Author's Note: Guyyyyssss Happy Valentine's Day!
Wouldn't it have been so cool if I could have timed the posting of these chapters with real-life happenings? Like, Thanksgiving would have been posted on Thanksgiving. Valentine's Day on Valentine's Day. That would have been neat.
It was Friday night when Caitlin received a text from Julian.
Can you meet me anywhere at anytime tomorrow? I really need to talk to you.
A feeling of dread pooled in her stomach, and Caitlin stared in confusion at the text. What could he possibly need to talk to her about that he couldn't text or call?
The only thing she could think of was that was breaking up with her. But that made no sense at all. She had thought they were in a good place; just today he had asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She, of course, had told him what she told everyone else: "Donate to your favorite medical research charity in my name. If you want to get me a gift, please do so at Christmas." It was a system she had figured out a couple years ago, with her birthday being only three days away from Christmas (which totally sucked).
She had told Julian he didn't need to donate, and that he could just get her a Christmas gift, and he had agreed that he might do just that. While his allowance was large, it wasn't bottomless, and he already paid for both of their dinners on most dates.
So what would have made him break up with her between the time that they had spoke about that this afternoon and now?
Heart beating super-fast, Caitlin called her boyfriend. "Julian," she said as soon as he picked up, which didn't take very long. "You can't text me something like that and expect me to wait until tomorrow to find out what your talking about! Because it really sounds like your going to break up with me and I won't be able to sleep tonight because I'm going to be freaking out!"
"Calm down, Caitlin," Julian said soothingly. "I'm not breaking up with you, I promise."
Relieved, Caitlin let out a slow breath. "Good," she said. "Good, that's... that's good. What did you need to talk about, then, that you couldn't over text or phone?"
"I have some... news," Julian said cryptically. "I just thought it would be better to talk face to face. But I can see where making you wait would be horrible so I'll just tell you now."
"Okay." Caitlin paced her room, nervously drumming her fingers. "What's up?"
Julian took a deep breath. "Alright, don't freak out on me, okay? I... I overheard my parents talking tonight. They were... they were discussing moving back to London."
Caitlin actually had to sit down. "What?!" she choked. "Now?! Right before Christmas?!"
"I don't know when," Julian said quickly. "I don't even know if we're moving for sure. I mean, I just overheard them. They haven't even talked directly to me about it. But if they do... I'll do everything I can to convince them that we have to stay. I just... I felt like you should know, and I needed to tell someone, and I know you won't go spreading rumors around the entire school."
"No, no, of course not," Caitlin murmured, running her fingers through her hair. "I would never do that. Thank you for telling me. And if you still want to see me tomorrow I can definitely meet you."
"Alright," Julian sighed. "Thanks for being so chill about this."
They said their goodbyes and hung up, and Caitlin wandered slowly downstairs.
"Caitlin?" Carla, Caitlin's mom, asked. "What's going on? Who were you talking to upstairs?"
"Julian," Caitlin responded, and before she could help it she started to cry. "He- he said he overheard his parents talking about going back to London."
Carla's eyebrows rose. "Oh," she murmured. "Oh my." She walked forward and awkwardly placed her arms around Caitlin. "I'm sorry, honey. But you must understand- these things happen."
"But- but it's right before Christmas and Winter Formal and my- my birthday," Caitlin sobbed. "And everything! Julian can't leave, mom. I can't do a long-distance relationship over two different timezones!"
"Shhh..." Carla whispered, rubbing her daughter's back. "Take a deep breath, Caitlin. There's nothing you can do. If this is what Julian's parents thinks is best for their family then they're going to make the move. There's nothing you can do to stop that. The best way to look at this is to make sure you make the most possible out of your time with Julian while he's still here."
Caitlin nodded tearfully. "Okay. Thanks, mom."
Carla looked surprised. She wasn't used to having any moments where her daughter needed advice so badly she came to her for it. It gave her an odd feeling of importance.
She brushed it off with a quick nod and turned back to what she was doing. Caitlin nodded back, wiped her eyes, and walked slowly upstairs. Even with her mother's advice she was still miserable. How was she supposed to survive the rest of her Junior year and her Senior year without Julian Albert?
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The only reason Felicity was currently in the gym waiting for the late bus a half hour early was because she lost her phone and needed to check all the classrooms she had been in that day until she found it. Needless to say, she was a bit peeved that part of the afternoon before weekend was going to be spent staring at math problems in the gym.
Then Oliver Queen walked it. "Felicity!" he cried, looking overjoyed to see her. "I'm glad I caught you."
"You are?" Felicity asked, surprised. If he hadn't seemed so happy she would have thought he was breaking up with her, but she didn't think that was the case. "Why? What's up?"
Oliver smiled widely. "I wanted to wish you a Happy Hanukkah before you left today."
Felicity's eyebrows shot up and she beamed. "Aw, Oliver, thank you! I mean, Hanukkah started on the 12th but you're still only the third person so say that to me."
Oliver winced. "Yeah, so... I kind of only found out this afternoon that you're Jewish? I was talking to Dig about what I should get you for Christmas and he mentioned that you didn't actually celebrate Christmas. He thought I was still supposed to get you a gift but I wasn't sure."
"No worries," Felicity assured him. "Yeah, Hanukkah lasts for eight days and yes we do gifts. But, like, please don't get me a dreidel or something- I've collected so many of those over the years from aunts and uncles and grandparents and people, and I just don't have the heart to throw them away, so I have like this whole drawer just filled with dreidels-"
Oliver was laughing and Felicity trailed off, wishing she could hide under her backpack.
"Alright, I get it," Oliver chuckled. "No dreidels."
"Yeah," Felicity agreed, relieved. "Thanks."
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Thea, Roy and Leonard all received the same text at around the same time.
'Okie bros. When's date nite'
Thea smirked at Sara's text and responded to her friend. 'I'm free on Saturday almost all day hbu?'
'Saturday works' Leonard responded after only a couple seconds. Thea was impressed.
Roy took a full hour to get back to them. 'Whenever works'
Unsure if that meant that Saturday worked and he had checked with his parents and all of that, Thea texted, 'Like 12:30 for lunch or r we doing dinner?'
Again, Leonard's reply was almost in an instant. 'Lunch is good with me'
'Okaaaaay' Sara replied. 'Where r we going? Somewhere downtown?'
Thea sent a shrugging emoji. Roy didn't answer.
'There's a diner close to school' Leonard responded. 'It has good food. I can send u guys the address.'
'Cool beans :)' Sara texted.
"Hey mom!" Thea yelled, running out of her room and peering over the banister. "Is it okay if I go on a double date with Roy and Sara and Leonard?"
"A double date?" Moria Queen came to the bottom of the stairs, frowning. "You have a boyfriend, Thea? Why haven't I heard about this?"
"Because you're always working and think I'm talking to myself when I start telling you about Roy," Thea mumbled. Then she pasted on a grin and shrugged. "I don't know how you could have missed it, mom. I talk about Roy all the time."
Moria frowned deeper. "I don't really know his parents, Thea. Or Leonard's."
"It's not like we're having a sleepover," Thea groaned. "I won't even be going to either of their houses. Come on, mom, it took me just about forever to get Roy to agree to this. I can't back out now."
Moria's lips pinched together. "Alright, fine. But I'll expect you to be home before 10:00."
"Oh my gosh, we're going out for lunch!" Thea cried. "I'll probably be home before four!"
She turned with a huff and stomped off to her room. "Alright, fine" would have to be a good enough "yes" for her to get out of the house on Saturday.
On cue, her phone buzzed. 'I can go Sat' Roy said.
'12:30 is good for everyone?' Sara asked.
Multiple yeses were sent back to her, and Thea leaned back against her bed, smiling contentedly. Even though it had been over a month since she had first had this "double date" idea, she was now finally going to make it happen. Now she just hoped it wouldn't be a total disaster.
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"Oh my goodness," Kara exclaimed as she sat down next to Mon-El in their History class. "Oh my goodness gracious I am stressing out."
"Why are you stressing out?" Mon-El asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Because the school play is no less than 8 days away," she grit out, her entire face tense and her eyes almost the size of small clementines. "And, if you recall, I am playing the lead."
Mon-El smiled, patting her shoulder reassuringly. "You'll do awesome, Kara, don't worry! You've been practicing for this play for, like, months. You not doing great would be more of a surprise to me than you messing up."
"I know," Kara groaned. "I just get so jittery when I think about it. What if I totally freeze up?"
That happens in acting," Mon-El shrugged. "The other actors cover for you. It's not the end of the world. It's called 'Live Theater'."
"When did you get so knowledgable in area of theater?" Kara teased, laughing a little.
" 'Bout the time that my girlfriend got a lead," Mon-El countered.
Kara smiled at him, but then her face fell. "You know... I was kind of hoping that Oliver Queen wouldn't be my first kiss."
Mon-El's face fell, too, and he went very still. "Oh."
"Yeah," Kara sighed. "I mean, I know it's as Belle, but it is still me. And I actually have to kiss him, according to Mr. Merlyn. But, like, I don't know. You're my first boyfriend- real boyfriend, anyway; Adam didn't count- and I kind of wanted you to be my first real kiss. And, like, I get why we haven't kissed yet- I don't want to rush it, either! I just think it'd be nice."
Mon-El nodded, echoing her sigh. "I know what you mean," he said softly. "And I'd kiss you right here, right now, I really would. But in the History classroom? That's just not..."
"Right," Kara finished. "I know."
They didn't talk any more about it until that evening, when Mon-El gave Kara a call.
"Hey," he greeted, nervously rubbing his hand across his knee even though she wasn't there. "Um, so... I was wondering if you'd be able to meet me on Saturday night. After dinner do you want to go out and walk around downtown? I can get you an hot cocoa and we can celebrate before your big show."
"Oh!" Kara blinked, surprised. She knew, deep down, why he was doing this. At the same time, it didn't feel forced. They had been dating for quite a few months now, and a hot-cocoa-date was the perfect time to have their first kiss. "Um, yeah, I'll ask my mom right now; hang on."
She didn't hang up; just dropped her phone onto her bed and ran downstairs. "Hey, mom, Mon-El asked me on a date this Saturday after dinner. Can I go?"
"Check your schedule," Eliza responded predictably.
Kara nodded and ran to the calendar that was hanging on the wall, decorated with everything she and Alex had going on. Grinning, she found that Saturday evening was free and quickly wrote in 'Date with Mon-El' in a red (his favorite color) gel pen. Then she ran back upstairs and picked up her phone again.
"Okay, I can go!" Kara told him excitedly. "Where do you want to meet?"
After figuring out the logistics of their date, Mon-El and Kara said goodnight and hung up. Mon-El leaned back in his chair, stomach twisting with nerves. He was, in part, relieved that he had a deadline that he had to kiss Kara by, as weird as that sounded. Sure, he had wanted it to be spontaneous and sweet, but if he didn't get a serious kick in the butt to just kiss her already, he would most likely chicken out every opportunity he got. This way, he knew exactly when he needed to kiss her by, at least if he wanted to be her first kiss. And he sure as heck wasn't going to let Oliver Queen steal that from him.
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And so it happened that six students at AV High planned dates on Saturday.
And so it happened that they had the worst snow storm that Central City had seen in 3 years on that very same day.
"I can't believe this," Sara groaned over the phone to Thea. "I was seriously looking forward to this date!"
"Me too," Thea sighed. She was lying on her bed and twisting her hair around her finger, phone on speaker mode. She was going in for a haircut next weekend, and was trying to play with her hair as much as humanly possible before it was gone. "I bet Roy will totally not agree to another date after this. He'll probably just say it's cursed or something and we were never supposed to go."
As she was speaking, her phone buzzed. Thea frowned and exited the call to check her messages. Then she laughed. "Well, forget I said anything."
"He wants to reschedule, doesn't he?" Sara said, smirk evident in her voice.
"Yes," Thea sighed. "I suppose I shouldn't have doubted him. I really do wonder why he's suddenly so onboard with this, though."
"He likes you, Thea," Sara said. "And he wants to make you happy. You were super excited about this idea and he shut it down. Maybe he just feels bad and wants to... right his wrongs, you know?"
"Yeah, I guess." Thea shrugged and ran her hand through her hair. Her ends really were dead. "I hope I'm not totally pressuring him into this, though. Like, I'm totally excited about going on a double date with you guys but if he's not that's not really fair, right?"
"He'd tell you," Sara replied. "Like, he'd tell you if he didn't want to do it, and he'd tell you why." Then she paused. "I mean, I dunno. Maybe he wouldn't. He's Roy Harper; I honestly can't get a read on him."
Thea laughed. "So are we just going to move our plans to next Saturday? Or should we try tomorrow?"
"I think it's supposed to keep snowing," Sara said thoughtfully. "Hang on, I'll check the weather."
She was quiet for a moment, then, "Yeah, the snow is gonna keep going until 10 o'clock tomorrow, and then there'll be plows and stuff. Ooh, maybe we'll get a snow day on Monday."
"That'd be amazing," Thea agreed. "We haven't had a snow day yet and it's already December 12. Like, my brains are melting. I need a break."
"Christmas break is in a little over ten days. And by that I mean 11 days," Sara responded. "You'll be fine."
They fell into silence, watching the snow fall with only the occasional complaint of why today.
A couple streets away, the complaint were much more vocal. "I can't even believe this," Kara moaned to Alex, near tears. "We were supposed to go on a date tonight!"
"Why are you so torn up about this?" Alex asked, confused. Ever since her talk with Winn, she had gotten more confident in her decision to tell Maggie how she felt, and things had become a lot less awkward. They were still a little strained, but at least Laurel wasn't commenting on it anymore. Or, Alex noticed, teasing them about a relationship. "It's not as if you've never gone on dates before."
"This one was different," Kara sighed. "He was going to kiss me!"
Alex frowned. "Wait, you planned what date he was going to kiss you on? That's a little weird, Kar."
"No, no, no," Kara buried her head in a pillow, embarrassed. "That came out wrong. We hadn't exactly planned it, but... okay, so Oliver and I are going to have to kiss in Beauty in the Beast, right? And I mentioned to Mon-El that I didn't want Oliver to be my first kiss. And then later that night he asked me on a date. So I just feel like he probably was going to kiss me, and now he can't, and now Oliver is going to be first kiss which is weird and disappointing because it's not even going to be real."
"I see," Alex said, the situation clearer now. "Why does he have to kiss you on a date? Doesn't it just have to be before Friday?"
Kara sat up, not having thought about that before. "Oh," she said. "I suppose so. I mean, I just thought a date would be good because, you know, it's a date. And people kiss at the end of dates. He said he would kiss me in History class, which is when we had the conversation -before class, don't give me that look!- but he felt like it was forced and wasn't right."
"Hopefully you will just come across the right time before Friday," Alex said simply. "That's all you really need, right? Now it's going to be more of a surprise. You don't know when it's going to happen."
"Huh." Kara sat up even more, starting to smile. "Yeah, you're right!"
"Of course I'm right," Alex said with a grin. "I'm always right."
Then, like Sara and Thea, they fell into silence and watched the snow fall.
Author's Note: Sorry, a little shorter!
Okay, so to be completely honest I didn't know I was going to make a snowstorm until I actually wrote the word snowstorm. XD Makes it a bit more interesting, right? Don't worry- I have the PERFECT idea for Karamel's first kiss!
