And I'm back! It took three months, but I'm done with that Felicity!centric fic. It'll be five chapters long and hopefully a ton of fun. Each part will focus on a specific "era" of Felicity's life over the past ten years, and give a glimpse of what each year taught Felicity. There are a few spoilers for season 3 but if you don't already know what they are you won't be shocked and appalled by them. It's basically me going nuts because we didn't have a backstory for Felicity so be sure that season 3 will prove me entirely wrong. This is my vision of how and why Felicity Smoak came to fit in that well with Team Arrow.
I'm really nervous about posting this story. I hope you'll enjoy it and have a few laughs.
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
PART I.
"If I had accepted my life, I would be a cocktail waitress in Vegas like my mother, and I never would have gone to college, and I never would have moved a thousand miles away to work at Queen Consolidated, and I never would have believed some crazy guy in a hood when he told me I could be more than just some IT girl."
— Felicity Smoak, episode 2.21
MAY 2005
Felicity slumped on the bench in the food court, dropping her backpack unceremoniously on the floor, and heaved out her most desperate sigh.
"God it's too hot in here," she grumbled.
Taylor looked up from her nails, arching an eyebrow.
"We live in the middle of the desert. Why do you always say that like it's a surprise?"
Her best friend eyed her murderously.
"Because it is insufferable and it makes me miserable, and I hate that heat. I feel like I'm choking."
"Aww, look at you, poor thing," Taylor cooed sarcastically. "Come on, let's go home girlfriend, I'll make you some lemonade."
She put the brush of the nail paint back in its bottle without finishing her hand and stood up, grabbing her handbag in the same movement. Felicity frowned disapprovingly.
"You have history last period, T."
"Do I?" Taylor blinked with a blinding smile, flipping her long raven hair behind her shoulder.
"You're never going to go college if you keep skipping…" Felicity mumbled, standing up to follow her friend's peppy lead.
"Oh honey, that ship has sailed the day these two little bars appeared on that stupid stick."
They found Felicity's tiny, old car and opened its doors with technique (a hit with the hip and then a fierce pull), letting the hot air out for a few seconds before daring to step inside. Felicity's shitty car didn't have air conditioning. Or an engine that was worth anything, for that matter. But she paid it herself with her shifts at Frankie's Diner and she wouldn't trade it for the world.
Felicity sighed as she started driving her noisy car out of the parking lot and Taylor began fidgeting with the radio. That was almost broken too, it was so difficult to get any radio station they usually didn't even try, and it would only take tapes. Which Felicity didn't have anymore. Because of course, she thought that she wouldn't need tapes in two thousand freaking five.
"You went to school and kept up with your homework throughout your pregnancy. Why would you give up now? I told you some universities have great programs for single mothers and…"
"I'm not giving up!" Taylor cut with energy. "I just have different priorities. I'm a mom now. And I'm going to college! Just not the kind we envisioned growing up in my fancy backyard. I looked up Northwest Career College — the address is smoke ranch road, I think it's fitting — it's not that far from home I'll be able to go to work, take care of Lilly and get a barely higher education."
Felicity said nothing, heading towards Taylor's place as she sighed again, prompting her friend to ditch her fight with the radio.
"Oh my god, Smoak, lighten up!" Taylor shrieked. "What's with the grumpiness today? The sun is shining bright in the sky, it's almost summer, and you are looking at a perfectly wonderful life to come! I should be the grumpy one! You're ditching me for freakin' MIT in a few months!"
Felicity didn't answer, and refused to meet her best friend's gaze as she drove up north, which only worried Taylor.
"Did you and Creepy break up?"
Felicity spun her head to look at her friends in shock.
"Stop calling him that. And no! Why would you ask that?"
"Because you're only this quiet when something's wrong, dummy! You were fine this morning and at lunch. Then you went to talk to Mark" cue in disgust and loathing, "and now that's what I get. Please tell me you guys broke up."
Felicity rolled her eyes and snorted.
"How can you wish me that?"
"Because I love you?" Taylor answered, undeterred. "You deserve so much better than that dickwad."
"Taylor!"
The girl tilted her head and barked out a happy laugh, sticking her face out the rolled-down window.
"You know, sometimes you really sound exactly like my mother it's scary."
"Well sometimes you sound like mine!"
"Wow, low blow, Smoak! Low blow!" Taylor laughed. "Aaah but you're right. I can be really annoying when I'm drunk. Not that I remember what that's like. It's been so long. Let's get drunk again, Felicity," she pleaded dramatically, clutching at Felicity's arm and shaking it. "I've popped my kid out! I'm not breast feeding!"
"And your mom is definitely going to give you back your fake ID and babysit your daughter while you go on the Strip illegally," Felicity quipped. "Again."
Taylor grimaced, amused.
"You know, I love my daughter, but I'm so freaking sad that I can't tell my mom that I'm going to your place for a sleepover anymore — she'll tell me to take Lilly with me since I'm a mother and stuff. But what would we do with her? Leave her in the car? I so wish you had a little brother to do our dirty work."
"You're calling babysitting your own daughter 'dirty work'?" Felicity arched her eyebrow.
Taylor shrugged, unapologetic.
"Well I guess I did dirty, dirty work to get her!"
"Ew, gross, T!"
"Come on, you do the same with Creepy."
"Stop calling him that! Mark is not creepy!"
Taylor eyed Felicity diabolically and put her head really close to her friend's face, her voice dropping a few octaves, throaty and eerie.
"'Your hair is so soft Felicity I just love it so much', 'can I touch your fingers?'"
Felicity pushed Taylor's face away from her with a disgusted grimace, laughing genuinely despite herself at her friend's antics.
"It was one time three years ago when he was high! Will you freaking let it go?"
"Anyone that was creepy once can be creepy later. And he's nerdy!"
"I'm nerdy too!"
"Yeah but you're hot-secretary nerdy! You might dress in grey and black because you want to blend in and not be noticed…"
Felicity pulled her head back and let out an annoyed groan at the repetitive conversation.
"And he noticed me. So I guess I'm doing something right!"
"Urgh," Taylor reacted, putting her index in her mouth to fake vomit. "There's nothing right about you and Creepy. That's one of the silver linings of you going to MIT, you know. You're never going to work."
Felicity rolled her eyes as they reached Taylor's street and shook her head.
"You can be such a bitch sometimes."
"Yop, but I'm a bitch with wi-fi, you need me. Sometimes, I wonder if you only come visit because your mom forgets to pay the internet," Taylor sighed exaggeratedly, shaking her head in false despair.
"My mom can't always afford the internet, there's a difference," Felicity snorted, parking the car in Taylor's huge front yard. "I'm the one dealing with the bills. And I come every freaking day! You're such a drama queen."
"Yeah but a drama queen who makes you laugh, entertains you and fucks up more than you."
Felicity's face softened as she looked at her friend.
"I would never think of you as a fuck up. But you're right. You make me laugh and you entertain me to no end."
Taylor let her head drop against the headrest, her bright green eyes meeting Felicity's with shy emotion. Taylor was such a vivacious, loud and exhausting presence that Felicity often forgot how emotional she could get and how much of her attitude was bravado.
"You're gonna miss me, huh Felicity?"
Oh, she was pulling the 'Felicity' card. She put her hand on her friend's and pressed it quietly.
"I always miss you."
Taylor's devilish grin broke the moment.
"Are you missing me right now?"
Felicity grinned right back at her, pushing her glasses up her nose.
"Yes, you dork, despite the fact that you insulted my boyfriend. Again. You scare him you know."
Felicity opened the doors and got out, pointedly ignoring Taylor's very proud smirk.
"Well if he's scared of me, it's because he knows he's doing something wrong!"
Taylor barged into her home noisily, shouting in the entrance that she was back as she dropped her bag on the floor and stepped out of her shoes.
"Now, where's my baby!" she exclaimed giddily.
Like every afternoon in the past nine months, Felicity looked at her seventeen year-old best friend bounce on her heels and step inside the living room excitedly, and felt her heart pinch when she saw the beaming smile of Taylor's daughter once she caught sight of her mother.
She couldn't believe she ever gave that kind of smile to her own eighteen year old mother. Or father, for that matter. And yet… She must have been just like Lilly at one point, right? If her mother had called her "Felicity" and not freaking Dolores or Scram, maybe that was because, at some point her parents had wanted her to be that for them? Or maybe it was them being drunk and ironic and thinking they could get a stupid riddle out of the mess they were starting?
Felicity guessed she'd never know. But she was glad that, for one, Lilly had a mother who was happy to have her — even if it had been way too early for her and even if her mother kicked her out of the house for most of her pregnancy.
"Hi baby!" Taylor cooed, jumping over the sofa to catch a few toys on the floor beside the little girl. "Did you miss your momma? Did you? Did you drive grandma Yell-a-Lot nuts? That's my girl!"
Felicity chuckled despite herself and picked up Taylor's handbag to bring it to the living room.
"Taylor, is that you?" came Mrs Young's voice from the next room.
"Yeah! I'm with F Smoak too!"
Taylor's mother stepped into the room, carrying an enormous basket of clean laundry and blinked at Felicity.
"Oh. Hi Felicity, are you staying long?"
Felicity smiled tightly, and shook her head no. Taylor's mother blamed Felicity for Taylor getting pregnant — which both Taylor and Felicity found ridiculous. But Mrs Young had always counted on Felicity's stable personality to temper Taylor's overly outgoing one and keep her out of trouble. Which Felicity honestly tried her best to do. But trying to control Taylor was like trying to control an enraged bull. Sometimes, the best thing you could do was follow the lead and do damage control.
Felicity thought that it was easier to blame the best friend for not keeping Taylor on a tight leash than actually blame Taylor for not being willing to say who the father was. She claimed that she didn't know, didn't remember, but Felicity knew it was only to anger her mother. However, that was the only secret that Taylor had kept from Felicity and she didn't know how else to support her than to keep being her friend – and to secretly host her at her own place while Mrs Young still blamed her daughter and not just Felicity and kicked Taylor out of her place.
"Aunt Felicity is going to stay with us so we can do good homework, right Lilly? Say 'yes, mommy'."
"She's nine months old, T," Felicity snorted awkwardly, "let her grow up. Soon she's going to talk back to you with attitude."
Taylor snorted and settled on the floor, her back against the couch so she could comfortably pick the baby up and smother her with kisses.
"No she won't! She'll never talk back to her momma, no, she won't! 'Cause Aunt Felicity's going to scold her and teach her how to be smart!"
Felicity's face softened and she settled on the floor close to her friend while Mrs Young made a disapproving sound.
"You know Taylor, that's exactly what I said when you were Lilly's age. Look where that got you. Community college. After everything your father and I sacrificed for you."
Felicity cringed while Taylor smirked evilly, but Mrs Young was already gone out of the room, and getting prepared for an important shindig that she was supposed to attend as someone important in the county's community.
So, maybe Mrs Young also blamed Felicity for her daughter's refusal to actually go to college when they could afford different solutions, especially considering the fact that Felicity — whom she'd always considered as a charity case at best — was awaited at MIT with a full scholarship.
And maybe Felicity felt really, really guilty about it.
"Pff the only thing they sacrificed is their reputation as self-righteous judgmental parents," she mumbled.
"Taylor," Felicity whispered, "she has a point. You can raise Lilly and go to college!"
"No. They won't allow it. They want me to go to college far away by myself, and brainwash her for four years and then throw the fact that they were there for me at my face for the rest of my life."
Felicity sighed and dug a few of their books out of their bags, setting everything up on the coffee table in front of the TV. Taylor gave a side eye to the books and grabbed the remote, putting E! on with a sly grin in Felicity's direction. Felicity hated E! She made it a point not to know who celebrities were — they never stayed famous long enough for her to even think it was relevant. By the time she remembered their names, they'd already disappeared into celebrity limbo and she had other stuff to focus on. Like computers. Intel cores. Understanding how the internet worked. How to make a program do what you wanted it to do.
That, to Felicity, was poetry.
Some stupid rich punk peeing on a cop car with his best friend? That didn't even get on her radar.
"Come on, T.! Help me out, here! You don't want to go to class, fine, but at least try to get good grades and read my notes! And I don't have a ton of time before my shift at Frankie's."
But as she pulled her hand back to make Lilly bounce on her, Taylor frowned, seizing a letter that emerged from between two books.
"What is that?" she wondered out loud, opening the letter, Lilly tucked between her chest and her arms.
"Mmh?" Felicity answered, a pencil between her teeth. "Also, don't think I've forgotten that I was promised lemonade."
"Felicity Meghan Smoak, you filthy, disgusting, dirty hypocrite!"
Felicity's eyes flew to meet Taylor's shocked, disappointed look and agape mouth. She blinked in surprise.
"What?"
Taylor picked her daughter and set her up in Felicity's arms decidedly.
"Here, you have Lilly, so you can't be mad or else she'll cry and you'll have to be the one to soothe her so think very carefully of your next words!"
Felicity frowned at the child who babbled happily and gnawed at her fist, unaware of her mother's tension.
"Okay… So I may have skipped a few classes too but how does that make me filthy? It wasn't so I could do stuff with Mark!"
If possible, Taylor's mouth opened wider, and she looked even more appalled than a second ago.
"Wait, you skipped classes and didn't do anything with Creepy and you didn't tell me so I could tag along?"
Felicity tilted her head.
"Hold on, I'm confused. You didn't know?"
"No! How the hell would I know, I'm not the one stalking my friends' attendance records!"
Felicity rolled her eyes.
"I did that ONCE, and you know it was to save your ass!"
"Whatever! You skipping class makes you even more of a disgusting, dirty, filthy hypocrite!"
"Wow, you really insist on the unsanitary part of that hypocrisy," Felicity mumbled.
"And I should! I can't believe I've let you berate me on my not going to college! What the hell is that reminding letter from MIT saying they still haven't gotten your YES I WILL ATTEND package when you're supposed to be leaving in a few months?"
Felicity opened her mouth to answer but couldn't find the words, and to her complete surprise, Taylor looked even more angered at her reaction.
"Oh my god you're blushing and you're feeling guilty because you didn't plan on telling me! What the hell are you doing, Smoak? And remember, no yelling because of Lilly!"
Felicity blinked, and gulped, and looked away.
"I'm not going, T," she eventually said.
She didn't yell. The truth was, she'd been trying to talk about it to Taylor for weeks, but she couldn't bring herself to. Who did that? Who was handed a get out of jail free card in the form of an M.I.T scholarship and let it pass?
But, as usual, Taylor didn't let her get away with contrition and obvious unease. Nope. She was going to dig deeper, and force her to open up and Felicity wasn't sure she could.
"Oh like hell you're not!" Taylor growled. "Why on earth would you not go? Can't be because of the money — everything's taken care of!"
"I'll still have some student loans for the living expenses," Felicity argued.
"Which you'll have paid back in three years once you've been recruited by the best companies in the world so that's not an excuse."
"You don't understand," Felicity trailed off.
"Then make me! Fucking make me understand why you're choosing not to go as far away from the life that you loathe right this second! God, Felicity we've dreamed of leaving Vegas for years! You dreamed it even before me! So what changed?"
A look of horror draped Taylor's face then.
"Is it because of Creepy?" she asked, spatting his name.
Felicity groaned in anger and decided to put Lilly back in her park because there was no way she was staying calm for this.
"God Taylor, will you leave Mark out of this?"
But Taylor looked offended, and her bottom lip wobbled with stuff that she could just not keep in anymore. Felicity tried to brace herself because it was long time coming — and she still couldn't believe it took Taylor almost a year to speak her mind that much.
"You know why I don't like Creepy? It's not because he probably has a shrine for you in his closet like the crazy chick in that Hey Arnold! cartoon that we used to watch. I mean, it's a little bit because of that, but not the single reason. It's because he's nice and boring and he doesn't push you to be better." Taylor brushed her hair out of her eyes angrily, like she always did when she was opening herself up. "You're… You're not nice, you're wonderful. You're not boring you're hilarious and awkward. And worst of all, he lets you blend in because he doesn't want anyone else to notice you. And he sulks because MIT has noticed how remarkable you are and he's as aware as I am that the moment you leave Vegas you're not coming back!"
Felicity cast her eyes on the floor, incapable of holding her best friend's fierce gaze.
"I just…"
"So if it's not the money, and if it's not Creepy, there's only two reasons left. Is it me? Are you ditching your dream because of me?"
She couldn't help the flicker of her eyes in Taylor's direction and she knew that she'd triggered the Taylor Tornado of Torment.
"So what, you take pity on me for being a teen mom and you decide you might as well do the same? Settle over here, feel miserable, and think that we'll both stay happy because I made bad choices?"
"You didn't make bad choices," Felicity counters weakly.
"Oh stop it, Felicity! Stop! Stop defending me! I had unprotected sex, and I noticed that I was pregnant too late to get an abortion because I was scared and I wanted the choice taken away from me and now I'm making the best of it! So that means no fancy college for me, but I don't care. I'm going to be happy, dammit! I'm going to love my daughter, and I'm going to raise her better and teach her how to fucking use birth control and neither she or I will be miserable. Not on my watch. And I will be damned if I let you do the same. I might not know what the next four years will look like as far as I'm concerned, but you sure as hell do."
Felicity opened her mouth to say something but found herself gathering her knees to her chest, and lowering her head to hide. She let her brown curly hair curtain her face away from her best friend's unwavering glare.
"What did she tell you, Smoak?" Taylor asked, astonishing Felicity. How could she put so much tenderness and anger in the same sentence? "You can't be ditching MIT because I'm not going. We never planned on even going to the same coast. So that leaves one person who talked you out of it. And honestly, I feel bad that I didn't see it coming. I'm a sucky friend."
"No you're not," Felicity countered once more from between her knees.
Taylor chuckled, and Felicity felt her sink beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"See? You always defend me. What are we going to do about you, Smoak?"
She shrugged. Taylor let a moment pass, and dropped a kiss at the top of her head.
"Come on. What did she say?"
"It wasn't her, technically," Felicity relented. "Kevin was making a crack about something, I don't even remember why — it was obscene and gross — and I quipped back, and he said that he couldn't wait for me to get out of there, and that I'll show less attitude once I'm licking some rich asshole's boots in my fancy school."
She could feel the wave of anger roll off of Taylor but for once she kept quiet. Felicity found the strength to pull her head up and look her best friends in the eyes sadly, struggling to keep tears from gathering in her eyes.
"And it made me realize… What the hell am I doing? Have you met me? What the hell am I going to be doing at the freaking M.I.T? This isn't the Strip on Saturday night! Dealing with drunk assholes and low lives who try to feel you up? I can. Having a normal conversation with super smart kids who have been to private schools and have trust funds? How am I going to fit in? You said it! I'm awkward! I say the wrong thing! I babble when I'm nervous, I make weird innuendoes at teachers!"
Taylor tried to open her mouth, but now that her best friend's dam was opened she quickly understood that there was no way she could get a word in before the rant was over. So she pulled back and grabbed the closest bottle of nail paint she could find, and took Felicity's hand gently.
As usual, the girl didn't even notice.
"And then it made me think about her nagging voice, you know? How she says it? 'You think you're better than everyone, but you'll see, you'll end up just like me' and it's true! I think I'm better than everyone — I mean, no, not everyone but most people, yeah! — and I feel terrible because that means I'm not better than anyone, which is true! So that brings me back to the first thought: what the hell do I think I'm doing at the freaking Massachusetts Institute of Technology, me, Felicity Meghan Smoak, daughter of a washed up cocktail waitress and absentee father who had her in high school?"
Felicity stopped then, a little out of breath, and looked at her friend like she had all the answers in the world. Taylor stopped painting Felicity's pinkie and tilted her head sadly.
"When will you stop saying that? You're so much more than your parents' daughter! You're Felicity Meghan Smoak, god dammit!" Taylor chanted like it was a glorious song, a broad smile spreading her lips. "You scored a 4.0 GPA throughout high school, you're a loving non-judgmental friend who knows when to push and when to take a step back, you have your friends' backs like nobody else and you talk back to your shady mother's boyfriends like they can't hurt you. You're fun, and you're kind and god you're so freaking smart! You basically raised yourself, Felicity, don't you see it? You know so much about so much stuff! How many kids from your neighborhood stopped even trying when their friends told them they weren't cool? How many of them took down every electronic thing piece by piece to see how it worked inside?"
Felicity's lips spread in a shy smile.
"You think you're not going to fit in M.I.T? I say you're exactly what they need. Quippy, smart chick who can hold out her own? They're not fucking expecting you. And you know what? It'll make it more fun. You should look blonde and super girly and then crush all these nerds with your hot brains!"
"Hot brains?"
"Oh yeah! Even your brains are hot!"
Felicity couldn't help the chuckle.
"You're posting that letter tonight, Felicity Meghan Smoak, and it's not even up for debate. And then, we're going to put a shit ton of porn on Kevin's laptop just to mess with him and make your mom ditch his sorry ass."
Felicity smirked, as Taylor went back to paint her friend's nails.
"Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity," she started rhythmically.
Felicity groaned out loud.
"I swear, Taylor you need to stop with that song already."
"To seize everything you ever wanted," Taylor kept going, louder so her voice could cover Felicity's. "One moment, would you capture it or just let it slip? Listen to the words, Smoak. Our prophet, our hero, the best rapper of all times…"
"God T, Eminem's songs are not a Bible for life choices!"
"Ha you should have told me before I got pregnant at sixteen," she quipped and began imitating the tone of the priest Mrs Young made them watch every Sunday morning on TV. "But in your case, just listen to the truth: you better lose yourself in the PC, the moment, you own it, you better never let it go, you only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow: this opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo!"
Felicity burst out in laughter at the way her friend had delivered the last lyrics of Lose Yourself. Taylor had been listening to that song over and over for two years, forcing Felicity to make a duo out of it where Felicity was in charge of the chorus.
Man, that poor hairbrush had heard horrible stuff.
"You really do live for that rap shit."
"Ha what can I do? But you'll see, Smoak. You're going to go to M.I.T and that'll be the beginning of the rest of your freaking awesome life."
Felicity bit her lip worriedly.
"Are you sure?"
"Hell, yeah! Most of your arguments make no sense. There aren't only rich people at M.I.T you know. You're not the only kid who'll be there on a scholarship. And if there are rich ones, make freaking connections! Ditch that Creep of yours and find a rich one. I can see it, you know."
"See what?"
Taylor looked up at the TV screen dreamily, not really watching it.
"Your perfect life. You're going to go to M.I.T and you'll meet some royalty over there."
"Royalty, yeah, that sounds realistic."
"Yeah! Like the king of some unknown country or something. A prince. Or, hey, you know, live the full college experience, go down the lesbian road for a little while and end up with a queen of some sort on your arm."
Felicity took her hand out of Taylor's grip and blew softly at her nails to make them dry faster while her friend went to pick her daughter back from her park.
"Ah, and there we are. Past the realistic line. Me with a queen."
Taylor chuckled with pride.
"Come on, that's the whole point of college! Just promise me you'll make bad choices! Date morons. You know, guys like that dude!"
She pointed at the TV where the same footage from earlier was showing. The same twenty-something rich guy from Starling City was shown peeing on a cop car and laughing drunkenly with another one of his rich friends while being arrested.
Felicity's mouth twirled in disgust.
"Oh hell to the no. I have self-respect."
Taylor shrugged, making an 'oh well' face as she ogled the moron on TV.
"Too bad, but okay, this one, maybe don't date. Or just have a one night stand of some sort. And I'm not saying him specifically you know? That dumbass couldn't get into M.I.T even if his daddy paid the board but he's not the only fish of that kind in the ocean of assholes that is the world."
"Aaaah, spoken like a true feminist."
Taylor made Lilly bounce in her arms, eliciting a happy cry from her.
"And don't let your mother bring you down, okay? Stop listening to her crap and second guessing yourself. A worthy mom wouldn't want their kids to lead the same crappy life as them. I know I want Lilly to make better choices than me and go to M.I.T like her aunt Felicity someday, right baby?" She looked at the girl's bright green eyes like hers, and smiled. "Yes you'll go! Aunt Felicity will tutor you and make you all smart like her! But no dismantling the coffee maker, okay? Otherwise Mommy will go nuts and destroy the universe."
Felicity blinked her emotion away and caressed the little girl's dark hair tenderly.
"I'm scared," she eventually admitted. "What if it's a mistake?"
Taylor's eyes showed no doubt.
"Then it'll be the best one you'll ever make."
They shared a hopeful smile, Felicity's way more emotional than Taylor's who frowned.
"Oh hell no you're not turning into a sap, Smoak! Keep these tears for the actual goodbyes when Lilly and I drive you to the airport in August. Not a single one before!"
"You'll take me to the airport?" Felicity asked, surprised.
Taylor looked offended.
"Of course we will! What, you thought I'd let you go without saying a proper goodbye?" she snorted, then looked at her watch. "It's almost time for your shift, you should go, these plane tickets aren't going to pay themselves!"
Felicity grinned sheepishly, smacked a kiss on Lilly forehead and stuffed her books and the letter in her backpack in a smooth movement. Before leaving though, she stopped in front of Taylor and hugged her as fiercely as she could with the nine-month-old in her arms.
"Thanks, T. I don't know what I'd do without you."
Taylor snorted, but Felicity saw through the façade.
"You'd be a lousy cocktail waitress married to a boring excuse of a man. And you wouldn't have cool nails."
Felicity glanced at her hand with a happy smile, and Taylor tried to hide her nervousness by holding her daughter closer.
"Just… don't be a stranger when you leave for good. I know you're never coming back but… My daughter needs her godmother, okay?"
Felicity couldn't say anything for the longest time. When she finally gulped the lump blocking her throat, she cleared it noisily.
"I'll come back," she said, but deep down, it felt like a lie.
"No you won't. You and I both know there's nothing for you here. And it's totally okay."
"You know there's this software called Skype, it's free. We can talk to each other as often as we want."
Some evil glint took light in Taylor's eyes, making Felicity wary.
"Okay, so since you owe me for lying to my face about almost ditching the opportunity of a lifetime, you'll have to make me a promise."
Felicity cringed. Knowing Taylor, it could quickly escalate into something illegal. "What kind of promise?"
"You'll have to paint your nails a different color every time we talk. I'll do the same. You can't wipe it away even if it's chipped if we haven't skyped."
Felicity chuckled.
"I don't even have nail paint."
Taylor arched an eyebrow and smirked.
"I guess you'll have to invest, then. Or I'll give some of my old ones away. As a parting gift," she added, prompting a laugh from Felicity as she spun on her heels and headed for the door. "Oh, and you have to ditch Creepy."
"Yeah, not gonna happen," Felicity answered through the open door.
"Well you just see, Smoak, you just see!" Taylor shouted, at Felicity's back. "My predictions will turn out to be true and I'll get to tell you I told you so!"
"I'm not doing it with a queen!" Felicity quipped back as she slid in her shitty car.
"That's what you say now but just you wait! Some royalty's gonna see how remarkable you are and you'll be a goner!"
Felicity laughed and shook her head. As she backed out of Taylor Young's front yard that afternoon, Felicity bit her lips. She was going to do it. She was going to M.I.T.
She couldn't believe it.
And then she shrieked at her wheel, hitting it in happiness and disbelief, prompting the radio to actually work for the first time in weeks and the hit song of the year before blasted through Felicity's dying speakers. Usher's smart words echoed in her head, perfectly summing up what she was thinking:
YEAH!
[NEXT: Part II — THE M.I.T YEARS]
Author's Note: And that's part 1 for you! Every chapter will have a few easter eggs and a little bit of "Oliver" or Team Arrow in it. I promise Digg and Oliver have their own dedicated parts and will appear in the story.
Next part will mention a pot brownie incident, a lacrosse player, an industrial piercing moment, and an ear-splitting yell of delight. Until then… Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you thought!