Summary: In which Barry's the new guy at school, Oliver's having a bisexual awakening, Tommy finds the whole situation hysterical, and Hartley's only a little jealous he's not the one getting to have the gay love story.
Notes: For Olivary Bingo - I4 Boarding School AU
And Barry Allen Week - Nov 23: School
Another one that fits both the bingo and Barry Allen week :D
New Kid in School
Barry hasn't been this nervous in a very long time. He knows that if anything goes wrong, he can call Joe, but there won't be a lot he can do for Barry. Aunt Jessica fought for custody of Barry, and won, for reasons Barry can't even begin to fathom.
After all, if she wanted custody of him so badly, why did she immediately ship him off to boarding school? And why couldn't she be bothered to spend any time with him before doing so?
Still, Barry was relatively certain he'd be happier away from his aunt than with her, so... here he was at the Covington Academy about to step into his new room with his new roommate. Hence the awful nerves.
Hopefully his roommate would like him. Or at least tolerate him.
Steeling himself, Barry opened the door. His roommate, a blond haired guy who looked to be the same age as Barry - seventeen - was sitting at his desk, feet propped up on his bed, and quietly bopping along to some music playing in his headphones.
"Uh, hi?" Barry called loudly as he walked in.
No response.
"Right, okay..." Barry closed the door behind him and then walked over to the guy in tapped his shoulder.
He jolted and nearly fell out of his chair in response, scrambling to yank off his headphones.
"I am so, so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Barry immediately began apologizing.
"It's fine. I just nearly had a heart attack, it's fine," the guy responded dryly, shaking his head. "Really, though, I knew you were coming. I should've kept the tunes off until you got here." He tapped one of his ears. "Hard of hearing, so if you, like, introduced yourself I'm afraid I missed it."
"Just said hi. Um... I'm Barry Allen." He held out a hand to shake his roommate's. "It's nice to meet you."
"Hartley Rathaway," he replied, accepting the handshake. "I'm kind of a neat freak, so please tell me you don't leave your clothes all over the room?"
"Basket at the end of the bed," Barry promised. "It kind of needs to not be in the closet though. ADHD makes object permanence kind of... so-so."
"Good enough." Hartley pointed to the other bed and desk. "Those are yours and I think they already stuck your suitcases in the closet. So, what brings you to Covington's? Most of us are family rejects in some way. I, for one, am here because I'm gay and conversion therapy is illegal. So my parents are doing the time honored equivalent of hiding something distasteful under a rug."
"My parents died last year and my Aunt apparently wanted me enough to win custody from my godfather but not enough to actually keep me around afterwards." Barry opened the closet Hartley'd gestured to and peered inside, relieved to see his suitcases were indeed inside. He grabbed the smallest to start unpacking first.
"Godfather isn't a relative too, I take it?" Hartley asked. "Sorry about your parents, by the way."
"No, Joe's not a relative. He's been friends... was friends," Barry corrected himself thickly, "with my parents for a long time. And he's who they put in their wills should get custody of me if they died before I became a legal adult. But..." Barry grimaced, "but I'm pretty sure my Aunt was being racist because Joe's black."
"Ouch."
"Yeah. So I'm probably better off here than with her. And Joe told me that I can come live with him once Aunt Jessica doesn't have legal rights to me anymore."
"Definitely. It's not so bad here. This is my second year here and it's infinitely preferable to the Catholic school I was attending before this. At least no one tells me I'll be going to hell once a day." Hartley shrugged. "Got your class schedule yet?"
Barry nodded and pulled the folded up paper out of his back pocket and let Hartley have a look.
"Hmmm... we've got homeroom together but you're in Spanish while I'm in French, different math classes, you're in biology to my physics... oh, English Lit, we've got that together. Which means the same lunch period too. The economics teacher is bizarre - he's also the AcDec coach. I don't have economics until next semester... speech and gym..." Hartley handed the schedule back. Three classes together plus homeroom. Not too bad; I can point out most of the classes we don't share on the way to homeroom."
"Thanks." Barry felt a little relief sink in. His roommate was nice and he was going to be just fine. Eventually.
When Oliver gets to homeroom, barely squeaking through the door before the bell rang and dropping into the first seat available, he does not notice the new guy at first. Too busy going over his Algebra II homework to be sure he hadn't misplaced any of it - again - to register the new face sitting beside Hartley.
He notices, however, when the teacher has the new kid stand up in front of the class and introduce himself. Barry Allen, formerly of Central City, and apparently interested in forensic science of all things.
A nerd, basically.
None of which explains why Oliver desperately wants a chance to actually speak to the guy himself. He just has a really nice smile, Oliver decides. Who wouldn't want to be the guy's friend with a smile like that?
Oliver zones out during the pledge, sneaking looks at the new guy and wondering what tv shows he liked. When the fifteen minute period came to an end, Oliver lingered for a few moments at his desk and ultimately hesitating too long to introduce himself before Barry disappeared out the door.
"Earth to Drama Queen," Tommy intoned, bopping Oliver in the face with some rolled up paper. Probably the essay he had due in their next class. "Can you read me, Drama Queen."
"What?" Oliver snapped, gathering up his backpack and his definitely all there math homework.
"You just seemed a little lost in unfamiliar territory," Tommy replied with a little smirk.
"Just wondering about the new guy," Oliver muttered defensively.
"Uh-huh. Well we'd better hurry to our next class, wonder boy."
Oliver groaned, but followed Tommy out the door. "Why are you so awful?"
"It's a gift."
Hartley might've had a few trope fueled hopes that when his new roommate arrived, there'd be an 'oh my god, they were roommates' type instant attraction. Sadly, there isn't.
Barry's cute, no doubt about it, but Hartley's a little relieved there's no sparkage once he realizes what a goody-goody the other guy is. (Not that Hartley wants a bad boy in a biker jacket... well... okay, so there's nothing wrong with a hottie in a leather jacket, but he doesn't want someone he feels compelled to change into a better person. Just... someone he can argue with and not feel like he's kicking a puppy.) They're definitely going to be good friends, though. Hartley can already tell.
That being said, if the way Oliver Queen keeps staring at Barry makes Hartley suspect there's gonna be a gay love story going on anyway. Just not Hartley's gay love story. (He's not super jealous about this. Minimal jealousy only.)
This suspicion cements during gym class when Oliver nearly walks into the doorframe of the locker room entrance because he's so busy staring at one Barry Allen.
Hartley can't help himself. He heads over to Tommy, elbows the guy, glances pointedly from Oliver to Barry, and then looks back at Tommy with a raised eyebrow. Tommy nods solemnly, an amused grin tugging at his face.
He's not the only one who sees this. Okay. Hartley can work with this.
Tommy tossed another crumpled up paper ball at Oliver's face. Smacked him right on the nose - three points.
"What the hell, man?" Oliver grumbled, tossing the paper back and missing wildly.
"You've got a crush," Tommy told him, smirking.
"What? I do not."
"You do, you are showing all the classic 'Oliver Queen with a crush' symptoms. You haven't had it this bad since you had a thing for Laurel and Sara at the same time. At least this time you're only crushing on one person," Tommy added, relieved. The debacle with the sisters had been what got them sent to boarding school in the first place. Well... it got Oliver sent to boarding school.
Tommy just asked his dad to send him to the same school as Oliver, Malcolm Merlyn nodded and agreed without actually looking away from his business paperwork, and then Tommy got himself enrolled and slipped anything that needed signatures into the paperwork pile. (Oliver's parents were more Tommy's parents these days anyway. He tried not to be too bitter about his father's neglect because Moira and Robert really did love him like a second son - they'd said so repeatedly.)
"There aren't any girls at this school," Oliver retorted. "No one for me to crush on."
"Oh, so you didn't walk into a doorframe because you were ogling the new guy? Barold something or other?"
"Barry," Oliver corrected, and then blushed. "I was not staring at his ass."
"I didn't say you were. I said you were ogling him; I didn't specify a body part. Though that seemed like a suspiciously specific denial. Also, you were totally day dreaming about him instead of doing your homework just now." Tommy sighed and shook his head. "You can lie to yourself, Ollie. You cannot lie to me."
"What I... I'm not... oh..." Oliver went silent and wide eyed as the gears in his head started turning. "Oh shit."
Tommy cracked up. "Should I be offended that I wasn't your bisexual awakening?"
"Dude, we share a sister. We're practically brothers. We're not, like, the Winchesters. Don't be gross." Oliver pouted. "He really is cute," he muttered, blushing.
Oliver's response just made Tommy laugh that much harder. Once he calmed down enough, Tommy asked, "so how do you intend to win the handsome object of your newly discovered affections?'
The panicked expression on Oliver's face only served to set Tommy's laughter off again.
"So, Barry, considering joining our GSA?" Hartley asked as they got back to their dorm after dinner.
"Sure. I probably should've mentioned yesterday, but I'm bi," Barry replied, setting his new text books at his desk.
"Then would you be interested to know which guy kept checking you out during gym class?" Hartley's teasing voice was quite smug.
"What? No, no way, I am scrawny and no one checks out the scrawny guy." Barry shook his head, wide eyed.
"You're cute. Sadly not my type or we'd be having a very different conversation right now. But cute nonetheless. And you were definitely being checked out in gym." Hartley smirked. "Soooo...?"
"Alright, fine. Who?" Barry wasn't sure he'd actually recognize the name, but...
"Oliver Queen." At Barry's blank look, Hartley elaborated. "Blond, about this tall," he stood up and gestured above himself, "arms to die for, hangs out with a very dark haired brunet by the name of Tommy Merlyn."
"Oh." Barry squeaked. "Him. He, um... he does have nice arms."
Hartley snickered. "Oh this is too good. I am going to really enjoy being your roommate. You should ask him out. Let me live out my gay fantasies vicariously through you."
Barry just collapsed onto his bed, hiding his bright red face behind his hands. He'd never be able to work up the nerve to ask Oliver out. It'd be like with Iris all over again. And while he was happy with where his friendship with Iris was at these days, he'd prefer not to go through another round of pining and shyness and jealousy every time Oliver proved to like someone who wasn't scrawny, unappealing Barry Allen.
Still... "You really think he was checking me out?" Barry asked, moving his hands away and making sure to speak clearly enough for Hartley to pick up on.
"Yup." Hartley looked, and sounded, excited.
"Well... I guess it couldn't hurt to get to know him better..."