?”
“Better than ever, thanks again for your help, and sorry about him,” Tommy shot a pointed glance at his teammate.
“It’s okay, wouldn’t be the first time I’ve dealt with weirdoes,” she paused as the server handed her her milkshake, “Oh and hey good game tonight.”
She gave him a small smile and headed back to her table.
“Well…?” Iris inquired.
“Iris I’m not interested in dating anyone on the hockey team. Pretty sure the good ones are already taken.”
“Not Oliver,” Iris pointed out.
“Okay but even if he’s not an arrogant prick, apparently he is one of the most popular seniors at the school and I’m a freshman who has been fondly deemed an anti social loser by her own friends. It’s not going to happen.”
“But you’d like it to happen?”
“No!” Felicity protested, a little too loudly as a couple heads turned in their direction. Lowering her voice she added, “I don’t even know him. Sure he’s cute and maybe he’s a nice guy but it doesn’t matter because I don’t want to date him.”
“Methinks the lady doth protest too much,” Barry muttered.
“Shut up Barry. I do not have a crush on Oliver, end of story. We’re moving on to a new conversation.”
Felicity ignored the glance that Barry and Iris shared and focused on dipping her fries in her milkshake. She didn’t know why she was getting so flustered over some guy she had never met before. Figuring it was probably just because of her friends’ teasing; she took a bite out of her fry and put Oliver Queen out of her mind.
She was successful at not thinking about Oliver until 2:43 in the afternoon the next day.
“Felicity Smoak?”
She looked up from where she was studying in the library and right into the blue eyes she had definitely not been thinking about.
“Hi I’m Oliver Queen.”
“Oh I know who you are, well actually I didn’t until last night when I went to my first hockey game and I watched you. But not in a creepy way, I mean obviously, I was just watching the game and you were there, playing. And you were great,” she felt her brain start to catch up to her mouth and she blushed, “And you did not come over here to listen to me babble so I’m going to shut up in 3, 2, 1.”
She ducked her head sheepishly but not before noticing the amused smile on his face.
“I’m looking for some help with my computer, I’m pretty sure it has a virus, and my friend Tommy said that you were the girl to ask.”
Computer help. She could handle that. And hopefully without saying anything else embarrassing.
“Yep, I’m your girl,” she said as she took the laptop from him, “I mean not your girl, girl, I wasn’t trying to… never mind.”
You are just on a roll today aren’t you?
She opened up his laptop and tried not to hyperventilate when he sat down next to her and inched his chair closer. His desktop was a picture of him with his sister in matching hockey jerseys and she smiled.
“You and your sister are pretty close aren’t you?”
“Yeah, she’s my number one fan.”
“She’s got a lot of competition so she must be pretty enthusiastic,” Felicity commented as she set to work on removing the virus.
“Not just in hockey,” Oliver clarified.
“Ahh. Must be nice to have someone who looks up to you.”
Oliver shrugged, “It comes with a lot of responsibility and I wasn’t always the best role model.”
“Oh?” Felicity tilted her head but kept her eyes on the screen.
“You’re new here aren’t you?”
“Uhh well I’ve been here for three months, but yeah I’m a freshman. And I’m from out of state.”
“Well it’s nice to meet someone who doesn’t know about my past reputation then,” Oliver replied with a tone that let her know that the conversation was over.
A few minutes later she announced that she was finished.
“Seriously? That was fast.”
Felicity shrugged as she closed the computer and slid it over to him, “It was easy, you caught it early so it didn’t infect much.”
He stood up and flashed her a smile, “Thank you Felicity. How can I repay you?”
“Oh no you don’t have to, don’t worry about it, it was nothing---“
“How about dinner sometime?” Oliver interrupted her.
“I’m serious, you don’t have to—“
“I’m being serious too, would you like to go out to dinner with me tonight?”
“Tonight?” Felicity squeaked.
“Unless you have something else going on…”
“No, I’m free. Dinner sounds good. I like food.”
“Okay, I’ll pick you up at 7 then? What building are you in?”
“Green Hall. 7 o’clock. See you tonight?”
“See you tonight Felicity,” Oliver confirmed as he walked away.
What the frack just happened?