21 | she/her

God Knows I Tried | Olicity Fic Chapter. 1

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Summary: 

Felicity Smoak and Oliver Queen are both students at St. West Boarding School. Oliver is too popular to notice Felicity, and Felicity is too wrapped up in her schoolwork to notice Oliver, but when their Physics teacher pairs them up for their semester project they have no choice but to work together. God knows Felicity tried to keep things between her and Oliver strictly platonic, but we all know how that never works.

Chapter 1 : St. West Boarding School

Felicity Smoak looked into the full-length mirror that hung on the back of the door in her dorm room. Her white button down shirt was neatly tucked into her dark navy skirt which hit just above her knees. Her uniform was topped off with a dark blue blazer with the red St. West Boarding School emblem embroidered across the pocket and her naturally light brown hair was pulled into a ponytail on the top of her head.

“Could you pass me my backpack, Sara?” Felicity asked her roommate, who was currently in the middle of cramming for a physics midterm later that day. Without looking up from her notes, Sara grabbed Felicity’s bag from the foot of her bed and flung it at the young brunette. Felicity’s backpack was barely even a backpack anymore. The seams were coming undone and the handle had been broken so many times that it was now just a series of knots that Felicity had used in a last stitched effort to tie the straps back onto the bag. She sighed, knowing that she would never be able to afford a new bag anytime in the near future. She was a scholarship kid, and it seemed like no one would let her forget it. It didn’t help that she was the smartest in all her classes, causing her teacher to call her up in class, asking her to explain things like Young’s Double Slit Experiment. She hated public speaking with a passion, and much preferred to hide behind her computer screen.

Felicity glanced at her leather and gold watch, a Hanukkah gift from Sara last year.

“Sara, we’re going to be late, let’s go,” Felicity urged. Sara’s head shot up, eyes full of panic.

“No no no no! I’m not ready, I don’t understand any of this stuff!” Sara explained. Although Felicity had spent all night with Sara in the library trying to explain the material, she just couldn’t understand it.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Felicity lied. She knew that Sara was going to have some trouble with the exam, but at least her family could afford the tuition at the overpriced boarding school. The only reason that Felicity got to attend the prestigious school was because the principal at her last school in Las Vegas had written to the dean of St. West, recommending Felicity due to the fact that she had tested out of all the schools basic level classes. Next thing she knew, Felicity was hugging her crying mom goodbye at the McCarran International Airport. She remembered what her mom had told her right before she got on the plane, word for word.

“Have fun and find make friends, and find a boyfriend sweetie! I Love you!” Donna Smoak had exclaimed, jumping up and down in her six inch nude heels. At that time, Felicity had been ready to die of embarrassment at her mom’s antics but now she really missed her mom, and her mom’s constant nagging about her never ending single-ness. Although there was one boy, back at her old school. Cooper was his name, but after he cheated on her during an intro to programming exam, she had left him heartbroken.

“Hello? Earth to Felicity! Anyone in there?” Sara waved her hand back and forth in front of Felicity’s face. She snapped out of her trance to see Sara standing in front of the now open dorm door, backpack in one hand and Physics textbook in the other.

“Yes, sorry! I was just thinking of my mom, and how she wanted me to have a boyfriend right now. She always talked about that, wanting me to be with someone I mean… I mean not in a sexual way obviously, although I wouldn’t really mind that, but you didn’t need to know that. Sorry I’m babbling, I’ll stop now. Sorry. Okay. I’m done,” Felicity rambled, Sara looking back at her amused.

“Mhm okay, let’s go chatterbox,” Sara exclaimed, grabbing Felicity’s arm and pulling her down the hallway, their dorm room door slamming behind them.

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“Dude, you are SO whipped!” Tommy Merlyn shouted, his voice echoing throughout the lecture hall. Oliver Queen punched his best friend in the shoulder and glanced around the room to see if anyone had heard Tommy’s loud comments.

“No I’m not, Laurel just really wants to see this movie, and I promised her that I would go with her,” Oliver explained. Although he really didn’t want to see that chick flick, he had already ditched Laurel to sneak into the bar downtown with Tommy twice this week.

“Alright man, whatever you say,” Tommy responded, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Just as Oliver was about to respond, the bell marking the start of first period rang out in the classroom, and immediately students began piling into the room. Soon the room was almost completely full, the sound of students flipping through textbooks and murmurs of physics equations filled the air.

“Why is everyone freaking out?” Oliver asked Tommy, who was also looking through his notes.

“They’re all cramming for the midterm,” Tommy looked at oliver questioningly.

“Wait, that’s today?!”

“Yeah, we’ve only been preparing for it for the past three weeks… you did study right?” Tommy looked at Oliver worried. Oliver shook his head his eyes landing on his empty desk. He hadn’t even bothered to bring a pen to class that day. He could feel Tommy’s eyes lingering on him, but tried to ignore it. He knew that he shouldn’t care but he felt oddly nervous. This wasn’t the first midterm he hadn’t studied for, yet this one should be different. He was on the verge of failing the class, and no matter how much money his parents had, if he failed this class, he wouldn’t be returning to St. West next year.

“Hey, Tommy, do you have a pen? Or a pencil?” Oliver looked at Tommy, trying to appear calm. As he spoke, he heard the large doors at the front of the lecture hall banging open, as a young man, short with a dark beard and a tweed jacket waltzed into the classroom and up the podium. With him was an petite girl with light brown hair, he thought her name was Felicity, or Francesca maybe? If Oliver was honest, he couldn’t care less. She was cute, beautiful actually, but she looked way too smart for Oliver, and she probably thought that she was better than everyone else. Also she was a scholarship kid, she would never fit into his world, not to mention the fact that he had a girlfriend.

The professor conversed with Felicity/Francesca over a tablet for a few minutes before she scurried over to her seat in the front row, and took out a calculator and a pen.

Oliver looked over at Tommy, about to ask to borrow a calculator when he saw that Tommy was already holding an extra, handing it to Oliver knowingly. Oliver sheepishly took the calculator and watched as the professor began to hand out the exams.

_______________________________________________________________________

An hour and a half later Oliver was staring at a mostly blank paper, with a few questions half done and random doodles taking up space in the test book. He glanced over at Tommy’s paper, and although he wasn’t doing much better, it looked as if he actually knew what he was doing.

Oliver watched the clock mounted on the front of the room, watching the seconds tick down, moving closer and closer to the final test time. Oliver looked over at Felicity/Francesca who was scribbling furiously on her paper, occasionally taking a sip from one of the two large cups of coffee that sat upon her desk. Just as she slammed her pen down on her desk the professor’s voice rung out.

“And that’s time… all students will hand in their papers on their way out. Thank you,” The professor said with tired eyes and a tight smile. Oliver stood up and slumped down the steps to the front of the class, carelessly tossing his paper into the pile rapidly forming in the professor’s hands. Oliver shuffled towards the door along with the rest of the students when he heard the professor shout above the low mumble of student chatter, “Mr. Queen, I was wondering if you would stay behind for a moment? And Ms. Smoak as well?”

Oliver sighed and turned to see the brunette making a beeline to the professor’s podium while Oliver slowly walked over to where the two were waiting. He tried to walk as slow as possible but quickly picked up his pace when he noticed the aggravated look simmering in his professor’s eyes.

“Mr. Queen, as you probably know, you’re not doing too well in this class. In fact you’re failing,” the professor glared at him as he flipped through the pile of papers and pulled out Oliver’s, “And if this is any indication, it doesn’t seem like you’re grades are going to improve without any incentive.”

“I’m sorry sir, I will try harder I promise,” Oliver claimed, knowing very well that his words were false.

“Yes, I’m certain that you will,especially since you will be working with Ms. Smoak here for the semester project,” Oliver had forgotten that the girl was still standing there. She looked surprised, and her brows knitted together, and Oliver felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards.

“Actually Professor, I was planning on working with Sara on the project-” Felicity began until Oliver cut her off.

“And I’m working with Tommy,” Oliver finished.

“Well I’m sure that Ms. Lance and Mr. Merlyn can manage without you two for this one, maybe they can work together,” The professor said sarcastically, clearly growing tired of the conversation. “If you don’t mind, I have a faculty meeting, I trust you will work out a schedule and I look forward to seeing some improvement Mr. Queen.” He quickly smiled at Felicity/Francesca before practically running out the double doors.

Oliver slowly turned towards the young girl. “Hi, I’m Oliver, and you’re Ms. Smoak?” Oliver asked, half jokingly.

“Well yes, technically. But I’m Ms. Felicity Smoak. Actually just Felicity Smoak. Or Felicity. Actually. And I know who you are, you’re Mr. Queen!” Felicity exclaimed.

“No, Mr. Queen was my father,” Oliver responded. She smiled in response, a blush spreading across her cheeks. He hadn’t missed how adorable it was when Felicity babbled. Laurel never did anything adorable like that, she was too serious.

Laurel! He had a girlfriend, he kept forgetting. Laurel. Laurel was his girlfriend.

“So I was thinking we could exchange numbers?” Felicity asked, breaking Oliver’s train of thought. “I mean not exchange numbers, like I’m making a pass at you I just thought that maybe we could talk about the assignments and figure out when you want to meet. Maybe we can get coffee? I love coffee, and school. Oh the assignment! I thou-”

“Sure, Felicity,” Oliver cut her off. He grinned slightly, he liked the way that her name felt on his tongue.

“Great!” Felicity smiled back at Oliver.