Felicity was not cut out for teen-dom or preteen-dom or whatever it's called when you're 12 going on 13. The only friends she ever had that really understood her were Lucas and Leiah and they were in Colorado, which felt like a million miles away on this particular morning.
There were many things Felicity hated about moving to a new city, new state, new school and new everything with her mom. But today it just seemed like the list just kept getting longer. It wasn't like she could share these concerns with her mother, because her mom made the move from Colorado to Starling City to give them a better life. But moving never got any easier and already being socially awkward didn't really help her case on the 'trying to make friends' front. They had moved to Starling City over the Holiday break and while it was late February and she had been at the school for almost two months now, that didn't mean she was very popular with the other students.
One of the many things Felicity had added to her 'not so great things about moving' list on this sunny Monday morning was the fact that the only thing she hated more than group projects was when the group partners were assigned to her by her teacher. The reason being it never failed - she always got paired with the worst girls in her class and possibly in the entire sixth grade. But as much as she hated these things, she needed to think positive add some things to her 'good things about moving list'. Her all-girls school was taking a field trip to The Starling City Natural History Museum to look at the new exhibit on the Titanic. She just hoped she would be placed in a field trip group with some girls who didn't know her and then she could try to win them over.
Felicity had learned early on that if she didn't find the silver lining in her day to day life, no one else would. "Ummm… well I get to see this exhibit, which obviously is tragic and depressing because so many people died and if they had only put on extra life boats maybe they could of lived … But I wouldn't have ever had the opportunity to see this exhibit in Colorado Springs so there's that… and ummm…" Felicity spoke out loud to herself as she was putting on her favorite red skirt that matched her black and white polka dotted shirt with sleeves coming down to her elbows.
"What honey?" her mom said. She was walking by Felicity's door and overheard her talking.
"Oh, nothing! I was just talking to myself!" Felicity squeaked out. She thought her mom was in the kitchen not the hall. Her mother was used to her ramblings, but over the years had tried to help Felicity cut them down by practicing staying quite, which never really worked. As much as she tried, Felicity knew nothing could squelch her internal monologue and her lips that loved to stream her subconscious to the outside world.
"Okay, well, hurry up I need to be at work a little early today. Wait, Felicity, why don't you wear jeans? It gets pretty cold in Museums and we both know how grumpy you get when you're cold."
"Ugg, but mom! This looks so cute!" Felicity huffed out. Her mother wore clothes the color of muted earth tones, and had a fascination with the color black, while Felicity's style was much more stand out-ish with bright colors and festive patterns.
"Felicity, practicality over style. Hurry, I'll meet you at the car."
Felicity pulled on some jeans and grabbed her forest green sweater Leiah had given her for her 12th birthday. She had a feeling she would need the reminder today that she did have a friend in the world, even if she was miles away.
"Well if I can't wear the red skirt I can at least wear these red earrings!" She grabbed the little heart studs and her backpack and ran to meet her mom at the car.
When she was passing through the kitchen she spotted them sitting on top of one of the open boxes. Her Walkie-talkies. Well, their Walkie-talkies, technically, they were hers but for years the little, blue, Walkie- talkies were used every day to keep in contact with her best friends and next door neighbors (Lucas and Leiah) and they were theirs to share. For some reason, she grabbed them and stuck them in her back pack and saw her spy kit below the devices. The box it was sitting in was filled with lots of things she used to play with after school with her friends, and some things that needed to be put away in her new room. She grabbed the spy kit as well, and then ran out to the car before she made her mother late.
She didn't really know why she grabbed them but it felt right. Maybe she would get paired with some fun girls and they could split up and talk on the walkie-talkies while looking at different exhibits. But as Felicity mulled this over in the car on the way to school, she realized she was dreaming if she thought anyone at this school would be interesting in having fun. If only Leiah and Lucas were here she could really have an adventure. It would probably be her luck that she would get stuck with a boring group or worse - mean girls.
It was almost comical now, the way Felicity could expect when bad things were going to happen to her. Just like she had predicted, she had been placed in a group on the bus with Victoria Gilman and Amber Washington. They were two of the worst girls in her entire school, in her opinion. They were very stuck up and treated everyone who they didn't "accept" as inferior to them. Victoria had red straight hair that came down to almost the center of her back. Her freckled light complexion and soft green eyes gave off the impression that she was a real life Anne of Green Gables. Felicity usually wasn't one to judge people by their appearances, but the first day she ever met Victoria, she knew they were not going to get along.
Felicity was the new girl in the school after the Holiday Season and New Years break (it was now 1999) and as much as she hated moving to a new school in the middle of the school year, she kept up a positive outlook. She had a personal motto she liked to live by that her Bubbe had taught her long ago that stated that each day held the possibility to do something good and the chance to make a lifelong friend. Felicity tried to live up to it the best she could. She had been a ball of nerves that first day, but kept reciting that motto over and over in her head to try to keep her nerves calm and her mouth shut.
However, Victoria had snapped all the reserve she had been trying to maintain when Felicity saw her drop her cup of paint on purpose onto Beth's painting while the rest of the class was watching the teacher in art class. Felicity wasn't watching the teacher because Beth had caught her eye.
Beth had Down-syndrome and no one seemed to notice how hard she was trying to copy every movement that the teacher was making onto her canvas except for Felicity. She saw how Beth used all the focus she had to make her hands mimic the teachers motions and try to recreate the tree the teacher was painting. Felicity had a buddy at her old school just like Beth and they ate lunch together two times a week and had music class together. He was one of the kindest people Felicity had ever met in her life and he showed her every day what true, unconditional, love looked like. He never judged anyone and Felicity liked that he always saw the best in people. Felicity thought maybe Beth could be her first friend at this school and maybe it would make missing lunch with her old school buddy bearable.
But all of those thoughts were pushed away as Felicity watched in horror as Victoria took the orange paint and spilled it all over Beth's painting and then onto hers as well.
"Ahhh Beth what is your problem?!" Victoria screamed. "You just spilled all of the paint!"
Felicity was filled was such rage she shot to her feet, ears ringing as she saw Beth get large tears in her eyes.
Beth looked down at her ruined painting and kept saying she didn't do it over and over and over again. Victoria's voice went up an octave and came out like the screech of a black crow.
"I want to be moved right now! My parents pay too much money for me to come to this school and then have to sit by people like her. I want to be moved to where my masterpieces won't be destroyed."
The teacher was saying something but Felicity didn't hear any of it because she was up and across the room before she knew she was moving. She stood right between Beth and Victoria and looked a confused Victoria in the face as she said: "You're a liar! You poured that paint and I SAW you. Don't you dare try to blame her you heartless witch!"
Felicity didn't know where this voice was coming from, but it sounded angry and deep, and Victoria looked like she was a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.
Felicity was "new meat" at the school and Victoria really didn't know what kind of person Felicity was, so she wasn't going to test her by talking back to her. The teacher suddenly got her wits about her and stood between both girls.
"Enough!" she huffed out.
The whole class was silent except for the Beth's sniffles. For some reason this little sound seemed to fuel Felicity's rage and she decided she wasn't going to back down. The teacher obviously wasn't used to anyone countering Victoria's little outbursts which, as Felicity found out later, happened often because she was just standing there looking at Felicity like she was an alien from another planet.
"Alright now girls, it's just a practice painting, it's not even important. Victoria, sit down and Miss Smoak, please do the same."
But as Victoria sat down with a confused look on her face Felicity turned towards the teacher.
"She made her cry! And you're going to let her sit back down?! I want to be moved next to her." Felicity said, placing a hand on Beth's shoulder as she spoke.
Victoria took this moment to get her composure back and realized she had a way out. "I'll take her seat and she can have mine!" said Victoria in a creepily sweet voice.
The teacher looked between them. "Fine, just as long as there aren't any more problems" she agreed and then turned her back to them, walking back to the front of the class.
Victoria collected all of her things and switched with Felicity, but never apologized to Beth and that bugged Felicity to no end. As Felicity took her new seat she saw a smiling Beth looking at her. She leaned over and gave Felicity a big hug.
"Thank you, new girl." She whispered.
Felicity smiled and quietly introduced herself to Beth as the teacher began where she left off in the lesson. Felicity gave her canvas to Beth and took the orange one, telling her she loved the color even though, in reality, it wasn't one of her favorites and this incident only added to the dislike of the color. From that moment on, Beth became her only friend and occasional lunch buddy at her new school, while Victoria became somewhat of her enemy.
So, of course, on this day she would be pared up with Victoria and Victoria's best friend Amber. Amber was like Victoria's mini-me. She went along with whatever Victoria said and, in Felicity's opinion, could sometimes be even nastier than Victoria herself. Amber had skin the color of caramel and jet black hair that came down in ringlets to frame her beautiful, acne-free face. Felicity had heard in hall gossip that Amber had been a child model when she was younger and wanted to continue to pursue the career in a few years. Her mother was some sort of fashion designer in Starling and it seemed everyone at Felicity's all girls school drooled over every new design Amber wore while Felicity, on the other hand, found her clothes kind of tacky and unoriginal.
'Great' Felicity thought, 'just want I needed. What kind of silver lining can come from this day of constant nagging?'
"Excuse me, Freak, What did you say to me?" asked Amber as they filed off of the buses.
"First off, I'm not a 'freak' and second off, I was talking to myself so yeah…" Felicity replied, her voice trailing off towards the end.
"Like I said - Freak."Amber snapped back.
Felicity breathed through her nose as she bit her tongue and tried to not speak back. Only seven more hours to go and she was free.
One of the teacher's in charge began explaining how the day was going to go.
"First off everyone make sure to take your backpacks and notebooks with you. You will be graded on the details of your notes and you will have to write an essay on your favorite experience and exhibit tomorrow in class."
Another teacher chimed in and said "Remember ladies, stay with your assigned partners and we will all meet out back in the Butterfly Gardens for lunch at 12:30, so don't forget your lunch on the bus!"
Felicity had everything she needed in her backpack, so she began to make her way up the large stairs with the entire group of sixth-grade girls from her school when she remembered Victoria and Amber. She looked around and spotted them at the bottom of the stairs talking to a teacher, and not just any teacher but Ms. Upland. She was the like what a vice principal had been at Felicity's other schools but her job title at this school was site co-administrator, whatever that was.
'Why can't they have normal job titles like vice principal and principal instead of Site leader and co-administrator? This school is so weird.' Felicity thought to herself.
Ms. Upland was someone who was impressed with a person's financial and social status, and since Victoria was the mayor's niece, she always took Victoria's side in any dispute Felicity had ever seen.
"This is going to be an innnnn-teresting day." She muttered under her breathe.
As she made her way back down the stairs, she watched as their school buses left and two charter buses pulled up to the curb and droves of boys piled out in identical uniforms and stood by the buses.
"What is with this city and 'same-gender' schools? Haven't they ever heard of integration?" She said to herself as she reached the girls and Ms. Upland.
"Excuse me?" said questioned.
"Oh, NO! I wasn't saying that this city is sexist or anything! I was just making an observation, that the youth of this city seem to be separated by gender in so many ways. I have never seen an all girls swim team before and while it might seem weird to you, I find that children can benefit from interactions with the opposite sex. And by sex I don't mean sexual encounters, I mean as in girls talking to boys of the same age and…"
As she spoke, Felicity looked up and saw giving her a strange look. She had her head cocked to the side like she was trying to decipher the words coming out of Felicity's mouth, as if they were in a foreign language.
Amber had a creepy, smug smile on her face, while Victoria just looked like she smelled rotting flesh.
"III, Umm, yeah…" Felicity trailed off awkwardly. She could feel the blush on her chest rising to her cheeks.
"If you're done now, Miss. Smoak," said , "I'd advise you to stay with your group and try to keep your observations to yourself for the rest of the day, for all our sakes."
Ms. Upland followed the girls back up the steps and into the main entrance of the Museum. As soon as she was out of earshot Victoria and Amber turned quickly to their right and went into the women's bathroom without so much as a word to Felicity.
"Um, yeah, thanks for telling me, because it's not like we're a group or anything." Felicity said, trying to catch up with them.
She used the restroom and was washing her hands when she heard a small shriek come from one of the stalls.
Amber had just come out and was headed to the sink when she heard the sound as well. She whipped her head around towards the stall.
"Victoria? Are you okay?" Amber asked which came out more like a confused statement than actual concern.
"Oh my god Amber I'm dying!" A small distraught voice from the middle stall said.
"What?" Felicity said in confusion.
"I'm DYING, FREAK! I'm bleeding and I can't get it to stop!" Victoria's voice snapped.
"Oh," Felicity laughed "it's probably just your period. I haven't gotten mine yet but I always come prepared because my mom was telling me that one time when she was-" she started explaining.
"SHUT UP FREAK! This is no time for one of your crazy word vomits! This is serious, Victoria is DYING!" Amber screamed at her.
"Okay, everyone needs to take a chill pill," Felicity said in a slightly loud voice. "She's not dying, she's just menstruating. Her body is shedding the…"
"I'm WHAT?!" Victoria screamed. Felicity could hear her beginning to cry and becoming distraught by the way her voice wavered.
"Victoria, hang on, I'm going to go get help!" Amber said as she ran out of the bathroom.
"I don't understand why you're making such a big deal out of this," said Felicity to the stall door "I mean, seriously, it's just part of life and growing up to become a woman, and you wouldn't be able to procreate and produce offspring without-"
"Just stop, Freaklicity, please, just stop. I have no idea what you're talking about and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go to the hospital because I'm dying. SO SHUT UP!"
Realization dawned on Felicity at that exact moment.
"Are you telling me your mom never told you about the birds and the bees?" Felicity asked in an astonished voice.
"What the heck do 'birds and bees' have to do with me dying?" Victoria cried out.
"I, um… Wow… I mean I thought all girls knew… I mean how could you not? Your body has, obviously, been changing if you're beginning your menstruation cycle and didn't you have questions? I mean, I had questions right away when I began to get underarm hair, but before that I had this conversation with my mom when I was like nine and I even asked my Bubbe about pubic-"
At that moment Felicity was cut off when came running into the bathroom with two other teachers in tow. They began to talk to the distraught Victoria and Felicity saw this as her opportunity for escape.
She began walking back to into the Museum and picked up a map as she passed the front desk. To her right was the Dinosaur hall and she walked inside, excited to see what this natural history museum had to offer. She stopped in the center of the atrium to look up at the complete skeletal remains of a dinosaur.
For the first seven years of Felicity's life she'd lived in Georgia with her mom. There had been a huge museum they would visit that had anything a person would ever want to know about dinosaurs and she'd learned a lot. Georgia might have been a long time ago, but she still had a soft place in her heart for dinosaurs.
As she was staring up at the incredible creature, she spotted three boys that looked a little older than her, looking up at the beast as well. They were from that school that had come off of the charter buses earlier because she recognized their uniforms. The African American boy looked down at his map, and then back up at the dinosaur, like he was trying to figure something out. He had light brown eyes and a soft smile that Felicity immediately liked. She thought maybe he was trying to get information about the dinosaurs' origins. Next to him, was a lanky and semi-tall blond, teenage boy. He was laughing at something a third, shorter, dark- haired boy, who was her height, was saying. The shorter, dark-haired boy began laughing as well. His laughter was contagious and she found herself smiling at them as she approached. As she walked closer she heard the dark headed boy whistle and then say "That is one GIANT monster."
The blonde boy perked up at that, "I know right?! Can you imagine trying to outrun this T-Rex? I mean, we would have been DEAD!" he exclaimed excitedly.
At this point, Felicity had reached their group and cleared her throat.
All three boys turned around to look at her.
"Umm actually this isn't a T-Rex. It's an Allosaurus which is much smaller than a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but is actually in the T-Rex family, so I can see why you thought they were the same, but if you ever saw a real T-Rex skeleton in person you would realize that this looks like the baby, baby, baby sister of a T-Rex. And as much as the Allosaurus is..." Felicity trailed off when she realized that all three boys were looking at her like she'd just stepped out from some science-fiction movie and had just grown wings in front of their eyes.
"Who are you?" the blonde boy asked.
"Um, I'm Felicity and yeah I know you probably didn't want a lesson in dinosaurs but sometimes I can just go off on tangents if someone doesn't stop me. I could probably fill your head with hours' worth of information." She said pausing for a breath "Like, there has only been one definitive Tyrannosaurus Rex that researchers have found that is a specific gender. Personally, I think it's crazy because you would think that they would have different reproductive bones, but no, they didn't - it was all organs and muscles…" she rambled, hands flying in the air as she spoke, emphasizing the dinosaur to their left.
About this time it dawned on her that she was talking to strangers about the reproductive organs of dinosaurs. It was probably a good idea to stop talking. "But you didn't need to know that so I'm going to stop talking in 3… 2… 1…"
The blond boy looked confused; the African American boy with the map just smiled at her, while the dark haired boy stepped up with his hand outstretched and a smirk on his face and introduced himself.
"Hi Felicity, I'm Tommy Merlyn, but you probably already knew that. Do you want a picture or something?" Shaking his hand, Felicity got the feeling that this boy was a bit cocky, but she had no idea why.
"I have no idea who you are because I just met you, and I don't need a picture of that dinosaur, I have plenty of books about them at home." She said, clearly confused to why she should know who Tommy was.
The guy with the map busted out laughing and came forward to shake her hand as well.
"Oh my God, I think you are the first girl to ever turn down Tommy for a picture. My names Andy Diggle and I think you're awesome!"
"Uh thanks I guess," she shook his hand "But why would I want a picture with you?" Felicity turned to Tommy again "I mean don't get me wrong, it's not like you're not handsome or anything, which you are, but not in a 'oh-you're-so-gorgeous-I-want-to-make-babies-with-you' sort of way, but in a "aww- you're so-handsome-little-brother" way… not that I think of you as my brother, I don't, cause I don't know you, it's just, just," she fought to find the right words to get herself out of her foot-in-mouth situation "3… 2… 1…" she counted, taking a deep breath. She could feel the color rising to her cheeks from embarrassment.
Andy was bent over, holding his side, laughing so hard and repeating the phrase 'little brother' with tears coming out of his eyes, whereas Tommy looked like he was in shock and the blond boy had raised his left eye brow up in amusement.
"Do you not know who I am either?" he asked her.
"Obviously not, 'cause I've never met you and you haven't told me your name yet. Which I'm not asking you to, it's just I don't understand why, you guys, think I'm like, some kind of mind reader." She said bringing her hands up by her face and imitating what she thought a mind reader would do.
The blond boy stuck out his hand at that "I'm Oliver Queen." He said.
"Well nice to meet you Oliver. I'm Felicity but you already knew that so-"
"Where are your friends?" Oliver cut her off
"In Colorado. Why?" she asked in confusion.
He tilted his head to the side, giving her a confused look. "Your school drove all the way here from Colorado?" and asked sarcastically.
"No! Oh, well, I go to school here now, it's just, you said friends, and my automatic reaction was to think of my real friends, which are back home. Well, technically, Colorado isn't my home anymore, but I don't have any friends at this school; well except for Beth, but that's a long story, and Victoria and Amber- the girls that I got paired up in a group with are definitely NOT my friends… I mean, technically I don't have enemies, but if I did they would probably be at the top of my list, but I don't know maybe Victoria was just acting bitchy because she started her period today…" At this Tommy squished his face up into a look of horror while Andy's eyes got wide and Oliver looked clearly uncomfortable. "I mean I've heard that your mood swings increase when a woman begins to ovulate but…"
At this Andy left let out another round of laughter, so intense, Felicity thought he might wet his pants.
"I can see why you don't have friends." Oliver commented. This comment hurt Felicity more than it should have because these were strangers, they didn't know the real her.
Tommy was giving her that look she was used to getting from teachers that told her they had lost her after the first few sentences.
"Oh my god Felicity, you're hilarious!" Andy said between labored breaths as he tried to regain his composure.
"Well, I wasn't trying to be funny." Felicity said with an undertone of hurt in her voice.
She couldn't help that she didn't have friends at her school. Peopled just didn't get her. And this was one of the reasons she hated trying to make new friends, because they always ended up laughing at her. Andy and Tommy's faces fell and she realized she had said that last part out loud.
"Oh no, I wasn't laughing at you Felicity! I was just shocked that you were being so honest. Really!" Andy said with a slight hint of desperation.
"Dude, Andy, what's your problem?" said Tommy.
He turned around and faced Felicity, "I'm sorry, we were just taken a back that's all. Not a lot of people tell us the truth when they are around us and it was, um, very unexpected." He explained.
"Tommy, you don't know her." Oliver protested. "She's obviously lying. Everyone knows who we are and she's just trying to get a story. Here" He handed Felicity a card with his name on it. "Now you have my autograph. Need anything else?"
Felicity whipped her head around to look Oliver straight in the eyes. Her anger bubbling up until she thought she might just explode. Of all the nerve, did he seriously think she was trying to get his autograph? Not only had he insulted her by, kind of, saying she was weird but then to say she was a liar and some kind of autograph hound!
"Excuse me?!" her 'loud voice' made an appearance as she took the card he had given her, crumpled it in her hand and then threw it on the ground. "I am NOT lying! You are a stuck up ass whom I have never laid eyes on before in my life and who needs to learn some manners. I was just trying to help you stupid jerks out because who thinks this small skeleton is a Tyranasaruous Rex? I mean did you fail the second grade? No one is their right mind would make a mistake like that?! And what's the thanks I get? - I get laughed at! And another thing," She got right up in Oliver's face and stuck her pointer finger at him.
Oliver face looked like a mixture of shock and slight terror as she moved closer to him, finger pointing, as her rant continued. He obviously wasn't expecting to be called out or told off by the look on his face.
"Who the hell would want your autograph you pampas jerk? You better learn to treat people with respect because one day you're going to wake up alone and dead on the side of the road and no one is going to come to your rescue. And YOU will be the one with no friends because of the way you treated them." She turned around and faced a shocked Tommy and smiling, wide eyed Andy. They both looked taken aback by this short, spit fire blonde that didn't hold back. "Nice to meet you guys. Hope I NEVER see you again."
With that she turned around and walked away silently freaking out. As soon as she turned the corner she began talking to herself.
"Oh my god Felicity what did you just do? I mean obviously that Oliver was a jerk but why did you tell him off and then say he's going to end up dead on the side of a road?! And how can a person wake up dead?! Ugh, pull it together. Just go look at the exhibits, don't try to correct people and just keep to yourself!" At this she took out her map and picked the exhibit in the very back of the museum, the Monet paintings.
"Okay this is harmless, just go take some notes and then just make your way to the other exhibits. You can do this." She made her way to the very back of the museum and was thankful when the hall with the painting was empty. "For once a little luck today!" She fist pumped the air and sat down on one of the benches in front of a painting.
She sat there for awhile, taking in the serene scene of water lilies on a pond and calmed herself down. She had always loved water lilies and when she was younger she believed they were the magical flowers of the lake fairies. Felicity chucked to herself as she remembered her mother arguing with her Bubbe to not fill Felicity's head with such nonsense. Her Bubbe was the best story teller Felicity had ever known. As a small child Felicity spent hours listening to her stories and what Felicity loved the most was that her Bubbe would let her guess the endings of the stories. Her Bubbe came up with all the mysteries, epic battles and romances but there was always an ending that they would both agree upon to finish the story.
Felicity was going to move on to another painting but remembered that she was supposed to be taking notes on what she saw. As she began to get out her notebook from her backpack she heard some people coming towards her and into the exhibit hall.
Oh no, she recognized those voices!
"I mean, she chewed you out, dude! You were a real piece of work back there!" said Andy
"Yeah well she was a bitch so…Oh my god are you stalking me?!" At this Felicity turned around and saw that Oliver was addressing her.
"Wow your even more arrogant than I thought." said Felicity. Where the heck was this coming from?! Didn't she say she was going to try to not talk to them again? But he called her a bitch so…
"I enjoy Monet, for your information, and this museum isn't yours so I can go anywhere that I want. Now, I was here first, so I'm going to ask nicely because you're really testing my patience today and I've already had way too many outbursts, so please leave."
Oliver's face became enraged. Why did this girl seem to push all of his buttons? "I am not going anywhere." He was looking down at Felicity but she just walked past him.
"Well, neither am I, so you can keep to that side of the exhibit and I'll stay here." With this she turned around and began to look at one of the paintings on the wall like nothing had happened.
Andy came up to her side as she heard Tommy and Oliver walking away to the other side of the hall, talking to each other in harsh whispers.
"I'm sorry Felicity, really, they're not normally this… jerky." Andy was looking down at her with sincerity written all over his face. "Seriously, believe me, normally we are actually who girls want to hang out with. Normally, girls are falling all over themselves to talk to them," he said shaking his head "but that's not the point. The point is, I'm really sorry, I don't know, you're just really… unexpected." He said
"Well that's one way to say I'm a freak." Felicity replied.
"No, Seriously Felicity, I'm sorry. Both Tommy and I are sorry. Really. If there is anything-"
Right at that exact moment when Andy was trying to apologize, gun shots rang out far off but within the museum, followed by screams and shouting.
"Get DOWN!" Andy screamed and pushed her head down to the ground.
He was covering her body with his. Gun shots kept ringing out but they didn't seem to be getting closer.
"GUYS FOLLOW ME!" Andy screamed to Tommy and Oliver.
They ran over to where Felicity and Andy were and Andy helped Felicity up from the ground.
"Come on guys we need to hide! We don't know what's going on." Andy urged them over the gunfire and screams.
They all followed Andy out of the exhibit and into the museum hall. At the end of the hall there was a door Felicity had failed to notice when she first passed through that part of the museum. It had a sign on the door that said 'Electric'.
Andy tried the doorknob only to find it was locked. There weren't any other people around them because they were in a more secluded part of the museum. Felicity covered her mouth with her hand to prevent herself from screaming each time another shot rang out and distant cries of pain were heard. She realized her face was wet and she didn't know when she started crying.
Suddenly, Tommy grabbed something from her hair and handed it to Andy. He had her bobby pin and was able to get the door unlocked and open. Andy pushed them all inside and then got in, shutting the door and locking it.
The room was a lot larger than Felicity had thought it would be. It was still a small closet, but they were all able to fit inside and had just enough room to move around.
Shouts and shots continued to ring outside the hall.
"Hurry, help me Oliver!" Andy was pointing to the shelves on the side of the room filled with cleaning supplies and what looked like tools. The shelves were heavy and it took Oliver, Tommy and Andy to push the shelves in front of the door. The sounds of gunshots seemed to be more sporadic now, but they sounded closer.
Felicity looked at Andy and suddenly she was talking "Oh my gosh, where did you learn to do that with my bobby pin?! Are we going to die? Oh my god all of those people." Felicity brought up her sleeve to wipe her dripping nose but all she could hear were the screams from before still ringing in her ears. The thought of all her classmates getting shot made her feel queasy. "Oh god, were all going to die!"
She began to cry harder. She could feel her heart beat in her ears. All she could see was her vivid imagination bringing up the faces of all of her class mates faces in pain, bleeding out in a science museum. She could feel deep pain in her chest, as she tried to breath, but she kept thinking of Beth. Oh, Beth! Oh God, what if she's been shot! Why couldn't she of been placed in her group? She could have protected her! Oh god, What if she's dead. At this thought, Felicity, couldn't really hear anything anymore and couldn't really see anything either. Her panicked breaths caught the attention of Oliver as he recognized the sound.
Suddenly Oliver was in front of her eyes and had both his hands on her cheeks. Oliver had realized she was having a panic attack and immediately couched down to help, putting aside his earlier anger towards her. His little sister Thea had been having panic attacks for the last year, ever since she had gotten lost on their family vacation to Alaska. Now every time they were in a store, or even sometimes when she couldn't find anyone in their large home, she would have a panic attack about being alone and forgotten. As Felicity sat there on the ground freaking out, he realized what a jerk he had been to her and saw his little sister Thea, in her.
"Felicity breath." said Oliver. She instinctively tried to remove her face from his hands, but it didn't work. "I'm not going to hurt you. You're having a panic attack. My little sister Thea gets them all the time. You need to breath or you're going to pass out. Just focus on me. Umm just listen to me okay. I, uh, I'm sorry about earlier okay? Really truly sorry. I was a huge jerk and if someone ever talked to my sister liked I talked to you, I would want to punch them in the face… Uh, Thea, she like's Barbie's. Do you like Barbie's?"
Oliver was obviously struggling to connect to the girl who he had been calling names less than 30 minutes before. Normally, it was so much easier with Thea because he could just talk to her about her interests. "I, um, have no idea what girls your age like. How old are you?" Oliver didn't stop to let her answer thankfully because Felicity still wasn't able to make out words as she was trying to get her breaths under control.
"I'm , were all 14." He said gesturing with his head over to where Tommy and Andy were sitting beside Felicity looking quite helpless. "Later this summer though, Tommy is going to get his permit and then he will be able to drive us all around. He's supposed to be getting a Porsche for his birthday. He wants a red one with black pin striping down the middle and flames on the side." As Oliver began to talk about Tommy's dream car, his face lit up and he looked genuinely excited. His face had softened as he still held Felicity's face in his hands and his crystal clear blue eyes seemed to be pulling her back to reality.
"He will have to dive with an adult, obviously, but while we wait, Andy's big brother John, sometimes, takes us out, and teaches us how to drive. We don't see him as much as we used to because he's a senior this year, and is going to be going off to the Army next year. But sometimes, after our secret driving sessions, he takes us out for pizza and we have these crazy guys' nights where we stay up late, having movie marathons."
By this time Felicity was able to focus on Oliver and felt more like herself. She was even able to get a question out. "Who buys a 15 year old a Porsche?"
At this Oliver stifled a laugh. "There she is." He smiled a genuine smile at her and his smile seemed to reach his beautiful eyes. Why did she suddenly feel her heart picking up its pace?
Felicity gave him a small smile as he sat down next to her. She was going to say something about cars when they suddenly heard gun shots right outside in the hall. They all held their breath as they heard the sound of footsteps outside the door. Andy and Tommy sat down and all the boys subconsciously moved to place themselves between Felicity and the door. The sound of the door handle rattling made their bodies go rigid.
"Mike, it's locked." Someone's voice on the other side said.
"Well go find the keys! We can't leave any room unopened." Another voice, probably belonging to Mike, responded.
The sound of footsteps getting farther and farther away was the only sound Felicity could hear besides the beating of her heart that was thumping in her ears. When they could no longer hear the footsteps Tommy spoke up "What are we going to do guys? They're going to find the keys and come back."
"We could try to fight them." said Andy.
"Are you crazy?!" asked Oliver, his voice resembling more of a hiss than a whisper "they have guns and we have what?" he looked around the room and his eyes landed on the shelf "A shelf for a barricade and some tools?"
Felicity began to feel overwhelmed again. She was going to die in the tiny closet with some strange teenage boys and at that moment her life should have been flashing before her eyes, but it wasn't. Was her life really that boring that nothing of importance could come to her mind? She might have never been kissed, but that didn't mean she led a completely boring life.
She leaned her head back against the cool concrete of the tiny closet. What was she doing, thinking about kissing at a time like this? Ugh, her brain thought of the most inopportune times to bring up random topics! Shouldn't she be writing a letter to her mother to tell her how much she loved her? Did she need to write out a will? What did she have that was of monetary value? Nothing really except for... She looked up to the ceiling, as she was thinking about who would get her possessions, and that's when she saw it.
An air duct.
And suddenly she felt hopeful.