Moving forwards with some new things! A bit of a different format for the next few parts as we follow Oliver and Felicity through some interesting new developments. I hope you enjoy! Reviews are always much appreciated :)

September 5

Oliver tries to put on a happy face as Thea wraps herself around his legs like a squirmy monkey. He can't believe that he's here, dropping his baby sister off for her first day of kindergarten. His parents should be the ones sending her off with hugs and kisses, but no, it's Oliver who has to fill in once again. Just thinking about his parents right now makes him angry, so he tries to push all those thoughts away and focus on Thea. It's an important day for her.

He reaches down and unwinds her arms from around him. He bends down to her height and uses his most gentle big brother voice. "Thea, it's time to go into class." She ignores him and throws herself at him again. Oliver sighs. He's going to be late for his first day of fifth grade if he can't get her to let go of his legs and get into class ASAP.

"Come on Speedy," he says, "You are going to have so much fun. I loved kindergarten and Mrs. Hawthorne is a really nice teacher. I promise."

As he talks he slowly steers them into the room and points out where she should put her backpack. Thea hesitantly lets go of him to hang up her things and as Oliver steps back, she's pounced on by a tiny blonde girl.

"Theaaaaa!" the girl cries, drawing out her name until she runs out of breath. She smiles brightly at Thea, and Oliver recognizes Laurel's little sister. She and Thea went to the same preschool last year. "Hurray, I was so worried when I got here and I couldn't find you, but here you are!"

Oliver watches as Thea's face brightens at the sight of her friend. "Hi Sara!"

"Come on," Sara says, pulling enthusiastically at Thea's arm, "I was colouring the most beautifullest picture ever and I definitely need your help to get it juuuuust right."

Thea giggles and follows Sara across the room. "Bye Ollie. I'll see you after school, right?"

"I'll meet you right here," he answers with a nod. "Have fun!"

Turning away, he sees Mrs. Hawthorne watching him from across the room. She gives him a gentle smile and she still looks almost exactly the same, but with slightly greyer hair. Oliver can't believe how much things have changed in the years since he was in kindergarten.

He met Felicity, they dealt with the whole Slade debacle, he became a big brother, Tommy lost his mom… It seems like a lot in only a few short years.

He gives Mrs. Hawthorne a wave and heads to his own class. The bell has already rung, so the halls are thankfully empty. Oliver takes a deep breath, shoving his hands into his pockets as he walks.

This year is definitely going to be different. Oliver's a bit nervous, if he's being honest with himself. Over the summer, Felicity had been asked to take some placement tests, and the school had skipped her ahead into sixth grade. Oliver had always known she was smart, so while he's not really surprised, he is a bit disappointed. He's always counted on Felicity being next to him, her bright smile leading the way. Felicity had also told him that they'd wanted to move her ahead two grades but her mom had refused.

She'd been disappointed but Oliver's secretly thankful that Donna Smoak had put her foot down. Felicity's mom could be kind of flighty but she always has her daughter's best interests at heart. If Felicity had been moved into seventh grade, they wouldn't see each other at all. Seventh graders got to do rotary and switch classes each period. They had a different lunch break and they didn't get recess.

Oliver also can't imagine Felicity, his Felicity, hanging out with teenagers. It's not that she's immature, 'cause she's not exactly. But she's just so funny and rambly and kind of awkward that Oliver can't help but feel she'd have gotten eaten alive. Sixth grade is okay though. Fifth and sixth graders get the same breaks, so he and Felicity will get to hang out at lunches and recesses, and there's the infamous junior stargazing trip to look forward to in the spring as well.

It's also the first year, ever, that he and Tommy are in different classes. So many things are changing this year and Oliver doesn't know what he's going to do without either of his best friends. He and Tommy have promised that they'll stick together but Tommy makes friends really easily, so maybe he'll meet new friends that are more fun than him.

Oliver shakes his head, ridding himself of that idea. Nah. There's no one more fun than Oliver Queen, he reassures himself.

Arriving at his classroom door, he opens it and confidently walks in. The teacher, a younger Asian man he doesn't recognize, stands at the front of the room. He stops abruptly in the middle of whatever he was saying.

"Hello. And you are?" He looks expectantly at Oliver. Oliver feels his confidence melt away like ice cream on a hot summer day.

"Oliver Queen."

"I am Mr. Fei and I'll be your teacher this year. You're late, Oliver Queen." Mr. Fei doesn't look angry but Oliver feels a sense of disappointment. He doesn't like it. For some reason, he wants Mr. Fei to be impressed, to be proud of him. He gets the feeling that he's going to have to work for that.

"Sorry, sir. I had to take my little sister to her first day of kindergarten and she had a hard time letting go of me." Oliver feels the anger bubbling up inside that he had to step in a be a parent to Thea, again, and immediately stamps it down.

Mr. Fei nods towards an empty desk in the middle of the room. "Take your seat." Oliver hurries to sit down. Laurel Lance smiles up from beside him. Oliver grins back as Mr. Fei continues explaining their classroom rules. Tommy has had a crush on Laurel Lance since he helped her bandage her knee in kindergarten. Oliver can't wait to rub it in his face that he gets to sit beside her all year.

Mr. Fei doesn't give them any homework, they get to learn about the ancient Egyptians later in the year, and besides Laurel he knows a couple other kids in his class. Maybe this won't be such a bad year after all.

"This year is going to be horrible," Felicity moans as Oliver leans against the wall outside Thea's classroom beside her. She lets her head fall back against the wall with a thud as she dramatically flings a hand across her eyes.

Oliver stifles a laugh. "What happened?"

Felicity must not like his tone because she sharply turns her head to look at him with narrowed eyes. "What happened? What happened? I'll tell you what happened, Oliver Queen! I made a complete fool of myself in front of my entire class and they all think I'm horrible and awkward and nobody wanted to sit beside me, but some poor new kid got stuck there, and then I made it worse when I opened my mouth to talk to him and I don't think I can come back to school anymore. I think I need to leave, I need to move away to some far off land where no one has ever heard of Felicity Smoak and her terrible runaway mouth and-"

"Felicity! Oliver!"

Felicity's rant is thankfully interrupted by Thea flying out of the classroom and into her arms. As much as Oliver wants to know about her day, he's not sure that ramble was every going to reach it's destination. Felicity's mouth snaps shut and she smiles and gives Thea a quick squeeze. Oliver does the same and Thea grins toothily at him.

"How was your day, Thea?" Felicity asks, grabbing her hand and swinging it between them. "Did you make some new friends?"

Thea nods excitedly and takes Oliver's hand so she's sandwiched in the middle. "Yup. Well I already knew Sara, but now we're best friends," she says seriously. "And Sara made friends with this other girl. She's from far away, I forget where, but her name's Nyssa. She's pretty nice. She's really good at the monkey bars so I think we'll be friends, too. And then there's this boy."

Her face turns stormy and Oliver and Felicity turn to look at each other over Thea's head. He knows they're thinking the same thing.

"What boy?" Oliver asks, and maybe his voice is a little sharper than it needs to be, but Thea is precious and if there's some boy hassling her…

"Hey guys!" Tommy jogs up to them with a huff. "Sorry I'm late, had to help a lovely lady with her books." He grins at them, hitching up his backpack on one shoulder, blue eyes twinkling. Thea turns to give him a big smile. She likes Felicity, but she really likes Tommy. Oliver's noticed that Thea sometimes gravitates towards Tommy instead of Oliver, with all the time Tommy spends at their house nowadays.

Felicity laughs and shakes her head. "Tommy Merlyn, you've already found a new girl?" she accuses, narrowing her eyes at him. "It's only the first day of school!"

"I couldn't help it. She has the most beautiful smile," he says, a dopey look on his face.

Felicity shoves him halfheartedly with a laugh and the group starts to walk now that they're all present and accounted for.

Oliver half listens to Felicity bugging Tommy about this new girl. It's pretty common now. Tommy has decided that girls are actually not as gross as he'd once thought and has a new crush every week or so. Oliver isn't sure he's on board with this whole idea - Felicity is okay and obviously so is Thea, but he doesn't think girls are useful for much more than friends to play tag or hide and go seek with. Not that he'd tell Tommy that though. Tommy would probably make fun of him.

"So Thea, who is your new boyfriend?" Felicity asks teasingly, sing-singing the last word.

Thea screeches. "Ewww! He is not my boyfriend. That's so gross. He stole my most perfect purple crayon while I was colouring. He is so mean!"

Tommy gasps dramatically. "He stole your crayon? How dare he! What's his name? We'd better call the police."

Thea giggles. "No police, Tommy! His name is Red Hoodie Roy. Well not really. Just in my head. He was pretty sneaky about the whole thing but I saw him and I yelled at him and then he looked kind of scared." Thea looks pretty smug about this. Oliver knows that his little sister is bossy so he's not surprised. She can be kind of scary when she yells, for a tiny five year old girl. "He gave it back after that. And said sorry. But I don't think we're going to be friends," she adds. "Boys are icky."

Felicity nods seriously at this. "Yes. Boys are the worst."

"Hey," Oliver protests, turning to look at her in mock outrage. "Boys are not the worst!" She playfully grins at him, wrinkling her nose and sticking out her tongue, before pulling Thea away from him. They skip off ahead, singing some song that rhymes the words 'smelly boys' and 'farting noise'.

Tommy turns to look at him. "We are not smelly," he says with wide eyes. Oliver mirrors his baffled look, shrugging his shoulders. "Are we?"

September 18

"Oh my God, Felicity, what are you wearing?"

She looks up startled and nearly flings the book she'd been concentrating on across the room with a yelp. With an impressive feat of leaps and bounds Oliver manages to catch the hardcover before it reaches the floor. He holds it with one hand against his chest and stares at Felicity in shock. When had this happened? He blames his parents for missing this startling discovery. He was late this morning after they had both left for work without telling him and he'd had to hurriedly make himself and Thea a lunch for school. They're both turning into workaholics and Oliver really doesn't like it.

"Oliver!" Felicity hisses. "What are you doing sneaking up on me? You need a bell!" She points at him with one hand and snatches her book back with the other.

Oliver rolls his eyes, plopping down into the seat across from her. It's not the first time she's told him that. He can be very sneaky when he wants to be. Opening his mouth to speak, the librarian loudly clears her throat, levelling him with a pointed glare from behind her desk, so he leans across the table to repeat his question in a whisper. "Felicity. What are you wearing?"

She looks up from her book, meeting his eyes, and he's pretty sure she looks… nervous? Unsure?

"Well, I- I've been having trouble seeing the board lately, and sometimes my head really hurts, so Mr. DiMarco called my mom and my mom took me to the doctor and- well… They said I need glasses." She looks down at the table as she finishes, gestures halfheartedly at said glasses now perched on her nose, and Oliver doesn't understand.

"What- I mean… Are you embarrassed?" he asks, because he's pretty sure that's what she's feeling but he doesn't get it. Felicity gets embarrassed pretty often, usually because her mouth runs away with her, but he's never seen her like this. Usually her cheeks turn pink and she laughs it off, but right now she looks kind of miserable.

She looks away, over her shoulder to where there's a group of kids working together, and then back at him with a sigh. "I'm not embarrassed," she says quietly. "I just… I don't want people to look at me differently."

Oliver has never known Felicity to care what other people think of her; she's always been independent and confident and her own person. He wonders if someone has said something to her to make her think this way and wants to punch the person who has put that look on her face in the nose. He takes in the black square frames that she's chosen and decides that they suit her. They make her look smart, even though he already thought she looked smart before. They're perfectly Felicity and it's like they complete her somehow. She wasn't incomplete before or anything, but he can't picture her without glasses now that she has them.

"Felicity," he says carefully, looking her right in the eyes. Her eyes are bright and very blue behind the lenses. "No one is going to look at you differently. You're amazing. You were amazing without glasses and you are amazing with glasses. You are my best friend and whether you have glasses or pimples or even an eye patch, you will always be my best friend."

She huffs out a laugh, then swallows and smiles at him and Oliver smiles back, grabbing her hand as it rests on the table. "Thanks," she says. "I'm going to hold you to that, you know. Especially the pimples." She wiggles her eyebrows at him and pushes at her glasses as they slip down her nose and Oliver gulps because something about that gesture has made him break out in a… sweat? His heart is racing too, like he's run a mile.

Is it hot in here?

It's definitely gotten like 30 degrees warmer in the last minute.

"Um, well, I've gotta go, Tommy's waiting for me," he says in a rush, shaking off her hand and practically leaping to his feet. Felicity minutely shakes her head and her glasses slip a bit and her hand is going to push them back up and Oliver has just got to get out of there. "See you later."

Then he tears out of the library like a bat out of hell. The librarian shoots him a dirty look and hisses at him to walk as he practically runs to the safety of the hallway.

Oliver stops halfway to his class and leans against the wall, chest heaving. He braces his hands on his knees and tries to get the image of Felicity and her stupid adorable glasses slipping down her nose out of his head.

This is Felicity. His best friend. What is wrong with him?